this is almost a tied election within the margin of error. in the past, the distant past, you had one candidate coming in with a big margin, wanting to hold on to his lead. nothing like that. so each of these candidates have a big incentive to try to use this first debate to move the needle. >> all eyes will be on atlanta thursday night and we will have complete coverage here on msnbc. author and nbc news presidential historian, michael, thank you for joining us. "morning joe" starts right now on this busy tuesday morning. >> that is the most dubious thumb's up i've ever seen. that is the football player as he is being carted off the field. he is going to be okay, folks.

his thumb is working! i do like this coin toss thing. why stop with the debate side? let's have the coin determine who wins the election. yep. it would be so much less stressful than five months of campaigning. just flip the coin! heads, it's trump. tails, it's biden. if the coin bounces and rolls into the sewer, it's rfk jr. >> i say he'll come out all jacked up, right? all jacked up. >> yes, all jacked up on metamucil. trump says he wants them to both submit to a drug test before the debate. do you have any idea how long it takes to get a urine sample from men close to 80? i'm 74 and the only time i i don't have to pee is when i'm pee'ing! >> the great marty short filling in for jimmy kimmel this week.

not a bad substitute. we are two days away now from the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. we will have the latest what we are learning about president biden's strategy for dealing with two different versions of donald trump. primary day in new york and colorado and we will look at the big races as two outspoken lawmakers could be in danger of losing their seats tonight. also ahead, a long legal battle between the united states and wikileaks founder julian assange appears to be coming to an end. welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, june 25th. with us host of "way too early" jonathan lemire. former aide to the george w. bush white house elise jordan. editor of "the washington post" is eugene robinson. ceo of the messina group, jim

who ran obama's successful 2012 re-election campaign. joe, we begin with a little sports. >> a little sports? growing up in the ice age, it used to be the canadiens would win one stanley cup after another. what a florida team, willie. >> yeah. the panthers hung on. they won game seven 2-1. if you haven't been paying attention, it's been an incredible series. panthers went up 3-0, that is insurmountable in the history of sports' only happened a couple times to come back. the edmondton oilers won the next three games to force that game seven last night.

in florida, panthers won 2-1. as you said, preventing not just edmondton from winning the stanley cup, canadian, the home of hockey, from winning a stanley cup and still has not happened since the 1987 when the edmondton oilers do it. goal shy last night in florida. >> sergei bobrovsky was wonderful last night. post defensemen lost the puck. connor mcdavid winning the conn smythe which the playoff mvp and doing so from the losing side which almost never happens. he had 42 points. just shy of wayne gretzky's all-time playoff record in the postseason. such a shame for canada.

i admit it. i was rooting for edmondton and i wanted to do canada and that country to get it but the panthers were a deserving team and deserving champions. >> maple leafs was the last team in a stanley cup final to comeback from 3-0 that holds up now edmondton almost did it but not quite. >> yeah. in other sports news. the new york yankees going to be facing the amazing mets coming up. >> mets are hot. >> another team that is hot, jonathan lemire, here we go, our boston red sox man. they won 8 out of 10. last night, i went to sleep. i told jack, you're going to have to take you also the rest of the way. it was 6-2. seventh inning. i had no idea. all i got was a text from jack, he is very polite and said duran is amazing. what can you say about this guy

jarren duran? a game winning catch at the fence last night and game winning catch a couple of nights ago in the ninth inning and literally put his hand over the center field fence. caught it. he is number three. here he is in that. freddie lynn type catch for jarren duran in center field. i think the last game he stuck his hand over the fence in the 8 to 9 and saved the game for the sox. this kid now just absolutely on fire and if he does not find his way to the all-star roster one way or another, being i think, number three on the list, no justice. no justice. >> he has always had the talent. this year, everything has clicked for duran. he is playing great defense and stealing bases, hitting. sox down 6-2 last night and rally to tie it at 6.

duran gets the walkoff base hit. we see now their season high seven games over .500. they have won four series in a row. terrific start last night against the blue jays. they are an aggressive team and they steal bases and playing much improved defense. the pitching has come balk to earth a little bit but the offense has come alive. willie, you know, it is mets/yankees. the yankees have cooled off a little bit but gerrit cole is back but facing the new york mets whose franchises fortunes changed about ten days ago thanks to a creature named grimace. i don't know if you're aware of this story line. there is grimace on the back page of the new york "daily news." mcdonald's character who threw out a first pitch ten days ago at citifield and mets then on a seven game winning streak and i think they have won 13 of their last 17 all due to the fans embrace it and the players have embraced it. they all credit grimace so good luck to the bronx bombers against that. >> nice bit of marketing for

mcdonald's, too. i went away for a week. the yankees got bad and the red sox and mets got good. i don't know what happened but i'm here to restore order again. the celtics threw out the first pitch last night for the red sox. they look really good right now. also as long as we are here, joe. a new national champion in college baseball. tennessee, rocky top, winning its first national title in college baseball and outlasting texas a&m 6-5 in decisive game three of the college world series last night. among those on hand for the celebration? yep, peyton manning and morgan wallin sitting up in the box last night. vols the first number one seed to win the title since 1999. even this vanderbilt guy can say congratulations to the best team all season. >> go vols. >> i think we have covered it all here this morning, haven't we, joe? mets statistics and red sox. >> only thing i'd like to add,

jonathan and i know you guise win 115, 118 games. 35, maybe 40 back from first place from you guys but i will tell you just it's nice to know what it feels like to be a yankee fan for this brief moment in june. it's been nice. >> this is a man who grew up studying bear bryant and they played the little sisters of the poor before the game, they say we have no chance against them. i apologize to the crimson tide and their fans. joe knows how to set expectations low. very smart. >> i apologize to the mammas and daddys of alabama who trust me with their children. so sorry. this is not going to go well. praying to healthy. speaking of setting low expectations. >> good transition! >> this is why i've been trying to explain to my former republican brothers and sisters

that you want to be like bear bryant. you want to set low expectations and they have been too stupid to do that up until like maybe the last 15 minutes. now they are saying, now it's projection or confession and saying he is coke'd up and snort it before the debate. >> they appear concerned about this leaning heavily on the drug conspiracy theory. president joe biden remains this morning at camp david in the middle of intense preparation for this week's debate against donald trump now just two days away. three people familiar with the biden campaign's plans tell nbc news the president is studying how best to get under donald trump's skin in order to, quote, trigger his opponent at thursday's debate in atlanta. if trump comes up more disciplined than he has on past occasions, sources say the president's goal is to bring out, quote, rally trump, the rambling one.

one way he may try to do thatpa president as a failure to win the 2020 election. biden campaign stresses there is a fine line to walk because they still. americans to come away with the impression the president is the adult in the room. as for trump's debate prep, nbc news reported last week the former president is having policy discussions with allies as opposed to formal prep sessions. so jim messina is waiting patiently as we were talking sports. let's talk about the debate prep when the two men get on the stage. what are you looking for thursday in atlanta? >> a clear contrast between the two candidates. i used to say to president obama, if you're on the defense, we are losing. if 8:00 choice between the two candidates, we will win. i think even more true now. i think what biden wants out of the this debate is have the american people look at them and remember why they fired donald

trump four years ago and why they hired joe biden. if he can be that guy, i think a successful night and the goal of the biden campaign. trump just has to look sane. recently in some of the appearances, he talked about shark attacks the other day for five minutes. >> yeah. >> as long as he doesn't do that, i mean, you know, the expectations for him are fairly low here. i think he has just got to appear somewhat sane in front of the national public. >> elise, implicit in this whole rift they are on about joe biden going to be on drug and drug testing, they are saying he was so good at the state of the union he must be on something. they can't figure it whether he is an old man or killing it at the state of the union. what are you looking for? >> i hope both would take drug tests because it would be fascinating what donald trump on

for so many years, whatever, you know, speculating 80s diet drug. aside from the fact that it has just been so many dumb accusations tossed out there, basically, the trump campaign has made a huge mistake by setting expectations so low. and if joe biden goes out and is anything less than looking like he has been hanging out under a bridge and drinking and doing drugs all night, like he really probably is going to have a victory. they just have set the expectations so low. >> john, as you know, covering this white house so closely every day, the campaign will tell you the stakes are very high for donald trump but also for joe biden. he needs to to come out what happens like at the state of the union and exceed those expectations and show because of the questions because of his age and among the supporters and democrats and independents still deciding which way to lean that is he is still up to this job as he did at the state of the

union. >> they know that and biden campaign know this is a big moment. they wanted a debate this early because they wanted to change the trajectory of the race which has been close all along but in the battleground states donald trump has enjoyed, for the most part, narrow leads although we have seen that polling close a little bit in recent weeks. at the know much like the state of the union, questions about joe biden's age and questions about his ability to continue doing his job another four years and feel a moment to settle some of those doubts. i'll note about the republicans. with attacks about joe biden potentially being on drugs, attacks on the cnn moderators, those are not the kind of things you do if you're confident about your guy in the debate, gene robinson, that is because we know, look. donald trump for minutes at a time can appear disciplined and on the ball. but we know that usually doesn't last. we know that the biden campaign is going to try to provoke rambling monologues about sharks. you wrote about how for donald trump every week is shark week.

that is where it is here, too. we know that the stakes are high for joe biden, that he has to look like he is up for the job but so does donald trump and for a lot of americans, thursday night will be the first time they really hear donald trump in four years. they might be surprised what they find. >> yeah. they might be very surprised to hear trump 2024 who is obsessed with sharks. if biden wants to trigger him, just say shark and boat and let him go off. i mean, or say water. he has this other rap about water and dishwashers and very confusing. to get him into that rally trump mode in which he is all over the map. he can't complete a sentence or a thought and he is just riffing in the most bizarre way. i think that would be kind of an

ideal situation for biden. but i basically agree with the analysis that president biden needs to remain upright and make sense, do what he did at the state of the union, and given where expectations have been set by the republicans, that is a massive victory for biden, because, you know, they have essentially conditioned the trump base to expect biden to fall over at the debate or to fall asleep or simply not having an idea where he is. this was a huge mistake. >> jim, we have seen stories about some snap polling since the convictions as suggesting that it has actually -- karl rove we played a clip of being over the convictions say it has made a difference. not a massive difference but especially in independents and the voters who matter the most

and who is going to determine the outcome of this election, it's mattered. with that in mind, how does joe biden handle donald trump's 34 felony convictions? >> he points out repeatedly it's about donald trump. this has always been about him. he's on a revenge tour. they have a new ad this morning talking about about and how joe biden is for the middle class and has a plan and donald trump is on a revenge tour. you'll see biden talk about the 34 convictions, you know, a couple of different ways to remind people that this is a clear choice. i think it's really important. joe, this entire election will come down to the double-doubters and these voters who don't like either one of them and this is the first time thursday night where they kind of look at this race and say, ha. i got to make a decision here? i want to figure out what exactly these two candidates are going to do for me. i totally agree with jonathan. in the end, trump has set the expectation so low it's going to be a difficult night for him if

he can't stop joe biden. >> everybody stay put. we are going to continue this conversation after a short break. ahead, wikileaks founder julian assange is out of prison. it is election day here in new york. we will get a live report from mt. vernon, new york, where incumbent bowman is looking to hold on to his seat what is now the most expensive primary on record. you're watching "morning joe." we are back in 90 seconds. re wa" we are back in 90 seconds. and get a $30 egift card. enjoy more savings on more food, more toys, and more treats. more of everything they love, delivered right to your door. only with chewy. why choose a sleep number smart bed? can it keep me warm when i'm cold? wait, no, i'm always hot. sleep number does that. can i make my side softer? i like my side firmer. sleep number does that. can it help us sleep better and better? please?

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beautiful picture of the sun coming up over the white house. julian assange is set to go free after five years in a british prison. he is headed to the western pacific for a hearing on an island. it is part of a plea deal with the justice department. let's bring in nbc news justice reporter ryan riley. good morning. what more can you tell us about how this deal came together? >> we really only found out about it last night and this is sort of unfolding now. the hearing will be in about 12 and a half hours on wednesday morning by the time it happens over there. here local time in eastern standard time it's around 7:00 p.m. is when this hearing will actually take place. it brings to the end of a saga gone on for several years now. you might remember that julian assange was held up in

ecuadorian embassies and fighting extradition on charges and in prison five years now and charges were brought in 2018 and 2019 and he has been fighting extradition all of that way. essentially this will be time served for him and he'll get credit for the time he served in that british prison. he won't step foot in the continental u.s. he is expected afterwards to go home to his home country of australia at the end of this. that is how this is all expected to play out if everything goes according to plan and this is accepted by the judge. there has been both sides of the aisle i think lobbying for how this case should play out. there has been a big free assange movement that is pushing for him to be freed and this was a case that is pending for a very long time now and was brought under the trump administration and we saw in other cases donald trump taking up the cause of potential pardons on the libertarian side

so now you have some political figures on the right, including -- saying this should have happened before he is free saying biden is appealing to libertarian voters. what the justice department and white house says this was a decision made independently by the justice department and not something the white house had any involvement. >> ryan, are we talking about time served now as part of this plea deal? they will say you owe us five years but you already served 62 months so effectively he is done, free to go? >> yeah. that is the expectation that he'll just be sort of on his way after this and this is, you know, putting this all basically behind him, essentially, except for, obviously, the conviction and the repercussions that come

with that and, theoretically other countries that could look into this. you don't know how this is going to be held in his own country. yeah, you think back, you know? it was so long ago now when you think when this actual actually took place and coming up on 15 years, 14 years now when a lot of these documents took place. this was separate and apart from a lot of the stuff in 2016 we saw in the presidential election when wikileaks published a lot of hacked terls materials in dnc the cables that were published that were a threat because you had a lot of, you know, raw intelligence data in there. you had these files from guantanamo bay which have been informative. a lot of this information put out has been very valuable for reporters but the intelligence community says it's also been a real threat to sources and methods for them over the years. this was just a bunch of raw data that was published online. i remember being down in

guantanamo bay more than ten years ago. you had the little newsletter there for all of the troops saying make sure you don't go on wikileaks because you could be exposed to material that you're not supposed to be seeing and that could come back to sort of haunt you. this is wrapping something up that started several iphones ago and one way to put it, a very long time ago, 14 years ago. >> the end to a long saga now appears to be in sight. let me ask you this. the judge presides over donald trump's classified documents case reprimanded a special prosecutor from jack smith's office and happened yesterday in a hearing for a former gag order. the judge said i don't appreciate your tone when the attorney appeared to get

exasperated. an intense exchange came as the prosecutor was arguing judge cannon should bar trump from making more inflammatory statements for fbi agents for their safety. the attorney later apologized and said he did not mean to come across as unprofessional. at the same time the judge suggested she is skeptical of the prosecutor's argument that trump's comments could lead to violence by his supporters. in the end, judge cannon, who was appointed by trump, did not issue a ruling on the prosecutor's request for a gag order. instead, she gave both sides until tomorrow now to file additional evidence for her to consider. joe, it does appear in this case judge cannon going out of her way to make the case that there is no threat to fbi agents. we don't need this gag order as if we haven't watched what donald trump can unleash when he wants to. >> it's simply outrageous. she makes one outrageous comment after another, one outrageous

ruling after another. she has already been rebuked and in an earlier situation by the 11th circuit to shelling for donald trump. she had two judges come to her asking her to step off the case, elise jordan. that just doesn't happen. when it does, when you have two judges coming to you saying, you need to step off the case, you step off the case if you're interested in what your reputation is going to be. you know, among other judges, the judicial system and those who reveal the law. she doesn't care. from the outside, she is doing everything she can do to play into her critic's view she is more than a hack for donald trump. >> to step aside to say i'm

staying in this case and i should recuse myself. i don't have the level of expertise or being on the court that long or given the nature of the classified documents and the time that is going to take to process. it really is unbelievable that just nothing is going to happen on this case until well after the election and i know that sometimes the wheels of justice can move slowly but you would have thought there would have been a little bit more urgency, given the state of democracy and the implications that this case has. >> willie, when she even puts out there that the jury instructions can basically be whatever donald trump's view of the law should be for him. that is yet one other example. it's sort of a real life moment to look at on how disconnected

she purposefully from reality which when she says this man's threat can't impact other people's lives, when this man's threats and his words have led to nancy pelosi's husband being bludgeoned nearly to death in his home, it's led to people milling pipe bombs and it's led to just -- just countless death threats and people have had to get around-the-clock security. what she is saying is a lie. she knows what she is saying is a lie. and, yet, she says it any way from a position of a federal bench saying that donald trump's threats can't cause any violence or threats of violence? read the newspapers. that is a lie on its face. in fact, you could go to another judge, probably in that same judicial district, and they

would take judicial notice of the fact that donald trump's threats often lead to violence or threats of violence. >> it's not speculation. we have watched it happen and you've laid out the cases it has happened. the special counsel to the office said urge judge can no to act now and not wait to tragedy to strike. she said you have to connect an actual action between a and b which i think you just about. ryan riley, elise points out this has been slow-walked and donald trump is getting everything he wanted out of this case which is we are not close to a trial here. what is the time line and what is the schedule as we move forward on this really important case? >> yeah, i think you saw the tensions bubbling up there and coming up above the surface there because i think the prosecutors are just really frustrated with how the judge shipping and handlinging this. you know, in their view, this hearing wasn't even necessary. this was something that could have been settled in papers. it was settled just with court

filings in the judge case that is now pending before the supreme court here in the district of columbia when there was a motion to toss the cases says the special counsel was not legitimate and something the judge ruled on and she didn't need to make oral arguments. the judge cannon doesn't have the experience a lot of these judges, including the judge chutkan has having her home -- a swatting of her home after she made some rulings that were disfavorable to donald trump. judge cannon hasn't had that experience because she is always been almost all the time in favor of donald trump and, in fact, even before she was assigned this case, chose the direction that ultimately got overturned by the federal appeals court above her. so that hasn't been something she is independently had to experience. now we are entering what is going to be the third day of these hearings that started on friday. looking at some more of the arguments in this case, donald trump's team is going to be

arguing about documents that came from his lawyer and what is going to be introduced to trial. the thing with he is don't know what the trial is going to happen. there is no time line on when this is going to take place and the classified documents case, despite the fact that this was brought so long ago now. remember, it was brought before the january 6th case that came in august of last year. this is really a case that, you know, we found out about after the raid of mar-a-lago which is coming up on almost two years ago, that was august of 2022 when that happened. immediately after that, just to speak to that threat you were mentioning there. an individual at the capital on january 6th went and shot up an fbi facility after that -- the rhetoric that was out there about the search of mar-a-lago. there is a threat we see over and over again against individuals across donald trump. >> some of those fbi agents at

mar-a-lago executing the legal search warrant also were hit as well. we wait for the supreme court to rule on this any day now. ryan riley, thanks. we appreciate it. republican congresswoman is running for re-election in a different district in colorado and we will go what is at stake for lauren boebert next. one of the candidates vying in a new york district has traditionally got republican, john avlon will be our guest coming up. ur guest coming up.

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only xfinity gives you the most powerful mobile wifi network, with speeds up to a gig in millions of locations. and right now, xfinity internet customers can buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. colorado congresswoman lauren boebert is facing a primary challenge today with voters in a new district. she switched to run for the seat in the deep red fourth district which is being vacated by ken buck. she made the switch she said to make sure another republican could win her old district but opponents claim she fled a tough re-election race. she has gotten trump's endorsement is expected to secure the gop nomination,

willie, despite, again, a very rough political ride over the last year or so. >> yeah. it has been. we will see if she, obviously, had to move districts to stay in congress and she if she holds on to that seat. tough ads later say run against her. new york congressman jamaal bowman is part of the most expensive election in history divisive with the israeli and hamas war at the forefront. progressives supporting bowman and moderates supporting his challenger. joining outside of a polling location in congressman bowman's district is nbc news correspondents allie vitaly. for people not following this race perhaps as closely as those of us living in the new york area, get us up-to-speed what is going on here. >> reporter: you really have no choice if you live in this area,

willie. >> true. >> reporter: it's not only the place where it's the highest ad spending so you see it all over the air waves. it has become so competitive, so vitamin. >> it's definitely very tense. >> extremely contentious. >> reporter: half an hour outside the city that never sleeps, a new york primary keeping democrats up at night. >> he is nowhere -- >> get out of here, man. >> you're nowhere to be found. >> reporter: congressman jamaal bowman is the most expensive. >> you see why he is an ineffective congressman? >> bowman is one of the volunteer vocal critics of the israeli government. is that the center of the race as you see it? >> it is. >> the is had of palestinian is

on the ballot here. >> george latimer saw it at one of several reasons to mount a challenge. >> the fire alarm incident was inexplicable. >>. >> his response october 7th was the next type of thing. he is attacking me as if my position is out of the main street. his position is outside of those on the mainstream. >> reporter: pro-israeli group make up more than 14 million of it. >> jamaal bowman has his own agenda and he is hurting new york. >> bowman is not the first progressive with pro-palestinian views to face a primary. >> it's not good enough to send bombs to israeli and band-aids to gaza. >> reporter: she won her race earlier this year. this race highlighting and hardening democratic divides. locally with former congressman jones. >> george is the clear choice to

represent new york's 16th congressional district. >> reporter: nationally? it's a 2016 redux. >> i don't know how much of a heavy hitter hillary clinton is with all due respect. >> reporter: bowman is backed by cortez. it could have the most impact at home. if you win, if you win? you say that. ha! what does it say to the democratic party at large? >> i think it just means the people can beat the money every time. that many can beat the money every time. >> reporter: guys, that is the message that congressman bowman has been bringing across the district in these waning days but, latimer, for his part, has also been here and specifically in mount vernon as both candidates crisscrossed this area yesterday and will continue to do so up until election night tonight. polls close late so voters will

have many hours between now and the end of the day to actually cast their votes but when you hear the kind of vitriol we have seen it extends to certain voters in hudson where the town put up a posting on its social media telling people stop stealing other people's political signs. so this is really trickling down to the grassroots and not get you out the vote effort we usually talk about but the way people are metabolizing and acting on their stances in this case. it is really an intense one. >> it is and we will find out tonight how it all ends up. nbc, thank you for that report. jim messina. we should point out that bowman is trailing mightily in some of the polls and across double digits and see if that is where it ends up. what if the polling bears out, what has been his problem as he

seeks re-election? >> look. he was a giant killer four years ago and beat a 16-term incumbent. instead of doing what joe scarborough and i talk about all the time all politics are taking care of your district and bowman fell in love with national president and pulled a fire alarm and did other erratic things and didn't tend to his home fires, didn't tend to the congressional district in which he was represented. now he is likely to lose because of it. so, you know, this is a big national race, the most expensive in american political history. but, really, it's a reminder that all politics is local and he didn't do his homework and looks like he'll get beat tonight because of it. >> gene robinson, i will tell you what jim messina says is so important for anybody in politics who are thinking about politics because i know you've seen politicians who are on the sunday shows, who are very ideod

logical. i'd go to a center in the dakotas and i would be like why he is elected here? they say, i tell you what. he helped the smith's down the street. they were having problems. irs had been on their farm four years. he took care of it. he told the irs either arrest them or let them get back to farming. mrs. jones had a problem with her social security. he was the one that was able to get her back so she could -- you know, so you can do both. unfortunately, in this case, there is the impression that congressman bowman chose one over the other. so something wrong being ideological whether it's on the left or on the right. your first job is at home. your first job is taking care of your constituents. your first job is obsessing over

making sure the federal government is tag care of them. >> that is absolutely right. the ideological fight in this case is the beauty of democracy, right? let the people decide. but it does sound bowman converting that rule, constituent service and what the good ones never, ever forget, serving their constituents and their districts and their states. the ones -- the members of congress who intend to stick around for a while and who manage to stick around for a while never forget that. i remember -- you know, i would -- just as an example. i would write, you know, the most terrible things about lindsey graham and i'd run into him and whether my mom was still alive, he would go, how is your mom doing? does she need anything? that sort of thing. it's important!

and that is the number one rule of politics, it is all local. >> meanwhile, in another new york city suburb the primary to decide who will face republican congressman nick leolit is held today. democrats believe whoever wins today's primary has a good chance to flip that seat. one of the democrats in the race new york's first congressional district is john avlon and he joins us now. good morning. happy election day to you. >> good morning, guys. >> what is the closing argument here as voters head to the polls in your district? >> closing argument is we need to win now. it's been a decade since democrats have controlled this swing district. and we have got the momentum going into election day. the enthusiasm, the energy. unprecedented amount of endorsements, 6 out of 8 democratic leaders.

my opponent's own union has endorsed me in the primary because they all know we can't afford to lose this fight. i'm the democrat that can win the general election and my opponent ran four years ago and lost by ten points. when you lose by ten you can't do it again. >> we know that national races do influence what is happening there. give us your assessment as to how the presidential campaign, which comes -- has ainthe debate. how does it influence the race you're seeing? >> i think most folks are concerned about issues closer to home. affordability. national rights issue that people feel the pain for. we need to defend the productive rights and most is about defending our democracy. one thing will work on long island in new york i think can resonate because this is how you win a swing district is the idea that now is the time we need to form a broad patriotic coalition

to defend our democracy. you need, you know, what is left of the sane right, the center, and the left to come together. and so it's not just about the top of the ticket. this is a patriotic effort. we need to take back the flag and we need to defend american democracy and just basic values that used to be above, you know, debate like, i don't know, peaceful transfer of power, and, you know, presidents shouldn't be able to do whatever they want and we will see what happens in that case. that is a lot of the backdrop of this race and i think that is a huge important for winning swing districts and pulling together our country on the other side of trumpism. >> john, this is going to be one of the seats that could decide the composition of the house of representatives next year and the year after. how important is it nationally that this seat stay or go to a democrat and that it be flipped? >> elise, it's huge, right? this is a majority maker

district. if we win here and take out the first term republican who is a trumper and celebrated the overturning of roe and far too right for the district, that is how jeffries becomes the speaker. including -- the other issue that i keep hearing about is the importance of rebuilding the middle class and str middle class. so i don't think you can overestimate the importance of putting this district in play, putting republicans on defense in terms of creating pathways to create the democratic majority so we can defend abortion rights, so we can deal with affordability and restore state and rebuild the middle class and local key issues but we got to win here first. >> you know, john, you have told me that you've been knocking on doors and been putting yard

signs out, shaking a ton of hands. i'm curious. as you do that, i always found that was a far more effective than ever taking a poll. i never saw the need to take polls because you knock on enough doors, you know what people are thinking. with all of the doors you've knocked on, what do you keep hearing? what is the one issue that keeps coming up? >> affordability. affordability by far. you're right. it's the act of listening in the context of a campaign. listening to people. not talking that you learn the most. it should be obvious but it's not. it's affordability. people are frustrated about prices at the grocery store. they understand increasingly there might be some price gouging going on. behind that is the cost of housing. it's the middle classon, but behind that is the cost of housing, the middle class feeling squeezed, that kids can't move back, they're stuck in their homes with high interest rates. so that's really the backdrop. and i think this is something we can't overestimate.

in the course of this campaign, joe, it's become crystal clear to me it's not an accident, it's not a coincidence that we've seen the middle of our politics hollowed out. everything needs to be put through that prism of how we rebuild the middle class and deal with affordability first. >> all right. democratic candidate for new york's first u.s. congressional district, john avlon. thank you so much. >> thank you, joe. be well, guys. >> all right, good luck. and jim, i asked the question about knocking on doors and what he heard from people because you don't have to knock on 1,000 doors to figure out what's on people's mind. you knock on enough, you're going to be hearing pretty quickly what's on their mind. and so i'm not surprised at all that he heard about affordability because that's what you hear about. a lot of times people talk about groceries or gas, but, man, housing prices right now, there's a real housing crisis he

is especially for younger americans. how does joe biden handle that challenge? >> i think john has it exactly right. part of it is listening and empathizing. joe biden is the great empathizer in chief. he's shown hugging folks, talking about these issues and understanding people out there are hurting, where there's more we have to do. we've made good progress with insulin caps, but there's more we have to do. in laying out a very clear plan, joe, that says to people, your life is going to get better and here's why. and that's what they're hearing on the doors. and you and i do love a nice door knocking. people out there want to nope where these people are going to take them and what they're going to do to make their lives a little bit easier. >> ceo of the messina group, jim messina, who ran president obama's 2012 re-election

campaign successfully. we appreciate it. still ahead, we'll discuss the billboard in miami sparking debate after an anti-trump pac compared the former president to fidel castro. plus white house press secretary careen jean-pierre joins us in studio. we'll speak with former obama aides and co-host of pod save america about their new book "democracy or else: how to save america in ten easy steps." "morning joe" is coming right back. ck

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you're doing great. >> i was watching the monologue -- probably what they'll call it -- and hosting a network talk show is a very big deal. >> it is. when jimmy asked me to be his first guest host of the summer, i was -- i must admit -- truly honored. >> i was honored when jimmy asked me to be the first guest host, but i said, no! [ laughter ] i said, you'll be able to find someone who will do it for scale. don't you worry. >> well, i really do appreciate you being here, steve. there are very few people in this world i truly admire.

and steven martin is very close to being one of them. >> and i actually love marty. he's one of the hardest working men in show business, because it just doesn't come naturally to him. [ laughter ] >> thank you. >> by the way, that means a great deal, and i have to tell you what a joy it is to share a stage with someone who looks like he should be selling reverse mortgages. >> and let me tell you what a joy it is for me to work with someone who looks like a former women's tennis champion. >> thank you. >> martin short is filling in this week for jimmy kimmel on kimmel's show while he's away, brought out his buddy, steve martin. i would watch that every night. >> every night he is so great, those two, so wonderful

together. who would have imagined "only murderers in the building" would take off the way it did. it's just great and those two have been great together for quite some time. >> marty short tells the story of the first time he met steve martin going to his house to talk about the script for "three amigos," and steve martin had picassos and all this artwork in his house. he said, wow, how did you debt all this artwork? because i've seen your work, clearly you can't afford this. they are the best and so good together. joining the conversation former white house director of communication to president obama, jen palmieri, "how to win 2024" podcast, and the host of msnbc's "politics nation" the reverend al sharpton and chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," peter baker. so two days until the first

presidential debate, donald trump trying to influence some expectations ahead of this debate after years of saying president biden's mental fitness has dulled. trump is now talking up biden calling him a, quote, worthy debater, who, quote, destroyed paul ryan in the 2012 vice presidential debate. the former president also now pushing for a drug test, insinuating with no evidence, biden could use performance enhancing drugs to help in the debate. trump's allies in congress parroting that baseless claim, former white house doctor turned congressman ronny jackson has called for biden to take a test before and after the debate. when asked if trump also should be tested, dr. jackson said it was, quote, a biden-specific concern. meanwhile, republican congresswoman who is an

ophthalmologist, said this. >> we anticipate that for this first debate he will be on something, and the response of the press has been to cover it up. and so we've seen that with karine jean-pierre saying these are deep fakes, this is, you know, misinformation. >> so, joe, that is a member of congress and also a doctor, an ophthalmologist. the game is set up a wild conspiracy theory. we've seen this many times, and then attack the press and the white house -- the press for not covering it, the white house for not addressing it. you will address our baseless conspiracy theory. this all goes back to president biden's performance, of course, at this year's state of the union address, where he came out and did well, even by their own admission, did well so something might be up. >> well, and again, we were warning before then, i've been warning leading it up to the debate, they need to stop with the deep fake videos or with,

what do they call them -- >> cheap fakes? >> cheap fakes. they need to stop with the cheap fakes because, again, all they're doing is lowering expectations, and not just lowering expectations for the debate, they're lowering expectations for all events joe biden is going to take part in. and, jonathan lemire, they've been doing this because they can't help themselves and it's not just dumb politicians doing it who don't know how to set up the debate expectations game. you've had "the wall street journal" doing it with, again, one of the most bizarre front page articles i have seen in years, bizarre because they use kevin mccarthy as their main source, who spent the last six months actually countering what they're claiming he's now saying. "the new york post" is doing it constantly, doctoring photographs or cutting or editing photographs in a way.

at events. i guess it's fan service. i guess they're doing this because they think the read readers want to see it. at the end of the day it hurts them, it hurts donald trump because they lower the expectations. and at the 11th hour, to suddenly have ronny johnson come out, a man who can't even remember his own doctor's last name, coming out saying joe biden needs to be tested, again, just shows how badly they're playing all of this. >> the arguments are bad faith and bad politics. i mean, it's such pathetic efforts here to spin these unfounded conspiracy theories about drug tests and the like and by doing so trying to set up an escape hatch for your own candidate who has real concerns. donald trump is only a few years younger than joe biden. donald trump has also not done

any debates this whole primary season. he's going to be rusty. usually that's the problem for an incumbent. >> but hold on a second, jonathan. he did get joan rivers' vote. in fact, joan rivers told him specifically, he said, that she voted for him. so he has that -- i mean, she had passed a few years before, but, still, he says -- he remembers joan rivers telling him personally that, and you take one gaffe after the other, the world war ii gaffe. he doesn't even know it's over. he thinks he's running against barack obama. he talks about how badly he beat barack obama in elections. he never ran against barack obama. we could go down the laundry list. he is in an alternative reality much of the time. we joke about the sharks and the electric motors, that is him using delay tactics because sometimes he seems very forgetful up on stage. >> he can't keep track of nancy

pelosi and nikki haley. it's one misstep after another. is rumors are his closing address will be to joan rivers trying to win her vote this time around. >> again? >> that will be this thursday. peter baker, this is all so ridiculous and nonsensical in ways, but, it is something the biden campaign and team has to contend with. the president has been holed up at camp david doing more debate prep, more than what donald trump is doing. they know they will have to answer questions, fair or not. this ecosystem we've just described, the bad forth arguments, has colored perception among some voters that joe biden is not up for the job. how is the biden team preparing for that? >> first, i would say, by the way, donald trump only has one playbook. he does done this each time. he accused biden in 2020 of using drugs at their debates. he accused hillary clinton of using drugs at their debate.

he has one playbook. he goes back to it each and everyone time. it's the same thing saying again and again any election he loses must be rigged, in effect, saying any debate he may lose must be because of performance enhancing drugs. mind you, ronny jackson was handing out drugs when he was the white house physician and got in trouble for it. as we all know, of course, trump and people around him tend to accuse others of doing what they, themselves, do. the president will have to answer questions. this is a concern for him and there are legitimate concerns about his age not just among republicans who distort and exaggerate but republicans who worry about a president who would be 86 at the end of his second term. that's not just a matter of deep fakes or cheap fakes, that's a matter of reality. there are moments, of course, we have seen just like with donald trump when joe biden is forgetful and confuses names and dates and so forth. and so he will want to get up there and given a strong performance. he's going to want to dispel

those myths, one of the reasons they do the debate so early. he's taking a longer time to prepare than even most incumbent presidents do, in part, to get at these kinds of issues. i'm sure they are asking him in these mock sessions how he will do the next four years. we know bob bauer's personal attorney is playing trump just as he did in 2020, and that, you know, i'm sure this is one of the things they know how to address and have decided in advance how they want to play it. >> rev, we gopt an exciting reminder over the weekend if former president trump is elected he would like to name after you. what should we be expecting? what would be a good night for president biden? >> i think that if president biden can just stay in his own rhythm of ignoring whatever

trump comes in with, he tries to be more temperate or this whole robust kind of attack mode, he should be what he is, presidential, because that's how he behaves. he should lay out his record and handle him in the way he handled him before. the absurdity of this whole thing of whether he is on a drug or whether he was given drugs, i think joe and i may be the only ones in the building that ever really were in debates. i ran when joe was elected and re-elected to congress. the last thing someone needs in a debate is a drug, because you may get hyped up. you may forget something. somebody can easily provoke you. it shows how inexperienced they are to even be talking about drugs. managers used to worry if they took cocaine they'll forget the lines. if they really wanted to defeat

biden, they would want him on drugs because he forgets what he's done for unemployment numbers and what he's done around the economic stability because he's pumped up. so they really don't know what they're talking about. they're scared to death because those of us that's been on that debate stage, we do not need to have any kind of drug pumping us up. when they put the lights on, you don't need to be going buzz, you need to be thinking, thoughtful, because you don't know what's coming. you don't know the questions. you don't know what your opponent will do. drugs will make you overreact. that's the last thing they would do. it shows you how asinine they can be. he can meet me at fort sharpton when it's over with. >> rev, for you -- none of us have had the bright lights of presidential debates in our face. what was the biggest surprise? we ask this of athletes who go to the super bowl, to the world series, what was it like? what was the biggest surprise

for you? what was the biggest surprise for you when you got out on that debate stage, really, that national level? >> you would use on the campaign trail and what i would use in rallies and even churches, those applause lines don't matter when you're debating policy. the biggest surprise for me was that the people that were helping to prepare me, that kept grilling me or dealing with data, facts, what it is that you exactly are saying, ended up being more right than i thought because this is not a call-in response like church where everybody is saying, amen. you have to really say something and nope what you're saying. and the biggest surprise was having the substance and then being able to defend it, because someone that is equally as smart or smarter than you is going to question you, so you have to know what you're saying p.m. you couldn't go through it playing,

that's why drugs would be a detriment to a candidate. >> jen palmieri, no crowd at this debate on thursday. donald trump may say something crazy and where in the past supporters in the room would hoop and holler and say, yes, the election was stolen, that stuff will fall absolutely flat in that room and will look a lot different than it has in the past. as we talk about this argument donald trump and his campaign and his supporters, we just heard, about making drugs after they go after the moderators, jake tapper and dana bash, two excellent journaltists, who will play it straight and ask good questions, we know that, these are not signs of strength from a team going into a debate that they're attacking those things. >> can i just also say my favorite thing about the late move by trump to try to paint joe biden as a great debater is bringing up paul ryan, as if, first of all, as if he's some great debater.

and i had to remember paul ryan was mitt romney's running mate 12 years ago. so that's unlikely to resonate with his base, let alone swing voters that are not paying as much attention. the thing that's great there's no audience. that will benefit biden. trump is more likely to be disciplined in a situation where there is no audience and maybe stay on a game plan that his team puts him on if there's no one else there to respond to him. i'm sure the biden team is planning for that, and the other thing i think about overall with this debate, these are two candidates people know very well. carter/reagan, ford/carter, times where people -- obama and mccain -- times where people did

not know the candidates as well, like one particular moment could really matter. i think in this case the opportunity for biden is, even though we know him well, a lot of people don't know what he's done. as much as i would want to make sure that you're pushing back on trump, making him own his record on roe in particular. you're also using this moment to deliver information on the results that biden has accomplished and making sure you have viral moments that the campaign can live off for a while that is making sure people know everything that he's accomplished as well, and i feel that's an underappreciated opportunity for biden on thursday. >> you know, peter baker, there are always the great unknowns. at the end of "way too early" we talked about, of course, the 1960 debate where nixon lost only because jfk looked like he belonged on the same stage with him. 1976 gerald ford's gaffe over poland, and them, of course,

1980, ronald reagan doing extraordinarily well. there's the other side of the debate story, though, the great unknowns on great communicaors who sometimes just fell on their face. ronald reagan four years later in 1984, his first debate was an absolute disaster. he was rambling. he lost his concentration. rambling about driving up highway 1 in california, the story never went anywhere. and then barack obama in 2012, still inexplicably for a lot of his people, i'm sure jen could speak to this, just didn't seem to show up in cleveland. mitt romney easily won that debate. so talk about these debates and talk about how often we go into them thinking we know exactly what we're going to see and, in fact, we get just the opposite. >> i think you're exactly right

and it's important, and jonathan made this point, too, to remember that incumbent presidents have almost always lost their first debate in their re-election year in part because of hubris. they think they know the issue more than anyone else, they don't need to prepare, they haven't been on stage with somebody who is positioned as an equal usually in four years and the challenger is somebody who has just come off of, you know, a few dozen, maybe two dozen, debates in a primary. that's not the case in this situation. donald trump will not have that experience either because he chose to ignore his primary rivals and refused to debate them, but that's the concern, i think, that the biden camp has going into it. one of the reasons he's spending all week at camp david to at least avoid the mistake of not adequately preparing as some of his predecessors have made and avoid that first debate jinx incumbents have had. you're right, too, this is one of only two moments, really, of

completely unpredictable, unscripted ad hoc kind of moments in a campaign. we can predict what they're going to say at the convention speeches. we can predict what they will say in the rallies and speeches, although trump, of course, challenges that each week. but this is the one time with a large audience in which you do not have, you know -- we don't know in advance what's going to be. storyline coming out of it. we really don't. all these moments that we remember, nobody would have necessarily predicted. george h.w. bush looking at his watch. al gore sighing. who would have imagined these would have been the things going into those debates that would have been the memorable moments and that perhaps the momentum shifters? >> just to add into the conversation, "atlanta journal-constitution" released a poll in the state of georgia a few moments ago. donald trump leads 43-38, just outside the margin of error with bobby kennedy jr. at 9%, affirming the idea joe biden can

win the state again, just outside the margin of error. peter baker, thank you, as always. still ahead on "morning joe," white house press secretary karine jean-pierre joins us live in studio as the administration marks the two-year anniversary of the supreme court's decision to overturn roe versus wade. that and much more with karine when "morning joe" comes right back. if you have generalized myasthenia gravis, picture what life could look like with... vyvgart hytrulo, a subcutaneous injection that takes about 30 to 90 seconds. for one thing, could it mean more time for you? vyvgart hytrulo can improve daily abilities and reduce muscle weakness with a treatment plan that's personalized to you. do not use vyvgart hytrulo if you have a serious allergy to any of its ingredients. it can cause serious allergic reactions like trouble breathing and decrease in blood pressure leading to fainting and allergic reactions such as rashes,

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south florida billboard comparing donald trump to former cuban president fidel castro has been taken down after it received backlash from trump supporters in miami. paying for electronic billboard space to broadcast a message that translated, no to dictators, no to trump. almost immediately the billboard received backlash from some maga members of miami's cuban community, including a popular conservative radio station and a republican congresswoman. they're outraged -- oh, they're so outraged -- how could they compare donald trump to fidel castro even though donald trump said he would be a dictator on day one and that he would execute generals who were not

politically loyal to him and he would use s.e.a.l. team 6 to execute his political enemies, and nobody could do anything about it? where in the world would anybody get the idea that donald trump might act like a castro, might act like a dictator? oh, wait -- they could get it from donald trump's own words because, again, he said he was going to be a dictator from day one, said he was going to terminate the constitution, said he was going to execute generals for treason, said he was going to shut down tv stations, entire tv stations, that he said were treasonous because they didn't support him and said, yes, in court, the argument was made that he could execute his political opponents with s.e.a.l. team 6 and not face

criminal charges. but they're outraged. they're so outraged. how dare -- this is as if you have lined up the families of battista and shocked them all over again. this is such an outrage! how could anybody be so incense itive by comparing to the evil and vile fidel castro. footnote, they're outraged. they were shocked and stunned and deeply saddened. that outrage comes less than a month after several republicans in congress, including florida senator, potential vice presidential contender, marco rubio, compared donald trump's recent hush money trial to the deadly show trials that were consistently carried out by

fidel castro and the castro regime. i mean, forget the fact that castro would just line political opponents up against the wall and shoot them, marco rubio and others compared a jury of donald trump's peers to castro's show trials. compared the process in new york where donald trump was charged, was able to spend millions of dollars on attorneys to defend him, could have gotten it dismissed if the judge had decided it needed to be dismissed before going to trial. they had those procedural safeguards. but, instead, he was found guilty of 34 counts by a jury of his peers. and now he has a right to appeal. did they have that when castro was lining up cuban freedom fighters and christians against walls and shooting them dead and

firing -- no, they didn't. but nobody was shocked. i didn't hear the congresswoman being shocked at marco rubio comparing the extraordinary legal system and the rheaume of rule of law here but they did. they did. the hypocrisy is crazy and what's even more crazy is they would take down a little add like that when donald trump used his own word, dictator. yes, i'm going to be a dictator on day one. the billboard is not even a stretch. anyway, let's bring in democratic pollster who is an msnbc political analyst. i mean, come on, man, the hypocrisy is crazy. first of all, trump says to

everybody, i'm going to be a dictator. sean hannity goes, you're not really going to be a dictator. yes, i'm going to be a dictator on day one. you're not really going to seek retribution. yes, i'm going to seek retribution. on and on and on, and yet they yanked down that billboard when you have marco rubio comparing fidel castro's firing squads to america's rule of law. what's your take? >> joe, you said it. this is a dish of hypocrisy and bad faith served with black beans and rice. you can't get more outrageous, ridiculous and absurd than the cuban american community here on the maga side. let's be honest. these are maga cuban americans. yes, a hit dog barks. the fact they have reacted this way to this billboard, which, as you said very clearly, is based

not on a faulty comparison but on trump's own words he has repeated, tripled and quadrupled down he would be a day one dictator says a lot and speaks to the fact that maga and trump, joe, do not want to be held accountable to their words and actions. just to add one other component to this, you touched on it earlier, you have congresswoman salazar so offended by comparisons to fidel castro acting in castro-style manner by using her public position as a member of congress to interconvenient with a private company, in this case the billboard company lamar, where she takes a free speech billboard down which raises first amendment questions, even some lawsuit issues down the road. it's another day in the life of miami. they know this is based in

truth. >> let's talk about how biden could potentially do in florida. when general o'malley was interviewed, he asked her about florida's battleground state. she said no. head of battleground state for biden made a comment about how florida is very much in play and a priority. i was down there for the 2022 midterms and i would describe it as a volatile atmosphere when it comes to politics. abortion is a big issue interest. there's an abortion ban that's unpopular. the democrat woman the mayor's race in jacksonville following that after desantis signed that into law. what do you think biden's chances are and how much should they be invested in the state? >> jen, as someone working here in florida politics for over 25 years, i think it's critical to say one thing and one thing clearly. the most important national and international security priority for the united states, i would say for the free world, is the

re-election of joe biden, and that re-election means getting him to 270 electoral votes. that's what the rules say he needs for re-election. i think any conversation about spending a dollar, a dime, an hour in florida, which right now, frankly, is not in play, and i applaud jen o'malley dillon for not gas lighting former democrats by trying to double down on a concept that is not true, every dollar, every hour of candidate time, campaign time, needs to be spent in battleground states that make sure joe biden is meeting that priority. florida, it anyway be a situation where a national tight tidal wave mounts. if donald trump falls flat on his face in the debate this week, and you start to see the emergence of a national tidal wave, florida is going to be there along with some other states that aren't expected. to prioritize this state, which, in my judgment, is just simply not in play right now in this cycle, is a mistake and it's taking your eye off the ball from the most important priority of re-electing joe biden and

getting him to those electoral votes. >> thanks so much. we appreciate it. joining us in the studio in new york white house press secretary karine jean-pierre. karine, good morning. nice to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> take us to camp david where president biden has been for the last several days and will be for a couple more ahead of thursday night's debate in atlanta. what does the prep look like? how is he preparing? >> i'm going to be mindful, as you know when there is an opportunity for this president to speak to millions of americans, he shows up and he meets the moment. obviously the president will look forward to thursday doing just that, laying out what he normally does, what he's done and how he will continue to build on the economy, talking about historic numbers and creating jobs, low unemployment

rate, and not forgetting we can't leave communities behind, build the economy for all, and there's a contrast there. we have congressional republicans, extreme republicans, who want to give tax breaks to billionaires, give tax breaks to corporations. that's what they want to continue to do. they continue to talk about cutting medicare, medicate, social security. that's not what our president wants to do. he wants to expand health care. and just yesterday, we talked about dobbs decision and how the dobbs decision took away, ripped away fundamental rights for women across the country. the president is going to continue to fight for those rights. and you heard directly, obviously, on. show, an interview with mika with the vice president, and she laid that out in a way that is really true to where we are as an administration and what we've been saying the past two years. >> former president trump can talk policy on thursday, which

remains an open question -- we'll see what kind of performer he is -- one of the places he is going to go is to inflation, which everybody across the country is feeling despite all that economic data we talk about all the time that is so strong, the economy is thriving. talk about things costing too much. he'll look into the camera and say you know your cereal costs too much. go down the list of groceries and gas. how will the president address that criticism? >> here is the thing, something we've been talking about for some time, right, the economy. you're right, the data shows the economy is strengthening. it's stronger. we came out of a pandemic. a once in a century pandemic. what the president did from the american rescue plan to the bipartisan infrastructure legislation to the inflation reduction act, all of these historic pieces of legislation has helped this country get back on its feet. so, yes, eggs and milk and there are grocery things that were up, it has gone down. it has gone down since 2022.

gas prices, because of the actions this president took, and let's not forget there was an invasion russia did enter ukraine that caused gas prices to tick up. the president took action, and we saw gas prices go down. the president has met the moment with every issue we have had in front of us. the president obviously talks about that often. he's going to have another opportunity on thursday to speak to those issues. talking about donald trump. i just mentioned the dobbs decision. the reason we have chaos, the reason why after roe v. wade was overturned, after it being constitutional law for 50 years, is because of what donald trump did in his administration. ivf is on the line, contraception is on the line. i was sitting here before starting this conversation, there are some of us who have young children. can you believe that we have more rights -- we had more rights growing up than our

kids -- than our kids -- that's because of the trump administration and what they were able to do. so there's a lot here. there's a big contrast in what we're trying to do on behalf of the american people, the majority of americans, what they want to see, and what we see congressional republicans and extreme republicans doing. >> something that shadows this campaign, and thursday night is the war in gaza. it has cost support among younger voters. prime minister netanyahu has flip-flopped on whether or not he'll accept the deal the president outlined. in light of all that, does the president right now have confidence in prime minister netanyahu's conduct in this war? >> here is what i can say is our private conversations we have had with the israeli government has said to us very clearly they continue to support the hostage deal. that's what we know. and we also know, as i've said many times, the president and the prime minister have had a decades long relationship, and

because of that relationship, because of that friendship, they're able to have tough and honest conversations, and that is important, too. the president is committed, committed to getting this hostage deal. let's not forget what that brings us, a stop this this war, an end to the war, a ceasefire, making sure the hostages get home to their families and friends and continuing that humanitarian aid, increasing that humanitarian aid into gaza and that is our focus day in and day out. the president and his team and the administration obviously. >> that leads me to the -- you mentioned hatch act. it leads me to the complexity that you and others have to go through, and i saw it relatively close during the obama '12 when you have to govern and deal with the outside campaign at the same time. what people don't understand, the president has to deal with thursday night, but anything could happen in israel or haiti

and sudan and he dealt with that at the same time. is it important for people to understand that we have to have a president that has a staff with him that can handle not only their plans but the unexpected and that you need someone that has the temperament and the balance -- >> yes. >> -- to be able to deal with that, because you can't predict from one minute to the next what may happen that you have to deal with. >> you're exactly right. look, the president is the president wherever he is. and, look, if you think about this president 36 years as senator, 8 years as vice president, he came to this space to be president, obviously, ready to lead and up saw that. because leading on the global stage, bringing in nato, stronger than it's ever been before because of this president's experience and being able to lead, when you think of

the economy, coming out of the pandemic, what we saw with the economy, this president led and met the moment. it is about him, it is not about him, it is about the american people. it is not what political grievances he may have, not trying to get back at people. it's about making sure he stands with the majority of americans -- and not even the majority of americans, all americans. the president has said consistently he is a president for americans in red states and in blue states. it does not matter. he will meet the moment and deliver what is needed in order to make sure we have a fair and just nation. >> karine, since the overturn of roe, it's been a scary time for women and their health care and access to basic health care. what has biden done to ensure

women can have access to lifesaving medical care in a timely fashion separate of congress, what has he done to help protect our right to basic medical treatment? >> let me just say, and we've been highlighting these stories because there are women out there who have survived the abortion bans, which is awful to say. there's this one woman, kaitlyn joshua, lives in southeast louisiana. a resident there. she and her husband have a daughter and a son. in 2022 she went through a miscarriage. she went to two hospitals. because of the extreme abortion bans in louisiana she was turned away and she was dealing with pain and heavy bleeding and they would not treat her. she had to go home to deal with the miscarriage, and they were worried about her life. these are the stories you hear over and over again. 21 states that have extreme abortion bans, it affects 26

million women of reproductive health care age in those states. the president has said, you've you heard from the vice president directly yesterday as well, we are going to continue to fight for these women, and it's not just that. the chaos continues, ivf, contraception. the president is doing everything that he can to protect ivt and contraception. he has signed executive orders and you see the work the doj is doing, the work that hhs is doing in protecting those rights from the federal level. but, at the end of the day, we have to see roe become the law of the land. congress has to act. and what we're seeing from congress, republicans in congress right now, is three national bans. that's what they want to do. >> all of this, abortion, the economy, immigration, the war in gaza, on the menu thursday night at the debate in atlanta. white house press secretary karine jean-pierre, thanks for being here. >> thank you, willie. a new opinion piece in "the new york times" takes a look at the major issue facing democratic-led western states.

nicholas christophe joins us to explain why he says the problem isn't with liberalism. it's with west coast liberalism straight ahead on "morning joe." with so many choices on booking.com there are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles. mountain climbing tina at a cabin. or tree climbing tina at a beach resort. nice! booking.com booking.yeah.

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♪♪ a new opinion piece in "the new york times" takes a look at

why progressive policies of west coast states have not been able to effectively address serious issues like homelessness, drug abuse and mental health. nicholas kristof's new column is titled "what have we liberals done to the west coast?" the problem isn't with liberalism, it's with west coast liberalism. the two states with unsheltered homelessness are california and oregon, the three point states with the lowest rates are all blue ones in the northeast -- vermont, new york and maine. the lowest rates of unsheltered homelessness in those three northeast blue states. my take is the west coast/central problem is it's infected with an ideological purity focused more on intentions than oversights and the health and safety of those very people out on the streets,

maybe a healthy republican party keeps the democratic party healthy and vice versa. nick, joins us now. i apologize for the -- i apologize for the editorial inside of your editorial. this has been maddening to me for quite some time with so much at stake in 2022 and now in 2024. i just couldn't agree with you more. one of my complaints, and the rev and i talk about this all the time, when -- there's nothing progressive about putting people with mental health challenges out on the street sleeping over grates in cold, freezing weather. there's nothing progressive about chanting, defund. police, from your park slope coffeehouse when there are parents that are in some of the truly disadvantaged parts of new york city, philadelphia, and across america, that say, we need more police officers on our

streets while our kids are walking to school. we need more police officers around schools, around grocery stores, around churches. this sort of progressivism somehow leaves. truly disadvantaged behind. >> yeah, look, the metric of progressivism should be progress, and we're just not seeing that progress in one area after another from homelessness to crime to mental health services to addiction and, in fact, they're going the wrong way. and this is something that is personal to me because, as you know, i'm in this blue collar farming community in rural oregon, and it has been, as you say, the most vulnerable who tend to get left behind, who don't get the education results. oregon and washington have below average high school graduation rates. indeed, in terms of

homelessness, i had a schoolmate who was struggling with alcoholism and mental health problems and was sleeping out in the open and in other states she might have been able to get committed to an institution and help. here that was not possible and she froze to death. stacy froze to death one winter night. it's hard to see how we were protecting stacy rather than completely failing her. >> nick, one of the things that really struck me about reading your column is that i've always talked with joe about latte liberals, and it struck me that a lot of what we're seeing that we call progressive, and i like what you said, the root word ro progress, is they see people as social experiments, like they are in class somewhere, an ivy league school, rather than human beings that they are supposed to

be solving the problem. talk about how the human element and when you talk about the person, the homeless person that froze to death, the human element seems absent from some that call themselves progressive, because i consider myself progressive but not them, that the human element is just as much removed from them as it is from people we see on the far right. >> yeah, i mean, i do believe in experiments, i must say. i think that's how we figure out what works. but the problem is the experiments too often that have been done seem rooted in theater and politics, always involve some theater, out here too often it's governance, theater as well. the upshot is this incredible gulf between our intentions, our values and our outcomes. and there is the west coast, like much of the country, was

deeply concerned about history of racist policing after the george floyd case, about deep race gaps, and those were real and they needed to be addressed. but one way in which, in portland, that was addressed was a bunch of well meaning folks created portland bail fund which was meant to provide bail for people of color, and, you know, this was well intentioned, this addressed real problems, but the up shot, they used that bail fund to bail out an african american man who had violated his restraining order in a domestic violence case. once bailed out, he went to the home of his ex, who he had previously threatened, and she was stabbed to death. and he is now awaiting trial for that murder. and it sure looks as if we had a very well meant effort to support people of color. that ended up taking the life of

a woman of color. >> do you feel like there are good solutions on the table to -- homelessness in particular, not being picked up by the state legislature or cities because of concerns not -- some element of the policy is going to offend a constituency, or the solutions just not -- do we not even know what the right solutions are? >> i think one of the paradoxes of homelessness is that we had solutions before we got rid of them. traditionally, we had rooming houses, boarding houses, a lot of cheap housing, and, you know, mobile home lots, things like this. and then we engaged in zoning, which had many advantages and single family zoning, but that didn't raise the cost of housing. and if you -- i think there is a misperception it's all about addiction. indeed, addiction does have a

big interplay with homelessness, but west virginia has an enormous problem with addiction and don't have a problem with homelessness because in west virginia you can rent a place for $650 a month. one could do that in san francisco or portland or seattle, we would have much less of a problem. and so i think it's been frustrating that we know intellectually we need to build more housing but have made it very, very difficult and expensive to build the housing with the result of people getting left behind, those who are vulnerable and in some cases end up tying in the streets. >> the piece is titled what have we liberals done to the west coast? read it now in "the new york times" website. "new york times" opinion columnist, nicholas kristof, thank you. still ahead this morning, the co-host of pods save america.

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joe," president biden will try to provoke donald trump on thursday night in atlanta. we'll dig into new reporting on how biden is preparing to bring out so-called rally trump in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. plus, it is primary day in new york and colorado will go

over some key races to watch, including a pair of high-profile incumbents at risk of losing their seats in congress tonight. also ahead, david duchovny will be our guest. the actor writes, directs, and stars in a new film about a father/son relationship and the curse of the banbino. it's straight ahead when "morning joe" comes back in two minutes. o minutes. smile! you found it. the feeling of finding psoriasis can't filter out the real you. so go ahead, live unfiltered with the one and only sotyktu, a once-daily pill for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding you're so ready for your close-up. or finding you don't have to hide your skin just your background. once-daily sotyktu was proven better, getting more people clearer skin than the leading pill. don't take if you're allergic to sotyktu; serious reactions can occur. sotyktu can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections, cancers including lymphoma,

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>> yeah, that's the most dubious thumbs up i have ever seep. that's the football player as he is being carted off the field. he is going to be okay, folks, his thumb is working. i do like this coin toss thing. why stop with the debate side? have the coin determine who wins the election.

it would be so much less stressful than five months of campaigning. just flip the coin. heads, it's trump. tails, it's biden. if the coin bounces and rolls into the sewer, it's rfk jr. >> i say he will come out all jacked up, right? all jacked up. >> yes, all jacked up on extra strength metamucil. he is something, that trump. he says he wants them to submit to a drug test before the debate. do you have any idea how long takes to get a urine sample for men who are close to 80? i'm 74, and the only time i don't have to pee is when i'm peeing, so. >> the great marty short filling in for jimmy kimmel this week. that's not a bad substitute. martin short. we are two days away now from the first presidential debate of this 2024 election cycle.

we will have the latest on preparations, including what we're learning about president biden's strategy for dealing with two different versions of donald trump. plus, primary day in new york and colorado. we will look at the big races, two outspoken lawmakers to be in danger of losing their seats tonight. also ahead, a long legal battle between the united states and wikileaks founder julian assange appears to be coming to an end. a new plea deal announced overnight. welcome to are "morning joe." tuesday, june 15. we have white house bureau chief jonathan lemire, elise jordan, pulitzer prize columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson and jim, white house deputy chief of staff to president obama and ran obama's 122012 re-election campaign. joe, so, a lot to get to this

morning. as always, we begin with a little sports. >> a little sports? growing up in the ice age, you know, used to be the canadians would win one stanley cup after the other. the montreal canadiens. 31 years, last night. one of the most memorable stanley cup championships ever. they were hoping for a win. but, man, willie, what a florida team. >> yeah. the panthers hung on, won game seven, 2-1. it's been an incredible series. panthers went up 3-0. that's insurmountable in the history of sports. only happened a couple of times. the edmonton oilers won the next three games to force game seven last night. in florida, the panthers hung for for a 2-1 victory. as you said, preventing not just edmonton from winning the stanley cup, but from canada,

the home of hockey, from winning a stanley cup. now still hasn't happened, jonathan lemire, since 1993 when the montreal canadiens do it. a nice run by the oilers to force game seven. a goal shy last night in florida. >> terrific tense game last night. bobrovsky, the panthers goaltender spectacular. it seemed like edmonton had the momentum. but game sevens are tense for both teams. you can see there are moments there, the defenseman lost -- connor mcdavid, of course, winning the conn smythe, the playoff mvp, doing so from the losing side, which almost never happens. he had 42 points, shy of wayne gretzky's all-time playoff record in the postseason. a shame for canada. i was rooting for edmonton. i wanted to see that country get t the panthers were terrific all year long and deserving champions as well.

>> joe, 1942 the maple leafs, last team in a stanley cup final. comeback from 3-0, that holds up now. edmonton almost did it, but not quite. >> yeah. in other sports news, willie, the new york yankees going to be pace facing the amazing mets coming up. another people that's hot, jonathan lemire, our boston red sox. i mean, won out of ten. last night i went to sleep, told jack, you're going to have to take us the rest of the way. it was 6-2. seventh inning. i had no idea. all i got was a text from jack, who is very polite, said duran is amazing. what can you say about this guy? a game-winning hit. he also had a game-winning catch at the fence last night. had a game-winning catch a

couple of nights ago in the ninth inning, literally put his hand over the center field fence, caught it. i mean, he's number three, number four. here he is in that freddie lynn type catch for duran in center field. again, i think the last game he stuck his hand over the fence in ninth inning and saved the game for the sox. this kid now just absolutely on fire. if he is not finding his way to the all-star roster one way or the other, being i think number three on the list in w.a.r., wins over replacement, no justice. >> he always had the talent. this year everything clicked. great defense, stealing bases, hitting last night, sox down 6-2, rallied to tie it at six and then he gets the walk-off base hit. we see the season high seven games over .500. they won four series in a row. and terrific start last night

against the blue jays. an aggressive team. they steal bases. they are playing much improved defense. pitching pack to earth a little bit. the offense has come alive. willie, it is mets/yankees. the yankees cooled off a little bit. gerrit cole is back. they are facing the new york mets team whose franchise fortunes changed about ten days ago thanks to a creature named grimace. there he is on the back page of the "new york daily news." the mcdonald's character threw out a first pitch at citi field ten days ago, prompted the mets to go on a seven game winning streak and i think they won 13 of the last 17 due -- the fans and players embraced it. they all credit grimace. good luck to the bronx bombers against that. >> i went away for a week. the yankees got bad. the red sox and mets got good. i don't know what happened. i am here to restore order.

the celtics threw out the first pitch last night for the red sox. they look good now. also, joe, a new national champion in college baseball. tennessee rocky top winning the first national title in college basketball, outlasting texas a&m 6-5 in the decisive game three of the college world series last night. among those on hand for the celebration, peyton manning and morgan wallen in the box together last night. the vols the first number one seed to win the title since 1999. even this vanderbilt guy can say congratulations to the best team all season. i think we covered it all here. we have some sabermetrics statistics, w.a.r. and the red sox, grimace. >> and jonathan and i know you guys end up winning 115, 118 games.

35, 35, maybe even 40 back from first place with you guys. i will tell you just, it's nice to know what it feels like to be a yankee fan for this brief moment in june. it's been nice. >> there are is a man who grew up studying bear bryant. when they play the little sisters at the poor before the game, they say we have no chance against them. i apologize to the crimson tide and fans. they know how to set expectations low. very smart. >> i apologize to the mamas and the daddies of alabama who have trusted me with their children. so sorry. this is not going to go well for them. praying they are healthy. speaking of setting low expectations -- >> there you go. >> good transition. >> this is why. this is why i have been trying to explain to my former republican brothers and sisters that you want to be like bear bryant, you want to set low expectations, and they have been too stupid to do that up until, like, maybe the last 15 minutes.

now they are saying -- now it's projection or confession. they are going around saying he is, like, going to get coked up or smash ritalin and snort it before the debate. >> leaning on that drug conspiracy theory. president biden at camp david in the middle of preparation for the debate against donald trump now just two days away. three people familiar with the biden campaign's plans tell nbc news the president is studying how best to get under donald trump's skin in order to, quote, trigger his opponent at thursday's debate in atlanta. if trump comes out more disciplined than he has on past occasions, sources say the president's goal will be to bring out, quote, rally trump. the rambling one. one way, these people say, is by painting the former president as a loser for failing to win the 2020 election. same time, a biden campaign official stresses there is,

quote, a fine line to walk because they still want americans to come away with the impression the president is the adult in the room. as for trump's debate prep, nbc reported last week the former president is having policy discussions with allies as opposed to formal prep sessions. so, jim waiting patiently as we run through the day in sports, back into your wheelhouse here and talk about debate prep and what we should expect when those two men get on the stage. what will you be looking for on thursday in atlanta? >> a clear contrast between the two indicates. i used to say to president obama, if you are on the defense we are losing. if it's a choice between the two candidates we'll language. i think it's more true now, willie. i think what biden wants out this of this debate is have the american people look at both of them and remember why they fired donald trump four years ago and hired joe biden. and if he can be that guy, then i think that will be a successful night and that's going to be the goal of the

biden campaign. trump has a different and somewhat easier task. he just has to look sane. i mean, recently in some of the appearances, i mean, my god, willie, talked about shark attacks the other day for five minutes. as long as he doesn't do that, i mean, you know, expectations for him are fairly low here. and i think he has just got to appear somewhat sane in front of the national public. >> yeah, elise, implicit in this riff there about joe biden on drugs, drug testing, they are saying he was so good at the state of the union, he must be on something. they can't figure out whether he is an old man or killed it at the state of the union and there must be something up. what will you be looking for on thursday? >> well, i really wish both with juice take drug tests. it would be fascinating to see what donald trump has been on to for so many years, whatever, you know, speculating '80s diet drugs. aside from the fact that it, you

know, that it has just been so many dumb accusations tossed out there. basically, the trump campaign's made a huge mistake by setting expectations so low. and if joe biden goes out and he is anything less than looking like he has been hanging out under a bridge and drinking and doing drugs all night, he really probably is going to have a victory. so they just have set the inflations so low. >> john, as you know, covering this white house so closely every day, the campaign will tell you the stakes are high for donald trump and also for joe biden. he needs to come out like at the state of the union exceed those expectations and show, because of the questions about his age, even among some of the supporters, among democrats, among independents deciding which way to lean he is still up for the job. >> this a very big moment. they want to debate this early because they want to change the

trajectory of the race which has been close. in the battleground close, donald trump has enjoyed for the most part narrow leads, although that polling has closed a little bit in recent weeks. like state of the union, there are questions about joe biden's age, his ability do this job another four years and this is the moment to sort of settle some of those doubts. the republicans, if with attacks about joe biden being on drugs, attacks on the cnn moderators, those are not the kinds of things you do if you are confident about your guy in the debate. and that's because we know, look, donald trump, for minutes at a time, can appear disciplined and on the ball. that usually doesn't last. we know the biden campaign is going to try to provoke rambling monologues about sharks. you wrote for trump, every week is shark week. joe biden has to look like he is up for the job, but so does

donald trump. for a lot of americans, thursday night will be the first time they hear donald trump in four years. they might be surprised what they find. >> yeah, they might be very surprised to hear trump, trump 2024, who is obsessed with sharks. so, you know, biden wants to trigger him, just say shark and boat, and let go a off. or water. he has this other rap about water and dishwashers and, you know, it's very confusing. but to get him into that sort of rally trump mode in which he is all over the map. he is -- he can't complete a sentence or a thought. and he is just riffing in the most bizarre way. i think that would be kind of an ideal situation for biden. but i basically agree with the analysis. president biden needs to remain

upright, make sense, do what he did at the state of the union, and given where expectations have been set by the republicans, that is a massive victory for biden because, you know, they have essentially conditioned the trump base to expect biden to fall over at the debate or to fall asleep or simply not to have any idea where he is. and that was a huge mistake. >> you know, jim, we've seen stories about some snap polling since the convictions suggesting that it has actually -- we played a clip, going over the numbers over the past week or two since the convictions showing it made a difference. not a massive difference, but especially independents and the voters who matter the most and who will determine the outcome of this election, it's mattered. with that in mind, how does joe biden handle donald trump's 34 felony convictions?

>> look, he points out repeatedly it's about donald trump. this has always been about him. he is on a revenge tour. they have a new ad this morning talking about that, how joe biden is for the middle cls and has a plan and donald trump is on a revenge tour. you see biden talk about the 34 convictions a couple different ways to remind people that this is a clear choice. i think it's really important. joe, this entire election comes down to these double doubters, these voters who don't like either one of them. >> this is the first time thursday night where they kind of look at this race and say, ha, i got to make a decision here. and i want to figure out what exactly these two candidates are going to do for me and i totally agree with the jonathan. in the end, trump set the expectations so low, it's going to be difficult for him if he can't stop joe biden. coming up, what we are learning about a plea deal between wikileaks founder julian assange and the justice department. nbc's ryan reilly straight ahead

with details.

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this deal came together? >> we really only found out about it last night. this is sort of unfolding now. the hearing will be in 12 1/2 hours. it's actually wednesday morning by the time it happens over there. but here local time, eastern standard time, 7:00 p.m. is when this hearing will actually take place. it brings to an end a saga that has gone on several years now. you might remember that julian assange was holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for several years fighting extradition to sweden on separate charges and then in this latest batch he has been in five -- in custody for five years now. these charges are originally brought back in 2018, 2019, and he has been fighting extradition all of that way. so essentially this will be time served for him. he will get credit for the time he served in that british prison. he won't step foot in the continental u.s. he is expected afterwards to go home to his home country of australia at the end of this. that's how this is all expected

to play out if everything sort of goes according to plan and this is accepted by the judge. there has been both sides of the aisle i think lobbying for how this case should play out. there has been a big, obviously, a free assange movement pushing for him to be freed and this was a case pending for a very long time now, was brought under the trump administration and we saw in other cases a donald trump taking up the cause of potential pardons on the libertarian side. now you already have political figures on the right, including vivek ramaswamy saying biden is appealing to libertarian voters. what the justice department says and what the white house says is this was a decision made independently by the justice department. this wasn't something that the white house had involvement in, willie. >> remind people that starting in 2009, julian assange conspired with the defense, somebody who worked inside the military, a specialist there,

chelsea manning, to get documents, reports about the wars in afghanistan and iraq and post them on the wikileaks site. so, ryan, are we talking about time served now as part of this plea deal, they will say you oh us five years, you served 62, so he done, free to go? >> that's the expectation he will be on his way after this. this is putting this all basically behind him essentially, except for the conviction and repercussions with that and there are tleer retically other countries could look into this. you think back, you know, it was to long ago now. you think of it, when this actual activity took place. you're talking about coming up on 15 years, 14 years now when a lot of these documents took place. and this of course was separate and apart from a lot of the stuff in 2016 we saw in the presidential election when wikileaks published a lot of those hacked materials from the dnc, a completely separate event. we are talking about the cables

published, state department cables that were a threat because you had a lot of, you know, raw intelligence data in there. you had files from guantanamo bay, which have been kind of informative. a lot of this information put out has been voluble for reporters. the intelligence community says it's been a real threat to sources and methods for them over the years. so this was just a bunch of raw data published online. i remember being in guantanamo bay ten years ago and the newsletter there for the troops saying make sure you don't go on wikileaks because you could be exposed to material that you're not supposed to be seeing and that could come back to sort of haunt you. so this is, you know, wrapping something up that started several iphones ago. this is one way to put it, 14 years ago. >> we want to talk about the moment the judge overseeing trump classified documents reprimanded one of the prosecutors yesterday and why she did it next on "morning

joe."

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donald trump's classified documents case reprimanded a prosecutor from special counsel jack smith's office during yesterday's hearing on a proposed gag order for the former president. judge aileen cannon told the prosecutor, i don't appreciate your tone when the attorney appeared to get exasperated as she questioned the need to modify trump's conditions of release. smith's office challenged those conditions over trump's false claims that fbi agents were prepared to kill him carrying out a search warrant at his mar-a-lago estate? 2022. of course, they were not. it came as the prosecutor was arguing judge cannon should bar trump from making more inflammatory statements about fbi agents to worked on the investigation for their safety. the attorney apologized and said he didn't mean to come across as unprofessional. at the same time, judge cannon

suggested she is skeptical of the prosecutor's argument that trump's comments could lead to violence by his supporters. in the end, judge cannon appointed by trump did not issue a ruling on the prosecutor's request for a gag order. instead, gave both sides to tomorrow to file additional evidence for her to consider. so, joe, it appears in this case judge cannon going out of her way to make the case that there is no threat to fbi agents. we don't need this gag order as if we haven't watched what donald trump can unleash when he wants. >> well, it's just simply outrageous. and she makes one outrageous comment after another. one outrageous ruling after another. she has already been rebuked in an earlier situation by the 11th circuit for schilling for donald trump. and elise jordan, two judges came to her asking her to step off the case.

let me tell you something. that just doesn't happen. and when it does, when you have two judges come to you saying, you need to step off the case, you step off the case. if you're interested in what your reputation it is going to be among, you know, other judges, the judicial system, those who revere the rule of law. she just doesn't really care. from the outside, she is doing everything she can do to play into her critics' view she is little more than a hack for donald trump. >> well, it's a very trumpian rejection of norms to not step aside, to say i am going to stay on this case that really i should recuse myself. i don't have the level of expertise, the experience, being on the court that long, or given all the nature of the classified documents and the time that's going to take to process.

it really is unbelievable that just nothing is going to happen on this case until well after the election, and i know that sometimes the wheels of justice can move slowly, but you would have thought there would have been a little bit more urgency given the state of democracy and the implications that this case has. >> well, i mean, willie, when she even puts out there that the jury instructions can basically be whatever donald trump's view of the law should be for him is just yet another example. but just again something just is sort of a real life moment on how disconnected. she says this man's threats can't impact other people's lives, when this man's threats and his words have led to nancy pelosi's husband being bludgeoned nearly to death in

his home. has led to people mailing pipe bombs. it's led to just countless death threats and people have had to get round-the-clock security. what she is saying is a lie. she knows what she is saying is a lie. yet, she says it anyway. from a position of a federal bench, saying donald trump's threats can't cause any violence or threats of violence, i mean, read the newspapers. that's a lie on its face. in fact, you could go to another judge probably in that same judicial district and they would take judicial notice of the fact that donald trump's threats often lead to violence or threats of violence. >> yeah, it's not speculation. we've watched it happen. you laid out the cases it has happened. that prosecutor from the expressway's office said to

judge cannon urging her to act now on the gag order and not to, quote, wait for trajectory to strike. she said you have to establish some actual connection between a and b, which i think you just did. ryan reilly, as elise points out, this has been slow-walked. donald trump is getting everything he wanted out of this case. we are not even close to a trial here. what is the timeline? what is the schedule as we move forward on this really important case? >> yeah, i saw the tensions bubbling up there, coming up above the surface there because i think the prosecutors are frustrated how the judge is handling this. in their view, this hearing wasn't even necessary. this was something that could have been settled in papers. it was settled just with court filings in the judge case that is now pending before the supreme court here in the district of columbia when there was this motion to toss these cases saying that the special counsel was not legitimate, that was something that was -- the judge ruled on, didn't need to have oral arguments. judge cannon hasn't had these

vences that a lot of these judges, including the judge here has, having her home doxxed, right. there is a swatting of her home after she made some rulings that were just favorable to donald trump. judge cannon of course hasn't had that experience because has always been almost all the time in favor of donald trump and, in fact, before she was assigned this case, chose a direction that ultimately got overturned by the federal appeals court above her. that hasn't been something she independently experienced. now we are entering the third day of these hearings that started on friday. looking at some more of the arguments in this case, donald trump's team is going to be arguing about documents that were -- came from his lawyer and what is going to be introduced at trial. we don't know when that trial is going to happen. there is to really no timeline on when this is going to take place and -- in the classified

documents case, despite the fact this was brought so long ago. remember, it was brought before the january 6th case, that came about in august of last year. so this is really a case that we found out about after the raid of mar-a-lago, which is coming up on almost two years ago. that was august of 2022 when that happened. immediately after that, just to speak to that threat that you were mentioning there, an individual who was at the capitol on january 6th was on the grounds of the capitol on january 6th and then went and shot up fbi facility after that -- the rhetoric that was out there about the search of mar-a-lago. so there really is a real threat that we see over and over again against individuals who cross donald trump. >> yeah. some of those fbi agents at mar-a-lago executing the legal search warrant were doxxed. we wait for the supreme court to rule on presidential immunity any day now. thank you. coming up next, republican congresswoman lauren boebert running for re-election, this

time in a different district in colorado. we'll go over what's at stake for her in today's primary and what are chance look like to hold on to the seat. one of the candidates vying for the democratic nomination in the new york district that traditionally has gone republican, john avalon will be our guest. "morning joe's" coming right back. ♪♪ imagine a future where plastic is not wasted... but instead remade over and over... into the things that keep our food fresher, our families safer, and our planet cleaner. to help us get there, america's plastic makers are investing billions of dollars to create innovative products and new recycling technologies for sustainable change. because when you push for smarter solutions, big things can happen. smile! you found it. the feeling of finding psoriasis can't filter out the real you. so go ahead, live unfiltered with the one and only sotyktu,

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lauren boebert is facing a republican primary challenge today with voters in a new district. you may remember she switched to run for the seat in the deep red fourth district which is vacated by republican congressman ken buck. boebert said she made the switch to ensure that another republican could win other old district, but opponents claim she fled a tough re-election race to run in a more

republican-leaning district. boebert, who's gotten trump's endorsement, is expected to secure the gop nomination, willie e despite again a very rough political ride over the last year or so. >> yeah, it has been. we will see if she -- obviously, had to move districts to stay in congress. if she holds on to that seat. tough ads run against her. speaking of tough races for incumbents, jamaal bowman is fighting for his political life as he faces a competitive democratic primary challenge. the race now the most expensive in house primary history has been divisive with the israel/hamas war at the forefront. the primary has split support among democrats, with progressives supporting bomb cyclone, moderates supporting his challenger. joining us is nbc news correspondent ali vitali. good morning. great to see you. for people who haven't been following this race perhaps as closely as those of us living in the new york area, get us up to

speed about what's going on here. >> reporter: you really have no choice if you live in this area. it's not only the place it's the highest ad spending, so you see it all over the airwaves. it has become so competitive, so vitriolic. it's not just me saying that. you can ask the voters. we did. look what they told us. >> definitely very tense. >> extremely contentious. >> reporter: a new york primary keeping democrats up at night. >> nowhere to -- >> get out of here, man. >> you are nowhere to be found. >> reporter: congressmanjamaal bowman's the most expensive and intense of the cycle. >> you see why he is ineffective? >> why? >> the people here understand passion. >> reporter: bomb cyclone is one of congress' most vocal critics of the israeli government. is that the central issue in the race? >> it is.the israeli government. is that the central issue in the race? >> it is. >> he was recruited by aipac to

oppose me. >> reporter: george latimer saw it as one of several reasons to mount a challenge. >> the fire alarm incident i can explicable. >> reporter: pleaded me to a misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in congress last year. >> his response to october 7th was the next type of thing. >> he is attacking me as if how my position is outside of the mainstream. his position with some of the squadrons -- >> reporter: record baeking sums spent on ads. pro-israel groups backed by aipac make up 14 million of it. >> jamaal bowman is hurting new york. >> reporter: all in a diverse district with a significant jewish population. bowman's not the first progressive with pro-palestinian views to face a primary. >> it's not good enough to send bombs to israel and band-aids to gaza. >> reporter: congresswoman summer lee won her pennsylvania race earlier this year. this race hardling democratic

divides with congressman jones. >> he is the clear choice to represent new york's 15th congressional district. >> reporter: nationally a 2016 redux. hilary clinton endorsed latimer. bernie for the stump for bowman. bowman boasts the backing of his party's top congressional leaders and prominent progressives like alexandria ocasio-cortez. it's wars abroad that could have the most impact at home. if you win, what -- if you win -- you say that. what does it say to the democratic party at large? i think it just means that the people can beat the money every time. the many can beat the money every im too. >> reporter: that's the message that congressman bowman has been bringing across the district in the waning days. but latimer has also been here specifically in mount vernon as both candidates crisscross this

yesterday and will continue to do so up until election night tonight. polls close late. voters have many hours between now and the end of the day to actually cast their votes. when you hear the kind of vitriol between the candidates on debate stages, the stump, that's extending to voters. in certain areas like hastings on hudson, the town had to put up a posting on social media telling people stop stealing other people's political signs. so this is really trickling down to the grassroots, not just in a get out the vote effort, but actually to the way that people are metabolizing and acting on their stances in this race. it is really a tense one. coming up, how to save america in 10 easy steps. the co-hosts o pod save america podcast out with a new book. they join us straight ahead on "morning joe." oe." for moderate to severe crohn's disease, skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage

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in another new york city suburb, the primary to decide who will face republican congressman nick lalotta in november being held today. democrats believe whoever wins today's primary has a good chance to flip that seat. one of the democrats in the race for new york's first congressional district john avlon joins us now. what's the closing argument here as voters head to the polls in your district? >> closing argument is we need to win now. it's been a decade since democrats have controlled this swing district. we have the momentum, the enthusiasm, the new york jet and an unprecedented amount of endorsements, democratic leaders like tom suarez. my opponent's own union has endorsed me in the primary,

because they all know i'm the democrat who can win the general election. my opponent ran four years ago and lost by ten points. >> good morning. as just discussed, all politics is local, but we also know that national races do influence what happens there. how are voters out there thinking about trump and biden, and how does that influence the race you're seeing? >> first, folks are concerned about things closer to home. we need to protect abortion rights and reproductive freedom. one thing that will work here in new york one on long island that i think can resonate is the idea that now is the time we need to form a broad patriotic coalition to defend our democracy.

you need what's left of the sane right, the center and the left to come together. we need to take back the flag. we need to defend american democracy and just basic values that used to be above debate like, oh, i don't know, peaceful transfer of power and presidents shouldn't be able to do whatever they want. we'll see what happens in that case. that's a lot of the backdrop in this case. >> this is one of the seats that could decide the composition of the house of representatives next year and the year after. how important it nationally that this seat go to a democrat and that it be flipped? >> it's huge. this is a majority maker district. if we win here and if we take out the first-term republican

who's a trumper, celebrated the overturning of roe, far too right for the district. that's how hakeem jeffries becomes speaker. the stakes couldn't be higher. tom suozzi showed us that immigration and crime matter. the other issue i keep hearing about is rebuilding the middle class, strength in the middle class. putting republicans on defense in terms of creating pathways to a democratic majority so we can restore abortion rights and the child tax credit and rebuild the middle class. those are key issues, but you've got to win first. >> you told me you've been knocking on doors, putting yard

signs out, shaking a ton of hands. i thought that was far more effective than a poll. i never saw the need to take polls, because if you knock on doors, you know what people are thinking. what's the one issue that keeps coming up? >> affordability by far. you're right. it's the act of listening to people in a campaign. that should be obvious, but it's not to, i think, many politicians. it's affordability. people are frustrated about prices at the grocery store. they understand there might be some price gouging going on. behind that is the cost of housing. it's the middle class feeling squeezed that they're stuck in their homes with high interest rates. this is something we can't overestimate. it's become crystal clear to me

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what a choice trump has in his tiny little hands. there's doug burgum, the governor of north dakota. he once said he wouldn't do business with trump. doug burgum sounds like the name of your most annoying coworker. oh, great. look who's calling. it's doug burgum from accounting. ohio senator jd vance who said

he thought trump was either a cynical [ bleep ] like nixon or america's hitler. when have you ever said something like that about someone and changed your mind? >> marty short filling in for jimmy kimmel last night. 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. in the east. >> america's hitler and if you vote for him, you're not a good christian one day. the next day, let me join that team. that's exactly where we are with all these guys. >> they'll be watching closely on thursday night this debate as they jostle for position to be donald trump's vice president. we're excited to be joined by the cohost of pod save america jon favreau, john lovett and tommy vi, the or.

they're coauthors of the new book, "democracy or else." it's like your eras tour. >> big summer. >> brooklyn tomorrow night. >> that's right. boston friday night. >> it's big. i noticed you called him marty short. is he like a friend? >> that's a fair criticism. >> that's cool. >> we had steve martin in a clip there calling him marty. i didn't deserve to call him marty. you're right. >> sorry to bring it up. >> we wrote a book. >> anyway, the book, john, the book. so let's talk before we dig into the details of the book, which is practical, useful information for people who want to get involved in this process and not just lob grenades from twitter. let's talk about where you think we are heading into the debate thursday night. obviously this is going to be a

margin of error race. we look at the seven swing states. how are you thinking about this cycle? >> it's a 50/50 race, and it couldn't be tighter. everything matters. there's questions biden has to answer about concerns about his age. then i think donald trump has to go up there and try not to remind people of who he really is, which is kind of the unhinged donald trump of the twitter feed. these are the competing objectives of this debate. >> you were a speech writer for obama and his right hand for many years. as you think about debates and the preparation that goes into those, what is it like in those rooms when the stakes are so high? >> usually the candidate is not too happy.

it's not their favorite thing to do debate prep. at least it wasn't with barack obama. for any incumbent president it doesn't go well for a few reasons, because they get defensive about their record. they don't like being challenged. you don't want to fill the candidate's head with too much. you want to make sure there's a couple goals they need to walk off the debate stage having achieved. i think for biden, the main overarching goal is he wants people to go away with the impression that he cares about the american people and donald trump cares about himself, and every answer has to filter through that larger frame. >> what sort of attack lines should he have ready to go after trump? >> i think he has to do what he

did at the state of the union. if he can show up, have energy, remind people that while there are legitimate reasons to have questions about someone over 80 being president, that at times, yes, he moves slower. but the comparison is that joe biden may seem older, but he's still mentally, psychologically and emotionally up to the job. and donald trump is unfit. >> if you think joe biden the one slipping, pour yourself a drink, sit and watch an hour of a donald trump rally and reconsider. >> yeah, reconsider. i want to throw this open to the whole table here, because you guys have so many interactions with so many people throughout the course of your day and the week. it's really kind of a two-part question. when you have people that come to you and they're

catastrophizing about donald trump could get reelected after all the madness, what do you tell them? and what happens when i start catastrophizing and i go, wait a second, you've got this guy that tried to overthrow american democracy, said his vice president deserved hanging, 34 felony counts, says he wants to execute generals. and it's a 50/50 race. in those dark moments, what do you say to yourself about this country and how we get through this? >> when people say could donald trump win, we say, yes, of course he could win. that's why you should get involved, because we're going to be a bunch of nervous democrats watching the debate thursday night. we can't control what joe biden does, but we can control the

outcome of the election. the upside of the fact that joe biden won by 40,000 votes across three swing states in 2020 is every single person can have an impact in a close race. following politics can be terrifying, but getting involved in politics doesn't have to be terrifying and it can be fun and impactful. most americans don't follow the news as closely as we all do. joe, to your point about how could it be so close, a lot of people haven't paid attention to all the horrible things donald trump has done or they forgot about it because they have busy lives. that can embolden us to persuade people and remind them what donald trump is and also tell them what another four years of donald trump would be like and what biden has been doing to fight for people and what biden will continue to do. it's frustrating, but that's democracy. that's the way we save it. >> the point of your book is the

old line from your old boss, president obama, when a crowd would boo, say don't boo, go do something. >> there are a lot of very good reasons to be cynical, angry, frustrated, worried about politics. a lot had to go wrong for someone like donald trump to get within a hundred miles of the oval office. there's a lot we don't have control of, but there's a lot you do have control of. i was in north carolina this weekend. there was a race for state representative turned by 500 votes. if they had been able to keep that seat, they might have been able to protect abortion in north carolina. the news might be depressing, but if you knocked on doors you could personally reach a number of people that could change a policy as big as that in a state

like north carolina. the more people who discover if you participate, you see what's online is much more additive and positive than just what you see on the phone. >> the margins are so thin in jg jg or pennsylvania or pennsylvania -- >> we all have the moments where we sit at home and spiral about politics. i call that sunday evening. maybe take an edible, go to bed. wake up, talk to people in a swing state. see if we can get past the personalities of the two candidates. do you believe climate change has been a problem? well, there's one person who is concerned about it.

joe biden pro-choice. trump has a very different vision for the future for women's reproductive care. >> polls suggest so many americans don't like either candidate. we know that group has sort of sided the last couple of elections. how does biden win people back who don't like him? >> you're going to have to remind those double haters of what they really hated about donald trump. he has benefitted from being off twitter, from being out of the limelight. sickos like us watch his rallies for 90 minutes on youtube. most people do not. joe biden has to tell them here's what i will do if you give me another four years. >> the thesis of this book, quote, "democracy or else" is an effort to put down on paper the

lessons we've learned along the way. we've also gathered advice from some of the best organizers and least annoying politicians around. because, if the roller coaster ride of doom and hope we've been on tells us anything, it's that we all have a role to figure this out. for people who do doom scroll on social media or watch cable news and fret every morning or night about where the country is head ed, what can people do to change the course of the race? >> getting involved in politics, you can start in your own community, your own state. we're all following national politics, and that can depress us. you can have a bigger impact on some of these local races. join your local democratic committee, join plenty of the

groups that have sprung up since donald trump won, the grassroots groups trying to get people to vote, to register to vote. talk to people in your neighborhood, in your community. you're going to be more persuasive with someone who knows you, who trusts you than you are tweeting at strangers online. it's going to make you feel better about politics too, because you'll realize that people in real life are much more understanding and open than they seem just following this online. >> get out there, start knocking on doors, put in a yard sign, and you'll get the feel of the race and perhaps influence a couple of votes along the way. >> knock on doors, yeah, exactly. it's pretty remarkable what happens when you actually get out and start talking to people who are going to decide elections. so i wanted to ask you all also generally just about the democratic party, the health of the democratic party, the state

of the democratic party. you know, there's handwringing from all sides, oh, democrats are too radical, they're losing white dudes in the midwest. well, that ends up not really being the case. it seems that the white dudes in wisconsin seem to be holding a bit more firmly to biden and democrats than other groups. we hear it every four years, oh, republicans are going to get a record number of black voters, a record number of hispanic voters. there does seem to be some slippage. how serious is that, and what does the democratic party need to do to reengage and reconnect with some of their most faithful voters? >> i think the biggest divide in politics right now is between people who are paying close attention to politics and people who are not. if you look at polls of voters who say they're following the

race closely, joe biden has a huge lead with those voters. that's true in the democratic party as well. where he's struggling is among younger voters, latino voters, black voters, people who aren't paying close attention to politics. they're cynical and frustrated about politics. the way to turn that around, this is going to be a race about making or trying to get people's attention as best you can and trying to force the choice in the election. when you try to get people to think that your vote is not about rewarding or punishing joe biden or donald trump. your vote is about you. your vote is about your future. it's about your family. when you get people to think about how this election actually matters to their own lives, then you see a lot of these voters -- by the way, they're voters who

cast their ballot for joe biden in 2020. it's easier to get those voters back than it is to get people who never actually vote. you start seeing a lot of these voters move and you see it in focus groups and polling as well. >> what's the sense of that young voters in the democratic party? >> there's a lot of people for whom politics has become a lot of news. they're not getting their news from traditional sources. i think social media is an inherently cynical place. theys also don't feel or see the benefits. if you're not watching the news closely, you don't know why joe biden was or was not able to achieve something. i also think joe biden is the real-life president right now. donald trump is a memory from the past and a kind of gauzy

danger in the future. but you look at what happened when trump's at faith and freedom over the weekend, almost 90 minutes into a speech he said he's going to ban all vaccine mandates and the department of education. these things are incredibly unpopular. as we get closer, there may be people who say, hey, i don't want to vote for the lesser of two evils. go to those people, meet them where they are and explain and hope they understand the stakes. my view of this is that young people are just as capable as understanding the stakes of this election once you reach them. i think that's part of the task, and i think we can do it. >> this is going to be a long summer, but come fall things will crystallize and people will look at these two guys side by side. they'll remember who donald trump is. they may not like the way president biden has supported

netanyahu in the war in gaza, but they might also remember that donald trump is the godfather of the muslim ban in this country. once the rubber meets the road in september and october, young voters will come home. >> if you talk to the biden campaign, they'll tell you they are doing as well as they can with older white voters in particular. and this cycle, young voters of color have become a persuasion target. the fact that they're aware of that now means they're going to shift their strategy and try to convince those people to come home. it's going to take work. you're right. i think gaza is a huge challenge, especially with young people. i think over time they can educate younger voters about the stakes involves and people will eventually come back with them. >> go around the horn. what do you hope people who read this book come away with?

>> that the answer to cynicism and negativity is getting involved. it is fulfilling and is worth doing just because it makes you feel better about being what we are, which are active and sort of maybe at times concerned citizens. >> amen to that. jon? >> it's going to be huge decisions made that affect your life, whether you like it or not, by a lot of powerful people. you can have an impact on those decisions or sit back and let them happen. i think i'd rather be involved. getting involved can be fun and inspiring even when politics is like it is right now. >> we were talking with folks on your team who were in high school when donald trump was elected. for their entire adult lives, politics has been a zero sum

terrifying slog. it doesn't have to be that way. we were so lucky to come up during the obama era and work on those campaigns and see politics as hopeful and inspiring and fun. we can get back to that point. >> it's also a funny book. it's not homework. big font. look how thin this is. we thought it was going to be thicker. that's part of the appeal. you can get through it in an afternoon. >> all the proceeds go to help save america. >> tomorrow night you're in brooklyn, friday boston, then this july madison and back out this fall. you can see a lot of these guys, whether you want to or not. the new book, democracy or else, how to save america in ten easy steps on sale now. coauthors and cohosts of pod

save america. coming up next, 16 nobel prize winning economists are out with a new warning about what would happen to the u.s. economy if donald trump wins in november details from andrew ross sorkin next on "morning joe." details from andrew ross sorkin next on "morning joe." this is our future, ma. godaddy airo. creates a logo, website, even social posts... in minutes! -how? -a.i. (impressed) ay i like it! who wants to come see the future?! get your business online in minutes with godaddy airo have you ever considered getting a walk-in tub? well, look no further! get your business online in minutes

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and helping first time homebuyers, just like us. and london's hiring hundreds of police officers, and arresting drug dealers. san francisco has been through difficult times, but our hard work is paying off. working together, we're building a better future for the city we all love. ad paid for by re-elect mayor london breed 2024. financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org. donald trump loves to attack joe biden. >> joe biden. joe biden. >> because he's focused on revenge, and he has no plan to help the middle class. he'd just give more tax cuts to the wealthy. joe biden is working every day to make your life more affordable. he capped the cost of insulin, lowered health care costs and made big corporations pay their fair share. here's the difference. donald trump is only out for himself. joe biden is fighting for your

family. >> i'm joe biden, and i approve this message. >> that was a new ad from the biden/harris campaign titled "no plan." the 30-second spot is set to air in georgia and pennsylvania, part of the campaign's $50 million ad blitz for the month of june. a continuation now from "morning joe." while many executives complain about joe biden's policies, they aren't necessarily embracing donald trump. according to the "new york times," there is little evidence in a major shift in allegiance among executives from joe biden to donald trump. despite subtle signs of waning enthusiasm for mr. biden among business elites, neither the white house or the biden campaign seem particularly concerned. let's bring in andrew ross sorkin. he's columnist for the "new york times." he's live again from the aspen ideas festival.

one thing that's pointed out in this article, that there are many policies that people don't like in the business community that joe biden has put forward. but the one thing they detest from donald trump is uncertainty. tell us what the regulations are, tell us what the world looks like over the next ten years. we can prepare for that, but don't keep changing the rules on us. it's the uncertainties, the tariffs, the moves based on personality conflicts of trump that it seems should worry ceos the most. >> for sure. i think in the business world, uncertainty has always been the watch word. the more uncertainty there is, the worse it is generally for business. you're right, there are policies that the ceo and business

community don't love. the regulatory world, i think they're very anxious about it. i think that brings uncertainty. the other thing is the tax piece and what's going to happen in 2025 as it relates to taxes, what would happen under a trump administration and a biden administration. there's the broader uncertainty, the polarization in the country. i think a lot of folks have some sense of ptsd from the previous administration when it comes to the kind of conversation that was happening in the office and what it did at that point. you sort of see two sides to things. i was talking to a ceo who was at that business roundtable meeting. he said as a ceo sitting in the meeting, there's a lot of policies we don't all agree with biden about, but then we also

have our own personal views. i think in this case it may very well be that personal views may ultimately outweigh what they may think of as their immediate economic views. there's a bigger issue about what's going to happen to the economy more broadly. interestingly enough, a number of economists came out today and said they thought from an economic perspective, that president biden would actually be a better president on the economy given the concerns about inflation that have been raised under president trump. >> right. i mean, an inflation bomb basically that would go off under donald trump if you look at all the things he's talking about doing or not doing, and also, of course, when he starts talking about controlling the fed himself. that's when not only economists, but that's when ceos should

really begin to panic. >> if, in fact, the independence of the fed were questioned in a real way, that would undermine, frankly, the cost of our debt around the world. that would have a huge cost to the country. there's a real question as to what happened there. you look at that report from axios today on this debt bomb that 16 economists have signed their name to, economists including joe stig lits. they have put forth collectively a paper suggesting there would be an inflation bomb. you look at the 10% tariffs, the 60% tariffs on china and what that ultimately could bring in terms of inflation to the country. we're at 2.8%. it has been coming down. the question is whether that

would reverse under former president trump. >> add all of that up, it's bad news for any business, whether republican or democrat. i am curious. a couple of names that jumped out in reporting, venture capitalists -- peter theel last election cycle went trump's direction. i'm curious what's driving so many of these silicon valley entrepreneurs towards trumpism. >> we're going to talk to peter theel on friday. look, some people would say it's about taxes and about how much money can be kept in the pocketbook. that's part of it. the other is this sort of woke/anti-woke issue of what's happened in the country around a

number of social issues, if you will. and i think there is a view among some in silicon valley, this sort of strong man view that, given some of the challenges we're facing around the world, whether it be russia, ukraine or israel and other things, that somehow you need a strong man in power. it's a unique perspective that's come out of silicon valley, oddly, in the last several years. they've also been talking about having cage matches between mark zuckerberg and elon musk. so maybe you can connect some of those dots. >> maybe we will. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin, as always, thank you so much. can't wait to get your report tomorrow from aspen. still ahead, we'll have the latest on the growing conflict between israel and hezbollah, including the biden administration's warning to the

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this morning, president biden is condemning a protest that turned violent outside of a synagogue in los angeles. on sunday, pro-palestinian demonstrators clashed with counter protesters in a heavily jewish neighborhood. punches were thrown and people were chased down the street. president biden called the violence appalling, writing on social media, intimidating jewish congregants is dangerous, anti-semitic and un-american. pro-palestinian demonstrators are disputing claims they were anti-semitic. the synagogue's rabbi says the

properties are established and legal communities. none of that, though, explains attacks on other people. the biden administration is warning hezbollah it might not be able to stop an israeli attack in lebanon. officials made it clear the united states would have to support israel if hezbollah retaliates. this comes as israeli prime minister netanyahu has suggested potentially shifting the military focus to israel's northern border. meanwhile, israel continues to launch strikes inside of gaza. the country's defense minister is in washington now meeting with white house officials. matt bradley is in jerusalem with the latest. we do want to warn you this morning some of the footage you'll see in this report is

graphic. >> reporter: israel's assault continues, the idf attacking two compounds overnight. israel's military said the two schools has been used by hamas as a shield for its terrorist activities. >> he is emphasizing a few things in his meeting with the defense minister, number one, our ongoing commitment to israel's security, number two, the importance of israel developing robust, realistic plans for the day after the conflict. >> reporter: another major goal, patching up disagreements in a fraying alliance. gallant saying in a statement overnight, we must resolve the differences between us quickly and stand together. israel's leadership now more isolated than ever as families of the remaining hostages still held in gaza ramp up protests and calls for a deal, including

an american whose mother and father are demanding action. yesterday they released a video of his abduction along with two others. you can see his captors celebrating and his left arm had been severed by a grenade attack. >> you still haven't seen the video? >> no. >> do you expect to see it? >> i don't know. i mean, i feel like i've lived in this parallel universe of anguish for 262 days. >> reporter: like many here, the family is angry that months of negotiations haven't freed their son. >> these are real people with dreams, with aspirations, with families waiting for them. this is our son. >> his parents have been so brave and outspoken through all of this. this morning, israel's supreme courtruled the military must begin drafting ultra

orthodox jewish men for service now, saying the military needs more help amid the war in gaza. elise, let's take a step back from everything and just kind of a snapshot of where we are and the position the biden administration is in, seeing the human suffering, the humanitarian crisis on the ground but also standing by israel as it looks to avenge what happened on october 7th and get the hostages home. >> it's been a while. this war has been going on and on and on. that's why you see this new law. israel needs the manpower to stay in the fight. they see this as a continued, protected war, not necessarily a cease-fire with this move. netanyahu is struggling to stay in power. he's deeply unpopular, but keeping the war going keeps his political fortune. he likely ends up in prison once

he loses position in office. about 7 of 10 israelis support broad conscription. but now the element that orthodox jews can now be drafted is going to be hugely contentious, as they're 10% of the population, so that's a million or so men and women who haven't had to serve like the rest of israeli society. >> 10% and growing. it's part of the reason why israel's politics have moved more to the right in recent years. netanyahu has supported legislation that would provide an exemption for them, for the orthodox. but if he goes along with this, it could fracture his coalition. he's already hanging onto power by a thread. this could engage it even further. biden administration officials i've spoken to are deeply frustrated with his about face on a cease-fire. he said he wouldn't necessarily support it. now he says he is.

when netanyahu arrives in washington about a month from now to deliver an address to congress, what is he going to say about the biden administration? it could be a real political tinderbox there. this week in a video in english that was clearly aimed at u.s. audiences. still ahead, we turn to david duchovny. he joins the table to discuss his new film "reverse the curse." i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi i'm playing with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection

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london never gave up on me. i found a home, and my life is on the right track. london made it super easy for me to open my small business, by cutting city fees. and she's reinventing downtown to make our city vibrant again. she's building 82,000 new homes and helping first time homebuyers, just like us. and london's hiring hundreds of police officers, and arresting drug dealers. san francisco has been through difficult times, but our hard work is paying off. working together, we're building a better future for the city we all love. ad paid for by re-elect mayor london breed 2024. financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org. sox lost again. >> so i am creating a safe zone where the sox can't lose.

i've even got the boy who delivers papers in this bubble. go sox! that gives them some sometime to keep it healthy until the sox get it together. >> hey! >> i've looked back upon my life and thought what i've done hasn't amounted to much. >> we deserve more from you. ♪♪ >> he's been a victim. he's been a scapegoat. now he just needs you. >> come with me. >> smell that? smells like baseball. >> it's a comedy. it's a tragedy. it's a fairytale. >> that's a look at the new film "reverse the curse" starring david duchovny based on a novel

by david. set in 1978, the film follows a father and a son as they try to rekindle their relationship after the father marty is diagnosed with cancer. to lift his father's spirits, the son ted creates an alternate reality in which marty's beloved red sox rattles off win after win. in reality, the red sox's 1978 season ended in heartbreak. a game winning home run in the tie breaking 163rd game of the season. joining us now is david duchovny. great to see you. >> thank you. >> we're going on a half century now since that game. still, if you're from new york or boston, it still hits you in

some way. >> obviously boston since 2004 has been winning in every major sport, but it's my theory that you miss your identity as a loser. >> absolutely not. [ laughter ] >> it did take some of the mystique away. their whole identity was sort of based on being the lovable losers and fighting the curse. now they're the yankees. they buy expensive players and win the world series. this has been a process for you. you start with the screen play, then the novel. why did you view this time and this event as fertile ground for creativity? >> when you're writing a story or a story is coming together in your mind, it's different strands from different places mn what it strand justs from heard diffe t that we're no longer allowed to say, bucky bleeping dent, when i was in massachusetts once, it tickled me. this whole idea of an unsung

heroes, of losers winning, and i was looking at the country when i was writing it and before that it was steinbrenner. also just this win at all costs, winner mentality, that i think had goneth overboard at that pot in a 2016, 2017, when i was writing it. i was, like, let's have sympathy for the losers, let's embrace our identity as losers because we all lose in the end. a and that was kind of the impetus for the book. >> it is interesting, even for someone of your credentials and your career, it is hard to get somethinget made, to write a story, that's hard too. to get it up on the screen, it is tough, right? >> it is hard when you're making an independent film. and you have to cobble together the financing, and keep it together. and then you got to get it out and get it out in the marketplace where you got 30 seconds to try toyo define something and i made t a movie that is a tragedy, a comedy, it has high and low and it is hard to sayis in four seconds what i is. i can just tell you it is a

great filmel and you'll laugh a you'll cry. but it is hard to get that out there. we all say it is not a sports film. but that's probably not a great idea either. >> it is sort of -- the backdrop is sports. we're having fun talking, and it is the red sox, but it is a human story, a relationship story. tell us more about that part bo here. >> theut father and the son they're at odds, one is a sox fan, one is a yankees fan. it is about seizing the narrative of your t life, telli your story in a different way that suits you in a better way. you got a father and a son who have been telling their stories inn ways that are toxic to the that are not helpful to them. and they have a death nurse, a woman played by stephanie beatrice,ep wonderful in the fi, whoce tells them, you know, the

way you can tell your story can be different, the way you view yourself in your life you can take the same facts and tell a different narrative that is healthier, more loving, and more successful in theng end. and that's kind ofes what they through in their fan dom.h >> let's look what the we're talking about. this is where david's character marty makes a half hearted attempt toa reconcile with his son ted. >> you should thank me. >> okay. thank you for what? >>fo thank me for with -- >> confidence, that's rich. >> i'm a unpublished loser, r, marty. i'm mr. peanut, for crying out loud. >> hey, shut r crup. if anybody else talked about you the way you talk about yourself, i would knock them on their did [ bleep ]. >> maybe we should seize the narrative of yourld life death nurse down here toiv coach us o our tostory, right?st because i don't buy any of this new age [ bleep ], okay?p you cannot just change the story

because you don't like the way you come off. >> i'm not w your pimp, you ingrate. >> that's how you feel, i'll pack my trashu bags and i'll g >> tell me what to apologize for and i will. i don't have time. i was a lousy husband and a lousy father. so are millions of other guys. >> so when you direct a film that you've written and you're starring in it, how does that change the experience for you? are you in scenes thinking about how it is being played or how all of those things? >> yes and t no. you have your moments of schizophrenia, or i'll be in a scene with you, willie's doing great, then, oh, what's my nexta line? so there is a bit of that. it is just all enveloping. you just are living and breathing and thinking about this thing all the time from every different angle. and i love it. but it is a lot. >> it is a really -- it is a great film and as you say, you don't have to be a a sports fano appreciate it. it is very well done.fa i want to ask you about your podcast, if i could. "fail better," a great concept.

seems like everybody has a podcast. you have found an angle that i think a lot ofnd other people c learn from, sitting down with some of your buddies, ben stiller, it is an amazing list oft guests. what was the idea behind the podcast? >> similar to the movie. i'm talking about embracing losing, i'm talking about embracing abfailure. it is not something to be humiliated by or ashamed of, but part of aam process of growing d learning and i think, you know, as a country, again, i was looking around and going, why are certain people not able to admit a losing? if you know what i'm talking about? and a large part of the country is not -- is not looking at losing as an actual growth experience or resiliency, but in denial about it. i was, like, let's talk to successful people that you might know about, about their losses. and if we can embrace that, we can embrace one another in it. >> did it come from any experience? >> of course. >> that you can relate to and say this ism wherean t i faile?

>> yeah, i'll never say -- you might look at somethingve and s it is a success that i've done whatever, but in my mind, nothing is m ever actually quit what i'm thinking it is going to be. so there q'm is -- i'm not just being a pessimistic a-hole, i'm saying, that's my experience of life is that it is, you know, there is what you think it is going to be and thenu what it and there is some gray area in between i want to talk about. >> when you have a high standard for yourself, you're probably neverse going to quite reach it and that feels like failure, even if it isn't. >> even if i have a low standard. >> your guestse include ben stiller, bette midler, sean penn, amazing list of guests. the new o film is "reverse the curse," playing in theaters now and available on demand. actor, director, writer david duchovny, great to talk toda yo. thank you for beingny here. congrats. we'll be right back with more "morning joe." congrats we'll be right back with more "morning joe."

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all right, in our remaining moments here, jonathan lemire, we can look ahead now to the debate two days from now. hillary clinton just posted a

piece in "the new york times" titled, i debated trump and biden, here's what i'm watching for, essentially asking people to listen to the policy and look past the theatrics, but it will be hard to miss the theatrics. >> debates with donald trump don't usually feature much policy and they're heavy on the theatrics. this will be a new format. not only no crowd, but the mics being muted, that doesn't mean when president biden is speaking, let's say, we still won't see donald trump gesticulating wildly and making faces. interesting to see how each man recognizes that's a different dynamic this time around. but, yeah, this is an early but extremely important inflection point in a campaign that stayed relatively static to this point. >> just over 48 hours away now. we'll be back here tomorrow morning with much more. that does it for us for now. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. right now on "ana cabrera reports," a 14-year international spy saga about to end. wiki weeks