are undocumented immigrants who he accuses of fraud even after his presidential commission found none. >> so he had a presidential commission that he put in force, going around with all their binders, and they found that it was all just a live. >> and yet he continues to lie. that lie, however, was just a drop in the bucket amid false claims of california rioting, an impending middle class tax cut and the approach of unknown middle easterners at the southern border. good morning, everyone. >> by the way, there are about 20 more of those. >> welcome to "morning joe." it's tuesday, october 23rd. along with joe, will hadly and me we have mike barnacle, jacqueline alamanie, and eugene

robinson. joe, the word of the day is lie. and you've been doing a lot of reading lately. >> well, i have. if you talk to willie geist, he will tell you i'm a very important guy. i have many leather-bound books in my apartment. >> it smells of rich mahogany, yes. as willie and i are want to do, we get tired of going through all of my leather-bound books and i started reading old government reports. which is what willy and i do when we're done working on the classics. so, please, my viewers out there, do not draw a parallel

between what is said here and anybody living or dead past or present. that would hurt me deeply. i don't want to weep so the show. so this doesn't relate to anybody. so this is from the united states office of strategic services in skrebing hitler's psychological prosecute file. and this pertains only to adolf hitler and nobody else. but this is what they had. his primary rules were never allow the public to cool off. never admit a fault or wrong. never concede that there may be some good in your enemy. never leave room for

alternatives. never accept blame. concentrate on one enemy at a time. blame himmer for everything that goes wrong. people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one. and if you repeat it frankly enough, people will sooner or later believe it. that is, of course, the u.s. government during world war ii, mika, talking about adolf hitler. just a little nighttime reading for me. tonight i'm going to move on and i'm going to read game six which is the story of how the red sox won game six in 1975. you'll want to read that one, too. and i'll have a quote from that book tomorrow morning. >> well, it's worth a look. president trump is waking up in washington this morning after a trip to texas where he continued to push unfounded glams about immigration and much more ahead of the midterms. as the lead headline in this

morning's washington post describes the strategy, it is a bet on fear and falsehoods, lies. white house political director bill steipend tells the post voter satisfaction is the enemy of voter turnout and claims what changed is that while voters are still happy in the direction the president is leading the country, they are angry at the way democrats treated justice kavanaugh. they are scared when they hear democrat did after democrat talking about socializing medicine and medicare for all and voters are plugged in as the president spends more and more time on the campaign trail. >> but wait a second, what -- donald trump is doing on the campaign trail is he's spreading a lot of lies to nonwhipeople.

>> trump has been a serial liar about just about everything for his entire tenure in office, but he has rarely before been so pointed. president trump's claims about the honduran cara van heading towards the u.s. are steadily being debunked. yesterday the president tweeted, sadly, it looks like mexico's police and military are unable to stop the caravan heading to the southernboarder of the united states. criminals and unknown middle easterners are mixed in. i have alerted -- >> wait, wait, hold on. is the saudi crown prince in there? is he coming up to kill journalists in america, too? donald trump says he's alerting the border patrol and the military. this is a national emergency. >> as if, willie, must change

laws as if republicans don't control the house and the senate. and the white house. and the bureaucracy and the supreme court. they control absolutely everything. >> have for two years, area. >> the lies are just unbelievable, aren't they? >> he puts them out and he knows he's not going to be able to defend them and he doesn't try to defend them. we have had a list of the things that he said over the last few days which are just straight up lies. when he's pushed on them, he has no answers. he here is what he said about the middle easterners in that caravan. >> go into the middle of the caravan, take your cameras and search. no, no. john, take your camera. go into the middle and search.

you're going to find ms13, you're going to find middle eastern, you're going to find everything. do you know how the caravan started? does anybody know what this means? i think the democrats had something to do with it and now they're saying, we made a big mistake. people are saying how bad it is. >> if you're listening in the car or on the radio, the president was making a gesture of handing money out. there is no evidence the caravan is being led by anyone other than hondurans. a senior official said there is no evidence that any middle easterners are hiding in the caravan. the president tweeted every time you see a caravan or people illegal hadly coming or attempting to come into our

country, think of and blame the democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic immigration laws. >> president trump is calling the cara van a national emergency and he's claiming criminals and unknown middle easterners are mixed in with the crowd. an important note, fox news knows of no evidence to suggest the president is accurate on that matter and the president has offered no evidence to support what he has said. >> and there is the key, joe. we'll go through the list, as well. there's no evidence there will be a tax cut that will magically appear next week for the middle class. there's no evidence for any of this. >> no, no evidence at all. i mean, people have been writing up lists, no writing in california.

democrats aren't giving away cars to illegal aliens. they're not oprah. democrats haven't organized the cara van. 50,000 people were not standing outside of texas stadium last night and ended up it might be one or two thousand. selling telweapons to saudi ara. you can go down the list. he talks about getting an additional $1.6 billion for the wall. we'll talked about unknown middle easterners. donald trump could have said just as easily yet, in that honduras group, there are martians. there are aliens in there and they have sharks with lasers on

them and they are going to come to america and they're going to come into your children's school. these are land sharks, as well. and they are going to shoot their lasers between your children's eyes. >> yep. >> that is just as accurate as every lie he has told those poor, unsuspected crowd members. >> yes. there is a frenzy and more than a flur of desperation around these lies. even for trump, this is extraordinary. this is just -- you have to shift carefully for any sort of grain of potential truth in anything that he said last night. it's unbelievable. back away for a second, though. why is -- does the president having to go to a rally for a

senate race in texas of all places and they have to deploy the president there to help save ted cruz two weeks before the elections. that's not a good sign. and it tells me there's more consternation and panic in the the president's circles that we might expect. >> so there have been a lot of people online that have been mocking beto o'rourke for the past month saying he was going to get crushed. if that were the case, donald trump couldn't go and campaign for a guy he called liein ted cruz.

mika, another question, why is donald trump being so pathetic and little right now that he's having to create these lies when he could say, hey, eve got a great economy. hey, we've got isis on the run. look at consumer confidence up. he could tell the truth and have a pretty good argument to make in a midterm election. instead, for some reason, he is so scared, he is so desperate that he is just spitting out one lie after another. >> you just have to wonder exactly what he is doing with these lies. he's using everything that we as a nation have built, the trust we have in the power of the presidency. >> here is what he said about the rioting in california. take a listen. >> i don't think we like sanctuary cities up here. by the way, a lot of people in california don't want to meet

them. they're rioting right now. a lot of these sanctuary cities you've been hearing about in california and other places, but california, they want to get out. they're demanding they be released from sanctuary cities. >> take a look. many places in california want to get out. >> yeah. >> okay. so mike barnacle, he's obviously lying about the riots there. and, of course, donald trump lies for if a lot of different reasons. one, it's just he's a lot more comfortable lying than telling the truth. we've also seen that.

and i wonder if he's really worried that if he doesn't spread all of these lies, the democrats are going to talk about how mitch mcconnell wants to cut social security and medicare because the tax cuts for the rich that they pass said i made all of you a lot richer. >> i would bet not, joe. he's in his own universe. this is who donald trump is. we talk about various races around the country, who is going to take control of the country, who might take control of the senate. i would submit to you that is

secondary. what kind of a country do we want? because we have a president of the united states who takes to the country four, five times a week with the litany of fear, race, division, duplicity, and an epidemic of lies, with a virtual epidemic of lies. >> mike, make no mistake, we're two weeks out from the election, he's talking about illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities. he's talking about an invasion of illegal immigrants. two weeks from the election, he talks about he's going straight. he's tearing a page from david duke's play book and he's talking about race. there is no conservative writer he.

there is no denying he's doing this. that's what he's doing. >> the currency that donald trump trades in is hate. hate and division. and that is what he's spending coast to coast. >> president trump put the chairman of the tax writing committee on the spot promising congress will put in a 10% tax cut next week after white house reporters questions him about it on his way to houston yesterday. >>. >> we're putting in a resolution sometime in the next week or week and a half, two weeks. >> a resolution where? >> we're giving a middle next

tax reduction of about 10%. we're doing it now for middle income people. this is not for businesses. this is for middle. that's on top of the tax increase that we've already got. >> are you signing an executive order for that? >> no, no, i'm going through congress. >> congress is not even in session, though. congress is out. >> ted is leading the charge in congress for more tax cuts. in fact, i just left kevin brady. where is kevin brady? he's here. we're going to be putting in a tax cut for middle class americans. kevin brady is working on it. we've been working on it for

months. this is for all middle class people. 10%. we'll be putting it in next week. now, the democrats -- i can't speak. i'm sorry. kevin, we're putting in next week the 10% reduction next week. okay. he promised in front of 22,000 people. i don't need that. he promised to me. that's good. >> he said next week. next week. >> welly, they're not in session. he might as well promise that he's going to build a rocket ship to mars made out of caramel chocolate and candy cane dust. poor kevin can brady is sitting there going, please, don't do this to me. kevin brady is put in this horrible position to lie in front of 22,000 people.

you can't even draft a bill like that. >> congress is not in session. congress is not in session. there will be no big passed. some republican leaders have discussed skepticism and how to pay for it. jackie, i would remind our viewers that republicans passed a massive tax cut ten months ago where they could have included a middle class tax cut and now president trump is floating the idea implausibly two weeks before the election. >> yeah. and i just want to get back to this whiff of desperation quickly that you all were talking about and explicitly connect the dots here, which is that i think what we're realizing is if the president loses the house, he is facing a

slew of investigations with house oversight along with the hotel upheaval of all of the policies he's complemented. so this the rhetoric we're seeing, with it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, because i think also what the president realizes is that he is a creature of habit and he understands what put him over the edge in 2016 was this difference in amply fight rhetoric in immigration and really got the base on his side. >> yeah. he appealed to racism. and jackie brings up a fantastic thought. why is this guy freaking outs so much? jackie just said it. if democrats win the house, by

one seat, they've got subpoena power. >> yes. >> they can subpoena, they can get his tax records. they can understand why the rest of the world is shunning saudi arabia but donald trump is hugging a murderer with a bloody saw in his hand. all of these things, helsinki, all these things that don't make so much sense to it, well, if the democrats win the house by one seat, we're going to know everything. >>. >> we're going to know a whole lot, joe.

maybe it's nots as rosy a picture as they've been painting. who do we have covering the california riots? >> willie, you've been talking a lot night to the correspondent who has been covering the california riots, willie. oh, wait, no, they're covering the dodgers/red sox opener tonight in boston because there are no rye yosts, i don't think. >> there may be rioting if chris sail searches the way barnacle says he's going to pitch. but certainly no riots about what the president said. >> we said this after kavanaugh. my god, the party did such a horrible job on the kavanaugh hearings especially at the end. there was a dip down at the

polls. but you start looking at the polls coming out of west virginia, another poll out of florida showing that bill nelson is over 50%. that is really significant. things are start to go break back democrats' way and it's freaking donald trump out. >> and they're not covering the riots. they're covering the big lies, medium sized lies, all sorts of lies. we live in a time when our fellow citizens have all time low levels of trust in our institutions including the government. most politicians lie from time to time, but donald trump is different. he likes to sell himself as world class at everything. this is one area where he is world class. a president who seems to prefer to lie when the truth would be just fine.

but most dangerously, he lies to hurt people. he lies to deceive voters into becoming enraged over a world of make believe. there are no rye yosts or massive immigrant voting in california, no democratic organizers of the honduran caravan. there is no evidence that trump is committed to protecting health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions and no tax relief coming soon for middle class families. all lies. real world lies that trump freely repeats over and over again on twitter, at rallies, and right to the face of professional journalists who know they are lies and call him on them. we could spend our three hours with you every day running through his various false hoods, his crowd sizes, the number of judges he's appointed. i could go on and on and on. >> but wait, mika, he says he's

appointed more federal judges than everybody since georgia washington. >> he has not. >> how about everybody since bill linton, no? >> and there is something truly wrong with a leader who lies so much about everything. but the lies about public policy, the lies meant to divide with our country and hurt specific groups of people, those lies should disgust other republicans. where are you? and they create a reality that people need to understand what they're voting for. lies. still ahead on "morning joe," turkey's president just laid out the case that saudi arabia planned in advance the murder of washington post columnist jamal khashoggi. what he told parliament this morning and how it's impacting international relations from washington to riyadh. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. so a tree falls on your brand new car and totals it. and as if that wasn't bad enough,

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with exactly two weeks to go now before election day, florida u.s. senate senate puts bill nelson ahead of the two-term republican governor rick scott 52/46. scott and nelson are essentially tied in a st. pete poll with scott receiving 49% and nelson 48. but a cnn poll conducted tuesday through saturday showed nelson begin to go build a lead with 50% to scott's 45%. scott's campaign is pushing back on these independent polls, releasing their own internal numbers that show scott leading nelson. national political corespondent steve kornacki is here, author of the book the red and the blue, the 1990s and the birth of political tribalism. what's going on that race in

florida? >> yeah. look, there's a couple of things. there's a question whether of whether governor rick scott was going to get the a boost because of his handling of the hurricane. very well received by the public in terms of how he handled it, but you're not necessarily seeing him now suddenly take the lead, take charge in this senate race. it is difficult to be the white house party and to try to flip the mid material. in a state where the put might have won it by 20, 30 points, it's one thing. but in a state like florida where trump aes margin was less than two points in 2016. i think there might be a certain amount. there might be a certain amount of political gravity coming up. >> and the importance of having two polls in two days that show bill nelson over 50% suggested something may be happening in florida and, again, to quote tim

russert, florida, florida, florida, it is still a purple state. it is the state that barack obama won twice, that the bill clinton won. and you do see some movement towards bill nelson that, i don't know, i think it should concern republicans not only in the state of florida but also across the country. >> well, yeah, and you also have the fact there, i don't think we've seen the number in the poll but of the governor's race of what impact andrew gillum trying to increase the electorate there. we saw in the primaries there in florida, broaden thus amp in both parties, something we didn't necessarily see in primaries everywhere this year. but you saw broad enthusiasm, and you've seen every poll putting andrew gillum ahead in the governor's poll and you wonder if that has some effect on the senate race, as well. >> what was the reaction later?

i'm wondering whether that was, across florida, pretty much the impression by a lot of the political writers there. >> in terms of dominating the news cycle after it, there's no question, you know, gillum emerged with that debate with more than desantis had. there is a scarcity polling. there was one that had gillum moving up by 12. you look at the party.

be beto got a lot of attention in florida. >> "morning joe" will be in our party on friday. >> it's going to be good. in west virginia, a great poll shows democratic senator joe manchin leading 52% to 36% over attorney general patrick morrisey. >> i think the last time they took that poll, manchin was already doing better. i think there's some regret there on the part of the republicans with the candidate they came can up with. manchin's appeal for a democrat is unusual in west virginia because it's the southern part of the state. it's coal country.

it's the part that's flipped most to the republicans yet there is strong residual effects in that part of the state. that might be a powerful conversation. in the november 6th so-called jungle primary, republican senator cindy hyde-smith gets 38% of voters. democrats mike espn gets 29% and republican chris mcdaniel gets 5%. with another 15% undecided. top two get into a runoff if that's where they are.

>>. >> right. this is head towards a runoff because you basically have two republicans there, hide-smith and mcdaniel and one democrat there, espy. the biggest fear for republicans in this face is chris mcdaniel. one who might potentially put a race like this in a race for republicans. the fear for republicans was that he would get reaction in this primary. >> and you came bearing an exclusive new poll out of california that shows a 15-term republican congressman fighting to hang on. yes. so our friends at monmouth university allowed us to exclusively release this right now. brand new poll. dana rohrabacher, 50%. harley ruda, 48%.

this is a change. over the summer, monmouth did this poll. what accounts for the shift? when we talk about trump's approval rating ticking up in the last few weeks, only by a few points. but saying those few points could be critical, trump's approval rating has gone from 49% to 54% in this new poll. and in that same period of time, you see dav you see dana rohrabacher from behind to taking the lead. if you look at a high turn youout scenario, rouda may do better there. in a district like this, a few points could make a huge

difference. >> at times, it seems he's representing the interest of putin more than the interests of his own district. he's pretty far out there when it comes to supporting putin and supporting russia. is that the only reason this race is close right now? >> it's also close because this is orange county, california. orange county has been changing pretty dramatically. orange county was the cradle of reagan conservatism. i think this is still a district

that absence some of the issues you're describing with rohrabacher, he might be better positioned, but this is a district that hillary clinton carried. >> steve kornacki covering a phenomenon of ground for us this morning, thank you so much. coming up, turkey's president says whoever is responsible for the murder of washington post columnist jamal khashoggi will be held responsible regardless of rank. new revelations coming in overnight of that investigation. we'll have the latest next on "morning joe."

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do you believe what the saudis have said about khashoggi? >> i'm going to know very shortly because i have a great group of people in turkey right now and a great group of people in saudi arabia. we will know very soon. we have tremendously talented people that do this stuff very well. they're coming back tonight and tomorrow and i will know very soon. and i am not satisfied with what i've heard. >> that was president trump yesterday responding to the latest saudi explanation that jamal khashoggi died during a fistfight while rogue saudi

agents attempted to bring him to saudi arabia. however, he later appeared to back up the saudi explanation. telling "usa today" that khashoggi was killed in a plat gone awry. >> so what was with the saw? were they going to -- what, were there lemon trees in the back that they were going to chop down the lemon trees in the back and have some lemonade while they interrogated him? why did they bring a bone saw and a guy that knew how to -- >> this president is trying to sow doubt in any concerns that a journalist was murdered. >> but there is no doubt. they brought a bone saw to the interrogation and a guy who knows how to cut up bodies in seven minutes and brought ear phones and instructed other people to put on the ear phones so they wouldn't hear him screaming. that is not a mott goplat gone .

>> joining us now, chief international security and diplomacy analyst for nbc news and retired four star navy admiral james mckennis. ayman mohyeldin is with us, as well. ayman, just moments ago, the turkish leaders revealed details during his speech to parliament. what did we learn from him? >> this was a significant speech. one, we now have an official turkish narrative as to what happened and it definitely contradicts what the saudis have been putting forward. the saudis have been trying to make all along that this was never meant to be a murder, that it was a spontaneous fight that led to the death of jamal khashoggi.

what we now know, now we have the president of that country going on record and laying out a very detailed timeline, putting together a turkish picture of what happened. that includes two teams of high ranking saudi officials that arrived in country days before. he said that this was preplanned, that it was meticulously planned and that it went to the highest levels of the saudi government, including generals. he wants to see accountability. he said they want to be able to hold these individuals accountable, no matter how high their rank may be. so it is significant that you now have the turkish government, essentially, calling for these individuals to be tried in istanbul. but nonetheless, you now have this account. some of the issues that he also raised that were significant, he raised the question of where the body is as well as the fact that there was a local coconspirator involved in this. so there are still some questions surrounding the turks

that they haven't been able to answer. but he outlines key points that the saudi arabian officials dismantled the body in the embassy. there were 15 people there, they removed the hard drives of any of the computers. so he lays out a damming case. and it's different than the one that the president has well been adopting which is mostly the saudi talking points. >>. >> admiral, how do u.s. policy planners sort through this tragedy, through this mess and get to the other side in a way where the country's interests are just as protected afterwards as before?

>> joe, that's right. we need to start with what is the u.s. intelligence community know? very good that gina is over there. let's hope that she comes back to our intelligence community. and i know they will give an honest, direct assessment to the president. step with one is to get alignment. second step, turkey. as you point out, crucial nato ally. largest military in nato other than our own. we need to put our knowledge alongside what turkey has put together. then we have to move on to reshape the strategic calculus in the middle east.

we're going to have to temper and balance that. because the big winners here are iran in the region and russia. their coalition is going to have an uptick from this. our strategic challenges, unfortunately, are going to increase. >> so zainab, the saudis say this was a brawl gone wrong. as joe points out, it was a brawl that included a bone saw and a medical examiner and now president erdogan says it included a body double. if president trump continues to buy into the saudis' story, is there recourse here? because we have heard from republicans and from democrats, obviously, but really republicans strongly, as well, in congress that something significant has to be done as punishment here. what is that exactly from the american point of view versus saudi arabia? >> the hope actually is all lying on american presidency and what america does with this case. i've talked to a lot of saudis.

there's a lot of fear going on in saudi arabia right now. everyone is silent. everyone is trying to remind people that khashoggi had four children. one of them is still in saudi arabia under house arrest as rumors have just to have his body so they can bury him and give him a proper islamic burial which is to be within 24 hours of someone's death. no one is saying anything except our hope is what america deals with that. there's silence and fear there. not only saudi arabia but the entire region. so how america deals with it, this is the first time america could stand up to saudi arabia and put some limits not only on mr. khashoggi's killing but on activists reits, war in yemen. this is a very pivotal moment. i hope that america stands up once and for all to saudi arabia and put limits to violations that has happened for decades.

you've been covering the jamal khashoggi case and you're just back from turkey. what are you focusing on here? >> reporter: first of all, the speech of president erdogan laid out what a lot of journalists have been -- what we found out on the ground in the last two or three weeks in turkey. there are a couple of other questions which not only we should ask but the trump administration, because as the president said today in his speech, this was a pre-planned operation. you cannot just spontaneously send 15 people, some of those 15 men were members of the royal guard, members of salman's entourage who traveled with him to the united states sometimes. somebody just does not just spontaneously choose 15 men to go on two private jets to istanbul and to use the consulate in order to murder a

journalist. so the other question is also, mika, we know jamal went to the consulate a week before he disappeared there. when he went there it was a spontaneous decision to go there and to request this document. he told his fiancee who i spoke to that he was actually touched, people welcomed him very nicely but he was told he had to come back a week later because the paper wouldn't be ready. my question to the saudis who was informed about khashoggi's visit to the consulate, what did the foreign minister know and why wouldn't salman have been informed about his visit. he's been interested in khashoggi's silence for a long time. these are questions we should ask and then also the u.s. administration would have to ask the saudi government how come that the crown prince of saudi arabia, two days, i think two days after the disappearance of

jamal khashoggi goes and gives bloomberg an interview and says his information was that jamal went in and then he went out and he doesn't know where he is but he's seriously concerned and he'll look into what happened to the saudi citizen. why did it take them so long to admit later he was murdered. because the point is even if we give salman the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know about this operation, why wouldn't he then after the footage came out, the video footage that showed is a men from saudi arabia going into the consulate, preparing this operation before jamal went to the consulate, why wouldn't he start this investigation. there are a lot of questions. >> exactly. mike barnacle, it's almost hard to think this wasn't pre-planned in anyway. you have to deny facts. >> correct. admiral, woven into this story we have the president of the

united states, his statement seemingly taking the saudi's position. yesterday we had the american secretary of treasury sitting with the crown prince. what does this behavior, these actions do to our relationships with other nato countries and our allies in that region? >> mike, it absolutely stretches and strains them enormously and we'll see that building because the next thing that will happen and my view is the turks will release the actual transcript and tapes. that's going to be kind of peak fact finding and that's going to pull apart our alliance relationships in europe and there's another one that's very important, mike, and you know it, it's there in the region and it's with israel. israel has invested a great deal in this relationship with saudi arabia. they have to make some very difficult decisions going forward as well. united arab emirates, another strong friend and partner in the

united states, heavily invested with the saudis. all of us are going to have to be reassessing in the u.s. position that simply says hey, this is going to be okay, is not going wash with our allies either in the region or particularly in europe or around the world, frankly. >> thank you all. still ahead on "morning joe" -- ted's opponent in this race is a stone called phoney named robert francis o'rourke. sometimes referred to as beto. >> president trump hits beto o'rourke forgoing by a nickname as if ted cruz's real name is ted. it's not even theodore. >> it's not lying theodore, it's lying ted.

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>> lying ted. holds that bible high. puts it down and then lies. >> donald is a bully. the man is utterly awol. >> i think he's crazy. >> this man is a pathologyical liar. >> he's choking like a dog because he's losing so badly. we have to put him away tomorrow. >> donald you're a coward. >> his father was with lee harvey oswald prior to oswald being, you know, shot. i mean the whole thing is ridiculous. what is this? nobody even brings it up. they don't even talk about that. >> ted and i get along very well, very late into the campaign and i said don't worry

about it, it's only a question of time and then became very nasty and then it was over. it's beautiful ted. i call him texas ted. >> i don't regret anything honestly. it all worked out very nicely. >> i don't -- >> that's an unhealthy relationship. >> i don't regret anything at all. let me see here. >> check the list. >> never concede. never admit fault or a wrong. >> welcome back to "morning joe". it is tuesday, october 23rd, 2018. >> i want to be clear, donald trump just said he did not regret saying that ted cruz's father had anything to do with the jfk assassination. the president of the united states yesterday before he was going down to texas to go

campaign for a guy named lying ted, who is supposed to have won this race weeks ago from people who keep poking beto, goes down there. i want to repeat again. you got to slow things down a little bit in the age of trump. the president of the united states just said, again, he does not regret his claim that a united states senator has a father who helped assassinate john kennedy. >> right. >> the most shocking part of all of this, of course, is that the senator whose father was accused of assassinating jvg in dallas on november 22, 1963, actually welcomed him with open arms to campaign for him. really? how lacking in pride can you be

to allow somebody to attack your wife, attack your father, and then you embrace him like some conquering hero. boy, that's a sad way to live your life. >> come on. >> it confirms everything people believes about ted cruz and politicians in general, it's cynical, transactional and your ethics are situational. if you need to win an election and if the guy accuses your father of killing jfk, you'll go along for the ride. the president saying i don't regret anything captures trump. the end justify the means. we'll get into midd dle easterns in the caravan. the ends justify the means. i don't regret anything says the president. >> wow. >> along with joe, willie and me, we have mike barnacle.

eugene robinson. editorial director for the "washington examiner," and washington bureau chief for "usa today" susan page who exclusively interviewed president trump on board air force one yesterday. president trump is waking up in washington this morning after a trip to texas where he continued to push unfounded claims about immigration and much more ahead of the mid-terms. as the lead headline in this morning's "washington post" describes the strategy, it is a bet on fear and falsehoods as the "toronto star's" daniel dale writes trump has been a serial liar on just about everything for his entire tenure in office but he's rarely before deployed so many complete fabrications about so many important subjects at the same time. so let's get into just some of

them from false claims about the migrant caravan, to imaginary riots in california, to dreamed up tax cuts on the horizon. >> you know what you should do. go to the middle of the caravan, take your cameras and search, okay. search. take your camera, go into the middle and search. you're going to find ms-13, you're going to find middle eastern, you're going to find everything. you said you wanted tax cuts by november 1st. congress isn't even in session. how is that possible >> we're putting in a resolution sometime in the next week, week and a half, two weeks.

we're giving a middle income tax reduction of about 10%. we're doing it now for middle income people. this is not for business. that's on top of the tax decrease we've given. >> do you need to sign an executive order for that? >> we'll do the vote after the election. he's switching back and forth. hugo, that's how i would look if i had microphones stuck in my face and people started asking about advanced physics. people on capitol hill are scratching their head what the hell is this guy talking about, we're not in session, we're not going pass a tax cut. kevin brady at the rally last night had to tell people they were going to pass a huge middle class tax cut in the next ten

days. this is causing some head scratching and real consternation among his fellow republicans on capitol hill. >> joe, congressional procedure has never been president trump's strong suit, and what we've been discussing here this morning about whatever works is what really explains this. he won't get a tax cut done. there's some talk about indexing capital gains which won't have to be done through congress. clearly he was winging it and appeal to the middle class electorate who he wants to win over particularly to help the house seats in suburban america or across the country. >> susan page, when you talk, when you had your interview with the president, did you talk about the imaginary riots. did you talk about the middle

easterners making their way up. then these tax cuts, after trying to cut the affordable care act for two years now he's acting like a champion of pre-existing conditions. >> he did reassert there were middle eastern people in the middle of the caravan. he refused to discuss on what basis. but he said if you went into the ranks you would hear spanish and other languages. then he said there may be middle eastern people, maybe not necessarily bad people but should look at that. >> careful observers of president trump may have noticed something changing when he talks about saudi arabia. hear it for yourself. >> i don't like the concept of

stopping an investment of $110 billion. 500,000 jobs. we have $450 billion worth of things ordered from a very rich country, saudi arabia. 600,000 jobs. >> $450 billion. i think it's over a million jobs. >> as we have mentioned even the president's original claim about $110 billion investment is false and off by 100 billion. >> it's probably closer to maybe, maybe $3 billion. he's off by 106, 107 billion. >> explain saudi arabia's strategic importance in real

terms use facts. >> reporter: well, i want to say $100 million. saudi arabia does have a very important strategic alliance in here. we have sold weapons to saudi arabia. everyone in the world has sold weapons to saudi arabia. doesn't mean we shouldn't stand up by our moral values in here and put limits to that. just because there's a strategic alliance in terms of weapons and financial interest which is real and factual and saudi arabia has its hands in everybody's pockets, not only the middle east but the entire world this is the time to show up with moral values. this is a pivotal moment to put a limit what do we mean. so i really hope that america does not compromise itself in this line of discussion with mr. khashoggi's killing. that is very, very important. i also want to say something about mr. trump's claims about undocumented immigrants doing

all the crimes and all of that. just google tell fact. just go to any research, cato institute issued their research immigrants are less likely to commit any crimes. undocumented immigrants are less likely. we have to go through facts and records. it's not a science. just go and figure it out. it's just a blah tantant lie. >> if you look at statistics people arrested at the border, the number of middle easterners are barely in the double digits. >> they went and tried to see if there's sydney middle easterners there. there's diapers there and middle easterners are saudi arabians as well. >> you know what's particularly

depressing, joe, in this lit any of depressing we're talking about here, this epidemic of lies. gene, what's really depressing for a lot of people there's no evidence that anyone on the republican side of the aisle stands up and says anything at all about, you know, the litany of lies that come out of the president's mouth. >> hears one person we should hear from, kevin mccarthy, the majority leader in the house. he's from california. so i would love to know what he says about, number one, this tax cut that is supposed to happen by resolution which is impossible at a time when congress is not in session, which is impossible. so kevin mccarthy, is that happening. by the way, mr. mccarthy from california tell bus the

california riots over sanctuary cities that the president keeps talking about and defends. what's going on there. have you witnessed these riots? where have they been happening in your district perhaps or somebody else's district? we heard nothing from republicans just because they are in touch with objective reality know that the president is lying. is lying shamelessly and ridiculously. >> there's also the very familiar theme of this presidency, dubious crowd sizes. president trump claimed that 50,000 people were watching his remarks outside the arena in texas yesterday. the houston police chief tweeted that there were about 18 or 19,000 people. the arena for the rally and about 3,000 were watching outside is what he says. that's a lot smaller. the president claims big things that turn out to be a lot

smaller. last week trump claimed his rally in erie, pennsylvania had 20,000 to 22,000 people watching outside. the police department estimated a lot smaller b-3,000 people outside the arena to watch the rally. last month trump claimed 45,000 attended his rally in springfield, missouri with another had 44,000 stuck outside. "toronto star" said the chief told them it was a lot smaller about 11,000 inside and another 1,000 much smaller unable to get in. trump appears to have inaccurate numbers for other politicians rallies as well. trump claimed former vice president joe biden's recent rally in las vegas attracted just 193 people. reporters on the ground said that the number was in the multiple hundreds. people actually counting the people there.

so, joe, he claims he's got grandiosity or something about size of crowds. >> he does that. he's been doing it for a very long time. apparently his supporters now realize and now they don't care he lies. it's incredible, though, as we get closer to the election that he actually is bringing together this toxic brew of all of his worst -- all of his worst characteristics, almost as into remind his opponents why they need to get out and vote against him. i will say, what i don't understand is, hugo, i don't understand why he has to lie about caravans with middle easterners, why he has to lie about taxes. most presidents would say hey, guess what? unemployment is below 4%. that's about as low as it's been in half a century. guess what the market is as high

as it's ever been. guess what, just tick down the list of all the things that he's doing. i think that might be enough in and of itself to help the republicans instead of throwing smoke screens out all over the place. >> it certainly is the message that a lot of republicans on capitol hill would prefer to emphasize, the economy is boomg, there's been a tax cut. the thing to remember here mid-term elections are all about the base and if the base -- if you talk about tax cuts and booming economy, that engender satisfaction. if you talk about things that scare people that's what the president believes and there's some evidence for this will turn out the base, his popularity has actually been rising in polls in the last several weeks and the republicans are pleased with where the indications are and they think they might, just hold the house and they are confident of increasing their majority in the senate.

so, you know, it's cynical. it's effective. perhaps will work. one thing i want to point out, you mentioned about ted cruz and the extraordinary clashes in 2016 and how cynical it was and the president said well it worked, didn't it. it reminded me exactly of when harry reid accused mitt romney of not paying his tax. when asked about it, he said it worked, didn't it. i don't want to get into that. but it's important to remember that this is the language of politics these days. >> susan page, i go back to the quote of the president on the south lawn yesterday, i don't regret anything. it all worked out nicely. when applied to what we're talking about here it worked out nicely in 2016, this kind of rhetoric, this kind of fear, this talk about an invasion at the borders. it worked. it got him elected. is he not in some way falling back on what works for him?

>> absolutely. in our interview yesterday he said he feels that the republicans have gotten the spirit that they exhibited in 2016. he drew some comparisons. he expressed some confidence that republicans were going to hold and perhaps increase by a couple their margin in the senate. he was less optimistic about the house, although he said that was possible, but, yes. you know, he credited this improved republican outlook on the rallies he's done, the energy that he says that isen ge engendered in places where he's done these rallies. he sees a dry run for 2020. >> maybe. let's look at the polls, see how this is actually working out for the president. "the washington post" just about 15 minutes ago put out their poll of the key battleground

states. really it's going to determine whether the house is democratic or republican. it's still, mika, it is so tight. democrats are at 50. republicans are at 47. a lot of these places where hillary clinton won in 2016, a lot of these districts, republicans are still very competitive and ahead in some of those place. we also have some new senate polls. if we can show those that would being a great. put up the florida poll. guys let me see it. there's nelson who is ahead by 52%. 52 to 46%. that's a quinnipiac poll. yesterday we showed another poll a cnn poll, st. pete time's poll that has bill nelson up by five

percentage points, over 50 again also important and st. pete time's poll that came out and showed the race a bit closer. mike barnacle, there's no doubt if you look at states like florida, if you look at west virginia, some of those states are breaking the way democrats would want them to break. and there are, though, other races in, let's say heidi heitkamp's race. it's broken completely a different way. so there doesn't appear to be any way of going one way or another, just a lot of individual races. heitkamp now down 16 points in north dakota while joe manchin is breezing to victory in a state that trump won by 40 points. >> these are all individual stories you pointed out. there's no national story in terms of the polling, the two parties against each other for rear taking the house that you can put your finger on and take

it to the bank and the florida story sintsing. you wonder how much andrew gillin has done. joe manchin is doing well. sherrod brown doing well because he's speaking to bread and butter table top issues. you have to wonder about the democratic party. if they fail to get their vote out in terms of what they really are talking about trying to do, to retake the house, if they fail to do that, what's going to happen to the party? if they can't do it in these circumstances what will happen to the democratic party? >> well donald trump will have obliterated both parties at that point. let's step back and take a look at this. forget donald trump's fog machine of distraction about lies and immigration and fictional accounts of voter fraud but think for a moment about the stakes in this election on what matters the most for working class americans. gutting middle class health care

to pay for tax cuts for the rich. two years ago donald trump repeatedly promised his voters he would protect medicare and medicaid and health care coverage for everyone. instead he supported republicans effort to gut protections in the affordable care act. after that failure he cheered on his allies efforts to chip away piece by piece at the coverage and protections american families with grave health care needs have been counting on. they need this. there's the gop lawsuit to kill pre-existing protections. brazenly, trump now goes around talking about how democrats are secretly planning to destroy medicare, medicaid and veterans health care coverage if they get back into power. let's be clear, trump lied about health care as a candidate and he's lying now again. at least mitch mcconnell is

willing to tell part of the truth. he said if republicans keep control of the congress they will make another run of destroying obamacare protection and then go after medicare and social security. trump isn't saying it now. you can bet he would sign that into law. on taxes trump signed a tax bill giving the lion's share of the benefits to the wealthy and corporations. he said that at mar-a-lago. he said it to his friends. on the eve of an election in a naked bid to trick working class voters into casting their ballots for republicans trump is lying about some fantasy middle class tax cut that no one in congress seems to know about because it's not happening and they are not in session. all while the former reality tv host presides over a ballooning federal deficit and the biggest debt ever. he lies about health care. lies about taxes. and democrats have two weeks to make him pay a political price

for those big important lies. two weeks. >> all right. thank you so much, mika. thank you, susan. appreciate you being here. hug jobs thank you. thank you for that harry reid wall of shame quote. that was a classic. straight ahead, nbc's kasie hunt, she covers capitol hill. and i know that -- >> it's kasie d.c. >> she will earn every dollar because there's fast-moving policy on tax cuts. donald trump took care of his rich buddies at mar-a-lago. but kasie will tell us how republicans are fixing that. things are crazy on capitol hill. let's take a live look at all the action that's going on right

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high-speed internet at home. i'm trying to do some homework here. so they're ready for anything. i do think it's interesting, i just hope people kind of notice every time there's a pattern where they kind of, run things into the ground and we have to come back and clean things up. so by the time i left office, wages were rising. uninsurance rate was falling. poverty was falling. and that's what i handed off to the next guy. so when you hear talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it. remember who started it.

come on. now, let me say something as the person who actually passed the law that prevents people with pre-existing conditions from being discriminated against. i can tell you that, that they have no way of protecting pre-existing conditions with anything they proposed. they are just saying it. they are just making it up. >> well, that's not all they are making up. by the way, president obama said that it started under his administration. well, it was a seven year growth. not like it started the year before he left. you look at seven years of economic growth and led to the trump presidency. so, you know, there are these moments, willie geist, when you really earn your pay as a capitol hill reporter, the veterans, of course, scurrying

across the hill. you got to remember, what was it like during the watergate hearings, what was it like during the impeachment of bill clinton, what was it like in the lead up to the gulf war. i mean the government shut down. these are momentous moments. >> sprintsing, joe, to the phone bank to file a story with your editor before deadline, before they go to press. >> running in full seam right with transcripts. reminds me of pete williams running out when he gets that ruling for the 2000 recounts. kasie hunt has to be like that right now. no one has ever passed a massive middle class tax cut in ten days when no one is there. >> two weeks to do it, kasie. >> the lights aren't on.

>> i haven't been there. >> i'm confused because yesterday the chairman of the ways and means committee said in front of 22,000 people along with the president of the united states, that there would be a huge middle class tax cut in the next ten days. i know they weren't lying. >> they wouldn't do that to get votes. >> how are they going to pass a middle class tax cut in ten days? >> reporter: they were making it up. it's not going to happen. no. not going to happen. >> lining to the american people? >> reporter: not going to happen. between they pass that bill -- >> are you sure of that, because the president told 22,000 people that they were going to pass a middle class tax cut. then the kmarman of the ways and means committee said yes they are. what are your sources on the hill telling you? >> reporter: my sources are all

on the campaign trail, they are not on capitol hill, by and large. >> why? >> reporter: they are saying this is news to them. because there's an election in 14 days and that's what they are focused on and none are planning to come back to the building in that period of time. yeah. you know, it takes months to pass a major tax cut under the best of circumstances anyway. you're talking about a handful of weeks. the other thing when they did pass that massive tax cut it benefitted corporations earlier in the show. there are some individual tax breaks in that law but they were temporary. so before they left for the election, the house actually passed a bill to extend that permanently that would cost $600 billion over the next ten years. more after that. for that reason the senate has no plans of even taking that up before the end of the year. so, i really don't know. maybe this is something the president wants to do. that's his prerogative. he can send something up here.

calling it a resolution is not how things work around here but, fair enough. but, as far as the lawmakers on capitol hill are concerned no there's not going to be a tax cut. >> willie geist, you worked in congressional research service in the first 20, 30 years ever your professional career. you know how this stuff works. the president of the united states said specifically repeatedly yesterday that this was going to passing the next ten days. kevin brady said thumbs up, yes, it's going to be done in the next ten days before election. >> he surprised everybody by starting this idea on saturday by getting middle class voters out. there's kevin brady, chairman of the ways and means committee with thumbs up. let's see this all the way through. the president evolved a little bit and said basically we're going to get the framework of this deal done.

when everybody comes back to town we'll vote on it. any chance of that happening? >> i really don't see it, willie. in this political environment i suppose anything could happen. however, in a lame duck session of congress when there's not teen will to do the simple thing of extending tax cuts for individuals that were already passed, don't forget those corporate tax cuts are permanent just the individual ones. we're looking at a lame duck session instead at a fight probably over the president's border wall money. they punted that potential government shutdown end of september until december 7th. you know, especially if there's a change in the makeup of who actually will control the chambers. honestly, forget it. >> are you telling me my big middle class tax cut that i'm cutting on that congress can't do what they always do and phone it in, they can't do that? >> reporter: no. no. sorry, mike.

>> so, can you follow up with kevin brady and see just how his constituents are going to benefit from this tax cut that he was nodding yes to and giving the thumbs up to and maybe we'll try to book him on the show here because he can share that good news with his constituents and the rest of america. we would like to hear from him, because that was great that he nodded yes, that that was happening and giving america the big thumbs up. >> it would be really good news if they could figure out a way to do that. people who actually benefitted from the tax cut were the wealthiest americans, the biggest multi-national corporations. you can check and see, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars made by these multi-national corporations. working class americans didn't get anything from it. you know, you look at the

polling and it shows you, mika, why republicans can't run on this tax cut because it's really -- it's very unpopular because the money did all disproportionately go to the richest americans, the biggest corporations and as kasie said any individual tax cuts that were in there they got yanked out and the said won't pass a fix to that. so we're stuck with middle class americans and working class americans falling further and further behind while republicans are now trying to take away their pre-existing condition protections and the president and republicans are now aggressively going after that and mitch mcconnell saying, going to go after medicare and social security next. >> look forward to having kevin brady on in that great news. coming up "new york times" is

reporting on a physical altercation in the west wing earlier this year when chief of staff john kelley grabbed former trump campaign manager corey lewandowski by the collar and tried to push him into the wall. >> do you get the sense that general kelly is frustrated with his job? >> our next guest may not be able to confirm that, but he does claim that john kelley has quote hissy fits. former white house communications director anthony scaramucci joins us next. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪

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joining us now former white house communications director for a shored period of time, anthony scaramucci. >> 11 days? >> yeah. i appreciate that. why gip me out of my career. >> if you're communications director today as you were last july what do you say to the fact that president trump has justin last couple of days talked about

unknown middle easterners being in the caravan. no proof. this middle class tax in the next two weeks. rioting in california against sanctuary cities. those are three lies. >> i think, you know, people aren't going to say this to you, but people are frustrated by all that. >> people inside the white house >> sure. are you sure you want to go in this direction because it will cause -- >> really? >> i think so. listen, you would be impressed with the direct conversations that people have with the president. i had direct conversation with the president and you guys figured out i can't hold myself back. >> how come those people including yourself never seem to prevail upon the president. he'll continues to say these things. >> he has a very unique operating style and i'll concede every single point on the table.

i watch your show. let's say everything he says is a lie that's missing the message he has to half of the united states. michael asked about my mom. what does your mom think about him when he thinks about the caravan. most people in blue collar neighborhoods based on my experience like him very much. why? because he's a challenge to the status quo and the establishment. when you guys are upset about it and listing all the lies and trying to explain you can't get a tax cut done in ten days people almost happy about the fact that he is a wrecking ball inside of washington and smashing into the establishment. >> shouldn't this stuff matter? >> i do. absolutely. i like telling the truth. you know coco chanel said you get the face you deserve at 50. i like telling the truth. the president is using the

politics of emotion. look, i think joe is correct on this. he's using the totem of emotion and politics of symbolism to rally his base. if you want to beat the president, explaining his lies to people won't beat the president. what will beat the president here's a package of ideas for you. he did something very unique in political history, in my opinion. he won the republican party against the republican establishment and then he hijacked the base of the other party the democratic party and moved it over to his side. >> i can hear people pulling their hair out. anthony scaramucci is saying the lying doesn't matter effectively. that's what you just said. >> i'm not saying that at all. i'm saying something different. there's symbolism here, you can

call out the lying but it's like literally teflon in a frying pan. i just really believe that. you can disagree with me. i'm not saying lying is appropriate. the lying or whatever he says, you're not going to penetrate him unless you change the game plan in terms of the advocacy against him. i don't agree with the lying. i would tell him on the air, tell him in that camera, tell him privately you got to school it with the lying because what you're doing is hurting yourself in terms of the personal integrity of the presidency. no problem in calling out the lying. i'll explain to you why blue collar people are still voting for him. why 62.9 million people voted for him and why his poll numbers are up. >> what do you say to people, people like me, probably who say he doesn't care about that because he's a man of the moment. he's an expert in resentment and

he's using every chance he gets as president on the stump to use what he knows is the resentment out there among scads of people, working class people. he tells them what they want to hear. he know we'll react and he'll have the best of both worlds. he'll have their hearts and minds on the ground and he'll have them hating the media, who they hate anyway and it's working. it's altering, i think, i don't know for how long the presidency of the united states. >> you're almost in halftime to use a football expression. i would be in the locker room saying the current game plan, his offensive strategy is actually winning. you may not like him and find him distasteful. a lot of people do like him. have to change the game plan. president obama is a very articulate, very put together

guy. but his logical framework and the sentences he was using in this past thing that you just put on, is not going to work against donald trump. you have to change the dynamic and rethink the game plan if you want to beat him. again, conceding every point you made about resentment, the geography and everything he does, it's all verifiable. there's no defense of it. if you want to beat him you have to change the game plan. you have to rethink your line of attack. the point of my back and i have to admit, i grew up in a blue collar neighborhood. but i got channelled into confirmed biases. i started missing the economic desperation that was taking place inside societal. my parents were in the aspirational working class. go to school and some day you'll

be financially independent. when you go campaign stops and i tell one story about albuquerque, new mexico where i took the secret service day pin off and i went into the crowd and asked people why you are there. you are saddened to hear their stories. jobs being displaced. factories moving. economic anxiety. two part time jobs. needing a card to survive. those are the people that said you know what the establishment is not working. >> joe has a question for you. >> so, anthony, first, good morning. first of all the lies, i agree with you, they are terrible lies and the president needs to stop lying. i also agree with you that the democrats game plan is not working. we've been talking about it here for some time, going down the list ever lies, and responding to those lies allows him to stay on offense because he can, he can spew 30 new lies a day and

you're always responding to what the president did yesterday. so, i'm going to ask you -- i do this exercise with republicans. i say what would you for democrats and vice versa democrats so what would you tell a democratic party that still hasn't come to grips with donald trump and this, as you said, this sort of new offensive strategy he's brought to american politics? what would you suggestion be to democrats over the next two weeks and the next two years? how do you beat trump? >> the packaging and the formulation of their strategy during the obama era, you know, it was probably failing or at least didn't grab the blue collar middle class people in places where the president won, michigan, parts of pennsylvania and wisconsin and prices lilace

that. for some period of time we have been ignoring what your real issues are. for me it's not white nationalism. it really is people are having a hard time finding jobs. there's an unevenness to the public education system. >> let me stop you there and just say let's talk about donald trump made promises to help the working class out. this is probably also something that frustrates observers and democrats. you look at two things that he's done. one, a massive tax cut for larger corporations has helped the richest americans. now he's pretending he's going to have a middle class tax cut. the second thing he did was he tried to get rid of some of the protections in the affordable care act. his policies haven't been geared

toward the working class in wisconsin, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, and yet he still remains very popular there among working class, high school educated white voters. why is that? >> because they're voting for wrecking ball. they've made a decision that the entire fabric of the infrastructure and the establishment doesn't work for them. the people inside of washington are not listening to them. even though you're making a very good point on policy, although the "wall street journal" did report about two weeks ago that middle class and lower middle class wages are up for the first time in 15 years. still, a lot more could be done for these people. they're voting for a wrecking ball. they want a wrecking ball to come into the system and smash these people more than any specific policy or idea. if you're on the other side you said, wait a minute, your lis

pendens against the establishment is correct. forget about calling them out on lies. it's like sitting at the high school cafeteria. there's a guy in the cafeteria that's not doing the right thing. you're blowing the whistle to bring the truant officer over. those people are voting for a wrecking ball over everything else. all the lodger you make on the show, all the declaration of veracity is falling on deaf ears. in fact, if anything, a lot of people are enjoying that to the great frustration of the people that live inside of washington. >> i understand what you're saying in terms of branding or people feeling like, well, i don't care if he lies, i just want a wrecking ball, which i

haven't met anybody -- and we actually interviewed some trump supporters who felt he was telling them the truth. i think that's a problem for america. do you think he's a good president? do you think his lies are helping america? you've been in there. you know what kind of man he is and you know what he's doing. forget the wrecking ball branding thing. what do you think about the way he's conducting himself? >> i'm not a fan of the tax cut lie. stepping back, just going into is he a good president or not a good president, we have to be very objective and balanced. in a lot of ways he is a good president. the simplification of the tax code -- cutting the illegal immigration has taken the slack out of the labor communities.

all of those things are very favorable. the overture to north korea, i watch your show almost every morning. even joe said when he was making those overtures, got to give him credit for at least trying to - that's the struggle going on right now. >> no. it's policy versus lies, anthony. >> the wrecking ball is working. who's going to rebuild what's wrecked? >> okay. so that's a really good

question. so who's going to rebuild it? is it establishment washington politicians? is it is those people, then they have to get out of the swatmp fr a little while and. we've got to go anthony, but thank you so much for being with us. would love for you to come back. >> i appreciate the opportunity

to be here. i appreciate you at least hearing me out. so thank you. >> we like the truth. >> sometimes it is a little too one-sided, too many republicans at the table. >> try and bring some more liberals, joe. that would help. >> the book is on sale today. by the way, democrats, if you're angry at that conversation, you shouldn't be angry at that conversation. you should listen to what he said, because democrats have got to figure out a better way to challenge donald trump, because what they're doing right now still is not working. this race is a lot closer than it should be. back in a moment with a packed 8:00 a.m. hour. stay with us. this will be the election of the caravan, kavanaugh, law and order, tax cuts and common sense. that's what it is, common sense.

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the democrat plan to destroy american health care includes free health care and education to illegal aliens. they want to be able to vote, the illegals. by the way, i hate to tell you, you go to california. they vote anyway. they vote anyway and they're not supposed to. >> president trump laying the ground work to call into question the legitimacy of the midterm elections. >> he's not even trying to hide his lies. >> per usual. the straw men are undocumented immigrants whom he accuses without evidence of widespread voter fraud, even after his own presidential commission found none. >> he had a presidential commission that he put in force. they were going around with all their binders and they ended up finding that it was all just a lie. >> and yet he continues to lie. that lie, however, was just a

drop in the bucket amid false claims of california writing an impending middle class tax cut. it's not coming. and the approach of unknown middle easterners. >> he's not trying to hide his lies anymore. he's just putting it all out there. >> well, it's worth a look. president trump is waking up in washington this morning after a trip to texas where he continued to push unfounded claims about immigration and much more ahead of the midterms. as the lead headline in this

morning's washington post describes the strategy, it is a bet on fear and falsehoods, lies. white house political director bill steipend tells the post voter satisfaction is the enemy of voter turnout and claims what changed is that while voters are still happy in the direction the president is leading the country, voter satisfaction is the enemy of voter turnout. and claims they are angry at the way democrats treated justice kavanaugh. they are scared when they hear democrat after democrat talking about socializing medicine and medicare for all and voters are plugged in as the president spends more and more time on the campaign trail. >> but wait a second, what -- donald trump is doing on the campaign trail is he's spreading a lot of lies to people. about non-white people to all-white crowds.

>> a lot of what the president is saying is just not true. as the toronto star writes, trump has been a serial liar about just about everything for his entire tenure in office, but he has rarely deployed so many complete fabrications about so many subjects. let's get into some of them. president trump's claims about the honduran caravan are being debunked. yesterday the president tweeted, sadly, it looks like mexico's police and military are unable to stop the caravan heading to the southern border of the united states. criminals and unknown middle easterners are mixed in. i have alerted -- >> wait, wait, hold on. is the saudi crown prince in there? is he coming up to kill journalists in america, too? where does he go off? donald trump says he's alerting the border patrol and the military. this is a national emergency.

>> as if, willie, must change laws as if republicans don't control the house and the senate. and the white house. and the bureaucracy and the supreme court. they control absolutely everything. >> have for two years, yeah. >> he's saying middle easte easterners? the lies are just unbelievable, aren't they? >> words are so cheap and always have been for them. he puts them out and he knows he's not going to be able to defend them and he doesn't try to defend them. we have had a list of the things that he said over the last few days which are just straight up lies. when he's pushed on them, he has no answers. here is what he said about the middle easterners in that caravan. >> go into the middle of the caravan, take your cameras and search.

no, no. john, take your camera. go into the middle and search. you're going to find ms13, you're going to find middle eastern, you're going to find everything. do you know how the caravan started? does anybody know what this means? i think the democrats had something to do with it and now they're saying, we made a big mistake. people are seeing how bad it is, how pathetic it is, how bad our laws are. >> if you're listening in the car or on the radio, the president was making a gesture of money being handed out as though democrats paid the hondurans heading north. there is no evidence the caravan is being led by anyone other than hondurans. a senior official said there is no evidence that any middle eastern terrorists are hiding in the caravan. the president tweeted every time you see a caravan or people

illegal le attemly attempting t into our country, think of and blame the democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic immigration laws. >> president trump is calling the caravan a national emergency and he's claiming criminals and unknown middle easterners are mixed in with the crowd. an important note, fox news knows of no evidence to suggest the president is accurate on that matter and the president has offered no evidence to support what he has said. >> and there is the key, joe. the president has no evidence of that. there you have on fox news shep smith reiterating that. there's no evidence there will be a tax cut that will magically appear next week for the middle class. there's no evidence there's rioting in california against sanctuary cities. no evidence for any of this.

>> no, no evidence at all. i mean, people have been writing up lists, no writing in california. democrats aren't giving away cars to illegal aliens. they're not oprah. democrats haven't organized the caravan. 50,000 people were not standing outside of texas stadium last night and ended up it might be one or two thousand. selling weapons to saudi arabia. it's not creating one million jobs. that's a lie. it's not even close. illegal immigrants aren't voting in large numbers. you can go down the list. he talks about getting an additional $1.6 billion for the wall. we'll talked about unknown middle easterners. there are 20 things that donald trump has just created out of thin air. donald trump could have said just as easily yesterday, listen, actually in that honduras group, there are

martians with stingrays and there are aliens in there and they have sharks with lasers on them and they are going to come to america and they're going to come into your children's school. these are land sharks, as well. and they are going to shoot their lasers between your children's eyes. >> yep. >> that is just as accurate as every lie he has told those poor, unsuspecting crowd members. >> yes. there is a frenzy and more than a we have whiff of lies. even for trump, this is extraordinary. this is just -- you have to sift carefully for any sort of grain of potential truth in anything that he said last night. it's just unbelievable. back away for a second, though.

why is -- does the president having to go to a rally for a senate race in texas of all places, an incumbent senator in texas and they have to deploy the president there to help save ted cruz two weeks before an election? that's not a good sign. and it tells me there's more consternation and panic in the the president's circles than we might suspect. still ahead on "morning joe," kellyanne conway made up the bowling green massacre to justify the travel ban. now the president is inventing riots in california to put a chokehold on immigration. more of his make believe, next on "morning joe." but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning. we're going to have a big rainstorm moving from texas to

the southeast of the east coast in the days ahead. first we have to get the storm on shore. this is all because of hurricane willa which was a category 5 yesterday. it will be a 3 at landfall later today. thankfully there's no major cities right in the way, but there are some small towns. you could see how quickly the mountains are going to tear it apart later today. all of the rain heads into texas late tonight. then it will move along the gulf coast into the southeast by thursday. this area flooded last week, but hasn't flooded since then. the rivers can hold it. eventually it's going to head up the east coast. we've got that baseball game going on in boston. a little weak storm kicks through over the top of boston toward first pitch. there could be some showers around. temperatures will be in the 40s around first pitch with showers. game two tomorrow is going to be

windy and blustery. rain in new orleans late today. watch out as we head toward the weekend. we are going to be watching all that moisture heading up the east coast. if you have travel plans on friday in the southeast, in the mid atlantic it will be raining and in the northeast on saturday. you say nor'easters and freak out thinking snowstorm, but this will probably be a rain and wind event.

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by the way, a lot of people in california don't want them either. they're rioting now. they want to get out of their sanctuary cities. there's a big turn being made, folks. a lot of these sanctuary cities you've been hearing about in california and other places. but california, they want to get out. they're demanding they be released from sanctuary cities. >> mike barnicle, obviously he's lying about the riots there. of course, donald trump lies for a lot of different reasons. he's a lot more comfortable lying than telling the truth. we've all seen that. also sometimes he's trying to distract people from his own

inadequacies. i'm wondering if he really got petrified a couple of days ago when mitch mcconnell said he wanted to cut social security and medicare to pay for his tax cuts for the rich. i wonder if he's really worried that if he doesn't spread all of these lies, democrats are going to start talking about how mitch mcconnell wants to cut social security and medicare for americans because of the tax cuts for the rich they passed. i wonder if that's what he's trying to keep off of news shows and keep out of the newspapers. >> i would bet not, joe. i would bet that he didn't even consider what mitch mcconnell told him. he's in his own universe. this is who donald trump is. we are witnessing it right now. we talk here nearly every day about various congressional races and various senate races around the country, who is going

to take control of the house, who might take control of the senate. i would submit to you and others that that is secondary to the basic question that we are confronted with today as a nation. what kind of a country do we want? because we have a president of the united states who takes to the country four or five times a week with a litany of fear, race, division, duplicity and an epidemic of lies, a virtual epidemic of lies. so we're two weeks out from an election. >> mike, make no mistake, we're two weeks out from the election. he goes straight to the race baiting. he's talking about illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. he's talking about an invasion of illegal immigrants. two weeks before the election he's talking about hispanic gang members. he called hispanics breeders before. two weeks before the election he's tearing a page from david

duke's playbook and the klan's play book. no one can deny he is not playing the race card. >> the currency that donald trump trades in is hate, hate and division. that's what he's spending right now coast to coast. that's what he did last night in texas. that's what he does each time he's out on the setup, hate and division. >> he's also making wild promises. president trump put the chairman of the house's tax writing committee on the spot promising congress will put in a 10% income tax cut sometime next week after white house reporters questioned him about it on his way to houston yesterday. >> you said that you wanted tax cuts by november 1st. congress isn't even in session. how is that possible? >> we're putting in a resolution

sometime in the next week or week and a half. >> a resolution where? >> we're giving a middle income tax reduction of about 10%. we're doing it now for middle income people. this is not for business, this is for middle. that's on top of the tax decrease that we've already given. >> are you signing an executive order for that? >> no, no. i'm going through congress. we'll do the vote after the election. >> ted is leading the charge in congress for more tax cuts. in fact, i just left kevin brady. by the way, how good is kevin brady? he's here. we're going to be putting in a 10% tax cut for middle income families. it's going to be put in next week. 10% tax cut. kevin brady is working on it.

we've been working on it for a few months. this is for middle income people, all middle income people, a big tax cut, 10%. we'll be putting it in next week. now, if the democrats take over, i can't speak. i'm sorry. kevin, we're putting in next week the 10% reduction in middle income taxes, right? next week. okay. he promised in front of 22,000 people. i don't need that. he promised to me. that's good. >> he says next week a 10% tax cut. >> why is kevin -- >> next week, yes. >> willie, they're not in session. he might as well promise next week that he's going to build a rocket ship to mars made out of care ra m caramel, chocolate and candy cane dust. poor kevin brady is going don't

do this to me, jesus, tell him to stop pointing at me. kevin brady is put in this horrible position to lie in front of 22,000 people. you can't even draft a bill like that in a week. >> congress is not in session. congress is not in session. there will be no bill passed. up next, we turn to the midterms and battleground florida. "morning joe" will be live in boca raton on friday.

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getting the job done safely, so we can keep the lights on for everybody. because i live here i have a deeper connection to the community. and i want to see the community grow and thrive. every year we work with cities and schools to plant trees in our communities. so the environment is there for my kids and future generations. together, we're building a better california. ♪ exactly two weeks to go to election day, new polls spelling trouble for florida governor rick spot. the poll conducted wednesday through sunday puts the democratic senator six points ahead of the two-term republican governor. scott and nelson are essentially tied in a st. pete poll conducted over the weekend. a cnn poll conducted tuesday through saturday also showed

nelson beginning to build a lead with 50% to scott's 45%. scott's campaign is pushing back on these independent polls, releasing their own internal numbers that show scott leading nelson by five points. national political correspondent for nbc news is here. he's the author of the book "the red and the blue." good morning. what's going on in that race in florida? >> there was a question there of whether the governor rick scott was going to get a boost because of his handling of the hurricane. you look inside these polls, very well-received by the public in terms of how he handled it, but you're not necessarily seeing him suddenly take the lead in the senate race. it is difficult to be the white house party and to try to flip a senate seat in a midterm when your party has control of the white house. in a state like florida where

trump's margin was less than two points in 2016, i think there might be a certain amount of political gravity that rick scott's coming up against in florida right now. >> also the importance of having two polls in two days that show bill nelson over 50% suggested something actually may be. happening in florida. again, florida still is a purple state. it is a state that barack obama won twice, that bill clinton won. you do see some movement towards bill nelson that i think it should concern republicans not only in the state of florida, but also across the country. >> you also have the factor there of the governor's race, of what impact andrew gillam trying to expand the electorate there, trying to increase democratic

enthusiasm. we saw in the primaries in florida broad enthusiasm in both parties, something we didn't necessarily see in primaries everywhere this year. you've seen every poll putting the democrat ahead in the governor's race. i think you do wonder does that have some kind of effect in the senate race as well. >> what was the reaction a day later to that debate? certainly a lot of people i talked to thought gillam walked away with it. i'm wondering if that's pretty much the impression by a lot of the political writers there. >> in terms of generating viral content in terms of dominating the news cycle after it there's no question that gillam emerged from the debate with more than desantis had.

the consensus of the polling out there already said gillam seemed to have a little bit of an edge in this race. i think also it's the kind of debate where you go a little bit outside florida and look at the national democratic party that is looking for leaders to go forward nationally, beto o'rourke got a lot of attention in texas. gillam starting to match that from what hoe's doing in florida. coming up on "morning joe," few issues have defined the trump presidency more than the crisis on the border and the separation of children from their families. that slow motion disaster is back in the spotlight amid the mass migration of central american asylum seekers. we'll get the latest on that next on "morning joe."

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on the outside, juicy on the inside, and on your table. we've hadfor a long time.is in san francisco and half-measures haven't fixed it. homelessness doesn't just hurt homeless people. it hurts all of us. that's why we're all voting "yes" on c. the plan is paid for by corporations that just got a massive tax break. it's time for them to give back by helping all of us to fix our homeless crisis. with more affordable housing... expanded mental-health services... clean restrooms and safe shelters. vote "yes" on c. it helps all of us. well, actually, isn't ted's real name raphael? i think so, right? because that was one of the

questions i did have to ask. it doesn't matter. ted's opponent in this race is a stone cold phony named robert francis o'rourke, sometimes referred to as beto. and he pretends to be a moderate, but he's actually a radical, open borders left-winger. >> i don't know where to begin there. trump talking about phonies. he's a lifetime democrat who's given tons of money to chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and hillary clinton, to the dnc. what a phony that guy is. now he's pretending he's a conservative. he suckered all those people into believing he's a conservative. and he calls other people phonies? that is some funny stuff. let's bring in jacob soboroff

right now. i've got some very bad news for you. your los angeles dodgers are going to be taking on mike barnicle's boston red sox. it could be ugly. >> you guys have more pull around here than i do. i was wondering how to convince my bosses that the most important district is the bleachers at fenway. i threw up in my mouth a little with that chris taylor catch at that last game. i can't wait. >> yeah. that was an incredible series. >> so set up the series for us really quickly before we get to news. >> well, the weather could play a role in the series tonight at fenway. supposed to be drizzle all during the game. that means the ball is not going to fly as far as it usually

does. it could affect the grip on the ball for clayton kershaw. i still think the donnell dgers very good team. i think the red sox will win the series in five games. >> come on, mike barnicle. >> what? >> i think you've got it backwards? >> why? >> i've got them in five. >> the clencher. >> mika, what have we got? >> jacob soboroff, you're following trump's lies about the caravan and constantly following the separations of children from their families at the border. let's update people. they have not been able to clean up this mess. this president and his inhumane policy of separating children from their families, right now 66 children are still in government custody and 50 of their parents have already been deported. is there a possibility that some

of these children will never be reunited with their families, including one child under 5. >> no doubt about it, including the hundreds who were deported before they had the right to get reunited with their parents earlier this summer. obviously it's racist and completely abhorrent, but it has extreme real world consequences. those consequences are the ones that i saw this summer with my own eyes when they put children into cages on the border. it was then stated as a deterrence policy. now's a policy of shutting down the border and putting armed guards on the southern border. the president is talking about cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in commerce to hundreds of thousands of people all across the country that go back and forth between ports of entry every single day. he's talking about america

children who live in cities and cross into the united states on a daily basis to school to high school in places like el paso. i guarantee you that the policies that the president is talking about putting into place will cause more people to die when they cross the border. >> also joining our conversation, washington bureau chief for the boston herald kimberly atkins. great to see you. we've been talking about the president using this rhetoric and overstating what this caravan is and the threat to america. but he's also blaming the democrats, who have not been in power now for two years or so. president trump has controlled the white house, republicans have controlled congress. he had everything he wanted in place to stop what he believes is this invasion from the southern border and yet he continues to blame democrats. >> whatever you think about the president, he is very good at messaging to his supporters, to

the key constituencies he's seeking to appeal to ahead of an election. things like facts are not today in his way before and they're not standing in his way now. yes, he is blaming democrats for this. he is really demonizing these people, who are migranting in pa -- migrating en masse to stay safe. things we've heard before that they are criminals and mixing in middle easterners in there. he's not even saying terrorists. he's using middle eastern as a code word for terrorists. that's not true. if you talk to trump supporters, they say these aren't people who are in crisis. these are people who are being funded by george soros was that is what donald trump and other conservatives are saying. and the message is landing.

that's the biggest contrast between democrats, who have having a much harder time messaging against this in a way that is resonating and is being repeated by their supporters the way that it is on donald trump's side. >> by the way, willie, we heard the name george soros brought up by the president of the united states. we've heard the name george soros brought up by back benchers in the republican congress, blaming him for funding these caravans, bhlamin him for funding one fake conspiracy after another. last night, from what i understand, an explosive device was found at george soros's westchester home. in part, you've got to point the finger back to the president and these republican members of congress that have just been spreading these conspiracy theories that have anti-semitic

overtones to them towards george soros. >> george soros is the boogey n boogeyman. an explosive device was found in his mailbox yesterday. someone sent an explosive device to the home. it was placed in the mailbox of george soros just outside of new york city. >> wow. >> so kimberly, i guess the question is, will this work? the president, one lie after another lie after another lie. but i had a relative yesterday talking about this invasion of migrants coming. and i had a college educated friend e-mail me yesterday asking how were we going to stop america's borders from being

invaded. they're coming, they're coming. the lie is working. >> it is. it lands. i hear it from people who tweet or e-mail me after stories that i write about this, that there is an invasion in the country. the phrases that we hear the president say. if we don't have a border, we don't have a country. well, we do have a border and a country and rules, but there's also reasons why we are seeing these migrations toward the border. the president now is seeing this as election gold. republican strategy gisstrategi have been saying the more the president talks about immigration, the better it is for him. the president likes to gravitate toward these culturally divisive issues. i'm sure he will tweet about nfl protests again before the elections come in two weeks. we have seen him talking about

migrants in a way that's very divisive. we saw him last night say i'm a nationalist. not just saying that he's calling himself that, but urging his supporters to use that word. it's that same pushing against, quote, unquote, political correctness and sort of embracing a term that has been made to stand for not just isolationism, but really appe appealing to a certain constituency at the exclusion of all others. he's now embracing that word. the closer we get to te electhe election, the more open he is with racist rhetoric because he sees this as a campaign advantage. >> mike, you look at what he's been talking about, talking about this invasion coming from honduras. of course, he's called hispanics breeders this past year, accused mexicans of being rapists at the

beginning of his campaign. you can go down -- there's a laundry list. again, it's not just culturally divisive issues that he's pointing to now. there are racial overtones that are so obvious. he's talking about middle easterners in there. again, we talked about this in 2016. let's talk about it right now. border crossings historically are at a low point now and they were at a low point at the end of barack obama's presidency where there was actually a negative net flow into the united states, more people going back to mexico than coming here from mexico, something of course that, again, the president -- that would completely undermine the big lie. >> yeah. well, it doesn't matter to him, joe. words are weapons coming out of his mouth. we grow immune to it because we

listen to it each day and we talk about it each day. but word are weapons out there. the caravan, middle easterners in the caravan, ms-13 in the caravan, george soros funding it. we see what happens with a bomb being planted in george soros's mailbox. >> you hear him talk about ms-13. the facts he's talking about are completely based in fallacy. the border patrol chief told me in the middle of a separation crisis that ms-13 makes up less than 1% of the people that he sees come through. as i've traveled across the country from maine down to key west in florida, a small group of people will bring up immigration and president trump's rhetoric. everyone else brings up desire to have jobs and a good life and

optimism and prosperity. part of the conversation has to be us acknowledging that the president is full of it frankly when he talks about this stuff, but just pivoting to talk about what people really want and need in their day to day lives. i think that's part of the democrats' problem. you see it successfully here and there, but so often they get engaged in these battles with the president over whether or not he's telling the truth. he's obviously not telling the truth. but move on to things that really matter across the country. so often it's not what the president is talking about. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> i'm a leader. i've always been a leader. i've never had any problem leading people. if i say do it, they're going to do it. that's what leadership is all about. >> our next guest may have a different definition. retired general stanley mccrystal literally wrote a book on the topic and he joins the conversation straight ahead on

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more. a few hours before he made those comments, a czech soldier, part of the manato mission in afghanistan, was killed in kabul. two other czech service members were injured. it comes after five czech soldiers were wounded last wednesday in a taliban attack on a nato convoy near kabul. back in august, three other czech soldiers were killed in afghanistan. the deadliest incident for the czech army on foreign soil in four years. joining us now is a u.s. army veteran of 34 years, former commander of u.s. and international forces in afghanistan, retired four star general stanley mcchrystal. he's out with a new book, leaders, myth and reality. it's great to have you here this morning. want to talk about the book, but also want to ask you what's happening in afghanistan. you led the troops there almost a decade ago. we're 17 years into this war right now. where are we and for people who say what the hell are we still doing there, what do you say? >> i would say we need to ask

the afghans. the afghans just voted recently, 4 million of them voted. it's a troubled state, absolutely. but they do have a right for a future. they've been fighting for 30-plus years. i think a negotiated settlement is where it goes. i don't think thousands of foreign troops are right or needed at this point. but i think we need to be partners with the afghan people and we need to help them in what's really a difficult region to operate in. >> is it a fantasy to think that afghanistan can be fundamentally changed after 17 years, that we're going to make it a different place than it's been for centuries now? >> i can ask you about any state in the union the same way. we would say would state x change its culture? the answer is not fundamentally but it does change over time. since 2001, the number of females in school has increased. so now what you've got is a whole generation of females who have been educated. also men who -- many of whom

didn't have an opportunity since that time. there's a different youth in afghanistan. i'm the older generation. i would tell you afghanistan doesn't really move forward until my generation's gone. there's too much scar tissue. but there's a lot there. i don't think we should say it's the graveyard of empires or it's something that can't be done. we need to also be honest with ourselves. if we fail in afghanistan and we say, well, it was impossible, that's a copout. >> september 11th, 2001, was whether it was, it was 17 years ago. somewhere in this country, you know, there's a 17, an 18 year old young man, young woman, who was born around september 11th. what is the role of the united states going forward in afghanistan with regard to who we send there? >> i think you have to ask the question, what is the role of the united states in the world? and when are we willing to send our sons and daughters and nieces and nephews in harm's way? there was a time when i was younger we said it's for the

flow of oil. so we would send people to the persian gulf so we could get oil. i think that was a little short sighted and certainly selfish. before that, if you go to the end of the second world war, we put our forces around the world to achieve stability, to build team work and partnership and it actually worked very well. i think we've got to have a conversation in america that talks about when are we willing to expend our treasure? when are we willing to put our young people and some of our old people at risk? usually there's a great national interest. it might not be up close here and today. it might not be something that we get a payback for like the flow of oil. but if you think of the size of the south korean economy now compared to when i served there in 1981, it's now key to the world's trade. it's part of our prosperity. so i think we need to take a long view. >> general joe has a question. >> let's talk about your book. let's talk about leadership.

obviously we have the commander in chief that some parents, including myself, are concerned about. sort of the style of leadership. and the message it's sending to a new generation. so let's talk about what you believe is most important in leadership. and i -- one of the things i like about your book is that your say there's no formula. it's constantly dynamic. and that's what great leaders are, they're dynamic. and ever changing to the environment around them. >> that's right, i would start with we have got a crisis in leadership in the united states. not just political leadership. but in all of our walks of life, from principals in schools to ceos of corporations. we're seeing shorter spans in office. because what we're struggling with is ability to deal with the modern society. we talk about leadership sometimes like it's a check list of traits. somebody looks like a leader.

they stand like a leader. therefore, they must be a leader. or we say if they've got a certain amount of power, they're a leader. well, we went back in this book and we went to this which used to be the staple. teddy roosevelt said 1,000 times. what we found is leadership has never been what we think it is. not now and it was not in the past. and so the reality is, it's a much more complex interaction between followers and leaders and the context. what we mean is just because someone looks a certain way, doesn't make them a leader. if we talk about leadership and say what do we want, let's say political leaders, we should start by looking in the mirror and say what do we want to be. what do we want our children to be. and then we could say, therefore what do we want our leaders to help us be? do we want our leaders to help

us be more honest? do we want our leaders to help us be more compassionate? do we want our leaders to help us work harder? i think the best leaders i've ever been around whether they were teachers in high school or leaders i had in the military, weren't necessarily comfortable in a day to day basis. i didn't love everything they did. but at the end of the experience, i was better. and i think that's what we should ask from leaders. i think leaders should be asking us four things. not just our vote. should be asking us to give. >> yes. you talk also about one of your former heroes, robert e. lee, a man who did everything right through his military career, everything right at school, everything right in his private life, everything right in his public life. but then he made a disastrous decision, an immoral decision, to actually be responsible for the -- more deaths, more

americans, than anybody else in u.s. history. if he was sitting here today, he'd be the most impressive person in the room. you'd listen to everything he had to say. at the key moment, he betrayed his country for the cause of slavery. now, i'm not saying he was an inherent evil person, but we need to not be sometimes mesmerized by the characteristics or the verbiage of someone or the rhetoric they can do out. what we've got to do is really look down and say what do they do for us? how do they make us better as people and as a nation? >> general stanley mcchrystal, thank you very much. the book, leaders, myth and reality, is out now. it's great to have you on. >> thanks, general. >> that does it for us this morning. chris jansing picks up the coverage right now. >> mika, joe, thanks so much. hello there, i am chris jansing, in for stephanie ruhle.

this morning, fear and falsehoods. two weeks away from the midterm, the president making his final pitch to america on behalf of republicans. riots in sanctuary cities, a caravan full of ms-13 and middle easterners heading towards our border and that mysterious tax cut promised to be delivered in the next week. >> this will be the election of the caravan, kavanaugh, law and order, tax cuts and common sense. that's what it is, common sense. >> new numbers revealing republicans are voting early in record numbers. so could the message be working? making the case. the turkish prime minister lays out what he feels is conclusive evidence of days of planning, leading to a violent savage murder of jamal khashoggi by saudi arabia. we're talking even scouting