his base. it won't expand the universe of voters, and i think that's why he lost in 2020. for four years as president, he didn't do anything to expand his voting set. >> the coalition didn't come together in the broad way biden's did. john allen, thank you for joining us. not enough usage of the word switch-a-roo in coverage. we'll change that. thanks. >> thanks. >> and thank you for getting up "way too early" on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts now. james, how many are you putting into polls that say harris is ahead? >> we have a long way from august. the idea is to be good in november. and i tell democrats, some caution here. first of all, most say we have to win by three in the popular vote to win the electoral college. when you see a poll that says

we're two up, actually, you're one down if the poll is correct. >> yeah, you lose. >> the other thing is, trump, when he is on the ballot, chronically under polls. wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, came back, which showed biden winning by seven or eight. >> meaning trump will do better than the polling shows. >> traditionally, he under polls. >> means he'll do better in the election because people are too ashamed to tell a pollster they're going to vote for him. >> i don't know. i'm just saying traditional i will, with trump on the ballot, telling democrats, oh, james, debbie downer, what is he talking about? i'm just telling you, you have to win by three. i think we the debate on september 10th will be consequential and will have an audience that we can't believe. what does america love? a train wreck. >> democratic strategist james

carville with the word of caution for democrats on friday. meanwhile, jd vance was pressured on abortion and whether donald trump would veto a federal ban if he wins a second term. we'll play for you what the senator had to say about that. we're also following the former president, seeming to be rethinking the september 10th debate with vice president kamala harris. we'll show you what he posted on social media. and we'll bring you the latest out of the middle east after hezbollah and israel exchanged strikes over the weekend. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, august 26th. i'm jonathan lemire alongside u.s. special correspondent for bbc news katty kay. we're in this morning for joe, mika, and willie. katty, to james carville's point there, we saw both in 2016 and 2020, there were voters who the polls simply didn't pick up, who voted for donald trump. whether they were ashamed to admit they were going to vote for him. >> the secret trump voters. >> or voters

pollsters, who are off the grid. the trump campaign had success in bringing out first-time voters, which is the hardest thing to do in politics. we heard it last week at chicago, a triumphant event for democrats. we don't just need to win but win big to outperform the polls and also put up a margin so, therefore, donald trump can't contest it. >> it is interesting. speaking to some even conservative republicans who said to me, whatever the result is this election, i just hope it is super decisive so we don't end up in a period where we're in litigation and the country is in uproar because we don't have a clear result. some strategists said we need to win by five to compensate for that low polling factor on the trump side. with a history of polls in 2016 and 2020, i gave up. i went into poll a.a. after 2016 and said, i've sworn off polls forever. what do i do now? look at all the polls. >> we all do. >> yet, we all know they failed us in 2016 and 2020 for various reasons. i think, as james carville is

suggesting, we can't come out of the boom high of the democratic convention where they were all united and excited, thinking, okay, that's it. they've nailed it. it's clearly going to be a tight race for them. >> the president of the national action network and host of msnbc's "politics nation," reverend al sharpton is with us. let's get you in on this. the idea of flaws with the polls and the idea that democrats, no one is saying they're overconfident, but came out of last week feeling really, really good. there's a lot of work ahead, and they have to put up some substantial margins, considering also the inherited advantages republicans have in the electoral college. >> no doubt about it. i think last week was tremendous in terms of being a flawless convention. >> including, of course, the reverend's own speech. >> certainly was. >> thank you. but that does not mean that you win 70 some odd days later. we have to look at the fact that donald trump has a very loyal, solid base.

we do not know what he intends to do in the next five or six weeks. there's always the october surprise, they say. so i think that it is to his advantage to play underdog, and i think it is the vice president, kamala harris' advantage to say to her people, fine, all of my supporters, we had a great convention. now, this does not mean we win. she must fight like she's 20 points below because you don't know what this man -- this man is not only fighting for an election, he is fighting for his life. he is facing a sentencing september 18th on criminal charges, 34 felonies, and he is facing three other trials. he feels if he loses, they're going to run the gamut on him illegally, both financially with the new york state attorney general's case and with criminal cases. so you're facing a presidential race you've never faced in

american history, a man that has to win possibly to stay out of jail, at least be able to sell a lot of his legal problems. >> even if the georgia case is fundamentally perhaps doomed, the two federal cases would come back, were trump to lose this november. i think you make a good point. in virtually every speech the vice president has given since she took the top of the ticket, she's used the word underdog. she knows it's about motivation and trying to be the change candidate, the challenger, which is not easy to do. >> what we don't know about the election is whether it'll be about trying to win over some persuadables. both sides are seeing this as a turnout of their base election. if you can push your base to turnout, that's where you'd get the numbers. obviously, you'd love to win over persuadables, but there are so few to be had left in the swing states now. the focus has to be on getting your people to the polls. >> 6% at most. indeed, the enthusiasm surrounding the harris campaign following the dnc is making

republicans increasingly nervous. "the hill" spoke with a senate republican who said this. in some of the swing states, people are increasingly concerned the momentum is moving in the wrong direction. they're beginning to realize this is a wrestling match. there's not going to be any knockout punch, and they have got to get the best grip they can find. it's all state specific. adding, this is sort of when you have to slap the panic first person in the fox hole and get them to focus again, the senator said. it comes as donald trump, meanwhile, is struggling to stay in the spotlight. the former president did hold events to counterprogram the four-day convention last week, but his speeches did little to steal coverage away from the vice president and the democrats. >> yeah, basically got the coverage and the attention when he was saying the stuff that was not about policy, which is exactly what his campaign -- >> asked him not to do. meanwhile, the harris campaign raised an eye-popping

$540 million since the vice president took over the top of the ticket. the campaign said it reached the half billion dollar mark before harris' acceptance speech. then it raised another $40 million after that speech. nbc news cannot independently verify those numbers until the next round of federal election commission data becomes available to the public. a third of that cash came from first-time donors, including a notable amount of young people and women. vice president harris and governor tim walz are hitting the trail with a bus tour of georgia beginning on wednesday. it'll be the duo's first time campaigning together in the state. while the trip will be harris' seventh visit to georgia just this year, the vice president will end the tour on thursday with a solo campaign rally in savannah that night. the harris campaign is also organizing multiple fundraisers for the democratic ticket in the coming weeks. events are likely in new york, california, georgia, and florida, according to two

sources familiar with the planning. clearly, they said, we have to hit the ground running. we have no time to lose. >> it was a surprise she was off the trail a couple days after the convention. some of that, i'm told, is debate prep. the debate is just around the horizon. >> or maybe it's not. >> well, we'll see. we'll get into that in a moment. so that was the vice president's schedule for the week. trump is going to be barnstorming the midwest this week. the former president will be in michigan later today, while senator j.d. vance will be in the great lake state on tuesday. trump will head back to michigan on thursday before heading to wisconsin that night. the former president will end the week with a trip to pennsylvania on friday. but as katty hinted, trump is suggesting that he may back out of next month's debate with the vice president. in a truth social post late last night, trump railed against abc news, which is the host of the september 10th debate in philadelphia, accusing the

network of being biased against him. he wrote this, "why would i do the debate against kamala harris on that network?" adding, "they've got a lot of questions to answer. stay tuned." >> it's the stay tuned, isn't it? >> one of his go-tos. >> "the apprentice" all over again. >> we'll see if we debate. in may, trump agreed to two debates withunnamed democratic opponent. that's when joe biden was the presumptive nominee. let's bring into the conversation columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. as well as nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, who you just saw on "way too early." david, let's get your take to start with this suggestion from the former president that, well, maybe i won't do that debate after all. there's been a lot of chatter in trump world, that he is not

eager to square off with the vice president. sometimes he has trouble with taking questions from powerful women. we've seen that throughout his political career. but she's not just a powerful woman, she's a prosecutor. and the idea of a prosecutor versus is convicted felon seems to be one that he's not particularly excited about. >> so i think what we've seen in the days before the convention and certainly after is that trump just doesn't know how to deal with kamala harris. he opportunity know how to pigeon hole her. his usual language of belittlement, derision isn't working. there is in the country this sense, i think, relief from an election people were dreading between two candidates who have run before, an acrimonious, nasty convention, sense of the country locked with these two older americans. suddenly, there was a convention that really was a joyous event and that said, we've turned a

page. trump can't figure out how to turn his own page, i think, as he plans for the debate. he has to appreciate she is charismatic and charming on television in a way he fancies that he is. the camera loves kamala harris. she's learned in the cadence of her speeches, the way she presents herself, to be a formidable tv presence. donald trump knows tv. he's smart enough to know he's got a problem here. he needs to figure it out. >> in the atlanta debate, that was the downfall of president biden's campaign. but this will be a different one. it'll highlight the age issue, which is now an advantage to democrats. harris is nearly two decades younger than trump. if the polls are right, and we've been expressing skepticism this morning, harris is winning by a little but winning. doesn't trump need this debate to change momentum? >> he does. candidly, i share katty's

polling ptsd after 2016. i think we're not alone in that, and there is reason to be skeptical. it's why you saw the vice president get off stage at the dnc, and when she passed our colleagues backstage, she immediately said, now we have more work to do. that's my understanding of the mood within her camp right now. the mood within the larger democratic establishment is they learned the lessons of 2016. they're not going to take positive vibes and a positive attitude for granted. they are still going to get on the ground, making sure there are people knocking on doors, getting out the vote. i'm interested in, yes, the fundraising numbers, but also in the ways they have seen on the ground. in pennsylvania, georgia, volunteers who have never volunteered before signing up to do shifts, getting on phone banks, doing text messages. that's the actual stuff that will be the meat and potatoes of turning this energy into actual, tangible votes. john allen and i were talking about the stakes of the debate

and how much things have change on "way too early." the idea that in the last debate, it was biden who had so much to prove on his age, on his acuity, trying to assuage those concerns which we know ultimately were not assuaged, to the point where he is now no longer the nominee. those are now the things that trump has to work towards as he wavers on whether or not he is going to get on this debate stage. we all knew he'd try to play this will he or won't he game in terms of the september 10th debate. now that he is facing kamala harris, the landscape has completely shifted against him, and he now has to prove against questions of his age, his acuity, his viability, while also not veering into what he often does, which is sexist and racist attacks that don't earn him any new votes. >> of course, katty, trump is floating, we should do it on abc or fox, whatever it is. nbc or fox. he's just trying to get out. >> there is a downside risk for

harris, too. she has to prepare for the debate, meaning she can't be at rallies and fundraisers as much. it takes time to prepare for a debate which, in the end, may not happen. that's a problem for her campaign, as well. meanwhile, other news this weekend, robert f. kennedy jr. suspended his independent campaign for president on friday and endorsed donald trump, despite harshly criticizing the former president earlier on in his campaign. kennedy blamed the media, the democratic party, and the electoral establishment for his failed bid, but his public poll numbers have been dropping and he has not spent as much time on the trail in recent weeks. throughout his campaign, kennedy struggled to reconcile his career as an anti-vaccine activist with a need to win over a broader electorate. kennedy joined trump on stage in arizona. >> for the past 16 months, bobby has run an extraordinary campaign for president of the united states.

i know because he also went after me a couple of times. i didn't like it. and i mean this sincerely, had he been allowed to enter the democratic primary, he would have easily beaten joe biden, but they wouldn't let him in. >> nbc news has learned there was no agreement for kennedy to receive any particular trump administration role in exchange for that endorsement. though trump has left open the possibility. kennedy made no such demands for that role. that's according to one of the sources briefed on the discussion. larry sabato, the director of the center for politics, says rfk jr.'s endorsement of trump won't matter much. >> he has been dropping like a rock ever since kamala harris got in. when he started, he was in the upper teens. in some polls, he was in the low 20s. now, at best, he's at 5% or 6% in some of the states, and those

polls are outdated. you know, we've had a democratic convention. one network poll just a few days ago had him at 2%. one, two. for people who think that because he's endorsing trump he can just move that 2% into trump's column, they don't know much about politics. it doesn't work that way. it's not going to work that way. some of them will go to trump. some of them will vote for harris. some of them may choose someone else on the ballot. there are still plenty of other candidates, depending on which state you're in. i can think of several hundred things that would have more impact than rfk jr. dropping out of the campaign and endorsing trump, kind of. you know, he's in, he's out. he's in here, out there. frankly, it's embarrassing. >> kennedy's endorsement was criticized by his siblings, other members of his family. it is inconceivable it lines up with the politics of his father and uncle.

reverend al sharpton, those of us in new york a long time, for a while, he was a legitimate figure on the environmental movement. someone who really cared about climate change, how he could throw his lot in with donald trump is unfathomable. what do we think here? this is, asfessor sabato said, careening before admitting he dumped a bear in central park. >> i believe he had some credibility as an environmentalist. we worked with him at action network. but when the vaccine thing happened, it caused a separation with some people, particularly black churches where the anti-vaccine people were getting on us that we're giving vaccines to people in our communities.

then he went on and on and on, from the worm in the brain to the bear in central park. i think the only appeal he had for donald trump was he was a kennedy. donald trump, who is an old man, who is still, you know, romanticizing the '60s, said, i have a kennedy, like he is collecting art for his penthouse, and not knowing that there is no kennedy that goes with the kennedys and maybe few voters. >> i also heard trump is happy to have him and may use him as a surrogate vp and have him with him quite often when he is out on the rallies, just because it is like a trophy. having a kennedy with him. >> jd vance, the way he has been performing, he might need an alternative out there with his vp. >> certainly, there was some concern early in the campaign the last name kennedy would be distracting for low-information democrats. oh, i should vote there. but the more you know, the less

people seem to like him. he holds something with the angry, anti-vaccine group, but they were going with trump anyway. we should note, in a race with razor thin margins across the battleground states, even a little might make a difference. >> watch to see what kennedy has got. he probably did a negotiation. he reached out to the harris campaign, and they didn't take his call. maybe he goes after something. >> even a fringe candidate can make a difference. remember jill stein. >> in a tiny race, yes. let's move on to events around the world. it was a busy weekend in the middle east. israel carried out strikes in lebanon to neutralize what was a pending attack by hezbollah. idf officials said they discovered plans by the iranian proxy group to launch a large-scale attack on northern israel. that would have likely led to extensive casualties. hezbollah's attack was set to begin at 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning according to the idf, which says it preemptively

targeted thousands of the group's rocket launches in 40 areas. three people were killed in the strikes. hezbollah, in turn, launched a drone attack targeting a military base near tel-aviv as retribution for israel's killing of a senior commander in july. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said all of those drones were intercepted. hezbollah said the strikes hit their targets. president biden was briefed yesterday on both of the attacks in the wake of the weekend's strikes. defense secretary austin ordered two u.s. carrier strike groups to remain in the region. joining us now from jerusalem is nbc news international correspondent danielle. it looked like this was going to be the end of this round of strikes anyway. >> reporter: yeah. by the time most people woke up yesterday, katty, it was pretty much over. of course, the region had been bracing for weeks for

retaliation by iran for the assassination of hamas leader into tehran last month. which they blamed on israel. they were waiting for retribution in southern lebanon for the assassination of a high-level hezbollah commander. the israelis had intelligence reports that hezbollah had rocket launchers pointed at israel, to be launched at 5:00 a.m. according to israeli officials, at 4:30 in the morning, israeli jets were deployed, striking facilities along the lebanese border with israel. 20 minutes later, another 20 jets were deployed, hitting a total of 40 sites in southern lebanon. they say the rocket launchers

were embedded in civilian areas. hezbollah has a different version of events. they say that they had and they successfully launched 340 rockets, but they were able to target 11 military bases in northern israel. that allowed them to distract the iron dome and hit and launch drones deeper into israel. their target? the glilot military base. it is a unit of the 8200, an intelligence branch that's said to be linked to the assassination. essentially, hezbollah has declared victory. israel said they did not succeed in trying to damage the military bases or any of the military bases, and so both have declared

victory. but in the words of astrala, this was mission complete, but only phase one, leaving the door open to possibly a phase two. >> okay. daniele hamamdjian, thank you very much. david, we know officials are still in the region trying to negotiate. up against time now, really, with president biden leaving the white house in january either way. they're trying to get some kind of a deal on the hostages. how does what happened over the weekend and the prospect of any more tension between hezbollah and israel impact those hostage negotiations? >> katty, i think, first, the fact that the thing that the united states and everyone in the region has been dreading most, which was a direct missile barrage between israel and hezbollah, has come and gone. each side was careful,

calculated, deliberate in the way that it used these weapons, wanting to make its points, wanting to force deterrence. but it never became the kind of all-out instance that would lead to war. negotiations being conducted by the u.s. through egypt and qatar, intermediaries, are said to have hoped that a hezbollah attack might disrupt the battle space, the negotiation process. that i been waiting, thinking maybe iran, maybe hezbollah will come to our rescue. what we can see from the events of sunday is that's not going to happen. so i think there is going to be increasing pressure on hamas leader, sinwar, to succeed to what i'm told is greater pressure from his commanders in gaza, that it's time to do this deal. there's a lot that hamas gets

out of it in terms of evacuation of its wounded, the release of prisoners in israel, palestinian prisoners is extraordinary. there will be probably more than 1,000, many of them people serving life sentences, so hamas can boast about this. finally, in terms of the palestinian people themselves, the process of reconstruction, the plans for that are really quite significant. a lot of money, a lot of effort is going to go into gaza. so i think the pressure is growing. the negotiators are in cairo today, going over meticulous details. for example, hamas represent representatives are going over each name of the prisoners they'd like to see released. israel has a limited number of vetoes. as i said earlier, with 500

palestinians who have death sentences, they can't veto all of them. some palestinians, israelis, would not like to see on the streets are going to be coming out. they'll go through that list. they'll go through the list of israeli hostages. there's a number of palestinian prisoners assigned to each hostage. if it is an israeli woman soldier, israel agrees to release x number of palestinian prisoners. if it is an israeli woman non-soldier, it's a slightly smaller number. so they're down to that kind of specific bargaining. i think it's that that leads me to think this deal is close. nothing is ever there, never done in the middle east until it is actually done. but the fact that everybody stayed at the table through this, you know, bombardment across the lebanese border tells you there is a momentum for peace that's strong enough to continue, even in this really

dreadful period. >> it's also been striking, we've seen a couple of moments where israel and hezbollah or other iranian proxies or iran itself have exchanged missiles and strikes, but then everyone was willing to de-escalate. everyone involved seemingly did not want this to spiral out of control. we'll see if that continues, and we'll see if that deal does get done in the coming days and weeks. "the washington post"'s david ignatius, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. still ahead here on "morning joe," jd vance gets pressed about whether or not former president trump would veto a national abortion ban if the legislation reached his desk in a theoretical second term. plus, democratic national committee chair, jime harrison, is standing by, and he'll join the conversation on the heels of last week's convention in chicago. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. o *loves* f. like, *loves* fresh air.

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stupid. the new campaign slogan of 2024. democratic senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts warning of a possible federal ban on abortion if donald trump is elected, despite his running mate jd vance telling nbc's kristen welker that's not on the table. joining us now is the chairman of the democratic national committee, jaime harrison. chairman, thank you very much for joining us. congratulations on a successful convention last week. we want to get into fundraising and those comments on abortion, as well. but i want to start by this news over the weekend with donald trump floating the idea that he may not have a debate with vice president harris at all because he doesn't like abc news and their politics says they're biased. how much of a -- how much of a disappointment would that be to the harris campaign if the vice president does not get a chance to debate donald trump on television before the american people for this election? >> well, i think it's a huge disappointment for the american people because they want to see these two folks on the debate

stage talking about the issues that are important to the american people. you know, we made clear in our convention that this is about our fundamental freedoms. all those things are on the ballot. we know what donald trump's project 2025 is all about, about really going after those freedoms, the rights, and the basic level of infrastructure we have to protect the most vulnerable in our society. it's a full, frontal attack coming from the other side. those things need to be discussed. those things need to be debated. donald trump needs to talk about his actual agenda. scar this former president is so scared to get on the debate stage, but i guess if i had his positions, i'd be scared to let the american people know what they were, as well. >> chairman harrison, there was a bit of a tight rope the democrats had to walk last week during the convention. saying a fond farewell to president biden at the top of the ticket, then pivoting to making this very clear it's all

about vice president harris. a success by the numbers, the ratings, the fundraising. talk about how you plan to keep that momentum going. we know the vice president and her running mate are about to embark on a bus tour of georgia, a state very much back in play. what else will you be doing? >> well, you know, we have, over the course of the last few weeks, or since the vice president has been the nominee, we have seen unprecedented number of volunteers. and this is the great thing about that. volunteers are great if you have the infrastructure in order to utilize them. 3 1/2 years, we've been doing just that. we have hundreds of campaign offices in battleground states, thousands of staffers. we are equipped to take all of this new energy that's coming into this campaign and utilize it in terms of voter registration efforts, in terms of voter education initiatives, in terms of the voter protection programs. unlike the republican party, we didn't destroy our grassroots

and base of rationoperations. we built on that. the battleground states we had in the midterms which we beat back the red waves are the same state in which we kept some of those staff and have been building on that for the last few years. so i feel really comfortable. you're going to see a lot of grassroots energy, probably more than we've seen since the obama 2008 campaign. you've seen the energy. you saw it there at the convention. you saw where the vice president was able to pack a house in chicago and to pack the same house that donald trump was in for the rnc in milwaukee. that is the type of energy that we have on the ground, and it's unprecedented. that's part of the reason why donald trump is scared to get on that debate stage with kamala harris. >> chairman harrison, as we look at the fact that donald trump is now teasing that he may not show up for the debate, one question

i have is, do you think the vice president ought to show up anyway and expose that he is afraid to debate her, and that she's willing to show up and stand up and, in many ways, i think he cannot find a way to deal with this prosecutor. he's probably hmiliated that the convention did much better in the ratings than his convention did. he's one of these that is very much in the look at ratings. her speech got a much larger rating than his did at the republican convention. and it was a flawless convention. one of the things that i've noted is that you as chairman haven't gotten the credit you should have gotten for a flawless convention. i was there the whole convention. you certainly would have gotten the blame if the riots and other things that people predicted had

happened. >> well, on that last note, rev, you know, minyon and i were doing our jobs. much credit to minyon moore, stephanie, the convention, they did a wonderful job. i'm pleased by how it went off. you know, when you look at it, kamala harris has been getting bigger crowds than donald trump. kamala harris has been getting more volunteers than donald trump. kamala harris has been getting better ratings than donald trump. raised more money than donald trump. we are going to win this race. he's scared about that. he's scared, you know, to be beaten by this woman, this black woman who is so capable and so intelligent and is probably the most equipped person to be president of the united state walking on the face of this earth. we're going to continue to press the case. we're going to continue to run

as if we're down. we're going to continue to go all around this country making sure that our message of freedom and joy and hope is resonant, but also that, you know, we are committed to making america great for all of america's people. we know that america's greatness isn't in her past but is in her future. rev, that's the commitment that you will see from this campaign. we're not going to let up. i can understand why donald trump would be afraid. if you saw those numbers, those types of crowds, i'd be afraid, too. you know, the folks in this country are hungry for positivity. they're hungry for hope and joy, not for fear and bigotry, hatred and division. that's what they're getting from the other side. >> chairman of the democratic national committee, jaime harrison, thank you. we'll speak to you again soon. >> thank you, all. good morning. meanwhile, pennsylvania democrats are looking to increase support for vice president harris, particularly in the rural counties that trump dominated in 2020.

over the weekend, rural democrats gathered for demstock, a two-day event meant to engage with democrats in areas historically seen as republican strongholds. senator john fetterman of pennsylvania was in attendance and said this is how you win the swing state. >> we all understand that the path to the white house comes right through pennsylvania. pennsylvania picks the president, and they're going to carry that. they understand that it is going to be in rooms just like this. you're going to be in rooms like this because you have red county dems, and they are doing the hard work. it is not necessarily the sexy kind of job, but they are dedicated.believers. that's why you can fill a room like this, because they believe in the harris and walz ticket. they are not here in this business to turn, like, a deep red county blue. it's about to jam things up and blunt the kinds of margins that

allow trump to possibly win here in pennsylvania. >> senator fetterman there. joining us now, pennsylvania state senator and chairman of the pennsylvania democrats, sharif street. he attended demstock this weekend. thank you so much for being here, sir. talk to us about this plan. we know we saw it in 2016. we saw it again in 2020. trump really doing well. ran up the score in a lot of those rural counties in pennsylvania and some other states, allowing him to, at times, offset democratic gains elsewhere. talk to us about this renewed focus, and does governor walz, harris' running mate, play a role? >> one, thank you for having us on there. and you're absolutely right. in pennsylvania, we've recognized that we've got to reach out to all of our cou counties. in 2016, we didn't have enough of a -- we didn't go to red counties enough. we weren't present enough. we learned from that. when i ran and became vice chair in '18, we started going to red

counties. when i went into state senate, there were 34 -- republicans held 34 out of 50 state senators. we're only three seats down now. they had a massive lead of 20 or 30 member lead in the statehouse. we now control that. part of that was because we messaged. we found there were people who voted for barack obama twice, then voted for donald trump. we got a lot of those people back in 2020. those people voted for joe biden. we've got to hold on to them. part of how we do that, we have to remind them of the affordable care act. obamacare, as they say, hundreds of thousands of people in rural pennsylvania got health care because of that. we have to talk about that. we're not reaching all of them but can reach some of them. this administration has been supportive of unions. we have to talk to those folks. part of it is showing up. i was glad to be out there when i got back from the convention. got up early in the morning and drove out to jefferson county. took me about 6 hours from philly. we still got out there and talked to them. john fetterman has been great.

tim walz's message as a high school football coach is going to really resonate with folks out there. i applaud the vice president and governor walz, coach walz. they were already out there. they were out there when we first got to the convention, before the convention started. they were out there. they were in beaver county, traveling southwestern p.a., and they let people know that democrats are here. we're here, and we're going to compete for your votes. >> senator, it is ali vitali here in washington. i wonder if i can ask you, in this sea of change we have seen over the course of the last few weeks, from biden as the nominee to kamala harris as the nominee, as someone who knows pennsylvania, what are the challenges that she has on the ground there that maybe biden didn't have? similarly, what are the things she brings that biden couldn't at this moment in 2024? >> first, you know, logistics of just switching the campaign over. look, there has been renewed

energy in urban centers. black and brown voters who like joe biden's record but have some concern about his age are totally engaged and fired up. she has energized suburban women, a group where she's talking to them and not taking them for granted. in '16, we underperformed in that group. look, she's got to reach out and talk to rural voters, places where hillary clinton lost some votes, that joe biden did better. quite frankly, barack obama did better. we have to make sure we're engaged. right now, the energy we're seeing has been pretty strong, and she's been intentional, going to those places. i don't think those people were unwilling to vote for senator clinton. i think as a campaign, we didn't get -- we weren't out there enough. we didn't touch them enough. we didn't have enough rallies out there. we weren't sitting in barnyards. vice president harris is going to do that. i think governor walz is going to go, too. his appeal, his every man appeal, talking about what it

was like to teach in a classroom, talking about as a high school football coach, those things matter. >> pennsylvania state senator and chairman of the pennsylvania democrats, sharif street, thank you for joining us this morning. of course, it's not about winning those counties necessarily but bringing down the margins of defeat that allows them to offset. >> woodstock or demstock, which would you prefer for the weekend? >> i mean, 50/50. tough call. coming up here, the battle for honest and an accountable government. our next guest says inspector generals are the most important public service you've never heard of, and they could be key to defending our institutions and democracy itself. that conversation is coming up next on "morning joe."

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with the runner at second base, norton? oh, it's perfect! the little league world series championship. >> a thrilling and slightly strange finish to the little league world series yesterday in south williamsport, pennsylvania.

the kids from lake mary, florida, won after executing a perfect bunt in the bottom of the eighth. the pitcher from the chinese taipei team fielded the ball well and threw it to first, but no one was there to cover the base. that is a tough way to lose a championship after their squad had led for almost the entire game. it's the first title in nine tries for florida in the little league world series. congratulations to those kids. they will remember this for the rest of their lives. look at the joy on their faces. but this next highlight brings me no joy whatsoever. we go to the big leagues. catch you up to date on the record home run pace for yankees slugger aaron judge. >> mvp. high fly ball, deep left center, back, see ya! boarding flight 50. 50 home runs. here's judge. can they go back-to-back?

high fly ball, right field. he's on the track, at the wall. back-to-back, he's done it again! a two home run day for judge. home run number 51, and the yankees lead. >> aaron judge with a simply monster game yesterday in the bronx, hitting home runs 50 and 51. he's now on pace for 63 this season, which would break his own american league record of 62, which he set two years ago. judge is also now only the fifth player ever to hit 50 home runs in three different seasons. ali vitali, you're a yankee fan. questioning why we have you on the show this morning. but that aside, even i have to admit, aaron judge is just about the best. he is shohei ohtani, i guess, basically the best in baseball. >> the man in pinstripes.

there are days i host your show and grit my teeth through the red sox headlines. today was easy to read the script. my dad will be happy when he watches the show. my upbringing as an avid new york everything fan felt good. i feel positively about how negatively you feel right now. >> fair enough. judge has been great. we can take a quick look at the standings here. opened a game and a half lead, the yankees over the orioles. meanwhile, the red sox are fading away. their postseason hopes about dashed, katty. >> i don't understand a lot of that, but i understand that ali is enjoying your suffering. >> i'm losing. she's winning. >> happy you're sad. ali. >> i'm so sorry. >> i would do the same. it's fine. okay. let's get on to something else now. they may be the most important public servants that you have never heard of. our next guest says that inspectors general are the last line of defense for american institutions and for our

democracy. glen fine served as the inspector general for the department of justice and the acting ig of the department of defense. in his book, "watchdogs," he explains why all americans need to know about the crucial role igs play. he shares anecdotes during his time as ig, including when he was fired by then president trump. glen fine joins us now. to lay this out for our viewers who may not understand the role of igs, what is it that an ig does, and why are they so pork important to democracy? >> they are internal investigators located within each federal agencies, 74 in total, whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud, and abuse in the agency, and promote the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness and integrity of the agencies. what most people don't know about inspectors general, they provide a critical check and

balance on government. in my view, an essential pillar of our democracy. they hold government officials accountable for misconduct. they investigate and audit programs of the departments that they work in. they return billions of dollars in recoveries for the federal treasury. most important, they make transparent how government operates. taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, and inspectors general do that. >> so i think a good way of explaining this and kind of describing this, illustrating this, is to explain to viewers why you were fired by former president trump. >> i don't know for sure why i was fired. i was the acting inspector general for the department of defense for over four years, in both the obama and trump administration. then the covid pandemic hit, and congress appropriated trillions of dollars in federal relief funds. it also created a committee of igs called the pandemic response accountability committee to oversee those funds and try to detect and deter fraud and abuse

in those funds. one ig had to be selected to chair the panel. i drew the short straw, and i was selected to be the chair of this committee. within a few days, president trump, who had said i will be the oversight, replaced me as the acting ig of the department of defense. i, therefore, could not be on the panel and could not chair the committee. i was not the only ig replaced during this time. there were five of us in total, including the state department ig and the intelligence community ig, who had brought the ukraine whistleblower matter to the congress. we provided aggressive and independent oversight. why i don't know why i was fired, i wasn't given a reason, i do know providing independent and aggressive oversight can make high-level officials unhappy, up to and including the president. that applies to any administration. >> glenn, on that vote, how are igs usually put in place, hired?

is it political? is it you come through the ranks? what makes those of us that are watching and that read your book, "the watchdogs," what makes us comfortable that, in essence, since you are watchdogs, there's no politics involved in who becomes an ig? >> igs, according to the inspector general act of 1978, are selected for their non-partisan qualifications. they're not tied to any political party, one side or the other. they're appointed by the president and confirmed by the united states senate, in most of the large agencies, including the justice department and the department of defense, where i worked. because they are nonpartisan, they normally remain, when administrations change. i was the ig of the justice department in three presidential administrations, from president clinton to president bush to president obama. i left the office and worked at a law firm for a little while. what can i say?

i'm a recidivist, so i came back to the government and worked in the department of defense as the acting ig for over four years in the obama and then the trump administration. igs are some of the most important public servants you've never heard of, but they do provide oversight of the government and make transparent how our government operates. >> and oversight "watchdogs, inspectors general, and accountable government" is on sale tomorrow. glenn fine, congratulations. thank you very much for joinings you this morning. >> thank you very much for having me. still ahead, we'll speak with the bryt writer of a new p in the "atlantic," with the title, "rfk jr. was my drugdealer." why this story is being shared on the heels of rfk dropping out of the race. "morning joe" will be right back. but i'm protected

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they were nasty. then they say, sir, stick to policy. don't stick to personality. you should be nice to people. sir, you have to be nice. i call them up, my geniuses, they get paid a fortune. actually, not that much. but i call up my people and say, they're knocking the hell out of me, and you say i shouldn't get personal? i have to get personal, don't i? i have to get personal.

i have to get personal. they get personal. but i'm going to do my best. so they're allowed to get personal with me, but i'm not allowed to get personal to them. >> that was donald trump speaking friday night in arizona, making the case yet again for why he should continue personal attacks on vice president kamala harris despite pleas from allies and other republicans calling on him to stick to policy. katty, not only was it a classic sir trump story, sir, do this, but this is now multiple times over the last week or so where he has been publicly very critical of his advisors. when he's done that in the past, that usually foreshadows some sort of shakeup. >> yeah. he's been polling the crowds on how he should run his campaign strategy. at one rally, he said, i'll fire all my advisors. clearly what the crowds want, and this is what donald trump feeds off, he wants them to have a good time. he wants this to be a show, wants it to be entertaining. he doesn't like talking about policy. it doesn't interest him, and he doesn't get the feedback from the crowd if they're not having

fun. there's no upside for him to talk about economic policy when he doesn't get that sort of adoration which is what feeds him. >> it's what he want to talk about. last week when they tried to have policy-bad events, he delivered them in a monotone, who didn't want to be there. susie wiles, seemed like there was a victory lap during the rny this milwaukee. now, there's scrutiny. trump back in corey lewandowski from the 2016 campaign, and there are ramblings about a shakeup there. i am jonathan lemire alongside katty kay of the bbc. in for joe, mika, and willie. reverend al sharpton is still with us this hour. joining the conversation is the co-founder of all in together and host of "majority rules" on two way, lauren leader. and u.s. national editor at "the financial times", ed luce. katty, it's a good group. >> let's jump straight into the

news. it's been a busy weekend. the trump campaign is down playing an expected polling surge for vice president kamala harris after the democratic national convention. in a new memo the campaign calls the wave of momentum seen since the vice president entered the race the harris honeymoon. it also warns that any bump from the vice president will be short lived. quote, post dnc, we will likely see another small, albeit temporary, bounce for harris in the polls. post-convention bounces are a phenomenon that happens after most party conventions. these bumps do not last. the memo mentions past election matchups that have seen post-convention bumps, including hillary clinton with a seven-point lead over trump after her convention in 2016. meanwhile, thewinning is fundraising fight as the race nears two months until the election. correspondent adrienne broaddus has more. >> let's get out there. let's vote for it. >> reporter: it's an all-out

blitz to the finish line. >> we must defeat kamala harris. >> reporter: with just 72 days until the election -- >> there will be time to sleep when you're dead. >> reporter: -- the presidential campaigns kicking into high gear. courting voters. >> we need to be thinking about the future. >> we're a nation in decline. nobody is safe. >> reporter: and collecting cash. vice president kamala harris' campaign saying they've raised $40 million since her convention speech thursday. over half a billion dollars since president biden dropped out july 21st. it's a battle for bucks. the latest numbers for the trump campaign, it says it raised almost $139 million in the month of july. as donations flow, so does the bank of promises. both parties campaigning on reproductive rights. >> when congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the united states, i will proudly sign it into law. >> reporter: on "meet the jd van

welker his running mate would not impose a federal ban on abortion. >> he'd veto a federal abortion ban? >> i think he would. he said it explicitly, that he would. >> reporter: as the harris campaign builds on the momentum of the convention success, republicans hope to gain ground and energize their base. >> on this note, ed, your latest op-ed for "the financial times" is titled "the astonishing metamorphosis of kamala harris." you write in part this, "harris' mem metamorphosis from indifferent vice president to the source of obama-scale enthusiasm has caught almost everyone unawares. cometh the hour, cometh the woman. she's a once in a generation natural. she learned from the mistakes of hillary clinton in 2016. though harris would be the first

woman president and a non-white one, too, her identity is not central to her campaign. harris has unrolled a near clawless opening to her campaign. politics is usually messier than this, like obama's "hope," the "joy" that harris has patented cannot last. but if chicago is any guide, it stands a good chance of reaching november in tact. ed, talk a little more about this piece. you're right. there are so many democrats who were, frankly, really worried about her in the first year or so of her time as vice president. some even speculated that joe biden should think about removing her from the ticket. she's certainly found her voice over abortion rights in the wake of the dobbs decision. still, very, very few saw this coming. >> yeah. it was probably unfair, a lot of the commentary on her performance as vice president. vice president doesn't get to choose policy, doesn't get to

make policy, only gets exposure when the main team in the west wing allow them to have exposure. she was given, you know, kind of a poison chalice in terms of the central america border challenge. we shouldn't forget that it was kind of consensus, conventional wisdom in washington, d.c. and beyond, right up until a day or two before biden's step down that harris just didn't have what it takes to really take the mantle and be a great nominee. that's been belied. a source, one of the reasons biden didn't want to step down is he didn't have faith in harris' political skills. it may have been five weeks but seems like five months, but this

has been an extraordinary, rapid transformation. not just in our perception of her, but in her ability to show that she has got a really, really extraordinary ability to rally people, energize them, and give them a degree of enthusiasm that this party has been sorely lacking for many years. >> to ed's point, until the final days of biden at the top of the ticket, closest advisors didn't think the vice president could do it. only within the last 48 hours or so there was new polling where she was doing better. >> perhaps she didn't have what it takes, part of the reason why he was worried about stepping down. the vibes were great, lauren. peggy noonan said this weekend at the end of her editorial that this will be, in the end, a policy election. when we get into the policy stage of this, and kamala harris

starts getting pressed more on policy, whether on the economy or immigration, do you think that she's going to have a trickier time kind of as we move from vibes to substance around policy issues? >> well, i'll address that, but i have to respond to ed luce, who i respect enormously. there was a split in washington between, frankly, the male pundits and women, including african american women, who have been saying a long time the vice president was being underestimated. that was part of the controversy that emerged when david ignatius was calling for the president to step down but was overlooking vice president harris for the stand-in. for women who have been watching her, we recognize she was imperfect and in an extremely difficult job, but it is unfair to say everyone in washington didn't think she was up to it. there was a gender divide. black women who know her have been in her corner a long time,

including donna brazile and others, which were angry that so much of the pundit class was not taking her seriously and saw that as bias. now to the policy piece. look, i'm not sure i agree with this idea that, you know, this is necessarily the policy election. i say this because i think americans do understand these very fundamental differences between harris and trump on core policy issues. i mean, they hit on it quite a lot during the convention. obviously, it was much more about personal story and values, but certainly when it comes to issues like roe, i think that's why you heard jd vance yesterday trying to claim a trump administration would veto an abortion ban. which is hard to see as credible, given the history of this administration. we're already seeing evidence of pushback on policy. yesterday, tom coton was talking about a vote she took around private insurance.

i'm sure we'll hear more. can you remember obama's details on policy leading to his election of 2008? i don't. what we remember was the hope message which, in fact, did ensure. by the way, she has a shorter runway. americans start voting early, in september in some states. that was very different in '16. i'm not saying she doesn't need to talk about policy, but i also do think that those who say that the broader messages about hope and joy can't sustain, i'm not sure i buy that. >> you know, katty, i certainly agree with lauren. i think that people that underestimated the vice president just had never really watched what she was doing because she was all over the country, even as vice president, working at various constituencies, working with them for the president. she was vice president. she came to every convention that national action network had, naacp, all of us had. donna brazile and others were right when they raised this

argument about how they were leaving out of the conversation. she was a supporter of the base that was supporting president biden. but i think that the other thing that a lot of people are missing, that i want your thoughts on, is that with all of the enthusiasm, look at the numbers of volunteers they signed up last week. i spoke yesterday at her alma mater, howard university. i saw young people there signing up and doing things that i had never seen in washington, d.c. if they build an infrastructure to the campaign that absorbs a lot of this enthusiasm, yes, they may drop one or two points from the bump from the convention, but they will have an infrastructure that can catch that and keep it moving, something that i think people are missing, like they were missing the charisma of kamala harris. >> yeah, there are reports over the weekend, as well. there have been so many members of congress who wanted to become

surrogates. they had to say, we don't have enough public-facing roles for everyone who wants to be involved. even when she was vice president, before she had the abortion platform as part of her portfolio, she was getting long lines in colleges of kids wanting to turn out and listen to her speak. she was getting a great response from them. that was something slightly missed. we were all focused on her 2020 campaign, how it didn't go well, and the immigration and parts of the portfolio was going well. something at the moment coming up is taxes. in the "meet the press" appearance, moderator kristen welker pressed senator jd vance about trump's plan to impose tariffs on foreign goods. >> he did impose rounds of tariffs, and it cost americans nearly $80 billion in new taxes. do you acknowledge that imposing more tariffs will ultimately

cost consumers? >> what it really does is penalizing importers from bringing goods from outside of the country into the country. it is a necessary thing. >> but it caused consumers to pay for in taxes. $80 billion worth. do you acknowledge that consumers ultimately will pay more if there are more tariffs impose snd. >> economists -- >> do you acknowledge that? >> i don't, kristen. economists disagree about the effects of tariffs. there can be a dynamic effect, right? what some economists will say is what you just said. it will actually raise costs for consumers. but what other people say, and i think the record supports this other view, is that it causes this dynamic effect where more jobs come into the country. >> so the harris-walz campaign responded to vance in a statement, writing in part, "donald trump and jd vance wouldn't pass econ 101. their reckless tariffs are a national sales tax that will cost middle class families almost $4,000 a year, while giving tax cuts to billionaires

and big corporations." ed, for the american public to determine which of these viewpoints is right, that tariffs increase middle class jobs and wages or increase prices and, therefore, a tax on consumers is hard for people who are non-economists to sort out. it is hard for even economists to make a determination on. what's the public, do you think, going to make of the kind of interaction we saw over the weekend? where do you think they'll come down on this? >> what i think jd vance is wrong on, one point, when he says economists disagree, there's splits of opinion on that, that's really not true. the breadths of consensus from left to right amongst economists, kato institute, you know, to the peterson institution, the tax foundation, you name it, whatever the idealogical leaning of the economics institute or the economist, they'll agree on this basic precept. that import tariffs push up

consumer prices. there is no real debate and controversy about that. on that point, jd vance is wrong. really, you know, this is to economists a bit like gravity is to physicists. there are some things that they all agree on. so who will win the debate over whether this is a tax increase or a tax on foreign companies? i guess it depends who has the better messaging. i think it wouldn't be that hard to get economists across the board to say, look, on this agree. jd vance is just wrong. there is no good faith dispute on this question in our profession at least. >> so in that same "meet the press" interview, senator vance said he wouldn't change a thing about his childless cat ladies comment from 2021, telling kristen welker that it's not high on the list of his regrets. >> let me zoom out a little bit then. you're calling it a sarcastic comment. >> sure.

>> yet, some women, and you got the feedback in real time, felt like it was a gut punch to them personally. do you regret making that comment? >> look, i regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way, and i certainly regret that the dnc and kamala harris lied about it. >> do you regret what you said, senator? >> kristen, i'm going to say things from time to time that people disagree with. i'm a real person. i'm going to make jokes. i'll say things sarcastically. i think that what's important is that we focus on the policy. there's certainly going to be things that i say if i'm elected vice president, that people will say, i wish he'd said that differently. i think it is most important to be the person i actually am and to say those sarcastic comments were made in the service of a real, substantive point. this country has become too anti-family. it's too expensive to afford a house. it is too expenive to afford groceries. donald trump and i want to change that. unless we get better leadership, we're not going to. >> again, very quickly, given that people have told you directly, have spoken out, have

said that they were offended, they were hurt by those comments, to you wish you never made those childless cat lady comments? >> i think it is much more important for me to be a normal human being who says things sometimes people disagree with. >> noregrets. making a joke years ago is not in the top ten list. >> he was given many opportunities to clean it up, apologize, take it back, and he decidedly opted not to. how do you think that's going to play particularly with women? >> part of the clip also we didn't have time for is he goes on to talk about how he thinks that women who work need to have choices. the word choices was the word he used, which has just a sort of epic level of irony, considering that the trump administration is responsible for ending the choice that millions of women had under roe to make decisions about their body and about their health care. so, you know, jd vance is about as tone deaf as it gets. he has proven that over and over again. i mean, the memes on him are

pretty endless. he's not helping himself. he wants to keep talking about policy, fair enough, but this is part of his world view on policy. he fundamentally believes that we need to have policy that punishes women who don't have children. he has said that multiple times, and that is dead on arrival with millions of women, including women even in his own party who have said they were offended by it and that it was completely tone deaf. especially in an environment where we know that ivf is under assault, as well, and so, you know, women who want to have children are facing even greater burdens to having them. so, you know, this interview definitely did not help jd vance. i don't think it made him relatable. i don't think it helped him on policy or substance. it was not a win. >> certainly, though, it continues in donald trump's preferred strategy of never, ever apologize. lauren leader, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we're going to turn overseas

now. there's growing concern about a wider war in the middle east. this after israel launched what it called a preemptive strike against hezbollah, saying the iranian-backed militant group was planning to stage a large-scale attack. hezbollah responded, firing drones and missiles. foreign correspondent matt bradley has the latest. >> reporter: the day began with a massive display of firepower. israel launched what it called a preemptive strike against a planned hezbollah attack from lebanon. a pre-dawn volley of hezbollah rockets and drones from lebanon caused no israeli casualties, authorities said, and minimal damage. a month of rising fears about a region-wide war averted for now. "this morning, we detected hezbollah's intentions to attack israel." said netanyahu. "we removed the threat." still, both sides claimed victory.

hezbollah's leader deny thad israel launched a preemptive strike, but said their attack was complete. calling it retribution for israel's assassination of a senior hezbollah leader in lebanon last month, sparking concerns of a wider conflict that could even drag in the u.s. >> they didn't necessarily strike particularly hard. do you think this was a face-saving climb down by hezbollah? >> part of this attack looking not as big was our self-defense attack in the morning, before their attack. >> reporter: israeli handout video appears to show military aircraft targeting hezbollah firing canisters in the north and central israel. hezbollah said they fired 320 rockets at israel, and a volley of drones. even if the middle east can breathe a sigh of relief for now, for the hundreds of thousands of displaced from both sides of the israeli-lebanese border, there's no relief from violence and uncertainty. "the war has been going on for 11 months," said this lebanese resident.

"people are tired, and this is unacceptable." >> that was nbc's matt bradley with that report. ed luce, there have been -- the region has been on pins and needles for weeks now, wondering how iran would respond to a couple of israeli targets. one of which killing a commander in tehran itself. do we still think that in the wake of what happened over the weekend, that iran will still feel like it needs to retaliate? and how do you think this will impact the ongoing cease-fire hostage release talks? >> both very, very good questions which also have a baring, of course, on the u.s. general election in the next 70 days. look, iran, as you recall, back in spring, launched its largest ever attack on israel. hundreds of missiles and drones were launched on israel, and almost all of them were shot down by israel, the united states, and allies like britain and france. so i think iran, you know, will

have seen a demonstration effect there of what happens when it expends a lot of artillery and gets pretty much nothing for it. the sort of law of mutually assured destruction doesn't really work here because israel can destroy a lot of iranian assets. it's not clear that iran can destroy too many israeli assets. i imagine what the iranians are doing, and there are signs of this, is looking for some face-saving way to appear to strike israel without provoking a massive escalation. it is really the same formula as they had back in spring. and the impact on the peace talks, you know, antony blinken is tirelessly doing his shuttle diplomacy, you know, from qatar to cairo to jerusalem and back again. you know, as we've seen again and again and again, this same movie is replaying. it seems we're almost at a

cease-fire, but then there is a disagreement between netanyahu, israel's prime minister, and everyone else as to what's been agreed. actually, between netanyahu and his own israeli defense force. it would be a fool who would predict whether a cease-fire is going to happen, but i don't think hezbollah and iran carrying out kabuki attacks on israel is going to have that much of an impact on whether or not we get a cease-fire or not. >> national editor at "the financial times", ed luce, thank you for joining us this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump, who once reportedly referred to americans who died in war as suckers and losers, will address the national guard conference in detroit today. we'll talk to a congressman who is a marine veteran about trump's history of disparaging the military. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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antithetical. there is the capitol, looking sparkly this july morning. not too hot in d.c. >> katty, it's august. >> oh, you're right, shoot. >> it's been a long year. >> i'll get there. i'll catch up just in time for the election.

>> nearly september. house republicans spent years investigating president biden and his family, but now party leaders are turning their attention to vice president harris and her running mate, tim walz. the house oversight committee recently launched an investigation into governor walz's connections to china. take a look at what committee chairman james comer said on friday. >> look, minnesota is not your normal state where tim walz is governor. great people in minnesota. you also have, you know, a huge population of residents in minnesota that have come from other countries and have various different ideologies that don't really respect capitalism. we're concerned about that because we have the strongest economy in the world, but we cannot have more government. we cannot operate like china does where the government plays the major role in every business. the government has to have ownership in every business, and

the government dictates every facet of our lives. that won't work in the united states. this is what tim walz appears to believe, and we know he's taken students to china and tried to teach them that china is doing things the right way. >> okay. >> wow. >> rev. >> i mean. >> it's not a normal state. they have people from other countries, god forbid, who don't believe in capitalism. >> what does that mean? i think that what he is really showing is that the whole appeal that the republican party is trying to play on is an all male, all white kind of, you know, we must preserve what we consider to be american. which is as outdated as bell bottom pants. i mean, you can't deal with a country -- first of all, many people in new york, many people in l.a., many people everywhere came from other countries. what does that really mean? >> every state has people from other countries. >> right.

what comer is playing to is what trump is really saying. this whole male, white dominance, and they're other than us. walz is considered a conservative democrat, at best. i mean, and a bulldog democrat at that. to try to make him other than that, and do they give you a test on capitalism coming in? many home born americans have questions about capitalism, especially if you get to the extremes of it. so i think this is how they're trying to play to that base of, it's us against them. they're not one of us. that's what birtherism came from. that's what they're trying to do with kamala harris now. and now, they're trying to take a midwestern, white, male coach and make him something other than american. let's not forget, it was donald trump that was writing love letters to the head of north korea and that talks well of

putin. if anybody was flirting with people that were not for capitalism, it's his own republican nominee. >> we should note, cnbc had a study recently where they deemed minnesota the sixth best state in the country to do business. six out of 50. >> it has a large population from somalia, one of the biggest in the country. very dedicated to their state. i suspect that might be actually what he was referring to. >> that's a fair guess. meanwhile, former president trump today is set to address a conference of the national guard association that's being held in michigan. the "detroit free press" mentions it'll be trump's seventh visit to the battleground state this year. it begins saturday and features speakers from the military and chiefs of staff from the army and the air force. joining us now, democratic congressman jake auchincloss of massachusetts. he is a marine veteran who commanded infantry in afghanistan, as well as special operations in panama. congressman, good to see you again this morning.

so former president trump has, at times, been very derisive and dismissive of those who have served in the military, deeming them even suckers and losers. now, of course, he addresses the national guard association. what do you make of it? >> it's on brand for donald trump because he's always viewed veterans and service members as props, not as patriots. you may recall also that he wanted to do this ridiculous military parade when he was president. when it comes to parades, he doesn't want wounded veterans to walk in them because it ruins the vibe for him. this is just who he is. he is a small and scared man. it makes him feel big and brave to be surrounded by uniforms. he hopes it distracts from his record on the military and on national defense, which is that he got outnegotiated by vladimir putin, outnegotiated by kim jong-un, by the taliban. his own former cabinet officials, who wore stars

themselves, have come out against him as a threat to national security. >> his former chief of staff, john kelly, confirmed many of these comments that he made, being critical of those who served. we should also mention, of course, about what he said about john mccain in 2015. he preferred soldiers who hadn't been captured. congressman, let's get your reaction to this. this appearance today comes a week or so after he made these comments when he lauded a wealthy donor, saying that giving her the presidential medal of freedom was the, quote, better award compared to the top military honor, which is the medal of honor, because those recipients are often injured or deceased. >> yeah, and he's attacked gold star families, as well. donald trump just fundamentally does not understand what it means to put country before self. it is an alien concept to him. every time he is forced to talk about it, he comes across as tone deaf because it's just a foreign conception to him. what i expect he's going to do, regret

regrettably, is use this to swiftboat tim walz and his service in the national guard. he attacks and distracts. he is going to engage in this desperate smear job. let's be clear, tim walz served 24 years, deployed to disaster zones, and left four years after his retirement date and did terrific work for veterans on the veteran affairs committee in congress, including the g.i. bill. donald trump got five deferments from vietnam, including one made up for bone spurs. >> congressman, what impact do you think this whole debate between donald trump and tim walz or just donald trump generally when it comes to the military and the kinds of things he has said about members of the military, what impact do you think it might have on undecided voters in your district? >> it underscores how morally bankrupt donald trump is. i think that's really what this gets to.

i bet, frankly, if you're tim walz, you're kind of hoping donald trump keeps this up. tim walz is a tough guy. tim walz can take these attacks from donald trump. so long as donald trump is fixated on these ridiculous, self-defeating, and telling jives against an honorable man like tim walz, the more runway kamala harris has to talk about the future, to be someone who has a positive, joyful vision for the united states that can be, that unitunites us around o higher aspirations. two-thirds of the fundraising within the last weeks are coming from women and new voters. trump is out there belly aching and moaning about the past, as he always does. >> democratic congressman jake auchincloss of massachusetts, thank you for being on this morning. coming up next, donald trump's legal issues have received less attention of late as the race for the white house really heats up. we'll get you caught up on the recent developments in his slew

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why do couples choose a sleep number smart bed? i need help with her snoring. qulipta®. sleep number does that. thank you. during our biggest sale of the year, save 50% on the sleep number® limited edition smart bed and free delivery when you add any base. new york city looking lovely on this august morning. >> got it. >> nailed it, finally. finally got there. caught up with the summer. special counsel jack smith appears unlikely to pursue a public airing of evidence in the 2020 election interference case before election day. that's according to "the new

york times" who spoke with two people familiar with the matter. a so-called mini trial was one possibility following the supreme court's landmark ruling this summer that presidents enjoy broad immunity for official actions. meanwhile, the manhattan district attorney's office is saying it will not oppose a delay in sentencing for trump's conviction in the hush money case. the judge has scheduled sentencing for september the 18th. as we said earlier, but trump's legal team has requested it be delayed until after the election. let's bring in state attorney for palm beach county, florida, dave aronberg. dave, let's start with the january the 6th case and why jack smith now seems to be slow pedaling. is that a word? slow pedaling the production of pretrial evidence. why wouldn't he want people to know this before the election? >> katty, slow pedaling, slow walking, i'll go with it. jack smith may not want the defense to see his cards. he may not want the defense to

see the witnesses, be better prepared for the ultimate trial that will happen if trump is not elected. that may be part of it. he also may want to protect witnesses like mike pence from being harassed, threatened by the maga world. mike pence would have to take the stand in the mini trial. he may want to protect donald trump from having a sixth amendment violation, losing the right to a fair trial because jack smith tainted the jury pool. the whole thing could be thrown out. some say merrick garland and jack smith won't want to look political so close to the election. that is not a good reason to avoid doing this. whether you do it or don't, you'll be called political. the maga world will say they're weaponizing the department of justice. go ahead and follow the evidence and the law and do it. whether you decide to do it or not should not be based on politics. if you choose not to decide, you'll still have made a choice. that's my favorite quote from a drummer for rush, and it applies in this matter. >> were trump to win this

november, he could have his attorney general make it go away, the federal case, like it never happened at all. dave, let's turn back to the manhattan case. i understand everything has been turned off by the supreme court's decision on immunity, but this is a case where we reached a guilty verdict. the sentencing date has already been postponed once. why would the manhattan d.c. suggest he'd agree to a delay. why not just forge forward here? >> in the hands of judge merchan, i was surprised, too, jonathan. i do think there is no reason to have this delay. they've delayed the sentencing once and shouldn't delay it further. no matter what happens september 18th, donald trump is not going to prison. he'll be out pending appeals. just move ahead with the sentencing. the supreme court did say that you were supposed to establish whether there is immunity at the outset of a trial, but, here, the trial already took place before the supreme court's ruling. you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. there's no reason for the delay.

plus, this case is not about on appeal whether there was an official versus unofficial act. it is whether or not hopewester white house employees, should have been allowed to testify. that's a different issue, as to whether the actions here in paying off stormy daniels were official versus unofficial acts. no one believes that paying off an adult film star to get elected was an official act. >> catching us up on the trump legal developments, state attorney for palm beach county, florida, dave aronberg. thank you. up next here, we'll dive into a new book that explores how sport stadiums have played a role in the history of politics and protests. plus, actress diane lane will be live in studio to discuss her emmy-nominated role in the hit series "feud, kapoti versus the swans." morning joe will be right back. k . actively cools and warms on each side. during our biggest sale of the year, save 50% on the

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it is so fun to be back here in the united center. and as you guys know, a lot of good stuff has happened in this building. especially in the '90s. you young people, google michael jordan and you can read all about it, okay. so there was an amazing live in this building back in those days and i feel that same winning

spirit here tonight. >> that was obviously golden state warriors head coach, steve kerr returning to the united center for the democratic national convention last week which is the same building he won three championships as a player with the chicago bull's as he said in the 1990s. sports venues have played host in major moments in politics, music and even race relations. joining us is professor of african american studies at columbia university frank girdy. thank you for being here, congratulations on the book. talk to us about the origin of this idea. certainly we know in recent years there's been a backlash, shut up and dribble, telling athletes and coaches leave politics out of it but we're

seeing more and more it's not going to happen. >> no because venues like stadiums are a public institution. we saw that clearly last week at the democratic national convention, right? we saw it in the convention hall but those outside calling for the cease-fire in the war on gaza, right? i think because the stadium and the arena itself is entangled in politics, that means sports is also entangled in politics. >> frank, one of the things i see you brought to life in the book was in '72, there was a huge event at the l.a. coliseum, and this was a black music company that brought out isaac hayes and any number of people and one of the people that hosted it, reverend jesse jackson who you know was one of my mentors, there with his afro

and medallion. i told jonathan lemire i learned how to wear a medallion from jesse jackson. he doesn't believe me. this is like four years after dr. king was killed. even with movements like that way before colin kaepernick became part of what was protest movements in sports that these venues hosted events that were part of a movement of black and later lgbtq and other events like that. >> that's right. this is a history you know well you were a part of. the black movement has an impact on the stadiums. whether it was the negro rallies in the '40s or the rallies at soldier field across the country. >> chicago. >> yes. and the famous concert, which was about the staging of the

black nation at that time, the staging of black aspirations and because the coliseum was a publically funded venue, marginalized communities have access to the stadium. >> i was in chicago and it struck me there are so many levels for vips or private boxes. is there a new form of segregation creeping in? >> i wouldn't say creeping. it's there and architecturalized in most modern arenas. in the '90s we see them designed for the privatization set. and so yes, most of the time these venues are out of the reach of most common americans. because they are placed at a track people, they're centrally located they're spacing

improvised for protests like we saw last week. >> and a lot of team owners want the city and state to pick up the tab to build the stadiums. >> tulane had an event. the rev mentioned los angeles coliseum, in the black power event. and madison square garden hosted pro-nazi rallies in the 1920s and 1930s. the new book is "the stadium" thanks for being here. up next we'll have an update on the astronauts stuck in space for weeks. they were supposed to be there for a ten day mission and they're not coming back any time soon. any time soon or call 1-800-sandals

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james, how much faith are you putting in polls that shows harris is ahead in key states and nationwide. >> let me say this, august is a great democratic month we hell on wheels in august. the idea is to be good in november. and i -- i tell democrats, some caution here, first of all, most say we have to win by three. in the popular vote to win the electoral college so when you see a poll that says we're two up, you're one down if the poll is correct.

>> yeah, you lose. >> the other thing is, trump traditionally when he's on the ballot, chronically under polls. it came back late in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania in 2020 and showed biden winning these states -- >> under polls meaning trump does better than the polls show. >> traditionally he underpolls. >> means he's going to do better in the election because people are too ashammed to say he's going to vote for them. >> i don't know. i'm just saying to democrats, you got to win by three. and i think we can get there. i think the debate on september 10th is going to be so consequential and have an audience we can't believe because what does america love, a train wreck? >> democratic strategist, james carville with that word of caution on friday.

meanwhile, jd vance was pushed on the idea of abortion. we'll play for you what the senator had to say about that. we're also following the former president seeming to be rethinking that september 10th debate with vice president harris. we'll show you what he posted on social media. and we'll bring you the latest out of the middle east after israel and hezbollah exchanged strikes over the weekend. good morning and welcome to "morning joe," it's monday, august 26th. i'm jonathan lemire. along this morning with katty kay. we saw in 2016 and 2020, there were voters who the polls simply didn't pick up who voted for donald trump, whether they were ashamed to admit -- >> the secret trump voters. >> right or voters who never talked to pollsters before. because the trump campaign had success bringing out first time

voters the hardest thing to do in politics. i think we heard it in chicago last week, a triumphant event for democrats. we need to win, win big, and put up a margin so donald trump can't contest it. >> speaking to some conservative republicans who said to me, whatever the result of this election i hope it's super decisive so we don't end up with a period afterwards that we're in litigation because we don't have a clear result. >> i had some strategists say we need to win by five to compensate for the low polling on the trump side. with the history of polls in many 2016 and 2020, i gave up i went into poll aa after 2016 and said i swore off polls forever and now i look at all the polls. we know they failed us in 2016 and 2020 for various reasons. so as james carville is suggesting we can't come out of the boom high in the democratic

convention where they were united and committed thinking that's it, they nailed it. >> the president of the national action network and host of politics nation, reverend al sharpton is with us. let's get new on the idea of the flaws with the polls and the idea that democrats -- no one is saying they're overconfident but came out of last week feeling really, really good. there's a lot of work ahead and they have to put up substantial margins considering the advantages that republicans have in the electoral college. >> no doubt about it. i think last week was tremendous in terms of being a flawless convention. >> including the reverend's own speech. >> certainly was. >> thank you. that does not mean you win 70-some-odd days later. and we have to look at the fact that donald trump has a very loyal, solid base. we do not know what he intends to do in the next five or six

weeks. there's always the october surprise they say. so i think that it is to his advantage to play underdog and i think it is the vice president, kamala harris' advantage to say to her people, fine, all of my supporters we had a great convention now this does not mean we win. she must fight like she's 20 points below because you don't know what this man -- this man is not only fighting for an election, he's fighting for his life. he's facing sentencing on september 18th, 34 charges, and he's facing three other trials. he feels if he loses they're going to run the gamut on him legally, both financially with the new york state attorney general's case. so you're facing the race you've never faced in the presidential history, a man who has to win possibly to stay out of jail, at

least be able to settle a lot of legal problems. >> even if the georgia case is perhaps doomed, the two federal cases come back were trump to lose this november. i think virtually every speech the vice president has given she's used the word underdog she knows it's about motivation and trying to be the change candidate, the challenger which is hard to do. >> we don't know if it's about winning over some persuadables, which was my sense from the democratic and republican conventions both sides is seeing it as a turnout of your base election. obviously you love to win some unpersuadables, there's just so few left. >> 3, 4, 5%. >> kind of. and following the dnc, republicans are increasingly nervous. the hill spoke with a senate

republican who said this, in some of the swing states people are becoming concerned that the momentum is moving in the wrong direction. they are beginning to realize this is a wrestling match. there's not going to be any knockout punch and they have to get the best grip they can find and it's allstate specific. adding this is when you have to slap the panic first person in the foxhole and get them to focus again, the senator said. it comes as trump meanwhile is struggling to stay in the spotlight. the former president did hold events to counter program the four-day convention last week but his speeches did little to steal coverage away from the vice president and democrats. >> basically got the coverage and the attention when he was saying the stuff that was not about policy, which is exactly what his campaign -- >> they asked him not to do. >> meanwhile, the harris campaign has raised an eye popping $540 million since the

vp took over the top of the victim. they reached the half billion dollar mark just before vice president harris' acceptance speech monday night and raised another 40 million after that speech. msnbc cannot independently verify that. a third of the case scam from first time donors including young people and women. vice president harris and governor walz had hitting georgia tuesday, first time campaigning together in the state. it's harris' seventh visit to georgia this year. the vice president will end the tour on thursday with a rally in savannah that night. they're also organizing multiple fund-raisers in the coming weeks. events likely in new york, california, and georgia,

according to sources familiar with the planning. >> it was a surprise she was off the trail for a couple of days after the convention. some of that i'm told is debate prep because it's just around the horizon. >> maybe it's not. we'll see about that. trump, he and his campaign are barnstorming the midwest this week. the former president will be in michigan later today you while vance will be in the great lake state on thursday. the president ends with a trip to pennsylvania on friday. but as just hinted, trump is suggesting that he may back out of next month's debate with the vice president. in a truth social post late last night, trump railed against abc news, which is the host of the september 10th debate in philadelphia. accusing the network of being biassed against him. he wrote this, why would i do

the debate against kamala harris on that new york, adding they've got a lot of questions to answer, stay tuned. >> it's the stay tuned, isn't it? >> it's one of his go tos. >> it's "the apprentice" all over again. in may trump agreed to two debates with an unspecified opponent, no names listed there, but that was when biden was still the presumptive nominee. let's bring in david ignatius and ali vitali. let's get your take to start, david. with this suggestion from the former president maybe i won't do that debate after all. there's been a lot of chatter in trump world that he is not eager to square off with the vice president. we know that he has had -- sometimes has trouble taking questions from women, powerful

women. we've seen it throughout his political career. she's not just a powerful woman, she's a prosecutor and the idea of a prosecutor versus a convicted felon seems to be one he's not excited about. >> what we've seen in the days before the convention and certainly after, is that trump doesn't know how to deal with kamala harris. he doesn't know how to pigeon hole her, his usual language of belittlement, derision isn't working. there is in the country, a sense i think, we've been relieved from an election that people are dreading between two candidates who had run before, an acrimonious, nasty convention, a sense of a country locked with these two older americans and then suddenly there was a convention that was a joyous event saying we turned a page. and trump can't figure out how to turn his own page.

i think as he plans for the debate, he has to appreciate that she is charismatic and charming on television in a way he fancies he is. the camera loves kamala harris. she's learned in the cadence of her speeches, the way she presents herself to be a formidable tv presence. donald trump knows tv, he's smart enough to know he has a problem here, he hasn't figured it out. >> we, of course, saw in the atlanta debate, the downfall of president biden's campaign. this will be a different one because it highlights the age issue which now is an advantage to democrats as harris is nearly two decades younger than trump. if the polls are right and we're expressing skepticism this morning. harris is winning. by a little but winning. doesn't trump need the debate to change momentum. >> i share katty kay's polling

ptsd after 2016. and it's why you saw the vice president get off stage and she immediately said now we have more work to do. that's the understanding of the mood within her camp right now and the larger democratic establishment which is they learned the lessons of 2016 they're not going to take positive vibes and an attitude for granted they're going dpoet -- they're going to get on the ground and make sure people votes. but in states like pennsylvania and georgia, volunteers who have never volunteered before, getting on phone shifts, that's the stuff that's the meat and potatoes of turning this energy into actual tangible votes. and john allen and i were talking about the stakes of the debate and how much things have changed on "way too early" the

last debate it was biden who had so much to prove on his age, acuity, trying to assuage concerns which were not assuaged to the point he is no longer the nominee. those are things that trump has to work towards as he waivers on whether or not he's going to get on the debate stage. we knew he would try to play this will he or won't he game in terms of the debate. now he's facing kamala harris, the landscape has shifted against him. he has to prove against questions of his age, acuity, viability while not veering into what he does which is sexist and racist attacks that don't earn new votes. >> and trump is floating we should do it on nbc or fox. it's not abc it's trying to get out of the debate. >> yes. her campaign, they've spent the last couple of days, they haven't been on the campaign trail, they're doing debate prep. so she has to carry on preparing for the debail which means she

can't be at rallies or fund-raisers. takes time to prepare for a debate which may not happen, that's a problem for her campaign as well. other news this weekend, robert f. kennedy jr. suspended his independent case for president on friday and endorsed donald trump, despite harshly criticizing the president early on. his public poll numbers have been dropping and he has not spent as much time on the trail in recent weeks. he struggled to reconcile his career as an anti-vaccine activist with a need to win over a broad electorate. hours after the announcement he joined trump on stage. >> for the past 16 months, bobby has run an extraordinary campaign for president of the united states. i know. because he also went after me a couple of times. i didn't like it.

and i mean this sincerely, had he been allowed to enter the democrat primary he would have easily beaten joe biden but they wouldn't let him in. >> nbc news learned there was no agreement for kennedy to receive any particular trump administration role in exchange for that endorsement though trump left over the possibility. and kennedy made no demands for such role according to one of the sources briefed on the discussion. meanwhile, the director of the university of virginia said kennedy's endorsement of trump won't matter much. >> he has been dropping like a rock ever since kamala harris got in. when he started, he was in the upper teens and some polls he was in the low 20s. and now, at best, he's at 5 or 6% in some of the states and those polls are outdated. we had a democratic convention.

one network poll a few days ago had him at 2%. for people who think because he's endorsing trump he can move that 2% into trump's column, they don't know much about politics. it doesn't work that way. it's not going to work that way. some of them will go to trump, some will vote for harris. some may choose someone else on the ballot. there's flynn of other candidates depending on which state you're in. i can think of several hundred things that would have more impact than rfk jr. dropping out of the campaign and endorsing trump kind of. he's in, out, he's in here, out there. frankly, it's embarrassing. >> kennedy's endorsement was criticized by his own siblings, other members of his family. it's inconceivable it lines up with his father and uncle.

reverend, for many are wondering how he could throw in with donald trump. it's unfathomable. what do you think here, this is a campaign that was already cratering even before the revelation he dumped a dead bear in central park. do you think this is going to matter at all? >> i do not. i do not think it'll matter. i agree with you, he had some credibility as an environmentalist, we had him at national action network and worked with him. then he got more and more bizarre. and then when the anti-vaccine thing happened, it really caused a separation with some people, particularly among black churches were some of the anti-vaccine people were getting on us that were giving vaccines to people in our communities. then he went on and on from the

worm in the brain to the bear in central park. i think the only appeal he had for donald trump was he was a kennedy. and donald trump, who's an old man, who still, you know, roman ta sizes the '60s says i have a kennedy. there's no kennedy that goes with the kennedy, and maybe a few voters. coming up we'll get the latest from jerusalem. david ignatius explains how it might impact the push to bring home hostages from gaza. that's next on "morning joe." ge. that's next on "morning joe.

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let's move on to events around the world now because it was a busy weekends in the middle east. israel's military said it carried out strikes in lebanon designed to neutralize an impending attack by hezbollah. it happened on sunday morning. idf officials say that i had discovered plans by the group to launch a large-scale attack on northern israel that would have likely led to extensive casualties. hezbollah's attack was set to begin yesterday morning at 5:00 a.m., according to the idf. lebanon's health ministry said three people were killed in the

strikes. hezbollah launched a drone attack as retribution for israel's killing of a senior commander in july. benjamin netanyahu said all of those drones were intercepted, hezbollah said the strikes hit their targets. president biden was briefed yesterday in the wake of the attacks. defense secretary lloyd austin ordered two u.s. carrier strike groups to remain in the region. what more do we know this morning? it looked as if it was going to be the end of this round of strikes anyway? >> reporter: yeah and by the time most people woke up yesterday, it was all really pretty much over. the region had been bracing for weeks for retaliation by iran for the assassination of the hamas leader last month, which they blamed on israel. israel has not confirmed that it was behind it and was waiting for retribution reprisals by

hezbollah in southern lebanon for the the assassination of a high level hezbollah commander. and according to israeli reports hezbollah had rocket launchers aimed at israel to be launched at 5:00 a.m. here's a brief cron nolg of events. at 5:30 jets were deployed, striking a number of facilities along the border with israel. 20 minutes later, another 20 jets were deployed hitting 40 sites in southern lebanon and said the rocket launchers were embedded in civilian areas. hezbollah said they successfully launched 340 targets, and able

to target 11 military bases in northern israel that allowed them to distract the iron dome and launch drones deeper into israel. the target, the military base which is near israel -- near tel-aviv, rather. why this military base? it is the headquarters of the unit 8200. this is an intelligence branch, hezbollah says was linked to the assassination. so comments by the head of hezbollah yesterday essentially it's, you know, hezbollah has declared victory, israel said they did not succeed in trying to damage the military bases or any of the military bases and so both have declared victory but this was, yes, mission complete but only phase one, leaving the door open to possibly a phase two. >> danielle, thank you very

much. so david we know there are american officials still in the region trying to negotiate up against time really now with president biden leaving the white house in january, either way. they're trying to get some kind of deal on the hostages. how does what happened over the weekend and the prospect of any more tension between hezbollah and israel impact those hostage negotiations? >> i think first the fact that the thing that the united states and everyone in the region has been dreading most, which was a direct missile barrage between israel and hezbollah has come and gone. each side was carefully, calculated, deliberate in the way that it used these weapons, wanting to make its points. wanting to reinforce deterrents. but it never became the kind of all out conflagration that would

have led to a much wider war. hamas in the negotiations that are being conducted by the u.s. through intermediaries, egypt and qatar is said to have hoped a that hezbollah attack might disrupt the battle space, the negotiation process. they've been waiting, thinking maybe iran, maybe hezbollah will come to our rescue. and what we can see from the events of sunday is, that's not going to happen. so i think there is going to be increasing pressure on the hamas leader to exceed to what i'm told is greater pressure from his commanders in gaza, that it's time to do this deal. there's a lot that hamas gets out of it, in terms of evacuation of its wounded, the release of prisoners in israel, palestinian prisoners is

extraordinary, probably more than a thousand, many of them, people serving life sentences so hamas can boast about this. finally, in terms of the palestinian people themselves, the process of reconstruction, the plans for that, are really quite significant. a lot of money, a lot of effort is going to go into gaza. so i think the pressure is growing, the negotiators are in cairo today going over details, for example, going over each name of each prisoner they'd like to see released. israel has a limited number of vetoes but as i said earlier, with 500 palestinians who have death sentences, they can't veto all of them but some palestinians, israelis would not like to see on the streets are going to be coming out. they'll go through that list, go through the lists of israeli

hostages, there's a number of palestinian prisoners assigned to each hostage. if it's an israeli woman soldier, then israel agrees to release x-number of palestinian prisoners. if it's an israeli woman nonsoldier it's a slightly smaller number. so down to that kind of specific gar banning. i think it's that that leads me to think this deal is close. nothing is ever there, is ever done in the middle east until it's actually done. but the fact that everybody stayed at the table through this bombardment across the lebanese border tells you there is momentum for peace that's strong enough to continue even in this really dreadful period. >> coming up, congressman jason crow is the top democratic investigaing the assassination

attempt on donald trump. he heads to the site of the attempt later today but first he joins us on "morning joe." on "" your memory is an amazing thing, but sometimes it can start to slow down. but did you know prevagen can help keep your memory sharp? the secret is the powerful ingredient, apoaequorin, originally discovered in jellyfish and found only in prevagen. in a clinical study, prevagen was shown to improve memory in subgroups of individuals who were cognitively normal or mildly impaired. stay sharp and improve your memory with prevagen. prevagen. in stores everywhere without a prescription.

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but can you commit, senator, sitting right here with me today that if you and donald trump are elected that you will not impose a federal ban on abortion. >> i can absolutely commit that, donald trump has been as clear about that as possible. >> american women are not stupid and we are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion for women all across this country. >> american women are not stupid, the new campaign slogan of 2024.

democratic senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts warning of a possible federal ban on abortion if donald trump is elected, despite his running mate, jd vance telling kristen welker that's not on the table. joining us is jaime harrison. thank you for joining us. congratulations on a successful convention last week. we want to get to fund-raising and those comments on abortion as well. i want to start with the news over the weekend with donald trump floating the idea he may not have a debate with vice president harris at all because he doesn't like abc news and their politics, says they're biassed. how much of a disappointment would be that to the harris campaign if the vice president doesn't get to debate donald trump before the election? >> i think it's a huge disappointment for the american people, they want to see these two folks on the debate stage. talking about the issues

important to the american people. we made clear in our convention that this is about our fundamental freedoms. all of those things are on the ballot we know what project 2025 is about. it's about going after the freedoms and the rights, and the basic level of infrastructure we have to protect the most vulnerable in our associate. it's a full frontal attack coming from the other side, so those things need to be discussed, debated and donald trump needs to talk about his actual agenda. it's scared to see this former president is so scared to get on the debate stage but i guess if i had his positions i'd be scared to let the american people know what they were as well. >> so chairman harrison, there was a tight rope the democrats had to walk last week with the convention saying a fond farewell to president biden at the top of the ticket and

pivoting making it clear it's all about vice president harris. but talk about how you plan to keep that going. we no the vice president and her running mate are on a tour of georgia, a state back in play, what else will you be doing? >> we have, over the course of the last few weeks, since the vice president has been the nominee. we have seen an unprecedented number of volunteers. this is the great thing about that. volunteers are great if you have the infrastructure in the water to utilize them. for three and a half years we've been building just that. we have hundreds of campaign offices in our battleground states. thousands of staffers. so we are equipped to take all of this new energy that's coming into this campaign and utilize it, in terms of voter registration efforts, voter education initiative. unlike the republican party we didn't destroy our grass roots and base operations.

we built on that, the same battleground states we had in the in terms of which we beat back the red waves are the same states that we kept some of the staff and have been building on that the last few years. i feel really comfortable. a lot of grass roots energy, more than the obama 2008 campaign. you saw where the vice president was able to pack a house in chicago and pack the same house that donald trump was in for the rnc in milwaukee. that's the energy we have on the ground and it's unprecedented and part of the reason why donald trump is scared to get on the debate stage with kamala harris. >> coming up, here's an unforgettable headline. and i quote here, rfk jr. was my drug dealer. author kurt anderson takes us back to the '70s.

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pennsylvania democrats are looking to increase support for vice president harris. particularly in the rural counties that trump dominated back in 2020. over the weekend, rural democrats gathered for a two-day annual event meant to engage with democrats in areas historically seen as republican strong holds. senator john fetterman of pennsylvania was there and said this is how you win the swing state. >> pennsylvania picks the president and they're going to carry that and they understand it's in rooms just like this,

you're going to be in rooms like this, because you have red county dems and they are doing the hard work. it's not necessarily the sexy kind of job but they are dedicated, they are true believers and that's why you can fill a room like this because they all believe in the harris and walls ticket. >> they're not here to turn a deep red county blue. it's about to jam things up and to blunt the kinds of margins that allowed trump to win in pennsylvania. >> senator fetterman there. and now joining us pennsylvania state senator sharief street. he attended demstock this weekend. talk to us about this plan we saw it in 2016, again in 2020, trump did well, ran up the score in a lot of rural counties in pennsylvania and other states allowing him to at times offset democratic gains elsewhere.

talk to us about the renewed focus and does governor walz, harris' running mate play a role? >> one, thank you for having us on. you're right. in pennsylvania we recognize that we have to reach out to all of our counties, in 2016 we didn't have enough of a -- we didn't go into the red county enough. we weren't present enough. we learned from that. so when i ran and became vice chair in 2018 we started to go to red counties. when i went in the state senate, republicans held 34 out of 54 state senators. we're only three seats down. they had a 30-member lead in the state house. now we have the advantage. we found there were people that voted for barack obama twice and then voted for trump and then we got them back in 2020 and voted for joe biden.

we have to remind, the affordable care act, hundreds of thousands of people in rural pennsylvania got health care for that. weer not going to reach all of them but we'll reach some of them. there are union members doing well, this administration has been so supportive of unions. i was glad to be out there, got up early in the morning, first thing i did was drive to jefferson county, took about six hours from philly but we got there, talked to them. john fetterman is great. and i think tim walz's message as a high school football coach is going to resonate out there. i applaud the vice president and coach walz were already out there. they were there when we first got to the convention before the convention started they were in alquippa, beaver county, traveled around southwestern

pennsylvania letting democrats know we're here. many people don't know the name kash patel, but if donald trump gets in the white house we will. the atlantic is profiling him. "morning joe" is back in a moment. g him. "morning joe" is back in a moment this is our future, ma. godaddy airo. creates a logo, website, even social posts... in minutes! -how? -a.i. (impressed) ay i like it! who wants to come see the future?! get your business online in minutes with godaddy airo hi, my name is damian clark. and 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 help pay for eligible

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♪♪ they may be the most important public servants that you have never heard of. our next guest says inspectors general are the last line of defense for american institutions and our democracy. glenn fine was the inspector general of the department of justice and the acting ig in the department of defense. in his new book, he explains why all americans need to know about the crucial role igs play.

he shares anecdotes in his book. he joins us now. to lay this out for our viewers who may not understand the role of ig, what is it that an ig does and why are they so important to democracy? >> igs are watchdogs of the government. they are non-partisan, independent internal investigators in each federal agency, 74 in total, whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud and abuse and promote the economy, efficiency and effectiveness and integrity of the agencies. most people don't know about inspectors general, they provide a critical check and balance on government. in my view, are an essential pillar of our democracy. they hold government officials accountable for misconduct. they investigate and audit programs of the departments that they work in. they return billions of dollars

in recoveries for the federal treasury. most important, they make transparent how government operates. taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent. >> a good way to describe this is to explain to our viewers why you were fired by former president trump. >> i don't know for sure why i was fired. i was the acting inspector general of the department of defense for over four years in the obama and trump administration. covid hit. congress probated trillions of dollars in federal relief funds. it created a committee of igs called the pandemic response accountability committee to oversee that. one ig was selected to chair the panel. i was selected to be the chair of the committee. within a few days, president trump, who said i will be the oversight, replaced me as the

acting ig. so i could not be on the panel and could not chair the committee. i was not the only ig replaced during this time. there were five of us in total. including the state department ig and the intelligence community ig who brought the ukraine whistle-blower matter to congress. we provide aggressive and independent oversight. while i don't know why i was fired, i wasn't given a reason, i do know that providing independent and aggressive oversight can make high government officials unhappy, up to and including the president. that applies in any administration. >> on that note, how are igs usually put in place, hired? is it political? is it you come through the ranks? what makes those of us that are watching and that read your book "the watchdog," what makes us

that comfortable that since you are watchdogs that there's no politics involved in who becomes an ig? >> igs, according to the inspector general act of 1978 are selected for their non-partisan qualifications. they are not tied to one political party. they are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate in most of the large agencies, incluing the justice department and the department of defense. because they are nonpartisan, they normally remain when administrations change. so i was the ig of the justice department in three presidential administrations from president clinton to president bush to president obama. i left the office and worked at a law firm for a little while. what can i say, i'm a recidivist, so i came back to the government and worked in the department of defense as the acting ig for over four years in the obama and then the trump administration. igs are some of the most important public servants you have never heard of.

but they provide oversight of government. they make transparent how the government works. >> and much needed. it's on sale tomorrow. congratulations. thank you very much for joining us. coming up, diane lane is up for an emmy in her role in the limited series "feud, capote versus the swans." she's our government in the fourth hour of "morning joe." ."

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a beautiful shot of the golden gate bridge. sun starting to come up in san francisco. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." it's 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. in the east. i'm jonathan lemire. we begin this hour with the 2024 race for president. both the harris and trump

campaigns are gearing up to head back out on the campaign trail this week, making stops in those crucial swing states. senior white house correspondent gabe gutierrez has more. >> reporter: this morning with 71 days until the election, the presidential campaign is ramping up. early voting starts next month in six states. the harris campaign is announcing a bus hour to georgia. the trump campaign off an endorsement from robert f. kennedy junior -- >> i was surprised to discover we align on many key issues. >> reporter: is planning to head to michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. >> we're going to defeat comrade kamala harris. we're going to win back our beautiful white house. >> reporter: harris' campaign and its allies say they have raised a record $540 million since president biden dropped out a month ago. for its part, the trump campaign

says it raked in almost $139 million last month. now with the democratic national convention behind her, there's mounting pressure on vice president harris to hold a formal press conference or a major sit-down interview. senator vance tells chris -- kristin welker president -- >> he would veto a federal abortion ban? >> i think he would. >> reporter: as trump casts doubts on election results -- >> do you have faith it will be free and fair? >> i think it's going to be free and fair. we're going to do everything we can to make sure that happens. >> that was nbc's gabe gutierrez reporting. joining us now we have eugene daniels, special correspondent at "vanity fair" molly john fast and author of two "new york

times" best sellers, curt anderson. thanks to you all for being with us. eugene, you got new reporting this morning about how the harris and trump campaigns have hit an impasse over the rules of the upcoming debate. with the chicago convention behind us, all eyes are turning towards september 10th in philadelphia, the highly anticipated showdown between harris and trump. there are snags. tell us more. >> whether it's a speed bump or impasse or wall that they have hit, they are stalled at this one issue which is microphones, whether the microphones will be mute order unmuted. you remember for those who watched the cnn debate that they had the mics muted. that was something the biden campaign wanted. the harris campaign doesn't want that. the trump folks are advocating

for the rules as outlined by the biden campaign, which would include the muted mics. the harris campaign, they believe that he will likely call her names or say something untoward that we have seen behind closed doors of the things he is saying. they want that out there. they want the american people to see him do and say those things. it's interesting. i talked to both jason miller at the trump campaign and people at the harris campaign. they are blaming the other for this impasse. at the end of the day, the negotiations with the biden campaign no longer stand. the harris folks, when they said that they would do this debate, it was always under the fact that negotiations on the smaller things, location, moderators, muted mic, would happen at some point. the trump folks are saying, we want cnn or burst.

former president trump himself when he talked about this fox news debate proposed, he wants an audience which is the opposite of what happened in the rules of the cnn debate. >> it's interesting how the biden team proposed the muted microphone, but it helped trump appear to look disciplined there on air. molly, your take on this. certainly, trump also posted on truth social calling out abc, accusing them of being biased. he proposed other debates on fox. the harris campaign said no. they said, we will have this september 10th. then we will go from there. it seems that there's some reluctance in trump world for trump to debate harris. he has had trouble standing up to strong, smart women before. also, she's a prosecutor. she's good at this. at least for now, his efforts to attack her have been faltering.

witness, comrade kamala. >> that's a good point. you see here that it tends to be the candidate that's behind wants the debate. think about in the republican primary contest, trump didn't debate anyone because he didn't want to elevate them. he didn't need it. in this one, i think trump is conflicted. he could use a debate to reset -- or at least his thinking is he could use the debate to reset the campaign. the problem i think for trump is that we see all throughout harris' career, she comes from the world of being a sex crimes prosecutor. she has a lot of experience prosecuting. i think also you will remember that she was attorneys general. she was a senator. when she was a senator, she was famous for sort of nailing these members of the trump administration with questions. she has been really quite good

at that. if you are trump, you are conflicted. you want to reset the campaign. you think this could help you. you know that this is a very high stakes gamble. she's smart not to say yes to a fox debate. obviously, fox has many, many, many problems. i think that that is not unusual. for the debate that they have agreed, i think it's a win/win for her. if he doesn't do it, i think that also works. >> curt, we will turn to your wild rfk junior story in a moment. first, in on this. to molly's point, the incentive for trump is do this is because he is losing. he is down and the trend lines are with harris right now. that is a reason to try to change momentum. i have to think if he were to duck this debate, he would be called a coward by so many. that's something donald trump couldn't stand. >> i couldn't agree with you more.

it seems to me, this is a series of negotiations about how to do it. if it's all about the mics being muted, i can't imagine that would be a deal breaker. i agree, he is, i am tough, i am strong, i'm not going to let this woman show who is tougher. i can't imagine he would accept that. he would invent ways around that. whatever, abc is fake news. i can't imagine that that would go down with some of his possible voters. >> he will make excuses, i would think, as to how he might do. it's hard to imagine him not showing up that day. let's turn to your latest piece in "the atlantic." this remarkable headline. rfk junior was my drug dealer.

kennedy's endorsement of trump raises an awkward question. you write about it. you met kennedy in 1972, as a student in harvard. >> met him in '73. the story has this true fact headline and my anecdote about buying cocaine from him. during our freshman year. it's interesting. i have told friends about it over the years. never was going to write about it. never was going to publicize it. it was one of those interesting things, my little connection to this famous and increasingly famous person over my lifetime. why i wrote about it when he dropped out and endorsed donald trump and -- i was of two minds about it until i heard this amazing speech he gave friday endorsing donald trump. if they read it, people will see

it's not about he is a drug dealer at all. rather, my point was, what a strange, selfish, jerky weirdo he was as my drug dealer. by the way, the one time in my life i bought cocaine, just for the record. so that was my point. also to give a glimpse, given that in his endorsement of donald trump and his republican party he was such -- the idea of this environmental activist lawyer endorsing the most anti-environment president and presidential nominee, i think, in modern history is just extraordinary. it's about his own continuing his 15 minutes of big fame and perhaps it sounds like from the speech getting to be if not health and human services secretary, head of the fda.

i hadn't seen much about this. he talked about, i will staff these agencies so corporate power will not capture regulation. i will staff sounds like he is running for a possible second trump administration. moreover, his speech, this line of his, this alternative facts upside down world fantasyland trumpist idea of democrats versus republicans. he said, in the early '60s, first time i went to the democratic convention when my uncle was being dominated, the democratic party was the champion of the constitution and of civil rights and the party of labor and the working class and the champion of the environment and bulwark against big money interest. the democratic party, he was saying, is not that now. which is untrue and increasingly

untrue given the harris democratic party, combination of muscular foreign policy and progressive social and economic policy. at that point, i just lost it and said, okay, this guy is as full of lying fantasies, mental disorder, selfishness, whatever as trump. in my piece, i go on and i never thought about the degree -- the ways in which bobby kennedy junior and donald trump are so similar and always have been as these entitled rich boys who are -- have gotten where they are and are leading this one degraded political party to whatever it's being led to. >> you are right. we talked about it earlier. he was a pretty credible serious environmentalist. now he has tossed that away. molly, ask curt a question.

i want your take as to how much you think this endorsement will mean. >> this is the $100 million question. were they harris voters? i have read and heard many different theories of the case. i think this is one of these things in this insane election cycle where we won't know until we know. i have seen polls that have showed it helps trump. i have seen polls that shows it helps harris. i don't know. trump thinks it helps him which is why he has had rfk junior endorse. my question for you, curt, is that when i read that piece, which i thought was really interesting and quite smart -- there were a lot of -- to write these stories -- there is a kind of clubbiness to growing up -- going to the ivy league institutions. did you feel as all as someone who has had great privilege myself, i always think about how

important it is to really tell the truth. did you have a moment where you were -- you felt sort of like you were -- i think it's a very brave thing to do in a certain way. did you feel conflicted? >> very brave overstates the case. of course, the mob and swarm of trumpists and rfkists saying i'm a coke head jerk, nark, whatever on twitter was bound to come and it did. you know, again, once he did -- i thought for a long time and wrote about it in my book of an avatar of dangerous falsehoods about vaccines -- once he did this thing, this monumental act of hypocrisy, endorsing this person who is -- represents things and leads the republican

party that couldn't be more opposite of his father and uncle and uncles, it was just too much for me to bear. what i discovered in terms of as you say my -- in this club, but my old harvard friends have reached out to me, many of them saying, well, there's this story about bobby that kind of conforms. and there's this story. they all involve, interestingly, ones that they gave to me, were tales of recklessness, they were involved in -- what's he doing? recklessness in his selfish kennedy boy way involving other people. it seems to me that expresses so much about him. i don't care what trump is going to do as long as he lets me run the fda and apply my nutty ideas about drugs and chronic disease

across u.s. policy and allows me to continue to be a government official. that's what it is about. it's selfishness. damn the recklessness that i'm preceded with. i ended up -- i didn't feel very torn. one more thing about his speech. he said, if president trump is elected and honors his word to me, we will -- he said, we will -- america will be healthier in four years and chronic disease will disappear. if president trump honors his word -- i mean, that was an amazing line for me. >> we certainly know trump's history doing that. eugene, to the conversation we were having here about curt's point about trump may be the most anti-environmentalist presidential candidate we have had in a long time, this is what trump said a couple weeks ago during his twitter x chat with

elon musk. you know, the biggest threat is not global warming. where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years and you will have more oceanfront property. this is someone who is completely denying reality of what we are seeing here with climate change. robert f. kennedy junior is willing to throw away his life's work in order to have a few more minutes of political fame and associate himself with donald trump. >> that's right. even if that elon musk interview, musk was trying to save him. no, but you see it. you see that things are bad a little bit in the environment. former president trump kind of barrelled through. a lot of that has to do with a lot of folks in his base, if not largely in a lot of parts of the republican party believe that men and women and people do not have an impact on climate change. that things aren't getting worse. you hear people say things like,

the weather has always gone up and down. that's why it's called climate, that it changes. that's why we have seasons. we know all of those things not to be true. you look at rfk, someone who has spent so much time focusing on the climate and what it has done to this country and the way that he is now operating is about -- as curt was saying, looking to find a way into a possible trump administration, even in the way that he talked about how this endorsement came to be, he said part of the -- his issue was that the harris folks didn't want to meet with him. it's kind of obvious. he is the poster child at this point for the conspiratorial aspect of the country in many places, not just on vaccines. you hear it over and over and over again. that's not something that seems to be going away. the fact the harris folks didn't engage with him isn't

surprising. >> he has backed donald trump. curt, thank you. the remarkable new piece is available online now in "the atlantic." coming up, both the harris and trump teams have begun preliminary planning for a presidential transition. our next guest writes the allegiance of one of trump's potential hires belongs not to a nation but to one man. also ahead, she's up for an emmy for her role in "feud, capote versus the swans." diane lane joins us live in studio. you won't want to miss that. that's straight ahead when "morning joe" coming right back. (♪♪) new dove helps repair it. so, if you shave it? (♪♪) dove it new dove replenish your skin after every shave.

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at least a ibipartisan lawmakers will travel there. the fbi and secret service face increasing criticism over their actions that day and their handling of the resulting probe. joining us now, ranking member of the task force, congressman jason crow of colorado. he is a u.s. army veteran who served in iraq and afghanistan. thank you for joining us today. tell us a little bit about this visit. how will it go? who else is with you? what are you looking for? >> first of all, this is a really important effort, because it doesn't matter whether you are republican or democrat, we should all be able to condemn political violence. america has no place in our political system, in our discourse. every american should be

confident the candidates are safe. you do not get to attempt to assassinate a political candidate. we are going to make sure we are restoring confidence that the candidates and their elected officials are secure. that's our important mandate. the second thing i want to mention is that when this task force was created in congress last month, something really important and rare happened. every single voting member of the house of representatives, all 416 members present that day, voted to create this task force. it's rare when every single one says, this is an important thing to do. we will start from the beginning. we will conduct a thorough investigation. we are going to look at site selection, command and control, communication. we will figure out what happened, what didn't happen, what went wrong. then we're going to issue recommendations for how to fix it. >> certainly, it's been well chronicled some of the lapses in

terms of why wasn't the building part of the perimeter? why wasn't there better contact between the secret service and the police? what are some of the most important questions you are looking to get answers for? >> the first is, are law enforcement properly resourced? do we have the -- do the secret service have number personnel? do they have what they need to meet the threats facing our candidates today? we are in an era of heightened threat. we all receive threats. i receive them myself. are there enough resources? what does command and control look like? who is in charge of a site? is the campaign in charge? is the secret service in charge? where does local law enforcement come in? i'm a former army ranger. there's something called unity of command where you have to have a very clear command and

control structure and communication. the question i have, is that in place? is that properly outlined for folks? then we will look at things like perimeter security, whether they had drone security and what happened after the shooting? why wasn't he taken off stage? we will look at what happened that day. >> lastly, on another matter while we have you, overnight russia sent missiles and attack drones into ukraine. stepping up their attacks there. one of the most aggressive assaults in weeks. we know ukraine has had success taking the fight into russia. do you think the biden administration should completely take the leash off and let ukraine attack wherever it needs inside russia's borders? >> people should know that the ukrainians are in the position they are in, they have been able to withstand the assaults over the last two and a half years

because of their bravery and fortitude, but because the biden administration led a 51-country coalition to give them support, to give them aid, to give them training to put them in the position to succeed. all of that said, i continue to push for increased national security supplemental, for increased training and to give them the flexibility they need both in terms of targeting and intelligence and the use of weapons to strike across the border. russia and vladimir putin should not be allowed to sit back and lob bombs and missiles into ukraine over and over again, hitting children's hospitals, bridges, electrical infrastructure, targeting civilians without any type of repercussions whatsoever. i believe it's time we allow the ukrainians additional flexibility to help them win this war. >> that debate really picking up in washington.

democratic congressman jason crow of colorado. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. still ahead here, two astronauts who have been stuck on the international space station since early june are not coming home any time soon. we will go through nasa's decision to keep them in space. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. smile! you found it. the feeling of finding psoriasis can't filter out the real you. so go ahead, live unfiltered with the one and only sotyktu, a once-daily pill for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding you're so ready for your close-up. or finding you don't have to hide your skin just your background. once-daily sotyktu was proven better, getting more people clearer skin than the leading pill. don't take if you're allergic to sotyktu; serious reactions can occur. sotyktu can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb.

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welcome back. two nasa astronauts who are been stuck in space for over two months will now stay on the international space station until early next year. nbc news correspondent marissa para has the details. >> reporter: a week-long mission in space is now an eight-month journey for nasa astronauts. >> nasa has decided that they will return with crew nine next

february. >> reporter: the pair stranded aboard the international space station after their boeing starliner spacecraft faced a number of technical issues, including helium leaks and issues with the thrusters, which are vital for re-entry. nasa is tapping spacex to leave two extra seats on the crew nine mission. after tests in space and on earth, nasa deciding a crewed trip on starliner was too risky, citing the uncertainty in what the thrusters would do. >> the decision to keep them aboard the international space station and bring the boeing starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety. >> reporter: boeing writing in a statement, we continue to focus on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. last month, tom costello asking about the boeing starliner

spacecraft, including past issues of being over budget and behind schedule. >> are you confident in the performance of the ship for future missions as well? >> this is a tough business that we are in. human space flight is not easy. in any regime. there have been multiple issues with every spacecraft that's been designed. that's the nature of what we do. that mantra, failure is not an option, that's why we are staying here now. >> reporter: in a separate mission years in the making, spacex is on the eve of making history with the polaris dawn team. the private four-person crew will travel 870 miles above earth, the highest humans have gone since the last moon mission over 50 years ago. >> you excited to get out of here? >> hoda and savannah sat down with the crew. >> you will walk around for a couple of hours. >> train the astronauts across

all of our missions. now i have an opportunity with this crew to go and test out a new spacesuit. coming up, actress diane lane is live in studio to discuss her emmy nominated role in the hit series "feud, capote versus the spans." "morning joe" will be right back with that. coughed, laughed or exercised. i couldn't even enjoy playing with my kids. i leaked too. i just assumed it was normal. then we learned about bulkamid. an fda approved non-drug solution for our condition. it really works, and it lasts for years. it's been the best thing we've done for our families. call 800-983-0000 to arrange an appointment with an expert physician to determine if bulkamid is right for you. results and experiences may vary.

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send babe an invitation to your sorry little party. >> you were immortalized by me. you appreciate -- >> appreciate what? idle, shallow, pornographic women? you told more lies to hurt people than -- who does that? >> never let the truth get in the way of a good story. >> the classic line. that was diane lane in her emmy nominated performance. it's on fx and hulu. this is lane's third emmy nomination. the emmy and oscar nominated actress joins us now. congratulations. >> thank you. >> talk to us about what it feels like, the series has been so well received by the critics, by audiences, to get that

acclaim for the show but also your role. >> thank you. ten nominations, not bad. every department brought their a game. brian murphy knows what he is doing. i'm very blessed to be included in a stellar cast. i am excited to share this with naomi watts who is nominated in her category, tom hollander was impeccable, in my opinion. i'm biased. it's just amazing. the deep, heartfelt response to treat williams being nominated, even though it's after his untimely death. it's a poignant story all around. >> certainly. well deserved, all of the nominations. molly jong-fast has the next question. >> hi. this show is so incredible. it's a cast like you can't believe. tell me what it's like to -- i'm

sure you have worked with a lot of those people before. what was the feeling on the set? >> we all had a feeling on the set that we were lucky to be there and working on something uniting a lot of incredible women. it's lovely to be able to have women in scenes together. it's a joy. i think we knew we were on to something. it was fun. >> one of the incredible things about that show is that you have so many talented, respected actors put together playing their age, as a woman getting older in this business. talk to me about that. >> well, slim keith knew a lot about that. she was married three times to some very illustrious, successful hollywood men, whether it was howard hawks, the film director, very famously quoted as saying, faster, funnier.

that was big direction. leland hayward, a powerful producer of stage and screen. and finally wound up with the title, lady keith. she had many lives. she started out from a humble background. she was an evolved person and came into her comfortable self. i think she would be 101 now. i enjoyed her autobiography. i recommend it. i'm hoping it gets re-issued. >> do you think that this is a new world for women actresses where women can continue acting and have these -- one of the things i was struck by with the show is that women are still very sexy. there's a feeling these women are allowed to exist into older ages. this is something that as feminists we have struggled with. i'm wondering if you could talk

about that. everybody looked incredible. it was this feeling you could keep going on and be a woman actress well into your 80s. you know what i mean. you are much younger than that. but that idea. >> well, i don't disagree with you. i would say historically, as jane fonda put it, the season of just spring. now i think we are valued for a lot more than just our procreative years. >> eugene daniels has the next question. >> hi. congrats on the nomination. you have been in the industry since you were 6? since you were a kid. you have seen a lot of changes. you have always played fully-formed, complicated characters who happen to be women. i'm curious what you think of the industry's evolution in that we are starting to see that more and more and there's more of those characters for women in tv, in film, all over the place.

>> i don't think we have to look too far at the evolution of women in power and in structure and in the deciding aspect of many industries. you know, women have been considered the number one consumer of goods and services in our country, the deciders in their homes. now it's moved into larger realms of value and import and say so. i think there's more sharing going on. i think it's a conversation rather than just the framing of women in traditional roles and in just the male frame, gaze, filter. >> let's move back to the role that got you the nomination. tell us more about what drew you to this part. why you felt like this character was so important to bring to

life to the small screen. >> you know, the essence of the story, of course, is beautifully brought to life by naomi watts when she has this incredible moment of challenging my character slim keith to say, i want to forgive. i'm not long for this world. i'm about to die. she knew she was dying. slim had a different take on things. you get your sainthood, do your forgiving. i'm going to see this through. i'm going to make sure this man is shunned off the planet if necessary. i know her back story and how she got to be such a strong woman. but we see the end result of it in this. >> the whole series available to be streamed now on hulu. emmy and oscar nominated actress diane lane, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. next up, we will look at a trump ally that even in an administration full of loyalists stood out for his devotion to the former president.

that's why our next guest calls kash patel the man who will do anything for trump. we will go through the threats he could pose if there's a second trump administration. "morning joe" is coming right back with that. emergen-c crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. and who doesn't love a good throwback? ♪♪ now with vitamin d for the dark days of winter. the itch and rash of moderate to severe eczema disrupts my skin, night and day. despite treatment, it's still not under control. but now i have rinvoq. a once-daily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema —fast. some taking rinvoq felt significant itch relief as early as 2 days— and some achieved dramatic skin clearance as early as 2 weeks. many saw clear or almost-clear skin.

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do you feel confident that you'll be able to deliver the goods that we can have serious prosecutions and accountability? and i want the "morning joe" producers that watch us, all the producers that watch us, this is just not rhetoric. we're absolutely dead serious. you cannot have a constitutional republic and allow what these deep-staters have done to the country. the deep state, the administrative state, the fourth branch of government, never mentioned in the constitution, is going to be taken apart brick by brick. and the people that did these evil deeds will be held

accountable and prosecuted. criminal prosecutions. kash, i know you're probably going to be head of the the goods on this in a pretty short order in the first couple of months so we can get rolling on prosecutions? >> yes, we got the bench for it, bannon. you know the guys. he will go out and find the conspirators not just in the government, but in the media. yes. we're going come after the people in the media who lied to american citizens that allowed joe biden to break election. steve is why they hate us. this is why we're tyrannical. to prosecute for crimes they say we have been guilty of. >> two promising to prosecute journalists if he wins a second

term. steve bannon, and then kash patel, who served on trump's national security council. he made those threats late last year, on bannon's podcast, before bannon's incarceration. joining us, staff writer at the "the atlantic," elaina plott calabro. titled "the man who will do anything for trump. "elaina. thank you so much for joining us this morning. kash patel, a name that not many americans know. he doesn't quite have -- you know, steve bannon is certainly someone people are more familiar with. but kash patel is someone who served trump before. seems likely to do so again, in a very prominent position. tell us more about him. >> so, exactly as you pointed out, americans don't really know writ large who kash patel is. for that reason, i saw him in some ways emblematic of the sort of person that trump is most

likely going to hire to staff his administration. but the notes are that kash patel is somebody who came into the national security establishment of the trump administration with very little experience. starting on the national security council. but within a year and eight months, something to that effect, was essentially getting to the point where trump was hoping to promote him to deputy director of the cia, deputy director of the fbi. and you have officials like cia director gina haspel. attorney general bill barr, objecting vociferously to his promotion. i noted in the piece, in the second term, it's not likely at all that you'll have people like gina haspel in the administration to sort of restrain trump in the promotion of people like kash patel who are have been devoted to his agenda of personal revenge. >> we've heard now, bannon, patel, other trump allies talk

at length about going after journalists who they think oppose them. we just played a clip frankly, this show was mentioned. how real, elaina, do you think the threats are? >> i think they're quite real. i think in a second trump term we have to take very, very seriously and literally, as the old saying would go, the threats to not just go after journalists but any perceived enemy of trump in his first term. so this is not just media, but, you know, career officials in the government. people like kash patel feel quite strongly about the early days of the trump administration should be devoted explicitly to going after names like this. i think the widespread nation, definition of enemies is what should trouble many americans about this agenda. but, yes, i think we should take it quite seriously. >> eugene, take your question to elaina, but we should note that trump has said it, his mission,

retribution. >> yeah, he's said it. a great piece as always. i thought the most fascinating part of it was the fact that you found, and i think a lot of people who worked with kash patel said that he lacked in ideology. and that made him even more dangerous, unlike someone like stephen miller doesn't have this thing moving him. this policy that he's really obsessed with. talk a little bit about that, because i think folks will find that really interesting. >> it's great to see you, eugene. thank you so much for bringing that up. that was something i started thinking a great deal about as i interviewed people, former trump administration officials. i would say what is it that this person actually believes. and as you pointed out, stephen miller is someone, who beyond donald trump himself is quite committed to far-right policies on immigration. kash patel, however, his ideology, in essence, is loyalty to donald trump. so when i talk about gina haspel objecting adamantly to his

promotion to the top of the national security establishment, what is motivating those objections is the fact that whatever it is that kash patel wants to do hinges almost entirely on what it is that trump wants to do. there's no independent world view in his decisions. so, he is the type of person, as i noted in the piece, a former trump foundation said to me he's the persona trump knows can turn to and say, hey, i'm not telling you to break into the dnc. but -- to know that, trump sees him as this quote-unquote useful tool as this official put it to me, means that it's quite unpredictable what it is he can do in a second term. >> molly, please take the next question. >> how capable do you think he is? he's sort of very much a trump person, does not like ideological. but i'm curious in your mind, how capable do you think he

actually is by actually enacting these things? >> well, if he's powered by the president of the united states, he is quite. and i note he doesn't have a deep background in national security matters. the fact that he was in these positions of power, for example, one of his last positions was chief of staff, the department of defense acting secretary chris miller. in that position, kash patel decided that he really wanted to investigate, an insane conspiracy theory related to donald trump election fraud claims of two people imprisoned in italy at the time. the fact that he was in that position of power, it didn't matter, really, what his background was or his precise knowledge of levers of government, because of his proximity to president of the united states, the fact that he wants to pursue this one conspiracy theory meant that you got to a point where the white house chief of staff himself was

discussing this seriously. >> the new piece, an important one is online now for "the atlantic." staff writer elaina plott calabro, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you all. >> that does it for us, we'll see you right back here at 6:00 eastern tomorrow. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage. right here on, biggest assault by hezbollah since the region was overturned october 7th.iranian-backed group in lebanon, both sides could be stepping back from the brink of war. plus, with just ten weeks to go in the campaign, vice president harris and former president trump ramp up their ground game in crucial states, as trump raises now doubts about whether he's going to debate harris next month. also today, lawmakers canvas the site where former president trump was shot in