anything other than journalism. however, i will say, when he first got off the plane around midnight, he beelined it to the journalists who were there. there were tons of journalists at the joint base andrews. the first words out of his mouth were that he wants to advocate for some of the russian political prisoners who he was in prison with. >> yeah. >> completely selfless. i wouldn't be surprised if there is a mix of that, as well. >> thank you. this is incredible. send our best to evan. really appreciate it. vivian salama, thank you from "the wall street journal." thank you for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> good afternoon. this is a very good afternoon. very good afternoon. today, we're bringing home paul, evan, alsu, vladimir. three american citizens, one green card holder. all four have been imprisoned

unjustly in russia. paul, nearly six years. vladimir since 2022. evan since march 2023. alsu since october 2023. they were convicted in show trials and sentenced to long prison terms with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever, none. now, their brutal ordeal is over and they're free. >> joe biden speaking at the white house yesterday about the most substantial prisoner swap since the cold war. we'll have more of the president's comments and the emotional reunions for the wrongly detained americans in just a moment. plus, donald trump is doubling down on his race-based attacks on vice president kamala harris after falsely claiming this week that she only recently decided to become a black person.

good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, august 2nd. i'm jonathan lemire along with the bbc's katty kay. joe and mika will be back on monday. willie continues his hard assignment at the paris olympics. this story unfolded while we were on air yesterday, we were talking. we knew a prisoner swap was under way. for security reasons, we didn't want to get into detail as to who was involved, as to where this was all happening. then, of course, a little later in the day, it did come to be. late last night around midnight, these americans back here on u.s. soil. we're going to show you really emotional video of their homecoming. truly an important day, a process that was months in the making, and these americans now home. >> i was gripped to the scenes, as many were. as the mother of a 30-year-old young man, i couldn't help but feel for evan gershkovich's

mother as she was lifted off the ground at a tarmac, it was an extraordinary moment. it was also a very good day for international alliances and a reminder of why america needs allies and friends around the world, and why it is worth investing diplomacy, time, hard work, in cultivating those alliances. you never know when you're going to need them. three wrongly imprisoned americans released by russia in a multinational prisoner swap deal, arrived late last night in emotional reunions with family members at joint base andrews in maryland. president biden, vice president harris were on hand as paul whelan stepped onto u.s. soil for the first in years. he'd been imprisoned in russia since 2018 on spying charges and is now a free man. next off the plane was "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich, taken into custody in march of 2023. he spent over a year in prison before being sentenced to an additional 16 years by a russian

court. he and his family and, yes, his mom, were reunited last night. finally, journalist alsu kurmasheva embraced her family. radio europe for liberty, she was accused by russia of being a foreign agent. last night, she saw her husband and her daughters for the first time in months. green card holder vladimir kara-murza, a russian national and dissident activist is in poor help. he was met by his family in germany where he'll receive medical treatment. president biden and vice president harris spoke about the significance of the moment. >> what's your message to the american people? >> there is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together. nothing, nothing, nothing. remember who the hell we are. we are the united states of america. united states of america. we put back together relationships with countries we haven't had before. we've rebuilt nato, the circumstances that allowed this to happen. that's why it happened.

>> this is an extraordinary day, and i'm very thankful for our president and what he has done his entire career, but in particular as it relates to these families and these individuals. what he has been able to do to bring the allies together on many issues, but in particular this one. this is just extraordinary, a testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy. >> prior to meeting with the released americans last night at joint base andrews, president biden spoke alongside their family members at the white house. the president discussed the importance of diplomacy and of working with allies. >> this deal would not have been made possible without our allies. germany, poland, slovenia, norway, turkey, they all stepped up, and they stood with us. they stood with us. they made bold and brave decisions, released prisoners

being held in their countries, justifiably being held, and provided logistical support to get the americans home. so for anyone who questions do allies matter, they do. they matter. today is a powerful example of why it is vital to have friends in this world. friends you can trust, work with, and depend upon. especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this. our alliances make our people safer, and we began to see that again today. let me say this, it says a lot about the united states that we work relentlessly to free americans who are unjustly held around the world. it also says a lot about us, that this deal includes the release of russian political prisoners. they stood up for democracy and human rights. their own leaders threw them in prison. the united states helped secure their release, as well. that's who we are, the united states. we stand for freedom, for

liberty, for justice, not only for our own people, but for others, as well. that's why all americans can take pride in what we've achieved today. >> truly struck by two things while doing the reporting on all this yesterday. first, the president talks about the importance of alliances and, indeed, many of our fellow nations stepped up, and how chancellor olaf scholz of germany gave his personal assurance, for this, i'll do it, to sign off on the release of a russian hit man that putin wanted back, key to this exchange. the president in the final weeks closed this deal as his own presidential campaign was faltering. in fact, just an hour before, just an hour before he announced he would not seek re-election while he was recovering in his delaware beach house saddled with covid, that's when he called the prime minister of slovenia to say, look, get your piece of this puzzle done so we can move forward. the president still keeping his promises to these american families, american hostages,

even as he was putting the end to his own political future. let's bring in pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson. managing editor of the bulwark, sam stein. council of foreign relations richard haass. michael weiss. and retired four star navy admiral, james stavridis. chief international analyst for nbc news. admiral, we will start with you on what you saw yesterday, the importance of alliances, and what was a historic day, the biggest prisoner swap since the cold war. >> quite remarkable across the board. of course, i've been in and out of andrews air force base so many times, i can't think of a better day on the tarmac at andrews air force base, which has seen more than its share of dignified transfers. the new arrival of various heads

of state. really marvelous moment to see this, and you're showing spectacular photos right now. point two that struck me, you know, we think of nato, correctly, as a war fighting alliance. we go to war. we are in afghanistan, the balkans, syria, iraq, counter piracy. we fight alongside each other. here is an example of an alliance practiing diplomacy together, and doing it at scale across all these nations that pulled together, but also doing it retail. making sure we bring out these americans. and i loved the point the president made, that these are also russian dissidents who are being taken out. that's standing up. that's walking the walk for america. and third and finally, you know, you kind of ask the question, why now? why did this all come together? there's never a specific answer to that.

i think that putin probably heard the election coming. i think secondly, there is a sense of all of us coming together in the west at the moment because of ukraine. thirdly, there's kind of, in any negotiation, there is a critical mass moment when the dealmakers sit around the table and close the switch. jonathan, you're right to highlight joe biden in his personal ability to do that. i saw it on full display when i was supreme allied commander. he'd come as the vice president. we really saw a master diplomat at work here. a very good day for america. >> richard, watching the footage last night of these reunions at joint base andrews, which is where air force one is, it's hard not to be emotional, particularly the hug between evan and his mother. a mother who worked so tirelessly to keep his story front and center, to help advocate for his release.

give us your thoughts as to what -- to this moment and what it means. >> to me, an interesting moment was jake sullivan, the national security adviser getting emotional talking about it. you know, when you're in the foreign policy business, jonathan, so much of what you do has a degree of abstraction. you're talking about deterrence. you're talking about national interest. for the people involved in this, the president, the vice president, national security adviser, secretary of state, you know, this was real. this had a kind of detail about it. this wasn't an abstraction. tony blinken, secretary of state, would carry in his pocket a card, index card, with the list of the names of americans. i think for a lot of them, this was different. this was different. this was not balance of power. this was people. this was something they felt a real personal commitment to get done. the other side of the personal thing, you know, we've talked about the relationships really matter. the idea the chancellor of germany didn't want to do this, did not want to release a russian hitman, which is the

reason putin seems to want the deal, but he did it as a -- because of the larger relationship. that's what alliances are meant to be. alliances are not transactional relationships. alliances are relationships where you think big, you think long term, and even if you sometimes disagree on the immediate, you say to yourself, i'm going to put that a little bit on the side because i have such a larger stake in this relationship. i'm willing to play the long game. it is interesting because we don't always -- i'll put it bluntly -- we don't always see it. i thought this was interesting in the context of the middle east news, where the united states is frustrated with the relationship with its ally israel. i thought this was it. again, this, to me, was an interesting moment where -- one last point very quickly, jonathan. this thing had been cooking for a long time. sometimes in diplomacy, you make something more possible by adding to it. we always think of kind of reducing it, one for one, two for two.

no, dozens of people, half dozen countries. it's an old ploy in diplomacy. when you can't get somewhere, sometimes you add to the mix rather than subtract from it. that gives everybody a stake in it. that clearly happened here. >> there had been moment for a deal earlier this year that would have also involved alexei navalny, the russian dissident. after he was died, it was seen as a setback. the sides were able to keep going. richard, you mentioned the emotional moment with jake sullivan. let's watch that here. >> from the president on down, we've stayed in regular and routine touch with them. i spent a lot of time with the families of evan and paul and alsu. most of the time, as you can imagine, those are tough conversations. but not today. today, excuse me, today was a very good day. >> gene robinson, we're seeing jake sullivan there, national security adviser, while briefing the press yesterday. that was after the exchange had happened. it was in turkey, the third-party country, and from

turkey, the americans flew back here to the states. certainly, as we've been saying to start the show, a real triumph of diplomacy yesterday. >> absolutely. you know, i want to go back to something that richard haass said. sometimes you have a problem that you're having trouble solving, and sometimes the way to solve it is to make it bigger. they did this, and i believe the russians released something like 16 people all told. the allies released 8. it was an enormously complicated deal. just the pure joy that we saw last night when those families were reunited is something that, you know, i will never forget. i just think that you could just see how the principals who were

involved in this, sullivan, the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, how personally invested they were in bringing these americans home. and then i will just say a word about journalism and about the fact that evan gershkovich and alsu and really kara-murza, the russian dissident that was involved, they were all journalists. what they were doing was writing and speaking truth. that's not a crime. that can't be a crime. i'm so, so happy that they're home. >> sam, you interviewed on "way too early" a reporter from "the wall street journal." it's worth everybody reading that tiktok in the "wall street

journal." it is incredibly detailed. it reads like a combination of a spy novel and a master class in diplomacy. >> yeah. >> and his mother's commitment and the role that she played, i think, was not something we had all appreciated. but talk a little bit, picking up on what gene just said, the power of the "wall street journal" and of the journalistic community after evan was arrested, in keeping all of these prisoners's names in the public eye. seems to me if evan had not had that, you know, bank of power behind him from the journalistic community, i don't know that we would be where we are today. but it really was -- this is a tribute to everything "the journal" did to make sure he was not forgotten. >> yeah. i think that's 100% accurate. it's not that it would have gone by the wayside, but the public pressure campaign, the attention paid by "the journal" and other outlets to the case of evan's imprisonment, that added a type of political force to the issue that i think helped expedite --

it is weird to say expedite because it took so long -- but helped bring to conclusion this ordeal. i think "the journal" was put in this incredibly difficult scenario for a paper, which is you're both reporting on a story, but it involves your reporter. now you're not just a journalistic actor in this, you are almost a political one. as i understand it, the paper almost had to compartmentalize, create a unit to help advocate and push for evan's release, while at the same time overseeing detailed and vigorous reporting about his imprisonment. so when it all came to fruition yesterday, the paper was, of course, elated. not just because their colleague was coming home, but because months and months of painstaking professional work had paid off. i thought it was incredible that at the end of that piece, and i do encourage people to read it, evan has to write this pro forma letter asking for clemency to

vladimir putin. in the letter, he says, essentially, "i would like the chance to interview you," which goes to show you that through the entire ordeal, he never stopped actually being a journalist, which is remarkable. >> he never stopped being a journalist. i can't echo that enough. read the piece. it was in the "wall street journal" yesterday. we should note, we'll have one of the top editors of "the journal" join us this morning to discuss the paper's efforts. all of us, all of us when we saw the news alert from "the journal" saying that evan was free, hard not to get emotional yesterday. michael weiss, this is definitely a good news story, but there is a darker side of this, too. in some ways, this validates what vladimir putin has been doing, snatching americans, westerns, collect them, trade for people he wanted back. in this case, notably, the hit man who was held in germany. tell us more about putin's calculus as to why he did this, and tell us about some of these people the west had to give

back. >> vadim krasikov is part of the special forces unit. it's the heir to an infamous kgb unit. funny enough, it is tasked with counterterrorism. you may say what krasikov was asked to do is brutalism. he gunned down an intelligence asset of the georgia security services in berlin, zelimkhan khangoshvili. he was arrested, sentenced to life in prison. they did not want to trade him. the only person they wanted to trade him for was the late russian opposition leader alexei navalny. why? they felt a duty of care and responsibility for navalny. navalny was poisoned with a military grade nerve agent, also by the domestic security service. the russians let him out to get medical care in germany. he spent a year recuperating there, and chose bravely to go back to russia to fight as a

politician. the germans said, we'll do a deal. what happened? he was murdered in prison on the eve of what should have been a similar deal to what we're seeing now. the german government, particularly the foreign minister, was sort of adamant, we don't want to trade krasikov for anybody else. as you were saying, it was an eisenhower quote. when faced with a small problem, make it bigger, right? the germans were persuaded by a very fleet footed group of american state department diplomats. why don't you ask for more? not just for americans, including journalists, including my friend, vladimir kara-murza, a resident here, but ask for rights activists, including one of the founders of memorial, a celebrated organization tasked with looking into the crimes of stalinism. the dissidents in russia went to prison for what reason? they spoke out against the full-scale invasion of ukraine. they were convicted of treason for talking about the massacre

or the mariupol theater bombing. i'll give an anecdote that is telling in how the russians behaved. i got off the phone with my colleague at "the insider" who quite literally on the back of a napkin at a restaurant in d.c., with jamie ruben, roger carston, the negotiator responsible for the deal, gave out the idea, who putin wants the most is krasikov. that's his personal hit man. he was in berlin. they did not know they were being transferred to the west, even when they were put on a plane to germany, until they disembarked from the plane and met a short bald guy who introduced himself as olaf scholz, the chancellor of germany. russians had no idea they were part of the deal. you can get everybody the west was trading back to mr. putin

absolutely knew. these included two illegals caught in sloslovenia. you've seen "the americans," right? two illegals and their children sent back to russia. kraikov, hackers. putin is drawing moral equivalence between american journalists, human rights activists, dissidents, and on the other side, murderers, spies, and cyber criminals. >> admiral, question for ya. one of the debates going on is how to understand this. was this just a narrow, cynical trade set up by putin of, if you will, guilty people for innocent people, or does this tell us something about him, about his potential willingness to cut deals, to basically engage in diplomacy? for example, in over the next two years, all the nuclear arms control agreements expire.

we've got all sorts of issues in the middle east. obviously ukraine, where people are beginning to talk about diplomacy. do you see anything that says, as difficult as putin might be, the outlaw he can be, do you see a potential for diplomacy here? >> i definitely do. let's start with evan gershkovich sitting in jail. what is he doing? playing chess with his cell mate. that's the russian national game. if there is a universal gold medal in the idea of russia, it's probably rooted in chess. putin is an heir to that. he loves moving those pieces around the chess board. he thinks he is a combination of henry kissinger and al capone all put together. so he will, richard, absolutely cut a deal, and we've seen him do that.

frankly, he did a very similar kind of deal here to get viktor bout back, and that was a year ago, to trade another american who was taken illegally, brittney griner. so, yes, i think it can be expanded, a word we're using a lot today, maybe expand the idea of putin. secondly, i think it's important here, by the way, no one said it yet but i'll say it, americans, do not go to russia. do not put yourself in this position. i don't care if you're an academic or a journalist or a wonderful russian-american with family there, this is not a good moment to go because you could very well end up as one of vladimir putin's chess pieces. >> yeah, u.s. officials made that point yesterday, as well. retired four star navy admiral james stavridis, thank you for

joining us again this morning. we appreciate it. editor at "the insider," michael weiss, thank you for joining us and thank you for being here this morning. ahead on "morning joe," we'll take a look at what former president trump had to say yesterday about yesterday's prisoner swap after previously claiming that he was the only person who could obtain the release of "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich. plus, we'll be joined by white house national security communications adviser john kirby. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be back in just 90 seconds. unresolved depression symptoms were in my way. i needed more from my antidepressant. vraylar helped give it a lift. adding vraylar to an antidepressant is clinically proven to help relieve overall depression symptoms better than an antidepressant alone. and in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these

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great evan and paul whelan are coming home. really what this shows is a lot of bad guys across the world are worried that donald trump is coming back into office. i think they're trying to clean house before trump comes back because they know when he comes back, it's no more easy street. >> the republican ticket's vice presidential nominee jd vance of ohio speaking of the historic prisoner swap and saying it happened because of donald trump. trump himself appeared to only have negative things, though, to say about the prisoner swap. in a social media post, he wrote in part, quote, we never make good deals at anything but especially hostage swaps. our negotiators are always an embarrassment to us. he went on to claim that, as president, he was able to negotiate the release of wrongfully detained americans in exchange for nothing, before claiming the u.s. had been, quote, extorted yesterday.

president biden was asked yesterday about donald trump's criticism of the deal. >> president trump has said repeatedly that he could have gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. what do you say to that? what to you say to president trump now? former president. >> why didn't he do it while he was president? >> yeah, why didn't he do it while he was president? paul whelan, specifically, for example, was arrested by russia during donald trump's term in office. a quick fact check on the former president's claim his administration never secured release of americans without giving up anything in return, for example, in february 2020, the trump white house agreed to free 5,000 taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 prisoners. later that same year, the administration agreed to give up 250 houthi rebels in exchange for two wrongfully detained americans. so, i mean, i don't -- maybe the former president, john, thinks that there is nothing that he can get out of this, and so he's

just going to attack the deal itself. but on a day, obviously, when everybody is celebrating, we all understand there are complications around this deal. we all understand compromises were made. it is hard to look at the scenes of the americans coming home and meeting their families without being able to express some joy, perhaps, at what happened. >> yeah, and donald trump simply incapable of doing that. trump, everything is politics. everything is about what he can try to turn to his advantage or attack his opponent. let's remember the dangerous rhetoric we heard from him over the last few months, where he kept saying that only he could make a deal, only he could do it. he'd talk to putin and get it done. that turned out not to be the case. joining us, professor at princeton university, eddie glaude jr. and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. your thoughts on what we saw yesterday, mike? a triumph of diplomacy.

triumph for a president who spent decades in the international arena. to katty's point, there are compromises made, hard decisions that had to get done. the end of the day, america saw some of its own come home last night. >> you know, the contrast that you just raised, talking about donald trump's reaction to this, implying that he could have done it better, that we gave too much, the contrast between the former president, trump, and the acting, sitting president of the united states, joseph r. biden, could not have been more stark than it was yesterday. you had a confident, knowledgeable president of the united states standing up, telling the american public exactly what happened, and then singing "happy birthday" with a young woman, with his arm around the young woman. happy birthday. a smile on the president's face. the deep knowledge and relationships that he has with leaders around the world got this done. more than anything else, he got this done. >> happy birthday to the daughter of one of those

released yesterday. richard, we were talking about how there was almost a subtext to everything yesterday. the president put a fine point on it occasionally, but really, there was this undercurrent of how yesterday reinforced how different the foreign policy approaches of biden and trump are. >> absolutely, jonathan. if i had to sum it up in a phrase, you have the difference between an alliance first foreign policy, collaborative, which is the biden/harris policy, and an america first policy, which is trump. the united states acts unilaterally as we withdraw from the world. that was the subtext. when the president was talking about the alliances, that's the great force multiplier of the united states. does russia into allies? answer, no. china have allies? answer, no. united states has dozens of allies in europe, many whom were involved in this. we have allies in asia. the japans, australias, and others. that's the great comparative advantage. we have countries willing,

voluntarily, to work with us to tackle regional and global challenges. that's what you heard the president talking about. he didn't have to mention donald trump, but that is the stark contrast in our relationship with the world under, again, what this traditional administration is doing and the outlier approach of donald trump. >> eddie, i mean, that's what the united states has been about since world war ii, embracing the world, forming these alliances. let's get your thoughts here, though. donald trump, we saw it in his four years in office already, and he's threatening to even go further in that direction to be transactional, to be isolationist, and at times, to turn america's back to the world. >> absolutely. he wants to turn his back on the post world war ii consensus. i think what's really important here, that we keep track of the human element. we saw the families on the tarmac. we saw he lifted his mother up. we saw loved ones hugging each other. we can talk about the geopolitical realities. we can talk about the difficulties of the choice, the difference between president biden and former president trump. we can talk about how ignorant

the latter is in relation to these questions. what we cannot lose sight of is these people, these families are together now. they didn't think they'd see their loved ones again. this is a wonderful, wonderful day. >> you know, jonathan, i think that the reaction from both donald trump and jd vance yesterday, the only word that comes to mind is just pathetic. it is just absolutely pathetic and incredible that they couldn't just say, we're happy that they're home. we're happy these americans who were wrongly detained by vladimir putin are home. just leave it at that. i don't understand why they felt they had to attack, attack, attack. i mean, i guess that's who trump is, and then jd vance seems to be trying really, really hard to be kind of a mini me, giving

credit to donald trump for something he couldn't have been bothered to do when he was in office. i think, in part, it's their frustration. they just can't buy a news cycle right now. they have been -- and that has to be driving trump crazy. kamala harris has dominated the news cycle. he thought he maybe had a little momentum by going crazy and saying offensive things at the nabj meeting on wednesday. boom, thursday, attention is away from him again. nobody is thinking or talking about donald trump. so maybe that pathetic reaction was just frustration on the part of trump and vance, that nobody is really paying much attention to them right now. >> gene, you couldn't be more right in terms of trump's default is to attack and to divide. it's always us versus them.

it can never be about american consensus. and i do think you're right, and i've certainly talked to some close to the former president the last couple days, there is a real sense of frustration as to the moment where this race stands right now. later, we'll get to eye-popping fundraising numbers that also show where momentum lies. as this was going on, trump also, in addition to attacking the deal, he doubled down on his false accusations that vice president harris is lying about her race. during an appearance at the national association of black journalists conference earlier this week, trump claimed that america's first black vice president, quote, became black. harris, of course, is biracial. she's always been biracial. she was born to a jamaican father and indian mother. the backlash to trump's comments swift, with many drawing parallels to trump's earlier birtherism conspiracy theories against former president barack obama. on his truth social page

yesterday, trump continued to question harris's identity. in one post, you're seeing it here, he included an old photo of kamala harris's family in traditional indian attire. writing this, "thank you, kamala, for the nice picture you sent from many years ago. your warmth, friendship, and love of your indian heritage are very much appreciated." in another post, trump included a clip of an interview that harris did with indian-american actress mindy kaling, saying, "she's ibdian, not black. this is a big deal. stone cold phony. she uses everybody, including her racial identity." in this clip, harris says kaling looks like, quote, one-half of her family. she made the point right there, she is proud of her indian heritage. she's also proud of being a black woman. she always has been. i mean, eddie, these attacks are offensive, they're racist, they

also seem deeply ineffective. >> absolutely. calling donald trump a racist at this point is like saying, look, there's a deer, right? it has no real effect, right, in some ways. but let's be clear, this is -- by him saying this, it makes the choice stark. are we going to double down on a view of america in which race is used as a divider, where we have these reckless appeals to grievance and hatred, or are we going to finally leave the 19th and 20th century behind? here we are in 2024, john. a candidate for the president of the united states is making these ignorant comments, right, revealing that he has no understanding of how race works in the united states. he has no understanding of how ethnicity works within black communities in the united states. and people are finding this, at least some people are finding this appealing. so we have to respond to it accordingly. it's ignorant. it's hateful. it's racist.

it's also donald trump, and he's on the ballot. where are you going to land? what america are you going to choose? >> you know, it's all of that, plus maybe a little bit more. gene raised the issue cogently a couple minutes ago. why is it incapable of donald trump to say in the hostage release that, you know, hey, this is great. good luck to them. i'm happy they're home? he can't. he can't let kamala harris go. he can't let that go. why? not because it's politics, not just because he's filled with hate and envy. i think, and i would submit -- gene, i don't know if you'd agree with me or not -- but he is a badly, deeply damaged individual. >> broken. >> oh, yeah, i would absolutely agree. there is a deep -- you know, beneath all that bluster -- who am i to diagnose him, i'm not a psychologist -- but there's clearly some deep insecurity and

feeling of inaddequacy that causes him to continually lash out and puff himself up and adopt this air of infallibility, which is absurd, but that's who he is. i think he is a really, really damaged person, and, you know, because of that, and a lot of other reasons, he is really dangerous. he proved that in four years as president. he would prove it again if he were ever allowed near the white house again. this is not a well man. >> dangerous part of it, though, is also, and it is a consistent thing here, is you have someone running for president who is, in some ways, unwilling and unable to put the country first. we see that in the ungenerous reaction to getting these americans home. it is a good thing for the country. maybe it's not good for his political campaign, but

something else is going on. it's good for the country. it's good for these families. there's a consistent pattern here, which is an inability to put anything other than himself first. that's what we're seeing in capital letters here. >> for trump, campaign comes before country, no question there. eddie, we're also so glad you're here. it marks the 100th birthday aft late legendary author and civil rights activist james baldwin. books, poems, and essays confronted america's issues with race and sexuality. his no hold's bar style forced readers to look critically at the standards of american life, and they remain relevant today. just in time for his centennial, publisher penguin random house added books, on sale now, with a foreword by eddie glaude.

you also wrote "the life and legacy of baldwin in 2020, begin again." he is an important figure to you. here is the book. certainly, people should pick it up. tell us more about why he is so meaningful to you and why he is so meaningful today. >> well, first of all, we used to play a game, every time i would drop a james baldwin quote, you'd say, i'll take a drink, right? because he is so important. >> tough shape by 6:30. >> tough shape by 6:30. look, baldwin taught me how to love and how to be angry. how to not allow my anger to overwhelm but to understand the importance, the nature of love, so that i could reach for a higher form of excellence, so i could release myself into a different way of being. baldwin has this wonderful form ulation, and i'm paraphrasing,

the messiness of the world reflects our lives. if we can't speak to the emptiness and the ugliness of the world outbroken, he's not dealing with someone inside of him. here we are in 2024, as i said, and donald trump is appealing to the ugliest base of the nation. baldwin would say, until we confront honestly who we are, we cannot release ourselves into a different way of being. ignorance, he said, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy to justice that can be. ignorance allied with power. sounds like donald trump. so if in this wonderful edition, you have "nobody knows my name" in '61. "fire next time" in '63. "no name in the street" in '72. "the devil finds work" in 1976. this work is emerson across the railroad tracks. ralph waldo emerson meets the

ugliness of america's underbelly, and we get a sense of who we take ourselves to be. baldwin is one of our greatest writers coming from the ghettos of harlem, finding his way to france, and offering the world some of the most beautiful words we've ever read. i loved him. >> perfectly said. >> eddie, you know, here's a question i've always wanted to ask you. which is, baldwin was a great seminal thinker but, man, that brother could write. he was such a great writer. how do you read all of that and then sit down and write about it? how did you do that personally? you know, because i would feel so inadequate and so just incompetent to try to write about someone who was just such a magnificent writer. >> you're absolutely right, gene. you know, in toni morrison's eulogy of jimmy, she found

language in his writing, words within his words. i was writing "begin again," the sentences weren't coming, and reverend bishop barber sent me a saints candle with jimmy's name on it. every time i started to write, i lit the candle. i remember his voice, like he was right next to me, gene, if we're going to do this together, old boy, you're going to have to deal with you. i had to deal with the fact i had my own daddy issues, and i had to go inside. once i did that, gene, the sentences started jumping. because my pain is mine. jimmy can't write about that, right? but also, the honesty, he scared the living daylights out of me because he was asking me to interrogate the scaffolding of my world. i felt like it was all going to collapse. with that, i learned that courage is of necessity if we're going to write or attempt to write beautiful sentences. >> eddie, off of what baldwin wrote for his entire life in all

of his works, do you think we will ever as a country, white people in this country, come to understand the roots of anger among black people in this country? >> you know, mike, reading jimmy, reading baldwin closely, i call him jimmy because he's my saint, in order to answer that question, white people are going to have to deal with themselves. you're going to have to delve deep. in order to understand my rage, you're going to have to understand you, the world that has been created, the world that denies us dignity and standing. we'll have to see. baldwin's life is so complex. you have to see the relationship between race and desire, how race has deformed and distorted the very ways in which we understand love, the very ways in which we understand our relationship to each other, what it means to be a human being.

but if you are to understand my rage, you must understand you. you must. that becomes the precondition for a different way of us being together. >> important, beautiful sentiments this morning from professor at princeton university and best selling author, our friend eddie glaude jr. thank you for being here. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up on "morning joe," we have brand-new reporting about an investigation into whether egypt's president sought to give donald trump $10 million to boost his 2016 presidential campaign. we'll bring in one of the reporters behind that piece. plus, a recap of a massive day in paris for team usa, with men and women's teams making history. two olympic legends adding to their prolific career totals. "morning joe" will be back in just a moment. (bell ringing) someone needs to customize and save hundreds with liberty mutual! (inaudible sounds)

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paris. we see the eiffel tower in the distance, olympic flame in the foreground. 6:50 a.m. here. yesterday, another big day for team usa. simone biles, just incredible, she won the individual all-around gold medal for a second time in her career. cementing her g.o.a.t. status.

at 27 years old, biles is the oldest female gymnast to achieve that feat in 72 years. and she still has a chance to earn three more medals during these paris games. her teammate, suni lee, took the bronze in the all-around event. let's move to the pool. legendary swimmer katie ledecky also made history yesterday. she was part of the 200 meter freestyle relay team that won the silver, giving ledecky her 13th career medal, the most by any female in olympic history. in the women's 200 meter breaststroke, american kate douglass claimed her first olympic medal, giving her a complete set of medals for her career. another historic performance for team usa came in rowing yesterday, where the men's four won gold for the first time in 46 years. it's also the first medal for the u.s. team in a rowing event since back in 2016. meanwhile, the u.s. women's

fencing team making history, as well, besting italy for the gold medal. the first ever gold medal in a team fencing event, men's or women's, for the u.s. what an accomplishment there. on the hardwood, the u.s. women's basketball team passed its first real test of the paris games with an 87-74 win over belgium. the game was close a while. stewart and wilson led the way for the u.s., combining for 49 points and 6 assists. the american women have a 57-game olympic winning streak that goes all the way back to the 1992 games in barcelona. and on the sand, the highly touted u.s. beach volleyball duo outlasted the chinese, clinching a round in 16. the u.s. has the overall medal lead with 38. china has the most golds with

11. team usa is closing fast. we've got 9. next up here on "morning joe," we'll be joined by the assistant editor of the "wall street journal" following the release of their reporter, evan gershkovich. plus, white house national security communications adviser, john kirby, will join us at the top of the hour. you won't want to miss that. "morning joe" back in a minute. saw a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. some even saw 100% clear skin. and for those with psoriatic arthritis, taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness. don't use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. increased risk of infections and lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about infections, symptoms, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop, worsen or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions can occur. ask your doctor about taltz. [floor creaks] (♪♪) (♪♪)

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stole my ipad and iphone, so this is a replacement so i can be normal again. that's something else. that's for medicinal purposes. president biden gave me his pin. >> tell us about it. >> it's an american flag. he wore it on his lapel. we were chatting, and he took it off and gave it to me. it's a keepsake. >> could you describe the moment of coming back home? >> oh, it was nice. it was nice. you know, it didn't feel real until we were flying over england. i'm a british citizen, irish citizen, cuban, and american. as we came over england and i looked down, it became real. we flew over ireland, canada, and then america, and then i knew i was home. getting off the plane, seeing the president, the vice president, that was nice. it was a good homecoming. looking forward to seeing my family down here and just recuperating from five years, seven months, and five days of just absolute nonsense by the

russian government. >> evan, how you feeling? >> i'm all right. it was a good flight. >> those were recently freed americans paul whelan and evan gershkovich after landing on american soil last night. the two were part of the largest prisoner exchange in post soviet history. joining us now, evan's colleague at "the wall street journal," one of the leading voices to bring him home, assistant editor paul beckett. let's start with how are you feeling right now? what is the mood of the paper to see evan home? >> smiles of joy. tears of relief, exhaustion, exhilaration. all at once. it's been a remarkable moment, and that's just at "the journal." we think of what it must be like for evan and his family that you saw reunited on the tarmac last night. it was extraordinary. >> talk us through the process. a tricky moment for a newspaper which is both trying to recover, return one of its colleagues and friends, but also while reporting on the story. walk us through, what has the

last 16 months been like? >> very, very, very intense. you know, news organizations don't like to be the story, so we separated off. we had reporters going out reporting, and we had reporters like me and editors and others at "the journal" working specifically on his relief. we thought it was important to treat that as a story, as we would another story, and have that other piece of it separate, that was advocating for his release. yesterday, it happened. >> talk about the day-to-day tre va travails of all of this on you, running a paper here in the united states. every day, you knew one of your valuable employees was being held in captivity in russia. what impact did that have on you, on your day-to-day job? >> gave us a fist in the collective gut for months. that's what it felt like.

it was tough to know he was there. toughest of all on evan and his family. we've been so impressed by them and by him. you saw his composure last night. that's the same composure he's displayed for 16 months. whenever we were flagging, we'd look to him when we saw him in the glass cages in the courtroom, and he'd inspire us all over again. >> paul, stay with us. we have more with you in a moment. katty, let's bring in and learn more from the white house. >> joining us now, white house national security communications adviser and assistant to the president, retired rear admiral john kirby. an extraordinary day for the united states and for the white house yesterday. john, the germans, an ally, olaf scholz, has tweeted out he supports this deal, but he described it as making a deal with the devil. he said it was worth doing on humanitarian grounds. five of the seven countries

involved in the deal are nato members. what were the conversations with america's allies to persuade them to take part in this prisoner swap that involved compromises for them? >> very complex deal put together, again, over many, many months, katty. the conversations began many, many months ago with these nations, as we realized that in order to get this over the finish line, we were going to need some help. boy, that's when you want to pull on your alliances and your partnerships and the relationships, particularly the personal relationships that president biden has forged, not only as president but in his previous life as a senator and vice president. it came down to that. it really came down to the president's personal involvement, getting on the phone with these leaders and asking them to make these tough decisions. there's no way when you do a negotiation like this that you're going to -- you're not going to have to compromise. now we had to ask allies and partners to compromise. but as the president said so eloquently last night, this is why alliances matter. this is why he has invested so much energy into reinvigorating our alliances and partnerships

around the world. when you really need to tap that reservoir, it's there. it was the result of many conversations he's had. >> were there anything offered, for example, to germany or slovenia, poland, for example, in order to take part in this? >> no. this was not about trade space here with our allies and partners. it was really about coming together to try to free up, not just americans, but other nationalities, as well, and russian dissidents, as well, and trying to do the right thing for a lot of innocent people that has no business rotting in russian jails. >> john, is there anything that the united states can do now to try to stop this cycle of hostage taking, hostage negotiation, prisoner swaps? i mean, of course, there is a risk that a prisoner swap of this deal just perpetuates the idea in the countries like russia that it is worth taking prisoners around the world. is there anything you can do to

mitigate against that? >> there is a de-designation on many, many countries, to warn americans traveling to countries overseas that there is a detention risk. to show self-awareness. we'll try to hold rogue states and nations accountable for their activities, including the wrongful detention of american overseas. ultimately, this is something that mr. putin has been doing for decades. at times when there were negotiations, he was still taking people wrongfully detained. when there weren't and when there were. it's not as if the idea of negotiating for americans wrongfully held overseas is necessarily going to increase the risk that they will be. as a matter of fact, roger carstons, our negotiator, has looked into the link between the ability to negotiate and the

desire of a rogue state to take hostages or wrongfully detain people. >> talk to us about what happens next in the relationship with moscow. the war in ukraine obviously continues. there is, though, this channel, this diplomatic channel that remained open, that has now a couple of times been able to arrange for prisoner swaps. there are still americans held in russia. what are the next steps with this relationship? >> two things, jonathan. first of all, we are going to continue to try to get the wrongfully detained americans overseas back home with their families. we're also working on other americans that maybe haven't been classified as wrongfully claimed but we want them home, such as mark fogel in russia. those conversations are going to continue. as we negotiated this deal, every time we do this, we learn, we gain knowledge and perspective on what the russians were thinking. that was the case here. though we couldn't get mark in this deal, we're still going to do what we can to try to get him home with his family where he belongs, as well. as for the larger relationship, jonathan, don't look for some

major policy shift here. there is no detente here with russia. we can compartmentalize. we can do what we have to do to negotiate on the behalf of american citizens that are being wrongfully detained, and at the same time hold mr. putin accountable for the aggression and activities on the european continent. we're going to continue to do that. look for us to continue to make sure ukraine has what it needs to defend itself. look for president biden to continue to make sure that nato alliances remain strong, relevant, and viable well into the future. don't look for any major policy shifts here in the u.s./russia relationship. >> admiral, as part of the prisoner exchange, germany gave up, back to russia, a trained assassin, a guy who they had held for years and who, in his years of being held in germany, never even gave them his name. so a stone-cold professional. could you spell out the degree of difficulty in the united states and president biden in dealing with chancellor olaf scholz to get this done, to get

germany to give him up? how difficult was this? >> this was a tough decision for chancellor scholz and the german government to lay out. this was a very bad man, and they had every right to have him locked up in a german jail. this was a tough decision and took moral courage on chancellor scholz's part. it also took quite a number of conversations between us and the german government. not just at the president's level, but jake sullivan was keenly involved in this process, as well. it did take counselor on their part. we're grateful for that. ultimately, and the president eluded to this yesterday, mike, it really did come down to the tremendous relationship that the president has with chancellor scholz. ultimately, it came down to chancellor scholz and the president meeting here in the oval office where the chancellor said, for you, i'll do this. i'll make this jump, and he did. we're eternally grateful. had it not been for chancellor scholz and their willingness to

give up mr. krasikov, it is doubtful this deal would have gone through. >> white house national security communications adviser and assistant to the president, retired rear admiral john kirby. admiral, thank you for joining us this morning. >> you bet. see ya, guys. >> paul, returning to you now, give us an update as to how evan is doing, and what's next for him, both short term and long? we were so struck with, you know, while he was in prison, he was still jotting notes. we were struck by the kicker of the story that was in your paper, remarkable story that detailed the months leading to his release. when he had to write a pro forma letter, a request for clemency addressed to putin. he did so. at the end, he made a request. he asked for an interview. is he going to remain a reporter, too, you think? >> funny. when he got off the plane last night and you saw him walk across the tarmac and greet some of our colleagues, one of the first things he said then was, i tried to interview krasikov, the

guy going back, the assassin you were talking about, but the timing didn't work out. the planes didn't meet up. he's very, very much a reporter. what we wanted to know, the newsroom has risen up for him, but we want to give him time now to reconnect with his family and make the decisions he's been deprived of for 16 months. see where he wants to take his career and life next. the amazing thing is, he gets to make those decisions himself. we've all been making decisions for him for 16 months, and now it is over to him. we'll ride along with him every step of the way, but we're excited to see what he is going to do in the future. we just want to give him time and space to figure it out. >> wonderful sentiment. gene robinson in washington has the next question. >> yeah. paul, my question is, as an editor of a great newspaper, how do you now think about where you send foreign correspondents and what they are able to do?

and if that has changed, what does that mean for journalism in this country? >> thanks, gene. i think we're going to assess all that, but "the journal" is dedicated to aggressive and comprehensive foreign coverage. even while evan was in prison, we used to say, well, we do have a reporter in moscow, it's just that he is in jail. otherwise, we've been covering it from berlin, from warsaw. we have wonderful russian expertise on "the journal" staff. we have to assess the risks and safety as we do all the time, and decide when the time may be right to go back. right now, it's all evan and his family. we'll cross those bridges when we come to them. >> assistant editor for "the wall street journal," paul beckett, thank you for being on and your tireless work. >> you've all been great. thank you. >> the story is a valuable piece of writing. tribute to newspapers.

>> thank you. >> if anyone out there hasn't read it yet, it's in the "wall street journal," please do. up next on "morning joe," there are new questions on whether donald trump took money from a foreign country to help his 2016 presidential campaign. "the washington post" joins us with details. plus, congresswoman elissa slotkin is standing by. her primary is next week in a race that could change control of the senate. "morning joe" will be right back. of the senate. "morning joe" will be right back it? [squawks] did you get that? only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty,♪ ♪liberty, liberty.♪ nice to meet ya. my name is david. i've been a pharmacist for 44 years. when i have customers come in and ask for something for memory, i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself

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president al sisi has been somebody who has been close to me from the first time i met im. i met during the campaign. >> yes. >> at that point, there were two of us, and we both met. hopefully you liked me a lot more. [ laughter ] it was a very long -- supposed to be just a quick, brief meeting, and we were with each other for a long period of time. we agree on so many things. i just want to let everybody know, in case there was no doubt, that we are very much behind president al sisi. he's done a fantastic job. >> that was former president donald trump praising egypt's leader, abdul fattal al sisi during a visit to the white house. now, "the washington post" has new reporting on a priestly unknown federal investigation into whether trump's first presidential campaign illegally accepted money from that same

foreign leader. for more, let's bring in one of the authors of the piece, national investigative reporter at "the washington post," carol lenning. this is an extraordinary story, carol. what did your -- donald trump describing the relationship as very close, potentially $10 million close, what did your reporting tell you about egypt's relationship president trump campaign? >> as donald trump reveals of the meeting, he had a private meeting with al sisi on the sidelines of the united nations. there was no one in the meeting for a portion of the time. what cia intelligence discovered and passed on with great concern was that there was an indication from an informant and other streams of intelligence that al sisi had basically ordered or instructed some of his aides to

get $10 million to donald trump's cash-starved campaign. it wasn't clear exactly how this would be accomplished, though there were references to using some of the egyptian spy network, the government's own spy network, which al sisi relied on heavily for his own power, to solidify his power at home and abroad. then investigators, if you can believe in, obtained a record of a mysterious $10 million withdraw from an account linked to egypt's intelligence agency. this cash withdraw was mysterious because it represented such a large portion of u.s. currency then in the egyptian banking system. they discovered that that withdraw was made five days before donald trump became president. unfortunately, the department of justice was never able to answer the question of whether or not donald trump accepted that money. investigators were blocked by the political appointees at the

department in 2019 from obtaining the records they believed would answer that question, of whether trump accepted an illegal campaign contribution or gift from sisi. >> carol, your story has extraordinary reporting of officials working in the bank of egypt, stuffing hundred dollar bills into bags. did you get any closer to understanding where all those $100 bills ended up, or why the department of justice decided it wasn't going to press ahead with this investigation? >> we did better on the second question, i have to say, which was learning that this was one of the most high-profile. high-profile in that it was a major case for the department of justice. one of the most closely held and secretive because it was based

on classiied intelligence. and it was one of the most contentious inside the department. the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia at the time heard out agents and prosecutors who said they needed to get additional bank records of donald trump's for 2017 to figure out, did this mysterious cash land anywhere in donald trump's accounts? she seemed open to that idea, said she needed to talk to then new attorney general bill barr and brief him on this case, which would be normal. bill barr then said she needed to see the underlying cia intelligence herself, figure out whether or not this case was warranted. he expressed some concern about some of the fbi agents involved, that they had been on the mueller probe and he had some concerns about whether or not they were hellbent on pursuing

trump's records and if they had justification for getting those additional records. jesse liu came back from the meetings and told prosecutors and agents she was no longer going to authorize the subpoena for trump's bank records. the case stalled out. other u.s. attorneys who took her place stymied the case and closed it down. >> carol, let's run one more time through that. bill barr is appointed attorney general, and then he learns about this investigation going on. the u.s. attorney that you just mentioned has been running the investigation. bill barr apparently, according to your reporting, thinks some of the agents on the case were mueller guys and had been on the mueller investigation. so he shuts down the investigation at that point, just shuts it down?

>> barr does not shut down the case. great question, by the way. he doesn't shut it down. he does two things. he inserts himself with jessie liu and says, you better look hard at this intelligence. look hard at whether or not there is a predicate, a legal justification to get these additional trump records. the investigatorers, of course, are gobsmacked by this. this is jaw-dropping intelligence that says al sisi wanted to quickly, illegally spirit $10 million to trump. now, they have a record, which mueller has obtained from the bank of egypt, showing there was a $10 million cash withdrawal. $100 bills shoved into duffel bags and carried out of a bank outside of sigh cairo five days before donald trump becomes president. they think, this is interesting. this cash withdrawal mirrors the

intelligence that the cia alerted us to, the jaw-dropping intelligence. barr does a second thing after warning liu about his concern, she needs to figure out if this is warranted. he meets privately with fbi director chris wray and says, you need to insert some adult supervision in this case. jessie liu is not making a firm decision yet on whether or not this case can proceed. i need you, chris wray, to get involved with the fbi agents who appear to be hellbent on getting trump's records. we need to figure out whether or not it is justified for them to do it. do they have the basis for doing that? he expresses doubts, essentially, that they do. >> terrific, new reporting, and it's online this morning for "the washington post." national investigative reporter at "the post," carol leonning. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you, jonathan. we now have new reaction from a member of congress who represents paul whelan's home state of michigan following his

release in that prisoner exchange between the u.s., russia, and several other nations. democratic congresswoman elissa slotkin called it happy news but said it is a reminder that we face a dangerous and unprincipled adversary in vladimir putin because he uses innocent americans as pawns. congresswoman slotkin joins us now. she is a member of the house armed services committee, and former cia analyst, and also a candidate for the u.s. senate in michigan. congresswoman, good to see you this morning. let's get you to expand a little more on that point. obviously, great news. it is a great news story that these americans are home, but you correctly point out that there are -- we should also be drawing warning signs. >> >> yeah. i mean, look, paul whelan is from michigan. he hit michigan soil yesterday. his family and our state are elated. the work his family did to keep his story alive, particularly his sister, is one for the

books. we're super excited for him and for his whole family, but i think it is just a reminder that vladimir putin, like, it's not that paul was up against some sort of espionage charge that was anything other than fake and falsified. he'll take americans, hold them against their will, and he'll use them in order to bet the pieces back on the chess board that he wants. it's just a good reminder to those who are i feel like constantly trying to apiece putin, trying to cozy up to him, to see him as an ally or a partner to the united states, to understand who you're dealing with here. people tell you who they are, and putin uses american as hostages and as pawns. >> we certainly know that donald trump has had often kind words for vladimir putin. congresswoman, speaking of trump, let's talk the campaign now. there was a lot of worry in recent months from officials in michigan as to the polls in that state that showed trump was ahead of president biden. now, of course, we have a race

reshaped with vice president harris to be atop the ticket for democrats. talk to us about what you're seeing in your state. how is that going? >> i mean, i think the most palpable thing you can see changing was the energy. i mean immediately, the monday after the announcement, i was at the airplane flying to d.c. for votes, and the plane that landed ahead of me was full of university of michigan students. they all saw me, recognized me, and were like, congresswoman, it's just so exciting, all our friends are registering. everyone is getting excited. that was my first taste that the energy had really shifted in the room. it's been gangbusters from there. i've been knocking doors in detroit and flint. people are super excited and interested. i did a big event, you know, at the university of michigan stadium, where we had 600 union guys, building trades guys, and they're in it because they feel like we can go on offense now. we're prosecuting the case against donald trump. i think it's just been an

amazing shift. doesn't mean it is going to be easy, and i think the message we've been telling everyone is, look, we're excited. voter turnout is going to be stronger. but in swing states, independent voters are critical. you just don't win on democrats alone in any of these swing states. we're going to have to inform people, educate people, make that case to independent voters, which is a very typical election in a place like michigan. >> congresswoman, you're running against mike rogers, former chairman of the house intelligence committee for the senate seat. how is your race going, and what is mike rogers saying about you? >> yeah, well, we officially have our primary on tuesday. but all expectations is that, you know, that'll be me against him. i mean, look, i think the hardest thing for many of us to watch is the way that people pledge fealty to donald trump. even people who criticized the president in the past, thinking about running against him in the

presidential race. just to watch this 180 degree turn of someone who, in order to get the support for his, you know, primary, just did whatever donald trump asked him to do. i think that's the difference. if you look at what has happened over the past four weeks, you know, democrats struggled. we were quote, unquote, in turmoil. we were dealing with the top of the ticket. issues we were concerned about, but we dealt with them. we had the conversation. we dealt wit. president biden did this heroic thing while he was negotiating a hostage deal, by the way, announced he'd come down and not run again. the top of the ticket on the other side of the aisle, all it is is fealty. i think that's the big delta there. look, i mean, we're going to have that conversation play out over the next 90 days. we now have a sprint towards the general election. i just try to focus on what i'm doing, what i care about, and in a place like michigan, the existential issue about whether we're going to have a strong middle class, it is what people are talking about. that's what we tend to focus on

here, meat and potatoes, kitchen table issues. >> democratic congresswoman elissa slotkin of michigan, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. coming up, the momentum of the presidential race seems to have shifted to vice president kamala harris, and the fundraising numbers back that up. we'll bring you the incredible number for the harris campaign next on "morning joe."

i'm going to speak to you, ms. harris. [ applause ] i am a strong woman, a mom, a lawyer, and an american. [ applause ] and unlike you, kamala, i know who my roots are. i know where i come from. >> kamala harris even tried to outbrand a new southern accent. did you hear her southern accent? if i ever did that, a all of those people back there, look at

all those cameras. oh, would i go through hell. i'd have a week of hell if i tried to do that. >> that was alina habba, a senior adviser, and donald trump continuing the race-based attacks on vice president harris. those comments came just hours after his contentious interview in chicago with a panel of black women journalists, where he questioned harris's biracial identity, a narrative that he continued on social media yesterday. meanwhile, donald trump's campaign says it raised $139 million last month. that gives the campaign a total of $327 million in cash on hand. but the former president raised less than half of what vice president kamala harris's campaign brought in. the harris campaign says it raised $310 million in the month. according to the campaign, 94%

of those donations in july were under $200. two-thirds of them came from first-time donors. joining us now, senior adviser and senior spokesperson for the harris 2024 campaign, adrienne elrod. great to see you this morning. what's the thinking within the campaign about the best way to respond to the kind of thing we just heard from alina habba and donald trump? >> first of all, great to be back with you this morning. i mean, a couple of things. number one, vice president harris is out on the campaign trail talking to voters about how she's going to improve their lives, how she's going to protect their freedom, how she's going to protect democracy, how she's going to make sure that she continues to expand the middle class and continues to lower costs for american families. when you see trump make those comments, when you see his surrogates making those comments, all it does is turn off middle of the road voters, those voters who are living their lives in america who simply want to make sure their families are protected, the

right of their children, especially their girls, are protected. when they see comments like that, it turns them off. what i love about the way vice president harris is taking her approach to this campaign, is i'm going to go out there and use my bully pulpit. i'm going to go out there, you know, to the rallies. an incredible rally in atlanta attracted over 10,000 people. i'll talk to the voters about how i'm going to protect their lyes, improve their lives, and protect their economic and reproductive freedoms. whereas, you have trump out there, you know, trying to divert attention from the real issues of this campaign, and that's what you're going to see vice president harris continue to do on the campaign trail. >> adrienne, certainly, the harris campaign, a lot of momentum right now, raised a massive amount of money in the last few weeks. now the vice president is faced a significant decision, and that is choosing her running mate. the campaign has said she will do before tuesday. there is a rally scheduled there in philadelphia on that day. just if you could just tell us,

walk us through the process. what has this been like? it is a truncated timetable from what campaigns usually have. talk about the vetting process and what steps remain for the vice president. >> yeah, well, lemire, first of all, i'm not involved in the vetting process, in her decision to select her running mate. what i can tell you is she will select somebody who shares her values and visions for the american people. how is this person going to be her true partner in improving the lives of the american people, implementing her agenda that makes sure that, you know, young women and families can make their own reproductive decisions, that the middle class is expanded, that we continue to expand america's role on the national and international stage. that is the kind of partner she's looking for. whomever she chooses to be her running mate, which he will know in a few days, i will know along with you in a few days, will be somebody who shares those values. it's something that is incredibly important to her. she wants to make sure she has a true partner, just like when president biden chose her to be

his running mate. she was his true partner, making sure he could implement an historic agenda that created tens of millions of jobs, that lowered costs for american families, passed four major economic bills. that's something she did hand in hand with president biden. she wants to make sure whomever she chooses will be a partner in implementing her agenda, as well. >> i understand you're not an accountant, but the $310 million was raised in july. that's just a portion of july, i would assume, since she was a declared candidate for the presidency. talk about the small donor contributions, the number of people who gave $200 or less. do you know the numbers? are you familiar with the numbers? >> first of all, we have all kinds of stats when it comes to this record fundraising $310 million our campaign raised in july. truly incredible. two-thirds of those funds came from first-time donors to this

campaign. you know, a remarkable number of those donations were small donations, grassroots donations. $200 million was raised in the last six days, or the six days after when the president dropped out and vice president harris became the presumptive nominee and then the actual nominee. we have got a lot of statistics here. what i can also tell you when it comes to grassroots donations, july was the largest grassroots fundraising month in democratic fundraising history. take all of that into account. given the fact she more than doubled trump's fundraising, what he raised in july, his fundraising numbers. look, you know, barnicle, grassroots donations fuel this campaign. it shows the excitement and enthusiasm from all corners of the united states, the middle of this country, and it fuels what our mission is. it shows the fact we have so many people who are excited about vice president harris's candidacy. she knows it'll be a tough election. she's taking nothing for granted, but it is certainly a

fun thing to watch. so many people, democrats, republicans, moderates, independents, young people, old people, you know, everyone in the middle, it is an incredible thing to watch all of this enthusiasm coalesce around her campaign. >> senior adviser and senior spokesperson for the harris campaign, adrienne elrod, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thanks. up next here, a conversation on protecting american democracy. we'll be joined by two members of a task force fighting against rising authoritarianism. former secretary of homeland security in the obama administration, jeh johnson, and retired judge, j michael luttig, are next with us on "morning joe." i asked myself, why does pilates exist in harlem? so i started my own studio. getting a brick and mortar in new york is not easy. chase ink has supported us from studio one to studio three.

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it's gold for team usa. noah lyles with another gold medal. in case there was any doubt, who was the breakout star of these world championships. we're leading in this state, by the way, this commonwealth. we're leading by a lot in our commonwealth. the radical left democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020, and we're not going to allow them to rig the presidential election of 2024. >> that was donald trump still claiming just this week that the 2020 election was stolen from him. his continued lies about america's vital institutions prompted some of the country's most respected legal minds, former lawmakers, and members of the intelligence committee, to form a task force last year with the goal of protecting

democracy. joining us now, the co-chairs of that task force which was organized through the american bar association. former secretary of homeland security in the obama administration, jeh johnson. and retired judge, j michael luttig, who served on the united states court of appeals for the fourth circuit. today, they are presenting some of their findings at the aba's annual conference in chicago. chicago seems to be the center of the news universe these days. nabj conference this week. of course, the dnc in a couple of weeks. secretary johnson, let's start with you. tell us more about the mission of your group and what you found. >> sure. thanks for having us. almost exactly a year ago, judge luttig and i appeared on this show to announce the formation of the task force that we lead to support and defend our democracy. now a year later, we find that not only do a large percentage of americans indulge in the false belief that the 2020

election was stolen. we're also in the midst of a very volatile election season with a rising temperature of political rhetoric in this country, coupled with rising levels of actual politicalculmi course, in the assassination attempt of former president trump on july 13th. judge luttig and i are here in chicago at the aba convention to call for action to america's lawyers to become involved in the upcoming 2024 election, by volunteering to help election workers, to provide advice to election workers and those involved in the process, to speak out in their communities about the strength of our democracy, the actual strength of our democracy, and to, frankly, help to calm down the political rhetoric. lawyers are trained in conflict resolution, and this overheated political environment, which we

find ourselves in, lawyers can contribute to lowering the temperature. so that's going to be our basic message today when we deliver our findings and our recommendations. >> judge luttig, gene robinson here. it is astounding to me, really, when you step back and think about it, that there needs to be an aba task force to protect our democracy. so, you know, we opened this segment with a clip of donald trump, and so, judge luttig, my question is, is donald trump the cause of this threat or is he a symptom? did he bring all -- bring this threat to to life or is he just a manifestation of something that was -- that was already waiting there for him to awaken it? >> eugene, for reasons that we all know, american democracy and the rule of law are in

extremists today. i described american democracy as teetering on a knife's edge. i testified in front of the congress that january 6th, a stake was driven through the heart of america's democracy, and today if it's even possible, our american democracy is in worse condition today. the -- america's lawyers, 1.3 million strong as the secretary said, are uniquely qualified and uniquely obligated to support and defend america's democracy and the rule of law, and as the secretary said, the task force for american democracy that was created by the american bar association is

today, issuing a call, a call of action for america's lawyers to rise to the moment and support and defend america's democracy and the rule of law. >> secretary johnson, such is the nature of american politics at the moment that although not all lawyers are democrat or republican, this will be seen as a partisan effort. what can you do to try to make sure that lawyers from both political persuasions feel this is something they can sign up to? >> i think that the message has to be sent loud and clear that supporting and defending our constitution, our democracy, and the rule of law are strictly bipartisan, nonpartisan issues. every lawyer has legal training in the constitution, what the rule of law means, basics about our democracy. that goes to basic civics education, and the freedom of

speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, freedom of assembly are nonpartisan rights that we enjoy in this country, and so the message has to continually be sent that supporting and defending these very basic american concepts are not -- it's not a democratic or a republican issue. it's not a democratic or republican platform. we hear a lot about democracy in this election season, but the basics of these concepts have been around for over 200 years. some americans are losing sight of it and taking for granted the virtues we enjoy in this country, and so we want to continually send the message that to the lawyers that this is something so basic and fundamental that every lawyer, whether you're a republican, democrat, or independent, should embrace these issues. >> judge luttig, after what was

just said about sending a message to people of american democracy, what kind of a message can we come up with to prevent more election poll workers from quitting their jobs because they fear of their own safety? >> well, that's exactly one of the subjects that the task force is addressing today, and will continue to address between now and the election in november. if our election workers are not safe in performing their duties and responsibilities, then american democracy cannot function itself for obvious reasons, and that's why one of the principle recommendations today to american lawyers is that they protect the safety of election workers in november, but let me go back to make this point. our founding fathers and the framers of our constitution

feared -- feared most this moment in american history when a demagogue and demagoguery would sweep the nation, and americans would begin to question literally democracy itself and the rule of law, and that's exactly what we have today in america. our politicians from all sides, from both sides of the two political parties are demagogues and demagoguing. in this instance, american democracy and the rule of law itself. that's why i believe that november is a test of americans' commitment to america's democracy and the rule of law.

>> former homeland security secretary jeh johnson and michael luttig. thank you for speaking with us this morning. speaking of concerns, the opposition candidate has been the winner in venezuela's election. the move goes against president nicolas maduro who claimed victory this week. the announcement follow calls for multiple governments urging maduro to show proof of his self-proclaimed victory. the opposition has collected 80% of the voter polling tally sheets which show their candidate winning two-thirds of the vote. maduro's electoral council is refusing to release information on those sheets and that has claimed without evidence that it was hacked. still ahead, we'll turn back to our top story of the morning, the historic prisoner swap. we'll be joined with a woman with firsthand insight of what life is like inside a russian

prison. and we're awaiting the july jobs report. we'll bring you those numbers and talk about what they could mean for the american economy. "morning joe" will be right back. american economy. "morning joe" will be right back

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well, good afternoon, and this is a very good afternoon, a very good afternoon. today we're bringing home paul, evan, also vladimir. three american citizens, one american green card holder.

all four have been imprisoned unjustly in russia. paul for nearly six years, vladimir since 2022, evan since march of 2023, and al since october of 2023. russian authorities arrested them, convicted them in show trials and sentenced them to long prison terms with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever, none, and now their brutal ordeal is over, and they're free. >> president joe biden speaking at the white house yesterday about the most substantial prisoner swap since the cold war. we'll have more of the president's comments and the emotional reunions for the wrongly detained americans in just a moment. plus, donald trump is doubling down on his race-based attacks on vice president kamala harris after falsely claiming this week that she only recently decided to become a black

person. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, august 2nd. i'm jonathan lemire along with the bbc's katty kay. joe and mika will be back. willie continues his hard assignment at the olympics. this unfolded while we were on air yesterday. you and i for a while were talking. we knew that a prisoner swap was under way. for security reasons, we didn't want to get into too much detail as to who was involved, where this was all happening, and of course, a little later in the day, it did come to be, and late last night around midnight, these americans, back here on u.s. soil. we're going to show you really emotional video of their homecoming, truly an important day. a process that was months in the making, and these americans now home. >> yeah. i was gripped to those scenes as i'm sure many people were yesterday of watching them being reunited with their families as a mother of a 30-year-old young

man. i couldn't help but feel for evan gershkovich's mother as she was being lifted off the ground on the tarmac. that was an extraordinary moment. it was a very, very good day for those families. it was also, john, a very good day for international alliances, and a reminder of why america needs allies and friends around the world, and why it's worth investing diplomacy and time and hard work and cultivating those alliances because you never know when you're going to need them. three wrongly imprisoned americans released by russia in a multinational prisoner swap deal, arrived late last night in emotional reunions with family members at joint base andrews in maryland. president biden, vice president kamala harris, they were on hand as paul whelan stepped onto u.s. soil for the first time in years. he'd been imprisoned in russia since 2018 on spying charges and is now a free man. next off the plane was "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich, taken into russian custody in march of 2023. he spent over a year in prison before being sentenced to an

additional 16 years by a russian court. he and his family and yes, his mom, were reunited last night, and finally, journalist and editor, she was arrested in october and accused by russia of being a foreign agent. last night she saw her husband and her daughters for the first time in months. green card holder vladimir kara-murza is in poor health. after greeting the released americans last night alongside their families, president biden and vice president harris spoke about the significance of the moment. >> what's your message to the american people? >> there's nothing beyond our capacity. nothing, nothing, nothing. we know who the hell we are. we're the united states of america. the united states of america. we put back together relationships with countries we haven't had before.

we've built nato, rebuilt the circumstances, and that's why it happened. >> this is an extraordinary day, and i'm very thankful for our president and what he has done his entire career, but in particular as it relates to these families and these individuals, what he has been able to do to bring the allies together on many issues, but in particular, this one. this is just extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy. >> and prior to meeting with the released americans last night at joint base andrews, president biden spoke alongside their family members at the white house. the president discussed the importance of diplomacy and of working with allies. >> this deal would not have been made possible what our allies. germany, poland, slovenia, norway, and turkey, they all stepped up and they stood with us. they stood with us, and they

made bold and brave decisions, release prisoners being held in their country, justifiably being held, and provided logistical support to get the americans home. so anyone who questions whether alies matter, they do. they matter, and today's a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world, and friends you can trust, work with, and depend upon, especially matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this. our alliances make our people safer, and we begin to see that again today. let me say this. it says a lot about the united states that we work relentlessly to free americans who are unjustly held around the world, but it also says a lot about us that this deal includes the release of russian political prisoners. they stood up for democracy and human rights. their own leaders threw them in prison. the united states helped secure

their release as well. that's who we are as the united states. we stand for freedom, for liberty, for justice, not only for our own people, but for others as well, and that's why all americans can take pride in what we've achieved today. >> i was truly struck by two things while doing the reporting on this yesterday. first, the president talks about the importance of alliances and indeed, many of our fellow nations stepped up and how chancellor scholes of germany said he said, for this, i will do it to sign off on the release of a russian hitman that putin wanted back that was key to this exchange, and also how the president in the final weeks, has closed this deal as his own president, his own presidential campaign was faltering. that, in fact, just an hour before he announced he would not seek re-election while he was recovering in his delaware beach house saddled with covid, that's when he called the prime minister of slovenia to say, look. let's get your part of this puzzle done to move forward. the president still keeping his

promises to these american families, american hostages, even as he was putting the england to his own political future. let's now bring in pulitzer prize-winning columnist, eugene robinson, sam stein, richard haass, and editor at "the insider," michael weiss, and former supreme allied commander of nato, retired four-star navy admiral, james stavridis. admiral, we will start with you on what you saw yesterday, the importance of alliances and what was a historic day. the biggest prisoner swap since the cold war. >> quite remarkable across the board, and of course, i have been in and out of andrews air force base so many times i can't think of a better day on the tarmac at andrews air force base which has seen more than its share of dignified transfers and

the new arrival of various heads of state. really marvelous moment to see this when you're showing some spectacular photos right now. point two that struck me, we always think of nato, correctly, as a war-fighting alliance. we go to war. we're in afghanistan, the balkan, syria, iraq, we fight alongside each other. here's an example of an alliance practicing diplomacy together, and doing it both at scale across all of these nations that pulled together, but also doing it retail, making sure we bring out these americans, and i love the point the president made, that these are also russian dissidents who are being taken out. that's standing up, that's walking the walk for america, and third and finally, you kind of ask the question, why now? why did this all come together?

there's never a specific answer to that. i think that putin probably heard the election coming. i think secondly there's a sense of all of us coming together in the west at the moment because of ukraine, and then thirdly, there's kind of in any negotiation, there's a critical mass moment when the dealmakers sit around the table and close the switch, and jonathan, you're right to highlight joe biden in his personal ability to do that. i saw it on full display when i was supreme allied commander and he was the vice president. we really saw a master diplomat at work here, a very good day for america. >> so richard, watching the footage last night of these reunions at joint base andrews, which is where air force one is, it's hard not to be emotional, particularly the hug between evan and his mother, who had worked so tirelessly to keep his

story front and center, to help advocate for his release. give us your thoughts on this moment and what it means. >> to me, an interesting moment was jake sullivan, the national security adviser getting very emotional talking about it. so much of what you do has app degree of abstraction. you're talking about deterrence and national interest. for the people involved in this, the president, the vice president, national security adviser, secretary of state, you know, this was real. this had a kind of detail about it. this wasn't an abstraction. tony blinken, the secretary of state, would carry in his pocket, a card, an index card with the list of names of americans, so i think for a lot of them, it was just different. this was different. this was not balance of power. this was people, and this is something they felt very personal to get done. the other side of the personal thing, you know, we've talked about that the relationships really matter. the idea that the chancellor of germany didn't want to do this -- did not want to release

a russian hitman which is the reason putin seems to want the deal, but he did it as a -- because of the larger relationship, that's what alliances are meant to be. alliances are not transactional relationships. alliances are relationships where you think big. you think long-term, and even if you sometimes disagree on the immediate, you say to yourself, i'm going to put that a little bit on the side because i have such a larger stake in this relationship. i'm willing to play the long game, and it's interesting because we don't always -- just to put it bluntly, we don't always see it. i thought this was interesting in the context of a lot of middle east news where the united states is very frustrated with the relationship with its -- with its ally, israel. so i thought this was -- but again, this to me, was an interesting moment where -- one last thought very quickly, john. this had been cooking for a long time. sometimes in diplomacy, you make something more possible by adding to it. we always think of kind of

reducing it, one for one, two for two, but no. dozens of people. half dozens of countries. it's an old ploy in diplomacy is when you can't get somewhere, sometimes you add to the mix rather than subtract from it and that gives everybody a stake. that happened here. >> there had been momentum for a deal earlier this year which would have also involved alexei navalny. after he died, that was a setback, but the sides were able to keep going. you mentioned the emotional moment with jake sullivan. let's watch that here. >> from the president on down, we've stayed in regular and routine touch with them. i've spent a lot of time with the families of evan and paul and alsu, and you can imagine those are tough conversations, but not today. today -- excuse me. today was a very good day. >> so gene robinson, we're seeing jake sullivan, our national security adviser while briefing the press yesterday. that was after the exchange had

happened. it was in turkey. it was the third-party country, and then from turkey, the americans flew back here to the states. certainly as we have been saying to start the show, a real triumph of diplomacy yesterday. >> absolutely. it was -- you know, i want to go back to something that richard haass said. sometimes you have a problem that you're having trouble solving, and sometimes a way to solve it is to make it bigger, and they did this, and i believe the russians released something like 16 people all told, the allies released eight. it was an enormously complicated deal. just the pure joy that we saw last night when those families were reunited is something that, you know, i will never forget, and i just think that you could

just see how the principles who were involved in this, sullivan, the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, how all -- how personally invested they were in bringing these americans home, and then i will just say a word about -- about journalism and about the fact that evan gershkovich and al su and kara-murza, they were all journalists, and what they were doing was writing and speaking truth, and that's not a crime, and that -- that can't be a crime, and i'm so, so happy that they're home. >> sam, you interviewed on "way too early," a report from the "wall street journal," and it's

worth everybody reading that tiktok in the "wall street journal." it's incredibly detailed. it reads like a combination of a spy novel and a master class in diplomacy, and his mother's commitment and the role that she played, i think was not something we had all appreciated, fwauk a little bit, picking up on what gene just said. the power of the "wall street journal" out of the journalistic community after evap was arrested in keeping all of these prisoners' names in the public eye, it seems to me that, you know, if evan had not had that, you know, bank of power behind him from the journalistic community, i don't know that we would be where we are today, but it really was -- this is a tribute, too, to everything that the journal did to make sure he was not foergten. >> yeah, it's not that it would have gone to the wayside, but the journal and other outlets went to the case of evan's imprisonment. that add a type of political

force to the issue that i think helped expedite -- it's weird to say because it took so listening, but helped bring to conclusion this ordeal, and i think the journal was mut put in this incredibly difficult scenario for a paper which is you're both reporting on a story, but it involves your reporter, and now you're not just a journalistic actor in this. you're almost a political one, and as i understand it, the paper almost had to compartmentalize, create a unit to help advocate and push for evan's release, while at the same time, overseeing detailed and vigorous reporting about his imprisonment, and so when it all came to fruition yesterday, the paper was, of course, elated not just because their colleague was coming home, but because months and months of painstaking, professional work had paid off, and i thought it was incredible that at the end of that piece, and i do encourage people to read it, evan has to write this

pro forma letter of requesting asking for clemency to vladimir putin and in the letter, he says, essentially, i would like the chance to interview you which goes to show you that through the entire ordeal, he never stopped actually being a journalist which is remarkable. >> by the way, so this is definitely a good news story, but there is a darker side of this too. in some ways, this validates what vladimir putin has been doing, snatching westerners, collect them. trade for people he wanted back. in this case, notably this hitman who was held in germany. tell us more about putin's kal cue laws as to why he did this, and tell us about the people that the west had to give back to moscow to get this deal done. >> so vadim kreskov is part of a special forces unit. he's the heir to an infamous kgp unit. it's tasked with counterterrorism, though what you would say he was sent for

state terrorism. he brutally gunned down a chechen fighter. the germans arrested him, convicted him, sentenced him to life in prison. they did not want to trade him. the only person that it wanted to trade him for was the late russian opposition leader alexei navalny. why? they felt a duty of care and responsibility for navalny. remember, navalny was poisoned with the military-grade nerve agent also by the fsb, the domestic security service. the russians let him out to get medical care in germany. he spent a year recuperating there and chose rather bravely to go back to russia to fight as a politician. the germans said we will do a deal for navalny. he was murdered in prison on the eve of a similar deal to what we're seeing now, and the foreign minister was adamant we don't want to tray krasikov for anybody else. it's an eisenhower quote, when

you're faced with a small problem, make it bigger, right? the germans were persuaded by american state department diplomats. why don't you ask for more, not just americans including journalists, including my friend vladimir kara-murza who is my friend here. ask for activists, including a memorial which is a celebrated organization that was tasked with totalitarianism. the diss dents in russia went to prison for what reason? they spoke out against this full-scale invasion of ukraine, whether it was the bucha massacre or the bombing. what was telling was how the russians behaved. i got off the phone with my colleague at "the insider" who quite lit on the back of a napkin on the back of a

restaurant with jamie rueben, with the negotiator who was responsible for this deal there, mooted the idea. do you know who putin wants the most? his personal hitman. why don't we do a deal for navalny? he's in berlin and he said, some of the russians have been transfer. they didn't go like evan did. they went to berlin. they did not know they were being transferred to the west when they were put on a plane to germany until they disembarked from the plane and met a short, bald guy who introduced himself as olaf schulz. they had no idea they were part of this deal, whereas you can get everybody trading back to mr. putin absolutely knew, and these included you asked me, two illegals that were caught in slovenia. you've seen the show "the americans," right? deep cover operatives posing as other people, two illegals and their children, sent back to russia.

krasikov, hackers. what putin is doing is drawing moral equivalence between american journalists, human rights activists, dissidents and on the other side, murderers, spies, and cybercriminals. >> admiral, question for you. one of the debates going on is how to understand this. was this just a narrow, cynical trade set up by putin of if you will, guilty people for innocent people? or does this tell us something about him, about his potential willingness to cut deals, to basically engage in diplomacy? could this -- for example, in, what? in over the next two years, all the nuclear arms controlled agreements expire. >> yeah. >> we've got all sorts of issues in the middle east, obviously ukraine where people are beginning to talk about diplomacy. do you see anything in this that leads you to say, just maybe, maybe as difficult as putin is, as much of an outlaw as he can be, that there still might be a potential for diplomacy here?

>> i absolutely do, and let's start with evan gershkovich sitting in jail. what's he doing? he's playing chess with his cell mate. that's the russian national game. if there is a universal gold medal in the idea of russia, it's probably rooted in chess, and putin is an heir to that. he loves moving those pieces around the chess board. he thinks he's a combination of henry kissinger and al capone all put together, and so he will, richard, absolutely cut a deal, and we've seen him do that, and frankly, he did a very similar kind of deal here to get viktor bout back, and that was a year ago to get to trade another american who was taken illegally, brittney griner. so yes, i think it can be

expanded, a word we're using a lot today. maybe expand the idea of putin, and then secondly, i think it's important here by the way, no one's said it yet, but i'll say it. americans, do not go to russia. do not put yourself in this position, and i don't care if you're an academic or a journalist or a wonderful russia american with family there. this is not a good moment to go because you could very well end up as one of vladimir putin's chess pieces. coming up, back in may, donald trump declared that he was the only person who could obtain the release of "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich. that was clearly wrong, as is much of what he had to say yesterday as well. we'll run through it. that's next on "morning joe." this summer.

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i mean, great that evan and paul whelan are coming home. i think really what this shows is that a lot of bad guys across the world are worried that donald trump is coming back into office, and i think that they're trying to clean house before trump comes back because they know that when he comes back, it's no more easy streets. >> the republican ticket's vice presidential nominee, senator jd vance of ohio speaking yesterday about the historic prisoner swap

and saying that it happened because of donald trump. trump himself appeared to only have negative things though to say about the prisoner swap. in a social media post, he wrote, in part, quote, we never make good deals in anything, but especially hostage swaps. our negotiators are always an embarrassment to us. he went on to claim that as president, he was able to negotiate the release of wrongfully detained americans in exchange for nothing before claiming the u.s. had been, quote, extorted yesterday. president biden was asked yesterday about donald trump's criticism of the deal. >> president trump has said repeatedly he could have gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. what do you say to that? what do you say to president trump now, former president? >> why didn't he do it when he was president? >> why didn't he do it when he was president? paul whelan specifically, for example, was arrested by russia during donald trump's term in office, and a quick fact check on the former president's claim

that his administration never secured the release of americans without giving up anything in return, well, for example, in february of 2020, the trump white house agreed to free 5,000 taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 prisoners and later that same year, the administration agreed to give up 250 houthi rebels in exchange for two wrongfully detained americans so. i mean, maybe the former president, john, thinks that there is nothing that he can get out of this, and so he's just going to attack the deal itself, but on a day obviously when everybody's celebrating we all understand there are complications around this deal. we all understand that compromises were made, but it's hard to look it those scenes of the americans coming home and meeting their families without being able to express some joy perhaps at what happened. >> yeah, and donald trump simply incapable of doing that. trump, everything is politics. everything is about what he can try to turn to his advantage or

attack his opponent, and let's remember the dangerous rhetoric we heard from him over the last few months where he kept saying that only he could make a deal. only he could do it. he would talk to putin and get it done the first day after he won. that, of course, turned out not to be the case. up next, mine barnicle and eddie glaude are standing by. we'll talk about the politics of this, the triumph of diplomacy, and american leadership on the world stage. that conversation just ahead on "morning joe." the future is not just going to happen. you have to make it. and if you want a successful business, all it takes is an idea, and now becomes the future where you grew a dream into a reality. the all new godaddy airo. put your business online in minutes with the power of ai. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000

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joining us now, professor at princeton university, eddie glaude jr. and msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. we'll start with you, mike, just your thoughts on what we saw yesterday. a triumph of diplomacy, a

triumph for a president who has spent decades in the international arena, and yes. to katty's point, there were compromises made. there were hard decision that is -- decision that is had to get done, but at the end of the day, america saw some of its own come home last night. >> the interest you just raised talking about donald trump's reaction to this implying that he could have done it better, that we gave away too much, the contrast between the former president trump and the acting sitting president of the united states, joseph r. biden, could not have been more stark than it was yesterday. you had a confident, knowledgeable president of the united states standing up, telling the american public exactly what happened, and then singing happy birthday with a young woman, with his arm around the young woman. happy birthday. a smile on the president's face, the deep knowledge and relationships that he has with leaders around the world, got this done. more than anything else, he got this done.

>> happy birthday to the daughter of one of those released yesterday. richard, we were just talking about how there was almost the sub text to everything yesterday. the president put a fine point on it occasionally, but there was this undercurrent of how yesterday reinforced how different the foreign policy approaches of biden and trump are. >> absolutely, jonathan. if i had to sum it up in a phrase, you get the difference between a collaborative foreign policy which is the joe biden and harris foreign policy, and trump. it's unilateral in ways we withdraw from the world and that was the sub text. when the president was talking about the power of alliances, that's the great force. think about it. does russia have any allies? answer no. does china have allies? answer, no. the united states has dozens of allies in europe, many of whom were involved in. we have many allies in asia. the japans, the australias and others. that's the great comparative

advantage. we have countries willing voluntarily to work with us to tackle regional and global challenges, and that's what you heard the president talking about. he didn't have to mention donald trump, but that is the stark contrast in our relationship with the world under, again, what this traditional administration's doing and the outlier approach of donald trump. >> and eddie, that's what the united states has been about since world war ii. embraing the world, forming these alliances. let's get your thoughts because donald trump saw it in his four years in office already, and he's threatening to go even further in that direction, to be transactional, to be isolationist, and at times to turn america's back to the world. >> absolutely. he wants to turn his back on that post-world war ii consensus, but what's really important here is that we keep track of the human element. we saw those families on the tarmac. we saw he lifted his mother up. we saw loved ones hugging each other. we can talk about the geopolitical realities. we can talk about the difficulties of the choice. we can talk about the difference between president biden and former president donald trump.

we can talk about how ignorant the latter is in relation to these questions, but what we cannot lose sight of is these people, these families are together now, and they didn't think they would see their loved ones again, so this is a wonderful, wonderful day. >> jonathan, i think that the -- the reaction from both donald trump and jd vance yesterday, the only word that comes to mind is just pathetic. i mean, it is just absolutely pathetic, and incredible that they couldn't just say, we're happy that they're home. we're happy that these americans who were wrongly detained by vladimir putin are home, and just leave it at that. they are -- i don't understand why they felt they had to attack, attack, attack. i mean, i guess that's who trump is, and then jd vance seems to be trying really, really hard to be kind of a mini me and giving

credit to donald trump for something that he couldn't have been bothered to do when he was in office, and i think in part, it's their frustration. they just can't buy a news cycle right now. they have been -- and that has to be driving trump crazy that kamala harris has dominated the news cycle, and he thought he maybe had a little momentum by going crazy and saying offensive things at the nabj meeting on wednesday, and then boom, on thursday, attention is away from him again. nobody is thinking or talking about donald trump, and so maybe that pathetic reaction was just frustration on the part of trump and vance that -- that nobody is really paying much attention to him -- to them right now. coming up, the prisoner swap wasn't the only thing donald trump was lying about yesterday.

he's also making things up about the vice president's racial identity. we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." identity we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." (♪♪) we need a miracle. miracle every thursday starting at 2:45. i know. i love you. find childcare that fits your schedule at care.com have you ever considered getting a walk-in tub? well, look no further! find childcare that fits your schedule safe step's best offer, just got better! now, when you purchase your brand new safe step walk-in tub, you'll receive a free shower package. yes, a free shower package! and if you call today, you'll also receive 15% off your entire order. now you can enjoy the best of both worlds! the therapeutic benefits of a warm, soothing bath that can help increase mobility, relieve pain, boost energy,

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welcome back. former president donald trump is doubling down on his false accusations that vice president kamala harris is lying about her race. during an appearance at the national association of black journalist conference early they are week, trump claimed that america's first black vice president, quote, became black. harris, of course, is biracial. she's always been biracial. she was born to a jamaican father and an indian mother. the backlash to trump's comments swift, with many drawing parallels to trump's earlier birtherism conspiracy theories against former president barack obama. on his truth social page yesterday, trump continued to

question harris' identity. in one post, you're seeing it here. he included an old photo of kamala harris' family in traditional indian attire writing this. thank you, kamala, for the nice picture you sent from many years owe. your warmth, friendship, and love of your indian heritage are very much appreciated. in another post, trump included a clip of an interview that harris did with indian american actress mindy kaling and wrote, quote, crazy kamala saying she's indian, not black. this is a big deal. stone cold phony. she uses everybody, including her racial identity. in this clip, harris says kaling looks like, quote, one-half of her family. she made the point right there. she's proud of her indian heritage. he's also proud of being a black woman. she always has been. i mean, eddie, these attacks, they're offensive. they're racist. they also seem deeply

ineffective. >> absolutely. calling donald trump a racist at this point is like saying, look. there's a deer, right? it has no real effect, right? in some ways, but let's be clear. this is by -- by him saying this, it makes the choice stark. are we going to double down on a view of america in which race is used as a divider where we have these reckless appeals to grievance and hatred, or are we going to finally leave the 19th and 20th century behind? here we are -- here we are in 2024, john, a candidate for the presidency of the united states is making these ignorant comments,right? revealing that he has no understanding of how race works in the united states. he has no understanding how ethnicity works within black communities in the united states, and people are finding this -- at least some people are finding this appealing. so we have toignorant. it's hateful. it's racist, but it's also

donald trump, and he's on the ballot. where are you going to land? what america are you going to choose? >> you know, it's all of that plus maybe a little bit more. gene raised the issue quite cogently a couple of minutes ago. why is it incapable of donald trump to say in the hostage release that, you know, hey this is great. good luck to them. i'm happy they're home. he can't, and he can't let kamala harris go. he can't let that go. why? not because it's politics. not just because he's filled with hate and envy. i think, and i would submi -- gene, i don't know whether you agree with me or not, but he is abadly, deeply, damaged broken individual. >> i would absolutely agree. there is a deep -- beneath all that bluster, who am i to diagnose him? i'm not a psychologist, but there is clearly some deep insecurity and feeling of

inadequacy that leads him to continually lash himself out and puff himself up and adopt this air of infallibility which is absurd, but that's who he is. i think he is a really, really damaged person, and -- and, you know, because of that, and for a lot of other reasons, he's really a -- he's really dangerous. he proved that in four years as president. he would prove it again if he were ever allowed near the white house again. this is -- this is not a well man. >> and the dangerous part of it though is also -- and it's a consistent thing here as you have someone running for president who is in some ways unwilling and unable to put the country first, and we see that in the ungenerous reaction to getting these americans home. it's a good thing for the country. maybe it's not a good thing for his political campaign, but there's something else going on. it's good for the country.

it's good for these families, and there's a consistent pattern here of just an inability to put anything other than himself first, and that's what we're seeing in capital letters here. coming up, a live report from paris as the summer olympics continue. we'll have the very latest from france, straight ahead on "morning joe." st from france, straight ahead on "morning joe."

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random house has added some of baldwin's most beloved works to their everyman library series. the compilation includes a brand new forward from none other than eddie glaude. you also have a book out called "begin again." i know he's a very important figure to you. here is the book. certainly people should pick it up. tell us why he is so meaningful to you. >> first of all, every time i'd drop a james baldwin quote, you'd say take a drink. baldwin taught me how to love and how to be angry, how to not allow my anger to overwhelm, but

to understand the importance, the nature of love so i could reach for a higher form of excellence. baldwin has this wonderful formulation. i'm paraphrasing here. the messiness of the world is actually a reflection of the messiness of our interior lives. if we can't deal with the emptiness in us, we can't speak to the world out there. donald trump is broken. he's not dealing with something inside of him. here we are in 2024 and donald trump is appealing to the ugliest base of the nation. baldwin would say until we confront honestly who we are, we cannot release ourselves into a different way of being. ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy to justice there can be. ignorance allied with power. sounds like donald trump.

so you have "no name in the street" in '72, "the devil finds work" in 1976. this work is emerson across the railroad tracks. we get a sense of who we take ourselves to be. baldwin is one of our greatest writers, coming from the ghettos of harlem and offering the world some of the most beautiful words we've ever read. coming up, we'll have the jobs report with cnbc's andrew ross sorkin and nbc's stephanie ruhle. our economics roundtable is straight ahead here on "morning joe." ahead here on "morning joe.

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her campaign just over a week old, but she's already expected to announce her running mate in the coming days. the two will then hit the road together, visiting several key battleground states, starting with a rally in philadelphia on tuesday. >> have you chosen your vp yet? >> wow. what a change. the democratic nominee for president walked up a flight of stairs while talking with her head turned. she turned her head while walking. and none of us were covering our eyes and clenching our [ bleep ]. compared to biden, she's like simone biles up there. >> our thanks to "the daily show" there. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe" on this friday. it is 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. in the east. i'm jonathan lemire in for joe,

mika and willie. we have susan page with us. let's get to the breaking economic news. the july jobs report was released just moments ago. it shows that the u.s. economy added 114,000 jobs. that is much less than the 185,000 economists had expected. the unemployment rate also rose slightly to 4.3%. let's bring in stephanie ruhle. good morning, stephanie. let's get your reaction to these numbers, which were not what we were expecting. >> as always, just what you want on a friday. for me, it's bad news, but it is also good news. yes, the number is definitely lower than we expected. we are seeing wage growth slow. that's an overall problem for the economy. think about what the fed needs to do. the fed has two jobs.

the fed has to keep inflation under control. for the last three years, all we've been talking about is inflation, inflation, inflation. it's why the fed hasn't cut rates yet. it's their goal to slow the economy so it doesn't get too hot. the fed statement mentioned we're also keeping an eye on unemployment, because their other job is to focus on unemployment, make sure the economy isn't growing too fast but it's not slowing down too much. with numbers like this, where we're seeing job growth slow, wage growth slow, we're more likely to see that rain cut come november, and it's likely to be even bigger than we were expecting. people are going to make this thing super political depending on which side of the aisle you're on. donald trump has been saying,

project 2025 don't want the fed to be independent. they want it under the control of the president. after an employment number like this, it is more likely you're going to see a lot of political noise. simone biles seems to be weighing in on her job weighing donald trump where she said, i love my black job. >> steph makes a great point. there's some chatter already that now that people think that the fed may have moved too slowly, should have cut interest rates ahead of this moment because of what we're seeing in this jobs report, but it's going to be undeniably political now. >> absolutely. we thought that the fed and the biden administration had done what seemed impossible, which

was to avoid a recession. we seem to be having that socht landing that had mythical status. i wonder whether we are now really at some risk of having a recession ahead, has the fed waited too long to focus on job growth rather than focus solely on inflation? >> certainly there have been in the last few months more of a sense that we would avoid that recession, that that soft landing we all heard about wouldn't occur. the white house has been trumpeting for quite some time the economic recovery. the dynamic was always that they weren't getting enough credit for it. to be fair, some americans weren't feeling it. >> let's be clear. not just some americans have been unhappy with inflation,

millions and millions of americans. try to get insurance, try to buy a house, try to rent an apartment. life is very expensive. there has been price gouging. when fast food restaurants were jacking up their prices, when stores small and large were doing the same, there were a lot of questions around price gouging. in the last few months, we've seen fast food restaurants cut their prices. that $5 value meal for $12 is not going to cut it. you're going to need to lower your prices. we're starting to see americans change their tune. this is going to be a win for kamala harris' campaign. it was a year and a half ago they coined the term bidenomics. we've had the data on our side, but americans didn't want to hear that because they weren't

feeling it. they're starting to feel it now. if we do get that rate cut, that'll make things even more positive. that's a big positive for this white house. we'll be back with you in a few minutes while we discuss a meme stock that essentially mirrors how well donald trump is doing politically. american prisoners wrongfully detained in russia are now back home. peter alexander has the details. >> reporter: overnight, an emotional return home for three americans wrongfully detained in russia, all released as part of a historic international prisoner exchange involving seven countries. president biden and vice president harris joining family members at joint base andrews to welcome them back to the u.s. >> how did you process this moment? >> with great satisfaction. it's a relief for the family. >> reporter: among those now home, "wall street journal"

reporter evan gershkovich, arrested while on assignment. just last month, gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years for spying charges in what the journal called a sham trial. >> evan, how are you feeling? >> i'm all right. >> another journalist also freed, touching down in time to celebrate her daughter's 13th birthday. paul whelan speaking after arriving in texas early this morning. >> thank you for all your prayers and good wishes. whelan was arrested on espionage charges during a wedding. he was excluded from two previous swaps, including when the u.s. exchanged a notorious arms dealer for wnba star britney griner.

griner, who is currently representing the u.s. women's basketball team in paris, calling it a great day. the president earlier with family members at the white house, touting the complex diplomatic efforts. jake sullivan becoming emotional as he discussed conversations with the families yesterday. >> today -- excuse me. today was a very good day. >> reporter: in exchange for the american prisoners, eight russians convicted on a range of cyber, financial and violent crimes, returned to moscow thursday, receiving a hero's welcome from president putin. >> joining us now david ignatius and carol lee. carol, you've got brand new

reporting, a behind-the-scenes look at just how this extraordinary deal went down. >> that's right, jonathan. we're told from officials this is something that has been in the works for nearly two years. the administration has been trying to get paul whelan out for some time. they weren't able to do that in november of 2022 when they freed britney griner. once that happened, they hit the ground running trying to find some sort of deal to get paul out. that went through various iterations and fits and starts. once evan gershkovich was detained by the russians, they decided maybe they could do something very big here with paul whelan, and it went from there. really when it gelled, when this really started to come together was in this extraordinary moment where you have president biden fighting for his political life and going through the most trying time that he's had in his

50-plus-year career and at the same time having this effort he's been driving toward for many months really starting to come together. it was at the end of june when the u.s. submitted this offer to the russians. the russians rejected previous offers multiple times. the end of june was also when the president had that debate that really upended his political career and his reelection effort. two weeks later on july 17th, the u.s. gets words from the russians that they've accepted this deal. that is the same day that president biden tested positive for covid while traveling out west and also was under tremendous pressure to withdraw from the 2024 race. he flies back to delaware, he's in isolation. this is really moving. the momentum is there. on that sunday when the president withdraws from the race, ultimately just an hour before that he's having a phone

call with the prime minister of slovenia and trying to get this deal over the finish line. then it finally comes to fruition. we saw him last night when he was greeting these americans with their families take this in, relish in the moment. he said this is exemplary of two things. one, that family is a very important part of president biden's personal life and his career and that this is a moment where it's really all about family. but also he said about american values, that this is what the united states is about. this is the essence of who this country is and really highlighted one of the core planks of his foreign policy doctrine, which is alliances, the importance of having relationships, and this is something he couldn't have accomplished without having those relationships and working these diplomatic channels for almost two years here.

it's a legacy moment for him. it's something he worked really hard at. he and his staff are working to get another moment like this. >> it was such a great day to see these americans come home from being held in russian penal colonies. i can't imagine what the conditions must have been like there. there was a time that the united states said it would not pay to get americans home on the theory that it encourages others to seize americans more. what is the cost of this? will it result in more americans being taken? what's the cost involved in this glorious return? >> susan, we all obviously share

the joy in the release of these prisoners, especially in the news business. evan gershkovich, our colleague at the "wall street journal," nothing but joy at that. but when you stand back and look at this deal, one thing that's disturbing is that the russians insisted on freeing a convicted murderer, somebody who had assassinated a russian chechen in germany. the idea was to assemble a package big enough, including germany, pressuring germany to release this prisoner and exchange them for completely innocent journalists who has

been captives. to your question is the effort we make to free prisoners -- i want to say hostages -- starting with britney griner, which was another enormous bargaining challenge for the biden administration, encouraging the russians to take more people. as you look at the record, the number of western or western-affiliated people who are being arrested in russia, it does appear that they keep adding to the list. the more we work to deliver people in trades, the more russians seem to want to have bargaining chips. that sticks in the craw a little bit even on a day where there is enormous relief and joy that these colleagues and friends will be back home. >> talk to us about how the biden administration views this moment in terms of relationships with russia. obviously the war in ukraine continues to wage. the u.s. continues to supply the

resistance there in kyiv. at the very least, a diplomatic channel here was preserved. what do they think happens next? >> what you hear from administration officials is that this doesn't change the nature of the u.s.'s relationship with russia. much of this was done through intelligence channels with the russians, not traditional diplomatic channels, although there were some conversations in that space. they're saying this is not something that's going to change the nature of relations as they are, which is the lowest they've been in some time. you've heard about vladimir putin's effort to use this as a strategy to detain americans to get people across the world that he wants back into russia. the president was asked what his message to vladimir putin was last night while he was at joint base andrews. he said, "stop." there's a recognition there's a frustration and there's a

doubled-down effort by the administration to warn americans in a more fullsome way not to go into countries like russia, because this has become something that leaders like vladimir putin have decided is a way to get some of the things that they want. but in terms of the overall relationship, this is seen as a very isolated thing, separate from all of those other strains on the relationship, namely, the war in ukraine. >> carol lee, thank you for the reporting this morning. it's been nearly 12 years since three members of the russian feminist protest art collective called pussy riot were charged by authorities with, quote, hooliganism. the women sentenced included the

group's creator, who served nearly the full term before being released. in the time sense, members and their followers have become well known for their activism and for calling out vladimir putin's bridal regime. nadia joins us now. thank you so much for being here this morning. could you start by telling the audience what it is like to be in one of these russian penal colonies? obviously it's a day of celebration here with americans returned home, but tales will emerge of the suffering they experienced. tell us what it was like for you? >> it's my own version of hell, especially being sentenced to a penal colony where, by law, a prisoner has to work. and the law has not been changed since old times, so you're

really sent to a gulag. you don't get breaks. sometimes you can't go to the bathroom. medicine is very difficult to get in a russian penal colony, and lots of prisoners suffer with their health. >> this is susan page. we're so glad you're safe now. but i wonder, you spoke up, you spoke out. for that, you were punished and sent to this penal colony. did you have and do you have regrets, or do you think it was worth it? >> no, i have no regrets. i would do the same. i think it's always worth trying. you have ideals and you have to fight to make those dreams come true if you want to make the world a freer place, if you want to save the world from

catastrophe whether it's autocratic catastrophe or climate catastrophe, you have to fight for it. those activists on these shoulders we would stand including soviet dissidents really sacrificed. >> what would your advice be to evan and paul and these others now being released after spending years in russian penal colonies? what was that readjustment like for you back into the real world, and what would you say to them? >> first of all, i got out of jail and almost got hit by a car. i forgot how to cross the street. they should not underestimate how unadjusted you are for the normal life. then you go to the shop and you

can not take a shampoo, because for years, decisions were made for you. i think i've done one mistake. i went right back into action, and it's very much like me, because my dedication to activism and borderline work aholism leaves me with little sleep. you should take a big rest, touch the grass and maybe come back to politics in two weeks. >> that's certainly good advice. again, we are glad that you are no longer there. nadya, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me. moving onto another story, we're learning new details about the assassination of hamas' top political leader. according to the "new york

times," an explosive device was covertly smuggled into the tehran guest house where he was staying, and it was smuggled there two month before he was killed. the bomb was detonated remotely once it was confirmed he was inside that room at the guest house. the breach was a catastrophic failure of security and intelligence for iran. they say israel was to blame for the assassination. israel has not publicly acknowledged any responsibility, but there's chatter that iran is going to try to retaliate. let's get your reaction to the fact that this operation was pulled off like this months in advance? and what does it mean for the fragile cease-fire talks in gaza? >> first, you'd have to say that

the assassination is another demonstration of israel's extraordinary ability to reach inside iran, not simply with missiles, as has been the case in the last few months, but with human agents on the ground who could place a bomb like this in a very precise location where it was left undisturbed. questions that we asked, how did it get there, how did hania come to be in the area where the bomb was? there's all kinds of speculation about operatives they might have been working with inside iran. but it's a demonstration of israel's mastery of this covert dirty war going on between israel and iran for decades now, like the remote control assassination several years ago

of an iranian nuclear scientist who was literally taken out by a robot weapon that was fired from signals from outer space. in terms of where this is going, what we know at the moment is we're hearing a lot of rhetoric about retaliation both from iran and from hezbollah, its proxy in lebanon, but no actual moves toward immediate response. the leader of hezbollah in beirut said, in effect, we'll take our revenge at the time and in the way of our choosing. it may not come at once. it may come in phases. israel should be afraid of what we'll do in our response. white house officials have been working very hard since the moment of the haniyeh assassination and at the same

time have been sending additional american weapons into the region, navy ships, new planes are on the way, according to the "new york times" this morning, to beef up america's ability to respond if this explodes into a wider war. the way i describe it, jonathan, is the united states so often as a mediator is perched on a balance beam. a cease-fire in gaza seems just inches away in terms of the details, but in terms of the actual momentum, willingness of both sides to enter into the cease-fire agreement, we'll have to see, but it's hard to be optimistic after a week of such violence both in beirut and tehran. >> though this does not rule out the possibility of a deal coming together, it certainly doesn't help. we should all assume israel was behind this plot and tehran a extraordinary moment of success, it's that much more stunning

that they had an intelligence security failure on october 7th. david ignatius, you'll be back with us later this hour when we speak with the u.s. general responsible for the u.s. strike command, responsible for two-thirds of the nuclear triad. next, we'll have more on the july jobs report when cnbc's andrew ross sorkin joins us. plus, a financial heavyweight is calling the 2024 election an inflection point that will determine the fate of the free and democratic world for decades and says the next president needs to restore our faith in america. that's all straight ahead here on "morning joe." we'll be right back. morning joe. we'll be right back.

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i know i'm a foreigner who can't understand english, but listen to this guy speak, because i mean, is he doing an

obama? >> you could not have a clearer contrast in this race. you could not have a clearer contrast between kamala harris and donald trump. let me tell you something. he's pretty afraid. backing out of the debate now, he's afraid to stand toe to toe with our vice president. he can't run away from his record any longer. [ laughter ] >> okay. that's not just me, right? we all hear that? i was always expecting him to be like, and that's why you should vote for me, josh hussein shapiro. it's like he's hyping himself up for politics by listening to obama's old speeches, and the cadence got stuck in his head. i bet if a put a photo up of obama, you couldn't tell the

difference. >> when someone tells you who they are, believe them. >> even the maya angelou reference is laying it on a little bit thick. >> that's pretty incredible. if governor shapiro ever says don't boo, vote, then we'll know he's just channelling the former president. >> one thing you see now with democrats is how energized they are and how willing they are to make jokes or speak in a more emphatic way. i mean, the change in the last couple weeks has been quite remarkable. you know, we came out of the republican convention with republicans quite convinced they were not just going to win the white house, they were going to sweep congress and everything else in sight. now we have a race that by every measure is an even tie.

>> vice president harris has a significant advantage in fundraising this last month. hiring in the u.s. slowed to 114,000 jobs last month, missing expectations. the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. joining us live from paris, andrew ross sorkin. let's get your reaction to this latest jobs number and how it could influence the fed. >> what it effectively says is that things are slowing down a bit. i don't think it's terrible news, but i think it's going to put pressure on the fed to lower interest rates, which is something we expected in september. if there was any doubt, i think that doubt has gone away. the fed has a dual mandate, dealing with inflation and also

dealing with jobs. if you look where the inflation rate has started to creep up at 4.3%, you're going to see them start to think more about the jobs piece and the inflation piece. that's part of that balance they're hoping to get right. of course, all of this is happening ahead of the election. it's going to create more questions. if in september they do lower interest rates, you're going to see former president trump out there saying jay powell is trying to manipulate the market and the economy to help vice president harris win the election. i think that's just a little bit of the background about what we might actually see come september. >> that's sort of the dilemma here for democrats and the federal reserve. should they have cut rates sooner? if we see unemployment tick up again in september, look where the fed is. they have gone through the last

three years of balancing inflation, inflation, inflation. now it could be the amount of people out of work that's a problem. now they're threading this needle on a balance beam of, yes, we want them to cut rates, we want inflation to slow, but with more people out of jobs, it's just really tricky. donald trump and his allies are going to go absolutely banonkers and wring his hands and say politics, politics, politics. >> andrew, let's turn to an interview you had with jamie dimon. he had some pretty extraordinary things to say. tell us about it. >> it's not an interview i had. i had an interview with jamie dimon last january where he came

out publicly and a lot of people thought he was trying to push for trump. i kept telling people that's not the case. today he has a big op-ed in the "washington post" which is worth reading, and a lot of people trying to read between the lines to what he's saying. maybe this is a rorschach test. he says, "the best leaders in politics and business take criticism to ask themselves where are they right instead of where are they wrong. if we're going to unify our country, we need to find common ground and make us better." who do you think he's talking about? he says uniting americans with regular honest and open communication. who do you think he's talking about? there's a lot for both sides to take from his op-ed this morning, but i think folks on wall street and in washington

trying to figure out what is he trying to say here, who does he support? he's not trying to poke the bear, and he does give some griste in here for republicans as well. maybe the impressions left back in january would be different today. >> but jonathan, remember, i believe jamie dimon since that interview with andrew in january in davos, has been playing somewhat of a cleanup act. he was trying potentially to make these points that we need to stop the super divisions and the partisanship. he made it in a very inartful way where he was going after democrats, saying you can't just go after the maga crowd, you can't say they're all bad news. he wasn't giving any time or space to the attacks the far right makes on the far left. he's trying to in a more artful

way make the argument that this is a country of hardworking americans and we need to work together. what he's urging the next potential president to do is to do the same. it's what laughable to say it in an open way that both potential presidents would have to do that, because we know this is what donald trump does day in and day out, attack, attack, attack. just this week donald trump is going after kamala harris about her race and what her race is, how she identifies her race. come on, let's be honest. he just said on fox news last week that she was a garbage candidate. jamie dimon is saying, i haven't called you out, but pull it together, sir. >> i'm told you'll be coming back from paris with some new ping-pong skills. you and an unnamed individual

who looks like willie geist playing ping-pong with olympic contenders. >> this was like a squawk box, "morning joe" collab of sorts or maybe a competition. i think i probably would have won in the end. we played an olympian who's going to be competing early next week. we learned a lot about ping-pong. we learned when we play ping-pong, she plays table tennis and there is a complete distinction. we do this in our basement. she does something very different. the biggest take-away that willie and i did not know is the racket actually matters. i just bought four new paddles for $29.99 on amazon. don't do that. she told us that her paddle cost -- are you ready for this -- $500.

we're not even in the same sport. >> rachel zhang the olympian who was clearly taking it easy on the go of you. >> she said she was playing maybe 5%. >> andrew ross sorkin, thank you. coming up, our next guest says that donald trump's joke of a media company is also a $6 billion meme stock and an unprecedented opportunity for corruption. new york magazine's david friedlander joins us next with his new feature, which is titled "how to buy a president". ident" vo: the true test of leadership... is having courage to meet the moment. the climate crisis threatens everything we hold dear.

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well, i want to thank everybody. this has been some period of time. most importantly, we want to thank the great people of iowa. thank you. we love you all. >> so winning iowa caucus delegates wasn't the only thing that donald trump gained back there in january. immediately afterwards, stock in his company trump media and technology surged 30%, earning the former president, who is a majority stakeholder, a significant amount of money. but it's not that the company, which owns trump's social media platform truth social, is a winner. it struggles with a viable business model and with substantial losses. the stock price tells a different story, seemingly tied to the political fortunes of the former president. it was flat in 2023 and jumped

once he started winning this year. david friedlander's new investigation into trump media has the title, "how to buy a president." tell us what you found. >> it's a remarkable story that's been told in bits and pieces, but i don't think the full story has been told. we have a presidential candidate on a stock exchange and people are investing in this president, in part because they're fans of the president, maybe in part because they want to have some influence should he become the next president and in part because they're investors banking putting money in the stock exchange. >> where do you think this thing is going to go? it is fraudulent in every possible way. this is not a real company. they don't have real technology. they don't even have a real business. it is this gross example of paying off a potential presidential candidate in broad

daylight in a way that you're skirting campaign finance laws? is what they're doing legal? >> it flouts every ethical guideline we know about presidential candidates and presidents. but, yeah, you turn the spigot on and the money goes into his pocket. this is less of a violation than even the hotel that he ran, the club that he ran in his last term. it seems like he's going to cash out spectacularly from this thing. >> looking at this, you say it's possibly legal. maybe you have to search to see how it's not legal. my question is, the cover is so dramatic, the idea of how you buy a president. are there ways that those who want to buy influence with trump, especially if he wins the election in november, are there ways they can use this to their

advantage to get an edge with donald trump? >> sure. if you're donald trump, would you rather have someone give $100 million into your super pac or would you rather have the 100 million? >> what kind of action are we actually seeing in the stock? when you see it pop, it's whenever there is good political news for donald trump. say the polls worsen. say kamala harris is looking stronger and stronger, and the likelihood he's our next president starts to dwindle. are we likely to see shares go down? and are they moving down knowing we're approaching november? you don't have to be a stock market genius to know that as soon as he's able to sell,

there's going to be a power dump. >> should he dump all the stock at once, i think the stock would sort of crumble in value. he may not do that. you're exactly right, when trump is doing well in the presidential race, more people are buying the stock, more money is going into donald trump's pocket. when he's not doing so well, the interest starts to crumble a little bit. >> david friedlander, thank you very much for joining us. stephanie ruhle, thank you as well. we'll be watching "the 11th hour" tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. up next, the military officer responsible for two-thirds of our nation's nuclear triad. we'll talk to him next. "morning joe" will be right back. m next "morning joe" will be right back

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the pentagon is strengthening its military command in japan in response to growing nuclear threats in the region. washington and tokyo criticized beijing for, quote, provocative behavior as of late. that includes recent coordination with russia who defense officials say is helping china fill its nuclear missile silos at a faster rate. russia also engaged in some real saber-rattling this week conducting another round of tactical weapons drills and the south korean government announce add new military body this week designed to counter the ever-growing nuclear threat posed by its northern neighbor. joining us now commander of the air force global strike command, general thomas bustier, the military officer responsible for two-thirds of the nation's nuclear triad. the washington post's david ignatius rejoins the

conversation as well. thank you for being here this morning. give us if you will in light of these seemingly escalating threats your sense of the state of play. >> so thanks for having me on the show this morning and the opportunity to talk about what we do for the american people and our allies and partners, so i've been in the air force for 38 1/2 years, and the world as i see it today is more complicated, complex, and dangerous than at any point in my career, and that's only exacerbated by the presence and the what we would label as saber-rattling of the use of nuclear weapons. that's why it's so important in my mind to make sure the u.s. air force and navy recapitalize our nuclear triad also. >> david ignatius of "the washington post" is here and has the next question, general. >> general, let me ask the question, i think that's on many people's minds. with tensions in the middle east

at such a high point with the danger of iran or hezbollah triggering a wider war in the middle east, sending navy ships into the area, reports of new aircraft coming in, what about your command? are you considering exercises that would send strategic bombers in a demonstration of american capability over the region as has been the case in the past. >> good morning, david, so i would offer you two different aspects to how we deter nefarious activity in the middle east. first of all, the foundational elements, the foundational elements of our nation's defense is our nuclear triad. today we have airmen, operators, maintainers, and defenders standing the watch p in our missile fields across the nation. that is the foundational deterrence force that our nation has 24/7, 365. from the other side of our tool kit we have bomber task forces. we use our bomber task forces across the fabric of the globe

to assure our allies, deter any potential aversary actions and just last year we did over 2 engagements with allies and partners in the european theater and over four nations engagements in the middle east. that's a visible depiction of our commitment to the theater. it's a visible depiction of our deterrence force and it's an element of our military power that our allies and partners appreciate. >> so just to get to the point that is on our minds now, are you considering another similar demonstration of force in this period of high tension where we would want to deter iran and lebanese hezbollah from taking any action that might be catastrophic. >> so david, we respond to the combatant signals for task force missions. i won't get into the exact

details. but rest assured every combat and command across the globe has an increased demand signal for bomber task force so we can show our flag around the world. >> general, first thank you for your service. 38 1/2 years on duty. that's very impressive. i wonder, you know, there are some crises in the world like in the middle east that we're all watching very closely, is there a place you think we're not playing -- an issue that we're not paying enough attention to that keeps you up at night, something that really deserves more attention than it's getting right now? >> so i guess i would look at the entire globe as an aspect for what we need to pay attention to, so whether it's in the indo-pacific region with the rapid growth of the chinese nuclear force or it's the activities in the european theater with russia's invasion of ukraine or it's the activity on the peninsula with north korea's activities, if we step back from all of that in

addition to the activities in the middle east, my job, my position, is to make sure we have a sound, credible deterrent for the air leg and the land leg of the nuclear deterrence. that's the foundational element i provide the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs as they go forward to deter nefarious activity. >> so general, you mentioned the european theater is and russia's invasion of ukraine. president putin there likes to dangle the threat of these weapons every so often. what is the assessment as to how credible and real that is? >> so we've seen that over the last couple of years quite routinely where president putin saber rattles as we call. it's an aspect of the sheer importance of the nuclear triad. in the u.s. position, it is the foundation of our nation's defense. there is no other element of u.s. military power that has the

deterrent effect that nuclear weapons provide our nation, and that is a foundational element and the reason for being why we are so interest instead the process of recapitalizing all three legs of the triad. >> commander, air force global strike command general thomas bussiere, thank you very much for being here and for your service. >> thank you. and that does it for us this morning. we appreciate you watching today and all week long, what a busy week it was. we will again see you monday morning right back here at 6:00 a.m. eastern time. ana cabrera picks up the coverage here on msnbc right now. have a great weekend, everybody. right now on "ana cabrera reports" an emotional homecoming, freed americans back on u.s. soil after the largest prisoner swap since the cold war. new reporting this morning on how this singular deal came together. plus, the race for the white house, donald trump continuing his attack on kamala harris's race as her team touts a

historic