still want to know what she's for, what she'll do. at the convention she did a good job saying, i'm a mainstream democrat, not a liberal progressive. if she can present herself in a similar way and reassure some people who are sort of on the fence about her, that's all she really needs to do. there will be a lot of questions about her past positions and, you know, why all of a sudden she doesn't support of lot of what she does. if she has a good answer for those, it's a win. >> the difference between the candidate i covered in 2019 and the candidate we're all covering now is the thing i'm most interested in seeing what she teases out here. brendan buck, thank you for waking up with us and bringing a new history fact to mind. i didn't know that about george h.w. bush. and thank you, viewers, for waking up with us "way too early" on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. a shot of the u.s. capitol. hours from now, vice president kamala harris and her running mate, governor tim walz, will hold a rally in savannah, georgia, in hopes of making

inroads with voters in republican strongholds. we'll break down the campaign's strategy and if it is enough to beat donald trump in that battleground state. plus, we'll speak with "the 19th" about biden's decision to drop out of the race, creating a singular moment in politics. she'll explain how it can give harris a chance at history. a nasty, new attack by republican running mate j.d. vance. what the ohio senator is saying now as the controversy over donald trump's visit to arlington national cemetery heats up. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, august 29th. thank you for being here. i'm jonathan lemire. i'm in this morning for joe, mika, and willie. happy to say, though, i have test. with us, we have msnbc political analyst elise jordan. she's a former aide to the george w bush white house and state department. manaing editor at "the

bulwark," sam stein. got through security. he's here. and nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, who you saw on "way too early." thanks, everyone, for being here. let's dive in. kamala harris and donald trump are essentially tied in every sunbelt swing state. that's according to brand-new fox news polling. it shows that harris leads trump by one point among registered voters in arizona and by two points in both georgia and nevada. trump, meanwhile, leads by a single point in north carolina. now, all those results are within the margin of error, but the trend lines favor harris. in previous fox polls conducted before joe biden exited the 2024 race about six weeks ago, trump led by five points in arizona, nevada, and north carolina, and by six points in georgia. elise, we could hold up the graphic on screen a moment more,

you can see the trend here. yes, the race is close. when president biden dropped out, it reshaped the race. not only does harris have momentum, but suddenly, her paths to 270 electoral college votes have really opened up. >> well, then you also look at the impact on the down ballot races. i was just, frankly, shocked by the arizona senate poll within this poll and how ruben gallego is running away with it. kari lake is a drag on the ticket. >> 15 points. >> it's a big lead in a place it wasn't supposed to be that huge. she has momentum. is she going to be able to main anne the enthusiasmgoing into september, post debate? that remains to be seen, how the next two months will be played out. is it a honeymoon or for real?

>> harris and walz will have their first sit-down interview later tonight. sam stein, let's get you in on these polls. it's significant. polls are a snapshot, we know this, but it shows where the race is at this moment. the wind is at harris' back. what do you think of the state of play in those sunbelt states, states that, a few weeks ago, donald trump thought he put away. at the sideline of the republican national convention, you were there in milwaukee, trump aides telling reporters, we don't have to advertise or campaign in north carolina, the state is in the bag. now, his lead is one point. >> well, i'll never get over that dig you made about me getting through security. [ laughter ] it'll be there for my entire life, frankly. >> pass it on to your kids. >> they'll remember it, too. they're watching, i'm sure. i think, to your point, look, we all know that the race has been reset, but the way in which it is reset, i think, matters here. by that, i mean when you have three states that are critical to the election, it narrows the

field for trump. it allows him to just focus on those battleground states in michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. when you have seven states now in contention, it becomes a resource battle much more so. in this case, it's not just that harris has the momentum, it's that she's raising tons more money. when you're raising half a billion dollars in a month, right, you can afford to do ad blitzes and fund on-the-ground operations in more of these states. you can do turnout, persuasion in more of these states, and now you're stretching trump's resources even further. yes, there's more maps. in addition to -- sorry, more pathway to 270. in addition to the pathways to 270, you also benefit from the fact that you have a lot more money and can afford to play in all those states. trump now has to be on the defensive. not only do they not want to spend in arizona, they don't want to spend in north carolina. they're going to have to do that now. doesn't mean harris is going to win those states, but it makes

it more likely for her to pick off enough states to get to 270 now. >> yeah. harris, of course, spending time in georgia on a bus tour and then a rally right now. here's how fox news chief political analyst bret baier reacted to his own network's polling yesterday, with a close eye, indeed, on one of those key swing states. >> georgia remains. it was the closest contest in 2020, decided by less than a quarter of a percentage point, in favor of president biden. our recent polling showed the widest gap, six points for former president trump over president biden. but now, that has closed. harris has a two-point lead in our latest poll. it's expected to be a close race. that's obviously within the margin of error, but both candidates are spending a lot of time in georgia. if that lead holds, she wins georgia, she wins the presidency of the united states. >> the importance of georgia on display right now. the trump-vance campaign, as you might imagine, quickly issued a

memo, calling the polling atrocious. saying, "we report, you decide. fox's polling has an awful track record." speaking of georgia, vice president kamala harris and governor tim walz are on a campaign bus tour of southern, typically redder counties in the state. the democratic ticket was greeted yesterday on an airport tarmac from students at a georgia university. there was a series of stops focused on education. harris and walz traveled south where they spoke to students, f faculty, and the marching band. >> each of our individual talents, what we can contribute, something bigger than ourselves when you get together. your single instrument alone is an amazing thing, but as part of this band, it becomes really amazing. i'm grateful that you have us here. i'm grateful to be part of a

team with a really great head coach here in your next president of the united states. kamala harris. [ applause ] >> sometimes you get the note, sometimes you don't, right? but all that practice makes for beautiful music. and that is a metaphor. that is symbolic for everything you all do in your lives, which is you're going to show what a winning team looks like. you're going to show what it means to put yourself out on the field, to put yourself in front of people, to have the confidence to do it. sometimes you're going to hit the step right, sometimes you're not. sometimes you're going to win the game, sometimes you may not. but, you know, you never let any circumstance knock you down or slow you down. you just keep going at it. >> harris has long said she loves a bus tour. the vice president will continue her tour of georgia today while walz will head on to campaign events in north carolina. harris will end the tour with a

rally in savannah later on today. the importance of georgia also on display by donald trump's efforts to patch things up with republican governor brian kemp. popularfeuding for years. errin haines joins us now, editor at large of "the 19th" and an expert on all things georgia. tell us about the state of play there and what we're seeing from this push by harris and her running mate to move into sort of these redder counties. it's not about winning those counties, right? it's about closing the margin of defeat, but closing the gap. therefore, you can win it in atlanta, in the suburbs of atlanta. she's speaking to voters, white and black, who don't always think about voting for democrats. >> right and who also don't always see a democrat, especially in that part of the state. there are 159 counties in georgia, and atlanta is only in one of them. typically, democrats do tend to

focus in and around atlanta and those surrounding counties. republicans are the ones that tend to go to the rest of the state. republicans avoid atlanta. democrats avoid the rest of the state. but harris is showing that she is willing to work for those votes. like you said, not necessarily to win those red counties, but certainly to eat away at the margins. remember, that's the kind of map that stacey abrams and other grassroots groups like black voters matter and others really, you know, worked to build the coalition that elected senator raphael warnock and senatorin 2020. it turned blue that year, something vice president heart race is hoping to repeat. listen, you have people in that part of the state that are concerned about affordability, about opportunity, and so to hear, you know, coach walz and vice president harris really down there trying to rally them, bringing some of the joy, also in the form of encouragement to

an area that they know, you know, a lot of people are still struggling, trying to strike the balance, something really important in a part of the country that shows kind of where they are coming out of this convention focused on the middle class and focused on opportunity for folks like the people in this savannah area these two days. >> it's ali vitali. glad you're with us. we start td 5:00 a.m. hour with a colleague of yours, talking about the messaging around freedom to try to appeal to moderate, white women who typically might not vote democrat. talk about the impact of that message around freedom, around protecting democracy, around reproductive health care, that could transcend racial lines among women voters who are going to be so crucial in this election, not just in georgia but battleground states across the country. >> such a great point. thank you for highlighting jen's story. white women are the largest

voting block in the country. i think people don't necessarily realize that. so a message that appeals to them, particularly in a year where we already knew at the 19th that abortion would be on the ballot, harris has been the democrats' strongest surrogate on the issue of abortion, tying it to freedom, rights, and this question of what makes a healthy democracy. that's something that could resonate with a lot of these conservative suburban white women who, you know, live in counties that are outside of atlanta. you know, that could be part of the winning formula that puts georgia in play. another thing i'd also note, republican governor brian kemp is somebody who is very popular with conservative, suburban, white women. i think that also has a lot to do with why former president trump decided he wanted to make up with governor kemp at this time. because the way he's been speaking about him has been rubbing people the wrong way.

>> and his wife. >> you don't mess with that. >> that's right. we'll see if trump can maintain the facade of a truce with the governor, whom he's been angry at for so long. let's get to your recent piece in "the 19th." it has this title, "nothing about this year is normal. it could give harris a chance at history." you write, in part, this, "in many ways, the story of harris' unlikely journey is one not just of 107 days, but of the last four year, and about how far the candidate and the country have come. much of that evolution happened behind the scenes, when the media paid less attention to a role that has been traditionally unimportant. but with a new opportunity to introduce herself, after a national reckoning on race, with women continuing to break barriers across society, could voters choose harris to break what clinton calls the highest, hardest glass ceiling? harris is making the case for why she is ready to be president. soon, the country will decide

whether they believe she is ready." errin, tell us a little more about this. it has been so striking, that at least to this point in the campaign, harris and her team are not dwelling on the potential history that could be made here. they're not spending much time on her race or gender. of course, it's there, it's obvious, but it's not at the forefront of the messaging as it was in 2016 for hillary clinton. but the opportunity is there all the same. talk to us about how you see it resonate. >> yeah. i think you're making a very good point, jonathan. i was in chicago at the democratic national convention last week, and i think we did see that this is -- her potential to make history is not something that was really explicit, it was more implicit. something that the vice president herself has not really, you know, pointed out or highlighted. specifically, some of her surrogates and others who spoke at the convention certainly kind of did that for her.

yes, the reality is we're in a different place than we were a month ago in this presidential race, and we could be in a different place as a national than we've been in more than 230 years. as i said in my column, you know, even just the way this came together, we're really looking at a moment that had to happen this way. you know, it was chisham who ran for president in '72, predicting the path for a woman to the presidency could be through the vice president role. the way president biden exited the race and endorsed her really set her up to shore up these delegates and quickly clear the field, so she doesn't have this traditional pimary process that produces a nominee over 18 months. we have a political climate that is different. then there is this accelerated calendar that gives you a sense of urgency and drama. weeks ahead of schedule, you have voters interested and excited about this race, curious about harris and her candidacy,

which is one of the reasons this interview could be impactful tonight. people wanting to know more about her. people who may be excited about voting for her who were not excited about either choice for president a few weeks ago. there are advantages and disadvantages to the timeline, but, you know, including hillary clinton, some of the folks i talked to really said that this could be what makes a difference in november and how harris could be the woman that makes history. >> yeah, there's a growing belief the accelerated timetable is to harris' benefit. early voting begins in a few states in a couple of weeks. ballots are going to be cast before we know it. editor at large at "the 19th" and political contributor for msnbc, errin haines. it's an important piece. people should check it out. we're learning new details about the alleged altercation at arlington national cemetery this week that involved trump's campaign. first, it was disputed by npr, who broke the story.

arlington national cemetery put out a statement later, confirming there had been an incident, and a report was mi filed with military police. the former president has been invited by the family of a marine killed at abby gate in afghanistan. they were granted permission to take photographs at the gravesite. some military officials say members of the trump campaign confronted and pushed past a cemetery official when she tried to stop them from taking photos in section 60. campaign photography is strictly prohibited. the military officials told "the times" the cemetery worker feared that pursuing the matter with authorities could subject her to retaliation from trump's supporters. elise, donald trump was invited to go to the cemetery. but there is a difference there between a family's wishes andpr.

we've seen pictures of trump at the grave site, pictures of him giving thumbs up. this sparked a lot of anger from military families, veterans groups, gold star families, who say arlington national cemetery, arguably the most sacred place in our nation, was used as a campaign prop. >> and they're saying that because they were there. they were certainly during a campaign, what was a sacred moment, it was the anniversary of a horrific attack that took 13 members of the u.s. military, mostly marines. yes, some of those families had wanted them to come, but it matters in how it is actually presented and what the end result is. it can't look like a campaign event. the optics ended up being something that his base could seize onto as saying, donald trump was standing with the

fallen. the other side could say, look at the crassness. look at what happened here. what happened here? i want to hear more about the fallout from what happened. there are so many disputed accounts over what was the incident at hand. >> the trump team is trying to highlight that explosion in afghanistan, saying it's a real failure of the biden administration. we shouldn't lose sight of the fact, thinkveterans, calling them suckers and losers, belittling their service, according to his own chief of staff. recently, downplaying the medal of honor, suggesting, well -- i'm paraphrasing, you don't want to win that one because you could end up injured or dead. >> also, this was his afghanistan policy. he set the groundwork for the drawdown and the withdrawal. maybe he would have handled it differently, who knows? but he set this in order. the wheels were turning. his team was negotiating the

terms. donald trump does own this afghanistan policy, too, although biden was, at the time, the figure head of the incompetence at the moment and the horror of that scene at kabul airport. >> biden certainly wanted the afghanistan withdrawal, but you're right, trump started the process in motion. meanwhile, republican vice presidential nominee jd vance escalated attacks against vice president harris yesterday to a new level, blasting the democratic nominee over the u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan. >> to have the 13 americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. kamala harris is disgraceful. if we were to talk about a story out of the 13 innocent, brave americans who lost their lives, it's that kamala harris is so asleep at the wheel, she won't even do an investigation into what happened. she wants to yell at donald trump because he showed up? she can -- she can go to hell. >> vance made those remarks during a campaign stop in erie,

pennsylvania, while defending a improper behavior at arlington national cemetery. later, he stopped in wisconsin and doubled down on his initial comments. >> look, sometimes i get frustrated, and sometimes i get pissed off. i think kamala harris' failure at abbey gate is something to be frustrated about. >> that's jd vance seeming to try to soften his remarks. he just told the vice president of the united states to go to h hell. that's the rhetoric the republican ticket is engaging in. >> yeah, and i think, look, there's legitimate criticisms to make about how the afghanistan withdrawal was handled. obviously, it was a low point for the biden-harris administration. i think it facilitated the drop from which biden himself never recovered, which goes to show how the public felt about the

whole matter. yeah, it is fair criticism, but this type of criticism and the politicization of the arlington national cemetery really does kind of trip up the trump campaign operation from making the criticism. it's not so much -- i mean, of course, there's the idea that you would kind of try to politically profit off this moment by bringing a camera crew and filming in the sacred ground. but i think there is a larger context, too. there should feel like there are places immune or exempt from politics, right? politics has seeped into every facet of our life. churches, schools, everything. now, when you see the arlington national cemetery in section 60 become a staging ground for partisan bickering because of donald trump, not because of anyone else, it goes to the larger piece that harris is getting at. we want to move on from this. we don't want to spend time wondering whether it is protocol to bring cameras for political

profiteering into arlington national cemetery. we don't want to think about whether the gravestones are used as props in political campaigns. they've done this. in true trumpian fashion, when confronted about it, they not only say kamala harris can go to hell, but the trump spokespeople are saying the person working at the cemetery was quote, unquote, suffering from mental issues. why? what is the point of doing that? it just seems kind of a grotesque rejoinder to this whole thing, when you could just say, look, maybe it was a misunderstanding, which is what normal people would say. i think the larger story matters as much as the specifics of what vance is saying and what happened at arlington. >> yeah. ali, sam makes a good point. first, arlington national cemetery is arguably the most sacred place in the nation. i try to go at least once a year and walk through it. >> absolutely. >> to have -- a, quote, normal campaign, campaign of years past, if there had been an altercation between a staffer, a campaign staffer and someone who works the cemetery, it'd be the campaign staffer immediately

fired or at least suspended. >> yeah. >> instead, we have the trump team doubling, tripling down, and defending the staffer and attacking the person at the cemetery. it does reiterate, as sam said, what the harris team is saying. and others in the political world are saying. the nation is exhausted by donald trump. >> yeah. you're right, in any normal campaign, they were invited, it's their right to accept the invitation and go there. that makes sense. when you're arguing with the staff at arlington national cemetery, i think you've lost the plot there. there was a tangible report filed. that is something that members of congress, i believe, have asked for. certainly, i am inclined and interested to see it. that's something i think could shed continued light on this situation. but if you're arguing with the staff at one of america's most sacred sites, i think you've clearly lost the message. the other piece, too, as i listen to jd vance there, he is the person who, rightly, after

the attempted assassination of his running mate, said that everyone needs to take the rhetoric down. he blamed democrats for ratcheting it up. certainly, we've seen a ratcheting up across the board, largely, in part, because of former president trump himself and the way he attacks and goes at his political enemies as he perceives them. but that comment from vance basically telling, as sam said, the vice president of the united states to go to hell, that is completely anathema to what he said and yet another moment we are in a place of, having gone through a period of saying, well, the trump campaign will take the rhetoric down, it is a sober-minded state after the attempted assassination, and here we are, back at this point. >> no one thinks it'll be taken down. >> we've been around long enough for that. >> this only heightens the tensions and the anger surrounding our nation's poll sicks now. two plus months tovitali, thank

joining us this morning. ahead on "morning joe," we'll be joined by the mayor of savannah, georgia, ahead of vice president harris' campaign stop in that city today. plus, the u.s. surgeon general has issued a new public health advisory about the mental health and well-being of parents. dr. vivek murthy will be our guest. you're watching "morning joe." we're back in just 90 seconds.

live shot from top of our building. top of 30 rock at 6:27 a.m. here in new york city. mercifully, a cooler day ahead today. yesterday, punishing. time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. nebraska's supreme court will decide if those with felony convictions can vote in november. in april, that state's legislature passed a bill restoring voting rights to felons after they completed their prison sentences. that expanded a law that gave voting rights to felons two years after their sentences had ended. last month, the state's republican attorney general said both laws were unconstitutional. arguing that the board of pardons and not the legislature should make that determination. meanwhile, talks are under way for a deal that could value the company openai at $100 billion or more. openai launched this artificial intelligence boom back in 2022 with the release of chatgpt.

it has since rolled out other powerful technologies, including programs that can generate images and human-like speech. overseas now, russia has banned nearly 100 american citizens, including several journalists from entering that country. the list includes members of the u.s. government, pro-democracy activists, and defense contractors who have been supplying weapons to ukraine. those banned by moscow include current or former employees at the sometimes, "the washington post," and "the wall street journal." and speaking of "the journal," the paper's editorial board has a new piece on the vice president's planned interview today with cnn's dana bash. "harris gets an interview crush." it reads, in part, "don't think kamala harris' handlers are shielding her from tough questions? consider that in her first sit-down interview with the press this week. she's bringing along a crutch,

running mate tim walz. this is an attempt to limit the exposure risks for the vice president. the one-on-two format will limit ms. harris' time in answering questions. mr. walz will be there with a parachute to rescue the presidential candidate if she has a rough go or struggles to answer something. the dana bash interview is an attempt to rebut the criticism she hasn't done any interviews as a candidate, but that isn't nearly enough, especially with mr. walz along as chaperon." that's from the "wall street journal" editorial board. first, it is normal to do a sit-down interview with a running mate after they're added to the ticket. here, there is an accelerated timetable and harris, since being at the top of the ticket, hasn't done any other interviews. that's why there's attention called to this one. political strategists argued to me that harris should do a bunch

of interviews, schedule them, this week, next week, so there's not any pressure on any one and any mistakes wouldn't be magnified. what is your take on this whole to do about this interview? does this matter or not? >> i'm with you. i think she should schedule a bunch. well, i guess the people we've talked to, we should schedule a bunch. she should come on "way too early" and make it the first, but only with me as the guest host. >> you had me for a while. >> look, there's two things to consider. well, three things. one, the compressed timeframe messed with this, right? it's not just that she's, you know, had to pull a campaign together in a matter of weeks. you know, you do have to do convention prep. she spent a lot of days offline to practice and rehearse her speech. coming up very quickly is debate, right? you have to go offline and do debate prep. it is not an excuse for saying she shouldn't do interviews, it's just pointing out that you also have interview prep. all these things are crunched

together. secondarily is that they, internally, the harris campaign calculated the downsides of not doing these interviews, which is basically anger among members of the press and some distrust among some people in the public who are really attuned to this political stuff will be completely outweighed by the benefits of being on message and doing the other stuff that she spends her time with, rallies and speeches, bus tours, things like that. they say, well, she does small talk here and there, so that's some interaction. that does not substitute for a sit-down interview. third, which is underappreciated, is there are other mechanisms they've decided are more important to communicating with the public that don't involve sitting down with a journalist at msnbc or cnn or "new york times," "washington post," things like that. i disagree with that. there are benefits with sitting with the press. there are requirements if you want to seek higher office, you should sit with the press. there is an obligation to subject yourself to that inquiry and questioning. it's fundamental for the job. it also, frankly, would prepare her better for the debate.

one of the things you want going into the debate is experience with adversarial questioning. i'm not saying it's why joe biden stumbled, but he did few interviews with the press core and suffered in the debate. i think he would have benefitted from a little more of the process. the vice president would, as well. >> yeah. elise, any candidate for higher office, particularly president, should submit to tough, persistent questioning. that's good for a democracy, good for transparency. that helps inform the voters make a decision. i agree with sam, though. it's unclear how much political impact this will actually have. >> well, and the political operative in me would say, i get it. as long as she can get away with it, why do it? be everything to everyone. continue down that path. on the other hand, as a citizen, as someone who loves journalism and believes in transparency, it really is not the best look that she hasn't done any interviews. you know, now that she's going on the road, why not have her do

interviews with local journalists in georgia? why not have her sit down with journalists there? she doesn't have to -- i'm not saying necessarily sit down and do a primetime interview with a huge anchor. do local. show in those places that you are willing and accessible and you can talk and think on your feet. i think it is just an unforced error, and it makes her look like she is being too protected and is being too hesitant. certainly, she can give an interview. she's the vice president of the united states. >> yeah, she does occasionally take questions from reporters outside air force two, but tonight will be her first sit-down interview. we'll see if others are added to the schedule in the days and weeks ahead. coming up here on "morning joe," a conversation about the concept of american exceptionalism. why our next guest says that kamala harris is redefining the idea for a new generation of voters. "morning joe" will be right back with that.

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fight for this country we love. to fight for the ideals we cherish. and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on earth. the privilege and pride of being an american. >> that was vice president kamala harris speaking last week at the democratic national convention in chicago. our next guest describes her message as the most full-throated and sincere expression of american exceptionalism since the presidency of george h.w. bush, and the most direct and unambiguous expression of that idea by a democratic presidential candidate since john f. kennedy. joining us now, former under secretary of state for public

diplomacy and public affairs. "kamala harris redefines american exceptionalism for a new generation." rick, great to see you tlorng. >> great to see you guys. >> did you go into this speech, go into the harris candidacy thinking she'd be the messenger for american exceptionalism? >> i didn't, john. i thought it was a terrific thing she did do, and she reinvigorated this message for democrats. the sad truth is democrats have been circumspect about the symbols of american patriotism. it became a debased term. as i mentioned in the piece, obama was saddled with it when he was asked if he was an american exceptionalist. he said, well, i am, but sort of the way british people are british exceptionalists and greeks are greek

exceptionalists. people said, oh, my god, he's not an american exceptionalist. the term hadn't been used by democrats for a while, and she reinvigorated it. she reinvented it through her experience and the immigrant experience. >> it was striking last week in chicago, i was there, just the flag was everywhere. the red, white, and blue was everywhere. chants of usa were everywhere. it felt like democrats who, to your point, for so long avoided that. >> yeah. >> not just re-embracing it but trying to take it back from republicans. >> yes. i think it never should have been taken away, but, i mean, i'm old enough to remember when democrats didn't fly the flag, chant usa. it's great there's a younger generation of democrats who are re-embraing that. >> there was a video the trump campaign put out where they had staffers walking around, well, if you see an american flag, you know who that person is voting for, suggesting it is donald

trump. that is simply not the case. >> well, the dnc, i think, showcased how democrats have started to claw back that territory. just in terms of they can have a robust national security platform, they can be patriotic. i did find one of your statements to be interesting. i wanted you to expand on that a little bit more. you write that it was the most robust statement in support of american exceptionalism since george h.w. bush. i worked for president george bush. certainly, freedom agenda. there were plenty of lofty declarations of our support for american exceptionalism. you worked for president obama as the under secretary of public diplomacy. why do you say that, since george h.w. bush. >> i actually meant george bush, who you worked for. >> okay, good, good. >> i do think that part of the blemished record of american exceptionalism was the invasion of iraq. it was justified using these kind of grand terms,

providential terms. obama ran in opposition to the invasion of iraq. i want to pick up on what you were saying. the flip side, the fact that republicans are embracing american exceptionalism, when their own candidate has basically derogated the term when he said the american dream is dead. >> mm-hmm. >> and has run as a declinist, as political scientists call him, someone who thinks america is in decline. i mean, there's never been a president before who was elected who, you know, who was saying that. i think people are beginning to realize, well, really, he's not usa, usa. he actually says that we're a country that is a failed state. i mean, that's not very inspiring to voters. >> richard, it's sam here. >> hey, sam. >> i want to push back gently here on the premise, but also to raise a question about why we

interpreted, because i interpreted the speech the same way, why we interpreted it as a speech on american exceptionalism. i want to speak about biden. he routinely talks about america as an exceptional state, says god bless our troops, god bless the united states, a routine of his. talks about his upbringing in scranton as a unique american story that could only happen in this country. you know, he's given speeches, defended democracy and, of course, pursued policies to advance american interests globally as a unique leader internationally. my question for you is, are we viewing the harris speech through a context of expectations around her candidacy? by that, i mean, she came up in 2019/2020, in the primary, a much more liberal plank. she's lesser known than biden was. she hasn't been on the scene for as many years. also, the context of the convention in which there was a lot of expectations that a

pro-palestinian, sort of anti-american foreign policy with respect to the middle east protest movement would take place in chicago and, frankly, the convention organizers and harris herself pushed, made a strategic case of creating some serious distance with that plank. is that how we're viewing this speech and why you and i had the same interpretation? >> no. sam, i think that's a fair criticism, and i left out that guy, joe biden. >> right. >> joe biden has always been an american exceptionalist. the difference, in a way, is the generational difference. biden is the post-war person who was looking at what america achieved in world war ii. that's what he grew up with. he is a true american exceptionalist. you know, kamala harris is a younger generation who, post vietnam, post iraq, was -- i think it was unexpected and very welcome. i'm sorry. i didn't mean to not give credit

to george bush. >> i wasn't trying to defend joe biden. and i agree, it's a generational thing. she came up from a different time period, where it wasn't as clear, this is what you believe in. >> certainly, to your point, in the post iraq war, the prism changed. right now, we have a republican candidate who has, as you noted, takes every opportunity to say america is in decline. other countries are laughing at us. instead, we had vice president harris take the opposite approach. the new piece online for "time," rick, thank you. >> great to see you guys. ahead on "morning joe," gubernatorial nominee crystal quade is here to talk about her state's strict abortion ban and its potential impact on november's elections. "morning joe" will be right back. in harlem? so i started my own studio. getting a brick and mortar in new york is not easy. chase ink has supported us from

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ball and two strikes. lifts it in the air, deep to left. oh, he made the catch. >> goodness! >> that's one of the best catches you'll ever see. particular in the ninth inning. clinging to a one-run lead the bottom of the ninth, outfielder travis jankowski, look how far over the fence he is. he robbed a would-be walk-off. janikowski made the leaping grab and saved the game. rangers beat the white sox, 4-3.

to los angeles now. look at this. the huge turnout for shohei ohtani bobblehead night at dodger stadium. fans lined up outside the ballpark as early as 9:00 a.m. yesterday. a full ten hours before the first pitch, hoping to be among the first 40,000 who would receive a bobblehead of ohtani holding his now famous dog, decoy. 2,000 of the bobbleheads would be gold. the line was so long, look at that, the parking lot full of people, the gates were open two hours early and tens of thousands of fans waiting outside were allowed in 40 minutes before usual. ohtani and the pup for featured for the ceremonial first pitch. the star player spent three weeks to train decoy to wait at the plate and then deliver it on

demand. did it perfectly. ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 42nd home run of the season. he has a moment. just amazing. he also added his 41st and 42nd stolen bases of the year, putting himself back on pace to become the first 50-50 player in baseball history. the dodgers beat the baltimore orioles, 6-4. sam stein, i can't tell what is more impressive, what ohtani is doing at the plate or the way he trained decoy to perfectly deliver the ceremonial first pitch. >> definitely the training of the dog. as a dog owner myself, that just doesn't happen. at least under my tutelage. >> oh, yeah. >> john, i'm really glad the red sox didn't get shohei ohtani. it would have been too much to root for such a talent. it would have been too hard to enjoy baseball this much. i'm really happy about that. >> yeah. >> also, let's take a moment, two videos ago, but where there's 13 fans at the white sox game to witness that catch. >> i know.

>> good god, i know they're bad. >> they're not just bad. >> historically bad. >> you're right. fans have completely given up. seats available. >> there was no one there. unbelievable. >> seats available at u.s. cellular field. you mentioned the red sox, woefully stretch. won two in a row and three games out of the wild card. >> i don't want to do this. >> despite the best efforts -- >> i don't want to do this. don't want to do it. >> sam, we won't. go back to training your dog. let's look at the -- there are the standings. they did it anyway. we're well out of first in the a.l. east. only three back in the wild card. keep hope alive. time now for a look at some of the morning papers from across the country. let's go to texas. "the austin american stateman" reports the cyber security company crowdstrike is facing a barrage of lawsuits nearly six weeks after pushing out a bugged software update that caused major tech outages around the

globe. the latest suit claims crowdstrike failed to adequately test the update before its launch, and that those affected should be compensated. "the arizona republic" leads with the growing number of patients in the state being treated for contact burns. doctors say the burns often occur from patients falling onto hot asphalt, which can reach about 160 degrees in places like phoenix. 160, that's almost unfathomable. in pennsylvania, "the philadelphia inquirer" is highlighting the paralympic games in paris. athletes from over 150 countries compete in 22 sports through september 8th. the games can be streamed on peacock. wonderful to see. before we go to break, we had claire mccaskill booked for the show yesterday, but she informed us she couldn't make

it. why? well, that's because she was busy welcoming her 16th grandchild to the world. a beautiful baby girl. congratulations to claire and the entire family. that's a good excuse to miss the show. mike barnicle, however, no sign of him. didn't bother to call in. >> that mike barnicle. >> i know. >> he has a lot of cute grandbabies. >> he has a bunch himself. congrats, again, to claire and her family. coming up here on "morning joe," our next guest says that donald trump's latest visit to arlington national cemetery is a reminder of how little the former president understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism. charlie sykes joins us to explain his new piece for "the atlantic." "morning joe" will be right back with that. right back with that.

welcome back to "morning joe." 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. thursday, august 29th. we have a lot to get to.

vice president kamala harris and governor tim walz are back on the campaign bus in georgia in what could be a sign that that battle ground state is once again very much in play. the mayor of savannah, georgia, will join us on what he's hearing from voters. plus, charlie sykes is out with a new piece in "the atlantic" titled, "trump dishonors fallen soldiers again." we'll dive into that as the fallout continues over trump's visit to arlington national cemetery. and the u.s. surgeon general is out with a new health warning directed at parents. he'll join us shortly to explain. i'm jonathan lemire in this morning for joe, mika, and willie. elise jordan, sam stein still with us. now, joining the conversation, we have the co-host of msnbc's "the weekend," symone sanders townsend. special correspondent at "vanity fair" and host of "the fast politics" podcast, molly jong-fast. and the aforementioned msnbc

contributor and author of the book "how the right lost its mind," charlie sykes. great group. thank you, all, for being with us this morning. let's dive into some new polling to begin this hour. vice president kamala harris and former president donald trump are essentially tied in every sunbelt swing state. according to the latest fox news polling, harris leads trump by one point among registered voters in arizona and by two points in both georgia and nevada. trump, meanwhile, leads by a single point in north carolina. all of those results, we should make clear, are within the margin of error. there are some trend lines here. in previous fox polls conducted before president joe biden exited the race, trump led by five points in arizona, nevada, and north carolina, and by six in georgia. charlie, we apply all the usual caveats. polls are just a snapshot in time. we're still two plus months to

the election. but trend lines matter. momentum does matter. paths to 270 electoral votes matter. this polling suggests the sunbelt back in play. harris has got options. >> yeah. i mean, obviously, the map is completely changed. there's a couple of things about those polls that strike me. number one, of course, is the trend line, which is, you know, pretty obvious. also, i also think we need to keep in mind that a lot of these polls are based on a model of what they expect the electorate to look like. what if kamala harris is changing the electorate? what if, in fact, you know, we talk about the enthusiasm behind this campaign, that it is showing up in increased registrations is actually going to be changing the balance of the electorate? i think this is obviously good news for the harris campaign. i'm not sure it completely captures what's going on. however, having said that, we need to go back to the caveat. given the margin of error, all

of these states are, in fact, tied, but it feels a lot like the trend we saw in 2020. the national polls and the way the swing states are breaking. what a dramatic change from just 30, 40 days ago. >> completely reshaped campaign. symone, let's get you in on the polling. certainly, the vice president is bringing back democratic voters. most of these polls don't suggest that trump is losing support. rather, harris is gaining support. whether it's young voters, voters of color, other parts of the democratic base that had cool on joe biden now seem to be re-embracing her. we're seeing here on this bus tour in georgia her go to places, rural areas where democrats don't normally tread. >> the last time a democrat was in the area that vice president harris and governor walz campaigned in yesterday and today was actually 1992.

just think about that. we're talking about bill clinton. obviously, he was successful in his quest for the presidency. look, i think the polls are -- i'm going to keep saying this, they are not predictive. they are indicative, a snapshot in time of where the electorate is and how they feel. i think this is also like 2016, but in the sense that there were voters in 2016 that didn't want to tell pollsters they were supporting donald trump, given all the things he had been saying as of late. the polls before election day showed that secretary clinton was well ahead of donald trump. i do think that some of that could be showing up here, as well. that's why a turnout election is going to be key. and turning out the base, putting together that kamala harris coalition which is based in democratic voters but is going to include some moderate republicans and independent voters is going to be critical in space and places across the country. georgia, north carolina,

arizona, running down, closing the margins up. not necessarily winning them but doing what obama did in 2008, which brought him a win. again, very close margins in rural places where folks didn't expect him to do well. >> yeah. there's also in this poll showing some real impact on some down ballot races. let's talk about the senate. in arizona, gallego at 56%. kari lake at 41%. gallego opened a 15-point lead. nevada, rosen at 55%. brown at 41%. sizable lead there, too. in the north carolina governor race, josh stein, the democrat, has 54%, while mark robinson, the deeply problematic republican candidate, holocaust denier, we should note, is at 43%. sam, this is certainly encouraging to democrats. for a while, as you well know, we had this phenomenon where democrats down ballot were running well ahead of where president biden was. now, you know, harris has certainly gotten closer.

but we still are seeing in the senate gubernatorial candidates running atop the ticket. >> the numbers are silly. 15 percentage point, 14 percentage point leads for democrats in the senate race. am i doing my math right? yeah, i did my math right. i think that's not going to happen. but maybe i'm wrong. that seems like those would be historically large margins for the senate races, especially in nevada. it was supposed to be a close contact and it's a very close state. it does suggest, and i'd like molly's take on this, there is latent democratic enthusiasm out there that harris maybe hasn't tapped into. additionally, i'm actually less interested in the snapshot polls and more interested in voter registration trend lines and data. i don't know, molly, if you have that on your hand, but that seems to be what would be the real tell, right? if people are excited, yeah, they'll tell a pollster they're more invested in voting for

kamala harris or someone, but it's really if they have the energy and the wherewithal to register to vote, right? that's where we actually will get good data that could give us some foreshadowing of what might happen in november. >> yeah. i mean, this top of the ticket versus down ballot has been sort of baffing to me for a long time. this is not new. we've seen it with all the races, you know, biden and harris now with these two -- harris has a bigger lead, two, three points, but biden would have an even match. then you'd go down the ticket, and you'd have a democratic candidate winning by 10 points, 11 points. if you look at previous election cycles, right, we've seen in the high-turnout elections democrats have crushed it even in red states, right? these ballot initiatives which are technically not partisan but have become partisan, have done really well. i think it is an interesting metric. look, for these to be right, and maybe they are right, i mean,

who knows, you know, because the reality is none of us know, right? we are trying to poll the shifting electorate that shows up for trump in 2016, you know, shows up for trump in 2020, then doesn't show up in 2022, right? the question is, this is a very hard metric. i've asked pollsters before, like, why are you getting such different numbers at the bottom of the ticket, the top of the ticket? because there's a sense of, perhaps, they're doing some math to try to poll the shifting electorate that is either incorrect or is just, you know -- you would have to have people leave the top of the ticket blank or you'd have to have these kind of rubn gallego trump voters. i don't think there are many of those. >> trump turned out voters who the polls missed in the past. >> right. >> the polls have been inherently flawed in recent cycles, so we have to keep that in mind. there seems to be, undeniably, momentum for the democrats. on that, here's how fox news

chief political anchor bret baier reacted to his own network's polls yesterday, with a close eye on one state, in particular. >> georgia. georgia remains. it was the closest contest in 2020. decided by less than a quarter of a percentage point, in favor of president biden. our recent polling showed the widest gap, six points for former president trump over president biden. now, that has closed. harris has a two-point lead in our latest poll. it's expected to be a close race. that's obviously within the margin of error. both candidates are spending a lot of time in georgia. if that lead holds, she wins georgia, she wins the presidency of the united states. >> as you might imagine, elise, trump's campaign put out a statement calling that poll atrocious. but -- >> which is ironic. because they know fox news can poll, and they poll well. fox news has respectable pollsters. >> they absolutely do. but the trump campaign is still angry about election night 2020,

when fox was first to call arizona. let's talk about this. as much as, for a democratic presidential candidate, you kind of have to win pennsylvania. for republicans, you kind of have to win georgia. georgia now very much in play. >> well, the fact that now they're having to go on the offensive in georgia. and the fact you have harris and walz down there campaigning, trying to cut down on the margins in rural areas. the chair of the georgia gop says that as long as trump can increase his vote share by a percent and a half, he's still okay in georgia. that's really not that much that they have to take away when it comes to the rural vote. is trump going to be able to still have the turnout he's had in past cycles, or is democratic enthusiasm going to overshadow his enthusiasm? >> harris on a bus tour in georgia now and some talk she's launch one in north carolina before long. let's shift gears here.

we've been talking about the controversy surrounding trump's visit to arlington national cemetery this week. it's become a campaign flash point. charlie, you have a piece for "the atlantic," titled, "trump dishonors fallen soldiers again." you write in part this, "on monday, donald trump visited the sacred ground of arlington national cemetery where many of america's war dead are buried, and he posed for photos. in the strangest of these pictures, the former president is smiling and giving a thumbs up by the grave of a marine. it is an image of a man who has no idea how to behave around fallen heros. it was supposed to be quiet. the families of the troops had asked there be no media coverage in the area where the service members were buried, but trump seemed to have other ideas. it is hard to see trump's visit as anything but a campaign stop intended to court the military vote. by now, trump used the military as a prop, a mean to his own

ends, should be no surprise. trump has a history of denigrating the history of others, even as he poses as a defender of the nation's military. monday's wreath laying at arlington was, in part, trump's attempt to clean up the mess he has created, and to establish some credibility as a champion of men and women at arms. but in the end, it merely served to remind americans how little he understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism." charlie, let's get you to expand upon that. we were ticking through earlier in the show the long list of times donald trump has, indeed, denigrated the service of others, including those who have given their lives for the country. as you see it, he did it again this week. >> well, this is the great paradox of donald trump. you know, his own record of non-service is, of course, you know, well documented. but so is this long record of

denigrating the service of others and his contempt. he continues to rap himself as the champion of the military, and many veterans seem to think that he is an ally of the military. but you walk through -- you look at this picture you're showing right now. i mean, there's something deeply unnatural about this. who is posing with a thumbs up in front of the grave of a fallen soldier? who does that? someone who, frankly, just does not understand what the sacrifice means. you go back through, whether it's the attack on john mccain for being a p.o.w., or his suggestion at one point he did not want the disabled veterans to be in an independence day military parade because it would make him look bad. or his comments to retired chief of staff john kelly when they went to arlington in 2017. they were standing next to john kelly's son, robert, who was lieutenant, who was killed in

afghanistan. donald trump said to general kelly, "i don't understand why they do this. what's in it for them?" or when he refused to go to the military cemetery in france, calling them losers and suckers. you know, for people who have been around donald trump, this continues to be shocking. someone who is the commander in chief just does not seem, at some core of his being, does not seem to understand why people give their lives for their country. again, you want to talk about cognitive dissonance, this is a man who wants to be thought of as america first, usa, the defender of american strength. yet, when it comes down to it, time and again, whether it's gold star families, whether it is medal of honor winners, there's something broken in donald trump that makes it impossible for him to understand

that kind of sacrifice and heroism. >> yes. certainly well said. as the campaign so often does, they are indeed doubling down on what happened there, refusing to accept any responsibility. and trump's running mate, jd vance, is doing the same on a different matter. newly unearthed comments show him criticizing the president of the american federation of teachers for not having children. let's take a look at vance's original remarks back in 2021 followed by his new comments yesterday. >> so many of the leaders of the left, and i hate to be so personal about this, but they're people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children. that really disorients me and disturbs me. randy winegarden, head of the most powerful teachers union in the country, has no children. if she wants to brainwash ask destroy the minds of children, do it to her own and leave ours

alone. >> do you think childless adults can serve in leadership positions? why is not having kids anti-family? >> absolutely, i do. look, my kids go to a catholic school. there are a lot of catholic nuns. there are people who aren't catholic who don't have kids, who are great people. certainly, we think they can be a leader in society. if you look at the actual thing i said, again, first of all, kamala harris is trying to resurface the cat lady thing because they don't have an actual campaign to run on. they're terrified of the media. they're putting these hits out there. i said the leaders of the left. i didn't criticize winegarden for not having kids. i criticized her for wanting to brainwash minds. that's exactly what she has done using her leadership, is from mask mandates to the woke stuff in schools. i said if she wants to brainwash anybody's kids, have her own and leave mine alone. i still believe that. >> weingarten responded, writing, "it sure seems like vance lacks an empathy gene. thank goodness he's not a teacher.

he doesn't get that you don't have to be a parent to care about kids, our neighbors, our communities, and our country." this, of course, is not the first time vance has criticized families without children. last month, he went viral for comments where he called democrats, including vice president harris, cat ladies for not having biological children of their own. symone, he simply seems to be digging himself a deeper hole and risks alienating, i don't know, half the country. >> literally everyone. people with cat, people without cats, people with children, people without children, teachers. go down the line. you know, there are multiple things that jd vance is doing here, right? i think first, what he is doing is he is trying to paint a picture of the other for people who are democrats or a part of the left, right, in this country, for the base members of the republican party apparatus. if you other someone, it is very

easy for folks to then believe and treat them less than human because you have othered them. when you do not see someone's humanity, when you do not speak to someone as though they are a fellow human being such as yourself, this language we hear from donald trump often that talks negatively and poorly about people, that goes to the heart of who we are as american citizens is very easy to espouse. the second thing he is doing is something that is quite more sinister. there is a movement within the republican party apparatus that says women, specifically, they are to birth children. look at the south carolina state legislature when they were debating the abortion bills. legislators went to the floor, male legislators, by the way, and said, yes, i understand women could die, but they're here to give children. this is what many of them believe. it sounds like that's what jd vance believes.

this is a bad strategy. it doesn't speak to partisan language when you're talking about women and children and people within this way. this is anyone regardless of who you voted for in the last election. it's not smart. i am just tired of hearing it. i'm tired of hearing it. it is offensive. i continue to believe it is insane. jd vance is going to have to answer for his comments. donald trump is going to have to answer for jd vance's comments. they are a ticket, is that is how this works. >> molly, your take? certainly, jd vance will have to, we'd assume, answer for those comments when he squares off with tim walz in the vp debate in a few weeks. >> um, yeah, that'll be a debate, really interesting debate. you know, i have a lot of children. i mean, i feel like -- i don't think those guys like me. it's a kind of -- you know, it is a shorthand, that women don't belong working, they belong having children, right? i think that's what this is

about. you know, what the second wave feminists did was show women can have children, have jobs, and be in the world just like men. that's a really important message. when you see harris and walz out there on these bus tours talking to students, talking to people, the idea is that women can be -- can have lives just as full as men can. i think that's a really important message. >> yeah. certainly, it seems like a new comment from vance is unearthed just about every day, and he is continuing to defend them. msnbc contributor charlie sykes, thank you for joining us this morning. we'll absolutely be reading your piece in "the atlantic." before we go to break, let's take a quick look at the other stories making headlines this morning. president biden and chinese leader xi jinping are expected to speak by phone in the coming weeks. that comes asadviser jake sulli met with the chinese leader this morning in beijing. the white house says the u.s. continues to stress that both countries have a responsibility to prevent competition from

veering into conflict or confrontation. also, a top cia official says predictions that afghanistan would become a terrorist launching pad after the american withdrawal, quote, did not come to pass. the agency's deputy director says american resources remain dedicated to countering threats. but this comes as the taliban published new laws this week that mandate that women there cover their faces and bodies at all times in public. it also forbids women to be heard singing or reading aloud or to even look at men with whom they are not related to by blood or marriage. elise, i know you've spent a lot of time on these issues in that country. your thoughts? >> it just makes my blood boil a little bit. just the fact that it's not a major terrorist cell kind of, you know, leads government officials to say, oh, well, what

happened wasn't that bad. it was a colossal, moral stain, the shotty drawdown in afghanistan that abandoned hundreds of thousands of our allies and left them high and dry and left women especially, who chose to work for the u.s. government, who took us at their word, that we were going to take care of them should the government, the democratic government that we had put into power and were promoting fall. it just really -- the dereliction of duty from everyone -- not everyone but, you know, the dereliction of duty just really is tragic considering what women and men and children in the country are enduring under the taliban now. >> rights rolled back continually there. still ahead here on "morning joe," we'll bring you u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. he is standing by to talk about his new advisory on the mental

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the sun reflecting on the u.s. capitol dome before 7:30 here on the east coast. the u.s. surgeon general is declaring that raising children in america is causing an unsafe level of stress in parents. a new study finds that nearly half of all parents say that, on most days, their stress is completely overwhelming. as a father of two, i can relate. joining us now, u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. he is recommending polity measures to curb parent stress. thank you for being with us this morning. my jokes aside, this is a serious issue. walk us through what you found. what can parents do about it? >> well, jonathan, you're right, this is a serious issue. right now, there are millions of parents who are struggling in the shadows, and we need to pull back the curtain on what they're going through and provide them with much-needed support. you know, in my work on the youth mental health crisis, i was having conversations with families across the country.

one of the things that became quickly apparent is that parents themselves were also struggling. as i dug into the data, it became clear that 48% of parents are saying most days, they feel completely overwhelmed by stress. they're also telling us that they are struggling with loneliness, and the numbers are significantly higher than other adults. you put those two things together, and you have a recipe for the mental health strain that we're seeing on parents today. jonathan, that has real consequences, not only for the health and well-being of the 63 million plus parents out there, but also for others. keep in mind, the mental health of a parent affects the mental health of a child. we all have a vested interest in ensuring parents and children are well. >> dr. murthy, what can be done, though, in terms of public health, public policy interventions and strategies to help here? you look at the child care crisis in this country and the lack of affordable, consistent,

easily accessible child care. it's something that, i would say, most parents in the country deal with on a day-to-day basis. >> absolutely. look, as a father of two, my wife and i struggled with that challenge, as well. i think many -- let's look at where this is coming from, the challenges. it's important to say, first off the bat, that parenting has never been easy, right? for generations, parenting has had its share of challenges. finances have been a worry for parents. safety is often a concern. figuring out how to manage teenagers has been a parental concern and challenge for parents. there are new challenges parents are dealing with now that prior generations didn't have to. for example, managing social media and phones in your kids' life. dealing with the youth mental health crisis and loneliness epidemic which has hit kids particularly hard. keep in mind, also, many parents are worried about gun violence in their communities.

more than half of kids are saying they're worried about shootings taking place in their school. all of this weighs on parents. when you compound that with what has become this very intense culture of comparison that we are living in, that's fueled by online trends and social media, where parents are constantly comparing themselves to others and feeling like they're falling short, all of that leads to the stress that parents are dealing with today. here's the good news. there is something we can do. but we've got to move quickly. on a policy level, we need to pursue measures like paid leave so parents can be with a sick child, for example. we need affordable child care. we need consistent, accessible mental health care for kids and adults. we have got to address the harms of social media. address issues like gun violence, which contribute to the stress and strain on parent's day-to-day lives. >> dr. murthy, molly jong-fast here. i'm curious, can you speak to what tech regulation could play

in helping parents take care of their children and sort of, you know, with the mental health component? >> well, molly, the most common question i've been getting from parents all across the country has been actually about technology. specifically, they are worried about the impact of social media on their kids. there's good reason for them to be concerned. i detailed much of this last year, actually, in a surgeon general's advisory on social media and youth mental health. i pointed out that there are serious harms associated with social media use among kids. but the key thing is that parents have been left to manage this entirely on their own. even though they didn't grow up with social media and the platforms are evolving rapidly, this is a place where congress really needs to step in and put in place the kind of safety standards that will protect kids from harmful content, from bullying and harassment online, from exploitation, and from manipulative features that seek to lure them into excessive use.

>> mr. surgeon general, i want to shift gears here and talk to you briefly about the covid pandemic. just a few stats right now. the center for disease control and prevention reported high or very high levels of the virus in wastewater in just about every state in the nation. the rate of hospitalizations for covid nearly twice the level it was this time last summer. and deaths are certainly well down from the height of the pandemic, still double from where they were this spring. anecdotally, it feels like half the people in my life currently have covid right now. what can people be doing about this? there is a new booster on the horizon. also, what degree of concern do you have? obviously, we're in a different phase of this pandemic than a few years ago. with cases this time ahead of the fall and winter, which is when normally they spike, how worried are you? >> certainly, it's a case that we're seeing this increase in covid cases, you know, in recent months, but a couple things to

keep in perspective. one is we are certainly at a much better place now than we were a few years ago when this pandemic first began. when cases are lower than they were in the early days, we have paxlovid for treating symptoms and reducing the risk of downstream complications. we have a vaccine regularly updated based on circulating variants. what's important for people to know is that while covid is not going to disappear, it is an endemic now, and it'll be a part of our lives like influeinfluen like the flu. stay up to date on your vaccines. if you are, in fact, having symptoms, you know, like fever, chills, sore throat, which can mimic the symptoms of the flu, that you get tested. tests are much more available than they were early in this pandemic. finally, if you do have covid, making sure you're taking

appropriate precautions to not expose others, staying home, and making sure you are protecting especially folks who are immunocompromise from exposure, that can go a long way to helping. but, jonathan, i think it's just important, one last thing for me to point out as we talk about parents here, is that, you know, covid obviously has been a huge source of stress for parents. i remember those early days in the pandemic, homeschooling our kids and trying to manage work. millions of parents were struggling with this. one of the most important things i want parents to know about the recent advisory we put out on parental stress is that the well-being of parents really does matter. i know that for parents, it can often feel selfish to invest time into taking care of yourself. or just taking a moment to breathe when you have a long to-do list and your families need so much. parents, your well-being matters, and you're not alone. though many of us lost our villages, this a time to reach out to one another, share our challenges and struggles, and

recognize, there is no shame in having a tough time as a parent. we can help each other, reach out and be there for each other. we can address some of the challenges and strain parents are experiencing right now. >> really important. u.s. surgeon general, dr. vivek murthy, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thanks so much. coming up here on "morning joe," vice president kamala harris and governor tim walz will campaign again today in georgia. democrats try to chip away at donald trump's margins in several red counties in that state. we'll speak with savannah mayor van johnson ahead of harris' rally in his city. "morning joe" will be right back. eight months pregnant.. that's a different story. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up. people were showing up left and right. and so did our business needs. the chase ink card made it easy.

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welcome back. vice president kamala harris continues her swing through georgia today, a state that the trump campaign thought was all but theirs just a few, short weeks ago, before harris' sudden ascent to the top of the democratic ticket. the vice president is giving democrats new hope in the ultra competitive state, as she and her running mate, tim walz, barnstorm through southern georgia on a bus tour yesterday. the tour culminates later today with harris holding a rally in savannah, georgia. joining us now, the democratic mayor of that city, van johnson. he will be attending the vice

president's rally. mr. mayor, thank you for joining us this morning. let's talk about -- >> thank you. >> -- your state. razor thin margin in 2020. president biden captured, the first democrat to win there in quite some time. now, polls suggest it is a dead heat this time around between harris and trump. people in your state, how do they feel now about this change atop the democratic ticket? >> well, we've always felt like georgia was in play. we always believed that the road to the white house went through the state of georgia. certainly, the lane to that road goes through savannah and coastal georgia. the vice president and governor walz has been here since yesterday. i've had the opportunity to go across coastal georgia and savannah with them. the fact is, people are absolutely energized, from students from my alma mater, the savannah state university, to young people at liberty county high school in liberty county,

hinesville, georgia. she's been able to captivate them. he's energized them. walking with kings and not losing the common touch, they appeal to people. georgia is still in play, and we believe we can take georgia. >> it is symone sanders town end. good to see you. the tone and tenor on the ground for democrats seems to be energetic and exciting. what concerns you most as you barrel toward election day in georgia about the prospects of this campaign? >> well, polls always concern me. we know that polls are more of a thermometer more than a thermostat. i don't want people to say, well, we're back in georgia. some polls are saying we're leading here in georgia. i don't want people to become

apathetic and feel like, oh, well we don't have to do anything. the fact is, every single vote counts. i think the strategy here is very, very clear. the vice president and governor walz are not just appealing to democratic voters. we're going into some republican-led areas, areas where president trump clearly leads, and the fact is, they have a message that appeals to everybody. the fact is, some of the issues that rural america faces are some of the same issues they're speaking directly to. we're telling people, vote your interest, don't vote your party. in these cases, i think they are very, very formidable candidates, even in these areas. we believe we can even take some of the rural areas and particularly to independent voters, as well. >> mayor van johnson of savannah, georgia, thank you very much. we, of course, will be watching that rally later today and will talk to you again closer to election day. >> look forward to it. thank you so much. >> all right.

thank you again. up next, abortion is expected to be a major issue for voters heading to the polls this november. we'll be joined by a lawmaker in one state where the push to enshrine reproductive rights is facing last-minute legal challenges. "morning joe" is coming right back with that. at tamra, izzy and emma... they respond to emails with phone-calls... and they don't "circle back" they're already there. they wear business sneakers and pad their keyboards with something that makes their clickety- clacking... clickety-clackier. but no one loves logistics as much as they do. you need tamra, izzy and emma. they need a retirement plan. work with principal so we can help you with a retirement and benefits plan that's right for your team. let our expertise round out yours.

welcome back. missouri has become the latest state that will vote on a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights. right now, missouri has one of

the strictest abortion bans in the nation. the court has until september 10th to make changes to the ballot and there are several last-minute legal changes from both sides of the aisle. republicans and an anti-abortion leader have wanted to throw the entire motion out. democrats have sued because of how the secretary of state worded the measure. democrats are hoping the issue of reproductive rights will give a much needed boost in what has become a solidly red state. joining us now, missouri state representative, crystal quaid. she is the democratic nominee for governor. great to see you. molly john fast has the first question. >> hi, crystal. >> hi. >> great to have you here. so talk to me about ballot initiatives. you're on the ground in this red state. we've seen ballot initiatives overperform the partisan lean in states like ohio.

is that possible where you are, and also talk to us about what it looks like on the ground, what you're hearing from voter. >> yeah, the initiative petition is something that voters have used in missouri many times to pass issues that the republicans in jefferson city refuse to, things like medicaid expansion, stopping right to work, raising the minimum wage. we utilize this all the time and so we are really excited and very confident about this initiative here in november. >> representative, symone sanders-townsend here. this initiative was a citizen-led initiative that got on the ballot. i have to imagine missouri doesn't make it easy in terms of signatures to put a ballot initiative before the voters. are you concerned that it seems as though state legislators, some of your colleagues are moving to overturn the will of the voters even before they're able to cast a ballot? obviously voters in missouri said they want this to be on the ballot, to have the opportunity to weigh in.

>> yeah. in fact, we were able to collect more than double the amount of signatures needed, 380,000 of them in less than three months, which is huge, and it's a testament to how -- how far behind our current laws are, and how much missourians absolutely want to have their freedoms back, and yes. we know that folks on the other side are trying to stop this every step of the way. there have already been many lawsuits filed by the secretary of state in which he has lost, and we have no doubt that when this passes in november, the legislature is going to come back in january during our next session and try to overturn this. they've done it with so many other things, which is why it's so important we elect democrats like myself to uphold the voices of missourians. >> senator josh hawley is up for re-election this year. he came into office in 2018, and campaigned as more of a traditional republican, but probably is, you know, really immortalized in that iconic fist

pump photo after the january 6th insurrection at the capitol. how do you think that this ballot initiative on abortion -- does it have impact on a downballot race like his senate race against democratic challenger lucas kuntz? >> i absolutely believe and know quite frankly this will have an impact on down ballot races. abortion access and access to health care is not a partisan issue. once dobbs happened, i can't tell you how many phone calls i personally received in my office from folks who went in to get care during a miscarriage and doctors told them, you're not close enough to death yet. you've got to go home, and they would call bleeding out in their bathrooms saying, what is happening? how can you help me? and this is not partisan. we know folks in every corner of our state are impacted by this law that has zero exceptions for rape or incest in our state and so we know that they're going to vote for this ballot initiative and we know that they're going to turn out, and it's our job as democrats to continue to spread

the message that we're the ones fighting for this freedom and to turn that into votes at the ballot box for us. >> democratic nominee for governor of missouri, state representative crystal quade. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you so much. still here on "morning joe," vice president harris will take part in her first sitdown interview as the democratic nominee today x "the wall street journal" editorial board said she's bringing along a crutch, running mate tim walz. we'll read from that new piece straight ahead on "morning joe." e straight ahead on "morning joe."

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oo this is a good book title. ♪♪ in just hours from now, vice president kamala harris and her running mate, governor tim walz will hold a rally in savannah, georgia in hopes of making inroads with voters in republican strongholds. we'll break down the campaign's strategy and if it's enough to beat donald trump in that battleground state. plus, we'll speak to aaron haines who writes that president biden's decision to drop out of the race created a similar moment in american politics. she'll explain how it could give harris a chance at history. and also ahead, a nasty new attack by republican running mate jd vance. we'll show you what the ohio senator is saying now as the controversy over donald trump's visit to arlington national cemetery heats up.

good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, august 29th. thank you for being here. i'm jonathan lemire and i'm in this morning for joe, mika, and willie. i'm happy to say i've got some help. with us, elise jordan. she is a former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department. we have sam stein. he's here, and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali who you just saw on "way too early." thanks for being here. let's just dive right in. vice president kamala harris and former president donald trump are essentially tied in every sun belt swing state. that's according to brand-new fox news polling, and it shows that harris leads trump by one point among registered voters in arizona and by two points in both georgia and nevada. trump meanwhile, leads by a single point in north carolina. now all of those results are

within the margin of error, but the trend lines favor harris. in previous fox polls conducted before president joe biden exited the 2024 race about six weeks ago, trump led by five points in arizona, nevada, and north carolina, and by six points in georgia, and elise, we can hold up the graphic there for a moment more. you can see the trend here, and yes. the race is close, but when president biden dropped out, it reshaped the race. not only does harris have momentum, but suddenly her path to 270 electoral college votes have really opened up. >> and you look at the impact on the down ballot races and i was just frankly shocked by the arizona senate poll. within this poll, and how rueben gallego is just running away, and it's kari lake. she's a drag on the ticket for sure.

it's a big lead in a place where it wasn't supposed to be that huge. so she definitely has momentum. is she going to be able to maintain the enthusiasm, the excitement going into september post-debate? that's what remains to be seen, how the next two months are going to play out, and whether this is a honeymoon or it's for real. >> harris and walz will have their first sitdown interview later tonight. sam stein, let's get you in on these polls here. i mean, it's significant, you know, polls are a snapshot. we know that, but this shows where this race is at this moment, and the wind is at harris' back. what do you think about the state of play in those sun belt states, states that just a few weeks ago, donald trump had thought he had put away. remember the sidelines of the republican national convention -- i know you were there in milwaukee, trump aides telling reporters we don't even have to advertise or campaign in north carolina. >> right. >> that state is in the bag. now his lead is one point. >> i'll never get over that dig you made about me getting

through security. for my entire life frankly. >> pass it onto your kids. >> they'll remember it too. they're watching i'm sure. i think to your point, look. we all know that the race has been reset, but the way in which it's reset, i think matters here, and by that i mean, when you have three states that are critical to the election, it narrows the field for trump. it allows him to focus on those battleground states in michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. when you have seven states now in contention, it becomes a resource battle much more so, and in this case, it's not just that harris has the momentum. it's that she's raising tons of more money. when you're raising half a billion dollars in a month, right? you can then afford to do ad blitzes and fund on-the-ground operations in these states and you can do turnout and persuasion in these states and now you're stretching trump's resources even further, and so yes. there's more maps, but in addition -- sorry. more pathway to 270, but in

addition to the pathway to 270, you also benefit from the fact that you have a lot more money and can afford to play in all those states, and trump now has to be on the defensive. i mean, not only do they not want to spend in arizona. they continue want to spend in north carolina, and they're going to have to do that now. doesn't mean that harris is going to win those states, but it does make it more likely for her to pick off enough states to get to 270 now. >> and then harris of course, spending time in georgia on a bus tour and then a rally right now. so here's how fox news chief anchor brett baier reacted yesterday with a close eye on one of those key swing states. >> georgia. georgia remains. it was the closest contest in 2020, decided by less than a quarter of a percentage point in favor of president biden. our recent polling showed the widest gap, six points for former president trump over president biden, but now that has closed. harris has a two-point lead in our latest poll. it's expected to be a close

race. that's obviously within the margin of error, but both candidates are spending a lot of time in georgia, and if that lead holds, she wins georgia, she wins the presidency of the united states. >> the importance of georgia on display right now. the trump-vance campaign as i might imagine, quickly issued a mmo calling the polling atrocious saying, we report. you decide. fox's polling has an awful track record and speaking of georgia, vice president kamala harris and governor tim walz are on a campaign bus tour of the -- of southern, typically redder counties in that state. the democratic ticket was greeted yesterday on an airport tarmac from students by savannah state university, georgia's oldest hbcu. the tour then kicked off with a series of stops focused on education. harris and walz then traveled south through hinesville, georgia, where they spoke to

members of the faculty and the student marching band. >> you embody the idea, and the vice president talks a lot about it. each of our talents we can contribute, but something bigger than ourselves. your single instrument alone is an amazing thing, but as part of this band, it becomes amazing. i'm grateful you would have us here and i'm grateful to be part of the team with a really great head coach here in your next president of the united states, kamala harris. [ cheers and applause ] >> sometimes you hit the note. sometimes you don't, right? but all that practice makes for beautiful music, and that is a metaphor -- that is symbolic for everything that you will do in your lives, which you're going to show what a winning team looks like. you're going to show what it means to put yourself out on the field, to it put yourself in front of people, to have the confidence to do it. sometimes you're going to hit the step right. sometimes you're not. sometimes you're going to win the game.

sometimes you may not, but, you know, you never let any circumstance knock you down or slow you down. you just keep going at it. >> harris has long said she loves a bus tour and the vice president will continue her tour of georgia today while walz will head onto campaign events in north carolina. harris will end the tour with a rally in savannah later on today and the importance of georgia also on display by donald trump's efforts to patch things up with republican governor brian kemp, the popular governor which whom donald trump has been feuding with for years. we have errin haines, a political contributor and an expert on all things georgia. tell us about the state of play there, and what we're seeing from this push by harris and her running mate to move into sort of these redder counties. it's not about winning those counties, right? it's about closing the margin of defeat, but closing the gap. so therefore you can win it in

atlanta, in the suburbs of atlanta, and she's speaking to voters, white and black who don't always think about voting for democrats. >> right, and who also don't always get to see a democrat, especially in that part of the state. listen. there are 159 counties in georgia and atlanta is only in one of them. typically democrats do tend to focus in and around atlanta in those surrounding counties and republicans are the ones that tend to go to the rest of the state. republicans avoid atlanta and go to the rest of the state. harris is showing that she is willing to work for those votes, not necessarily to win those red counties, but certainly to eat away at the margins. that's the kind of map that stacey abrams and other grassroots places like black lives matter worked to build the coalition that elected senator raphael warnock and jon ossoff in 2020 and joe biden and kamala harris turning georgia blue in

that year. it's something that vice president harris is obviously hoping to repeat. listen. i mean, you have people in that part of the state that are concerned about affordability, about opportunity, and so to hear, you know, coach walz and vice president harris really down there trying to rally them, bringing some of that joy also in the form of encouragement to an area that they know, you know, a lot of people are still struggling, trying to strike that balance, i think it was something really important in a part of the country that shows kind of where they are coming out of this convention and focus on the middle class and focus on opportunity for folks like the people in the savannah area these two days. >> errin, it's aly vitali because we started with your colleague talking about the messaging around freedom to try to appeal to some moderate white women that might not vote democrat. can you talk about the impact of that kind of a message around freedom, around protecting

democracy, around reproductive health care, that could transcend racial lines among women voters who are going to be so crucial in this election not just in georgia, but in battleground states across the country? >> such a great point, and thank you so much for highlighting jenn's story because white women are the largest voting block in the country. i think a lot of people don't realize that, and a message that appeals to them, that abortion was going to be on the ballot. harris has been the democrats' strongest surrogate on the issue of abortion tying it to freedom and rights and religious questions, and what makes this a healthy democracy. that could resonate with a lot of these conservative, suburban white women who live in counties that are outside of atlanta, and so that could be part of the winning formula that puts georgia in play. another thing that i would also note, you know, republican governor brian kemp is somebody who is very popular with

conservative white women, and so i think that that probably also has a lot to do with why former president trump decided he wanted to make up with governor kemp at this time because the way that he's been speaking about governor kemp is something that definitely rubbed a lot of those conservative georgia women the wrong way. >> kemp and his wife even, and we'll see if trump can maintain -- >> that's another part. >> that's right, and we'll see if trump can maintain that facade of a truce there with the governor for whom he has been so angry for so long. we want to get to your most recent piece. it has this title. "nothing about this year is normal. it could give harris a chance at history." you write in part, this. in many ways, the story of harris' unlikely journey is one not just of 107 days, but of the last four years and how far the candidate and the country have come. much of that evolution happened behind the scenes when the media paid less attention to a role that has been traditionally

unimportant, but with a new opportunity to introduce herself after a national reckoning on race with women continuing to break barriers across society, could voters choose harris to break what clinton calls, the highest, hardest glass ceiling? harris is making the case for where she is ready to be president. soon the country will decide whether they believe she is ready. so errin, tell us a little bit more about this because it has been so striking that at least to this point in the campaign, harris and her team are not dwelling on the potential history that could be made here. they're not spending a lot of time on her race or gender. of course, it's there. it's obvious, but it's not at the forefront of the messaging like it was in 2016 for hillary clinton, but the opportunity is there all the same. talk to us about how you see it resonating. >> yeah. i mean, i think you're making a very good point, jonathan. i was in chicago at the democratic national convention last week and i think that we did see that this is her

potential to make history is not something that was really explicit. it was really more implicit, something that the vice president herself is now really pointing out or highlighting, specifically some of her surrogates and others who spoke at the convention, certainly kind of did that for her, but yes. i mean, the reality is that we are in a very different place than we were just over a month ago in this presidential race, and we could be in a very different place as a nation than we have been in more than 230 years, and as i said in my column, you know, just even the way that this came together, and we're really looking at a moment that had to happen this way. shirley chisholm who ran for president -- the first woman to run for president in 1972 who predicted that the path to a presidency for a woman could be through the vice presidency, and so harris has been the understudy for four years. that's one of the factors that contributed to this. the way that president biden kind of exited the race and endorsed her really kind of set

her up to get these delegates and clear the field so they doesn't have this process for 18 months. we have a political climate that's different and this accelerated calendar that gives you this immediate sense of urgency and sense of drama. weeks ahead of schedule, you've got voters that are really interested and excited about this race, curious about harris, curious about her candidacy which is one of the reasons why this interview could be impactful tonight. people wanting to know more about her and people who may be excited about voting for her who were not excited about either of their choices for president just a few weeks ago. so there are some advantages and disadvantages to that timeline, but including hillary clinton, some of the folks i talked to really said that this could be what makes a difference in november and how harris could be the one that makes history. coming up, what we're learning this morning about the incident that took place at arlington national cemetery involving the trump campaign back on monday. "morning joe" is coming right back with that. ing right back with that to me, harlem is home.

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we're learning new details this morning about the alleged altercation at arlington national cemetery this week that involved donald trump's campaign. at first, trump's team disputed aspects of initial reporting by npr -- they broke the story, but arlington national cemetery later put out a statement confirming that there had been an incident and that a report was filed with military police. the former president had been invited to the cemetery by the

family of a marine killed three years ago during the bombing at abbey gate in afghanistan. that family granted trump's team permission to film and take photographs at the marine's grave site. three u.s. military officials tell "the new york times" that some members of the trump campaign confronted and eventually pushed past a cemetery official when she tried to stop them from taking photos in section 60, where campaign photography is strictly prohibited. the military officials told "the times," the cemetery worker feared that pursuing the matter with authorities could subject her to retaliation from trump supporters. so at least donald trump was invited to go to the cemetery. there's a difference there between a family's wishes and then using that for campaign propaganda. we've seen the video. they put it on tiktok and social media. we've seen him give a thumbs up, and this is something that has

sparked a lot of anger from military families, from veterans groups, from gold star families who say that arlington national cemetery, arguably, the most sacred place in our nation was used as a campaign prop. >> and they're saying a because they were there. they were certainly, during a campaign, what was a sacred moment, it was the anniversary of a horrific attack that took 13 members of the u.s. military, mostly the marines, and so yes. some of those fans had wanted them to come, but it matters in how it is actually presented, and what the end result is, and it can't look like a campaign event, and the optics ended up being something that his base could seize onto as saying, donald trump was standing with the fallen, and the other side could say, look at the crassness. look at what happened here. you know, what really is the story? i still want to hear more about

the fallout as to what actually happened because there are so many disputed accounts over what was the incident at hand. >> and the trump team is trying to highlight that explosion in afghanistan saying it's a real failure of the biden administration, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact, let's think about how donald trump talks about -- >> exactly. >> -- veterans. he has called them suckers and losers, you know, belittling their service according to his own chief of staff, and even just recently, downplaying the medal of honor, suggesting that well, maybe you don't -- i'm far phrasing up. don't want to win that one because you could have injury or death. >> this was his afghanistan policy. he set the groundwork for the drawdown and the withdrawal, and maybe he would have handled it differently. who knows? but he set this in order. the wheels were turning. his team was negotiating the terms, and so donald trump does own this afghanistan policy too although biden was, at the time, the one -- the figurehead of the incompetence at the moment and the horror of that scene at

kabul airport. >> yeah, biden certainly wanted the afghanistan withdrawal, but it was trump who started the process in motion. meanwhile, republican vice presidential nominee jd vance escalated his attacks against vice president harris yesterday to a new level, blasting the democratic presidential nominee over that withdrawal from afghanistan three years ago. >> to have those 13 americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. kamala harris is disgraceful. if we were to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent americans who lost their lives, it is that kamala harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened and she wants to yell at donald trump because he showed up. she can -- she can go to hell. >> vance made those remarks during a campaign stop in erie, pennsylvania while defending his team of improper actions at arlington national cemetery.

he spoke to reporters in wisconsin and doubled down on his initial comments. >> look. sometimes i get frustrated and sometimes i get pissed off, and i think kamala harris' failure is something to get angry about. >> that's jd vance seemingly trying to explain or sort of soften his remarks because we're in a moment now where he just told the vice president of the united states to go to hell. that is the rhetoric that the republican ticket is now engaging in. >> yeah, and i think -- look. there's legitimate criticisms to make about how the afghanistan withdrawal was handled. obviously it was a low point for the biden-harris administration. i think it facilitated the polling drop from which biden himself never recovered which depose to show you how the public felt about the whole matter. so yeah. it's fair criticism, but this type of criticism and the politicization of the arlington

national cemetery does trip up the trump campaign operation from making that criticism. it's not so much -- i mean, it is of course, the fact that you would try to profit off this moment by bringing a camera crew and filming on this sacred ground. there's a larger context that it should be, or feel like there are places that are immune or exempt from politics, right? politics has seeped into every facet of our lives. churches, schools, everything. now when you see the arlington national cemetery in section 60 become a staging ground for bickering because of donald trump and not because of anyone else, it goes to the other piece that harris is getting at. we want to move on from this. we don't want to spend time debating whether it's correct protocol to bring cameras to arlington national cemetery or props in political campaigns. they have done this in true

trumpian fashion, and when confronted it, they say not only can kamala harris go to hell, but you say the trump people saying, the person working at the cemetery was, quote, unquote, suffering from mental issues. why? what is the point of doing that? that's grotesque, and you can say, look. this was an understanding which is what normal people would say. the larger story here matters as much as the specifics of what vance is saying and what happened is arlington. >> sam makes a good point. it's arguably one of the most sacred places investigate nation. -- in the nation. i try to go once a year and just walk through it. in campaigns pass, if there had been an altercation, the staffer would be immediately fired. >> yeah. >> or at least suspended. instead we have the trump team doubling and tripling down and defending that staffer and attacking the person at the cemetery, and it does -- it does

reiterate as sam said, what the harris team is saying. and others in the political world are saying. the nation is just exhausted by donald trump. >> yeah. >> and these hijinx. >> you're right. in any normal campaign, they were invited. that was their right to accept their invitation and go there, but when you're arguing with the staff, i think you really lost the plot there. i will say there's a report. there's a tangible report that was filed. that is something that members of congress i believe have asked for. i'm inclined and interested to see it. that's something that could shed continuing light. if you are arguing at one of the most sacred sites, you've lost the message. the other piece of this too, as i listened to jd vance there, he's the person who rightly, after the attempted assassination of his running mate, said that everyone needs to take the rhetoric down, and he blamed democrats for ratcheting it up. certainly we've seen a ratcheting up across the board,

largely in part because of former president trump himself, and the way that he attacks and goes at his enemies or political enemies as he perceives them, but that comment from vance basically telling as sam said, the vice president of the united states to go to hell, that is completely different to what he has said, and going through a period of saying, the trump campaign is going to take the rhetoric down. this is a sober- minded moment in the aftermath of his assassination attempt. we're weeks out, and here we are again. we'll get to russia from banning multiple journalists from entering the country. "morning joe" will be right back. country. "morning joe" will be right back ♪ ♪

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♪♪ time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. nebraska's supreme court will decide if those with felony convictions can vote in november. in april, that state's legislature passed a bill restoring voting rights to felons after they completed their prison sentences. that expanded a law that gave voting rights to felons two years after their sentences had ended, but last month the state's republican attorney general said both laws were unconstitutional, arguing that the board of pardons and not the legislature should make that determination. talks -- meanwhile talks are under way for a deal that could value the company open a.i. at $100 billion or more. open a.i. launched this artificial intelligence boom back in 2022 with the release of chatgpt. it has since rolled out other powerful technologies including

programs that can generate images and human-like speech. overseas now, russia has banned nearly 100 american citizens including several journalists from entering that country. the list includes members of the u.s. government, pro-democracy activists, and defense contractors who have been supplying weapons to ukraine. those banned by moscow include current or former employees at "new york times," "the washington post," and "the wall street journal." and speaking of the journal, the paper's editorial board has a new piece on the vice president's planned interview today with dana bash. it's titled "harris gets an interview crutch." it reads this way. don't think that kamala harris' handlers are shielding her from tough questions? consider that in her first sitdown interview with the press this week, she's bringing along a crutch, running mate tim walz. the one on two format will limit

ms. harris' time in answering questions. mr. walz will be there with a parachute to rescue the presidential candidate if she has a rough go or struggles to answer something. the dana bash interview is an attempt to rebut the criticism she hasn't done any interviews as a candidate, but that isn't nearly enough, especially with mr. walz along as chaperon. that's from the "wall street journal" editorial board. a couple of things here, sam. it is very traditional for the nominee of a party to do a sitdown interview with his or her running mate. >> right. >> soon after that running mate is added to the ticket. that happens every cycle. what is different here is because of the accelerated timetable, and harris has only been at the top of the ticket for a few weeks that she hasn't done any other sitdown interviews. that's why this is different and that's why there's a lot of attention called to this one. political strategists have argued to me that harris should do a bunch of interviews. schedule a bunch this week, next

week, so there's not any pressure on any one, and any mistakes wouldn't be magnified. does this matter or not? >> well, i'm with you. i think she should schedule a bunch. i'm with the people who you've talked to, that she should schedule a bunch. she should come on "way to early." >> i agree. >> only with me as the guest host. >> we have you for a while. >> there's two things to consider. well, three things. one is the compressed time frame has messed with this, right? it's not just that she's, you know, had to pull a campaign in matter of weeks, you know, you do have to do convention prep. she spent a lot of days offline to actually practice and rehearse her speech, and then coming up very quickly is debate, right? you do have to go offline and do debate prep. it's not an excuse for saying she shouldn't do interviews. it's just pointing out that you also have to do interview prep and those things get crunched together. secondarily, is that they internally, the harris campaign, have calculated that the

downsides of not doing these interviews, which is basically anger among members of the press, and some distrust among some people in the public who are attuned to this political stuff, will be completely outweighed by the benefits of being on message and doing the other stuff that she spends her time with rallies and speeches and bus tours and things like that. she does small talk here and there, but that does not substitute for an actual interview and third, which is underappreciated, there are other mechanisms to communicate with the public that don't include sitting down with a journalist. i happen to disagree with that. i think there are real benefits to sitting with the press. i think there are requirements if you want to seek higher office, you should sit with the press. there is an obligation to, you know, subject yourself to that type of inquiry and questioning. it's fundamental for the job. it also frankly would prepare her better for the debate. one of the things you want to have is some experience with adversarial questioning. i'm not saying this is why joe

biden stumbled, but it is notable that joe biden did very few interviews with the press corps and suffered in that debate and i think he would have benefitted and i think the vice president would as well. >> and at least any candidate for higher office, should submit to tough, persistent questioning. that's good for a democracy. that's good for transparency. that helps inform the voters make a decision. i agree with sam though, that it's unclear how much political impact this will actually have. >> and the political operative in me would say, i get it. as long as she can get away with it, why do it? be everything to everyone. continue down that path. on the other hand as a citizen, as someone who loves journalism and believes in transparency, it really is not the best look that she hasn't done any interviews and now she's on the road, why not do local interviews with

journalists in georgia? she doesn't have to -- i'm not saying necessarily sit down and do a primetime interview with a huge anchor, but do local. show in those places that you are willing and accessible, and you can talk and think on your feet and i think it's an unforced error and it makes her look like she's being too protected and being too hesitant and certainly she can give an interview. she's the vice president of the united states. coming up, our next guest as vice president kamala harris is redefining the term, american exceptionalism through the prism of her own life and the immigrant experience. we'll talk about that and how it's resonating with voters next on "morning joe." g with voters t on "morning joe.

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it is now our turn to do what generations before us have

done, guided by optimism and faith to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on earth, the privilege and pride of being an american. [ cheers and applause ] >> that was vice president kamala harris speaking last week at the democratic national convention in chicago. our next guest describes her message at the most full-throated and sincere expression of american exceptionalism since george h.w. bush and the best representation of that since john f. kennedy.

joining us, rick stengel. his latest piece bears the title "kamala harris redefines american exceptionalism for a new generation of voters." great to see you this morning. >> great to see you guy. >> did you go into this convention speech or candidacy thinking that she would be the messenger for american exceptionalism? >> i didn't, john. i thought it was a really terrific thing that she did do, and she kind of reinvigorated this notion for democrats. i mean, the sad truth is that democrats for a long time have been sort of circumspect about the symbols of american patriotism, the flag. american exceptionalism became a debased term. as i mentioned in the piece, you know, obama got saddled with it when he was asked if he was an american exceptionalist. he said, i am, but sort of the

way british people are british exceptionalists. people went, oh my god. he's not an american exceptionalists. she reinville -- reinvigorated this, and reinvented it through the prism of her experience and the immigrant experience. >> it was so striking last week in chicago. i was there. just the flag was everywhere. the red, white and blue was everywhere. chants of usa were everywhere. it did feel like democrats who your point, for so long had sort of avoided that, were not just -- they were not just re-embraing it, but trying to take it back from republicans. >> yeah. i think it never should have been taken away, but i mean, i'm old enough to remember when democrats didn't fly the flag, didn't put it up, didn't chant usa, and i think it's great there's a younger generation of democrats who are re-embracing that. >> there was at least -- there

was a video of the trump campaign maybe a month or so back where they had someone saying, if you see an american flag, knowing who that person is voting for suggesting it was donald trump and that was not the case. >> the dnc showcased just how democrats have started to claw back that territory and just in terms of, they can have a robust national security platform. they can be patriotic. i did find something -- one of your statements to be pretty interesting. i wanted you to expand on that a little bit more. you write that it was the most robust statement in support of american exceptionalism since george h.w. bush and i worked for george bush, and there were plenty of lofty declarations of our support for american exceptionalism. why do you say that, since george h.w. bush? >> i actually went george bush who you worked for. >> good, good. >> i do think part of the -- that blemished record of

american exceptionalism was the invasion of iraq. it was justified using these kind of grand terms, prove denshal terms and that's one of the reasons it went into hibernation among democrats. obama ran to oppose the invasion on iraq. i want to pick up on what you were saying. the other thing t flip side, the fact that republicans are embracing american exceptionalism when their own candidate has us basically derogated the term and said the american dream is dead and has run as a declinist as political scientists call him, somebody who thinks that america is in decline. there's never been a president elected before who was saying that. people realize he's not usa, usa. he actually says we're a country that is a failed state. that's not very inspiring to voters. coming up, a new profile of president joe biden that looks

at how his decision to exit the 2024 race ended a remarkable chapter in american history and could ultimately help define his legacy. "morning joe" will be right back.

1-2. deep to left. >> oh my goodness. >> that's one of the best catches you'll ever see particularly in the ninth inning. clinging to a one-run inning in the bottom of the ninth, travis

jankowski robbed a run. janikowski reaching way over the wall in the n left to save the game. spectacular. the rangers beat the white sox 4-3. to los angeles now and look at this. the huge turnout for shohei ohtani bobblehead night there at dodgers stadium. fans lined up outside the ballpark as early as 9:00 a.m. yesterday. a full ten hours before the first pitch, hoping to be among the first 40,000 who would receive a bobblehead of ohtani holding his now famous dog, decoy. about 2,000 of those bobbleheads would be gold, boosting the value. by the afternoon, the line to get in had become so long. look at this. dodger stadium parking lot, full of people. the park gates were open two hours early and tens of thousands of fans waiting outside the stadium entrance were allowed 40 minutes earlier than usual.

ohtani and the pup were feature for the game's ceremonial first pitch. the star player said he spent three weeks training him to wait and pick up the baseball and deliver it to him on command. he did it perfectly. as for the game, ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 42nd home run of the season. he has a sense of a moment. just amazing. he also added his 41st and 42nd stolen bases of the year to become the first 50/50 player in history. the dodgers beat the baltimore orioles 6-4, and sam stein, i can't tell what's more impressive. what ohtani is doing at the plate or the way he trained decoy to perfectly deliver the ceremonial first pitch? >> definitely the training of the dog. as a dog owner myself, that doesn't happen, at least under my tutelage. look, john. i'm glad the red sox didn't get shohei ohtani. it would have been too much to

root for such a talent. it would have been too hard to enjoy baseball this much. i'm happy about that, and let's just take a moment. it's two videos ago, but with there maybe, like, 13 fans? >> 12. >> good god. i know they're bad, but, like -- >> they're not just bad. they're historically bad, and you're right. fans have completely given up. there are seats available. >> there was no one there. >> there were seats available at u.s. cellular field, and the red sox have had a woeful stretch. >> they won last night. >> they've won two in a row and suddenly three games out of the wild card. >> i don't want to do this. i don't want to do this. i don't want to do it. >> fine, sam. we won't do it. go back to training your dog. there are the standings. they did it anyway. they're well out of first, but only three back in the wild card. keep hope alive. time now for a look at some of the morning papers from across the country. let's go to texas where the

austin american statesman says crowdstrike is facing a barrage of lawsuits nearly six weeks after pushing out a bug software update that caused major tech outages around the globe. the latest suit claims crowdstrike failed to adequately test the update before its launch and those affected should be compensated. the arizona republic meanwhile leads with the growing number of patients in the state being treated for contact burns. doctors say these occur from falling onto hot asphalt which can reach about 160 degrees in places like phoenix. 160. that's almost unfathomable. to pennsylvania now and "the philadelphia enquirer" is starting the paralympic games today in paris. more than 4,000 athletes with visual, and intellectual impairments will compete in

sports through september 8th. the paralympic games can be streamed on peacock. always wonderful to see and before we go to break, we want to mention we had claire mccaskill booked for the show yesterday, but she informed us she couldn't make it. why? well, that's because she was busy welcoming her 16th grandchild to the world, a beautiful baby girl. congratulations to claire and the entire family. that's a good excuse to missing the show. coming up, why some young undecided voters changed their minds about kamala harris after her dnc speech. we'll dig into a new piece on that just ahead on "morning joe." that just aheaon "morning joe.

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ma'am, i don't need a teleprompter. i've actually got thoughts in my

head, unlike kamala harris. there's verifiable evidence that the families of these poor people who had their loved ones die three years ago at abby road, they had -- excuse me. abby gate. >> yep. that was republican vice presidential nominee, jd vance mixing up afghanistan and the beatles album just moments after he attacked vice president kamala harris for using a teleprompter and unleashing quite the laugh while doing so. so welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." it is 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. here in the east. i'm jonathan lemire. in this morning for joe, mika, and willie. elise jordan is with us for the hour as well. joining the conversation, we have the host of "inside with jen psaki," jen psaki, coauthor of "the playbook," eugene daniels, and editor of "the new york times," patrick healy. let's start this hour with

brand-new polling out this morning that shows kamala harris taking the lead over donald trump this time nationally. new numbers from "usa today" and suffolk university show harris ahead by five points, 48% to 43%, among likely voters nationwide. that is within the margin of error, but does mark a major shift from a poll conducted immediately after june's presidential debate between trump and president joe biden. and that survey when biden was still the presumptive democratic nominee, he trailed trump by three points among registered voters. harris' surge is being driven by major gains among some key groups. 18 to 35-year-olds have gone from backing trump by 11 points in june to now supporting harris by 13 points. among hispanic voters, harris leads by 16 points after trump led biden by two back then in june, and harris has also expanded biden's 47-point lead

with black voters to a whopping 64-point lead now, and jen, let's get your take on this. national polls only mean so much. >> mm-hmm. >> let's establish that, but this is reflective of a trend line, and i think it's important to note here. we're not really seeing in all these surveys, it's not like trump's numbers are really going down per se. at least not much. it's more that harris' growing support. it seems like democrats that for whatever reason had really cooled on president biden are now coming home because they're excited about her. >> that's exactly right, and remember just over a month ago, there was a larger number of double haters as we called them, people who weren't thrilled about either candidate. there was a large percentage of undecided voters from poll to poll, and this is a reflection of democrats coming home, or democratic-leaning voters coming home, which is a very good sign for the biden and walz campaign,

exactly what you want coming it of the convention, and one of the most interesting numbers certainly 18 to 34-year-olds, but the hispanic number, latinos is super interesting because this is a group that trump and the trump team has really done a ton of outreach to, and it is a group that you have seen some trends in certain states that has been leaning sometimes more republican than they have been historically democratic. so this is a very good sign for them. what this means too, and you see this in state polls which are much more interesting to me than national polls is that some of the states that seem to be off of the competition lane for the democratic ticket like arizona, nevada, georgia, are back in competition, and that's a very good sign for the harris-walz team because they have more -- more maps to get to 270, and it's n jt thbl wall even though the blue wall will still be pivotal. >> yeah, and jen, let's talk about some of those sun belt states. we had a fox news poll we showed earlier this morning. we can put it up again now.

you see it here. these are all within the margin of error, but harris, one point up in arizona. two in both georgia and nevada and down one in north carolina, and to your point, she suddenly has a lot more options, a lot more ability to get to 270 p weigh in on that, but are there concerns that harris maybe not quite as strong as biden in some of those blue wall states or do the democrats feel like we're still good there too? >> i think for any campaign if you are sitting in the harris-walz campaign, you have to be excited about where you've made progress and be clear-eyed about where you need to make more progress. there are areas where biden was quite strong including older white people in blue wall states where harris and walz need to do more work and campaigning and outreach. they're aware of that, but that is an important focus for them. the clear-eyed thing they need to be thinking about, and what's interesting about these numbers is that -- and what the harris team i should say needs to be

very cognizant of, is that people can't get too overly excited like the race is won out there. it was an exciting convention for a lot of democrats. it was amazing to watch just as a human being, but this is still a very close race, and as some of those states, they're not all created equal. georgia for example, where harris and walz are doing the bus tour right now is arguably a better state for them than say north carolina, and democrats definitely want to win north carolina. north carolina's a state where they're competing. the governor there is, like, 20 points ahead. the democratic candidate for governor is 20 points ahead of the republican, but it is a harder state because in some ways it's more expensive. the demographics are not as strong for the democrats as they are in georgia. so they still have to make some decisions between these states because ultimately it's about getting to 270. you don't get, like, a, you know, a gold star for winning north carolina. even though hopefully they'll compete in north carolina, and maybe even win north carolina, but those are some of the decisions i think if you are sitting in the harris-walz team,

you've got to be making at this point. >> they also announced. >> announcer: -- in the last day or so. joe biden heading to pennsylvania and wisconsin to speak to voters where he too -- with him, he is still quite popular in those blue wall states in the days ahead. eugene, tonight, of course, will be the airing of vice president harris' first major televised interview since she ascended to the top of the ticket. it'll air tonight. she'll be alongside tim walz for that. you've reported on some of the behind-the-scenes thinking as to when and with who harris -- with whom harris was going to do this interview. give us a preview as to what the campaign hopes to achieve from this, and do we have a sense of this being the first of many? >> we do. i think, you know, the first on that last question, is that she will do i'm told, many solo interviews as we move forward. we in the media have a different definition of many than folks on

the campaign, but we'll see hero do these solo hits with folks as we move forward to november 5th. what they're hoping to do, one, i think is kind of quiet the chatter about the fact she hasn't done an interview since she's became even the presumptive nominee just over a month ago, right? get the conversation moving differently. they, sometimes don't feel this -- when it was the biden campaign and even now as the harris campaign. not everyone feels that traditional media is the way to go. not great news for us, and that you already saw her and walz do different kind of creator content behind the scenes at the dnc that started to trickle out this week. they're also hoping to show these two -- continue to show these two as a buddy comedy that's been on t r kinds of things. the campaign also pushed back to me last night about the fact that it's two people, right?

the republicans have said harris is using walz as a minder. that's very unlikely, and this is something that happens all the time, right? trump and vance did a two-person interview. palin and mccain did one. obama and biden. it's a tradition at this point, but we're hoping, i think, to see and hear some policy questions. there's still a lot of questions about how -- not just the economics -- she's talking about this opportunity economy that is the center of her campaign, but also there's foreign policy , right? we have the middle east and everything there. and also about trump. i think folks want to continue to see her talk about and go after donald trump. that's not really what the campaign wants to do, but i assume dana will ask about a lot of that as well. >> no question on that. patrick, "the new york times" asked a group of young undecided voters for their thoughts regarding vice president harris and former president trump. this was prior to last week's

national democratic convention. at the time they rated harris more negatively than trump. however, you spoke to them again after harris' speech at the dnc in chicago. what did you learn? >> their opinions really did start to shift. when we talked to them before the democratic convention, what was most interesting is they had a lot of doubts about harris. they had a lot of suspicions about harris, but with trump, they knew him and they detested him. they just didn't like him. there was a difference of opinion. when she gave that speech, what we heard from let's say, one of the undecided voters, abigail, a young woman who's about 23 who's in virginia, she said she wasn't sure if harris was genuinely proud of the country before the speech. she wasn't sure what harris actually believed in terms of the american story, and how that she would tell it. this is the pressure that's on the harris campaign is to put harris in front of, i think, dana bash, tonight, the media, these events where including

certainly the dnc speech, where people even though harris has been in our lives, you know, now for many years, for a lot of voters they still don't feel like they know her, and what we heard is that in this speech in particular, abortion rights, gun violence, democracy, calling out dictators, those were issues that really appealed to these undecided, young voters. they were particularly, i think, traumatized in a lot of ways by january 6th. it was the most surprising thing that i heard in that speech. they kept bringing it up on their own, how disturbed they were by january 6th and trump's behavior, and they wanted to hear that harris believed in the country, believed in democracy. we all kind of take that for granted, but for a lot of them, they weren't sure what she was about. >> this was reflected, the swing of kamala harris, how she's doing better with young voters in the new suffolk poll that's

out today because biden had been losing to trump with youth voters, and trump was ahead by about 11 points and now today, harris is up by 13 points. so post-convention, voters are getting to know her better. did young voters, though -- what did they say about gaza and how her views and how she addressed the war in gaza, how's that going to impact their vote? >> it's so important, elise, and this is partly why "the new york times" opinion section wanted to do this project with undecided, young voters. >> sure. >> we all saw what happened last spring. so many young people deeply upset about the war, and moving away from biden, and then as you say, what we saw in the "usa today" poll, the way they're moving back to harris, they're deeply concerned about gaza. i know that in some polls, gaza rates, you know, pretty low, but for a lot of them in terms of kind of emotional pain points when they see the images on tiktok, on television, about

what's happening in gaza, it does become a voting issue for them. what they said was that some of them felt like they were impressed with the fact that she was very explicit about palestinians' self-determination, about palestinian rights. they hadn't heard that from joe biden or from a prominent democratic official, but we had a lot of people in our group who care deeply about israel who said anti-semitism is a voting issue for them. those folks were still, i think, a little unsure about harris. they liked the fact that she said she would give resources to israel, that she wasn't coming out for an arms embargo, but they wanted to feel -- it's tough, elise, right? people want you to pick a side in this, and harris is really trying to thread that needle. i think she moved more people in a positive direction. >> and just the nerd in me really quickly. the young voters that you spoke to, were they equally divided among leaning dem, leaning

republican, or were they independent? >> yep. they were five biden voters in 2020, two trump voters in 2020, and the rest weren't old enough to vote. so as we've seen, a lot of young people are already going to harris. frank luntz and i were talking about, how is this going to be? who is undecided when so many of their peers are going, but these are people who are very comfortable voting for a democrat, voting for a sort of generic democrat. what they are uncertain about with kamala harris, what she need to do to close the deal with them is to be giving more specifics. they want to hear that, but they also want to have a sense of, like, what their future's going to be in a country under a harris administration. are they going to be able to afford a home someday? are they going to be able to pay off their debt? can they get a job in those pocketbook issues. we're used to hearing that from older voters, but it's important to these young people who have grown up in the great recession

era and they don't know what their future will be. >> it's jenn psaki. i addressed this. one of the things we heard is people weren't excited about voting. they didn't want to do it, especially young voters in this group that you were talking to. were there issues like climate change, student loans, other things that came up specifically that were on their minds like that or any that surprised you i guess, too? >> it was abortion rights that i think that was most central and even to some of the moderate sort of voters in the group, you know, even some of the women who described themselves as a little bit more on the pro-life side. they didn't like the idea of a national abortion ban. they didn't like the idea of kind of a one-size-fits-all that they worry they're going to get with trump. we were surprised climate change didn't come up kind of

organically in the group and i kind of asked about it, and it wasn't something that they rated high. i have to think that a lot of the young voters who are deeply passionate about climate change are probably already with harris already. these kind of undecided voters, they were definitely more in the economic space than i think in at least in the climate space. >> so eugene, let's talk about the vice president's trip to georgia. bus tour yesterday, again today, rally in savannah. i know you have been reporting on it. on the thought process here, going to counties -- red counties where democrats rarely tread, trying to drive down the republicans' margins there, and frankly speak to voters who at times feel forgotten. >> yeah, and you know what's interesting is this comes from two places. one, quentin folks who is the deputy campaign manager for the harris -- first the biden and now the harris campaign. he's from georgia. he's a rural georgia person. he ran the 2020 campaign for raphael warnock, and so he -- he

took a lot of lessons from that. they went to these places that hadn't seen a democrat in a long time, if ever, and they started to see the margins went down. people were more interested. he said, even if people yell at you, you don't leave with less votes than you went there with. even with vice president harris, someone had to remind me of this. it's been so long. in 2022, when i wrote a story about how she herself was telling her team to go to unconventional places, and this was in april of 2022, places like sunset, louisiana that has, you know, that is a very small, small area, and isn't electorally helpful for democrats in any way, shape, or form, and so this is something that she feels kind of deeply her aides say, that you get out to places that people don't see democrats or don't even see any kind of politician and hasn't in a really long time and just let them know you're there. when she talks about the kinds of voters that have been left behind, you listen to her. she says black, brown, native,

and rural, right? one of the issues that she worked on for a very long time in the administration was rural broadband, right? when she was running in 2019 in her own race, she talked to this child who said his mother had to take him to the parking lot in mccdonald's because they didn't have any wi-fi at home. this is why she feels rural voters need to be hearing and seeing from them more. they're not just going to do this in georgia. they'll do this in north carolina, in pennsylvania, and even on volunteers. when people have asked the campaign and campaign aides, you know, where should i go? where do you want me at the end of that week before the election? they'll tell them places like eastern north carolina which is kind of like the outer banks. they'll tell them places like western pennsylvania which is a place where democrats again, often don't go, and there's clearly a strategy here to run down those margins so you don't

have to depend on atlanta or philly, and the last point i'll make here is this is also the campaign's feeling, right? they have more room to play with because president biden -- there were a lot of complaints from democrats that president biden was going to the big cities and you go there because you don't feel like there's any room to grow. you have to keep your base and the democratic base there happy in places like philly and atlanta. that's not the case, and they basically have the -- they're printing money. they can kind of make these decisions really easily. >> so patrick, final word to you on the harris strategy here. it comes at a time where many feel like the sharpest political divide in the nation is urban versus rural. >> it's so true, and it's so interesting where she is going in georgia because i think a lot of us thought, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. we would see a bus tour in pennsylvania before we saw a bus tour in georgia, but i think part of it is they have had a lot of success, the harris campaign, over the last seven weeks of keeping donald trump and his campaign on their heels.

they're making them spend money and time in georgia. trump spent three rallies in north carolina and something like the last five weeks. i mean, that is not something that we expected, you know, from the map, but whether harris can actually get those rural voters, i'm a little skeptical of that. i think it's partly more about keeping trump on defense. >> yeah. making him spend money. "new york times" deputy opinion editor, patrick healy, thank you for joining us this morning. coming up next here on "morning joe," our next guest writes that joe biden sought the presidency nearly all his life. when he finally got there, it brought out his best and eventually his worst. "the new york times" robert draper is next to break down his profile of the 46th president. also ahead, the chipmaker nvidia earnings expectations, reported 122% revenue growth, but investor were not impressed. we'll break that down.

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each of us has a part in the american story. for me and my family, it was a song that means a lot to us, but captures the best of who we are as a nation. the song is called, "american anthem." there's one verse that stands out and i can't sing worth a damn so i'm not going to try. [ laughter ] i'll just quote it. "the work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day. what shall our legacy be? what will our children say? let me know in my heart when my

days are through. america, america, i gave my best to you." [ cheers and applause ] >> that, of course, was president joe biden, addressing the dnc last week in chicago. the president's speech served as a political swan song of sorts, but as our next guest writes, biden's decision to quit the race ended a remarkable chapter in american political history and started one that may yet define his legacy. joining us now, staff writer for "the new york times," robert draper. his latest piece for the "new york times" magazine has the headline "joe biden's interrupted presidency," and it goes behind the scenes of biden's time in the white house and his historic decision to drop out of this year's campaign. and robert, you write in part, this. everyone who becomes president has had a long, personal relationship with the idea of the presidency. no one who gets there has not yearned for it for years, and it

means something different for each. a biden presidency in his imagination would let him transcend the humble origins he always proudly wore on his sleeve, and then make good on his own redemption by widening that american dream to include others who had been left out of it. the flurry of activity that marked his administration was that of a man who had tried for literal decades to get there, accumulating plans and experiences along the way, and yet before it was even over, he had been deemed too old to win a second term and too old to finish it if he did win. the nation's first too old to be president president. his decision to quit the race ended one of the most remarkable chapters in american political history and started one that may yet define his legacy. after all, that last chapter will not be written until after the election in november. robert, it's a great piece, and we'll get to that part of it,

his legacy and how it's linked to vice president harris in a moment, but first, just give us your assessment of what we have seen so far from the biden presidency, and right now, yes. the story line is he's too old. his campaign was cratering, and now he's largely offstage, but in his first two, three years, his resume stands up to just about anybody's. >> i totally agree, and i think that helps express this fundamental duality to joe biden and his political life, and by the time he reached the white house, he had decades and decades of accumulated experience. he was really the most experienced person we've ever had as president, but along the way, of course, he'd gotten older and he was racing against the clock. he tried to run for president on a couple of other occasions. he was thwarted in a desire to run in 2015. so he was operating from behind schedule, and that flurry of activity that i describe in the

story principally in 2021 and 2022 was really the fruit of a person who knew how to get things done, who knew how to get legislation across the finish line, but it also was perhaps a prefiguring of a guy who was soon going to be facing decline, something that we saw of course, in the june 17th debate. >> robert, i loved your beautiful piece. it's so well-written as always, and i was wondering what sense you got of the turmoil that biden went through as he weighed the decision to stay in or to drop out? >> sure. yeah, elise, that actually presents a second duality, a more personal one for biden that he has always been able to see the personal, the human dimension that underguards politics and that vast reservoir of empathy has really been one of the cornerstones of his

political life, but the flip side to it is that it comes from being himself, a member of the working class who felt kind of that -- always underestimated, and that side of biden is what we saw when people first were demanding that he step down. he felt that he could still do the job, but more than anything else, he was relying on decades of experience of someone who had always been counted out, had always been pushed to the side, and i think he was really undergoing a period of belligerence and then denial. i mean, what i'm describing, of course, it was the stages of grief, and we're seeing the acceptance part of grief which is still a very, very painful thing for him to be experiencing. >> robert, it's eugene daniels. good to see you. right now democrats are feeling, they love joe biden. i was at the dnc, you know, you

couldn't hear people talk anything about what he's done and more importantly his stepping down and allowing vice president harris to take the mantel. that take lasts if she wins. what i've found interesting is if you talk to people about, like, their frustrations -- they were frustrated it took so long. they were frustrated he dug his heels in so long and they kind of -- the primary process was swished around so that south carolina was in there and gave a signal to other people not to even bother, and i guess talk to us about the fact that this only lasts -- his legacy only stays intact if vice president harris actually wins. do you agree with that? >> i totally agree and you said correctly that people expressed, you know, a kind of gratefulness, a gratitude towards the president, but also a gratitude was born out of a certain relief that finally this -- we had come to this point where he was willing to step aside, but the operative word here is finally and whether

or not vice president harris is the candidate, it won't be told in the days beyond the 6th, but i think that biden who in many ways did his history-making things legislatively as president, he's probably not going to be seen so much as a historic figure himself as instead of facilitator of a storied figure. someone who helped barack obama become the nation's first black president and now someone who by stepping aside after -- allows his number two person to perhaps be the first woman elected president. >> jen psaki, you of course, have a particular perspective on the joe biden story up. worked for him for a few years. he would probably and he and his closest aides would dispute robert's assessment. they would say he stands on his own merits. >> no doubt. >> he and his inner circle care deeply about his legacy.

they invoked fdr, lbj, and unlike some of them, fdr was re-elected three times and lbj took over for president kennedy. this is a story interrupted, but he has a chance here to really, you know, cement his place in the history books depending on what happens in november. >> i would echo that, and as you and robert said, he has had the most successful legislative career of any president, nearly any president or any president in many, many decades, and i suspect they will lean into that, and you will see them start to do that over the next couple of months. what i was curious about here, the title of this piece touches to this. "the presidency interrupted" is that any president plans for the period of time they have to make their mark, and make their legacy, and his is much shorter than he wanted it to be, right?

he wanted it to be at least in the last year, eight years, which is more time to get things done. what is your sense, robert, through your reporting and engaging with people surrounding him on what he actually wants to do over the next couple of months, what he thinks he can get done, and what perhaps he feels a loss he knows he will not be able to do? >> sure. i mean, jen, he's obviously not going to be able to get major legislation passed. he wouldn't have been if he were running anyway just because it's a, you know, it's an election year right now and that's what these last months are going to be devoted to, but there are important things that he can do. as you well know, one of the unsexy, but essential features of legislation is the implementation of it, and that's where the devil very much is in the details of how you define particular things, where money is -- where money is actually steered to, and how. so that's part of it. foreign travel i think is going to be something we'll be seeing more of with the president too. so, you know, at the moment, look. it's the end of august. it's kind of unsurprising that he would be vacationing right now, but i do suspect that in

the coming months, we'll be seeing him going out, touting more infrastructure projects, showing how the inflation reduction act has resulted in, for example, the new prescription drugs being able to be negotiated at lower costs, and then planning his marker in various foreign policy accomplishment toos. >> he wants to get a ceasefire deal done in the middle east. he also, aides have said, he will make his first joint campaign appearance with his vice president this coming monday, labor in pittsburgh. we should look for an official farewell address sometime in january. the new profile of president biden is available online now. "new york times" staff writer, robert draper, thank you for joining us this morning. >> absolutely. next up here, more than 17 million americans are expected to travel through airports across the country this labor day weekend. a nearly 9% increase from last year. we'll have a report on which airports are already experiencing massive delays.

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welcome back. time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines including some major developments from overseas. a refugee camp official in the west bank is telling nbc news that israeli forces are raiding homes in the territory and interrogating residents. it comes after the idf launched its largest operation in the west bank in over two decades, which began overnight heading into wednesday and is still ongoing. the palestinian health ministry reports that at least 11 people have been killed with over 20 more injured. through social media said, the secretary general of the united nations described israel's operations in the west bank as, quote, deeply concerning as he called for a stop to those operations. it comes against the backdrop of

ongoing ceasefire talks there in the middle east as well. elsewhere, the deputy director of the cia said yesterday that he believes ukrainian forces appear intent on holding onto the territory taken in russia's kursk region for, quote, some amount of time. he made those comments at a security conference in maryland adding that it'll be difficult for russia to take back the area seized by ukraine. it's the latest development out of the surprise move to launch that operation into russian territory. "the new york times" cites american officials as saying russia will need at least 50,000 troops to push those occupies ukrainian forces out. and back here at home, the fbi has released additional details about the shooter and the events leading up to the attempted assassination attempt to former president donald trump. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles has the latest. >> reporter: in the weeks leading up to donald trump's

rally in butler, pennsylvania on july 13th, the fbi says thomas crooks was scouring the internet for information on upcoming political events. >> in the 30 days prior to the attack, the subject conducted more than 60 searches related to president biden and former president trump. >> reporter: crooks was searching for information on both the republican and democratic national conventions. he also searched for details on the trump event which took place close to where he lived. the fbi describes crooks' planning as a, quote, sustained detailed effort. initially crooks' search history showed him looking for details around a ride wage of political events before zeroing in on the butler rally which the fbi believes crooks viewed as a target of opportunity. they also believe he acted alone. >> i want to be clear. we have not seen any indication to suggest crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack. >> reporter: but these discoveries have not provided much insight into crooks'

motive. the content on his accounts displayed a mix tur of ideologies. also they looked at the collapsible barrel as well as the backpack on site. they also showed the ac unit he used to climb on the roof. they believe he spent more than six minutes on the roof before being killed by counter-sniper fire. >> right on the roof! >> reporter: the fbi probe is one of many investigations into the assassination attempt. earlier this week, members of the bipartisan congressional task force toured the site in pennsylvania, promising to get to the bottom of what went wrong. >> i definitely took note today that there were a lot of lines of sight that appear to have been unsecured that day that didn't have eyes on or that weren't secured and certainly at this point, a lot more success -- questions than answers. >> congressman crow there, of course, a veteran. coming up, brand-new economic data is just out, and we'll look into the insight it's providing on the health of the

u.s. economy. and also ahead, one of the hottest tech startups is in talks for a new round of funding that would raise its value above $100 billion. that's all straight ahead on "morning joe."

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the number you just highlighted, 3%. that's higher than the 2.8% estimate and it's higher than what we saw in the first quarter. that's good news. it suggests that even though inflation is cooling, and that the jobs market is a bit soft, that economic growth is remaining strong. it seems like government spending on infrastructure, that's a big reason why we saw gdp come in higher than expectations. it comes in about one week ahead of the jobs number next friday where we are expecting that to show a continued slowdown in the jobs market. we have been waiting for that piece of economic data. >> seema, the a.i. chipmaker, nvidia, their stock is down this morning after reporting their latest earnings yesterday, but those earnings exceeded wall street's expectations. can you explain what's going on here? >> yeah, absolutely. nvidia makes the most cutting edge chips that are leading innovation on artificial intelligence. the stock has been really on fire. it's garnered a lot of attention from not just bigger investors

on wall street, but everyday americans who see this company as one of the key players in building the united states' efforts on a.i., and the stock again up about 160% this year going into the earnings report. so the fact that it wasn't a clean beat by wall street expectations, that's why you're seeing the stock come down a little bit, but overall, it was a strong report. ceo jensen wong talking about growing expectations around the artificial intelligence boom and how the company does also have to spend more money on developing powerful chips to support the massive amount of compute that artificial intelligence runs on. wall street didn't love that, the idea that expenses are going up, but he says that, you know, it's justified given the amount of innovation that's needed. >> and speakingon. wall street didn't love the idea that expenses are going up. he said it's justified. >> speaking of artificial intelligence, open ai is reportedly in talks for a new round of funding that would

increase their value. tell us how much they're aiming for. >> reporter: $100 billion valuation is on the table for openai. that would underscore investor intelligence in artificial intelligence. it would be the biggest since microsoft put $10 billion in openai back in 2023. given the drama that's played out at this company, it would be seen as a big win for founder sam altman. the landscape is getting more competitive with meta developing its own a.i. product and google and amazon. even with this landscape becoming more competitive openai reaching for that $100 billion number. >> $100 billion, is that all? seema modi, thank you so much. the labor day holiday travel rush is officially under way with millions of americans heading to the airport or hitting the road for the last

long weekend of summer as the tsa prepares for its biggest travel period on record. priscilla thompson has the latest. >> reporter: travel troubles. at denver international airport a massive backup after a mechanical issue shut down trains between concourses. >> you couldn't get on or get off. >> reporter: the delays spilling over to security check points with passengers scrambling to get to their gates. there was a serious scare in the skies for united. >> we have a 737 aircraft coming in with 182 souls on board. it has turbulence problems. >> reporter: a plane traveling from cancun to chicago hit with severe turbulence, forcing an emergency landing in memphis. >> we got some passengers possibly injured. >> reporter: at least seven people were hurt, with one of them hospitalized.

it cops as united flight attendants say they're prepared to walk off the job. the union voting in favor of a strike for a first time in 20 years, demanding double digit pay increases. picket lines formed at multiple airports. >> we don't want to strike, but what this group is saying they're willing to do what it take toss get that contract. >> reporter: united says we remain eager to reach an agreement, while stressing there's no work stoppage. critical for a record breaking holiday weekend for airlines. the tsa prepping to screen more than 17 million people over the next six days with atlanta, chicago and dallas among the nation's busiest airports. for those hitting the road, the earlier you leave the better. >> thursday and friday will be the busiest on the roads.

>> reporter: aaa says leaving early is the best thing to do. gas prices are down about 50 cents a gallon with the national average $3.36. the best at vice, savor this last bit of summer. we'll be right back on "morning joe" with the memorable night at yankee stadium. yankee stam . and be unstoppable.

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there was an absolutely huge turnout in los angeles for shohei ohtani bobblehead night at dodger stadium. fans lined up outside the ballpark as early at 9:00 a.m. yesterday, ten hours before first pitch. they were hoping to be among the first 40,000 fans to arrive who would receive a bobblehead of

ohtani holding his famous dog, decoy. by the afternoon the line to get in had become so long that parking gates were opening two hours early and the tens of thousands of fans waiting outside the stadium entrance were allowed inside the park 40 minutes earlier than usual. ohtani and decoy were featured before the game for the first pitch. the star player said he spent three weeks training his dog to wait on the pitcher's mound and then the pup was to pick up the baseball and deliver it to him on command. he nailed it. good job, decoy. as for the game, ohtani lead off the bottom of the first with his 42nd home run of the season. he added his 41st and 42nd stolen bases in the year, putting him on track to be the first 50/50 player in baseball history.

decoy stole the show. time for final thoughts. jen psaki, what did you learn today? >> i have a shout out for policy nerds. in this "usa today" poll it says harris is leading lower income voters. this race is not going to be won or lost on policy plans i don't think. it is interesting to see some of it injected and see some of it having impact on these polls. >> eugene, your final thoughts? >> i'm looking forward to this interview for obvious reasons and how much time did they give and, if they feel like tomorrow they have to announce another interview coming soon, that would indicate how they're feeling about how the interview went. >> elise? >> i hope decoy the dog has an

agent and is upping his social media platform. that's some star caliber right there. >> ohtani signed a $700 million contract. i don't think decoy is wanting for much. that was a great moment last night from a new star is born there in hollywood. that does it for us this morning. thank you for watching. "morning joe" will be back tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. jose diaz-balart picks up msnbc's coverage right now. right now on msnbc, taking the fight to trump territory. the democratic ticket campaigned in gop friendly strong holds in the south as they prepare for their first joint national interview tonight. plus, fresh controversy around donald trump's arlington cemetery visit. how his campaign is looking to mitigate the spiraling fallout. the fbi releases new details about the aed