needle him. >> i think that might be an effective contrast for her, right? obviously, this is why they want the hot mic. if he looks deranged and like he did with, you know -- remember, he had covid the first debate with joe biden. he came off as deranged and kept interrupting, and it was a weird disaster for him. if that's the case and he does it again, harris' people would gladly welcome it. the contrast they're trying to project is this is the politics of insanity and we're exhausted by it. we need to move on and get beyond it. if he is the living embodiment of that on the debate stage, they'd love that. >> i definitely think that's one of their goals. that's what they're saying in conversations with our teams. >> exactly. >> managing editor at "the bulwark," sam stein. thank you for joining us. you stay here. i stay here. thank you for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. i think, sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has

really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as americans, really dividing our nation, and i think people are ready to turn the page on that. >> vice president kamala harris in her first major television interview as the democratic nominee. we'll have much more from that sit-down conversation in just a moment. it comes as the vice president is gaining ground on donald trump in polling through key battleground states. we'll go through those numbers. plus, we'll have the latest on the altercation between an aide to the former president and an employee with the arlington national cemetery. an update on that story. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, august 30th. the friday of labor day weekend. with us, we've got professor of princeton university, eddie glaude jr. national reporter for "the new york times," jeremy peters. managing editor at "the

bulwark," sam stein. and nbc capitol hill correspondent ali vitali. joe and mika have the day off. great group assembled. vice president kamala harris sat for the tv interview. she and running mate tim walz spoke. she was pressed on criticism she has shifted away from some of her more liberal policy positions. >> day one, it's going to be about, one, implementing my plan for what i call an opportunity economy. i've laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we'll do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in america's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families. for example, extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the first year of their child's life, to help them buy a car seat, to help them buy baby clothclothes, a crib.

there's the work we're going to do that's about investing in the american family around affordable housing, a big issue in our country right now. so there are a number of things on day one. i think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. you've mentioned the green new deal. i have always believed, and i have worked on it, the that the climate crisis is real. it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. we did that with the inflation reduction act. we have set goals for the united states of america and, by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an example. that value has not changed. my value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. i spent two terms as the

attorney general of california prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of american laws regarding the passage, illegal passage of guns, drugs, and human beings across our border. my values have not changed. one, i am so proud to have served as vice president to joe biden. and, two, i am so proud to be running with tim walz for president of the united states and to bring america what i believe the american people deserve, which is a new way forward, and turn the page on the last decade of what i believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies. >> but the last decade, of course, the last 3 1/2 years, has been part of your administration. >> i'm talking about an era that started about a decade ago, where there is some suggestion, warped, i believe it to be, that

the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of where i believe most americans are, which is to believe that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up. that's what's at stake as much as any other detail that we could discuss in this election. >> eddie glaude, one of the big questions going into this first interview was how she would answer some specific questions about clear policy differences. her positions from the 2020 campaign when she was campaigning in 2019 and where she stands now as the nominee. we'll get to some of those specifics in just a moment. her overarching response to that was, my values haven't changed. i've come to understand some of these issues a little bit differently. therefore, i've landed in a different place on issues like fracking. i'm curious, given this was her first sit-down interview as the democratic nominee, your impressions? >> well, it's great to see you, willie. i think she did well. she didn't do any harm. that's important. but i also thought the answer

about the shift in her positions between 2019 and today was really, really spot on. you know, we could have consistent -- we could have values that constitute the through line of our positions, but the context changed. the situation changed. our experiences changed. by virtue of that, we make decisions. you know, it's early in the morning to be quoting ralph waldo emerson, but consistency is the hobgoblin of minds, foolish consistency. that's judging your commitments over the changing circumstances. i thought she answered that question really, really powerfully. there were some other powerful moments, too. so the final judgment for me, she did no harm. she set the stage for the next time she sits down. >> eddie, we'll take emerson or james baldwin from you at any hour of any day, so you have a pass on that always. jeremy peters, this obviously was a big moment for the vice president. her nominee to be vice president at her side, tim walz was there, as well, but this really was an interview about the candidate,

about who she is. there are open and fair questions about why she has changed so dramatically on so many key issues. what is the sense inside the campaign about how that interview went yesterday? >> i think, willie, the most telling phrase, and probably the most important to kamala harris' appeal to the kind of voters she'll need to win, was that phrase she used about where most americans are. i think overall, what we heard from her last night really was a repudiation of the politics that dominated the democratic party in 2020 when she was, of course, running in the democratic primary and had to stake out some positions that were not popular with most americans. i mean, you know, she said that she was -- you know, she reversed herself on the decriminalization of border crossings. she said that, you know, she would support fracking. she said that she would appoint

a republican -- or that she might, she'd consider appointing a republican to her cabinet. i mean, this is about as far from the kamala harris of 2019/2020 as i could have imagined. it's much more in step with where the kinds of voters are that she will need to win over in michigan, pennsylvania, suburban atlanta, you know, suburban phoenix. because the policies that a lot of democrats were trying to embrace because they thought that's where the party was in 2020 were really out of step with the concerns of most americans. and that became evident when the democratic party rejected candidates like kamala harris, elizabeth warren in 2020, and went with the centrist joe biden. i think she's really positioned herself in a way that should scare republicans. i know that republicans were scrambling yesterday to try to

figure out how to push back on this interview. they, once again, have kind of failed to land a punch on harris. what you see, i think, is the kind of soaring rhetoric from her about uniting the country that a lot of people are really hungry for. >> and the criticism you hear from the trump campaign and republicans, that they hope will take hold of independent voters, is that vice president harris doesn't quite know who she is. she was someone in 2019 and in the senate that she's saying she's not now. but she answered specific questions to get into it a little more closely here. vice president harris pressed on those evolving policy positions, including on the question of fracking. >> do you still want to ban fracking? >> no, and i made that clear on the debate stage in 2020. i would not ban fracking. as vice president, i did not ban fracking. as president, i will not ban fracking. >> in 2019, i believe, at a town

hall, you were asked, would you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking on your first day in office, and you said, there's no question, i'm in favor of banning fracking, yes. it changed in that campaign? >> in 2020, i made very clear where i stand. we are in 2024, and i have not changed that position or will i going forward. i kept my word, and i will keep my word. >> what made you change that position at the time? >> well, let's be clear, my values have not changed. i believe it is very important that we take seriously what we must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate. and to do that, we can do what we have accomplished thus far. the inflation reduction act, what we have done to invest, by my calculation, over probably a trillion dollars the next ten years, investing in a clean energy economy. what we've already done, creating over 300,000 new, clean energy jobs. that tells me from my experience

as vice president, we can do it without banning fracking. dana, dana, excuse me, i cast the tie-breaking vote that increased leases for fracking as vice president. i'm clear on where i stand. >> was there some policy or scientific data that you saw that you said, okay, i get it now? >> what i have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking. >> sam stein, pretty clear there. she says, in 2019, i said i wanted to ban fracking. in 2020, when i became the vice presidential nominee, i came on board with the position that we were not going to ban fracking, and i hold that position today. the subtext, because dana bash did a good job asking specific questions then about immigration, how she's changed on a series of policies, the subtext is, forget everything i said in 2019 when i was running in the democratic primary. the person you should look at is the one sitting before you today and the one who is on the stage with joe biden in 2020.

>> right. i mean, yes, that is the subtext. i've always wondered in these situations, could someone go full bull worth, not bulwark. but be like, i was running in the democratic primary and needed progressive votes, and now i'm not. would that work? probably not. but that is probably the truth or close to it. there is some validity to the idea that the ira, the inflation reduction act, did spend, you know, historic amounts of money to prop up the clean energy economy. obviously, that's helped pursue that economy and grow it in a way that allows for fracking. but, you know, if we're being frank about it, fracking is a relatively huge industry in a critical swing state of pennsylvania. you don't want to offend that industry. there's no good answers really to give to that question. i thought she did what she had to do, which is assert her position, explain it best she can, and move on.

this is, again, i'm a broken record here, but this is why you probably should do more interviews. you get these things out of the way so you can move on to more favorable terrain. i imagine this will come up again during the debate, and i'm sure she'll have the same exact answer. >> ali, i'm curious. you've covered then senator harris, covered vice president harris, and now candidate harris. in terms of her evolution on some of these positions, how do you see what you heard yesterday and, again, what some of the criticism has been from republicans, which is, of course she's coming around to these positions as a presidential candidate now because she knows the people she needs to win sit where she says she sits now. what do you make of her evolution? how should voters look at it? >> first of all, on policy, it makes sense she spent so much of that interview focused on the accomplishments of the biden/harris administration. whether it was capping the cost of insulin, whether it was taking down overall prescription costs for seniors, those are cornerstones of what they viewed as their first two years in office and their legacy going forward. it makes sense that that was a

lot of the focus. i thought she was smart to explain her policy positions as not a change in values, not a change in her deep inner mooring and the way she views things should change, but something almost situational in terms of taking in more information. as i put on my gender in politics hat for a brief moment, it was a smart way to go about it. because attacks on flip-flopping and not being honest about your positions are, no some ways, more lethal to female candidates because it is seen as, in some ways, being more duplicitous, more like they're lying. we saw it be effective against someone like hillary clinton, in addition to trump calling her crooked. that's harris, even though she doesn't talk about the gender role of this, it's her employing some of the studies and the data and the knowledge around how do you tackle the fact that her policy positions have, in some ways, changed and evolved, and how do you explain them in a way that's not going to feed into the most negative characterization that voters and

people who are running against her could possibly give it? that definitely struck me as one. look, as someone who covered her over the course of the breadth she's been on the national stage, this is a different person. i'm sure sam and the rest of the folks on the panel who covered her agree. she has a different confidence. she is leaning into bipartisanship in a very biden-esque way, in a way that makes you wonder if that might not be the key thing that might have rubbed off on her over her time as the number two in the biden/harris administration. i think that's the thing she's going to try to use and leverage continuously, in addition to the fact she's been the administration's strongest messenger on another key issue that's in the minds of voters, reproductive access and abortion care. that's something she's been leading on. that's a softball for her at this point. the rest of the harder policy stuff, of course, there should be more questions on. i'm interested in hearing more on. in ster terms of this, the explanation tracks where where they're happy with it.

>> i went back and watched the infamous harris interview with lester holt after this one. what was remarkable was just how much more confident she was, how much more steady she was last night versus that one. i will say, the other thing that stood out for me, dana bash did ask her a question about the historic nation of her candidacy. first female candidate, trying to break the glass ceiling. pointed to the now famous picture from the convention stage. what was telling is harris didn't take the bait at all. she said, yes, i'm aware of the picture. it means a lot to me. that was it. it's very evident in that answer that she knows the things she needs to emphasize, and it's not, in her estimation, the historic nature of her candidacy. it is trying to sell herself to voters across the spectrum. >> that was evident at the convention last week, too. that was not a theme of that week in chicago at all. one of the themes of the interview yesterday and at the convention last week was this turning of the page that we heard the vice president talk about in the interview.

the refrain, we're not going back, talking about the dark years, in her view, of donald trump. well, as you may have expected, donald trump weighed in on the interview yesterday. in fact, even before the interview, there was a prerecorded conversation with "the daily mail." trump criticized harris for not doing her interview live, claiming it shows she is, quote, not very smart. here's what trump said. >> why isn't it live? it's not a live interview. it's an interview that's going to be taped and then edited and then put out. so that's not even an interview. then she's doing it with her vice president sitting there. so she's not very smart. when they ask her a question she can't answer, she'll just look at him, you answer it. >> in a fundraising email after harris' interview, the trump campaign called her, quote, the biggest liar ever to run for president. some irony there, of course. the email also accused harris of flip-flopping on those positions, something trump has done repeatedly himself, including yesterday on abortion and ivf. we'll get into that in just a

moment. eddie, as we think about this campaign as a study in contrast, you couldn't help but think in a non-partisan way, just watching vice president harris have a conversation with an interviewer that did not include insults, cheap shots, that did not include her personal vendettas, personal grievances. she answered questions about policy soberly. you can agree or disagree with the policy positions. but talk about contrast, watch donald trump speak and post on social media, and watch vice president harris do the interview. >> such an important point. i mean, you're right. during the interview with vice president harris, there were positions that we could sink our teeth in. there were positions where we could decide, where do we stand? we actually had an adult in front of us. and then there is donald trump. what donald trump requires of the american voter is that we get down in the mud, that we kind of go to our lesser angels, we go to our base instincts.

we saw it in sharp contrast. when vice president harris said we wanted to leave behind an era, i think it is embodied and represented in the contrast in the interviews, willie. one, trying to get us to think about our future and our present, and the other, thinking about our more base instincts, fears, grievances. that's a contrast she should do moving forward. >> what she is doing critically is not attacking trump for what he is. she's telling us what he isn't. she's saying, he is incapable of putting the country above himself. voters at this point know what trump is. they know the attacks. they know what a threat to our democracy he could be. but kamala harris is articulating, i think, you know, a much more powerful statement about what four years of trump would be. it would just be selfishness, chaos. >> absolutely. >> she's doing that by pointing

out what he's incapable of. i think it's also critical to point out, to sam's point, about the identity politics aspect of this all and how that's -- or the democratic party really seems to have turned the page on this. i don't think it's so much about de-emphasizing the historic nature of her candidacy. i think it is about not making the campaign about herself. you're not hearing the slogans, i'm with her, right? she wants to make this about the american people and how she will take us forward into a different kind of era, a kind of politics where we are not at each other's throats at the thanksgiving dinner table, where we can once again, as you say, you know, feel like the better angels of our nature are still there and need to be nurtured. so, you know, i think she's very wisely making this about the country and bringing the country back together, rather than saying, this is about me. this is who i am. you already have one candidate

who is doing that quite well. >> by the way, the harris campaign is happy to have donald trump step into the void every time like that, make it about himself, give the insults, and it'll give them the chance to say, this is what we're talking about. turn the page. we don't want to go back. nbc's ali vitali, great job on "way too early" this week. great to have you with us. thanks so much, ali. appreciate it, as always. still ahead on "morning joe," vice president joe biden and president kamala harris are set to hold a joint campaign event this labor day in battleground pennsylvania. harris campaign senior adviser adrienne elrod joins us for a preview. plus, federal reserve officials this morning will get a look at key inflation data which could influence next month's decision on interest rates. we'll bring you the numbers. plus, we'll talk with dasha burns about her exclusive interview with donald trump, including his response to the criticism surrounding his visit to arlington national cemetery, and a new position on abortion that has pro-lifers up in arms

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to enforce restrictions on taking photos and video within a sacred part of the cemetery. when asked about the army's statement, a spokesperson for trump said it wasn't true. claiming the cemetery employee was the one who initiated physical contact and verbal harassment. in an interview with nbc's dasha burns yesterday, former president trump responded to the criticism of his visit. >> i was asked to be there by the parents and by the relatives, and i went there for the parents and the relatives. and while i was there, i didn't ask for a picture. while i was there, they said, "sir, could we have a picture?" i thought, great. you have the tombstone. you have the name of the tombstone. they're crying. they died because of incompetent leadership of harris and biden. they said, "sir, could we have a picture?" i said, "yes." all of a sudden, i hear that it's some kind of a pr thing. it's a disgrace. >> sam stein, obviously, president trump was there at the

request of the families. he was doing that, and they came out in support of him after all this happened this week of the 13 marines who died at abbey gate in afghanistan that terrible day, as the united states left afghanistan after 20 years. but where is this story right now? because we did hear very specifically from the army itself, and then we heard the trump campaign kind of trolling the united states army on social media and twitter. bizarre twist here. what exactly went down as we sift through all this, and what is the -- what's the state of things right now? >> right. so things are getting a little bit conflated. no one is, i think, objecting to the idea that trump could go there at the request of the families who wanted him there. it's not a problem. i don't think anyone is saying he can't show up at arlington cemetery. some people were kind of turned off by the fact that he was doing, you know, these thumbs up photo shoots. where it really gets hairy is

that he was told, or his people were told specifically that there was a policy that restricted their access to a section of arlington national cemetery, not that they couldn't access it, but they couldn't shoot video and take photos in there. and then, as far as we know, i mean, everyone agrees there was some altercation, right? an official with the cemetery tried to insist they couldn't bring videographers there. the campaign insisted that they could and would bring videographers there. some type of altercation occurred. everyone agrees on that. the question is, what kind of nature of confrontation are we talking about? the other thing that happened that is, i think, worth noting is that, at this point of conflict, there were two routes that could have been taken. one is de-escalation and one is escalation. it is evident the trump campaign chose the latter, escalation. not only did they go into section 60 and shoot video, they also then belittled the official, without naming this person, calling this person and

saying they had mental health issues, insisting they had every right to be there, threatening to release video if needed. look, as a grand matter, this is the problem, i think, which is that there are very few places that are -- we try to keep immune from partisan politics. this place is now being sullied by the trump campaign because of their insistence that this person, this official, was in the wrong. you could have de-escalated. it could have been a relatively non-story. but in typical trump fashion, they chose to just, you know, fight it through. here we are. >> yeah, eddie, that's what it is at the end of the day. the behavior is grotesque. >> yeah. >> ask yourself, knowing what we know about donald trump for these last ten years at least, go back further if you want, if you believe an employee at arlington national cemetery, sacred ground of the united states, trying to enforce rules that restrict video and

political ads inside a cemetery, or donald trump and his campaign and the people who are saying, as sam pointed out, that this person was mentally ill, throwing that out there, that they were having some kind of a mental health episode, and not just doing his or her job. it tells you something, that this employee did not want to press charges. the employee didn't want his or her name attached to something because he or she knew the threats that would come with that from trump's side. >> right, willie. you know, i think our default position when it comes to donald trump and his statements should be, prove to me you're telling me the truth, right? we can't presume that he's being honest. we need to presume he is being dishonest, it seems to me. the evidence seems to suggest that, right? and then it's just the level of, what is revealed at the level of character? that he would continue in this ongoing desecration of these very, very sacred spaces in our national history. i think we need to, shall we say, cast doubt on the

truthfulness of his claim and the campaign's claim, and let the facts play themselves out, willie. i mean, this is another example of his character, my man. >> as sam says, it just didn't have to be this way. we could have resolved this and moved forward. but no. coming up, vice president kamala harris was asked yesterday about donald trump's race-based attacks on her in that new interview with cnn. we'll hear her response. and we'll get a live report from ukraine on the counteroffensive now inside russian territory. the very latest when "morning joe" comes right back. help: bu. and the relief can last for years. we're so glad we got bulkamid. visit findrealrelief.com to find a physician near you.

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i want to ask you about what he said last month. you happened to turn black recently for political purposes. questioning a core part of your identity. any -- >> same old tired playbook. next question, please. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> vice president kamala harris in her first tv interview since becoming the democratic nominee quickly brushing off donald trump's comments on her racial identity. as the vice president hits the campaign trail, there is a growing focus on a group of voters that doesn't usually get recognized as a political demographic. that is mixed race voters, people of two or more races. joining us now, nbc news correspondent and co-anchor of nbc news daily, morgan radford. she sat down with mixed race and multi-ethnic voters to get their

take on this election. great to see you, morgan. what'd they tell you? >> willie, good morning. this was a fascinating conversation to say the least. we talked to six people across a range of different racial, ethnic, and political backgrounds in my home state, the swing state of north carolina. many said the census forms, the boxes on polls, they give them pause, sometimes panic because of the choices those boxes force them to make. but even though, they said, the boxes are getting better and a little bit more inclusive over time, people's perceptions politically can still be pretty narrow. take a look. >> i identify as indian-american and white. >> hispanic, asian. >> reporter: they're the face of a changing nation. >> when anybody asks, i say i'm black and puerto rican. >> all my grandparents are from a different ethnic background. >> reporter: multiracial americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the country over the last decade, and their voting power is significant. two or more races surged by

200%. including here in north carolina. >> raise your hand if you are a republican. democrat. independent. does the way that you identify racially impact your politics or, specifically, how you plan to vote this election? >> absolutely. >> how so? >> i'm not going to lend my support behind someone who does not support people who look like me. >> i don't think he sees me as who i am. >> former president donald trump? >> yes. >> what about the rest of you? >> i just don't think that kamala harris has anything vested in the, air finger quote, black and hispanic experience, in so much as it'd be identified by anybody that lives in those communities. >> you're saying you don't think she can help black or brown people? >> no. going to howard don't make you black. >> reporter: a conversation that quickly turned to this moment in a july interview at the national negotiation of black journalists. >> i didn't know she was black. until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and

now she wants to be known as black. i don't know. is she indian, or is she black? >> what did you think when you heard those comments? >> highly offensive. i mean, i think probably every multiracial, mixed race, biracial person has had the experience of someone else telling them that they are not something enough. i think it's kind of triggering, right? >> i think it is impossible to be biracial in america, and i think it requires that you're covering all bases at all times. and it requires constant recognition of both identities. i think when donald trump says stuff like that, about kamala harris, and implies that she's, like, picking a race for political advantage, it's tapping into an incredibly familiar sentiment i think everyone on this panel can understand. >> as trump supporters, when you heard the comment, as mixed people, how did it register with you? >> well, my first thought was, eh, that wasn't very well thought out. at the same time, though, when i

heard it, i didn't hear it as an attack on blacks or indians. i heard it more so of him commenting towards identity politics and the appeal that some take to play up one side of their race over the other. >> i see you nodding your head. >> i agree with him. i didn't know she identified as black. everything i saw was first south asian, indian, none identified as black. >> regardless of her parents, i mean, she was born in this country. she identifies as a black person in this country, in an american way, in a uniquely american context. >> i never heard her identify herself as a black woman. >> she said multiple times she's a black woman. >> i never heard it. >> i'm black and proud of being black. >> reporter: politics sometimes becoming personal, with mixed race americans with representation on both tickets. >> i agree with almost nothing jt -- jd vance has a say.

but it is incredible he can have a son named vivek, but it doesn't mean i'll vote for him in november. >> do you feel some kinship toward harris as a mixed person? >> not personally. i find a lot of her trajectory to not be my brand of woman, leader. we have three major international crises going on, and someone applying to be commander in chief. as a woman, i want to see you do more than, you know, appeal to giggling and having a girl moment on the stage. >> was there ever a moment that sort of forced you to confront the concept of race? >> for me, it's more of ethnicity. as you can see, i have an accent, right? i speak with an accent. i don't think with an accent. you learn to be comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. >> reporter: a conversation with implications beyond the ballot box. >> i think every time we see polling, it's about race. and, you know, as a candidate of color, you can put a lot of stake into how this candidate represents, say, the black

experience or the indian-american experience. i think we will never ask donald trump or joe biden or bill clinton or george bush to do the same thing. i think white people are expected and people of color aren't. >> to do what? >> to be in the highest office in the united states. >> i should note that one of the gentleman we spoke to there is a republican candidate for north carolina's 12th congressional district. his opponent is representative adams, elected back in 2014. what's interesting is almost all of these interviewees talked about legacies of the one drop rule, which was a legal doctrine that classified you as black if you had any drop of african ancestry. basically, you belong to the minority parent group instead of both groups equally. the mindset, unless it changes politically, we won't capture this demographic politically.

>> morgan, help me understand. as i was listening to the exchange, there was a collision of all sorts of things, right? a collision of processes of racialization, how one is read as a person of color, ethnic identification, the difference between racialization and ethnic identity. the difference between how race is lived, say, in the bay, oakland, san francisco, and the way it is lived in charlotte, north carolina. >> sure. >> all of these things are just colliding. >> yeah. >> people are trying to get clear. but there was one of -- one of the people said, it is impossible to be biracial in the united states. and that crystallized it. why do you think he said that? what do you think it means? is it about, how shall we say, how fixed our racial categories are? when people seek beyond them, we kind of get confused. >> that was landon. landon is half indian, half white. han don was fascinating because he's only 18.

so from the mouths of young people, as babes as the old folks say, right, we had this incredibly clear notion of the difficulty, as you described, the impossibility, as he said, of being mixed race. he said being mixed in this country, by virtue of the fixed boxes and dynamics, it is an impossible decision because it makes you and forces this choice upon you. he said, you're constantly watching all sides. constantly having to validate your very existence in this country. but what was also interesting was every single panelist there could describe to me the moment they were forced to confront the concept of race. they said it was when they heard a derogatory comment. every single person could remember the first time they were called an n-word. i don't know a black person in this country who can't remember that first time. in that moment, it forced a reckoning, that who they were was not necessarily the way the world always viewed them. >> what's so important about a topic like this is that it doesn't get enough coverage, right? there's this impulse in the media, i think, to label

candidates. you are this, or you are that. what kamala harris has told us in her responses to these various questions is, i'm me. she's said that. i'm an american. i'm me. i'm not going to let you put me in a box. she doesn't see the need to get drawn into these debates, if you can dignify calling a question over, like, you know, whether or not she's black a debate. she's not going to take that bait, and like she did to dana bash, next question. i don't need to talk about this. i would rather talk about how to bring the country together instead of how to separate us by putting us -- or forcing us to pick a side and choose a box. to your point, eddie, i think one thing that also goes unsaid about her -- or doesn't get said often enough, about her mixed background, is the way she is so comfortable in her own skin is a byproduct of her growing up in the cultural and racial melting

pot that is california. it's not the south, right? you can kind of see that in this growing confidence that she has, versus the kamala harris that we saw in 2019 who often didn't seem so comfortable. she really, i think, has figured out a way to talk about these very sensitive subjects, or not talk about them. >> yeah. and the question becomes, how does that play politically, right? i mean, morgan, you talked to these folks. two are trumpists. how are they reading her, right? the ways in which she inhabits her identity, cultural at least, not the way in how her body is read by americans as such. >> they were clear. they said it was identity politic. they said she was playing up elements of her race, elements of her story based on the audience. but, you know, cindy, who was in the back, made it very clear, just because as a mixed person i may share different parts of me

that connects with the listener doesn't mean i'm inauthentic and traversing those boundaries at the same time. >> really quickly, sorry about this. >> yeah. >> the category, mixed, does that actually show and reveal how deeply racialized it already is? >> i don't -- maybe, maybe. but i think, you know, the more we talk about the full categories, mixed or, whatever you want to do with it, i think that's what really helps us capture the spirit of america, right? i think that's where the boxes cause us problems. i think of my family from jamaica, cuba, and those boxes didn't even exist when he was filling out the census form. for me, those boxes are now an option, but that's, you know, something a lot of generations faced, identifying differently based on the plethora of options we have that weren't available before. >> right. >> such a fascinating conversation. nbc's morgan radford, you always seem to start these conversations, and we're grateful for that. by the way, this is all very

interesting when you put in the context of new polling to show how kamala harris is doing in the state of north carolina. we'll show that in a moment. morgan, thank you, as always. coming up, democratic member of the house armed services committee, congresswoman mikie sherrill of new jersey weighs in on the backlash to donald trump's visit to arlington national cemetery. also ahead, sectors and comedians jason schwartzman, robert smigel join us with a look at their film "between the temples." "morning joe" is coming right back. did you know that if you shave, 1/3rd of what you remove is skin? (♪♪) new dove helps repair it. so, if you shave it? (♪♪) dove it new dove replenish your skin after every shave.

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a drizzly start to the start in washington. 6:50 on this friday going into labor day weekend. vice president kamala harris is leading donald trump in all but one battleground state, but they're very close. according to the latest bloomberg/morning consult polling, harris leads trump by two points among registered voters in georgia and north carolina, by three points in michigan, four points in nevada and pennsylvania, and by eight points, at least according to this poll, in the state of wisconsin. the only state she's not leading is arizona, but the race is tied there. the most notable shifts come

from pennsylvania. trump led by four points in a poll taken last month. and north carolina, where he led by two points last month. we should note, though, that last month's result in michigan and this month's in wisconsin do appear to be outliers. all of this month's results are within the poll's margin of error. sam stein, we say leads. those races are all tied, and i think most people do not believe that anyone is leading by eight months in any of those states, including in wisconsin. the point is, the momentum shift from where this race was a month ago when joe biden -- or just over a month ago when joe biden was still atop the ticket, and what vice president harris has done to energize democrats. >> yeah. i mean, it feels like an eternity, but i think if you remember about a month and a half ago, those states were not in play. it was wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. even in those states, those select few, the biden-harris ticket was down three, four points. what harris has done in about

six weeks is fairly remarkable, honestly. to move the needle like that, to consolidate, to build up a campaign, to take these narrow leads in a number of battleground states where democrats were not expected to compete this cycle. all that has expanded the map. and to do it and raise half a being dollars, which will allow her to play in the states and force trump to spend resources in those states, i think that's critical. ultimately, look, this is going to be just like 2016, just like 2020, it's going to be a couple thousand votes in a couple states that decide the election. it's remarkable this is the system we have. it is not a national, popular vote, not that type of a democracy. it's an electoral college system. what i'm looking for, i was telling ali about it, where is he going to go? where are they spending her money? that's the metric here. it's not what morning consult says on a given day. whatever poll you want to point to. it is where they're spending their time and money. that's the real indication of what they see as what's in play.

notable today is that they are on a bus tour in georgia, which they clearly see as a big prize. >> and as you say, some democrats were woried it was slipping away under joe biden. throw nevada into the mix, as well, the paths have opened a bit with kamala harris at the top of the ticket. also, according to a new "wall street journal" poll, vice president harris has taken a narrow lead over donald trump in a national poll. the poll, harris leading trump by a single point, so they're tied, within the margin of error, 48% to 47% among registered voters. in a survey conducted late last month, trump led harris by a couple points. early july, before the shakeup at the top of the democratic ticket, trump led joe biden by six points. again, we will note, the new results are within the poll's margin of errors. voters in the survey express concern about trump's policies and his personality. 59% describe him as too extreme compared to just 46% who say the same about harris. 56% also say donald trump does

not have the right temperament to be president, while 55% say harris does. eddie, if you look at the perceptions of vice president harris, favorable and unfavorable is split down the middle in the poll. 49% favorable, 49% unfavorable. that's a jump from even a couple months ago to be sure. again, this is a margin of error race, as we've been saying from the beginning. >> right. >> but there is, without question, we have enough data, enough polling to show she has fully changed the momentum and the dynamics of this race. >> absolutely, willie. she has become the change candidate. that's showing up in the polls. it's showing up in the excitement.showing up on the ground as people are organizing and making their way to november, willie. >> jeremy, your take on this stew of polling? there is another from "usa today" which tells the same story. nationally, this is effectively a tied race. within the swing states, it

varies a bit from poll to poll, but effectively, we're talking about margin of error. the difference, i guess i would say, under joe biden, it was three states only, effectively, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin as the path, the blue wall he was going to have to win. vice president harris now opened other avenues to victory. >> that's right, willie. because when joe biden was the candidate, this election was going to be about him. his fitness, his competence to lead the country for another four years at his advanced age. now, kamala harris can make this election about donald trump and his flaws. that is a much better place for the democrats to be. it's a place that they want to be. and i also think that what you've seen critically with her improvement in these favorable ratings is more people are getting a sense of her. a lot of the reporting that we at "the new york times" have done lately has been trying to probe voters on what they know

about kamala harris. it may surprise a lot of people who were watching the convention and cheering her on, that plenty of americans still don't know who she is. as one top democratic strategist told me, she's famous, but she's unknown. i think she has certainly gotten to fill in the blans in her story and her policy positions over the last week. she will continue to do that in the crucial post labor day stretch of this campaign, when we know not only will more americans be paying attention, but they will start to actually vote. early voing begins soon. this is the time. i mean, it's no accident she gave this interview yesterday, right? she was fine not to give an interview for the first two weeks, right, when relatively few people were paying attention, except for us. but now, it's go time. >> yeah. a couple of the cross tabs on

"the wall street journal" poll, to be specific, her favorable and unfavorable is 49 and 49. in the poll in early july, she was underwater 23 points on that question. she has changed some perceptions about it. and trump holds in the "wall street journal" poll an eight-point advantage over harris on who would best handle the economy. that was a 20-point lead for donald trump when asked versus joe biden. she has changed this race, without question. jeremy peters, thanks so much, as always. we appreciate it. enjoy the long weekend. coming up here, more from vice president kamala harris' first television interview as the democratic nominee. sitting down with cnn to answer questions alongside running mate tim walz. we'll play for you some of that when "morning joe" comes right back. "paint the bathroom, give baxter a bath, get life insurance," hm. i have a few minutes. i can do that now. oh, that fast? remember that colonial penn ad?

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emotional, saying, "that's my dad." >> yeah. i don't know as a father i could have ever imagined that. i'm grateful for so many reasons to be on this ticket, but that moment, to understand what was really important, to have my son feel a sense of pride in me. that i was trying to do the right thing. it was -- you know, you try to protect your kids. you know it brings notoriety and things, but it was just such a viscerally emotional moment, that i'm just grateful i got to experience it. i'm so proud of him. i'm proud of him. i'm proud of hope. i'm proud of gwen. she's a wonderful mother, and these are great kids. i think the one thing is talking about the era we're in. our politics can be better. it can be different. we can show some of these things, and we can have families involved in this. i hope that people felt that out there, and i hope they hugged their kids tighter. you just never know. life can be kind of hard. >> last question, madam vice president, the photograph that

has gone viral. you were speaking. one of your grand nieces that you were just talking about was watching you accept the nomination. >> yes. >> you didn't explicitly talk about gender or race in your speech, but it obviously means a lot to a lot of people, and that viral picture really says it. what does it mean to you? >> you know, listen, i am running because i believe that i am the best person to do this job at this moment. for all americans. regardless of race and gender. but i did see that photograph, and i was deeply touched by it. you're right, it's the back of her head, her braids, and then i'm in the front of the photograph, obviously speaking. it's very humbling. it's very humbling in many ways. >> did she talk to you about it afterwards? >> oh, she had a lot to talk about. [ laughter ] she had a lot.

she listened to everything. she listens to everything. >> give you her hot takes? >> definitely. >> that is vice president kamala harris. her running mate, governor tim walz. sitting down with cnn last night while campaigning in atlanta, georgia. their first television interview since becoming the democratic nominees. welcome back to "morning joe." friday, august 30th. i'm willie geist. eddie glaude jr. still with us. joining the conversation, msnbc political analyst and publisher of the newsletter, "the ink." and tia mitchell also with us. let's get back to the interview. during the sit-down, harris defended her record with the biden administration and promised a tougher position on immigration. also, continued support for israel in its war with hamas. >> so you have been vice president for 3 1/2 years. >> yeah. >> the steps you're talking about now, why haven't you done them already? >> first of all, we had to

recover as an economy, and we have done that. i'm very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%. the work that we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors. donald trump said he was going to do a number of things, including allowing medicare to negotiate drug prices. never happened. we did it. so now, and as i travel in the state of georgia and around our country, the number of seniors that have benefitted. i've met -- i was in nevada recently. a grandmother who showed me her receipts. before we capped the cost of $3 month, she was paying hundreds of dollars, up to thousands of dollars a month for insulin. she's not doing that any longer. >> you maintain bidenomics is a success. >> i maintain that when we do the work of bringing down prescription medication for the american people, including capping the cost of the annual cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000, when we do what we did in the first year of being in office to extend the

child tax credit so we cut child poverty in america by over 50%, when we do what we have done to invest in the american people, in bringing manufacturing back to the united states so that we created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, bringing business back to america, what we have done to improve the supply chain so we're not relying on foreign governments to supply american families with their basic needs, i'll say that that's good work. there's more to do, but that's good work. >> just one other question about something that you said in 2019 when you first ran. there was a debate. you raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized. do you still believe that? >> i believe there should be consequences. we have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. there should be consequence. let's be clear, in this race, i'm the only person who has

prosecuted transnational criminal organizations, trafficking guns, drugs, human beings. i'm the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws. and i would enforce our laws as president going forward. i recognize the problem. >> let's talk about some foreign policy issues that would be on your plate if you become commander in chief. president biden has tried, unsuccessfully, to end the war between israel and hamas in gaza. he's been doing it for months and months, along with you. would you do anything different ly? for example, would you withhold weapons shipments to israel? that's what people on the progressive left want you to do. >> let me be very clear. i am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to israel's defense and its ability to defend itself. that's not going to change. but let's take a step back.

october 7. 1,200 people are massacred. many young people who are simply attending a music festival. women were horribly raped. as i said then, i say today, israel had a right, has a right to defend itself. we would. and how it does so matters. far too many innocent palestinians have been killed. and we have got to get a deal done. we were in doha. we have to get a deal done. this war must end. >> in the meantime -- >> and we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. i've met with the families of the american hostages. let's get the hostages out. let's get the cease-fire done. >> but no change in policy in terms of arms and so forth? >> no. we have to get a deal done. dana, we have to get a deal

done. when you look at the significance of this to the families, to the people who are living in that region, a deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war, but will unlock so much of what must happen next. i remain committed since i've been on october 8th, to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution. where israel is secure and, in equal measure, the palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity. >> anand, let's talk about the interview. we combed through a lot of it in the first hour. we're seeing fresh sound bites in this hour. just going at some of the issues on what she has held different positions. last hour, we talked in some detail about fracking. she's saying very clearly, no, i am not going to ban fracking. i said that as the vice presidential nominee in 2020. i'm saying it now as the democratic nominee for

president. we're not going to ban fracking, despite what i said in 2019 during my own primary campaign. now talking about immigration. she does not want to decriminalize illegal immigration. so what did you make of that as a voter, an independent voter who is sitting there saying, which version of vice president harris should i believe? the one in front of me now, or the one who was in the senate and the one who ran for president in 2019? what she's saying effectively is, believe what i'm saying now. does she make a convincing case? >> yeah, i think she did. i think sometimes we're not honest with ourselves about, you know, a couple things. first of all, we change our minds all the time based on information, based on where we're sitting, based on whether we're a junior person at the office or the person running the office. it's actually normal. we should normalize changing our mind. i think sometimes we in journalism shame people kind of

figuring out a different view that they might hold and call it flip-flopping and try to kind of catch people in it. when, in some ways, on some issues, that's a measure of progress. i think we also need to recognize that she is in a different context right now than she was in a 2020 democratic primary. she's in a general election against an american fascist, donald trump. you know, let's just be real, like, you need to sometimes do different things in a general election against the far-right candidate than you do in a primary. like, i don't think we can kind of pretend that's not the case. i think she said something by way of explanation of that that actually was quite interesting and moving and goes beyond the familiar kind of tackle to the center. we talked about the notion of consensus when she was kind of pressed on this ideas of reversal. she said, i believe we have to work toward a consensus of how we can solve these things. i think that kind of allows you

to square the circle, which is to say, and this is true for a lot of liberals, you know, in american life. i think a lot of liberals who would distinguish themselves from progressives actually share progressive ideals in a certain form, share a certain notion of what immigration should be like. don't think about the way the right does about it. share notions about preferring people to having health care than not having health care. where liberals and progressives often differ is their sense of how much power they're willing to smash to do it, where they think other people are. she talked about, look, i've expressed some of these ideals, but we have to be mindful, particularly in the position she is now, of where other people are, where the country is. what can a large majority of people be led to want and be led to fight for? i think that's a reasonable position to take, even if it's not the same as my position on any given issue. >> anand, you're right. the underlying message of lest turn the page, we're not going back, is that the stakes are so high that we cannot return to

the years of donald trump. that's a position and something she said very explicitly in that interview yesterday. we showed some of donald trump's reaction, making very plain to the american public how different these two are just visually. watching vice president harris give an interview, talk coherently about policy, whether you agree or not, and having a more calming affect than the chaos that comes with donald trump. how important, how powerful is that contrast? >> when i was watching last night and then just the clips you were showing, three things struck me. first of all, these are people with heart, right? they're just people who -- i'm not saying they're off the chart. i'm saying they're normal people who feel things for other people, who feel proud when their son loves them, you know, and these things shouldn't be exceptional in american life. when you're running against donald trump and jd vance, being people with a heart is a really big contrast. second, these are people who

know a lot about stuff, to use a big word. you know, just going into the weeds. if anything, you know, kamala harris errs on the side of being intricate in discussing these issues in a non-sound bitey way. what a relief to have someone whose sin sometimes is knowing too much about issues when she's up against a kind of babbling fascist. finally, to contrast with tim walz's favorite word, these are normal people who i think are showing themselves to be normal. what that amounts to, to me, the word i wrote down as i was sitting here waiting to come on is anti-inflammatory. i think this kind of notion of the last decade that the vice president was talking about, it's been an inflammatory decade. not just donald trump, but the culture in general has been an inflammatory culture, right? an inflammation is what kills our bodies, right? a lot of things inflame us, and

some things are anti-inflammatory. our politics has been a politics of inflammation, of constant warfare, of everything traumatized, even within our parties, even within the splits. and i think this ticket, in many ways, is an anti-inflammatory ticket. downplaying kind of the personal issues of identity and gender that, while significant, can be inflammatory. you know, downplaying these fights within progressives and moderates. and talking down trump as tired and weird and past his prime rather than, again, inflaming him into this strongman monster which can be counterproductive, as we know. i think we're seeing the politics of antiinflammation. after an inflammatory decade, i think a lot of americans will be drawn to it. >> to an exhausted american voting public, a turning of the page might feel pretty good right now. vice president harris wrapped up

her bus tour of georgia with a rally in savannah last night. nearly every seat taken in the arena. about 9,000 people in attendance there. harris is the first presidential candidate to campaign in savannah since bill clinton did in 1992, underscoring how vital the campaign views georgia and how in play it now is. harris praised voters there for electing two democrats to the united states senate in 2020 and for helping to secure a win for the biden-harris ticket four years ago. >> georgia, for the past two election cycles, voters in this very state, you who are here have delivered. you sent two extraordinary senators to washington, d.c. [ applause ] you sent president biden and me to the white house. [ applause ] you showed up.

you knocked on doors. you registered folks to vote. and you made it happen. you did that. you did that. and so now, we are asking you to do it again. [ applause ] do it again. let's do it again. >> tia mitchell, you know georgia so well, covering it with the ajc. we're reminded, of course, of the 2020 election. we can't forget because donald trump on that infamous phone call with secretary of state brad raffensperger reminds us every time we hear it, that the vote was under 12,000 in 2020. it was a state that the biden campaign had worried may be out of play this year, but now that the harris campaign has brought it back into play, what does it tell you that the campaign is spending so much time in georgia? >> well, i think it tells us two things. number one, i think it tells us that the campaign's, you know, internal polling indicates that

georgia is still winnable. otherwise, they wouldn't be spending so many resources in the state. but it also shows us that it is an important state for both campaigns. and the more that harris campaigns in georgia, the more she forces donald trump to spend money and resources on georgia. and the more that trump spends resources on georgia, the less he has to spend in other battleground states. so it's a strategic move for georgia, but i do think harris would love to carry the state again. >> it is striking to think that, with joe biden at the top of the ticket after the debate, the trump campaign was thinking, tia, just how high it could run up the score, how many states it could grab. >> yeah. >> it had georgia, arizona, nevada in the bag, and maybe they'll win minnesota, talking about new jersey and all this. now, as you point out rightly, playing defense in a lot of places that they didn't think they'd have to. as you cover the state of georgia, what will be important?

obviously, the turnout in atlanta, suburban voters around atlanta going toward kamala harris, perhaps some of the women who like what they hear from her. what do you think will be decisive in georgia come election day? >> yeah, a lot of the things you just mentioned. but i think the fact that the bus tour focused on south georgia tells us a lot, and it's kind of illuminating of the georgia electorate. yes, south georgia is pretty rural. it's very conservative. but, a, rural georgia means 25% black. those are democratic voters. and, quite frankly, there are still blue dog democrats in rural south georgia. so there are votes even in those rural pockets. not necessarily a majority of the votes. those are still, you know, conservative counties, but, of course, you win the electoral college by the popular vote in each state. so the harris campaign is saying, hey, we're going to go everywhere we can to get every

vote that we can. because, yes, most of our votes are going to come from atlanta, metro atlanta, the atlanta suburbs, but if we can run up the score, if we can lose by less, so to speak, in south georgia, in other rural parts of the state, perhaps we can put together a win in 2024 and get those 16 electoral votes. >> such a good point. this was not just a tour of atlanta, dekalb, cobb countys we've come to see from democrats. they're working south georgia. washington correspondent tia mitchell, thank you. donald trump says if he is elected, he'll protect access to in vitro fertilization. he'll also cover the cost tryin pregnant. trump talked about it with nbc news yesterday and then initially announced the plan at a campaign stop in michigan. >> i was always for ivf, right

from the beginning. as soon as we heard about it, it's fertilization and it's helping women, men, and families. but it is helping women, able to have a baby. some have great difficulty. a lot of them have been very happy with the results, as you know. what we're doing, and we're doing this because we just think it's great, and we need great children, beautiful children in our country. we actually need that. we are going to be, under the trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment. so we are paying for that treatment. >> all americans who want it? >> all americans that get it, all americans that need it. we're going to be paying for that treatment, or we're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay. >> either the government will pay for it or the insurance companies will cover it. >> under a mandate, yes. >> i'm announcing today in a major statement that under the trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs

associated with ivf treatment, fertilization for women. [ applause ] ivf treatment. because we want more babies, to put it very nicely. and for this same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes so that parents that have a beautiful baby will be able -- >> so a government mandate insurance cover ivf from donald trump. dasha burns, who you saw in the clip, also asked former president trump about his stance on an upcoming ballot measure that could overturn florida's six-week abortion ban. >> in florida, the state that you are a resident of, there's an abortion-related amendment on the ballot to overturn the six-week ban in florida. how are you going to vote on that? >> i think the six week is too short. there has to be more time. and i've told them i want more

weeks. >> you'll vote in favor of the amendment? >> i am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks. look, so you understand, everybody wanted roe v. wade terminated for years. 52 years. i got it done. they wanted it to go back to the states. exceptions are very important for me, for ronald reagan, for others that have navigated this very, very interesting and difficult path. our country has been torn apart by roe v. wade for years, for years. if you go back ten years, fifteen years, all they wanted to do is they wanted it back in the states. they didn't want it in the federal government. i was able to do that. i believe in exceptions for life of the mother. if you look, incest, rape. if you look, most people, i think 85%, maybe more than that, they do that. >> the trump campaign later clarified those comments in a statement, writing, "president trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot niche tiff in florida. he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short."

but that's the initiative, at six weeks. "new york times" columnist david french, a conservative himself, tweeted this about trump, quote, "he's pro-choice. every single pro-life evangelical voting for him is voting fr a man who is pro-choice and found liable for sex abuse by a jury of his peers. i never, ever thought i'd see this day, to restore the pro-life movement to the gop, he has to lose." that's from david french. eddie, first all, correct one thing donald trump said in the interview with dasha. everybody wanted to get rid of roe versus wade. that's not true. even after the dobbs decision, 65% of americans had wanted roe kept in place. a correction there. also, this is a position, obviously, of a man who is panicking about the fact that, in his own words, he is responsible for the overturning of roe versus wade, which was not popular. in fact, it may very well cost him votes in the suburbs. and scrambling on this question of ivf.

there are republicans who want to get rid of ivf, which is extraordinarily popular. trying to cover his bases on both of those things, but he can't run as the harris campaign points out, from the fact that he appointed three supreme court justices that led to the overturning of roe versus wade. he takes full credit for it. >> right, willie. you know, we finished a segment talking about kamala harris from 2019 to kamala harris to 2024. here we are with this clear example. look, donald trump and the republican party, they caught the car. they're the dog that caught the car. now, they're trying to figure out, what the hell do we do now that we have our teeth in the tires. what we do know, he'll be an issue with his evangelical base. the question is whether or not they are going to be motivated and excited to turn out for him, given this position. we know that this election, willie, is going to be boiled down to what's happening on the ground, blocking and tackling. it is going to be a turnout election. so here we are in this moment with the contradictions of donald trump's positions are in full view. david french hit it on the head.

this is a pro-choice candidate who presented himself in a different sort of way. now the chickens are coming home to roost. >> anand, david french also pointed out donald trump's weakness on russia, his affinity for vladimir putin. he gave a litany. remind me again how donald trump is conservative. now, folding in the position that clearly donald trump doesn't want an abortion ban at six weeks in florida. he said it should be closer to 15. what do you make broadly of the flailing we've seen from donald trump since kamala harris rose to the top of the ticket? >> look, i mean, for millions of american families, ivf stands for in vitro fertilization. for donald trump right now, it stands for, i'm very frightened. he is something we don't normally see, scared, defensive. >> yeah. >> on his back foot. right? think about since 2015, you and i have had this conversation in various forms, how many of those years was donald trump on the back foot, defensive, and frightened?

he is now. i think the reason is, what happened with ivf, this started with dobbs and abortion. what happened with ivf is illuminating. i think it was the american people starting to realize that these things never stop with the initial thing, right? ivf was sort of falling down the slippery slope from dobbs. you first come for abortion, and then there were murmurs of ivf. there were murmurs of maybe we could get rid of the gay marriage ruling using the same kind of legal reasoning, right? again, you start with trans rights. next thing you know, they're actually saying some, you know, cis women, is she really a woman? questioning everybody's humanity. next, they're talking about whether or not you can own a cat while not actively in a relationship. so i think the american people are realizing that even if you don't feel a certain way on a

certain issue, that these kinds of issues come for you eventually. i think donald trump has realized that the politics of this are shifting. people don't want their liberties taken in an election that the harris-walz campaign centered on freedom. and he is scared. he is very frightened. >> anand, it's been so interesting to watch in the last few weeks. you have been talking for years now about a democratic party that needs to do a better job of telling a story about itself, not just saying our policies are better and you should vote for us. just making that assumption that voters will catch onto all of that. i'm curious now, we always talk about voters in an election year, wake up after labor day weekend, tune in from the summer, kids are back to school, they're back to work, and they focus on the final stretch to election day. here we are, labor day weekend, sitting right in front of us, about the story being told by democrats since vice president harris moved to the top of the ticket. the contrast that they're presenting with donald trump. how are they doing in that regard, and what should we look for as we turn the corner toward

the election here? >> i think, first of all, this is a team that takes story seriously. it's incredibly refreshing. i think there's a few quick elements to the story. number one, they're telling a story of progressive patriotism in this country and reclaiming it in a way that's incredibly powerful. number two, this notion of freedom that they've centered. again, are we claiming from the right, should never have been ceded, they're taking it back. americans want to be free if nothing else. finally, this notion of normalcy and turning the page, and as i think walz said, being able to have thanksgiving again. i think there is this deeper feeling in the culture of a lost decade, of a lost era, of the way we all were with each other in these years. the way our bodies and minds were stressed and anxious beyond recognition because of how political culture was. i think they're verging on a notion, a story that we can move past that and have a different era and realize the america we

wants without tearing each other down. >> i can tell you, the chants of we're not going back were perhaps the loudest of all in that hall last week in chicago. publisher of the newsletter "the sink," anand giridharadas, great to have you on. have a great weekend. see you soon. >> you too. coming up, russia launches a new attack in ukraine. surprise incursion into kremlin territory. we'll go live to kyiv for the latest on the fighting, straight ahead on "morning joe." we planned well for retirement, but i wish we had more cash. you think those two have any idea? that they can sell their life insurance policy for cash? so they're basically sitting on a goldmine? i don't think they have a clue. that's crazy! well, not everyone knows coventry's helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. even term policies. i

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northern ukraine this morning killed one person and injured eight others. local officials say the strike hit a factory that manufactures packaging for food and household products. it's the latest attack by russia in an area that sits just across the border from where ukraine has launched its own surprise incursion. for a closer look at ukraine's counterassault, nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin joins us now from kyiv. erin, what more did you learn? >> reporter: hey, willie. well, here in kyiv at the moment, the big headline is the f-16 fighter jet that crashed in country on monday. you may remember the ukrainian government officials heavily lobbying western governments to supply those f-16s. they just arrived in ukraine weeks ago. according to ukrainian air force, on monday, amidst that

massive russian missile barrage, a famous ukrainian fighter pilot with the call sign moon fish was flying one of the f-16s. he was responding, according to the air force, shot down three of the russian missiles as well as a drone, was on his way to the next target when they suddenly lost contact with him. he crashed and died. now, the cause of that crash is under investigation. the ukrainian air force announced a newly arrived f-16 fighter jet crashed during the russian missile attack on monday. killing a top lieutenant pilot. known as moon fish, he spoke to nbc news at the beginning of the war. >> it was intense. >> reporter: the cause of the crash is under investigation as the deadly blame of who blinks first continues. with russia gaining ground in ukraine's east, while ukraine takes more land in the russian

region of kursk. >> it is a straight shot that way. >> reporter: we visited sumi, less than 20 miles from the russian border. now, the staging ground for ukraine's historic invasion. "putin has said russia has no borders," this ukrainian officer says. "now, we've shown we can enter russian territory." we spoke with a ukrainian commander inside russia. nbc news is withholding his name at the military's request for security purposes. >> are you gaining ground? >> reporter: "yes, little by little," he says. they've been given strict instructions on how to interact with russian civilians. "we were told to help them as much as we can," he says. >> every two hour, you hear explosions. >> reporter: this resident says she wants more help from the west. >> the support should be stronger. you make negotiations with the russians today, they going to kill you tomorrow. >> reporter: the ukrainians are watching to see if russia

redeploys any of those forces currently fighting in the donbas, where the ukrainians are out manned and out gunned. they want to see if the russians are going to move those forces to kursk to help reclaim some of their own territory. a western intelligence official tells me that, so far, there's no signs of a major movement of russian forces away from the donbas for the moment. speaking to ukrainian military analyst, he was telling me the longer that the russian president vladimir putin sits on this and allows the ukrainian forces essentially to dig into russian territory, the more difficult it is going to be for the russians to take back their own land. willie? >> ukraine on the offensive. nbc's erin mclaughlin reporting for us live in kyiv in ukraine. erin, thank you so much. we appreciate it. coming up next, we'll take a look at the new film "between the temples. actors jason schwartzman and the

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what are you looking at? >> nothing. >> come. >> ow. >> are you okay?o'connor? >> do you know you? >> benjamin. you were my music teacher. i work at temple sinai. >> so interesting. because i am an aquarius.

>> canter. >> the doctor is unattached. >> you know, my daughter, gabby. >> gabby. >> hi. i'm leia, here for our date. >> it's a bat mitzvah class. >> you want to have one? >> benny, you're a sharp one. >> that's a look at the movie "between the temples." the film follows a recent window at a jewish temple as he reconnects with his music teacher, giving him a renewed sense of purpose in his faith and a fresh outlook on life. joining us now, two of the film's stars, jason schwartzman and robert smigel, along with the film's director and co-writer, nathan silver. so great to see you all. thanks for being here, guys. jason, let me start with you. >> thanks for having us. >> we should explain to people who don't know, a canter sings in temple. this is a character and a man who loses his wife and then

loses his voice, as well. what did you love about this project? why did you jump in? >> well, i love that story. i love the idea of someone who -- whose main focus in life has been totally diverted. he's sort of stuck. he's lost his motivation and, you know, not sure he wants to go on. also, his job is to help others. he's not sure if he wants to help anybody. you know, carol, kane's character asks for a bar mitzvah, and he said, i don't know if you should do that. not because of her but because of him. i love how your life, you're constantly called to change the way you do things. it's never too late to start a

new way of living your life. you have to find new ways to move on. >> robert, great to see you. robert smigel, snl, conan, anything funny the last, let's call it 35 years, robert probably had a hand in it. tell me about this role. rabbi bruce. how did you come to this, robert? >> it is quite a stretch. when i saw the script, i was like, how are they going to make me look like a rabbi? [ laughter ] special effects, hours in the chair. now i know how martin lawrence felt during "big bad mama." no, i was thrilled. i don't get -- you know, i primarily am a writer. i'd heard of nathan, but i was really excited that jason and carol kane, who is amazing in the movie, that i'd be working with them. and then i read nathan's script

which was actually more of a scriptment, they called it. it wasn't filled with dialogue yet. kind of like "curb," which, by the way, you were great on, willie. [ laughter ] anyway, i just love the story. i was excited to work with jason and carol. >> so romantic traumady, right? two things that struck me as interesting and i can't wait to see. it's the way you foreground grief, right? in a moment where it seems as if a lot of americans are grieving still. and the way in which this is a decidedly jewish film, in a moment when anti-semitism has spiked, is spiking. talk about how you play or how you deal with these two things with laughter, with love. >> absolutely. i think judaism at the core is

about questioning everything in front of you. it's like judaism is answering every question with a question. it's like looking at the absurdity of life, really, and handling -- basically making a movie about grief but making it a comedy seemed like it was, you know, essential. and the idea of making it a movie about two characters questioning where they are in life and looking in, trying to look past the hopeless present to some kind of future. because judaism is very much about the present. it's about -- it's not about the afterlife. it's about the here and now. how do we deal with the hopeless here and now? how do we have some faith in the absurd, that things are going to work out, that we are going to find, you know, that will to move on with our lives? so i feel like the two -- those two questions are actually intertwined. i think that it's about, like, the beauty of judaism is that it's about questioning everything in front of you and

looking for some kind of way to make the world work for us. it's -- am i -- >> to come along. repair the world. >> trying to repair the world. >> yeah. i love that the movie doesn't mock religion. i'm a comedy writer, and i know what an easy target, low-hanging fruit religion can be. i love that this movie is about religion, explores it, has funny, you know, questions are asked, and it is a very funny movie, you know, but it ultimately acknowledges that judaism is rooted in humility and gratitude and healing the world. carol's character, in many ways, heals jason, and they heal each other. you know, i love that about the movie. it's not mocking religion. >> let's watch robert and jason at work. their characters have a contentious but productive meeting with the newest member

of the congregation. >> hey, hey! hey you! you can't just run out on me that way. >> i'm not running. i'm walking. >> okay. [ horns honking ] >> what is this? >> everything is fine, rabbi bruce. i'm working something out with new congregant. >> benny, i don't feel welcome in this temple. >> all are welcome at temple sinai. i'm rabbi bruce. >> good to meet you. i want to have my bat mitzvah lessons specifically -- >> whoa. >> specifically with canter benny here. now, now that can be accommodated, can't it? >> i don't see why not. >> ah, you see that? now, that wasn't so tough, was it? i guess i'll see ya next week, benny! >> can you back -- you know what? i'll back up. >> jason, for a movie about

grief, it sure looks like you guys are having a lot of fun. how great was the cast? you see it right there. >> we had so much fun. i mean, it took me a while. you know, everyone laughs differently. i had to learn nathan silver's particular laugh. if you're not particular with it, it looks like he is in pain. [ laughter ] he was on the floor clutching his chest, and i was concerned. i was calling for a medic. actually, that's just a sign that he is -- that things are going well. it's a perfect way, actually, for our movie. the person laughing looks like they're in pain. but, you know, we had so much someone that i look up to so deeply and so i got, you know, i listened to him, and talked to him about stuff, and i would try to write, you know, quickly write something down before i forgot it because that's, like,

really, you know, wise stuf you don't get very often, but we laughed a lot, and i loved being with every single person. i loved every day of this production. it was so fun, and the whole crew, everyone we all lived together, and we, you know, also real -- it was like a camp in a way. >> well, it show understand on the screen. it's really good. it's really moving. it's also really funny. it's called "between the temples." it's in theaters nationwide right now. jason schwartzman, nathan silver, thank you all very much. congrats on this film, guys. great to see you. >> thank you. >> thanks, willie. >> thanks for having us. coming up here, airports across the country could see a record number of travelers this labor day weekend. we'll take a look at where things are already starting to get real busy on this friday morning next on "morning joe."

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beautiful live picture of lower manhattan. it's 7:53 on the friday rolling into labor day weekend. airports across the country bracing this morning for potentially historic number of travelers this labor day weekend with nearly 3 million passengers expected to fly today alone. nbc news correspondent shaquille brewster has more. >> reporter: this morning, the holiday travel rush is on with millions of americans heading

out to celebrate the final stretch of summer. >> scotland. >> northern virginia. >> l.a. >> reporter: air fares down slightly this year and travelers are taking off at a record pace this labor day weekend. >> trying to get away from new jersey for a little bit. >> reporter: atlanta is expected to be the busiest airport according to hopper data with 9,000 flights departing and 1.1 million seats scheduled. in second place, chicago's o'hare. >> are you stressed right now? >> i'm a little stressed. it looks like the security lines might be a little longer than we would like. >> reporter: there's been some early headaches already with extreme weather across the country impacting the labor day travel rush. tornadoes touching down in the midwest causing extensive damage, ripping trees from the ground in minnesota, and knocking out power for thousands. the dakotas also hit hard by five reported twisters, throwing these freight cars off the tracks in north dakota. on the east coast, golf ball-sized hail pounding

virginia. in palm beach, a glitch in the baggage handling system, forcing crew members to load luggage onto planes manually causing multiple flight delays. >> it is what it is, i guess. as long as we get there safe, i'm okay. >> reporter: the tsa says it's staffed to ensure the quickest wait times for the 17 million passengers expected to be screened at security checkpoints through next wednesday, but it's still best to plan ahead. >> so you don't want to be surprised when you get here and cut it close or miss your flight. definitely do your homework and give yourself a lot of extra time. >> shaquille brewster reporting for us. still ahead, we'll have big moments from vice president kamala harris' big interview since becoming the nominee, and an aide to donald trump and an employee at arlington national cemetery. "morning joe" coming back on a friday morning. " coming back ona friday morning

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trump and polling through key battleground states. we'll go through those numbers. plus, we'll have the latest on the altercation between aid to the former president and an employee with the arlington national cemetery. an update on that story. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, august 30th. the friday of labor day weekend. with us we've got professor of princeton university, eddie glaude jr., jeremy peters, sam stein, and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali. joe and mika have the morning off. let's dive right in. vice president harris yesterday did sit for that first tv interview as the democratic nominee for president. harris and her running mate, governor tim walz of minnesota spoke with cnn while campaigning in georgia. the vice president was asked about day one of her presidency, and was pressed on criticism that she has shifted away from some of her more liberal policy positions. >> day one, it's going to be

about one implementing my plan for what i call an opportunity economy. i've already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in america's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families. for example, extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the first year of their child's life to help them buy a car seat, to help them buy baby clothes, a crib. there's the work that we're going to do that is about investing in the american family around affordable housing, a big issue in our country right now. so there are a number of things on day one. i think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. you mentioned the green new deal. i have always believed, and i have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it

is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. we did that with the inflation reduction act. we have set goals for the united states of america and by extension, the globe, around when we should meet, certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an example. that value has not changed. my value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. i spent two terms as the attorney general of california, prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of american law, preventing the passage of illegal drugs across our border. my values have not changed. one, i am so proud to have served as vice president to joe biden, and two, i'm so proud to be running with tim walz for president of the united states and to bring america what i

believe the american people deserve, which is a new way forward and turn the page on the last decade of what i believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies. >> the last decade, of course, the last 3 1/2 years has been part of your administration. >> i'm talking about an era that started about a decade ago where there is some suggestion warped i believe it to be, that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of where i believe most americans are, which is to believe that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up. that's what's at stake as much as any other detail that we could discuss in this election. >> so eddie glaude, one of the big questions is how she would answer specific questions about clear policy differences, her positions from the 2020 campaign when she was campaigning in 2019

and where she stands now as the nominee. we'll get to some of those specifics in moment. she said, my values haven't changed. i've come to understand these issues differently and i've landed in a different place on issues like fracking. i'm curious given this was her first sitdown interview as the democratic nominee, your impressions. >> well, it was great to see you, willie. i think she did well. she didn't do any harm. that's important, but i also thought the answer about the shift in the positions between 2019 and today was really, really spot on, you know, we could have consistent -- we could have values that constitute the throughline of our positions, but the context changed. the situation changed. our experiences change, and by virtue of that, we make decisions, you know, it's early in the morning to be quoting ralph waldo emerson, but he says a foolish consistency is the goblin of little minds. that has everything to do with judging your commitments over against the changing circumstances. so i thought she answered that

question really, really powerfully, and there were some other powerful moments too. so the final judgment for me, she did no harm. she set the stage for the next time she sits down. we'll take that from you at any hour. it's jeremy peters. this was a big moment for the vice president. her nominee to be vice president at her side, tim walz was there as well, but this was an interview about the candidate, about who she is, because there are open and fair questions why she has changed so dramatically on so many key issues. what is the sense inside the campaign about how that interview went yesterday? >> i think, willie, the most telling phrase and probably the most important to kamala harris' appeal to the kind of voters she'll need to win was that phrase that she used about where most americans are. i think overall what we heard from her last night really was a

repudiation of the politics that dominated the democratic party in 2020 when she was, of course, running in the democratic primary and had to stake out some positions that were not popular with most americans. i mean, you know, she said that she was, you know, she reversed herself on the decriminalization of border crossings. she said that, you know, she would support fracking. she said she would appoint a republican -- she might -- she would consider appointing a republican to her cabinet. i mean, this is about as far from the kamala harris of 2019/2020 as i could have imagined, and it's much more in step with where the kind of voters are that she will need to win over in michigan, pennsylvania, the suburban atlanta, you know, suburban phoenix, because the policies that most democrats -- that a lot of democrats were trying to

embrace because they thought that's where the party was in 2020, were really out of step with the concerns of most americans, and that became evident when the democratic party rejected candidates like kamala harris, elizabeth warren in 2020 and went with the centrist, joe biden. she's really positioned herself in a way that should scare republicans. i know that republicans were scrambling yesterday to try to figure out how to push back on this interview. they, once again, have kind of failed to kind of land a punch on harris, and what you see, i think, is the kind of soaring rhetoric from her about uniting the country that a lot of people are really hungry for. >> and the criticism you hear from the trump campaign and republicans that they hope will take hold with independent voters is that vice president harris doesn't quite know who she is. she was someone in 2019 and then the senate, and she's saying she's not now, but she answered

specific questions to get into it a little bit more closely here. vice president harris pressed on those involved in policy positions including on the question of fracking. >> do you still want to ban fracking? >> no, and i made that clear on the debate stage in 2020, that i would not ban fracking. as vice president, i did not ban fracking. as president, i will not ban fracking. >> in 2019, i believe in a town hall you said -- you were asked, would you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking and you said onnure first day in office? you said, yes. did it change? >> i've not changed that position, nor will i going forward. i kept my word and i will keep my word. >> what made you change that position at the time? >> well, let's be clear. my values have not changed. i believe it is very important that we take seriously what we

must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate, and to do that, we can do what we have accomplished thus far. the inflation reduction act, what we have done to invest by my calculation -- probably over a trillion dollars in the next ten years. investing in a clean energy economy, what we've already done creating over 300,000 new clean energy jobs. that tells me from my experience as vice president, we can do it without banning fracking. in fact, dana -- dana, excuse me. i cast the tiebreaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking. >> yeah. >> as vice president. so i'm very clear about where i stand. >> and was there some policy or scientific data that you saw that said, okay, i get it now? >> what i have seen is that we can -- we can grow and we can increase a thriving, clean energy economy without banning fracking. >> okay.

>> so sam stein, pretty clear there. she says in 2019, i said i wanted to ban fracking. in 2020 when i became the vice presidential nominee, i came on board with the position that we were not going to ban fracking and i hold that position today. the sub text, because dana bash did a good job asking specific questions then about immigration, how she's changed on a series of policies, the sub text is forget everything i said in 2019 when i was running in a democratic primary. the person you should look at is the one sitting before you today and the one who was on stage with joe biden in 2020. >> right. i mean, yes. that is the sub text. i've always wondered in these situations, could someone go full bull worth -- not bullwork, but bull worth? i was running in the democratic primary. i needed to get some progressive votes and now i'm not. would that work? probably not. that is probably the truth or close to it. there is some validity to the idea that the ira did spend, you know, historic amounts of money

to prop up the clean energy economy. obviously that's helped pursue that economy and grow it in a way that allows for fracking, but, you know, if we're being frank about its, fracking is a huge industry or relatively huge industry in a critical swing state of pennsylvania and you don't want to offend that industry. there are no good answers really to give to that question. i thought she, you know, did what she had to do which is assert her position, explain as best she can, and move on. this is, again -- i'm a broken record here, but this is why you probably should do more interviews is you get these things out of the way so you can move onto more favorable terrain, and i imagine this will come up again during the debate and i'm sure she'll have the same exact answer. >> so ali, i'm curious. you've covered then-senator harris. you've covered vice president harris and now candidate harris. in terms of her evolution on some of these positions, how do you see what you heard yesterday and again, some of the criticism has been from republicans which is, well, of course, she's coming around to these positions

as a presidential candidate because she know the people she needs to win sit where she says she sits now. what do you make of her evolution? how should voters look at it? >> i think -- first of all on policy, it makes sense that she spent so much of that interview focused on the accomplishments of the biden-harris administration, whether it was capping the cost of insulin, whether it was taking down overall costs for seniors. those are cornerstones of what they viewed as their first two years in office and their legacy going forward. it makes sense that that was a lot of the focus. i thought she was smart to explain her policy positions as not a change in values, not a change in her deep inner mooring in the way she views things should change, but instead something almost situational in terms of taking in more information. i will also say as i put on my gender in politics hat for a brief moment, it was a smart way to go about it because attacks on flip-flopping and not being honest about your positions are in some ways, more lethal to

female candidates because it is seen as in some ways, being more duplicitous, more like they're lying. we saw it be very effective against someone like hillary clinton in addition to trump calling her crooked. she doesn't talk about the gender role of this, but it's her employing the knowledge around, how do you tackle this? how do you explain them in a way that's not going to feed into the most negative characterization that voters and people who are running against her could possiily give it? that struck me as one, but this is a different person, and i'm sure that sam and the rest of the folks on the panel who have covered her agree. she has a different kind of confidence. she's leaning into bipartisanship in a very biden-esque way, in a way that makes you wonder if that might not be the key thing that might have rubbed off on her over her time as the number two in the biden-harris administration, and i think that's the thing that

she's going to try to use and leverage continuously in addition to the fact she's been the administration's strongest messenger on another key issue which is on the minds of voters which is reproductive access and abortion care. that's something she's been leading on. that's a softball for her at this point. the rest of the harder policy stuff, of course, there should be more questions on. i'm interested in hearing more on, but in terms of this, i think the explanation tracks with where i think they're happy with it. >> yeah. i'll just say very quickly to ali's point. i went back and watched the infamous harris interview with lester holt after this one, and what was remarkable was just how much more confident she was, how much more steady she was last night versus that one. i will say the other thing that stood out for me was dana bash did ask her a question about the historic nature of her candidacy. trying to break the glass ceiling. pointing to that picture, that now famous picture from the convention stage, and what was telling was that harris just didn't take the bait at all.

she said, yes, i'm aware of the picture and it means a lot to me, and that was it. it's very evident in that answer that she knows the things that she needs to emphasize, and it's not in her estimation, the historic nature of her candidacy. it's trying to sell herself to voters across the spectrum. coming up, we'll have much more from the vice president's first sitdown interview as democratic nominee, and how former president trump is responding to that conversation. . ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even

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as you may have expected, donald trump weighed in on the interview yesterday. in fact, even before the interview, there was a prerecorded conversation with "the daily mail." trump criticized harri for not doing her interview live claiming it shows, quote, she is not very smart. >> it's not live. it's an interview that's going to be taped and then edited and then put out. so that's not even an interview. then she's doing it with her vice president sitting there. so she's not very smart. when they ask her a question that she can't answer, she'll look at him. you answer it. >> in a fund-raising email after harris' interview, the trump campaign called her, quote, the biggest liar ever to run for president. some irony there of course. the email also accused harris of flip-flopping on those positions. something trump has done repeatedly himself including yesterday on abortion and ivf.

we'll get into that in just a moment. eddie, as we think about this campaign as a study in contrast, you couldn't help but think any nonpartisan way, just watching vice president harris have a conversation with an interviewer that did not include insults, cheap shots, that did not include his personal -- her personal vendettas, her personal grievances. she answered questions about policy,soberly. you can agree or disagree with the policy positions. you can watch donald trump post on social media and watch vice president harris do that interview. >> that's such an important point. during the interview with vice president harris, there were positions we could sink our teeth in. there were positions where we could decide, where do we stand? we had an adult in front of us, and then there's donald trump, and what donald trump requires of the american voter is that we get down in the mud, that we kind of go to our lesser angels, that we go to our base instincts

and we saw that in sharp contrast, and i think when vice president harris said we wanted to leave behind an era, i think it's actually embodied and represented in the contrast to have those interviews. one trying to get us to think about our future and our present, and the other trying to think about our basic instincts and grievances and that's what i think she should continue to do moving forward. >> what she's doing critically is not attacking trump for what he is. she's telling us what he isn't. she's saying, he is incapable of putting the country above himself because voters at this point, know what trump is. they know all the attacks. they know what a threat to our democracy he could be, but kamala harris is articulaing i think, a much more powerful statement about what four years of trump would be, and it would just be selfishness and chaos, and she's doing that by pointing

out what he's incapable of. i think it's also critical to point out to sam's point about the identity politics aspect of this all, and how -- or how the democratic party seems to have really turned the page on this. i don't think it's really about de-emphasizing the historic nature of her candidacy. i think it's about not making the campaign about herself. you're not hearing the slogans, i'm with her, right? she wants to make this about the american people and how she will take us forward into a different kind of era, a kind of politics where we are not at each other's throats at the thanksgiving dinner table, where we can once again as you say, you know, feel like the better angels of our nature are still there and need to be nurtured. so i think she's very wisely making this about the country and bringing the country back together rather than saying, this is about me. this is who i am, and you already have one candidate who

is doing that quite well. coming up, former president trump weighing in on the criticism of his visit to arlington national cemetery this week. we'll take a look at that and what the army is saying now about a cemetery worker being pushed. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. pushed we'll be right back.

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former president trump is responding to reports of an incident that took place monday when he visited arlington national cemetery. an army spokesperson confirmed a cemetery employee was abruptly pushed aside but one of trump's aides. the employee acted with professionalism when she sought to enforce restrictions on taking photos and videos within a sacred part of that cemetery. when asked, a spokesperson for trump said it wasn't true claiming the cemetery employee was the one who initiated physical contact and verbal harassment. in an interview with dasha burns yesterday, he responded tot

criticism of his visit. >> i was asked to be there by the parents and the relatives. i went there for the parents and the relatives and whale i was -- while i was there -- i didn't ask for a picture. they said, sir. can i have a picture at the grave? you have the tomb stone and the name of the tomb stone. they're crying. they're dying because of the incompetentsy of it's suddenly a p.r. thing. it's a disgrace. >> sam stein, obviously president trump was there at the request of the families. he was doing that and they came out in support of him after all this happened this week of the 13 marines who died at abbey gate in afghanistan, that terrible day as the united states left afghanistan after 20 years, but where is this story right now? we did hear very specifically

from the army itself, and then we heard the trump campaign kind of trolling the united states army on twitter and social media in a bizarre twist here. what exactly went down as we sift through all this, and what is the -- what's the state of things right now? >> right. so things are getting a little bit conflated. no one is, i think, objecting to the idea that trump could go there at the request of the families who wanted him there. it's not a problem. i don't think anyone is saying he can't show up at arlington cemetery. some people were kind of turned off by the fact that he was doing, you know, these photo shoots, but where it really gets hairy is he was told -- or his people were told specifically that there was a policy that restricted their access to a section of arlington cemetery. not that they couldn't access, but they couldn't shoot or take videos in there. everyone agrees there was an altercation, right? an official with the cemetery

tried to insist that they couldn't bring videos -- or videographers there. the campaign insisted that they could and would bring videographers there. some type of altercation occurred. everyone agrees on that. the question is what kind of nature of confrontation are we talking about? the other thing that happened that i think is worth noting is at this point of conflict, there were two routes that could have been taken. one is de-escalation and one is escalation, and it seems very evident that the trump campaign chose the latter one which is escalation. not only did they go into section 60 and shoot video, but they belittled the official -- not naming this person, calling this person and saying they had mental health issues, insisting that they had every right to be there, threatening to release video if needed, and look. as a grand matter, this is the problem, i think, which is that there are very few places that are -- we try to keep immune from partisan politics, and this place is now being sullied by

the trump campaign because of their insistence that this person, this official, was in the wrong. you could have de-escalated it. it could have been a relatively nonstory, but in typical trump fashion, they chose to just, you know, fight it through, and here we are. >> yeah. that's what it is. the other day, the behavior is just grotesque. i mean, ask yourself knowing what we know about donald trump for these last ten years, at least or go back further if you want if you believe an employee at arlington national cemetery, sacred ground in the united states, trying to enforce rules that restrict video and political ads inside a cemetery or donald trump and his campaign and the people who are saying as sam pointed out that this person was mentally ill. throwing that out there, that they were having some kind of a mental health episode and not just doing his or her job, and it tells you something that this employee did not want to press charges because the employee didn't want his or her name attached to something because he or she knew the threats that

would come with that from trump's side. >> right, willie, and, you know, i think our default position when it comes to donald trump and his statements should be, let's prove to me that you're telling me the truth, right? we can't presume that he's been honest. we have to presume he's being dishonest. the evidence seems to suggest that. it's just so, and then it's just the level of what is revealed at the level of character, that he would continue in this ongoing desecration of these very, very sacred spaces in our national history. so i think we need to shall we say, cast doubt on the truthfulness of his claim and the campaign's claim, and let the facts play themselves out, willie. i mean, this is another example of his character, my man. coming up, nbc news correspondent dasha burns joins us on the trump interview she

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what i want to ask you about is what he said last month. he suggested that you happened to turn black recently for political purposes. questioning a core part of your identity. >> yeah. same old tired playbook. next question, please. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> vice president kamala harris in her first tv interview since becoming the democratic nominee, quickly brushing off donald trump's comments on her racial identity as the vice president hits the campaign trail. there is a growing focus on a group of voters that doesn't usually get recognized as a political demographic.

that is mixed race voters, people of two or more races. joining us now, co-anchor of nbc news daily, morgan radford. she sat down with mixed-race and multiethnic voters. morgan, it is great to see you. >> good morning. this is a fascinating situation just to say the least. we talked to a range of people with different racial, ethnic and political backgrounds in my home state of north carolina and the census forms, they give them pause, sometimes even panic because of the choices those boxes force them to make. even though those boxes are getting better and a little bit more inclusive over time, people's perceptions politically can still be pretty narrow. take a look. >> i identify as indian american and white. >> hispanic, asian. >> reporter: they're the face of a changing nation. >> when anybody asks, i just say

i'm black and puerto rican. >> all my grandparents are from a different ethnic background. >> reporter: their voting power will be significant. in six battleground states, the population with two more or races has surged by more than 200%, including here in north carolina's county. can you raise your hand if you are a republican, democrat, independent. does the way that you identify racially impact your politics or specifically how you plan to vote this election? >> absolutely. >> how so? >> i'm not going to lend my support behind someone who does not support people who look like me. >> i don't think he sees me as who i am. >> former president donald trump? >> yes. >> what about the rest of you? >> i just don't think that kamala harris has anything vested in the air, finger quote, black or hispanic experience, and so much as it would be identified as anybody that lives in those communities. >> you're saying you don't think she can help black or brown

people? >> going to howard don't make you black. >> reporter: a conversation that quickly turned to this moment. in a july moment at the national association of black journalists. >> i didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black. i don't know. is she indian or is she black? >> what did you think when you heard those comments? >> highly offensive. i mean, i think probably every multiracial, mixed-race biracial person has had the experience of someone else telling them that they are not something enough. i think it's kind of triggering, right? >> i think it is impossible to be biracial in america, and i think that it requires that you're covering all bases at all times, and it requires constant recognition of both identities, and i think when donald trump says stuff like that about kamala harris, it implies she's picking a race for political advantage. it's tapping into an incredibly familiar sentiment i think

everyone on this panel can understand. >> as trump supporters when you heard that comment, as mixed people, how did that register with you? >> my first thought was, that wasn't very well thought out. at the same time though, when i heard it, i didn't hear it as an attack on blacks or indians. i heard it more so of him commenting towards identity politics and the appeal that some take to play up one side of their race over the other. >> i see you nodding your head. >> i agreed with him. i didn't know -- i didn't know she identified as black because everything i saw was first south asian, first indian. none of that identified as black. >> regardless of her parents, i mean, she was born in this country, and she identifies as a black person in this country in an american way. >> i've never heard her identify herself as a black woman. >> she's said multiple times she's a black woman. >> i'm black and i'm proud of being black. >> reporter: politics sometimes becoming personal this year with mixed-race americans having

representation on both tickets. >> i don't agree with anything jd vance has to say. i mean, almost nothing, but i think it's incredible that we've gotten to a point where the vice president of the united states can have a wife named usha and a son named vivek. that doesn't mean i won't vote against him in november. >> even though you disagree, do you feel kinship toward her as a mixed person? >> not personally. i find a lot of her trajectory not be my brand of woman, leader. we've got three major international crises going on, and someone applying to be commander in chief. as a woman, i want to see you do more than, you know, appeal to giggling and having a girl moment on the stage. >> was there ever a moment that sort of forced you to confront the concept of race? >> it's more of ethnicity. as you can see, i have an accent, right? i speak with an accent. i don't think in an accent. you just learn to be uncomfortable in uncomfortable

situations. >> reporter: and beyond the ballot box -- >> i think every time we see polling it's about race. >> mm-hmm. >> as a candidate of color, you put a lot of stake into how this candidate represents, say the black experience or the indian american experience. i think we will never ask donald trump or joe biden or bill clinton or george bush to do the same thing. i think white people are expected, and people of color aren't. >> to do what? >> to be in the highest office in the united states. >> i should note that one of the gentlemen we spoke to there is currently a republican candidate for north carolina's 12th congressional district. his opponent is representative ulma adams. almost all these interviewees talked about an illegal doctrine that classified you as black if you had any drop of african ancestry. saying you belong to what's

called the minority parent group instead of both groups equally. until they said that mindset changes politically, we won't be able to discuss or even accurately capture the full range of this demographic politically. >> so morgan, help me understand, because as i was listening to the exchange, it was a collision of all sorts of things, right? a collision of processes of racialization, how one is reviewed and read as a black person, or a person of color, ethnic identification, the difference between racialization and being an ethnic identity. the difference between way race is lived, say in the bay, oakland, san francisco, and the way it's lived in charlotte, north carolina. >> sure. >> all of these things are just colliding. >> yeah. >> and people are trying to get clear, but there was one of your person -- one of the people said, it's impossible to be biracial in the united states. >> landon. >> and that kind of crystallized it. why do you think he said that? what is it -- what do you think it means? is it about how -- how should we

say -- how fixed our racial categories are, and when people seek beyond them, we kind of get confused? >> that was landon and landon is half indian, half white, and landon was fascinating because he's only 18. so from the mouths of young people, the babes as they say, right? we had this incredibly clear notion of the difficulty as you describe, the impossibility as he said, of being mixed-race because he said, being mixed in this country, by virtue of those fixed boxes and dynamics, it is an impossible decision because it makes you, and forces this choice upon you, and then he said, you're constantly watching all sides, constantly having to validate your very existence in this country, but what was also interesting was every single panelist there could describe to me the moment they were forced to confront the concept of race, and they said it was when they heard a derogatory comment because every single person could remember the first time they were called the "n" word.

i don't know a black person in this country that doesn't know that time. who they were, was not necessarily the way the world viewed them. >> so what's so important about a topic like this is that it doesn't get enough coverage, right? there's this impulse in the media i think to label candidates. you are this or you are that, and what kamala harris has told us in her responses to these questions, is i'm me. she said that. i'm an american. i'm me. i'm not going to let you put me in a box. she doesn't see the need to get drawn into these debates if you can even dignify calling a question over, like, whether or not she's black a debate. she's not going to take that bait, and she says, like, she did to dana bash. next question. i don't need to talk about this. i would rather talk about how to bring the country together instead of how to separate us by putting us or forcing us to pick a side and choose a box, and to your point, eddie, i think one thing that also goes unsaid

about her, or doesn't get said often enough about her mixed background is the way that she is so comfortable in her own skin, is a by-product of her growing up in the cultural and racial melting pot that is california. it's not the south, right? and you can kind of see that in this growing confidence that she has versus the kamala harris that we saw in 2019 who often didn't seem so comfortable. she really, i think, has figured out a way to talk about these very sensitive subjects or not talk about them. coming up, we'll take a look at where the markets stand this morning after the dow hit a record high yesterday and investors braced for a new inflation report. "morning joe" coming right back.

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♪♪ vice president kamala harris is now leading donald trump in all but one battleground state, but they're very close. according to the latest bloomberg morning consult polling, harris leads by go points in georgia and north carolina, three points in michigan, four points in nevada and pennsylvania and by eight points in wisconsin. the only state where she's not leading is arizona, but the race is tied there. the most notable shifts come from pennsylvania, where donald trump led by four points last month and north carolina, where he led by two points last month. we should note last month's in michigan and nevada appear to be outliers. i think most people do not

believe that anyone is leading by eight points in any of those states, including wisconsin. but the point is the momentum shift and what vice president has done to energize democrats. >> yeah. i mean, it feels like an eternity, but if you remember, a month and a half ago those states were not in play. it was michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. even in those states, the biden/harris ticket was down by three, four points. what harris has done in about six weeks is fairly remarkable, honestly, to move the needle like that, to consolidate, to build up a campaign, to take these narrow leads in a number of battleground states where democrats were not expected to compete this cycle. all that has expanded the map. to do it and raise half a billion dollars which will allow her to play in those states and force trump to spend resources

in those states, that's critical. but, i mean, look, this is going to be just like 2016, just like 2020. it's going to be a couple thousand votes in a couple states that decide the election. it's remarkable that this is the system we have. it's not a national popular vote. it's not that type of democracy. it's a national electoral college system. where are they going to go? where are they going to spend their money? that's the real metric here. it's not whatever poll. it's where they're spending their time and money, because that's the real implication of what they see that's in play. note this morning they're on a bus tour in georgia, which they clearly see as a big prize. >> some democrats worried it was slipping away under joe biden. pulling back that state. also according to a new "wall street journal" poll, vice president harris has taken a

narrow lead over donald trump in a national poll, leading trump by a single point, so they're tied within the margin of error. in a survey late last month trump led harris by a couple of points. in july, trump led joe biden by six points. again, we will note the new results are within the poll's margin of error. voters in the survey also express concern about trump's policies and his personality. 59% describe him as too extreme, compared to just 46% who say the same about harris. 55% say harris has the personality to be president. that's a big jump for her personally. when she was vice president even a few weeks ago, a couple of

months ago to be sure. again, this is a margin of error race, as we have said from the beginning, but without question, we have enough data and polling to show she has fully changed the dynamics of this race. >> absolutely. she has become the change candidate. that's showing up in the polls, showing up in the excitement and hopefully showing up on the ground as they make their way to november. coming up, common mikie sherrill and much more when "morning joe" comes right back. "morning joe" comes right back

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what is that cake? [ laughter ] >> caramel. >> ah, i want a slice of that.

caramel is like my favorite. okay. oh, chocolate and caramel? fantastic. what are you getting? >> oh, i'm good. >> you don't want anything sweet? get something sweet. >> you talked about that caramel cake. >> okay. and then a slice of the cake for the congresswoman and then my slice. thank you all very much. >> vice president kamala harris at a bakery in savannah, georgia, yesterday. she spent two days in georgia boosting small businesses while campaigning in the state's southern, typically redder counties as well. welcome to "morning joe." on this friday leading into labor day weekend, it is 6:00 a.m. on the west coast as you wake up out there, 9:00 a.m.in the east. with us eugene robinson and eddie gwynn. vice president kamala harris yesterday sat for her first tv

interview as the democratic nominee for president. gabe gutierrez has details. >> reporter: overnight, in her first extensive interview since president biden dropped out of the race, vice president kamala harris defending some of her shifting policy positions since she last ran for the white house in 2019. >> i think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy prospective and decisions is my values have not changed. >> reporter: when asked whether the border should be decriminalized. >> do you believe that? >> i believe we have laws which need to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. >> reporter: she was also asked about banning fracking. >> there's no question i'm in

favor of banning fracking. >> as president, i will not ban fracking. >> reporter: harris is touting proposals to extend the child tax credit and give $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time home buyers. why didn't she take those steps during her first 3 1/2 years in office? >> first of all, we had to recover as an economy, and we have down that. i'm proud that we have brought inflation down to 3%. >> reporter: she also brushed off former president trump questioning her racial identity last month. >> i didn't know she was black, until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. >> same old, tired playbook. next question, please. >> reporter: harris' running mate tim walz saying he misspoke when saying he carried weapons of war in the national guard despite never being deployed for combat. >> i said the idea of carrying these weapons of war.

my wife tells me my grammar is not always correct. >> the phone rang, and it was joe biden. and he told me what he had decided to do. i asked him, are you sure? and he said yes. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez reporting for us there. gene, there's been lots of talk and frankly frustration among journalists about when vice president harris would finally sit for an interview. we got it last night. pretty detailed in its questioning from dana bash of cnn about which politicians the vice president held different positions on than what she held when she ran in 2019. >> the first sort of broad, unanimous reaction that i was hearing just from really both sides of the aisle was that she

did no harm. that's the prime imperative when you're doing that sort of interview. i thought it was better than that, actually. i thought she did herself good in that interview affirmatively by answering dana bash's persistent questions about changes in her policy positions, particularly the discussion about fracking. i thought she did herself good when she talked about her core issues, like reproductive rights. i thought it was fascinating the way she sort of sloughed off the racist attacks from donald trump by just saying it was the same old tired playbook, next question, which was a signal that that's not what she wants to run on, that's not her issue. she's not asking the american people to vote for her because she would be the first woman of

color, the first woman to be president that, in fact, she is asking the american people to vote for her on the merits, on her experience, on her positions. i thought she did very well in that interview. >> eddie, we've been talking this morning. there's a sense in which watching that interview you see, for example, the moment when she's asked about donald trump's racial attacks against her. she kind of flicks it off saying i'm not going to play that game. a lot of people have fallen in that trap with donald trump. i'm not going to be one of them and getting into talking about the issues and the middle class and the things she wants to do on day one. it seems like a smart play not to get into the mud with donald trump on that stuff. >> what's so important about that moment is she cease not giving donald trump the authority to define who she is. i've been thinking about it a

lot. as a graduate of morehouse college, it was like oxygen. it's just who we are. so what does it mean for this graduate of howard not to come out and billboard our identity as a woman of color, as a black woman, as a south asian woman, as a woman generally, but to simply say take me who i am and insist that we talk about the substance of the matter, right, as opposed to waddling in the mud as donald trump wants us to do. i think it's a powerful moment that suggests we might be stepping into a different kind of future in which our identities matter to us, but they don't matter in such a way that they over determine our conversations. >> we know vice president harris' plans for labor day include her first visit to western pennsylvania since accepting the democratic

presidential nomination. she'll have a special guest. president joe biden will join vice president harris during a stop in pittsburgh on monday during their first joint campaign event. pennsylvania is the most populace battleground state. donald trump carried the state in 2016, but president biden managed to recapture it for democrats in 2020. joining us now, advisor for the harris campaign, adrienne elrod. vice president harris and her nominee for vice president tim walz sitting down with dana bash of cnn. how should now that we've seen this interview that vice president has been pressed on her previous positions on immigration, on fracking among many other issues. how should a voter, undecided, suburban voter wondering which version of kamala harris they should look at, how should they be thinking now as they roll into election day around the

bend here? >> yeah, willie. good morning. it's great to be with you guys. i really appreciate the commentary, because i completely agree. what you saw from the vice president last night is that her values have remained unchanged since she became a prosecutor, since she became attorney general of california, united states senator, vice president and now, of course, seeking the highest office in the land. her values have always remained the same. sure, she very much took on head on, she made it clear that some of her positions have evolved, which is very standard when you're in public service and you learn more about the issues. as things evolve, sometimes your positions do evolve. she leaned into her position on fracking, which by the way, is the same as her position in 2020. i think the average american who tune into that interview last night, i think what they learned is, number one, she is always putting the american people

first. it doesn't matter if you're going to vote for her or you're not. she is going to put the american people, their values first and foremost every single day as she makes her decisions. speaking of values, you saw the strong partnership she has with governor walz. they really are a team. that is a partnership she had with president biden. they talked about how they had a partnership in every single decision and policy they passed in president biden's administration, and that is the same sort of values she has, of course, and partnership she will have with governor walz. look, going back to being a president for all americans, she said she was going to appoint a republican to serve in her cabinet, which i think, again, is sort of a testament to the fact that she is not looking at the you're a democrat or republican, what your party affiliation is. she wants to make sure the american people know she is going to fight for every single

one of them, and i think that came across very clear in last night's interview. >> adrienne, i think one key to the success vice president harris has had in this campaign so far -- and, again, we should emphasize so far, because it's certainly not over. but one key is she has not allowed donald trump to set the agenda. she has dominated the news cycle, yes, but she has also set the agenda for what she talks about and how she talks about it. but -- so that's so far going to western pennsylvania, does she talk about fracking? does she talk about energy there? how does she stay ahead in the sort of agenda-setting department and in the domination of the news cycle she has had so far? >> a couple of things, eugene.

number one, of course, she gave a major economic speech a couple of weeks ago in north carolina. you're going to continue over the next eight or nine weeks to see her talk more about her vision in terms of policies she's going to back as president. i don't want to get in front of her comments in pennsylvania, but you will see her talk about her economic vision and what she plans to do for the american people over the course of the next few weeks. of course, we have the debate coming up on september 10th, where you're going to see her lay out her vision even more and contrast donald trump. she supports an agenda that wants to move us forward and unite this country. finally, eugene, on your comment about us kind of, you know, taking the high road here and not letting donald trump thwart her from talking about her vision from america, i think you saw it last night when dana

asked her about some of the derogatory comments, to put it mildly, that donald trump has said about her, she just sort of brushed it off and said, you know, that's the same old tired playbook, next question, please. she understands when she has the time and the privilege to talk to the american people in the way that she did last night, she wants to make sure they understand what she stands for, what she's going to fight for, that she's going to put them first. she doesn't want the use air time to talk about the crazy divisive things donald trump has been saying and not only about her, about women candidates for a very long time. again, as a testament to the way she is approaching this campaign, she is taking her job very seriously, and she wants to make sure the american people understand where she is on the issues, understand that the choice that is in this election, the choice of her, who wants to move us forward, trump, who wants to move us backward, and that's what she wanted to focus

on. >> this is eddie. that invocation of my values are the same in some ways is a way to allay concerns on our left wing that somehow she's shifted to the center and she's left behind these folks. i was really interested in the way in which she responded to the question around gaza. is she worried that her position, which still stands very close to president biden's position, along with the position around fracking, along with the position around immigration, is she worried she might lose some of the energy in her base? >> yeah. i don't think she's worried. again, she's made it very clear where she stands, that, number one, israel has the right to defend itself, but, number two, we must have a two-state solution. she's made it very clear.

number two, the palestinian people have suffered and the suffering must come to an end. i think she's been unwavering in her commitment to continuing to work to find a solution, a two-state solution, and to end the war in the middle east. that will be something that her administration very much focuses on. i think something that, you know, i appreciate -- obviously i work on the campaign and i'm one of her spokespeople. but just as an american, i appreciate any elected official who has taken, you know, who has evolved on an issue and has admitted that and said why they have and talked a lot about the fact that the more they've learned through their time in public service, the more sometimes their positions evolve. she also is, of course, at a part of passing the most historic climate change legislation we've ever passed in this country. she and president biden teamed up together to pass the inflation reduction act, which still to this day and will for a long time is focused on lowering

costs for american families. she mentioned she finally got an infrastructure bill passed with president biden. these are things where she can actually say, here's what i did with president biden, as a proof point for what she will do when she becomes president. >> and back on the road this weekend before the debate 11 days from now, circled on the calendar. adrienne elrod, thanks, as always, for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks, willie. donald trump is now criticizing florida's six-week abortion ban while pledging to help americans cover the cost of in vitro fertilization if elected. he said that to our own dasha burns. our dasha burns is in lansing, michigan, this morning. what more did he tell you? >> reporter: look, willie, this comes in the context of the polling that shows that vice

president kamala harris is way ahead when it comes to female voters, and that's going to be important for the trump campaign to try to make up ground with. take a listen to what he told me, and then we'll talk on the other side. >> i think the six week is too short. it has to be more time. and so -- and i've told them that i want more weeks. >> reporter: so you'll vote in favor of the amendment? >> i am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks . >> reporter: what's the trump administration going to do with regards to ivf as elected. >> it's fertilization and it's helping women and men and families, but it's helping women able to have a baby. we are going to be under the trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment, so we are paying for that treatment. >> reporter: all americans who want it? >> all americans that get it, all americans that need it. so we're going to be paying for that treatment, or we're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.

>> reporter: willie, a lot of reaction from both the left and the right on both of those issues. first the harris team responding to his ivf proposal, saying that it's a lie from the former president, saying that because trump overturned roe v. wade, ivf is already under attack. and when it comes to those abortion comments, you mentioned it earlier, there has been some backlash from part of his base. so the trump campaign overnight trying to clarify those comments, saying that president trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in florida. he simply said he believes six weeks is too short. the former president views this issue of abortion and reproductive rights more politically than anything else. he said follow your heart, but he also is telling republicans, we have to win elections. he's been pushing the party to look at this issue differently, to talk about this issue differently. that's what you're seeing him try to do. again, the polling shows that gender gap, especially now that harris is at the top of the

democratic ticket, willie. >> he may not say how she's voting on that amendment, but he was pretty clear to you that six weeks, which is now the law in florida, is too short. extraordinary to watch him scramble around this issue that has so turned against him. dasha burns, thank you so much. we really appreciate it. eugene, it has been something to watch donald trump grapple with what he has wrougt. he was proud of it in the moment and now in the 2 1/2 years since he's seen some of the fallout and now running around sort of trying to patch up the holes. >> right. and the more he talks, you know, the worse the holes get. you know, every time he opens his mouth, there's a new hole in the keel of the ship. it's amazing he's now managed to

alienate or at least begin the alienate the pro life community as well. of course, he did what they had wanted for 50 years. he got rid of -- he appointed the supreme court justices who overturned roe v. wade. now he is essentially voicing a position that is pro choice, at least beyond six weeks. we don't know what his cutoff date is, if there is such a thing. and that is shocking to the really committed people in the pro life community. and then, of course, people in the pro choice community are never going to believe that donald trump is on their side or is going to do anything, you know, to further their interests, because of what his supreme court justices did with roe v. wade. so and he keeps making it worse and worse and worse. and, of course, it's still an issue that he feels he has to

talk about because of where he is on it right now, which is nowhere. >> and he wouldn't be doing any of this certainly out in public if he wasn't seeing some internal polling showing this is costing him dearly in places he needs to win. coming up on "morning joe" this hour, the latest on the controversy surrounding former president trump's visit to arlington national cemetery, which our next guest calls an absolute disgrace. former navy helicopter pilot and member of the house armed services committee, congresswoman mikie sherrill joins us next. and we'll break down the new inflation numbers and how they might affect the fed's decision on interest rates. "morning joe" is coming right back. "morning joe" is coming right back

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you have the tombstone, you have the name on the tombstone. they're crying. they died because of incompetent leadership of harris and biden. they said, sir, could we have a picture? i said yes. all of a sudden, i hear that it's some kind of a pr thing. it's a disgrace. >> donald trump speaking to nbc's dasha burns yesterday, defending his decision to pose for photos at graves of fallen soldiers at arlington national cemetery with a thumbs up despite being told it's against the rules. an army spokesperson wrote, an arlington employee was abruptly pushed aside. a video was posted along with the caption "reposting this, hoping to trigger the hack at the army." the hack at the army. joining us now, democratic

congresswoman mikie sherrill, member of the house armed services committee. it's great to have you with us this morning. in case anybody needs any reminding, could you remind everybody why we call arlington national cemetery a sacred place. >> willie, your discussion of it as a sacred place is exactly right. this is where we bury our war dead, the most important cemetery for that. it's where the tomb of the unknown soldier is kept. it is something that every veteran is aware or and knows and the respect that it deserves. and to have trump, who has a history of degrading service and veterans' service, to go there, push aside the person from the army who was trying to keep that space sacred and then to post a video, a campaign video on

tiktok against federal law, but really against basic decency is to incredibly offensive. you know, he has hit so many lows when it comes to service members and veterans, when it comes to john mccain and calling service members suckers and losers, you know, being a draft dodger himself with his, you know, fake bone spurs. and then to continue this -- this really, though, comes across to me as a new low. i've already received outreach from veterans in my district who are really upset by this. it's just -- it's really hard to describe. >> gene, you're writing about this this morning in the "washington post." it is so telling, is it not, that the army staffer did not want to press charges because he or she did not want to face the consequences that would come perhaps from crossing donald trump, having watched our public discourse for the last decade,

knowing that either donald trump would attack this person or his supporters would attack this person, deciding not to press charges, but making clear, the army yesterday, that there was an incident where somebody who works at arlington national cemetery was muscled out of the way by the trump campaign. >> it's unbelievable. you know, i wrote that column because sometimes we tend to -- donald trump does something awful, unprecedented, unimaginable, and we just sort of move on, right, because he does that all the time. but this, this just struck me as just so beyond the pale and so un-american and so just really unbelievable that he would do that, number one, that he would bring this campaign camera crew into section 60, where they were clearly, explicitly not to go,

that they would push an employee out of the way to get there and then they would take the picture. you know, he speaks in that interview as if, oh, well, these people just wanted this picture. no. he brought the camera crew there. it's just unbelievable. but, congresswoman, this is obviously not the first time donald trump has shown that he has no idea what honor means, no idea what patriotism means, no idea what sacrifice means. and so you, as a veteran, can you explain to me why any veteran supports donald trump or can -- could, you know, why any veteran is not completely and totally offended and outraged by everything he has done since his first criticism of john mccain, which was, what, years ago now,

2015? >> no. i certainly couldn't explain why any veteran would want to support this man, who i think, you know, as commander in chief of our military, he, as i said, denigrated veterans in so many different ways, refused to get out of the car to honor world war i soldiers who had fallen in battle, has said he didn't want to be seen with disabled veterans. how anyone could want to support this person after all that he's done i -- and i think what really bites here is the fact that this is someone who tries to cloak himself in all of the honors and the medals and tries to surround himself with the military, tries to utilize the military as his own personal militia at his command and his will, and yet denigrates the service of people, because i would say deep down he has no concept of service to country.

he has no concept of serving other people. for donald trump, it's always all about himself. so he wanted the pageantry, he wants to be honored. and yet he has no honor or respect for our service members, our veterans or our war dead. >> he infamously said to general kelly at one of these cemeteries, what was it in for them, showing he has no idea what it is to sacrifice for the country. yesterday trump held a rally in michigan where he said he'd rather get a medal of freedom than a medal of honor, because one doesn't require suffering combat injuries. here's what he said. >> i always say there's two awards. there's the medal of honor and there's oftentimes posthumously where they're not there. often times they've died in battle, and then they're getting the award.

and then you have the civilian version of the presidential medal. i say i'd rather get the presidential medal. oftentimes they've suffered greatly or they're not around. >> it amazing to people who have such respect for veterans and our military to see him actually doubling down on that. to most people that would be a horrible gaffe and a blunder and a grotesque thing to say that you'd never want to repeat again. he might even apologize for having said it in the first place, except he seems to be leaning into it. >> he just, again, willie, does not understand anything beyond his own self-interest and would never understand why those of us who have served are proud of our service, are proud to have served our country. my own daughter is in service now, so this is something i'm deeply committed to. i'm deeply committed to this country and making sure that i and other members of my family are always protecting the

constitutional rights of people throughout this country. i love our democracy. it is something that he obviously has zero concept of as he enjoys those very freedoms that so many people have died to protect. >> woman, this is eddie glaude. given what we've just heard and what we see with donald trump and what we saw last week with the democratic national convention, what do you make of democrats now taking up the mantle of patriotism, the way in which the vice president is invoking love of country, in light of what we see and hear from the likes of donald trump? >> well, i'm going to share adam kinzinger's secret that democrats have always loved their country very, very deeply. i think that something my daughter once said to me really resounded with me. she said, you know, i love this country. and some people think that

loving your country means just saying your country is always right no matter what, but i think loving your country is always working hard to make it even better, and that's what democrats believe, right, that we have a fantastic country, despite the fact that donald trump denigrates america all of the time. we have a fantastic country we're very proud of, and now we're going to work to make the future brighter for all of our kids and create greater opportunity for everyone here. and that's what the harris/walz team, i think, speaks of to everyone. i look at that team, and it reminds me of, of the america i grew up in, this idea that we are a diverse nation of opportunity, and the ability of anyone to make it in this country is so iconic that we call it the american dream, that we are a beacon for people around the world of democracy and our constitutional values. that's what they say to me when i hear from that ticket, when i see the lives that they live, and it could not be a sharper

contrast between the love of country and the service of both kamala harris and tim walz and the difference between donald trump, who denigrates those who care about this country and denigrates this country at every turn. >> i mean, he runs down america every chance he gets. it's amazing that's the strategy to say he's the only person who can build it up, except as you say, i think most americans view their country that way. democratic congresswoman mikie sherrill of new jersey, thank you for the time. we appreciate you. >> thank you so much. coming up next, our next guest argues the only way a polarized america can remain together is -- ready for this -- to draft a new constitution. the dean of berkeley law school joins us straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪♪ t ahead on "morning joe." ♪

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♪♪ that's a beautiful shot of the sun coming up over the

golden gate bridge in san francisco. it's 6:39 in the morning, 9:39 here on the east coast as we fast approach one of the most consequential elections in american history. the political divide is wide with both sides of the aisle believing a win for their opponent could doom the country. but the dean of berkeley law school argues it's not just politics, but america's founding document, the constitution, that needs a bit of an overhaul. joining us now is dean irwin chemerinski. his new book is titled "no democracy lasts forever." how in your view that the constitution that the country was built on and has been for nearly 250 years is a threat actually to the country? >> choices that were made in adapting the constitution have come to haunt us. the electoral college increasingly is choosing the president who lost the popular vote. two senators per state is

undermining democracy. in the last session of congress, there were 50 democratic senators and 50 republican senators, but the 50 democratic senators represents 42 million people. life tenure for supreme court justices is increasingly problematic. but the tenure for supreme court justices has been 15 years. since 1970, it's been 27 years. all of these are choices made in 1787 have become much more salient in recent years. >> professor, i understand -- this is gene robinson. i understand that there are lots of outdated pieces of the constitution. there's also some really good stuff. i think it is probably true that the founders would be astonished that we haven't altered the constitution to fit our present circumstances.

on the other hand, though, in the real world, how -- wouldn't it be madness to try to change the constitution at this point when the country is so polarized, so angry and so, so unable to agree on anything, all those foundational principles, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, of our freedoms, would be in jeopardy, it seems to me. >> you're right. the country is deeply polarized. that in itself is a threat to democracy. our government has lost the confidence of the people. in 1964 in a pugh research survey, 77 people expressed confidence in the government. last october it was 20%. much of what's wrong with the government can be fixed by

statute, but all can be fixed by constitutional amendment. i say rather than a series of constitutional amendments, isn't it time to start thinking of a new constitution? isn't it absurd that we were governed by a document written in 1787 in a small agrarian, slave-owning society. the constitution was adopted in 1787, when the country was deeply divided. in many states, it was passed by a few votes. i'm not saying there will be a constitutional convention tomorrow or next year, but i do think it's time to begin thinking of a constitution for the 21st century rather than one from the 17th century. >> you're right. the comprises that in some ways constitute the through line of

our history, you charted really powerfully in the book. i just started, but it struck me -- and this is about the threat of secession that if we choose not to do anything, if we fail at the amendment process, there is the real threat of secession. talk a little bit about that consequence, as you see it. >> what happens if we do nothing? we can continue to muddle along, but i worry about how long a government can survive with loss of confidence of people, how long a government can survive with a society so deeply polarized. we could drift towards authoritarianism. there are a lot of democracies in the world that are no longer democracies. but there's also the possibility that we will start hearing serious talk that what divides us is much greater than what unites us as a country. so i think we have to think

of -- i'm not arguing for secession, i'm not saying it's likely in the foreseeable future, but it's certainly a path that could happen if we don't repair what's wrong with the american government. >> the book is called "no democracy lasts forever, how the constitution threatens the united states. it is on steal now. -- sale now. thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. coming up, the latest inflation data just came out. we'll cover the new numbers and break them down with the director of the national economic council, next. and my conversation on the eve of who's taking over the big job on "wheel of fortune" ryan seacrest. ryan and i got together to talk about his long career from high school radio deejay to "american idol" and all the jobs in between, living his dream right now, getting ready to take the

wheel in just a few days. we'll be right back here on "morning joe" on this friday morning of labor day weekend. morning of labor day weekend take on the day. with taltz, up to 90% of patients saw a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. some even saw 100% clear skin. and for those with psoriatic arthritis, taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness. don't use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. increased risk of infections and lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about infections, symptoms, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop, worsen or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions can occur. ask your doctor about taltz.

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experience how great splenda stevia can be. grown on our farm, enjoyed at your table. (♪♪) some new economic data just coming in to us. the personal consumption expenditures price index for july has been released. the fed's preferred inflation indicator shows a rise of .2% last month, up 2.5% from the same period a year ago, just about in line with analysts' expectations. let's bring in christine romans. it's great to see you. obviously, inflation front and center in this country right now. what do we make of this new number? >> this is the fed's preferred inflation gauge. this shows in this last mile of the inflation fight they're still making progress pretty much exactly as expected here in

terms of the pce, that price index of 0.2% for the month, up 2.5% versus a year ago. remember, the fed wants to see 2%, so they're not exactly there where the fed wants to be. but the conventional wisdom is enough progress has been made, and the fed has essentially said as much, that they can turn the page now and the time has come for interest rates, as jay powell has said. this morning, markets are predicting maybe 25 basis points. that will be relief for companies. it will be relief for families. it takes some pressure off the high-rate environment. but it is just the beginning of what will be a new cutting phase, lowering interest rate phase in the american economy. >> christine, stay with us, if you would, as we bring in the director of the national economic council, lael brainard.

what are you seeing in this number? >> we are seeing several reports in a row showing that inflation is running at 2 1/2%. that's the lowest level since that surge of pandemic related inflation started, and it should give us confidence that the economy can continue expanding, the labor market can continue expanding while inflation moves back down to normal levels. so that is good news, and you can see it, of course, in mortgage rates coming down. market interest rates coming down. that said, of course, a lot of work to do to continue lowering costs for american middle class families. >> christine here, i'm wondering, is this what a soft landing looks like when you have an unemployment rate at 4.3%, historically low, second quarter gdp of 3%, and a fed thinking that it may have, you know,

cracked the inflation that can start to lower interest rates here? >> absolutely. what we are seeing is continued evidence that the economy can continue expanding sustainably, and the job market can continue with low unemployment and expanding opportunities while inflation moves to more normal levels. of course, we saw more levels of that yesterday with 3% growth in the second quarter, and today we saw continued evidence that consumers remain resilient going into this quarter. that said, again, lots of work to make sure that the affordability challenges american middle class families face are addressed and we bring those costs down. >> ms. brainard, do you have a sense of whether these good numbers, and they are

unambiguously good numbers, i think, are being felt by people, and what do you do about the gap when you ask people how the economy is doing, they say it's awful, when you ask them about their personal situation, they tend to say it's better. it is, you know, this is a political season, and obviously vice president harris wants to close that gap. but are these numbers getting through in a way that people can feel it? >> yeah, what matters to the president, what matters to the vice president is addressing those areas that really make people feel a squeeze on the cost of living, and so, you know, we've seen some good progress on gas prices. we're going into that labor day driving weekend with gas prices, about $3.35 at the pump. below $3 in some states, down

$0.50 since last year. that is positive progress, but if you look at areas like health care costs, great, insulin prices, bringing those down to $35, major improvements for so many americans that depend on insulin, great to have now the ability to negotiate those first ten drug prices for medicare and to cap out of pocket costs, but the president, the vice president, determined to continue working to extend those cost reductions to more americans, and of course housing, major pain point, we've got a real affordability crunch. we've got to build more houses. that's why they're focused on a plan to build 3 million more houses. interest rates coming down, and the market will give some relief. that's not enough. we've got to keep working to bring rent down, and to bring home ownership into the realm of the possible for more americans. >> still really really expensive

to buy a house. that's got to come down for a lot of people. director of the national economic council, lael brainard, thank you for your time. we appreciate it. >> you laid it out nicely, the gdp, unemployment, the overall picture that could lead to the rate cut coming up shortly. how are markets? how is wall street? and we should mention a record high in the dow the other day. how is wall street looking at this american economy as we sit here on the eve of the election. >> remember the beginning of the month, we had the freakout on wall street. here we go, stocks can go down, and there's something dangerous afloat. markets are higher for the month. they have clawed back. they have come back for that. for consumers and voters, the interesting thing is they know that inflation has improved but affordability is the problem. affordability for college, affordability for a home, for car insurance, homeowners

insurance. there are parts of the economy that there has been progress on drug prices. there are other nonnegotiable parts of the economy that are not affordable, and that's what's bothering voters. >> it's lower, but not low enough. christine romans, thanks as always. we appreciate it. and we'll be right back with more "morning joe." rning joe. re. 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. when you go for something big like this, your kids see that. and they believe they can do the same. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business. make more of what's yours. [coughing] copd hasn't been pretty. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets.

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city. 9:58 in the morning as rewrap up on this friday of labor day weekend. some final thoughts, eddie, first to you. >> i'm thinking about the hard working people that made my life possible. have a great weekend celebrating the power of work. willie, my eyes are on september 10th. get ready to rumble, i can't wait to see the debate. >> yeah, that debate's coming up. 11 days from now. gene, how about you, a final thought this morning? >> i hope everyone has a peaceful and restful labor day weekend because when we all get back, it's going to feel like a sprint to november 5th. we're going to go september 10th, the debate, and then beyond. there's not going to be a pause. it's about to get real. >> my gosh, think of all that's happened in the last month, the last two months, go back to the debate, june 27th. now here we are at the end of august. that was two months. two more months and change now to go to election day. gene, by the way, i want to point out, your michigan

wolverines began their defense of the national championship saturday night, tomorrow night, nbc. big 10 saturday nights, that should be a lot of fun. and commodores open with virginia tech. hanker down, everybody. guys, thank you very much for being with me this morning. appreciate you. have a great weekend, and to all of our viewers, we will see you right back here next week. that does it for us this morning. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. and right now on msnbc, dueling interviews in the 2024 race, vice president kamala harris's first sit-down since becoming the democratic nominee. her defense of the current administration and her vision for day one. plus, nbc's exclusive pull aside with former president trump. his new comments on reproductive rights and that incident at arlington national cemetery. also ahead, trump tries again to delay sentencing in his new york hush money case. his bid t