historic night tonight it seems to me. >> eddie, let me give you one last 20-second final thought as to what you are looking for this week. >> well, i'm looking for the contrast of two americas, right. there's the america of possibility that walz -- that harris/walz campaign and american carnage. you know, there's the idea of vibrant and flourishing democracy and then there is this fascist threat. there is the diverse america. we are going to see a full range of who we are, and then there was what we saw, the homogenous republican. it will be this interesting contrast. i think the last thing that we will see is an introduction of harris. we are going to get the full weight of her biography. so they're going to introduce her to the american public, and we will get a sense of how they're going to frame her for the rest of the campaign. so american carnage versus american possibility and an introduction to kamala harris. it will be a nice party i think.

>> professor at princeton university, eddie glaude jr. thanks to all of you. thanks to you for getting up this monday morning and "morning joe" starts now. >> they said he was rambling. i don't ramble. really smart guy, i don't ramble. but the other day -- any time i hit too hard they say, he was rambling. rambling? sometimes i get up and make a speech, i go for two hours, two-and-a-half hours because, you know, people are waiting outside for two days, three days. you guys were out there waiting for a long time. front row joes, i don't know how you guys do it. i feel i have an obligation to speak and speak in a certain way and speak a little bit longer. you know, how would you like it, a guy is waiting with his family for three and a half, four days. they have a tent and the tent is set up. they have hundreds of them and they wait, and then i walk in, speak for 15 minutes and leave.

i don't know. somehow, would that be okay, north carolina? i don't think so, right? they want me to speak all day. >> that's donald trump saying how he doesn't ramble at his rally while -- i mean i guess if you want to say he rambled, that's up to you. anyway, it is donald trump in pennsylvania. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, august the 19th. with us we have the host of "way too early" jonathan lemire. member of "the new york times" editorial, maura gay. managing editor of the board, sam stein, and any one of these people, do i ramble? do i talk too much? do i ask questions that go on longer than the answers? of course not. the way i look at it, people wake up at 1:00 in the morning and they get their children around and they're giving them, you know, biscuits, you know. so, of course, you know, sometimes i talk a little bit

more than i should talk, sometimes, right, but give the people what they want or maybe what they don't want. >> never, never. i have no idea what you are talking about, joe. >> no idea whatsoever. sam stein, you will be more blunt and direct, right? who rambles around here? certainly not me. >> joe, have you ever served in congress? because i have never heard that one before. >> well, there was a time. i don't like to talk about it. i don't like to talk about it, just like, jonathan lemire, i don't like talking about the boston red sox when they get 11 hits, baltimore gets 3 hits, and my statistician, little jack scarborough tells me it is the first time in history they've gotten 11 hits or more, given up three hits or less and lost a game going back the 1901. >> yeah, that is a good if very depressing statistic. yeah, they just -- look, you can't be too upset with

splitting four games in baltimore, the orioles the first place team, but there's a red sox team that needs to do more than that right now. they're two-and-a-half out of the wild card, playing kind of .500 since the all-star break. >> we don't need to see any of this. what are you doing? >> we could see the yankees lose in a walk-off hit in the little league classic, we could show that and that would be fine. >> if you want to. >> but the red sox need to string together some wins if they're getting in the race. >> ed luce, premier league, football started yesterday. that's very excited. i think you and your family support a team about 12 divisions down, so i'm not sure how excited you were about that. but i'm more interested in pennsylvania. we will be showing some new polls that have come out that show an incredible shift in this campaign, but you say pennsylvania may be slipping away from donald trump? >> yeah, i spent a few days there last week. by the way my daughter supports

man united. the less said about that, the better. liverpool are a better team to support. i spent a few days around allentown, north hampton county, the bellwether lehigh valley last week, and what really struck me was not just the energy that harris-walz is seeing and the relative sort of grateful dead tour trump has been doing in the state, being a big contrast to that, but the fact that the harris campaign and before that the biden-harris campaign since march has been taking out spanish language ads and really doing hispanic outreach to what is the fastest growing democratic, 600,000 spanish speaking -- well, hispanic adults in pennsylvania. but trump is simply not touching that demographic. there are republicans saying, well, this is an english speaking country, why would we cut ads in spanish?

that to me is a real sign, if you are not targeting the fastest growing demographic then you are not serious about winning. i did come away with the distinct impression pennsylvania is slipping from trump's grasp. >> that's an interesting point to make because after i saw close polls in florida i called friends down there, i said, is this real, what is going on? i saw an fau poll with harris within three of trump and i saw good numbers out of miami-dade. what i heard was actually unlike joe biden or donald trump, kamala harris has been very aggressive talking to hispanic leaders. she has stayed in touch while she has been vice president and she will do the sort of things that you are saying donald trump is not doing. so it is fascinating. we'll see how that hispanic vote goes because joe biden always did well with black voters, did not do as well with hispanic voters. there was really concerns within his campaign even in 2020 about

that. it seems kamala harris is doing much better right now in that slice of america. jonathan lemire, tell us about the dnc. what a week lined up for anybody, republican, independent, democrat, remotely interested in politics. an all-star line-up this week. >> it really is. it kicks off in chicago in a few hours from now. i will note i will be out there starting tomorrow for the rest of the week for "morning joe" and "way too early." tonight is about president biden. he is delivering the keynote address this evening in a symbolic passing of the torch. certainly it is not the convention the president would have anticipated, even just a month back. he thought he would be speaking on thursday, not monday. he thought he would be the one accepting the nomination to represent his party again this november. instead, he will be an opening act handing off, if you will, to the vice president. certainly he and the other speakers tonight which include the first lady and secretary of state clinton, will talk about biden's accomplishments over the

first four years but then there will be a transition as well. he make the case that the vice president is the person to pick up the torch going forward. he always will levy a series of attacks on president trump, i'm told, aides previewing a bit of his address. maura, this will be the start of what i think will be four celebratory days inside that arena. a month ago there was a sense of almost dread heading into the democratic convention. no one can say that president biden couldn't have won, but certainly the odds were then against him after his tough debate performance. now we have a completely remade race. vice president harris, trends are with her. it is a close race. she has momentum, and this week could be a real opportunity to tell -- to introduce herself to the american people in a new way. >> that's right. i mean the reality is despite all of the momentum that we've seen, and it is very real, the american people don't really know that much about the vice president. so this is an opportunity for her to introduce herself on her own terms.

there are risks with that as well. it is a different venue than what we've seen at these rallies. she and tim walz have been, you know, performing very well at, this is a little bit different. we might hear a little bit more about policy as well. listen, this is also an opportunity for democrats who we learned when joe biden, you know, after that debate, that disastrous debate performance, we really learned just how deep the democratic bench is. this is an opportunity as well for the party to say, hey, america, we understand you, we look like you, we're diverse, we're a big tent, and we understand your concerns. we are the ones who have the platform to carry this country into the future. they have a lot of popular policies including reproductive freedom. she is going to talk as well, the vice president, about ways to address inflation. economic concerns will be on voters' minds always, and especially this november. so this is an opportunity. it comes with risks as well especially as we see the

uncommitted movement not shut out of this convention, but not exactly embraced with welcome arms either. there's going to be protests undoubtedly outside the convention hall. >> yeah, i would just add beyond the policy elements, what i've been struck by is the sort of narrative that harris and walz have crafted here, which is that this is sort of generational contrast and about the future versus the past, which if anyone who has worked in presidential politics will tell you is a very effective contrast. you know, their main theme has been not just joy, but we're not going back. the convention kind of in a way, i'm sure it is deliberate, lines up to push that narrative, right? i mean you have biden and hillary clinton speaking on the first night, and then walz will speak on wednesday, harris will speak on thursday. it is almost as if you are going from the past to the present and ideally projecting into the future. i'm looking forward to seeing what kind of reception biden gets tonight. obviously it is going to be heartfelt. i imagine the crowd is going to go crazy for him. there's a lot of appreciation i

think among democrats that he actually took the step to say, "you know what, i'm not going to," and obviously it was a very painful three-week process. i'm curious because you were in the field in pennsylvania, but back to the idea of, you know, future versus past, not going back, we need to get beyond the politics of the trump years, is that something that voters are feeling? is that resonating with people that you talked to in pennsylvania? because i have a theory that more than any specific policy, for instance, with the exception of maybe abortion, democrats are really jazzed about that. >> yeah, undoubtedly not just in pennsylvania, everywhere i have been there is this energy. there is that sort of magic, elusive momentum that harris-walz has captured that wasn't there with biden. there is deep affection for biden in the party, and now apparently coming out of the woodwork from people like lindsey graham, didn't hear much of that in the last three and a

half years. there is deep affection for him, and i think tonight he will reap that. he will also reap gratitude. i don't know how for stepping down, for taking a bigger hit on behalf of american democracy because the campaign is young, it is energized. the volunteers who are swarming, crowding around the harris-walz rebranding of the biden-harris office in allentown, for example, they packed it out. whereas, biden events a few weeks before -- i mean biden campaign events had been attracting four or five people. there is a massive shift on the ground, and so what he has done is i think take a hit for the larger interest of his nation and his party, and tonight's reception -- i will be there too at the united center -- i think will reflect a deep gratitude towards him for doing that. >> you know, there really is,

sam is right, there is a generational divide here that usually sells very well in presidential politics if it is carried through the right way. i will say also, the one word that i always saw as donald trump's biggest challenge was exhaustion. not his personal exhaustion but the exhaustion of those who had supported him in 2016, some who still supported him in 2020, but were exhausted, especially after january 6th, exhausted after just the constant fights, the constant insults, the constant battles. so now it seems you have exhaustion on that side versus energy and joy, which is what -- energy and joy, which is what kamala harris and her team are projecting forward and trying to project and say, "hey, this is

what we are about." it is a bit like hope and change, but right now it really seems to be working because kamala harris is now leading donald trump by six percentage points in the latest abc news/wapo/ipsos polling. it is a dramatic turn around. it is likely voters. harris flipped the script on the age issue. when adults were asked, quote, which candidate is good enough physical health to serve effectively, harris leads trump by a 30 point margin. as you can see there, donald trump had led by a 31 point margin. what, 61-point swing on that question in a month. harris has a nine-point advantage when it comes to having the mental sharpness required to serve effectively,

erasing a 30-point lead donald trump had over joe biden on that question. there's new swing state polling out in the latest "new york times"/siena college poll. harris leads trump by five points among likely voters in arizona. that's a big shift. and by two points in north carolina, another big shift. also suggesting that far from the map closing in on democrats, it is now expanded out and now north carolina obviously going to have to be fought for by donald trump. donald trump leads harris meanwhile by four percentage points in georgia and by a single point in nevada. all of those results are with a margin of error. in the may poll conducted when joe biden was still the presumptive democratic nominee, trump led by six points in arizona, nine points in georgia and 13 points in nevada, north carolina was not even part of that previous poll. the important thing to remember here though, jonathan lemire,

this race, still a tie. >> that's exactly right. vice president harris has momentum. the trend lines, which we talk about a lot on this show, are certainly in her favor. one could argue, to use the baseball metaphor, she has basically thrown a no-hitter since taking the top of the ticket, but it is still within the margin of error. that shows how divided and how hard fought it will be going forward. democrats i have spoken to do believe this week will be an opportunity. there were optics outside. there were some last night. there were pro palestinian protesters, who will be targeting tonight because that's when president biden will be speaking. certainly peaceful protests, they have the right to be there. but some democrats i have spoken to say if outsiders spark trouble, it could be an image

that could overshadow the joyous scenes inside the convention. they think they have a chance to build momentum further, come out with a bit of a boost. maura, we see these polls, it is early and close, but certainly what biden had was one path to victory, he had to thread the needs, it would be pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan. it would be doable, but hard. now harris had that path, but now many other options because she has reenergized parts of the coalition that weren't there for joe biden anymore, younger voters, voters of color, particularly black voters, more of the progressive wing of the party are willing to listen to her perhaps. now you see her what chance, arizona, nevada, north carolina, georgia, she can mix and match her way to 270. >> what is interesting, i have been traveling as you know all year on assignment talking to democratic voters in many of

these states, nevada as well, and there was always pent-up financial in the party that joe biden just wasn't able to tap into, just wasn't able to connect with, that's young voters especially. the fun aye thing about this is he had sent vice president kamala harris to do some of that work because she was actually drawing crowds, you know, even early this year in many of the states. so this is a situation where a lot of the voters actually have already seen harris on the trail. these are states where she spent a lot of time in the past year. she has been hitting the pavement long before she was the front-runner, and so she has that advantage where she has actually been out on the campaign trail in these states, listening to local leaders, to understanding what is on voters' minds in these specific places. on top of that, you just have states where you have in many cases large young people, demographics, large, you know, hispanic and black populations

and this is electrifying. this has electrified the democrat base and there's a sense, of course, we are moving into the future. i heard over and over again from young voters, they said, i'm not going to vote for donald trump but is joe biden it? i like him but what does he know about my life? and there was just a large disconnect. so i think that this is kind of a coming together of the democratic base, which is seen for the first time this year really a sense that the ticket, the democratic ticket really reflects them. i think that's why you are seeing kamala harris embraced the way you have. >> and that's been the democrats challenge all along, to bring the voters home. you know, we said this was a tie in effect. we are still within the margin of error, but i never really looked at polls, the exact numbers because you never know how accurate they're going to be. but i did always look at trend

lines. we should still look at trend lines. the trend lines still seem to be breaking in kamala harris's direction. really, you look at the direction that it is going, you look at the fact that right now she is out working donald trump. right now donald trump cannot stay on script and is rambling and going off script, causing concern for his staff, causing concern for those closest to him in the campaign. you just have to ask, what's the dynamic right now that's going to change between now and the election to reverse that momentum. we have a long way to go including the debate coming up on september 10th. that may be donald trump's next opportunity. still ahead on "morning joe," the latest from israel as secretary of state antony blinken arrives in tel aviv for cease-fire talks. david ignatius joins us to weighing in on that and ukraine's ongoing push into russia. you are watching "morning joe."

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this is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security. it is time for everyone to get to yes and to not look for any

excuses to say no. >> that was secretary of state antony blinken earlier today. he arrived in israel to pressure officials to strike a cease-fire deal. on friday the white house presented a new proposal aimed at bridging the gap between the demand of israel and hamas, but hamas appears to be rejecting it. the group released a statement saying israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is setting new conditions with the aim of prolonging the war. blinken is meeting with netanyahu in jerusalem. he will be traveling to egypt tomorrow to meet with cease-fire negotiators. let's bring in associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius. last week in your column you reported just about everybody, all of the interested parties and our alleys, the united states, arab allies were supporting a cease-fire deal to bring the hostages home, even in benjamin netanyahu's own

cabinet, the defense minister, everybody supporting the deal, everybody that is except benjamin netanyahu. why is that and how do we and the world get him to move forward on this cease-fire deal that will bring the hostages home? >> so, joe, in president biden's mind, in the words of secretary of state blinken today in israel, this really is seen as the last chance, the last opportunity to make this cease-fire deal work. why has prime minister netanyahu been resisting it? it is in part a mystery, but i think we can go to his own words. he keeps speaking about his desire for total victory, absolute victory in a war that his military commanders say that's probably not a realistic goal, that the deal that's on the table to bring israeli hostages home, to stabilize the situation is probably from a military standpoint desirable for israel. so we'll see blinken this week,

and i think even more president biden this week and in coming weeks if necessary put more chips on the table. i think, joe, in biden's remaining months in office there is nothing that matters more to him. he is toe-to-toe with netanyahu. the two have grown to dislike each other. he feels that netanyahu has been resisting a peace effort that has global support and has the support of israeli security establishment, and he wants to push and push and get it through for the sake of israel as much as the united states. the united states feels, joe, that our show of force, how long military force that we sent into the region has probably deterred iran from seeking retaliation quickly for the strike that was conducted that killed the head of hamas. hezbollah is still seen as trying to decide, still making up its mind about what to do, but from the standpoint of tough policy, we've really seen some

from the biden administration. they see in iran stepping back from immediate retaliation some real success. >> david, nobody knows better than you the degree to which netanyahu has resisted, had to be sort of dragged kicking and screaming even to this point, and yet it is at least part of the reason why no cease-fire is happening. as you say, the administration has so far prevented a regionalization of this war. iran has not -- has not yet retaliated as it is threatening to do. the fear is i think that if you see a collapse of hopes for a cease-fire, hostage release, et cetera, in gaza, then that restraint on iran will be off. is there a danger still of a regionalization of this war in the coming days if that cease-fire deal does collapse? >> so i think if this effort, if

as blinken said today this last best opportunity to deescalate tensions, get a cease-fire should collapse, it will collapse noisily and with additional conflict, no question about it. how much that would escalate is hard to know. the u.s. analysis has been that it is not in iran's interest or hezbollah's interest to go into an all-out war with israel, certainly not with the danger that the united states might itself intervene. we sent so much military force in the region with the idea that if iran began attacks, the u.s. would make an ultimatum, you either stop or we're getting in, we're going to pound iran itself. so we would be back in that kind of situation. again, i underline the point. in the time that biden has remaining, this has become the thing he most wants to accomplish in terms of foreign

policy. i'm told by close associates, this really matters to him. so i would expect to see him play the role of bad cop with netanyahu, saying the tough things, while kamala harris says the traditional lines of ironclad american support for israel. this will be biden's time to be the bad cop, but it is -- if at the end of this week we don't have progress towards the cease-fire, i think we have to think again about the danger of a wider military conflict. >> david, mara ghey here from the times. can you talk a little bit more about how the dramatic shift and change in front-runners has impacted the negotiations? is there any sense that antony blinken has lost leverage or any sense that leaders on both sides of the negotiations may be trying to wait out president biden? what are they thinking about what could happen to these

negotiations? >> so, mara, there's no question that prime minister netanyahu was waiting for, hoping for, expecting a victory in november by donald trump. i think it is a win that is attenuating the process, stretching out the negotiations, reflected his sense a more sympathetic american leader is on the way. i'm told he's now beginning to question that. he can look at the polls like you and i can and he sees that kamala harris has a much better chance of winning in november, and that affects calculations. frankly, she has not been involved in drafting the strategy so i don't see her playing a role in the intervening time. when she became president, there's so many things we don't know about harris's policy but her principal foreign policy according to phil gordon, someone close to the biden team,

so i would expect continuity. but for now this spotlight should be on biden and bebe and that's it. >> turning to europe now, "the washington post" reports that ukrainian and russia were set to negotiate an agreement in qatar this month that would have seen both sides agree to cease strikes on energy infrastructure. however, ukraine's surprise incursion into russia reportedly derailed those negotiations. both sides have targeted energy sources throughout the war with russia increasing its attacks during the winter to maximize the effect on ukrainian civilians. meanwhile, as ukraine continues to push forward with the surprise incursion, president volodymyr zelenskyy said yesterday that the goal of the offensive is to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by moscow across the border. david, let's talk about this now. i mean this incursion took the united states off guard.

they have so far stayed remarkably silent about it, despite a lot of worries earlier in the war about ukraine escalating the conflict. give us your latest reporting in terms of how the u.s. feels about what ukraine is doing, whether we think ukraine might go further and where you think the limited cease-fire talks could be revived. >> so i think the u.s. assessment is much like what you heard from russia, that ukraine was doing this in an attempt to pull russian troops away from what had been a successful offense in donetsk. in eastern ukraine they were really pushing ahead, breaking through ukrainian lines, were said to have taken as many as dozens of additional villages. now the russians are distracted. they have to worry about their own territory, trying to improve their own morale and weaken russian morale by this surprise offensive. but i think most important,

trying to create territory that would be a useful bargaining chip in the negotiations that everybody knows at some point are coming. this war will end in a negotiated settlement at some point. so now ukraine has some territory if they can hold it. some interesting things that i've been told by my sources. one, the ukrainians have designated this area inside the kursk province of russia as a military zone with military governance that they're going to establish. that means they intend to stay a while. they're hitting bridges that would allow the russians to send in reinforcements and easily push the ukrainians back out. they're being careful not to move too far. if they move too deep into russia their supply lines would be so attenuated that they would be encircled and could get annihilated in russia. so they're doing this carefully, i think with the idea for remaining a while. "the new york times" and "the washington post" were both

allowed to visit cities inside this occupied area over the weekend. what they saw was ukrainian troops trying to behave decently, showing the russians there that they didn't intend to hurt people in the camps. they now have some hundreds of prisoners. you get different estimates ranging from 300 up to several thousand. i don't know how many. there are hundreds of prisoners, which will allow ukraine to bargain for exchanges. what has apparently been disrupted was this talk of some kind of russian/ukrainian agreement to stop hitting energy facilities during the winter. it is a great vulnerability of ukraine's, being done through the mediation of qatar. that is frozen at the very best. it may be revived. how serious that was it is hard to know given the reports that we have. but the ukrainians i think have decided that they, like the

russians, have got to create facts on the ground if they're going to have any success in negotiation. >> all right. "the washington post's" david ignatius. as always, thank you so much. >> thanks, joe. all right. coming up, dnc chair jamie harrison joins us live from chicago. he will swamp through what the dnc is going to look like this week and what we can expect to hear when president joe biden delivers the keynote address tonight. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ ♪ my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. with skyrizi, feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks. many people were in remission at 12 weeks, 1 year, and even at 2 years. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease.

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♪ ♪ beautiful morning shot of the capitol, looking at capitol hill at 6:38 a.m., along with political fight for the presidency, of course, the house and the senate in play. we will be talking to mara gay in a second about what the democrats' plans center around to take back the house. former republican congressman george santos is expected to plead guilty today in federal court. a hearing is scheduled for this afternoon at the courthouse on long island in new york. two sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news santos is

expected to plead guilty to multiple charges related to campaign finance fraud. santos previously pleaded not guilty to all charges. a lawyer for the former congressman did not return a request for comment. mara, you have a new piece for "the new york times" titled "the unusual strategy that might help democrats win back the house" and it has something to do with that seat formerly held by santos. i will say also, after democrats lost control a couple of years ago a lot of eyes turned toward new york state wondering how the democrats had messed things up so badly there. you are saying they're trying to turn things around this year? >> you know what the unusual strategy is, joe, in new york state for the democrats? the unusual strategy is to actually run a campaign where you actually talk to voters, you knock on doors, you make phone calls. >> that's radical. >> it is a radical idea for the new york democratic party, which actually is far better at

fending off challenges from, you know, primary -- in primary races from progressives and other outsiders than it is in winning competitive races. that's, of course, because new york has become an overwhelmingly democratic state over the years, but the state party is weak and we saw this actually again, you know, governor hochul is not a very popular governor. so in 2022 she actually only won by six points. so there were -- if that isn't a worrying sign, i don't know what. this year things are a little different. democrats in washington, democrats across the state have come together, and i wouldn't say that they're panicked. i would say that they're deeply engaged in trying to get boots on the ground, into long island and other swing districts in upstate new york, in the hudson valley to make sure that they are actually running the race as a competitive race that it is. so this is a radical idea in

new york. we could -- >> right. >> -- spend an entire month talking about why, but i think a lot of people outside new york are thinking, how could this happen in new york city's backyard. well, you know, new york suburbs are diverse like other places, long island also has become very, very friendly to donald trump. so that has also thrown a wrench into democratic efforts, but this year they are feeling more confident on the democratic side, that at least a majority of these races are going to be in good shape for them. >> well, sam stein, democrats have to be feeling pretty good about what is going on with a guy we both know, john avalon, he is all the way out east on long island. he handily won his primary, which people expected to be close. but if you follow that race out there, john is knocking on doors. he is planting yard signs. he is holding a lot of small meetings. he is doing the very thing that mara's reporting about, getting

out and running a grassroots campaign. he's running against a guy who is one of donald trump's most reliable supporters. so in a swing district with a guy who is sort of independent in john avalon, there's a good roadmap to democrats taking back some seats they lost. >> well, i have to cop to being completely impartial on this one because john avalon hired me when i was at "the daily beast." that's okay. i will say as objectively as i can that this does tie into what we were talking about earlier, which is john preaches a type of politics that is -- i don't want to say post-partisan but it is close. it is let's stop with this nonsense. we have to get beyond trumpism. everyone is exhausted by the rain core. we need to move forward and be constructive. for a while it seemed really hokie. we are like, that's just john being john. it has real resonance in this current moment.

i think the proof is that john, if you talk to him, he expected his primary campaign to be a lot closer. i think he ended up winning by, what, 20%, 30%, maybe even more. i think people were attracted to that message that we just can't keep doing this type of battlefield politics over and over again. now, i will say long island, yeah, it is not as democratic as probably people perceive. a lot of working class voters there. it has voted republican, but i think in this modern day and age we have just had eight years of this and we are ready to move on. i think harris is the beneficiary of this too. >> i can tell you it is a radical thing, mara, but when you start knocking on doors, when you start planting yard signs in people's yards. when you start holding town hall meetings. when you get on the ground the way you are saying democrats are finally starting to do this year, amazing things start happening. you start winning. >> you know, that's right. you know, the other key here is

that congresswoman tom suozzi already pulled this off earlier this year. he won back that seat that had been held by george santos for the democrats, suozzi did, and he did it by -- you know, first of all, he is a known name on long island so he did have advantages, but he went and he talked to voters. he told me and he called me last week. we spoke. he said, "i didn't leave a single constituent on the table." so he was out beating the pavement, which is something he has always done. it is just not something that other democrats have done in new york especially. i think it is going to be much harder on eastern long island. the demographics trend more republicans. john avalon has been running a smart race. i think new york 4, in southwest long island, is the best chance for a pickup on long island by

democrats. it is just heartening to see democrats actually talking to voters about, you know, what concerns them. this may actually have longer term implications for them too in the state. so it is important and it is being closely watched. >> yeah. certainly, joe, there are democrats who feel -- who are very disappointed with how 2022 went here in new york state, but feel like in a presidential year with a higher turnout that will help. but to mara's point about eastern long island where john is running being a challenge of the 50 most populous counties in the united states in 2020, donald trump won one of them and that was suffolk county in eastern new york, so it will be an uphill climb for democrats. >> great reporting. thank you, mara. we will have a guest to preview what joe biden's opening night speech at the democratic convention about, ben labolt.

we have will others joining the conversation. "morning joe" will be right back. " will be right back

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casemiro. garnaco. >> the english premier league season is under way. that was manchester united newcomer josh ryu awe zirkzee coming on in his debut and scoring. parents, wake up your children because just as the 17-year cicadas stay underground until the time is just right, my friends, here is our own capistano cliff swallow bird, roger bennet. how are you doing, my man? >> oh, this is the 14th year i have covered the premier league on your show, joe. 14th year of me pretending to wonder what i'm doing here. >> 14 years? >> i had hair, my own teeth. those were the days. >> you looked like frampton in

'76. your hair was all over. it wasn't just mika though. it wasn't just mika. you had quite a few other guests staring at you asking why you were around. what are you doing on a political show? >> how the world has changed, joe. we are now a proper football-loving country in the united states of america, in small part thanks to you and your early passion. but the 2024-25 premier league is back with us. shall we look at it, joe? >> yes. yes, of course. >> 380 games scattered over 281 days. it is the best of the paris olympics. you've got the frenchman, core-shooting south koreans and break dancers, but for eight sweet monthes let start with the matchup of the weekend. man city traveling to chelsea, going for the five-pete while beating 115 charges in court. city opened as rampantly as they

will in the case, 80 minutes. haaland running through them. city felt inevitable through this one. finished off the game. breaking through, kovacic made it look like a stumph city. city win, 2-0. two things can be true. you can be in legal jeopardy and still so very good at football. this is arsenal, the club who lead their total challengers. their season started with a win against wolves. the pick of the goal, stepping inside and unloading this shot and celebrating by saying, are you not entertained? we are. wolves best attack, this proctologist exam that was handed out right then and there on the field.

arsenal clenched and held on to win, 2-0. finally, joe, your liverpool, owned by the boston red sox group. they kicked off the season with this man, a new coach. they're led by a man with the head of an enormous baby. his name is arnie. his first game was glorious in ipwich, partially owned by ed sheeran. fresh hair transplant for mo, he has the freedom from no longer having to field male pattern baldness. the same old liverpool as the ultra marathon begins, for you a definite hoop or bounds, right? >> well, you know, it is so strange watching anybody play, anybody walking the sidelines other than that great giant tetonic care bear, as you said,

klopp. it is strange, especially since you put in my mind the bald head of the giant baby. >> he is. he looks like he is a 1980 revival in a scar band. i'm happy for you, that everything is back. for everybody that lost this weekend, just remember, what is dead may never die. >> a long way to go. a long way to go. so is city the favorite this year again? >> they are, and they are facing an unusual year, their own by abu dhabi. they have 115 charges brought to them by the premier league which they've won four times on the run. they're going to face a court date starting in september, so they may have a ramp away with the league once again or be found out with financial misdemeanors, a bit like abu dhabi new england owned patriots faced the results of

that. it is a dual narrative, part "frit night lights" kind of season, part "suits" season. it will be a surreal season. buckle up. >> i can't wait. founder of "men in blazers" media network, roger bennett. thank you for launching your 14th year on "morning joe." >> all right. thank you, joe. >> courage. coming up, we will be moving back to politics and take a look at the harris-walz bus tour across pennsylvania over the weekend, hitting the battleground state before the start of the democratic national convention. donald trump is also in the keystone state this weekend. he mostly ignored his allies and advisors who pleaded with him to stay on message. we will show you why when we show you more of his rally, just ahead on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ahead on "morning joe. ♪ ♪

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fast-acting, sky-high sales stacking champion of checkouts. businesses that want to win, win with shopify. he does listen to a lot of people, but the person he listens to is the inner voice. we see it in these rallies, which are particularly undisciplined form of

communications. look, think about it. two-thirds of the american people think we're going in the wrong direction. he leads on the issue of who is better on the economy, who is better on inflation. >> yeah, we got that poll. we've got that up. >> that's all good numbers for him, and yet this race today he is behind. why is he behind? because he is making the race about things other than the three big issues in this campaign, the economy, inflation and immigration. he can go out and touch on those things but he will say something incendiary or something will pop up, dismissing medal of honor winners, saying the economy is not a major issue. he obscures his message because he's fundamentally undisciplined. >> that's carl rove talking about donald trump needing to focus on issues, not insults. like rove, a lot of republicans feel compelled to say that because of this. >> have you heard her laugh? that is the laugh of a crazy person! that is the laugh of the

crazy -- it is the laugh of a lunatic. have you heard it? you know, they prohibited her, they prohibited her for laughing. you know, i have been waiting for her to laugh, because as soon as she laughs the election is over. but we're winning by a lot in pennsylvania, and i think the fracking got her. >> wait. does donald trump laugh? have we heard donald trump? i don't know. anyway, senator lindsey graham also wants donald trump to find discipline. here is the senator appealing to donald trump and what may have inspired it. >> i don't look at vice president harris as a lunatic. i look at her as the most liberal person to ever be nominated for president in the history of the united states. the nightmare for harris is to defend her policy choices. every day we are not talking about her policy choices as vice president and what she would do as president is -- is a good day for her and a bad day for us.

president trump can win this election. his policies are good for america, and if you have a policy debate for president he wins. donald trump, the showman may not win this election. i'm looking for president trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he would do for our country. that's what i would focus on, policy. policy is the key to the white house. >> i mean i read a so-called republican who ronald reagan didn't like, by the way, and she didn't like him, but she got credit for being this reagan speech writer. highly overrated. i don't know anything about her. i don't know her. treats me badly but that's okay. she called it wrong. she has called it wrong now for about eight years. but she said one thing that got me. she said, "kamala has one big advantage, she is a very beautiful woman."

she's a beautiful woman. so i decided to go back and reread the -- i'm not saying -- but i say that i'm much better looking than her. i think i'm much better looking. i'm a better looking person than kamala. no, i couldn't believe it. you know, i had never heard that one. they said, no, her biggest advantage is that she is a beautiful woman. i'm going, huh, i never thought of that. i'm better looking than she is. >> he's referencing pulitzer prize-winning columnist with the "wall street journal," peggy newnan, who anyone who has ever been involved in politics certainly knows her, as i'm sure donald trump does as well.

let's bring in nbc news, msnbc political analyst, former u.s. senator claire mccass kif. also former msnbc host and contributor, chris matthews. the co-host of msnbc's former weekend, senior adviser to vice president kamala harris, simone townsend. jonathan lemire still with us as well. claire, republicans are saying the same thing, donald trump needs to talk about the issues to which donald trump will -- actually will mock them and say, i am who i am. he's now in the popeye defense, and that's what he has always done. i am who i am. this worked for me before. this is going to work for me again. i don't need to listen to people like carl rove or peggy newnan or other people who have been conservative and republicans their entire life. >> yeah, it has worked so well for him before. he has never won the popular vote. by the way, it is going to get

worse before it gets better because he goes there when he's under the most pressure and the most stress, and he can say all he wants that she's easy to beat and this is under control and he's ahead by a bunch. he knows, he knows the crowds are showing up for her and not him. he knows that she's winning in the battleground states. the other thing, joe, i got to point out here, they guys who keep saying his policies, his policies are going to win for him, i'm going to tell you that's not a walk in the park either because what are his policies? dobbs? taking away the freedoms women have enjoyed in this country? or what is it, tariffs that will drive up costs of goods for everybody in america, or loving up on the autocrats around the world? i don't see his policies are a big lifeline for him either. >> claire, i'm so glad you brought that up because that is the -- one of the great misperceptions. everybody has they pre-covid,

this sort of dream of times before covid like it was some idyllic childhood. i want to start by what even people in the media still stumble around and it was a pet peeve even within donald trump was president. somebody in the media would go, of course his economy is the best, but actually it just wasn't. if you look at economic growth, he ranked seventh among post-war presidents. he was behind jimmy carter in economic growth. so that's not the case. you talk about tariffs. the "wall street journal" editorial page, a very conservative editorial page, says donald trump's tariffs amount to the largest tax increase that anybody has talked about during this campaign cycle. he terminated roe.

those are his words, not ours. donald trump is very proud of the fact he terminated roe when 70% of americans consistently said they didn't want roe to be terminated. you look at crime, violent crime numbers right now lower than they were when donald trump left office. you look at illegal border crossings across the southern border. right now they are lower than when donald trump left office. one final thing, they were at a 50-year low when barack obama handed the presidency over to donald trump and then they skyrocketed. so all of this talk about the glory days, it is straight out of a bruce springsteen song. i don't think those glory days were quite so great when you look at the facts instead of what donald trump is trying to tell you. >> yeah. the short cut for all of the republicans that are embarrassed of donald trump, they don't like him, they wish he wasn't their

nominee, the only refuge they have, the only place they can hide is to say, his policies, his policies. in fact, a lot of his policies they don't even agree with but it is the only thing they've got to hide behind. >> we should note donald trump at his rally over the weekend in pennsylvania suggested that tariffs would be a tax not on americans, but rather foreign countries. a lot of economists suggested, you don't know how tariffs work, do you? that's the centerpiece of his economic policy. speaking of pennsylvania, we should note while trump had that rally, vice president harris and her running mate, tim walz, had a bus tour in western pennsylvania yesterday, an area of strength for trump in the past and they made the requisite stops. chris, you are an eastern pennsylvania kind of guy. >> yeah. >> you have a new pace for ""the philadelphia inquirer"" with they title. "the flil debate gives harris a chance to tell trump directly,

say it to my face." in it you write in part this, "having watched harris perform of late, i believe she can more than hold her own against the former president. the big question is whether trump can pull the same shenanigans he did against hillary clinton. eight years ago, as many of us cannot forget, he walked across the stage and stood directly behind the former first lady and secretary of state as she was taking her time to speak. i have often wondered what clinton was supposed to do in such moments. should she have turned on him and ridiculed him as a rule-breaker or out of control predator. today, we have an answer. it comes from kamala harris herself. say it to my face! is a retort as aggressive as trump only tries to be. it is how you address a monster. harris has the ability to point across the debate stage at trump and tell it to his face." chris, certainly the vice president has a major stage this week in chicago at the dnc, but the next looming over the horizon is the debate in

philadelphia you write about. tell us more about how she should approach both events. >> there's a great line in the first pages of "presumed innocent," by scott turro and the great movie and series it became. he said when you are the prosecutor, you should point at the defendant in this case of a murder case, point at him in the courtroom and say, "you are accused of doing this" and then present the evidence. i think she can do that. i think debates are about guts as well as preparation. i think she has the historic ability with what she is doing here. trump looks like an idiot when he talks about being a ms. america contestant or he is better looking than her. he is not the godzilla he presented himself as with hillary. he is out there bragging about his appearance. that's not a scary guy. that's a vaudeville act. that's a joke. i think she can point to him with that command authority she

had when she announced her candidacy for president. i think she can be strong in the room. you know, when nixon lost to kennedy, i went back and i have been watching those tapes. those are all available. look at the tapes. kennedy came on with eight minutes of aggressive argument about the cold war and saying, "what we fight about here in america is important in the fight against the russians," and he was able to show strength. nixon had to play defense that whole time. it was like nixon was trying to get kennedy to like him. this time around trump cannot pull the ms. america number and say, i'm better looking than her, he can't play godzilla again. he will have to stand there and take it because she will be aggressive. this week is such a great photo play of history. you will have joe biden giving a very i think poignant speech tonight. you will have reference to jimmy carter with his grandson, jason, speaking about him, approaching 100. you will have barack obama and bill clinton and hillary clinton all out there as history, living

history, a live, talking about what they did in the past. and then outcomes tim walz and her, and i think, my god, she is going to be so young, so refreshing, so new that she is going to look like the person to beat. i think it is going to be a wonderful week. it will be the -- outside the debates, they're going to be, of course, the rallying and the protests and all, but i think she is going to show youth tomorrow, and trump will look like an old act. >> it is going to be absolutely, absolutely fascinating to see how it goes. simone, let me ask you what harris-walz, what the team has to do over the next four days to continue the momentum that they've seen over the past month. obviously we're within three months. i mean without a lot of mistakes, they can keep building and -- building that momentum. so the question is how do they build it through this week.

what would you suggest they do. >> well, look, joe, i think the program that has been put together that we know of thus far, that i've been talking to folks since i got here yesterday, is one that's going to show the depth and breadth of the democratic party apparatus, but also it is going to highlight vice president harris's strengths. i think you will see a lot of coach walz, endearing folks to them. wow. we sitting here know a lot about vice president harris and at this point governor tim walz, the american people don't necessarily. melissa mary and i have been talking to black women across the country and we spoke to some black women just a couple of days ago, young millennial black women, two from north carolina who said -- and they're referring to this as the switch, by the way. that's how the young people are talking about the change of the ticket. they both said, since the switch, this is historic, it is good to see her, but we don't know much about her. even though the vice president and governor walz have been on this tour introducing themselves

to the american people with these ads, this is the largest stage that they will have prior to election day. frankly, actually i should correct myself, prior to people start voting. while election day is less than 80 days away, if you will, people start voting in about 28 days as we speak in pennsylvania. >> right. >> september 6th the polls open. so introducing themselves to the stage, people who know them coming out and talking about who they are, what they believe and what they will do is going to be very, very important, just as important i would argue as those policy proposals. donald trump likes to act tough, he likes to talk tough, but vice president harris is proving on the campaign trail that she actually is tough, has the strength. i believe you will see that reflected throughout the week. this theme, the for-the-people theme, vice president harris spent a large chunk of her career as a prosecutor. i would hear her say when she got in the courtroom she would say, kamala harris, for the

people. that is harkening back not just to the first campaign but her message to the campaign. >> i was going to ask what's the message, that's what you could put on the bump per sticker, for the people. claire, what is a message you would put on a bumper speaker? >> oh, we won't go back. our party went through a convulsive, difficult, horrendous three weeks where a man we loved and revered and respected, who had done an amazing job as president, confronted the reality of polling data and the fact that there was really kind of in many ways an erosion of his support. really, everybody was just trying to accomplish one thing and that was to make sure we beat donald trump. it wasn't ever that people didn't love joe biden. it was the threat of donald trump on the horizon, the fact

that he's actually gotten into a position where he was winning not only the national vote but he was winning in the battleground states. that was a panic moment i think for the democratic party. i think what has happened is our party, unlike the republican party who all coalesced around a cultive personality, our party did some real -- you know, did a gut check and said, we've got to figure out a different way. >> right. >> and now tonight will be a night that we can really celebrate joe biden, and joe biden is the guy that we need to celebrate tonight. i think tonight will be a lot of fun because there's going to be a lot of love in this arena behind me for joe biden and the job he has done as president of the united states. >> let's bring in now the chairman of the democratic national committee, jaime harrison. jaime, thank you for being with us. chris matthews is with us with the first question. chris. >> this is a premiere for so many people as people have been

saying for her, for kamala harris. she will be seen by people who have never really heard her before. they won't be thinking about her laugh or anything like that, they will want to know what she has to say. how does she approach all of the people who call themselves democrats, all of the people who are thinking about being a voting democrat this time? how does she appeal to them? >> chris and joe, good to see you this morning. listen, conventions, yes, there's the formal process of the nomination and all of that, but it is really about storytelling. it is about sharing your story, who you are, what you believe, what your passions are, who you will fight for with the american people, and it is the grandest stage in order to do that. so what we will see, chris, is throughout these four days we're going to be telling the story of who kamala harris is and who she is going to fight for when she is president of the united states. this is about team hope and joy, and we got our mvp in kamala harris and our coach in tim

walz. i am so excited for folks to get to know who the two of them are and why they are such a great -- why they have such great chemistry. i mean these are the people that you want to just hang out with because you are going to have a good time, and you know that they're tough as nails and they will always fight for you and have your back. >> chairman harrison, good morning. before, of course, we hear from vice president harris later in the week, tonight belongs in many ways to president biden. as claire just mentioned, it was a pretty agonizing three weeks for the party between the first -- that debate in atlanta and the presidential's eventual decision to step aside from the top of the ticket. speak to us about the pembroke tonight and the reception he will receive. >> we are going to blow the roof off the center with praise for

joe biden's 50 years of service to the nation and the party. i believe joe biden is the most transformational president of my lifetime. when you think about all of the things we have been able to do and achieve over the course of 3 1/2 years, from the american rescue plan, to the bipartisan infrastructurure, to working for the veterans, to the chips act, to the inflation reduction act, to the largest commitment to fighting climate change and bringing down the price of prescription drugs, these are all fundamental things and that a president in one term would say, this is my hallmark. i can go on and on. marriage equality. joe biden has transformed this nation. this man, think about this, folks. this man, particularly as a black man and i will tell you from that perspective, joe biden has been there for the black community. he has appointed more black women to the appellate court than all presidents combined. he appointed the first black woman to the united states supreme court. he appointed the first black

woman to be vice president of the united states. this guy has really, really done it. we are going to give him his praise and his flowers tonight at the united center. >> jaime, it is simone. >> hey, simone. >> it is my understanding that tonight there will be a celebration for president biden, as you said, giving him his flowers, a true like lifting him up. but it is not as though tonight happens and then joe biden just all mentions of him go away for the rest of the week because the rest of the convention will be a dovetailing and a weaving of the work that president biden did and how kamala harris and coach walz are going to build on that work as they create their new vision. what do you think the headline will be coming out of this convention when we all wake up on friday morning? >> well, again, i think we go back to hope and joy. hope and joy beats fear every

time, simone. when you look back to the republican convention, i mean that was more like a wake, a funeral or something. i mean these folks are all about doom and gloom, talking down america. what you are going to see on the stage -- and this is the great thing about the democratic party. the democratic party looks like america. this is, again, for the people. we look like america. what we want is for everyone watching over the course of the next four years -- four days to see themselves on that stage. that didn't happen at the republican convention. that will happen at this convention, the kamala harris-tim walz-joe biden convention because the democratic party represents the greater diversity. it is the strength of this country and also the strength of the democratic party. i'm proud to be one of the kickoff speeches tonight. you will hear from jim clyburn, hillary clinton, dr. biden, and then we will hear from our

president of the united states, joe biden. >> all right. chairman of the democratic national committee, jaime harrison. thank you so much for being with us. good luck this week. >> thank you. >> and symone sanders-townsend, thank you as well. always great having you. still ahead on "morning joe," we will be joined by senior advisor to president biden ahead of tonight's dnc address and we will show you how donald trump is trying to clean up his comments about the presidential medal of freedom being better than the medal of honor because you actually may get shot or be dead if you have the medal of honor according to donald trump. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ glory days ♪ days ♪ why do couples choose a sleep number smart bed? i need it a little cool and i need it a lot of cool. we're both cool like that. sleep number does that. actively cools and warms on each side.

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plus, get a new google pixel 9 on us. bring on the good stuff. ♪ ♪ beautiful day in washington. almost 7:30. there's a look at the white house. president biden was at camp david over the weekend, fine tuning his remarks to the democratic national convention tonight. the president's speech is said to build on the remarks he gave last month when he decided to leave the race. the vice president is expected to attend the speech before joining him and his family to share in the moment. white house community indication director and senior advisor to president biden, joining us from the white house, ben labolt.

what do we expect to hear from the president tonight? >> thanks for having me. as you know, the president has been focused on defending democracy and defending democracy from the threat posed by donald trump who wants to be a dictator on day one, who has talked about pardoning those who participated in january 6th. the president is going to call on the american people to defend democracy one more time by voting for vice president harris and governor walz. he will also talk about the need to extend all of the progress we've made over the course of the past four years. you know, when the president came into office we were in the midst of a once-in-a-century global pandemic. we beat it. the economy was flat on its back. it is now the strongest in the world. we lost 2 million jobs under donald trump. we have created 16 million under president biden. we've brought inflation down from 9% to 3%, and we've defended democracy at home and abroad when it comes to places like ukraine over putin's war of aggression. so he will take us on that

journey and the fact that vice president harris has been the governing partner for every key decision that the president has made in his term in office. >> chris matthews is with us and has a question. chris. >> you know, ben, this is a historic moment for president biden because the republican party really got going after world war ii by supporting nato. i mean eisenhower ran because he wanted to defend nato. now, he wanted to defend europe, western europe especially against the communists. are you going to talk about -- that seems to be the historic rhyme here, that the republican party, which in its modern day was a great advocate for nato and the european alliance. this party of donald trump looks like they're running the other way. >> well, look, it has been a core principle of the united states over the course of decades to defend nato. it is the strongest alliance in the world. remember, the only time that nato has had to invoke article 5 was to come to our defense after

9/11. president biden has expanded that alliance. it is stronger than ever before, and donald trump has taken a different approach. he's cozied up to authoritarians. he cozied up to dictators. he said putin can do whatever the hell he wants when it comes to europe. if you saw a donald trump presidency, not only would ukraine be at risk but eastern europe could be at risk. that's something we hear from our key partners and allies about. look, i think the president will talk a bit about foreign policy tonight, but he is going to be a strong surrogate for vice president harris and governor walz. you will hear about it in the weeks ahead as well. >> ben, i'm curious. as you run through the tape with, in my opinion, one of the greatest presidents who has ever sat in the oval office, i know the foreign policy looms large, especially around a cease-fire in israel. i know that blinken landed over there just in the last 24 hours. what is joe biden doing and what

can the white house continue to do to put the pressure on netanyahu to do the right thing here and how much of his energy is going to be directed towards that particular conflict in the next 90 days? >> senator, that will certainly be a piece of it. this is something that he has worked on every day for months, to make sure that we can get to a cease-fire and also get the hostages freed and home. the secretary's in the region today. the president has put forward a bridging familiar work for all of the parties to agree to. so he's got his team in the region. he's on the phone talking to leaders. he is driving this every day. you talked about running through the tape. look, every minute since the president has made his courageous decision there's been some assignment that's gone around internally to make sure we are doing everything we can to help him finish the job. you've seen over the past couple of weeks, he laid out a vision for supreme court reform. he announced the first ten

prescription drugs that now will see their costs cut, in some cases more than 50% since medicare can finally negotiate down the cost of prescription drugs. he is focused on making sure that we have cancer deaths in this country over the next couple of decades. so he's been in public service for 52 years. he's got five months to go in the presidency. he wants to make sure he spends every single day getting everything done for hard-working americans that he can. >> ben, good morning. jonathan lemire. piggybacking off claire's question there. while the president speaks tonight at the united center, there will be outside potentially 20,000, 30,000 protesters about the situation in gaza and registering their unhappiness with the white house's approach to that conflict. we know the president had to deal with that for months now. tonight with such a national audience on him, what will be his message to those people, to many democrats who are angry about what has been going on?

>> i think the message is to tune in to the policy. there's two people in the race working towards a cease-fire and to get the hostages home and that's president biden and vice president harris. they certainly believe in the right to peaceful protests, but ultimately they're on the same page in terms of that policy. they're dedicating their teams, their efforts, their calls to lead, doing everything they can to get a cease-fire done. i would ask them what donald trump and j.d. vance's plans are to get to a cease-fire. i haven't heard any suggestions from them. i doubt that's something they would be working on in they were in office. we certainly didn't see those protesters in milwaukee. so we've got a choice to make in november, and i think it will be a stark choice across the issues including this one. >> what's fascinating, if they're protesting the war and if they're protesting to encourage a cease-fire, then the protests are against benjamin netanyahu because all reporting has shown that joe biden and kamala harris have been working

overtime to try to move netanyahu where the rest of the word is, and that is a cease-fire that brings the hostages home. white house communication director and senior adviser to president biden, ben labolt. as always, thank so much. >> good to be here. thanks, joe. chris matthews, thank you as well. what do you expect to hear this week? what do you want to hear? >> well, i think that trump is deranged. i don't understand why he would go after peggy newnan. that's a columnist i read every saturday morning. she is the best speech writer since -- since kennedy's speech writer. i tell you, she is an amazingly good person. this is deranged. why would he attack her? i don't understand this behavior, and saying that he is better looking than the democratic nominee? what's the point of that? that's not scary. that's odd egotism i excess. i think he's been -- lindsey

graham is right. he is off the charts right now. he is not talking about what could win for him. he can talk about lower taxes, the border, things like that, inflation, these are winning issues on the republican side. in many ways they can be issues if you play them right and say that the other side has done them wrong. he's not doing that. >> right. >> right now he is tied in pennsylvania. they might be a little ahead in pennsylvania and they might have to go to north carolina or georgia, but i don't think the trend of this election is not over. the trend continues right now toward the democrats. >> well, and you sound and awful lot like most republicans who right now just want donald trump to focus on the issues. coming up, pete buttigieg is set to deliver remarks at the democratic national convention later this week. he will be with us in his personal capacity, next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." a cloudy day. mika's got her penthouse, i mean the view is completely blocked. i don't even see the satellite dish up there, there's so many clouds. probably just reviewing premier league highlights from the weekend and baseball, baseball scores. so donald trump was asked to clarify comments he made last week about the presidential medal of freedom. the former president, of course,

praised a wealthy donor whom he awarded the presidential medal of freedom as having gotten the better award, his words, compared to the medal of honor because those are recipients who often are shot several times or dead, as donald trump said. here is what he said on thursday, and then his response to an nbc affiliate on saturday. >> i have to say, miriam, i watched sheldon sitting so proud in the white house when we gave miriam the presidential medal of freedom. that's the highest award you can get as a civilian. it is the equivalent of the congressional medal of honor but civilian version. it is actually much better because everyone gets the congressional medal of honor, that's soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead. she gets it and she is a healthy, beautiful woman. >> clarify that because so many

veterans are upset including here in pennsylvania. >> no, i didn't hear that. i only heard -- when i say better, i would rather in a certain way get it because people that get the congressional medal of honor, which i have given to many are often horribly wounded or dead. they're often dead. they got it posthumously. when you get the congressional medal of honor, i always consider that to be the ultimate, but it is a painful thing to get it. when you get the presidential medal of freedom it is usually for other things, like you have achieved great success in sports or you have achieved great success someplace else. when you get the medal of honor generally speaking, and i have met many of them and i have seen the families of many of them, it is an incredible honor, but it was a statement they're much more painful to get because oven times they're in very bad shape. i have seen them come up and they've suffered greatly whereas the presidential medal of freedom to my knowledge i don't

think anybody has suffered other than they worked hard and have done great things. one is a military award, one is a civilian award, but sometimes very painful to get the other. >> i don't know that that really clears it up. let's bring in pete buttigieg. he is a retired naval officer and, of course, also the secretary of transportation. this wednesday he will be speaking at the democratic national convention in his personal capacity where the theme will be a fight for our freedom. this morning, again, not speaking on behalf of the biden administration. thank you so much for being with us, mr. secretary. what do you think the message -- we have been asking this all morning. what should the message be in chicago this week for the democrats? >> well, look, you know, the thing that really excites me and i think the really important contrast is that the message of the convention here in chicago is going to be about the american people. it sounds like a very simple thing. it could even sound like a cliche but there's something very significance about this

because the trump-vance ticket views politics as being all about them. we are certainly proud of our candidate. we are excited about kamala harris. we are excited about tim walz. you are going to see them featured. you will see them highlighted. but part of what is so important about them is that they get it is not about them. so what i think we are going to see is a convention that highlights how when we use the tools of policy and politics in government the right way, it makes us better off in our lives. it makes live more affordable. it makes our community stronger. it secures our freedoms. i think that's what we're going to hear. that really is one of the main contrasts, right? people who live and work for others the way that our ticket, top of the ticket does, and someone like donald trump who cannot comprehend putting others first as you saw in those remarks. you know, i was a naval office, not to nitpick but i want to be sure we're technically correct. i'm not a retired naval officer but i proudly reserved in the naval reserve. i remember when i went to officer training in newport,

rhode island. outside every one of our rooms they put a little biography of just one of the people from the navy who won the medal of honor and a little write-up of how they got that medal of honor. you would feel -- you feel about this big compared to these people, and maybe that's why those stories just break donald trump's brain. he literally cannot comprehend that kind of sacrifice, and he certainly cannot comprehend a concept of politics that is not about you, not about your glorification, but about what you can do to make other people better off. >> i'm curious. we've heard from donald trump this morning, playing clips throughout the weekend. chris matthews, claire mccaskill, others have talked about just how off the reservation he is. i mean carl rove has as well, lindsey graham. i'm just curious, how do democrats handle the distractions from donald trump better this year than they have in past years when he's talking

about how it is much better to get an award if -- if you are a rich donor, rich republican donor than being honored for ultimate military service or him saying he's better looking than kamala harris or him attacking peggy newnan or him attacking anybody who doesn't bow down and praise him. i'm just curious. how do democrats not take the bait and stay focused on what they need to stay focussed on to win this election? >> i think you are exactly right to describe it as distraction. the challenge is, of course, you have to say something if he attacks the service of military service members who win the medal of honor. if he goes to the national association of black journalists and blurts out something racist, obviously you have to deal with that, but you have to deal with that quickly and come right back to our message. i do think it is a kind of strategy. you might ask why a politician would do something like that, but going back to the days of

him denigrating the service of john mccain, it is clear he does it for a reason. it is two fold. one, he wants people talking about him and, two, he wants people not talking about the difference between our agenda and his agenda, especially when you look at project 2025. it is an amazing thing, that project 2025 is kind of the scandal of the year for the republicans, the thing that they've had to do the most damage control around because look at what project 2025 is. it is just their policies. it is nothing but a write-up of what they plan to do, and they really don't want the american people focused on how trump is about tax cuts for the rich and we're trying to making sure we have a fairer tax code, or how donald trump demolished the right to choose in this country and now kamala harris will lead the work to restore that right to choose, or any other issue from climate to gun safety to education, you name it, where the american people strongly agree with us and strongly

disagree with him. they don't want us talking about that. they don't want us talking about his record, with results that if you go by measurements that americans pay the most attention to, crime rates, it was worse under donald trump. there's more to the economy than the stock market, but to some people it is pretty much the same thing, the dow and the s&p were worse under donald trump than they were under biden-harris. energy production, one of the things you hear republicans talk the most about, domestic energy production is higher under biden-harris under trump. he can't afford for us to talk about that, so every couple of days he is going to blurt out something outrageous so that we're talking about that instead. >> it is crazy. you talk about just though three issues, crime worse under donald trump than it is right now under joe biden, the stock market much higher than it was under donald trump, and, you know, he will go drill, baby, drill. the fact is the united states right now producing more oil than any other country in

history. of course, that cuts both ways for democrats, but for republicans who are always talking about it not necessarily a positive. pete buttigieg, thank you so much for joining us as always. love talking to you. hope you will come back soon. >> look forward to it. thanks for having me in. all right. still 'head, we will dig into new polling that shows a tight race in several key battleground states, but obviously kamala harris making great progress and having the momentum, the wind at her back. plus, a backstage pass to "the west wing." award-winning actor martin sheen will be our guest going to be o guest as the hit show celebrates its 25th anniversary. my goodness. i saw speeches he gave this weekend, so inspiring. can't wait to talk to martin when we return. a month each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start. and treatment is 4 times a year. in a survey, 91% of users wish they'd started sooner.

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a live shot of rockefeller plaza, just a few minutes before 8:00 in the morning here in new york city. the sun sentinel leads the growing rate of senior citizens reentering the workforce in order to make ends meet. fort lauderdale is fourth with the most working seniors as social security payouts do little to help with rising medical and housing costs.

to pennsylvania, the philadelphia inquirer is highlighting an order that the city pay $25 million to address staffing shortages in the jail. it comes a month after a judge found the city violated the agreement of 2022 filed on on behalf of incarcerated people. currently jails in philadelphia are about 45% below full staffing levels. to new york now. the times union has a front page feature on the state's plan to recruit more health care workers. a multimillion dollar program led by a new york hospital trade group will scour high school job fairs and community colleges in the hopes of persuading a new generation of workers to join the health care industry . it's in response to ongoing

issues hiring and retaining clinical employees. coming up here we'll bring you the latest on the cease-fire talks as antony blinken is set to meet with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and an update on the ukraine offensive into russian territory. "morning joe" is coming right back with that. itory. "morning joe" is coming right back with that

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i don't ramble. but the other day -- any time i hit too hard they say he was rambling. rambling? i get up and make a speech. i go for sometimes two hours, two and a half hours because, you know, people are waiting outside for three days, four days. you guys were waiting out there for a long time. front row joes are waiting -- i don't know how you do it. and i feel i have an obligation to speak and speak in a certain way. and speak a little bit longer. you know, how would you like it, a guy's waiting with his family for three and a half, four days, they have a tent and the tent is set up, they have hundreds of them, and they wait and then i walk in, speak for 15 minutes and leave. i don't know, somehow, would that be okay, north carolina? i don't think so. they want me to speak all day. >> that's donald trump saying how he doesn't ramble at his rally.

well, i mean, i guess if you want to say he rambled, that's up to you. it's donald trump. in pennsylvania. good morning and welcome to "morning joe," it's monday, august 19th. with us we have jonathan lemire, member of the "the new york times" editorial board, maura gay and ed lushkaneski. do i ramble too much? do i interrupt, ask questions that go on longer than the answer? no. people who wake up at 1:00 in the morning they get their children around, giving them the biscuits, you know, and so yeah of course sometimes i talk a little bit more than i should talk. sometimes. right. but give the people what they want or maybe what they don't want. >> never. i have no idea what you're talking about, joe. >> no idea whatsoever.

sam stein you'll be more blunt, who rambles around here, certainly not me? >> joe, have you ever served in congress, because i've never heard that one before. >> well, there was a time -- i don't like to talk about it. i don't like to talk about it. just like jonathan lemire, i don't like talking about the boston red sox when they get 11 hits. baltimore gets three hits and my sta tisian little jack tells me it's the first time they lost a game giving up less than three hits. >> a depressing statistic. you can't be upset splitting four games with the orioles. but the red sox need to do more, they're two outside the wild card. playing kind of .500 ball -- >> we don't need to see this.

>> we could see the yankees lose in a walk off hit last night. in the little league classic. that would be fine. the red sox need to string together some wins if they're going to get in the race. >> ed luce, premier league, football started yesterday. that's very exciting. i think you and your family support a team about 12 divisions down. i'm not sure how excited you were about that. but i'm more interested in pennsylvania. we're going to be showing some new polls that have come out that show a shift in the campaign. you say pennsylvania may be slipping away from donald trump? >> it's been a few days there's last week. my daughter supported man united, the less said about that, the better. the liverpool are a better team to support. i spent a few days around allenton, lehigh valley last

week. what struck me was not just the energy that harris/walz is seeing, and the grateful dead tour that trump has been doing in the state being a big cob tras to that. but the fact that the harris campaign and before that the biden/harris campaign since march has been taking out spanish language ads and really doing hispanic outreach to what is the fastest growing demographic. 600,000 hispanic adults in pennsylvania. but the trump is simply not touching that demographic. there are republicans saying this is an english speaking country, why would we cut ads in spanish. that to me is a sign, if you're not targeting the fastest growing demographic, then you're not serious about winning. so i did come away with a distinct impression it's -- pennsylvania is slipping from trump's grasp. >> that's an interesting point

to make because after i saw some close polls in florida i called friends down there, said is this real? what's going on? i saw an fau poll that had harris within 3 of trump, also saw good numbers out of miami-dade. what i heard is unlike joe biden or donald trump, kamala harris has been very aggressive talking to hispanic leaders. she stayed in touch while she's been vice president and she will do the things that you say donald trump is not doing. it's fascinating. we'll see how the hispanic vote goes. joe biden did well with black voters did not do well with hispanic voters. there was concerns in his campaign in 2020 about that. it seems that kamala harris is doing much better right now in that slice of america. jonathan lemire, tell us about the dnc. what a week lined up for anybody, republican,

independent, democrat, remotely interested in politics. an all-star lineup this week? >> reporter: it is. it kicks off in chicago. i'll be out there the rest of the week. tonight is about president biden he's delivering a keynote address in a symbolic passing of the torch. this is not the convention that the president would have anticipated a month back. he thought he'd speak on thursday, not monday, thought he'd accept the nomination to represent his party this november. instead he'll and an opening act handing off to the vice president. the speakers tonight will talk about biden's accomplishments the first four years and then a transition as well. he'll make the case that the vice president is the person to pick up the torch going forward. he'll also levy a series of attacks on president trump i'm told, aides previewing a little of his address.

mara this will be the start of what i think will be four celebratory days in fact inside the arena. a month ago there was a sense of dread headed into the democratic convention. no one could say that president biden couldn't have won but the odds were against him after his tough debate performance. now we have a remade race, vice president harris, trends are with her, it's a close race. she has momentum and this week could be a real opportunity to introduce herself to the american people in a new way. >> that's right. the reality is despite the momentum we've seen, and it's very real, the american people don't really know that much about the vice president. so this is an opportunity for her to introduce herself on her own terms. there are risks with that as well. it's a different venue than what we've seen at the rallies, she and tim walz have been, you know, performing well at. this is a little bit different. we might hear more about policy

as well. and listen, this is an opportunity for democrats who we learned when joe biden, you know, after that debate, that disastrous debate performance. we learned how deep the democratic bench is. this is an opportunity for the party to say america we understand you, look like you, we're diverse, we're a big tent and we understand your concerns. we are the ones that have the platform to carry the country into the future. they have policies, including reproductive freedom. she is going to talk about inflation. so this is an opportunity, comes with risks as well. especially as we see the uncommitted movement not shut out of the convention but not exactly embraced with welcome arms. there's going to be protests outside the convention hall. >> beyond the policy elements what i've been struck by is the

sort of narrative that harris and walz have crafted her. which is this is generational contrast and about the future versus the past. which anyone who worked in presidential politics is about the contrast. the main theme has been joy and we're not going back. the convention in a way lines up to push that narrative. you have biden and hillary clinton on the first time, walz on wednesday, harris on thursday. it's like you're going from the past to the present and projecting into the future. i'm looking forward to see what kind of reception biden gets tonight. obviously it's going to be heart felt. i imagine the crowd will go crazy for him. there's appreciation among democrats he took the steps to say i'm not going to, it was obviously a painful three we can process. ed, you were in the field in pennsylvania, but back to the idea of future versus past, not

going back, we need to get beyond the politics of the trump years, is that something that voters are feeling? is that resonating with people you talk to in pennsylvania? i have a theory that more than any specific policy, fins, with the exception of maybe abortion, democrats are really jazzed about that? >> yeah, undoubtedly not just in pennsylvania, everywhere i've been there's an energy, there's that sort of magic elusive momentum that hearsay/walz has captured that wasn't there with biden. there is deep affection for biden in the party and now coming out of the woodwork for people like lindsey graham, didn't hear that in the last three and a half years. there's deep affection for him. and i think tonight he will reap that. he will also reap gratitude. i don't know how stepping down before taking a bigger hit on

behalf of american democracy because the campaign is young, energized. the volunteers who were swarming, crowding around the harris/walz rebranding of the biden/harris office in allentown, for example, they packed it out. whereas biden events a few weeks before, biden campaign events, had been attracting four or five people. there's a massive shift on the ground. so what he's done is take a hit for the larger interest of his nation and party. and to want's reception, i'll be there too at the united center, i think will reflect a deep gratitude towards him for doing that. >> you know, there really is, sam's right, there's a generational divide here, that usually sells really well in presidential politics if it's carried through the right way. i will say also, the one word i

saw as donald trump's biggest challenge is exhaustion. not his personal exhaustion but the exhaustion of those who had supported him in 2016, some who still supported him in 2020, but were exhausted, especially after january the 6th. exhausted after just, just the -- just the constant fights, the constant insults, the constant battles. so now it seems you have exhaustion on that side versus energy. and joy. which is what -- energy and joy, which is what kamala harris and her team are projecting forward and trying to project, saying this is what we're about. it is a bit like hope and change but right now it really seems to be working because kamala harris is now leading donald trump by six percentage points in the latest abc news, washington

post, ipsos poll. harris is holding a 51% to 45% lead among likely voters nationwide. she has also fli flipped the sc on the age issue. when asked which candidate is good enough physical health to serve effectively, harris leads trump by a 30 point margin. as you can see there, donald trump had led biden by a 31 point margin. so a 61 point swing on that question in a month. harris has a nine point advantage when it comes to having the mental sharpness required to serve effectively, erasing a 30 point lead donald trump had over joe biden on that question. and new swing state polling out in the latest "the new york times," siena college voel, harris leads in arizona, that's

a big shift. and two points in north carolina, another big shift. also suggesting that far from the map closing in on democrats it is now expanded out and north carolina now obviously going to have to be fought for by donald trump. donald trump leads harris, meanwhile by 4% in georgia and a single point in nevada. all those results are within the margin of error. in the may poll when joe biden was the presumptive nominee, trump led in arizona, georgia, nevada. and north carolina wasn't part of that previous poll. important thing to remember here, though, jonathan lemire, this race still a tie. >> that's exactly right. and vice president harris has momentum. the trend lines which we talk about a lot on this show, are certainly in her favor.

one could argue to use the baseball metaphor, she's thrown a no hitter but the margin is still within error. that's how close the race is, how hard fought it's going to be going forward. the democrats i speak to, think this week is an opportunity. there are concerns of the optics. there were some last night. a huge crowd is expected tonight, pro gaza, pro-palestinian protesters. certainly peaceful protests have the right to be there. but some democrats i speak 20 say if if it gets unruly, outside agitaors that spark trouble that could be a bad scene. but we see now that these polls -- it's early, it's close.

what biden had a month ago was one path to victory, had to thread the needle, pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, it was going to be doable but hard. harris has that path now, but many other options now too because she's reenergized parts of the coalition that weren't there for joe biden, younger voters, voters of color, particularly black voters, more of the progressive wing of the party are willing to listen to her. now you're seeing she can mix and match her way to 270. >> i've been traveling all year on assignment talking to democratic voters in many of these states, nevada as well. there was always pent up energy in the party that joe biden wasn't able to tap into, connect with. that's young voters especially. and the fungny thing about this,

he had sent, as vice president, kamala harris to do some of that work because she was drawing crowds even early this year in many of the states. so this is a situation where a lot of those voters actually have already seen harris on the trail. these are states where she spent a lot of time in the past year, she has been hitting the pavement long before she was the front runner. she has that advantage when she was on the campaign trail in the states listening to local leaders too. understanding what is on voter's minds in these specific places and on top of that you have large young people demographics, large hispanic and black populations and this is electrifying. it's electrified the democratic base. there's a sense that we are moving into the future. i heard over and over again from young voters they said i'm not going to vote for donald trump. but is joe biden it?

i like him, but he -- what does he know about my life? and there was just a large disconnect. so i think that this is kind of a coming together of the democratic base. which is seeing for the first time this year, really, a sense that the ticket, the democratic ticket really reflects them. i think that's why you're seeing kamala harris embraced the way you have. >> and that's been the democrats' challenge all along to bring the voters home. we said this was a tie in effect, still within the margin of error, but i never looked at polls, the exact numbers, because you never know how accurate they're going to be. but i did always look at trend lines. we should still look at trend lines. the trend lines seem to be breaking in kamala harris' direction. and really you look at -- you look at the direction that it's going. you look at the fact that right now she is out working donald trump, right now donald trump

cannot stay on script and is rambling and going off script, causing concern for his staff. causing concern for those closest to him in the campaign. and you have to ask, what's the dynamic right now that's going to change between now and the election? to reverse that momentum. we have a long way to go, including debate coming up on september 10th. that may be donald trump's next opportunity. still ahead on "morning joe," the latest from israel as secretary of state antony blinken arrives in tel-aviv for cease-fire talks. and ukraine's ongoing push into russia. you're watching "morning joe." we're back in 90 seconds. blpz blood pressure

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dual-eligible special needs plan. humana. a more human way to healthcare. . this is a decisive moment. probably the best. maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home. to get a cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security. it's time for everyone to get to yes and not look for any excuses to say no. >> that was secretary of state antony blinken earlier today. on friday the white house presented a new proposal aimed at bridging the gap between israel and hamas but hamas

appears to be rejecting it. the group said israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is setting new conditions with the aim of prolonging the war. blinken is meeting with netanyahu and is in jerusalem. he's traveling to meet with cease-fire negotiators tomorrow. let's bring in david ignatius. last week in your column you reported that just about everybody, all the interested parties and our allies, the united states, the arab allies until the region were supporting the deal to bring the hostages home, even in benjamin netanyahu's cabinet, the defense minister, everybody supporting the deal. everybody that is except benjamin netanyahu. why is that, and how do we and the world get him to move forward on a cease-fire deal that will bring the hostages home? >> so, joe, in president biden's

mind in the words of secretary of state blinken today, this is seen as the last chance, opportunity to make the cease-fire deal work. why has prime minister netanyahu been resisting it? it's in part a mystery. but i think we can go to his own words. he keeps speaking about his desire for total victory, absolute victory in a war his military commanders say that's probably not a realistic goal. the deal on the table to bring israeli hostages home, stabilize the situation is probably, from a military standpoint, desirable for israel. so we'll see blinken this week and i think more of president biden this week and coming weeks if necessary, put more chips on the table. i think, joe, in biden's remaining months in office there's nothing that matters more with him, he is toe-to-toe with netanyahu the two have

grown to dislike each other. he feels that netanyahu is resisting a peace effort that has global support and the support of israeli security establishment and he wants to push and push and get it through for the sake of israeli and the united states. the united states feels, joe, our show of force, huge military force we sent into the region has probably deterred iran from seeking retaliation quickly for the strike that was conducted that killed the head of hamas. hezbollah is still trying to decide, making up its mind about what to do. but the standpoint of tougher policy we've seen some from the biden administration and they see in iran stepping back from immediate retaliation some real success. >> david, nobody knows better than you the degree to which netanyahu has resisted, had to

be dragged kicking and screaming even to this point and yet is part of the reason why no cease-fire is happening. the administration has so far prevented regionalization of this war, iran has not retaliated as it's threatening to do. the fear is you see a collapse of cease-fire hopes in gaza, then that restraint on iran will be off. is there a danger still of a regionalization of the war in the coming days if the cease-fire deal does collapse? >> so i think if this effort, if blinken -- blinken said today, the last best opportunity to de-escalate tensions get a cease-fire should collapse, it'll collapse noisily and with additional conflict no question about it. and how much that would escalate is hard to know.

the u.s. analysis has been that it's not in iran's interest or hezbollah's interest to go into an all-out war with israel, certainly not with the danger the united states may intervene, we have so much military force in the region with the idea if iran began attacks the u.s. would make an ultimatum, you stop or we're getting in. we'll pound iran itself. so we'd be back in that kind of situation. again, i underline the point. in the time that biden has remaining, this has become the thing he most wants to accomplish in terms of foreign policy. i'm told by close associates this really matters to him. so i would expect to see him play the role of bad cop with netanyahu, saying the tough things while kamala harris says the traditional lines of the

ironclad american support for israel. this is biden's time to be the bad cop but if at the end of the week we don't have progress towards the cease-fire we have to think against about the danger of a wider military conflict. >> mara gay here from the times, david. can you talk about how the shift in change in front runners has impacted the negotiations? is there any sense that antony blinken has lost leverage or is there any sense that leaders on body sides of the negotiations may be trying to wait out president biden? what are they thinking about what could happen to these negotiations? >> so mara, there's no question that prime minister netanyahu was waiting for, hoping for, expecting a victory in november by donald trump. i think there's a when, which is attenuating the process, stretching out the negotiations, reflecting his sense a more

sympathetic american leader was on the way. i'm told he's beginning to question that. he can look at the polls like you and i can and see that kamala harris has a better chance of winning in p november and that affects calculations. frankly she has not been centrally involved in crafting middle east strategy. so i don't see her playing a direct role in the intervening time. when she became president, so many things we don't know about harris' policies, but her principle foreign policy according to phil gordon, someone close to the biden team so i expect continuity. so for now this spotlight should be on biden and bebe that's it. >> stay with us we want to get your take on the other big story playing out overseas, ukraine's

invasion into russian territory. stay tuned. ian territory. stay tuned

turning to europe now, "the washington post" reports that ukraine and russia were set to negotiate an agreement in qatar this month that would have seen both sides agree to cease strikes on energy infrastructure. however, ukraine's surprise incursion into russia reportedly derailed those negotiations. both sides have targeted energy sources throughout the war with russia increasing its attacks during the winter to maximize the effect on ukrainian civilians. meanwhile as ukraine continues to push forward with the surprise incursion, president volodymyr zelenskyy said yesterday the goal of the offensive is to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by moscow across the board e. david, let's talk about this now. this incursion took the united states off guard.

they have so far stayed remarkably silent about it, despite a lot of worries earlier in the war about ukraine escalating the conflict. give us your latest reporting in terms of how the u.s. feels about what ukraine is doing, whether we think ukraine might go further and whether you think those limited cease-fire talks could be revived? >> i think the u.s. assessment is much like what you heard from russia. that ukraine was doing in this in attempt to pull russian troops away from what had been a successful offense in donetsk and eastern ukraine, they were pushing ahead, breaking through ukrainian lines said to have taken as many as dozens of additional villages now the russians are distracted, have to worry about their own territory. trying to increase their morale and weaken russian morale by this offensive but most

important create territory that would be a useful bargaining chip in the negotiations that everybody knows at some point is coming. this war will end a negotiated settlement at some point. so now ukraine has territory if they can hold it. things i've been told by my sources, the ukrainians have designated this area inside russia as a military zone with military governance they're going to establish. that means they intend to stay a while. they're hitting bridges that allow russians to send in reinforcements and easily push ukrainians back out. they're careful not to move too far. if they move too deep into russia, the supply lines would be so ten waited they could be circled and get annihilated in russia. they're doing it carefully with the idea i think of remaining a

while. "the new york times" and "the washington post" were allowed to visit cities in the occupied areas. they saw ukrainian troops trying to behave decently, showing the russian citizens they didn't intend to hurt people in the camps. they have some hundreds of prisoners. you have different estimates ranging from 300 to several thousand. i don't know how many but obviously there are a lot of prisoners and that will allow ukraine to bargain for prisoner exchanges. what apparently has been disrupted is the talk of some kind of russian/ukrainian agreement to stop hitting nuclear facilities in the winter. a great weakness of ukraine's. that's frozen at the best, it may be revived. how serious that was is hard to know given the reports that we have. but i think the ukrainians have decided they, like the russians,

have to create facts on the ground if they are going to have any success of negotiation. >> all right, "the washington post's" david ignatius, as always thank you so much. >> thanks, joe. coming up, our next guest said the fundamentals of the race have not changed and that's good for democrats. james carville joins us live from chicago straight ahead on "morning joe."

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former republican congressman george santos is expected to plead guilty today in federal court. a hearing is scheduled at a courthouse in long island in new york, two sources tell nbc news santos is expected to plead guilty to charges related to campaign finance fraud. santos had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges. a lawyer for the former congress did not return request for comment. mara you have a new peace titled

"the unusual strategy that might help democrats win back the house" and it has to do with the seat held formerly by santos. after democrats lost control a few years ago a lot of eyes turned towards new york state wondering how democrats messed up so badly there. they're trying to turn it around this year? >> the unusual strategy in new york state for democrats is to actually run a campaign where you talk to voters, you knock on doors, you make phone calls. >> that's radical. >> it's a radical idea for the new york democratic party. which actually is far better at fending off challenges from, you know, primary -- in primary races from progressives and other outsiders than it is in winning competitive races that's

because new york has become a democratic state over the years but the state party is week. we saw it with governor hochul, who's not a popular governor so in 2022 she actually only won by six points. if that isn't a warning sign i don't know what. but this year things are different. democrats in washington, democrats across the state have come together, and i wouldn't say they're panicked. i would say they're deeply engaged in trying to get boots on the ground into long island and other swing districts in up state new york and the hudson valley to make sure they are running the race as a competitive race that it is. so this is a radical idea in new york. we could spend an entire month talking about why but i think a lot of people outside new york are thinking how could this happen in new york city's backyard. well, new york suburbs are

diverse like other places. long island also has become very, very friendly to donald trump. so that has also thrown a wrench into democratic efforts. but this year they're feeling more confident on the democratic side that a majority of the races are going to be in good shape for them. >> and sam stein, democrats have to be feeling good about what's going on with a guy we both know john avalon, he's all the way out east on long island. he won his primary, which people expected to be close. if you follow that race out there, john is knocking on doors. he's planting yard signs, holding a lot of small meetings. doing the very thing that mara is reporting about, getting out and running a grass roots campaign. and he's running against one of donald trump's most reliable supporters so in a swing district with a guy who's sort

of independent in john avalon, that's a road map to democrats taking backseats they lost. >> i have to cop to being impartial on this one because john avalon hired me at the daily beast. i will say objectively as i can, this ties into what we talked about earlier, john preaches a type of politics that i don't want to say is post partisan but close, we have to get past this, we need to move forward and be constructive. for a while that was hokey but it's john being john. if you talked to him, he expected his primary campaign to be closer, but he won by 20, 30%

maybe more. i think people were attracted to the message we can't do the battlefield politics over and other again. long island it's not as demographic as people perceive. it's working class voters there, voted republican but i think in the modern day and age we had eight years of this and we're ready to move on. think i harris is a beneficiary of this too. coming up we'll talk with senator gary peters. he's at this week's dnc and joins us live from chicago straight ahead. "morning joe" back in a moment. d "morning joe" back in a moment hi, my name is damian clark. if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on the plans available in your area, you may be eligible to get extra benefits with a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. all these plans include a healthy options allowance, a monthly allowance to

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a space in which to operate. and it's in! >> the english premier league, under way, that was manchester united new coming joshua zirkze,

coming on as a substitute and scoring a debut. man u beat fulham 1-nil. and capistrano each spring and the 17-year cicadas stay underground until the time is just right, my friends, here's our own capistrano cliff swallow bird, roger bennett! how are you doing, my man? >> oh, this is the 14th year i've covered the premier league on your show, joe. 14 years, to wonder what i'm doing here. >> 14 years? >> well, when i had hair, my own teeth. those are the days. >> you look like frampton in '76. your hair was all over. you know, it wasn't just mika, though. it wasn't just mika. you had quite a few other guests

staring at you why you were around. what are you doing on a political show? >> how the world has changed, joe, we're now a proper football loving country in the united states of america, in small part, thanks to you and your early passion. but the 2024-'25 premier league is back with us. shall we look at it? >> yes, yes, of course. >> oh, 380 days scattered over 281 days. it's the best of the paris olympics. you've got suave frenchman, cool-shooting south koreans and australian great dancers. eight sweet months. let's start, man city, with chelsea, going for the five-peat, while facing 150 charges. city open. and 80 minutes, haaland ran through the chelsea like they

knew it. city felt inevitable through this one, finished up, kovacic broke through. the goalkeeper. city win, and 2-nil. two things could be true, joe, you could be in legal jeopardy and still be very good at football. this is awesome, the club who believes that title challenges their season, to win against rules. the pick of the goals. young english stepping inside and unloading this shot. and celebrating, oh, by saying that we're not entertained. we are. the best act, this proctologist exam, yeah, right then and there on the field. arsenal clinched to go on to win 2-nil. and then you'll remember, joe,

at home by the boston red sox group. they kicked off the season with a new coach, a man with the head of an enormous baby. and ipswitch, and partially owned by ed sheeran. fresh hair transplant. he's got the freedom to no longer having to fear male pattern baldness. and liverpool, it begins for you, and chasing it and definitely hooper bounds, right? coming up, the next guest played the president in one of the most acclaimed drama mass of all time. martin sheen reflects on parallels between the west wing and today's race for the white house. that's straight ahead on "morning joe."

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the past eight to ten years have been about donald trump. everything's been about donald trump. i don't think that the democrats would have let joe biden get as

far as it did, if the party hadn't didn't confident that the republicans are going to nominate donald trump again, which the republicans did. the fact that biden was doing as well as he did until the very end is testament to the fact that donald trump, he has a very hard solid base of support, but it never gets above 40% to 45%, maybe a little more at best. his weakness, a predicate for politics. he was able to uncement hillary clinton an uniquely popular opponent but he couldn't beat biden. when you look at the midterms, it's all about one thing, it's about donald trump no matter how enthusiastic his supporters, nonetheless is not a majority candidate, he might win, but he's not a majority candidate. >> that's all i can say, we're a nation in decline. you know, we were talking about that before. my phrases are copied so much,

right? i use the term oftentimes in closing, we are a nation in decline. we are a failed nation. and i think it's a beautiful phrase, although i don't like the topic very much. i don't like what it represents, but there's a certain beauty. all of a sudden, all of these candidates, including republicans, i say, we are a nation in decline, we are a failing nation. i say, you know, what the hell do they have to copy me for, right? but they have a lot of words that they copy. many of the words in the plane before coming in, people said we went through a list -- i think we're going to release a list, let's release, but so many of our phrases are copied. >> i don't know about the copying of phrases, first of all, as a politician, you want other people to copy your phrases because it expands it but to say we're a nation in

decline is wrong. to say we're a failed nation is wrong. for republicans who may want to follow down that trail, let me give you some facts, america is a great nation. and the overwhelming majority of americans, and the people who will be voting for or against you this fall, agree with me. america's a great nation. america's a good nation. we fed and freed more people, through the years, than any other country on the planet. and, today, i economically stronger than ever. strong and relevant than the rest of the world and richer than the world economically, $27 billion gdp. the dow, higher than donald

trump. donald trump says drill, baby, drill. some democrats might not like it, but if you look at the united states and its oil production, the united states has produced more oil this past year than any other country in history. militarily, far from being a woke military, we are the strongest military power in the world. we're stronger relative to the rest of the world in any time, since 1945. culturally, just -- just -- i mean, i could talk about all of america's reach. let's just talk about taylor swift going through europe. and the economic boon that is for those countries. we're strong politically. we're strong diplomatically, again, relative to the rest of the world, america is stronger

than it's ever been. there just are no measurements that you can find that would suggest that we're a nation in decline. our enemies understand we're not a nation in decline. i've said it before, i'll say it again, again for republicans who as brit hume said, they've been following a guy who lost in '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, we're a great nation, americans are proud of their country, and donald trump's always talking about vladimir putin and what a great leader he is. you know our gdp is 27 trillion, russia's is 24 trillion and probably drop right now. texas has a higher gdp every year, than russia the entire country. california which is supposed to be failing has the fourth

largest gdp on the planet. that's how powerful we are. so, i could go on and on. it's just -- it's justing exhausting donald trump and other republicans say we're a failing country. that we're a nation in decline. it's just not true, you know, thomas payne talked about sunshine patriots, talked about summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. well that doesn't even define what this republican party is because it is summer. in america. economically. it is summer in economic. militarily, again, more powerful than ever. and yet, they're attacking us, and it is a strange form of patriotism that says america is only great if one leader is in

power. and if that leader is not in power, then america is in decline, the jury system and our court system can't be trusted. the economy is collapsing, and democracy is failing. that's what you have, with their side, when -- i say their side, those who are constantly attacking america. for those of us who are republican, independent and democratic who love america, who think america is great, regardless of who's president of the united states, these are pretty good times. and we're going to hear about those good times a few hours from now when the democratic national convention begins in chicago. nbc chief white house correspondent peter alexander has a look there. >> reporter: this morning, vice president kamala harris is

preparing to accept her party's nomination. punk situated sources tell nbc news about a pass the torch moment where president biden and vice president harris are expected to share the stage. but limits within the democratic party, they're bracing for protests with the hamas war lining the streets beginning overnight. thousands of demonstrators gathering. a protester rushing the stage at a dnc event. the new democratic ticket touring pennsylvania sunday. >> when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for. >> reporter: harris and governor tim walz in the buses with the latest personal attacks. >> anybody that's about beating down other people is a coward. >> reporter: mr. trump in the state earlier, bashing democratic policies as fascist. and calling those who enter the

united states fascist monsters and insulting harris' appearance. >> they said, her biggest advantage is she's a beautiful woman. i'm going, huh, i never thought of that. i'm better looking than she is. >> reporter: trump ally lindsey graham warning the former president should focus on policy, not personal swipes. >> if you have a policy debate for president, he wins, donald trump, the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election. >> reporter: for now, mr. trump's attacks are still drawing headlines, including this event last week, with mr. trump saying the gop medal of freedom is better than the medal of honor. >> it's actually much better, everyone that gets a congressional medal of honor, soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets. or they're dead. she gets it and she's a healthy,

beautiful woman. >> reporter: mr. trump addressing the comments in a you some interview. >> when you get the congressional honor, i always considered it the ultimate but it's painful to get it. >> reporter: with harris leading trump among likely voters nationwide though still in the margin of error, and they're neck and neck in the key battleground. >> we have a lot to do to certain the vote of the american people. >> let's bring the host of politics war and podcast james carve vel, james say senior adviser for the democratic rapid response organization. american bridge, that group's co-founder and former lsu fan bradley bayjok joins us. go tigers, at least until you play bama the first sunday in november. jonathan lemire is back with us as well. so, james, good win over kamala harris' back over the last couple of weeks, what would you

have them do over the next week in chicago to keep that momentum going into september? >> quick point. you're talking about the united states and how strong we are -- >> how great we are. >> we're like vanna white with everything. remember, joe biden inherited a high-crime country, when joe biden passes it to kamala harris it's a declining war crime country. i'll just add. i think the main thing that the vice president has to do in this convention is tell people who she is. people really don't know her that well. and this is an opportunity to fill a lot of that in. and i think they'll be able to do that. i think that's mission number one here, is put some substance and some biography behind our nominee. >> so, bradley, let's talk about beyond substance. let's talk about contrast, so this will, of course, be the vice president relaying her biography to a nation getting it

over until a deep way. but donald trump looming over the proceedings. what do you think is the choice way to frame the election now that the vice president and not president biden is atop the ticket? >> well, i think you just saw it. you saw donald trump talking about a nation in decline, but he's going to have a frustrating week because the democratic party has ascended. i think that's what we're seeing now. we talk about an election. joe mentioned we've won a lot of elections on abortion, democracy and freedom. we've won a lot of elections since 2016 and women have been the back bone of that and i think you'll see it continue to build on that success. >>le so, james, both you and i have been around a while. and you get exactly what i'm saying here. and you will not take great offense when i say it. but back when i was a republican, you'd have democrats wringing their hands, oh, america this did america that, we should be sole ashamed of

ourselves. as a republican, i'd sit there and go, man, this just is not going to be a hard campaign. as i've gotten older, the shoe's now on the other foot. you've got democrats talking about how great america is. and you have donald trump who, while he was running against hillary, he was talking about, you know, what a horrible country this was. his inaugural address, what was it -- i forget what he said -- sick nation. whatever. and now, he's going back to that nation in decline. like i said at the beginning, i don't care if you're a republican, a democrat, an independent, most americans love their country. and are proud of who we are, what we are. and how we're striving to be a more perfect union. so, talk about how our politics have been turned on our head. and whether you think there's any chance that this negativity, just bashing america is ever

going to work with independent and swing voters? >> well, joe, you know this, and i know this, there's a certain element of democrat that just is always mad. and how can you be laughing when there's injustice and poverty in the world. what are you doing cracking jokes. and to hear people change about the '90s, what is it that you didn't like, peace or prosperity? you were making money. republicans are a little better, because there is a sliver, maybe 15% of the democratic party that says you can't laugh, you can't have a good time, until every piece of social justice is eradicated from the face of the earth. and that's a terrible way to go through life. but some people choose to do it. >> so, james, tonight, of course, president biden takes center stage. this is, of course, a very different convention than he would have imagined a month ago.

now, he's focusing on passing the torch. what do you think the moment will be there to see, in the united center, as he gets up there to speak? >> well, i mean, i know my moment, probably wouldn't have known politics without joe biden all the years in the judiciary committee, vice president, and president for our years. and i hope he takes this journey and talks about all of the things he did. one of the better things he did, he came to the wise conclusion it was better to pass the torch. he's done that. and i think that's the capstone to a career that -- not just any democrat, but any american can take a great deal of pride in. >> you know, bradley, the map, the electoral map, has widened over the past couple of weeks. now, you actually have in the latest abc poll, you have kamala commercial ahead in north carolina. she's doing very well in arizona. the overall, i think the abc poll out this weekend, six

points among likely voters but the three states i'm sure you've been obsessed on them, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. what wins the day in those three states? ? and how does the harris/trump matchup in those states? >> the blue wall, 270 electoral votes. parties exist to win elections i think we're well positioned to do that. the good news for vice president harris is we've expanded the map. as you said, we're very competitive, there's seven swing states if you thought six weeks ago that north carolina wasn't on the map. it certainly is as we sit here today. we have great state parties, we have big candidates and senate elections and we're going to win. but those three will be the tipping point. one of those three. >> so, let me ask both of you

guys, the first saturday in november, first saturday in november. and who wins? alabama or lsu? >> well, first of all, we're very good at quarterback. even coach saban said lsu was right to sweep the teams in the s.e.c. last year, being generous, it was not adequate. but we brought new people coming in. if you believe what you read, coming out of the camp, look, alabama's probably the greatest -- is the greatest football program until modern college football. i don't think anybody can debate that. and we always love playing, and we always love playing in alabama. i can't wait, i'm excited, man. >> it's always an incredible game. >> bradley. >> going to be great this year. >> absolutely. >> okay, you went from good to great in two seconds. roll tide, go tigers, james

carvelle and co-founder of american bridge. we've got golden globe award-wins actor martin sheen. he's going to join to us talk politics. and the 25th anniversary of the "the west wing." also ahead, the head of the campaign arm, senator gary peters is going to join us live ahead of the dnc kickoff. we'll talk to him about the presidential ticket and the push to retain the majority in the senate. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. r what they. got it? [squawks] did you get that? only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty,♪ ♪liberty, liberty.♪ hey, everybody. w. kamau bell here. they say that america is the land of the free. but right now, people in the u.s. are seeing their freedoms taken away at an alarming rate.

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beat down. when, what we know, the real and true measure of the strength of say leader is based on who you lift up. that's what we see as strength. >> some of us who have less hair and are old enough can remember, when you could go to thanksgiving, watch a steelers game with your relatives, and not campaign about politics the whole time,. >> yeah, exactly. you know, we don't do that in my house. you know why? because politics is not allowed to be discussed in my house, especially during steelers games. or alabama games. or red sox games. or any sporting event. that was vice president kamala harris and governor tim walz over the weekend on a pennsylvania campaign bus tour through pennsylvania. with us now, democratic senator gary peters of michigan. he's also the chairman of the

democratic senatorial committee and homeland committee and host of nbc's politics nation reverend al sharpton. another thing, senator, that is not allowed to be discussed in our house. the rose bowl, man. you don't talk about the rose bowl in our house, not for a while. we went out west, and not so good, we did. you know, i was talking to bradley before about the swing states, you know. >> uh-huh. >> and mainly, the so-called blue wall that's not such a blue wall anymore. i was going to ask you about the senate races that really matter this year, but, my gosh, i mean, almost all of them are in swing states. you look at wisconsin, at pennsylvania. you look at michigan. ohio, a former swing state. you look out at arizona. you look in nevada, all of the

states that are going to determine who the next president of the united states is, are also going to determine, who's running the senate. how are things going in those states? >> well, you're absolutely right, joe. that's where the action is. they're battleground states. by definition, they're going to be very close. and you know these senate races, how important they are. when we elect kamala harris as the next president of the united states, she needs to have a majority in the senate. just to get through your cabinet officials. they have to be confirmed by the senate. clearly, judicial races, all of those are important as well. but just trying to move an agenda forward, president, future president kamala harris will need to have that senate. so we're closely aligned working hard. the great news, right now, all of our candidates in the states are doing very well. that's because they're basically candidate versus candidate contrast. where you've got great candidates versus highly flawed republicans that are running and

that difference is showing up in the polls. but we still have a lot of campaigning ahead of us. this is by far not over yet. we have to work hard to make sure that victory complete. i'm confident we can win. but we're going to need all hands on deck. >> has the races changed in terms of senate races with president biden stepping back and vice president harris coming in, and we see a poll change. what races now seem more likely? i mean, has montana changed? what are you seeing now, an advantage do you see, that you didn't see when president biden wasn't heading the ticket? >> yeah, montana, is no question a tough state. jon tester has proven he can run well above the base. he's an authentic guy.

he represents montana through and through. he's running against a candidate who has questionable background on a variety of areas. that's something on his own. same in ohio. ohio is a tough state, share rod brown is an a proven winner and is running against a very flawed candidate as well. if you look at the battleground states that we talked about, the energy that we're seeing on the ground with the harris campaign is strong. and that will lift everyone up. then you have strong senate campaigns. part of our success last cycle was we had very strong ground campaigns that turned out our voters. and when you do that, in conjunction with what the presidential campaign will do, they'll both be able to win. and they're going to work really -- kind of a synergy there between the two campaigns that will make the difference. >> senator to your point, senators tester and brown have kept a little distance from the harris/walz ticket. but the rest of the candidates that you just mentioned are

firmly embracing this ticket. many will be there this week. talk about how things have changed over the last months. when president biden was atom the ticket, as revered in the party there wasn't enthusiasm, and senate candidates were keeping their distance. >> yeah, now, the energy is definitely there on the ground in these key battleground states. particularly, when it comes to volunteers, i mentioned how the ground campaign is so important. that's how you win. that's how you win last cycle to identify to make sure they get out to vote. we need to do this election. you need to have troops on the ground, particularly young volunteers. the thing that's really fired me up as i've launched a couple canvases in michigan and had a lot of young people there. what is most exciting with the young folks i talked to, i would say 40 to 50% of them said this is the first campaign they've ever worked on. they were coming out to help vice president harris win the presidency.

they were excited about the senate candidacy. and that kind of energy pays huge dividends on election day. >> all right, chair of the dsnc, senator gary peters. thanks. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> this is more important than re-election. >> say it again. >> this is more important than re-election. >> say it. >> this is more important than re-election. i want to speak now. talk to the staff, i'm going to take them off the leash. >> do you have the strategies for all of this? >> i have one. >> what is it? >> this week, the 25th anniversary, we're honored to be talking with emmy and golden globe award-winning actor martin sheen. and actress melissa fitzgerald

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and you can help lift up this nation and all its people to that place where the heart is without fear and the head is held high where knowledge is free, where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow, domestic walls. where words come out from truth and tireless stretches its arms for perfection. the clear has not lost its way in the dreary sands of dead habit. where the mind is led forward with ever-widening thought and action into that heaven of freedom, dear father, let our country awake. thank you. [ applause ] >> dear father, let our country awake.

that was emmy award-winning actor martin sheen in washington, d.c. this past weekend, reprising his role has president jed bartlet, from the head tv show "the west wing." that took place in an event for a new book which sheen has prom innocently titled "what's next, a backstage pass for the west wing, its cast and crew, and it's enduring legacy of service." joining us with the coauthor of "what's next" melissa fitzgerald, she appeared in all of west wing as carol fitzpatrick and press secretary

c.j.cregg. when you said, dear father, led our country awake. if you would, talk to us about this historic time, troubling time that we pass through as a nation. >> well, first of all, thank you so much for inviting us to be part of the show at this historic time, truly. the words you played at the synagogue the other night were from the indian poet laureate, one of the great poets from india. i learned that poem many years ago working in india. they're so appropriate. whenever i speak in public, i always end whatever remarks i'm giving to whomever i'm giving them to with that poem. so, i'm glad you played that, yeah. >> i think that, you know, clearly, there's a ground swell in the country. i'm thinking back to reagan's first run when he said it's a new morning in america.

and he called america the shining city on a hill. that's the new jerusalem from the old testament. and that's what's happening in the whole country right now. and it's so rewarding and so refreshing and so exciting to have joy back in our political life, in our conversation. >> martin, i've been a real fan of the show. in fact, i have on my traveling ipad, all of the seasons. i watch it over and over. it prepared me for when i started having access when president obama -- i almost knew the rooms from watching the show. >> oh, wow. >> so, i'm asking you this, when you decided not to run again, because of in the show, health reasons, and then we saw president biden take a real statesman position and not run again this time, both of you

deferring, one fictional, one in reality, and supporting a person of color for the first time becoming president. in the scripps case, a latina, in this case, a black asian woman. did you think any of the parallels when you heard what bind would do, and where we are as a country now, dealing with something that, in fiction, you had to adjust to it. and we are adjusting to it in reality. we're talking about a woman and a woman of color for the first time in american history. >> well, when we were doing the show, we filmed that in the last season in 2006. and said we had no idea of what was in store. but the show has always been relevant, since we began in 1999. and it's still relevant today to a lot of new viewers that are finding it on streaming, or on various networks. and so it's still a source of inspiration. and there's so many areas, not just -- you know, the historic

time we're living through with the transfer of power, the passing of torch to a younger, more vibrant candidate, in this case, vice president harris. but, you know, somebody said this the other day when we were at the white house, that with the possible exception of jimmy carter, no president in our lifetime has ever made a more courageous, patriotic and selfless decision. sand you're going to see a ground swell tonight. of course, at the convention. that phrase, "thank you, joe" is going to resounding throughout the nation, throughout the world. thank you from a grateful nation, a grateful world. your courage, insight. and laying aside your personal ambition to the country, to the people. and his legacy has grown enormously. i had a chance to thank him in

person. gosh, i'm just tongue-tied each talking about him. even though i'm a wind bag, you know. >> oh no. melissa, in the book, you talk about the show's overarching message, and you write in part this, from the start, a commitment to service was in the bones of "the west wing" in its dna. it was the ethos of a show designed to be in the wording of creator aaron sorkin, a love letter to public service. that said, you can't get people interested in service if they're not watching. as aaron has told countless journalists, countless times, it was an hour a week devoted to telling good stories but between the smart, interwoven narratives, the periodic flourishes of workplace romance and back and forth banter, aaron also managed a study. one laced with inspiration, a

robust sense of patriotic optimism and a bold ambition, too. on top of all of this, his stories seemed to steer the conversation toward the better angels of our nature. and i'm reminded by bobby kennedy saying that public service is an honorable profession. and that really is in the dna "the west wing" isn't it? >> it absolutely it's. and it's in the dna of our book what's next. it's pt of what inspired to us do the book. the way we did it, too. it's a fun fan book with behind-the-scenes insights and stories that i think you can't get anywhere else. but it also ties into service. our friendships, we're really a family. and our friendships have been strengthened over the years and inspired by martin's march for social justice, for sure but we're all on a text chain together. we come together to support each other's issues and causes every single day. and in the book, we really lay

out all of the different issues and causes that the actors care about. and there are ways that people can support them. because "the west wing" was a love letter to public service. what's next a love letter to west wing, the army of people to make and fans who loved it and people inspired by it. and we all know so many young public servants who have been inspired to go and live this life because of "the west wing." and i can think of nothing that makes us feel better than to see that. people that are here to do the most good for the most people. >> melissa, as you look at karine jean-pierre and as press secretary, the way they're

treating her as press secretary in the white house and look at some of the ways that c.j. had to deal with journalists during "the west wing" shows? >> absolutely. i've seen many parallels, and she's done a phenomenal job, i think. and i would have loved to work for her too. >> i think she's going to keep her job, by the way. >> yeah. i think she should. >> yeah, i think so. martin, finally, i just want to ask you a general question. you know, i am an optimist. i remain an optimist. sometimes, my wife asks me why i'm so optimistic, but i am. i am. >> yeah. >> i believe -- paul mccartney had a quote one time, he was asked why he's optimistic. he said, well, you know, i look around, and in the end, i think we've got them outnumbered. the good guys got them outnumbered.

i look at you, i look at your face. i look at your life. and i just sense that you have this innerlight, this inneroptimism that sees the best in people. that sees the best in our country and sees the promise of america. talk about that. >> well, you mentioned paul mccartney, there was another englishman before him, during the worst part of the nazi blitz on london, mr. churchill was always upbeat, no matter what. and after a particularly horrific bombardment he was still upbeat. and one of his aides said, excuse me, sir, how under the circumstances can you be so optimistic? he said under the circumstance, what's the alternative? >> exactly. >> you really don't have any choice. we're either going to turn the light on. >> exactly. >> or live in the darkness. i'd rather live in the darkness. sometimes, you're a target, sometimes, europe a lighthouse. so i choose to be a lighthouse.

>> well, i agree completely. what other choice do we have. the new book "what's next, a backstage pass to the west wing, its cast and crew and den duerring legacy" on sale now. melissa fitzgerald and martin sheen, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> thank you so much. and we'll be right back with more "morning joe." and as we go to break, a look at the cover of the new issue of "the new yorker" depicting the roller coaster of both political campaigns. "morning joe" will be right back.

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so we made meat out of plants. because we aren't quitters. impossible. we're solving the meat problem with more meat. she grew up in a middle class home. she was the daughter of a working mom. and she worked at mcdonald's while she got her degree. kamala harris knows what it's like to be middle class. it's why she's determined to lower health care costs and make housing more affordable. donald trump has no plan to help the middle class, just more tax cuts for billionaires. being president is about who you fight for. and she's fighting for people like you. i'm kamala harris and i approve this message.

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>> i don't look at vice president harris as a lunatic. i look at her as the most liberal person to ever be nominated for president in the history of the united states. the nightmare for harris is

defend her policy choices. every day we're not talking about her policy choices as vice president. and what she would do as president, is a good day for her and a bad day for us. president trump can win this election. his policies are good for america. and if he had a policy debate for president, he wins. donald trump, the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election. so, i'm looking for president trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country. that's on, policy. policy is the key to the white house. >> i mean, i read a so-called republican who ronald reagan didn't like, by the way, and she didn't like him, but she got credit for being this reagan speechwriter, highly overrated. i don't know anything about her. treats me badly, but that's okay. she called it wrong. she's called it wrong now for about eight years.

but she said one thing that got me. she said kamala has one big advantage. she's a very beautiful woman. she's a beautiful woman. so i decide to go back and reread it. i'm not saying -- but i say i am much better looking than her. i think i'm much better looking. much better. i'm a better looking person than kamala. no, i couldn't believe it. she said, i had never heard that one. they said no, her biggest advantage is she's a beautiful woman. i'm going, huh. i never thought of that. i'm better looking than she is. >> um, he's referencing pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "wall street journal" peggy

noonan. who anyone who has ever been involved in politics certainly knows peggy noonan as i'm sure donald trump does as well. let's bring in nbc news political analyst, former u.s. senator claire mccaskill, also former mbs host chris matthews and the cohost of msnbc's the weekend, former senior adviser and chief spokesperson to vice president kamala harris, symone sanders townsend. jonathan weir with us as well. and claire, republicans are all saying the same thing. donald trump needs to talk about the issues, to which donald trump will mock them and say, i am who i am. he's now the popeye defense, and that's what he's always done. i am who i am. this worked for me before. this is going to work for me again. i don't need to listen to people like karl rove or peggy noonan

or other people who have been conservative and republicans their entire life. >> yeah, it's worked out so well for him before, he's never won the popular vote. by the way, it's going to get worse before it gets better because he goes there when he's under the most pressure and the most stress. and he can say all he wants that she's easy to beat and this is under control and he's ahead by a bunch. he knows. he knows the crowds are showing up for her and not him. he knows that she's winning in the battleground states. and the other thing i have to point out here, these guys woo keep saying his poliies are going to win for him, i have to tell you, that's thought a walk in his park. what are his policies, dobbs, taking away the freedoms women have enjoyed for 50 years or tariffs. they're going to drive up the cost of goods. or maybe it's loving up on putin and orban. i don't see his policies are some big lifeline for him

either. >> claire, i'm so glad you brought that up because that's -- that is one of the great misperceptions. everybody has this pre-covid, sort of this dream of times before covid, like it was some idyllic childhood. i want to start by what even people in the media still stumble around, and it's always been a pet peeve and it was a pet peeve even when donald trump was president. they were saying, of course, even somebody in the media would go, of course, his economy is the best. but -- actually, it just wasn't. if you look at economic growth, he ranked seventh among post-war presidents. he was behind jimmy carter in economic growth. so that's not the case. you talk about tariffs, the "wall street journal" editorial page, a very conservative editorial page says donald trump's tariffs amount to the

largest tax increase that anybody has talked about during this campaign cycle. he terminated roe. these are his words, not ours. donald trump's very proud of the fact that he terminated roe when 70% of americans consistently said they didn't want roe to be terminated. you look at crime. violent crime numbers, right now, lower than they were when donald trump left office. you look at illegal border crossings across the southern border. right now, they are lower than when donald trump left office. and one final thing, they were at a 50-year low when barack obama handed the presidency over to donald trump. then, they skyrocketed. so all of this talk about the glory days, it's straight out of a bruce springsteen song. i don't think those glory days were quite so great when you actually look at the facts

instead of what donald trump is trying to tell you. >> yeah. and the short cut for all the republicans that are embarrassed of donald trump, they don't like him, they wish he wasn't their nominee, the only refuge they have, the only place they can hide is policies, policies. and in fact, a lot of his policies, they don't even agree with. but that's the only thing they have to hide behind. >> that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage after a short break. tamra, izzy and emma... no one puts more love into logistics than these three.

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right now on ana cabrera reports, the kickoff in chicago. it is day one of the democratic national convention. the stakes are kamala harris as democrats begin the most unusual convention in generations. plus, the big speaker on night one, president biden. the tone he's expected to set as he makes the case for his vp. we're also following some breaking news. a one in 1,000 year flood event hits the northeast with video of dramatic rescues from flash flooding in connecticut. and later, america's secretary of state back in israel, his warning that this could be the last opportunity for a cease-fire in gaza. good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. and it is day one of the democratic national convention in chicago. it's a convention unlike