tv Morning Joe MSNBC September 15, 2021 3:00am-6:00am PDT
3:00 am
much for being here this morning. and thank you all for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. a can't miss "morning joe" starts right now. >> what's the movie going to be called? >> i know what it's going to be called. >> yeah, what's that? >> if it's got carrot top in it, you know what a good name for it would be? >> what's that, norm? >> box office poison. >>. >> what about my career? >> the girl sitting to your left is in the movie. >> i'm going to go see it. i would see any movie with this girl in it. she's a beautiful lady, and a talented nice talk show guest. >> this is a two-hour season
3:01 am
finale of melrose play. >> title undetermined, by the way. >> chairman of the board. >> do something with that, you freak. >> i bet the board is spelled b-o-r-e-d. >> it took me about 15 minutes to recover from that. of course former "saturday night live" star norm mac donald who tragedy passed away after a long battle with cancer. we'll have more about his legacy coming up. norm macdonald was one of the funniest guys out there. he just held a special place in so many of his fans' hearts. such sad news. >> truly, i mean, i gasped when i saw this yesterday. i guess he had been sick with cancer for almost a decade, and hadn't told anybody, kept it
3:02 am
private or had told very few people anyway. nobody makes me laugh harder. i know that's for sure, and you could see it on conan's face as the clips were going on. these are the funniest people in america, conan, letterman, john stewart, and nobody did the slow burn joke on a talk show, better than norm macdonald, he would wind it up for two or three minutes, you didn't know quite where it was going. because it was him, you know it was going land somewhere bizarre. whether he was doing weekend update or burt reynolds, there was no one funnier, and that was reflected in just about every comedian coming out and saying just about the same, norm macdonald, he was the one who make them laugh the hardest, and i put myself in that camp as well. he leaves a hole, so much joy to
3:03 am
so many people, and most of his jokes, as you know, we can't deliver this morning on tvp because from the mouths of anyone else you would be run out of show business. norm macdonald made people laugh when he stepped on a stage. >> we're of course showing pictures of his burt reynolds which on jeopardy remains just a classic, and our kids will be laughing at that 30, 40 minutes from now. >> we'll have more on his legacy coming up. california's democratic governor gavin newsom survived an attempt to remove him from office, prevailing in the state's recalling election. nbc news projects. the election asked voters whether newsom should be removed, yes or no, and gave voters who wanted him ousted the choice of 46 alternatives, led by conservative talk host larry elder. with the help of party leaders,
3:04 am
including president biden, in the race's closing days, newsom gave warnings that a republican replacement would roll back covid protections and pose a danger for the state's progressive identity. newsom thanked california voters for keeping him in office. >> we said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines. we said yes to ending this pandemic. we said yes to people's right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. we said yes to women's fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and fate and future. we said yes to diversity. we said yes to inclusion. we said yes to pluralism, we said yes to all of those things
3:05 am
we hold dear as californians, and i would argue as americans. i am humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of californians that exercise their fundamental right to vote and express themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rerecollecting the cynicism, so much of the negativity that's defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years. >> let's bring in national political correspondent for nbc news. i look at the numbers and they are awfully close overall to the 2020 presidential numbers. >> 64, 36 for no. look at the map, purple no, orange yes, fix your eyes on it. let me flip you over and show you what this looked like last november. that county break down is the
3:06 am
same. look at that. it was 64/34 biden when you round up in california last november. so, you know, basically the democrats, their goal in this thing, you heard it through their messaging, let me see if i can get this up here. you heard it through the democrats' messaging, tried to nationalize this, attach this to attitudes of trump, they had biden in there the night before. you can go county by county and it becomes dramatic. take a look down here, for instance, orange county, south of los angeles, this is one of the biggest counties in the country. you see the recall. not everything is counted but close to 80%. what did biden run at in 2020? 53 1/2% no. go to the inland empire next door, biden ran at 53% in riverside county. no is running at 52 1/2%. san bernardino county, biden ran it 54, no is a tick below at 52
3:07 am
right now. it didn't deviate much, if you wanted to zoom in and find where anything was different in the central valley, the san joaquin valley, it's probably where the recall did best. then you look in the bay area, garn newsom used to be the mayor of san francisco. the recall might be doing worse in some of those counties than donald trump did in 2020. we're talking about differences of a couple of points. this matches on perfectly from what you saw last november when jooid won the state by 29 points -- joe biden won by 29 points. hillary clinton the first democrat to win by 2 points, biden by 9, now it's rejecting the recall at this point by 6 points.
3:08 am
what's been changing and shifting in orange county stayed changing and stayed shifting in this recall election. >> what about those congressional districts that democrats barely won in 2018 that helped nancy pelosi become speaker. there's still those swing districts out there in 2020 and now again in 2022. is it too early to tell if there was much of a difference in those areas that may determine who's going to be the next speaker of the house? >> orange county, there's a couple in orange county. i'll call it up again. i don't mean to fixate too much on this one county. but 2018 the democrats got a sweep in the orange county congressional districts. in 2020, when republicans did better in the national house races, they picked back a couple in orange county.
3:09 am
all eyes are on it for clues for 2022. let's see exactly where the number lays in orange county, which is basically going to be counted in orange county, mail ballots that were dropped off on election day, that's sort of what's left there. let's see how it moves it all as that final 20% comes in. but again, it really looks very similar to 2020 and anything similar to 2020 in orange county i think republicans could survive in those seats that they picked off in 2020. but democrats could definitely get them back. we are not seeing a big snap back to pre-trump orange county republican numbers here. it looks like what happened under trump to change orange county more politically, it has been locked in here. >> steve, 30 point win, it may end up being a little less than a 30 point victory for gavin newsom, if you go back to just the summer, people around gavin
3:10 am
newsom were concerned. there's a reason that elizabeth harris, and bernie sanders, and was it the emergence of larry elder whose views were so extreme, what did these votes hinge on? >> we're talking about how similar to this basic break down, the red/blue map in the presidential race. the map you would expect in just about any california election these days. i think three things to say, number one, the polling that was out there over the summer when there started to be rumblings of hey, is something happening here, it caught my interest, caught everybody's interest. we didn't have a ton of it, and was there always a reason from the beginning to look at the polling and take it with a bit of a grain of salt. that's one thing. the other two things in terms of what changed and helped democrats down the stretch. california, the way they do things, ballots automatically mailed to every voter. for democrats looking at this
3:11 am
and saying it's a biden plus 30 state, every voter tunes in when they get a ballot laid to them, it lands the election right in their face, in their mailbox. in a state like california, that might help democrats, and the other thing along the lines, everyone, media, people, everyone just started paying attention to the race as it got closer, as the media coverage really picked up, certainly democrats kicked up their efforts. as it got more attention and came into the spotlight, i think people just kind of in general migrated to the political camps they have been migrating to in california and kind of nationally the last few years because again, so striking here how similar this is to last november's county. it's not like we're looking at it, it did 10 points, really it just maps to the point in november. that's why biden is there the night before the election, and
3:12 am
they talk so much about trump, looked at the map, the biden plus 30. they said, hey if we can replicate that or come close, we're going to do fine. they came close to replicating it. >> steve, thanks, to willie's point, joe, what steve is showing us now, this didn't seem as resounding at one point. and it what would you call it, a message for democrats, a wake up call? i mean, there were a few unforced errors or just realities that played against him whether it be the dinner at the fancy restaurant or talk about his kids get to go to private schools while everyone else is in the pandemic, what does this give democrats a wake up call too if anything? sfl a couple of weeks ago if this were close, if terry mccullough lost virginia, democrats should run to high
3:13 am
ground. i'm going to get back to steve and ask him about exit polls, the fact that a recall is a negative proposition to begin with. most politicians are going to fare worse than they would in -- here we have an off, off year election in september when kids are going back to school. this is a race that is set up for a surprise like we saw in 2009, when the race for ted kennedy's replacement shocked the world and went republican. if i'm a democrat and looking at this map, and it's basically an overlay of the 2020 election, a presidential year election where
3:14 am
democrats usually do better, where the turnout expands where you're running against donald trump, i'm liking, if i'm a democrat, i'm liking very much what i'm seeing this morning. i think just because i would be so paranoid. in politics you run scared, run ten points behind. like steve, i would wait to see how the numbers were in orange county, and look at the swing districts the democrats could pick up in 2022 and overlay those numbers. for me, i'm sure republicans may look at this differently. for me, this is a really big win for democrats in terms of a report card nine months in. a lot of bad things happening on the national level. crow look at right now with afghanistan, you look at joe
3:15 am
biden's numbers down, again, the fact that when people went to polls and this sort of race, and the fact that democrats held their own, i would mark that down as a really big win were i a democrat trying to plan ahead for 2022. and i also want to look at some of the things that drove the election newsom's way, and let's see on that point, let's talk about the exit poll and covid. my theory of the case has been run over the 33% politically, run over the 30% politically like republicans did in texas on the abortion law, running over the 70%, actually. if you're gavin newsom, and you want to win then go where most people go on covid, on whether it's the vaccination or masks, do what is right and don't
3:16 am
listen to the 30% that are getting their news from facebook. >> when it came to the covid rolls, newsom was leaning into that. his at least perceived hypocrisy with the dinner at the fancy restaurant that might have kicked this off in the beginning here. when you looked at the exit poll, the question that jumped out to me most, they asked about the covid restrictions in place under newsom, and what do you think of it, 45% said they were about right, and another 17% said they weren't strict enough, so about right or not strict enough added up to a clear majority. one thing that was interesting in terms of where were there any differences in terms of the outcomes and this might have been related to the covid questions, you see where groups that have very strong support for aggressive covid measures,
3:17 am
white voters with a college degree. the county in california that has the highest share of white voters with a college degree by far and away, it's across the golden gate, straight there, marrin county, north of san francisco, staunchly democratic, staunchly liberal area. this did jump out at me 50% of the electorate, white voters, the recall failed 84% here. there are a few votes to be counted here. it failed with 84%. the recall did worse here than donald trump did. jooid's number -- joe biden's number was 82. less than the biden number last year, close but less. in a state like marin county, the most dramatic example we were showing you, orange county,
3:18 am
south of los angeles, a lot of places with a high concentration, you know, voters with a college degree, particularly white voters with a college degree, you were seeing that kind of thing. >> steve kornacki thank you so much for being on this morning and watching this race. let's bring in white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire, and cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei, great to have you both with us. jonathan la, i want to start with you. did kamala harris spend a lot of time in california. >> certainly the vice president did visit her home state, and to support the governor there. once political rivals, interestingly enough but now certainly lodged on the same team, and we know that of course the president himself was out there monday night, the eve of the recall election. there had certainly been some concern, the white house, you know, a couple of months ago
3:19 am
when the race got national attention as steve talked about, the polls dropped that showed a far closer race than people would have anticipated in such a deep blue state. that worry eased in recent days. the polling was trending newsom's day. i woke up to messages this morning, they think the fact that the covid messaging was so strong for newsom, people were supporting how he has handled the pandemic there, including pushing vaccines, so the mandates, you know, focusing on the health and safety, that that bodes well, potentially for the president. and other democrats who have voiced similar support for measures nationally, and other districts. they are certainly looking at the swing counties like orange county and saying look, this bodes well for our democratic message next year, and seems a little bit of a shot in the arm for the president right now, pardon the vaccine pun there, who has had a tough few weeks at
3:20 am
the beginning of the afghan rollout, he has received higher marks since the first few days. there are hopeful signs they're trending in the right direction, and the economy has shown up and down signs about the recovery. aids that i have talked to this morning, white house largely encouraged about yesterday, and what it could mean going forward for their party. >> so jim vandehei, the thrust of the argument, i'm going to get rid of mandates, vaccine mandates none of the stuff that governor newsom is talking about and joe biden is talking about, and with that message he will lose by 30 points. what does that tell you more broadly if anything, is this just a california story or other lessons to come at here? >> i tend not to read anything
3:21 am
nationally out of california. crow make it easy to vote in a place that's democratic and pull out the big guns, you should be able to do what they did in the recall. obviously they were nervous early on, and obviously in california things like the vaccine and the mask mandate are going to be more the nature of the population there, and i would be careful in extrapolating too much from it. that said, i do think it's again, republicans are going to face this in every house race and senate race, which is if you go too trump yan in a lot of places it doesn't work, but you can't not go trump yan, and i think that is the vice in so many of these places that republicans are squeezed in because that seems to be where the momentum is, and you have exceptions to that rule but for the most part it holds, you look at how kevin mccarthy runs the house, and the frailty he shows to donald trump. that trickles down, and shows how key things they should be heavy if they want to win.
3:22 am
the real action is let's see how these districts are redrawn. the map does look good for republicans. what type of candidate do they recruit and what is that environment. where the biden administration is right, if they can get the coronavirus to start to fade and jobs continue to rise, democrats will be in as good as position in an off year election. those are the things people care about the most. we have seen that consistently in polls, and i think that's why it's one of the things that both the biden administration and newsom hit so hard so consistently at the end of that election. >> let's talk about another race that's going to be important. democrats looked in trouble in california. terry mccullough sends out an e-mail every 15 minutes saying he's going to get defeated, please send $15.
3:23 am
i'm not sure if it's that grim for him, but that virginia race closer than i ever expected it to be. what's it looking like there, and why is that race still so tight? >> i'd say like a more interesting and more telling race. virginia is interesting because it was so republican, and then it became purple and quickly a democratic state, a state that if you just look at the demographics now, do favor democrats in a way we never would have talked about six years ago. in these off year elections, obviously when the party that's out of power can have some troubles, you want to see what happens in places that have at least big pockets of rural voters, trump voters, and there's no doubt that this is a tough race. probably not as bad as he's saying. you run scared and want to raise as much money as possible. you want to understand the possibility of defeat is out there, but it is tight, and i think in this specific case, if terry were to lose that race, that would be something that should scare democrats, just because the nature of virginia
3:24 am
is more like a lot of the districts in a lot of the states that you're going to see competitive. what was interesting about the overlay you were doing in the opening segment about the parallels between the presidential results and what happened in california, if you look at the senate races in play, many overlap with the swing states we saw in the presidential race. there will be a national flavor to it, and we'll see if the overlay continues to hold. i think the senate remains the best chance for democrats to hold, and you think the house remains, like, really in jeopardy, and i think nancy pelosi feels it, democrats feel it, and they'll watch these gubernatorial races or recalls for telltale signs early on. again, i think at the end of the day, it is going to be can president biden, can democrats say, listen, we have all party control, look at where we're at on the virus, look where we're at on jobs and the economy those two indicators are decent,
3:25 am
democrats might outperform what you think they would in an off year election, and that has been the one thing joe biden has been consistent on in how he operates as a candidate and president. they're looking at the same polling data we are. they know what his success measure will be. it will be those two things. >> jim vandehei, thank you very much, thanks for being on way too early as well. good to have you. now, to some important new reporting on the world of tech. facebook's instagram app is harmful to a number of teenagers and facebook knows it. that's the bottom line. for the past three years, the social media giant has been conducting studies into how it's photo sharing app affects its millions of young users and according to a report in the "wall street journal," the company's researchers found that instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of them.
3:26 am
most notably teenage girls. 32% of teens, when they felt bad about their bodies, instagram made them feel worse. the researchers said in a slide presentation, rooud by the "wall street journal," comparisons on instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves. we make body image worse for one in three teen girls said a slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues. teens blame instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression, said another slide. this reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups. among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of british users, and 6% of
3:27 am
american users traced the desire to kill themselves to instagram. one presentation showed. >> this is, by the way, these are internal facebook documents. they have looked at studies and come to this conclusion. not an outside group. this is facebook admitting this internally, knowing that their product leads. >> in 2019. >> leads to anxiety, depression and suicide. >> expanding its base of young users is vital to the company's more than $100 billion in annual revenue and it doesn't want to jeopardize their engagement with the platform. the journal reports the documents also show that facebook has made minimal efforts to address these issues and plays them down in public. more than 40% of instagram's users are 22 years old and
3:28 am
younger, and about 22 until teens log on to instagram in the u.s. each day. instagram's head of public policy responded to the report in a blog post writing in part that the company is researching ways to pull users away from dwelling on certain types of instagram posts. can i tell you, if any other company put a product out there and tested it on the narcotic market and saw it hurt people. what are we, a bunch of guinea pigs, why is facebook allowed to actually put their platform out there and then what i think it in realtime as they realize how damages it is to the american public and perhaps create suicidal ideation among american teenagers, this is crazy. >> there's no perhaps to it, mika. facebook admits in internal documents that girls report 13% that had suicidal thoughts,
3:29 am
ideations, that facebook pushed them there, and a percentage of american girls, the same way. four, five, six years ago, mika and i went to give a speech at a new jersey university and who was with us while we were speaking was talking to the dean of students, and you know, when we go there, just like i know when you go to other places, how are things going, what's your biggest concerns, how's the school doing, this was six, seven years ago, the dean of students said my biggest problem is instagram. he said, young women at this school levels of anxiety, levels of depression, suicidal ideations, they all skyrocket, we talk to them, we counsel
3:30 am
them, and all of these problems around here, it seems, goes back to instagram. that's like five, six, seven years ago, and since that time, i have seen one story after another story after another story talking about how instagram leads to anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation among our teenage girls, and i started saying to mika five years ago, facebook reminds me of big tobacco, they know their product is damaging people. they know it's causing people to kill themselves. they know it's causing depression and anxiety, and they're really not doing anything about it, and i guess the question is just like the question on why they can let people be slandered and publish lies that kill people, i guess why is there one rule for facebook and one rule for the
3:31 am
rest of us. >> this "wall street journal" story landed like a bomb in our house yesterday. i have a 14-year-old daughter, and we're in this conversation right now about whether instagram is a good idea or not, and it's right here in the research. this is from march of 2020. just over a year ago, internal facebook research, the tendency to share only the best moments, a pressure to look perfect and an addictive product can send teens spiraling toward eating disorders, and unhealthy sense of their own body and depression. that's not the three of us saying that. that's internal facebook conversations. "wall street journal" reports all of this data has been presented to mark zuckerberg, he was on capitol hill talking about this. if you're on instagram, if you're a young girl, the vacation locals are impossible, and you're looking at a group of friends you're not with,
3:32 am
thinking about the things you don't have. you're trying to live up to an ideal, showing a filter or rented cars or a house that's not even there. you can see if you're a teenage girl how unhealthy that is, and it's maddening to know that facebook for the last three years has been all too aware of the effect that they're product has, but it makes them $100 billion a year. instagram makes a hundred billion dollars a year for facebook, and their audience is very young. 40%, 22 or younger. that is where their bread is buttered. it will be up to someone on the outside to do something about it. facebook knows, and doesn't seem to want to do anything. >> they're not moving fast enough. they keep saying they're going to do better but even more concerning is that for a parent like you, willie or anybody considering instagram for their child, why don't you ask the vice presidents and the reds of tech companies in silicon valley, the people who run
3:33 am
instagram, if they let their kids on instagram. you'll be surprised at the answer. >> the answer is no. i guarantee the answer is no for so many of these people at tech companies who don't allow screens inside their houses for their children. i guarantee people that work at instagram, their kids are probably no more on instagram or if so, it's so heavily monitored, it would be like asking a tobacco company in the 1960s if they let their 14-year-old smoke cigarettes. this is in many ways, it's just as bad or worse because it's hard to pick up that anxiety. it's hard to trace the depression. it's hard to trace the suicidal ideations but more and more, more studies are showing it's obviously that it's traced back to instagram, i'm not simplifying things for you all parents, i'm really not.
3:34 am
just do a search on this and what you will find is what facebook has found, this incredible "wall street journal" story is telling us all that facebook knows, that instagram is destroying the lives of young women. they also know at the same time they want to expand their market among young women because that makes them a lot of money. something has to be done. and for the life of me, i don't know why facebook can live by a different set of rules than every other company in america. somebody in washington d.c. has to listen. somebody has got to stop this monopoly from not only spreading lies about covid, not only making a pandemic worse. >> our election. >> not only spreading
3:35 am
antidemocratic conspiracy theories that lead to january the 6th, that help organize the first attack on capitol hill since the war of 1812 but also are killing our teenage girls, will nobody listen in washington, d.c., are they really that powerful? >> how much money do they give you every election cycle? why are you so scared of facebook? >> i don't get this. i really don't. you've got a company that helped organize -- going to icu unit or even emergency rooms, and you've got them within internal documents. their documents, showing they know their product and it is a
3:36 am
product just like cigarettes are a product that their product is killing teenage girls. their product is destroying the lives of teenage girls. their product is causing anxiety to rise in teenage girls. their product is causing depression to rise in teenage girls. and on capitol hill you do nothing. you do nothing in the house. you do nothing in the senate. you mumble around on campaign trails. you try blame the other side. no, this is you. this is you. you have a voting card. you have a voice, you represent this country in congress. stop telling us what you can't do, and start holding this malignant force in america in check.
3:37 am
>> all right. still ahead on "morning joe" -- well said -- what the ceo of pfizer is saying for releasing a time line on the vaccine for young children. and the u.s. federal from afghanistan on a second day of capitol hill hearings. one of the lawmakers who asked questions, senator chris murphy will be our guest. and some of broadway's biggest musicals, reopened last night. "morning joe" got a backstage look at some of the shows that have returned to the stage finally. and the joe podcast is out on spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. camp joe's in-depth discussions on sports, music, and so much more. his next guest, the great david burn of talking heads. we'll be right back. t david burn of talking heads. we'll be right back.
3:38 am
my nunormal? fewer asthma attacks with nucala. a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred.
3:39 am
don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. discover card i just got my cashback match is this for real? yup! we match all the cash back new card members earn at the end of their first year automatically woo! i got my mo-ney! it's hard to contain yourself isn't it? uh- huh! well let it go! woooo! get a dollar for dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. ♪♪ energy is everywhere... even in a little seedling. which, when turned into fuel, can help power a plane. at chevron's el segundo refinery, we're looking to turn plant-based oil into renewable gasoline, jet and diesel fuels. our planet offers countless sources of energy. but it's only human to find the ones that could power a better future. dry eye symptoms driving you crazy?
3:40 am
inflammation might be to blame. inflammation: time for ache and burn! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. inflammation: those'll probably pass by me! xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. inflammation: xiidra? no! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects, include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait fifteen minutes before reinserting contacts. talk to an eye doctor about xiidra. inflammation: i prefer you didn't. xiidra. not today, dry eye. baaam. internet that doesn't miss a beat. inflammation: i prefer you didn't. that's cute, but my internet streams to my ride. adorable, but does yours block malware? nope. -it crushes it. pshh, mine's so fast, no one can catch me. big whoop! mine gives me
3:41 am
3:42 am
♪♪ 42 past the hour. a live look at the white house. new overnight, the justice department sought an immediate court order to stop texas from enforcing its restrictive new law out of texas that prohibits nearly all abortions in the state arguing it is unconstitutional. the justice department request calls the law an unprecedented scheme that seeks to deny women and providers the ability to challenge the statute in federal court. earlier this month, the supreme court declined to block the law. as pediatric covid cases rise nationwide, the chief executive
3:43 am
of pfizer says the drug company expects to release clinical trial data on how well its covid-19 vaccine works for children aged six months to five years old as early as the end of october. he added that covid vaccine data for the kids between the ages of 5 and 11 will come a lot sooner, potentially by the end of the month. and a new report from the u.s. census bureau shows the nation's poverty rate fell overall in 2020, largely due to the federal stimulus checks enacting at the start of the pandemic. poverty fell to 9.1%. the lowest rate on record, down 11.8%. down from that in 2019. 8.5 million people were lifted out of poverty in 2020. census officials estimate enhanced unemployment aid prevented 5.5 million people from falling into poverty and a separate report last week also
3:44 am
showed hunger did not rise in 2020. joining us now, democratic congressman ro khanna of california, also with us former chief of staff to the dccc, adrian el rod, a senior aide to the hillary clinton and biden presidential campaigns. good to have you both. >> congressman, since i brought up the institution of congress as i was talking about instagram and what we all know it's been doing, not only to all of our girls, but all of our girls' friends and everybody that talks to us when we're out there, what can be done? this sound a lot like big tobacco, they know their product is harming people, and they're doubling down on targeting because they make so much money from young people. >> joe, you were absolutely right. i texted my staff saying get me the clip of scarborough, i'm
3:45 am
going to spend it to everyone in my district. it's outrageous, it's not just girls. facebook actually has recommended qanon clips, based on people's profile. there's an internet bill of rights, you have to have opt in consent, you can't manipulate people on data. you can't target people. you have to do basic regulations when it comes to kids. it's stuck in the committees. you're right to hold us responsible, and you're right to point out the flaws. i'm going to send it to my colleagues and people in the valley. >> congressman, it's willie geist, what can congress reasonably do here, reading through the "wall street journal" article, we're reminded that senators blumenthal and blackburn sent a letter in august to facebook saying you need to do something about this, you need to tell us what you know about the damage to
3:46 am
teenagers. he suspected facebook was hiding something, and now we know it's this internal research. what if anything can congress do about this for a private company? >> i don't think we need more information. i think we know what they're doing is wrong. i think we need regulation. we can start out with basic things. they should basically have to get any person's consent before collecting data. they target young people and adults based on profile. if someone, for example, is anorexic, they could be targeted with negative information about body image, and all of that needs to stop. it will stop if we first start requiring active consent before you can collect data. they need to be held to the same safety and public health and consumer safety standards as other companies selling products and the same standards for minors. the other thing is there's the child protection act which applies to kids under 13 but a lot of folks lie about it. there are many people on
3:47 am
instagram under 13 who are using these products. they need to have liability if they're people under 13 using these products. there are a host of things but i think the point is exactly right. it's not that congress doesn't know what to do. congress hasn't acted. the privacy regulation, i have been in congress five years, and proposed it four years ago. it's time to act, those folks were responsible for a lot of misinformation, and it's not the first amendment. the first amendment doesn't protect the right to cause bodily harm or the right to incite violence. >> in this case, and my god, we could talk about all the lies that facebook has spread. we could talk about how they push people to right wing groups that led to the assassination of a federal officer by a member of a right wing group in oakland during the black lives matter protests last year. we could talk about plandemic
3:48 am
how they spread around lies leading to false information on covid. but just in this case, what other company in america could have internal documents revealed that show that they are causing substantial damage to teenage girls, mental health crises for teenage girls, suicidal ideations for teenage girls, anxiety and depression in teenage girls, and that they're doubling down to make even more money off of teenage girls, what other company would in the be treated just like big tobacco was with a ban on marketing to teenage girls, and letting teenage girls use a product that causes them harm? >> absolutely. they need to ban the current product. there are other ways of social media for teenage girls that's fine, but having likes and shares that are basically incentivizing bullying, that are
3:49 am
creating problems for teenage girls and teenage boys in terms of social peer pressure. it's basically the worst experiences you had in junior high growing up on steroids, and that's what some of these platforms are, and the irony is their mission statement says we're going to build community, world peace, we're going to connect people, but there has to be accountability, and i agree with you, joe that congress can act. we can regulate this. it's not like we're power less and we should, and i certainly support that regulation, and i'll tell you representing silicon valley, there are a lot of people that would support the regulation, tech executives, they don't want their folks on phones. we regulate how much time they have on phones. we need common sense reform. >> congressman, good morning, it's jonathan lemire. i wanted to shift gears slightly. we heard about the census data. more people being lifted out of poverty in part because of
3:50 am
federal measures, the stimulus checks that some americans got during the pandemic, which leads me to this. where do things stand in terms of negotiations for what comes next? obviously there's been a great debate within the democratic party about the size of this reconciliation package. could be up to 3.5 trillion. some think less than that. that's the heart of the biden agenda, the heart of what you're trying to do. where do things stand, what's need snd. >> -- need to do. >> the plan means that seniors are going to get dental, vision, hearing aids. the plan means that people are going to get child care. you look at what has caused the labor shortage. 2 million women are out of work and everyone knows a story of someone who's juggling taking care of their kids while having to be at work. the plan would provide child care. the plan would provide vocational education and community college, finally invest in clean energy. we're going to get to a yes. i believe that.
3:51 am
i know senator man chin, we come from different parts of the party, i'm progressive, he's a centrist, i believe he's going to get to a yes, and we're going to get president biden's agenda passed. what the exact number is, that's going to be a discussion. i have no doubt we'll get to a yes on both bills. >> you know, for so long republicans have been seen as an obstructing force for good reason when you brag you're going to do everything you can to make every democrat president a one-term president and not pass their legislative agenda, okay, it seems to me you set yourself up for that characterization. here we find ourselves in a situation where democrats can pass legislation that will make this congress the most transformative on domestic policy, will make joe biden the most transformtive democratic president since lbj, and will
3:52 am
also with an exception, if he'll just pass an exception to the filibuster for voting rights, like mitch mcconnell did for the supreme court, can also guarantee that voting rights aren't trampled on. this is all within the democratic party's hands. are they going to be able to stand up and deliver for their voters? >> yeah, joe, i think you laid it out perfectly, and the i think the answer is yes. the congressman made it clear, this is not only a once in a generation opportunity to pass some really significant measures for the american people, but this is very popular, not only among democrats but among republicans as well, and you know, sometimes i listen to these comparisons between, you know, the monumental legislation that president obama passed in 2010 and the affordable care act, to passing the build back better agenda. there's really no comparison because even though of course the aca did pass, it was not popular at the time.
3:53 am
it's certainly more popular now. the build back better agenda is extremely popular. this is something the american people want. you look at the last four years under president trump, essentially not got passed, we made no progress. we've got a lot of leg work to make up. at the same time, this is something that the american people going back to what i just said, this is what they want. they want paid leave for all, more affordable child care, they want their prescription drug costs lowered, better infrastructure, there are so many things in the bill that are supported by, again, a majority of the american people, and i think to what the congressman said, i think joe manchin will come around because the west virginians desperately need a lot of the programs that are in this legislation. they need affordable child care, they need lower drug costs, these are things that are not just exempt from west virginians, they are things that the american people no matter where you live want. i think ultimately congress will pass this, just like jonathan lemire said, we don't know what
3:54 am
the number is going to be, 3.5 trillion, could be a little bit less, but i do believe ultimately this legislation will pass because there's too much at stake for it not to. >> i want to ask you about the california recall, good outcome for gavin newsom, but are there any take aways for democrats moving forward? >> yeah, i mean, look, on the one hand, mika, we talked about this several times on the show. he should not have gone to french laundry, saying one thing to his constituents and doing something else. if you go out there and talk about getting people vaccinated, talk about getting teachers vaccinated, putting safety of students and teachers first, health care workers, gavin newsom really stressed getting people vaccinated and making sure that that was a mandate to the extent that he possibly could in california, and i think that ultimately prevailed for him because that is something that california voters want, and
3:55 am
they delivered this victory for him, and i think other governors across the country can take note that when the american people say, the majority of american people say we want more people vaccinated, you can take heed, and actually implement that for your state, and i think that's what you saw gavin newsom, he delivered on that, he's continuing to deliver on that, and i think if you're talking about the health and safety of your constituents first, it's ultimately going to be a win for you. >> congressman, it appears governor newsom is going to win. most people thought he would win but 30 points is a margin, it might tighten a little bit as votes come in later. what do you take away from it as a california democrat, as someone who campaigned on behalf of the governor, and wanted to see this outcome, what do you learn inside the state of california, and are there lessons more broadly for democrats across the country? >> it's a big win. it shows that you can't as a republican party be an
3:56 am
anti-vaccine party, an anti-science party, immigrant party and be a majority party in this country and larry elder was so extreme that it made the task very easy. i think one of the lessons can be in the midterms. remember, it's not just democrats running on a positive agenda. it's democrats running against a more radicalized republican party than when trump was in office, and i think people have to understand this, the republicans in the house are more radical today than when trump was actually president, and i don't think that's going to serve them well in suburban districts or across the country. >> congressman ro khanna, and adrian elrod, thank you for being on this morning. great to have you. still ahead, a major revelation about president trump's final days in office. a top military adviser was reportedly so fearful trump might launch an attack on china, had he made secret calls to his
3:57 am
counter part in beijing. we'll dig into the new reporting from veteran reporters, bob woodward and robert costa. plus what the department of homeland security is saying about expectations for this weekend's far right rally near the u.s. capitol. "morning joe" is coming right back. capitol "morning joe" is coming right back >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple was on a camping trip... ...when their windshield got a chip.
3:58 am
they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ oh! are you using liberty mutual's coverage customizer tool? so you only pay for what you need. sorry? limu, you're an animal! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ finding new routes to reach your customers, and new ways for them to reach you... is what business is all about. it's what the united states postal service has always been about. so as your business changes, we're changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide. same day shipping across town. returns right from the doorstep, and deliveries seven days a week. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting.
4:00 am
it's the top of the hour, welcome back to "morning joe," it is wednesday, september 15th, and joining the conversation, we have nbc news, and msnbc national affairs analyst, host and executive producer of show time's "the circus" and host of "the hell and highwater podcast" and msnbc political analyst,
4:01 am
claire mccaskill, and msnbc contributor, mike barnicle is with us. >> let's talk about the important stuff first, claire mccaskill, your cardinals beat the mets last night, something that mika's daughter, emelia is not happy about at all. but looks like the cardinals are putting themselves in a position to possibly get a wild card spot and get into the playoffs? >> let's hope. this has been a rough year for cardinals fans. this has been really frustrating and last night was like a typical game where, you know, we were ahead, and then they tied it in the bottom of the 9th and we go to 11 innings, and almost gave it away again with a stupid throwing error by the pitcher in the bottom of the 11th. so i'm hoping that we can keep this trend that our pitchers can quit walking people in late innings, and that we can do for yadi and adam wainwright what
4:02 am
they deserve, and that is getting to a world series win. we've got wainwright turning 40. >> stupid throwing errors, horrible bull pen, a frustrating season. claire, i asked you to talk about the cardinals, and not the boston red sox. i'll ask you about the cardinals next. the dodgers, though, john heilemann, you're out on the west coast, the dodgers clinched a position in the playoffs last night. >> super strong team out here, joe, i know a lot of things people are happy about in california, many of them very happy that they didn't recall their governor yesterday, and a lot of them even happier that again, the dodgers having an incredibly strong. as you know, the san francisco giants, arch rivals of the giants are incredibly strong this season as well. >> no doubt about it, and willie and mike, first willie, then mike really quickly. oh, my god, you look at the wild
4:03 am
card chase in the american league, and now you have the yankees who don't deserve to be there, the red sox who don't deserve to be there, and toronto blue jays who are going to win it all. i don't like the momentum right now, but again, both teams, willie, both teams have had some ups and downs, the yankees and the red sox but they've got both fighters on both teams, but my gosh, just as claire said for the cardinals, what a frustrating season to be a yankees or a red sox fan. >> it's been a season of streaks. they had the huge win streak, and now we're back in the valley again but a trip to the baltimore for the yankees comes just at the right time. they got a win last night, a three-way tie in the wild card, three-way tie, the yankees, red sox and toronto tied, and by the way, seattle and oakland are only 3 and 3 1/2 games back.
4:04 am
you really have a five time cluster, to get in play in to win the wild card in toronto, and one of us will have to win one game just to get in the playoffs, but for all the up and downs, we still got a shot. we still got a shot. >> well, yeah, that's true, willie, and the red sox won in seattle, the longest road trip in major league baseball coast to coast, they returned home to a great gift being presented on the doorway, the baltimore orioles are at fenway park this weekend for three, so we'll see how the red sox do this week against the o's, and they play the mets in boston next week, so it's going to be an interesting week and a half as we close down the season, but i got to tell you, and joe, you're absolutely right, the toronto blue jays are a power house, and they have finally come together. they got the mvp, vlad guerrero, jr., and george springer healthy in the lineup, they are a strong, strong team. >> they really are, top to bottom, and you've got to look at them to go pretty far. so hey, mika, we have john
4:05 am
highland who is out in l.a., been covering the county, but last night, we'll get to him in a second, but last night, good news for gavin newsom. >> and the democrats. california's democratic governor gavin newsom survived an attempt to remove him from office, prevailing in the state's recall election. nbc news projects last night, newsom thanked california voters for keeping him in office. >> thank you all very much, and thank you to 40 million americans, 40 million californians and thank you for rejecting this recall. good night, everybody. a democracy is not a football. you don't throw it around. it's more like a, i don't know, antique vase, you can drop it and smash it into a million different pieces, and that's what we're capable of doing if
4:06 am
we don't stand up to meet the moment and push back. i said this many many times on the campaign trail, you know, we may have defeated trump, but trumpism is not dead in this country. >> we cut out some of the clips, he said it's like, john, an antique vase that your grandparents passed down to you from the ming dynasty that looks wonderful when you're eating an exquisite bay area restaurant. we'll get past that. it is ridiculous, though, this recount, just in general. it was ridiculous when they tried it on gray davis, ridiculous this time as well. >> and ridiculous, primarily because of the fact that gavin newsom has to stand for reelection next year. one of the saving graces of this recall is that california voters seem to have realized that they
4:07 am
have a perfectly reasonable and normal procedural standard opportunity to get rid of gavin newsom if they don't like them. and there are a lot of people in california who don't love gavin newsom, who are frustrated with the levels of crime in the state, frustrated with the economy, frustrated with homelessness. if this had ended up being a pure referendum on gavin newsom's leadership, it wouldn't have been the blow out it was. it was a referendum which was on his leadership on one particular thing, which is covid. and every republican in the field gave gavin newsom an enormous gift. they campaigned straight up and said, you know, the first thing we're going to do, and this is from larry elder all the way down, the first thing we're going to do if you recall gavin newsom is loosen up all of those what they say were onerous restrictions. we're going to repeal the mask mandates, let things fly, look
4:08 am
more like florida and a lot of california voters, even though frustrated with newsome on other fronts, wait a minute, gavin newsom has approximate, we like a pro science administration. we like the fact that the governor that has taken hard decisions to try to keep public health first and foremost in the middle of this pandemic. in that respect, they did, i think, they have been preserving the right to vote him out in a real election a little more than a year from now, and they sent a strong message, and we saw joe biden, i know you covered, we had him out here on monday night trying to basically stay, what stays in california shouldn't stay in california, actually there are national lessons here, and that's the bet that the biden administration made too, which is that, you know, being for science, being for public health is the right place to be politically, and at least as of last night, gavin newsom seems to have proven that to be a smart bet. >> it's so interesting, you brought up two issues that i have heard other reporters on
4:09 am
the ground in california bring up covering this election. it's even the democrats' frustration with crime and homelessness. it sounds like there are a lot of democrats out there that would like a candidate that spoke more like eric adams in his new york mayoral race than a lot of the california democratic california politicians they have had over the past 10, 15 years. >> i think there are a lot of california voters who would like to see less crime and homelessness, regardless of the governor or mayor, regardless of how they talk about these things, i think people are palpably frustrated with what they see on the streets, a homelessness epidemic, just as bad in san francisco. they have problems in san diego. there's not a big city in the state that doesn't have this issue, and like a lot of places in the country, crime has gone up during this pandemic, and people are again visibly
4:10 am
palpable frustrated and upset with that. they are more concerned with the facts on the ground than the rhetoric. i do think it's going to be a challenge to governor newsom when he runs for reelection in 2022, to try to convince many of the middle of the road democrats, and there are tens of millions in california, and also a strong progressive base here. but a lot of the middle of the road democrats who want to see those facts change, and they want to see the kind of strength in leadership on those issues that they've seen from governor newsom on the question of covid, which everyone acknowledges he's actually done a pretty good job over the course of the last year and a half, dealing with the tough choices around the pandemic. >> you know claire in new york city is something that we learned in the early 1990s, mid-1990s in new york city where the candidates and democrat or a republican, new yorkers expect to be safe in their own city. they're worried about quality of life issues in their own city. it's why eric adams did as well
4:11 am
as he did. i am curious. why does it seem that in san francisco, for instance, a city that's almost unrecognizable from where it was 15 years ago, it's almost like you're walking back into new york city in 1977 or 1978. why is there a growing frustration among democrats around quality of life issues in california, in places like san francisco, and why aren't democratic politicians recognizing that and responding to it. >> well, first, dealing with the homeless population is hard, joe, because so many of the people who are homeless are self-medicating for various mental health issues or they have a substance abuse addiction that has made them homeless, and, you know, the problem is that democrats in our hearts want to help these people. but what you're seeing in among democrats in california, and what you're seeing in new york among democrats in new york is
4:12 am
that old adage that politics ultimately is very local. we can talk about trump, larry elder, crazy stuff on the right wing, but if you're worried about being accosted on the street or someone is urinating in your front yard, it feels different to you, and that's what democrats need to remember, that this is really something we got to pay attention to and the rhetoric around crime and law enforcement has sometimes been really counter productive for my party. now, having said that, what's going to really help democrats, and you have touched on this in the first hour, that is as long as you have to be trumpian to win a republican party, there are going to be a lot of larry elders in swing districts, a lot of crazy town nominated by the republicans, and that will help in the congressional swing districts, it will help in the senate races, in purple states
4:13 am
because they're going to nominate people that are far to the right of the mainstream and that is something democrats can take advantage of as long as they don't do a proverbial, we're going to screw this up by, you know, leading with let's defund the police or something like that that is frankly just not true but something that we have given them on a silver platter. >> so mike barnicle, obviously the president made his campaign visit to boost gavin newsom in california, vice president kamala harris was there, what do you suspect as you talk to people around the white house, this result, and again, this may be a california story, but this result tells joe biden about his instinct which has been, as we saw last week in that speech where he talked about putting vaccine mandates on private companies that he should be leaning toward the majority, that the majority of americans in this country support these measures about vaccines and about masks to protect the country and get us through the pandemic and not to listen to the loudest voices and the most
4:14 am
extreme voices on those issues. >> you know, i think if you read between the lines coming out of the white house, especially out of the oval office, i think you would be looking at a constant reference to three big issues. claire just mentioned, referenced tip o'neill's famous like, 40, 50 years ago, that all politics is local, now all politics seems to be national, and i think what they're looking at is three big issues that influence and affect every single american, and every single american family, covid, income inequality, and public safety, and all three issues, i think they look at them this way, that they resolve, revolve around your children. covid certainly, your child could be allowed to wear a mask in school. let's get children under the age of 12 vaccinated. let's get as many people vaccinated as possible to keep everybody safe. income inequality, it's changed drastically over the last 20
4:15 am
years. we need good jobs here. we have to stop this talk about, you'll go to trade school, and refit you, instead of being a plumber, you'll be some space aged guy, and public safety, there are two things about public safety, people look at a fire truck coming down the street, and they say, oh, that's let's applaud, this is great, help is on the way, they look at a police car coming down the street, and they say finally, someone here to stop the trouble going on in my block, my home, my neighborhood, and those are three issues, coast to coast that this administration and this particular president is going to be focusing on until the 2022 midterm elections. >> let's bring into the conversation, msnbc's jacob soboroff, outside the state capitol in sacramento. you have been all over this race talking to governor newsom and speaking in the last couple of days to larry elder. i think it's fair to say and you would agree that the gap in the newsom camp is confident, given some of the polling that bounced
4:16 am
their way, and that's proven out in the margin, we're seeing this morning. what was their level of concern over the summer or are they perhaps surprised even by the margin that steve kornacki pushing up against 30 points now. >> i don't know if they're surprised this morning, willie, but they're surprised giving the polls a couple of weeks and months ago. this was not looking good for governor newsom, i have been listening to you talk, both john and mike are spot on. the issues on the table here in california are the reasons that this recall seemed like it was within reach for the pro proponents of it. there are more homeless people in california than anywhere else in the nation. the income inequality is greater here than anywhere else in the country, in addition to covid and rising violent crime, there's also the wildfires that are burning out here. you can literally see and smell the smoke when you come to this
4:17 am
part of the state. what's interesting about the results of the recall is ultimately the voters said look, we want gavin newsom to be the guy who's going to solve the problems. larry elder didn't do himself any favor when he started talking about not accepting the results of the election or not committing to doing that, and yesterday gavin newsom approached it from the entirely opposite. whatever the results, i support democracy, and full stop period i'm going to accept the results of the election, and they went in his favor last night. >> and larry elder said we need to lose graciously, not talking about election fraud but did signal he might run again in the upcoming gubernatorial election. jacob soboroff in sacramento. thank you very much. the final months of the trump president, according to a new book by bob woodward and bob
4:18 am
costa, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, nbc chief washington correspondent andrea mitchell has details. >> reporter: as reported in bob woodward and robert costa's book peril, mark milley called his chinese counter part twice in the closing months of the u.s. presidency. milley's first call last october 30th was prompted by intelligence that china thought the u.s. was prepared to attack because u.s. carriers had carried out military exercises in the south china seas, and trump was berating china for the coronavirus. >> we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague on to the world. china. >> two days after the january 6th insurrection, milley calls general lee again, woodward and costa write, lee remained
4:19 am
unusually rattled, putting the two nations on the knife edge of disaster. >> it's in the after math of that that he sits down with commanders at the pentagon and goes over with them the procedures for how a nuclear weapon can be used. >> also alarmed after january 6th, speaker pelosi who calls milley to ask, according to a transcript obtained by the authors what precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike. milley ends up assuring her, i know the system and we are okay, the president alone can order the use of nuclear weapons, one person can order it, several people have to launch it. and the book reports mike pence sought a way around counting the electoral college votes, counting dan quail who tells pence, mike, you have no flexibility on this, none, zero, forget it. >> nbc's andrea mitchell
4:20 am
reporting there. general milley is not commenting on the book so far. people familiar with the matter tell nbc news a number of cabinet officials agreed to keep a close watch on the president's national security decisions at the time. former president trump responded to the claims calling them the most ridiculous things he has ever heard. bob woodward and bob costa will joining us on "morning joe" on tuesday. you have a number of prominent republican senators calling for the resignation of general milley over this. before we know too much there's new reporting from fox news that suggests this was among a series of calls general milley made to allies and adversaries to reassure them after the events of january 6th and that there were a number of people on these calls, and they may not have been as surreptitious as they were presented. >> and of course republicans acting shocked, just absolutely shocked that phone calls would be made from generals and other
4:21 am
people inside of an administration where a president was trying to overturn the results of a democratic election. mike barnicle, these people are children. it might help them to actually read history books and understand that this has happened before. it has happened at times when presidents were not in the best shape as donald trump was not in good shape. i would say for his entire presidency but especially after january 6th. you can go back to october of 1973, during the arab israeli war of 1973. the war was in the 4th or 5th day, escalating towards possible nuclear war, and henry kissinger was fielding calls from 10 downing street. they wanted to speak with nixon, he was drunk, depressed unable to speak, and he said no.
4:22 am
for the next six seven months, you had kissinger, alexander hague, and others from time to time calling our allies, calling our enemies and assuring them that everything was going to be okay. the united states wasn't going to act in a way that would start a world war. that's what leaders have to do from time to time and there's nothing shocking and new about it. >> you know, joe, i think there was also one other added character. i believe it was a secretary of defense james schlesinger, i think he was deaf at the time, they don't acknowledge history in the republican party. they don't acknowledge other things as well, but history especially, and the secretary of defense, along with everyone else you just mentioned, they had more or less an understanding and they passed that understanding down to
4:23 am
underlings, especially within the pentagon, the defense department, if there was any rattling coming out of the oval office about the potential use of nuclear weapons, president nixon at the time, extremely unbalanced, they were to report to the national security advisory before my action at all was taken. this is just common sense. it's called public safety, and certainly you can make a strong case during the conclusion of the former guy's presidency. there were a lot of people in the house and senate, both sides of the aisle, republican and democrat worried specifically about what we have been talking about for the last few minutes and of course today given the divisions in the country, this is going to play out on twitter, completely polarized. it's going to be general milley is a traitor or a patriot. that's already started to occur, and let's stick to the factings -- to the facts, and the facts
4:24 am
are we had an unbalanced presidency for four years, and we're still living that unbalance out every day. >> and think about what they're upset with milley about doing. >> yeah. >> they're upset he's calling a leader in china saying don't think you can take advantage of the united states of america, democracy can be chaotic but we're strong, we're solid. we're in good shape. nothing's going to happen. we're not going to act erratically, and you're not going to take advantage of us. i'm sorry, this is something -- republicans don't like this, this is something, are you so stupid, i just got to ask, are you so stupid, are you so ignorant of how things work that you don't know that from time to time generals talk to generals? diplomats talk to diplomats, and they send that message, hey, things look kind of crazy in the united states, don't take advantage of this situation. don't take advantage of it,
4:25 am
because we're solid. >> this is something you want a fie to be fired for. can you grow up a little bit. i'm asking, seriously, can you stop playing for your twitter feed. or the lowest common denominator, like in your district. because this is really about america's national security, and i just, i'm absolutely fascinated by the fact that you're attacking a general for telling china, you better not take advantage of us because the united states is strong, things get messy once in a while but that's called democracy, something you don't know anything about, but china let me assure you, america is just fine, we're not going to start wars, and we're not goingto let you take advantage of us. if you want to attack general milley that he was sending a message to china you better not take advantage of the united states, you put yourself on that side of history. my god, some of you are already
4:26 am
on the side of covering up an insurrection of the united states government. you might as well double down, keep playing your game as a day trader politically, and see how poorly that works for you. as for me, as for most americans, we are glad that general milley stood up and told the chinese the united states of america is just fine, things get a little chaotic in democracies, don't try to take advantage of us, and don't even think we're going to pro advocate anybody -- provoke anybody and start a war because of a domestic problem we're having right now. >> and claire mccaskill, you think of the many times the trump administration pushed things to the edge, and we asked questions about mike pence, where is he, what is he is doing, what exactly is going on. it's worth reading this exchange with dan quail and the extended version of it. he reportedly asked quail many times if he could do something to overturn the election.
4:27 am
and dan quail as andrea mitchell is reporting said forget it, mike, you have no flexibility on this. none. zero, forget it. put it away. and even at that point, mike pence says but you don't know the position i'm in. and quail said i do know the position you're in. i also know what the law is. you listen to the parliamentarian. that's all you do. you have no power. the fact that mike pence was asking these questions, your thoughts, claire? >> it tells you what's going on behind the scenes. it tells you why that our top military leader was doing what every top military leader does in america, reaching out to other military leaders in the world to keep wars from breaking out when they shouldn't. so really what is really interesting here is trump being trump, this is what happened.
4:28 am
after pence tried every way he knew how to see if he could avoid the inevitable, and that is opening the envelope, and declaring the elections as it occurred, the constitutional guardrails, the law guardrails held for pence, and what happened, trump started calling him out to the insurrection crowd, and they marched on the capitol to gouge out the eyes of police officers, shouting to hang mike pence, and yesterday after it is revealed like some shock to marco rubio, that our top general was calling to defend democracy as joe said to an undemocratic leader in the world to make sure that a war dent break out, to make sure they knew our strength was much stronger than the nonsense that donald trump was creating, what does trump say, fire him for treason.
4:29 am
this is something that these people are still following this guy when he is so bad at respecting the constitution and the rule of law. >> it's true. >> john heilemann, i want to circle back to dan quail, a guy often maligned by elites, maligned by social media. i think what this episode shows is what anne applebaum was talking about when she wrote the brilliant piece in the atlantic, talking about how you can never really tell when democracy's back is against the wall, who's going to step forward and defend it, and she drew the example of two republicans, lindsey graham and another republican, mitt romney, you would never expect that mitt romney, a guy that had always been seen as basically having a political weather vain and going whichever way the wind
4:30 am
would blow, you would never expect he would be the guy that would stand up to the ill liberal forces, and lindsey graham the guy with the political background would cave in and fill these ill liberal tendencies, dan quayle, a guy out of the spotlight, he steps up and tells mike pence, you know, sit down. shut up. do your constitutional duty. and that is it. that is all you can do. this episode really underlines the fact that we are a nation that is divided, i think it's more 70/30 than people think, maybe 65/35, and it's divided between people who still believe in constitutional norms, who still believe in western style liberal democracy, and those who are ill liberal, and will do whatever it takes to maintain
4:31 am
power. >> rightright. and it turns out that dan quayle who spent as many years as vice president that mike pence spent and after four years as vice president, under a president, whatever else you want to say about george herbert walker bush, an a guy who was an arch institutionalist, someone who believed in democratic norms, and believed in the rule of law, and the stuff that everybody has long believed in in america, until quite recently under donald trump when the republican party went off the deep end. dan quayle spent work doing in the private sector, philanthropic center, reflected on what makes the american system great, which is the norms and values and structures. it turns out that mike pence after his four years in the vice president has not been left with that appreciation. what he has left with is he's a
4:32 am
more craven, more yolked to donald trump than he was the day that he walked in, and way more than the prevailing narrative have it. what the pence people have sold people on since january 6th is this bill of goods it turns out, that mike pence was a hero. that donald trump pushed him and said you got to go and do something there on january 6th to try to overturn the election, and that make pence held his ground and said donald trump there's no way we can do this. i believe in the constitution, i believe in the rule of law, and it turns out in fact through this period that mike pence was trying to figure out a loophole so he could help donald trump. that's what we learned is that, you know, dan quayle is, you know, what we would hope, someone who served with the vice president would be, and mike pence is not, and is the opposite of that, and it's something we should keep in mind. mike pence has his eyes on the white house, and the stuff in the book will help the appreciation for what really
4:33 am
happened between november 7th and january 6th when it comes to donald trump and his enablers. >> we're going to be talking about norm mcdonald in a little bit, just talking about what a great comedian he was, what a legend this man was and what we've lost. >> it's fascinating, over the course of the last few months, i found myself listening to podcasts, and one of them i love is conan o'brien's podcast, and the smartless podcast with jason bateman and will arnett, comics of a certain generation, both on "saturday night live" as performers or writers, will arnett performing, and they have a lot of snl alums, and when you hear the alums tell stories, it's delightful, if you care about comedy, and consider yourself a student of that kind of television, and one thing that comes through is there are
4:34 am
some people who are on the show who have kind of universal respect, love, people who appreciate their gifts sometimes to a greater degree than their level of public fame. norm macdonald is one of those people. he was a guy who really kind of was part of the transformation of weekend update from the chevy chase, the slapstick version of weekend update to where it is now, the seat of political commentary on the show. and norm macdonald was key to that transformation, and someone put in the pantheon of the handful of greatest cast members of snl, and that says a lot. a guy who, you know, carries out of the snl world. if you ask david letterman who some of his favorite comedic guests, norm macdonald would be at the top of the list, one of
4:35 am
the people who saw david letterman off the air when letterman was retiring, macdonald was there in the end in a place of honor in dave's pantheon. i think he's not as famous as chris rock, other people who have come out of that place, that institution, snl, but someone who left a huge mark on that show, and left this moral coil with a place in the pantheon among comics of being one of the very best at that art and that craft. >> very nice. john heilemann, thank you very much for being on this morning, and still ahead on "morning joe," tensions appear to be rising between north and south korea as both countries conduct dueling missile tests. plus, democrat senator joe manchin crosses the aisle to meet with minority leader mitch mcconnell over voting rights. a look at where that new legislation stands. plus, senator chris murphy
4:36 am
is standing by and joins the conversation next. and joe's new podcast is live. he has great conversations lined up. be sure to check it out on spotify, apple music or wherever you get your podcasts. and here is some of that cutting comedy of norm macdonald. >> you got to hand it to the president, his injury is not holding him back from doing the business of the nation. he nominated major general claudia kennedy as the army's first three star general, i think that's great. she's doing a great job. apparently the only thing she's having trouble with, she's having difficult figuring out how to sexually harass herself. she doesn't though how to -- >> ually harass herself she doesn't though how to -- >> with a pool big enough for the most epic cannon balls. a patio that fits all the laughter, and a grill that awaits family from near and afar.
4:37 am
4:39 am
when a truck hit my car, the insurance company wasn't fair. i didn't know what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. i was hit by a car and needed help. i called the barnes firm, that was the best call i could've made. i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to know how much their accident case is worth.
4:40 am
4:41 am
from each other yesterday. south korea's defense ministry confirmed the north fired an unidentified projectile into the east sea earlier and hours later, south korea responded with the ballistic missile test of its own. these launches come after north korea said it successfully tested a new long range missile on sunday. we'll be following that. secretary of state antony blinken continued to defend the administration's handling of the withdrawal from afghanistan. yesterday appearing before the senate foreign relations committee. >> president biden has transcribed the evacuation from afghanistan as an extraordinary success, his words, extraordinary success. this has to be the lie of the 21st century. it's dishonest and if he believes it, it's delusional. i think it's a moral disgrace.
4:42 am
you nearly dislocated your shoulder patting yourself on the back. >> we had a government and security forces in place. that by every estimate would be able to protect the city, protect kabul, protect the other provincial capitals certainly through the year. there were people who managed to flood the airport. we had to do an immediate assessment of those. we had to make sure we could clear people out of the airports so the flights could come in, go out, but no one came to the united states without being checked somewhere else first to make sure they don't pose a security threat. >> you knew there was no way you were going to get all of these people out in time, give the rapid collapse of the security forces, and you said yesterday that you inherited a date but in fact you didn't inherit the date. the date was may 1st and you pushed it to august 31st. i don't understand why a date was not inherited and a date was
4:43 am
not selected that would be sufficient to actually remove people from the nation. >> we took some risk in terms of what the taliban would do or not do after may 1st in pushing beyond may 1st, and we of course worked this very hard. >> it's a risk with other people we took. the risk was on people we care for. >> yeah. well, it's also doing what 75% of the american people had been asking politicians to do for a very long time. i may have been in the 25%, but he was following the popular -- i just have to say one other thing too, a comment made to secretary of state blinken that it was the lie of the century to suggest that this evacuation where basically 120, 130,000 people about the size of billings, millionth, have been air lifted to safety away from
4:44 am
afghanistan, that it was the lie of the century to say that was a success. even if you disagree that it was a success, i think we can all agree that the political eye of the century, that unfortunately too many republicans continue to support is that the 2020 election was rigged and that democracy, american democracy has failed and that joe biden is not the rightful president of the united states. let's just get that straight, if you're talking about lite of the century, that's the lie of the century. anything else coming out of any other republican's mouth really is laughable. let's bring in democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. he sits on the foreign relatives -- relations committee was there yesterday. >> overall, how did antony blinken, the secretary of state make the case for the way the u.s. withdrew from afghanistan?
4:45 am
>> i think secretary blinken did very well yesterday. this is a big moment for republicans like senator barrasso, these are legislators that cheer led the war for 20 years that forced us to stay there, arguably ten years too long when we knew the taliban was going to overrun the military. their effort is to obscure what was bad decision making by cheer leaders of the war for 20 years, focusing all of the nation's attention on what happened over the last 30 days. now, of course, i think even secretary blinken would say he would do some things differently, but the idea that the united states has the power with only a couple of thousands troops and diplomats inside afghanistan prevent pandemonium and chaos on the streets after the overnight collapse of the government is magical thinking.
4:46 am
getting 130,000 people out is impressive but there was no way to stop a mad rush to the airport. there was no way for the united states to be able to control the streets of kabul, to get everyone to the airport. wars are unfortunately messy, i don't know that we have ever had an air lift of human beings that brought this many people out of a war zone into safety. there's a lot of work to do, and an accounting of whether he could have done things better but i think blinken is right, those people on the ground serving the united states, diplomats and soldiers should be applauded for the work they did to get so many people out of harm's way. >> senator murphy, it's willie geist, your fellow republican senator richard blumenthal said we are tainting america's reputation around the world by failing to do more to evacuate american citizens and afghan allies. on that piece of it, can the
4:47 am
biden administration be doing more, should it have done more in the weeks and months leading up to the deadline to get after began wartime allies out to whom we made a promise, fight alongside us, against the taliban, against al qaeda, and we will make sure you're safe? >> i think the biden administration is making an extraordinary effort, and i think you have to rewind a bit to understand how difficult it was to get out all of the afghan partners that we would have liked. president trump effectively shut down what we call the siv program, this is the program by which we bring out interpreters, drivers, security professionals that were embedded with the u.s. military. trump stopped interviews of those individuals, dramatically slowed the flow of afghan partners out of the country, and so joe biden had to sort of effectively restart it from scratch. we are all heartbroken by the fact that we weren't able to get out every single afghan partner
4:48 am
that worked with us, but we did save 100,000 lives. we are going to continue to try to work to get more out of the country. and i think there' unfortunately a limit to what a couple of thousand troops can do inside afghanistan. that's the number donald trump left when joe biden came to do. i'm proud of the effort our soldiers and diplomats did to get so many out of there in a short period of time. >> you have been to afghanistan, you know the history of the country, a few weeks ago i was speaking to someone who you know who was intimately involved with the policies surrounding afghanistan for several years, and this person told me quote it was always going to end this way unquote. do you agree with that assessment, his backward look at the picture of what happened at the airport on those, you know, 10, 12 days?
4:49 am
>> what was stunning to me with my visits to afghanistan starting about ten years ago is the contrast between the assessment of the intelligence analysts and the assessment of the department of defense personnel. the analysts told visiting delegations routinely that once the united states left the taliban would run the country, there was no way for us to stand up an american style democracy, and american style military, but the generals on the ground in part because they just always sort of come to their job with a can do spirit had a different view. they believed that they could continue to adjust the plan such that they would be successful, they could stand up an afghan political and military infrastructure that could permanently withstand the taliban, it turned out that the intelligence analysts were right, and we never solved this conflict that existed between
4:50 am
those two entities, that's what's heartbreaking, the fact that we stayed for ten years, lost hundreds of additional american lives, we spent an additional trillion dollars of our taxpayer money once it should have been clear to policy makers that the task we were given there is unaxhooefible. that's the accountable that congress should be doing right now. not just the last 40 days but the last 10 years that caused us to stay in a mission likely unachievable. >> hey, chris. claire here. our friend joe manchin clearly is enjoying the attention like all quite senators. he enjoys the attention he is getting but i'm getting phone calls and talking to many of your colleagues in the senate on the democratic side that have mounting frustration because joe is not saying what he's against specifically and what he is for
4:51 am
specifically in the bill that is still hanging in the balance and that is the biden bill to radically change some of the programs that helped exact families that need it right now. so am i correct that manchin needs to finally say what he's for and against and quit doing the vague deals i'm not for it? if i put you on the spot i apologize but i'm really not apologizing. >> hey, claire. listen. i think this is crunch time right now. i read senator manchin's editorial. he is asking for additional time. to what purpose? if we take an extra month to pass this legislation then we need to be talking about what brings together as a caucus. i share this frustration over an obsession on the top line.
4:52 am
right? this -- how much are we going to spend net of tax revenue we bring in? what we should be focused on is what do we need to do to save middle america? what are the investments to make in people to save this democracy and families from ruin? i think if we approach the question that way we could find common ground amongst the 50 of us. i don't know the details of what senator manchin is willing to support but in the past he is amongst the strongest supporters of the american care act and medicaid. i hope that we sort of stop this obsession of what the number is and talk about what american families need. if we do that i think we can come to common ground quickly. >> all right. thank you still ahead, nearly a year and a half after the lights went out on broadway theaters are now welcoming back audiences at full
4:53 am
capacity. we have an exclusive look behind the curtain next on "morning joe." a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. so, you have diabetes, here are some easy rules. no sugar. no pizza. no foods you love. stressed? no stress. exercise. but no days off! easy, no? no. no. no. no. but with freestyle libre 14 day,
4:54 am
4:55 am
took six years to get this on the first time. thank you for getting vaccinated and wearing a mask and supporting live theater. >> theater in new york is the live blood of the city. >> i have to say as i hold on to the ladder there's no place like home! >> cheers from the heart of new york city yesterday as more broadway theaters began welcoming back audiences at full capacity marking the end of the longest shutdown. >> awesome. >> in its history.
4:56 am
"hamilton" creator, "the lion king" director. >> and original "wicked" star introduced the audiences back to the shows. "morning joe" has a look at more of the reopenings. ♪♪ ♪ this is more than a nightclub ♪ ♪ it is a state of mind ♪ >> the curtain has risen on broadway once again. four shows returned yesterday and by next month 28 shows will be open or in previews with other major openings spaced throughout november and december. >> welcome to the moulon rounlg. >> it was the first-ever closure for a public health concerns and only the seventh time in history
4:57 am
the great white way as it's known faced a shutdown. >> in march of 2020, broadway shut down. march 12th. we were the first show to shut down and they said one of the cast members had probably gotten sick with covid and canceling the show. that never happens on broadway why the show must go on. you know? all these artists and people who work backstage and ushers and on and on and the businesses affected by the success of broadway were, you know, put on hold. our lives, our entire lives were put on hold. >> life resumed for the cast of moulin rouge. >> about nine days after our show closed down i wound up having to go to the hospital. i was in the shower and i was coughing up blood and obvious i contracted covid-19.
4:58 am
i have had some symptoms of covid that have continued on and lasted. i'm what they call a long hauler. took me two months before i could walk around the block and now i'm dancing with the rest of the kids who are 30 years younger than me. >> started to work out again like about two months ago and then even now when we are in rehearsals sort of my breath and getting winded far earlier than i know i will when i'm in show mode. >> it is not just per forlers that need to brush off the russ. jerry harris provides lighting, video and sound to broadway shows. >> starting back up is -- it is not like you turn a switch. there's equipment sitting dormant for 16 months. it's as much or more about the people getting back up to speed as it is about the equipment. how long will it take for the
4:59 am
performers to get back in the rhythm and the musicians, stage hands, the dressers and those people to be able to work in cadence and in sync because that's what broadway or theater is all about. it is a family, a team effort. >> within of the challenges to the return is recognizing that team won't necessarily the be the same. rachel is director of "hades town" the tony award winning best musician that reopened two weeks ago. >> coming back in terms of spiritual and mental health has been not taking for granted that we know each other. i think we tried as a creative team to come back epa lead that first day of rehearsal in a way that kind of allowed everyone to reintroduce themselves to each other and a performer said i am not the same human who you all
5:00 am
knew a year and a half ago. that goes to the incredible loss, that certain members of our company experienced, to the loss that the nation and the world has experienced. >> with the reopenings coinciding with the delta surge many performers and producers are holding their breath. rock icon david byrne opens this friday and keeping an eye on the news every day. >> broadway survives from tourism, people coming from out of state so it's probably a real concern for the producers. how's this all going to work? >> certain amount of one day at a time and you could do a good amount of plans like understudies and getting that ready in case one of us can't go. >> but for now the shows must go
5:01 am
on. >> the world needs art now more than ever. our country needs broadway to come back. they need the arts to come back stronger than ever to reflect on what just happened, what we all went through collectively. >> it feels like this resurrection and so much energy as broadway comes back to life. ♪ we all need somebody ♪ >> great job by the team at "morning joe" putting that together. david is your next podcast guest. i think that drops on friday. just past the top of the hour now. we'll dig in to new reporting about just how toxic instagram is for teen girls and facebook knows it. but first, we remember a comic legend. >> but what's the movie going to be called? really? >> i know. >> what's that? >> if it's got carrot top in it,
5:02 am
box office poison. >> hold on! >> she did it. >> courtney thorn smith the girl sitting to your left is in the movie. >> i will go see it. >> scare everybody else away. >> i would see any movie with this lady in it. she is a nice, talented talk show guest. >> as evidenced by her apeerps on the rival show! there's a movie coming out. >> yes. >> title undetermined. >> chairman of the board. >> oh. all right. do something with that you freak. >> the board is b-o-r-e-d.
5:03 am
>> oh my gosh. >> took 15 minutes to recover from that of course. former "saturday night live" norm macdonald who tragically passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. we'll have more about his legacy coming up. norm macdonald was one of the funniest guys out there. he just held a special place in so many of his fan's hearts. such sad, sad news. >> truly. i gasped when i saw this yesterday. i guess he was sick with cancer almost a decade and kept it private or told very few people anyway. nobody makes me laugh harder. that's for sure. you could see it on conan's face. watch the host's faces. the funniest people in america. conan, letterman, stewart. can't keep it together around
5:04 am
norm and nobody did the slow burn joke better than norm. he would wind it up for two or three minutes and because it was him you knew it would land somewhere bizarre and hilarious eventually. whether it was stand-up, a talk show, whether doing "weekend update" or burt reynolds on "snl" there's nobody funnier than norm macdonald. the comedians said the same yesterday. norm macdonald, he made them laugh the hardest. i put myself in that camp. he really leaves a hole bringing so much joy to so many people. fearless and most of the jokes as you know the bits we can't deliver this morning on tv because from the mouths of anybody else you would be run out of show business. >> indeed. we're of course showing pictures of his burt reynolds.
5:05 am
which on "jeopardy" is a classic and our kids will be laughing at that 30, 40 years from now. >> much more on his legacy coming up. california's democratic governor newsom survives an attempt to remove him from office prevailing in the state's recall election nbc news projects. the voters were asked whether he should be removed and gave voters the choice of 46 alternatives led by conservative talk host larry elder. with the help of party leaders including president biden in the race's closing days newsom rousing democratic voters with warning that a republican replacement would roll back covid protections and pose a danger if the state's progressive identity.
5:06 am
newsom thanked california voters for keeping him in office. >> we said yes to science and vaccines, to ending this pandemic. we said yes to people's right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. we said yes to women's fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and her fate and future. we said yes to diversity, to inclusion. we said yes to pluralism. we said yes to all those things that we hold dear as californians and i would argue as americans. i'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote and express themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the
5:07 am
cynicism, by rejecting the negativity that defined our politics in the country over the course of so many years. >> let's bring in right now national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc steve kornacki. steve, i look at the numbers and they are awfully close overall to the 2020 presidential numbers. >> yeah. take a look at this. 70% counted up. 64-36 for no. just look at the map right here. purple no. orange yes. fix your eyes on it. flip the over and showed you last november. look at that. the county breakdown is the same. 64-34 biden when you round up in california last november. basically the democrats, the goal in this thing, ahead it through the messaging, they tried to nationalize this,
5:08 am
attach this to attitudes to trump before. you can go county by county and dramatic. take a look. orange county, south of los angeles, a biggest county in the country. see the recall. close to 80%. recall at 53% no right now why what did biden run at in 2020? 53.5% no. go to the inland empire next door. biden at 53% in riverside county. no at 52.5%. san bernardino county. biden at 54%. no is at 52%. didn't deviate much. to look to zoom in and find anything different in the central valley, that's probably where the recall did best. it might have outpaced trump by 4 or 5 points in the counties
5:09 am
here and then the bay area. newsom used to be the mayor of san francisco. super liberal area. the recall might be doing worse in those counties than donald trump did in 2020 but we are talking about differences of a couple points. this thing maps on almost perfectly to what you saw last november when joe biden won by 29 points. a question. the movement in orange county over the last couple decades, hillary clinton the first democrat in forever to within the thing in 2016 by 2 points. biden wins it by 9. now it's a rejecting the recall at this point by 6 points. what is changing and shifting in orange county is changing and shifting in this recall election. >> democrats can look at that and be pleased that they haven't lost too much in a swing area like that. what about those congressional districts that democrats barely
5:10 am
won in 2018 that helped nancy pelosi become speaker? still swing districts out there in 2020 and 2022. is it too early to tell if there was much in the difference in those areas that may determine who will be the next speaker out house? >> orange county right there. i don't mean to fixate too much on the one county. 2018 the democrats got a sweep in the orange county congressional districts. in 2020 when republicans did better nationally in the house races than expected they picked back a couple of those in orange county and all eyes on it for clues for 2022. see where the number lands when everything is counted up. mail ballots dropped off on election day is left there and see how it moves at all as the
5:11 am
final 20% comes in and looks similar to 2020 and anything similar to 2020 in orange county i think republicans could survive but democrats could get them back. not seeing a big snapback to pre-trump orange county republican numbers. looks like what happened under trump to change orange county more politically looks like that's locked in here. >> so, steve, 30-point win, may be less for gavin newsom but people were generally concerned and a reason joe biden and kamala harris and elizabeth warren and bernie sanders came in. how did things change so dramatically? was it the emergence of larry elder? what did the votes hinge on? >> we are just talking about how similar this is to the basic
5:12 am
breakdown. the red/blue map and really the red/blue map you expect in any california election these days. i think three things to say. the polling that was out there over the summer when there started to be rumblings is certainly caught my interest and everybody and didn't have a ton of it and a reason from the beginning to look at that polling and take it with a grain of 1589. but other two things to change and help democrats down the stretch, california, the way they do things, ballots automatically mailed to every voter so for democrats saying it's a biden plus 30 state. every voter tuned in when they get a ballot mailed to them. lands the election right in their face in their mailbox. that might have in a state like california might help democrats. the other thing along those lines is everyone, media people,
5:13 am
everyone paying attention to the race as the media coverage picked up. democrats picked up the efforts. recall supporters. getting more attention coming into the spotlight people in general migrated to the political camps, been migrating to in california and nationally the last few years and so striking here how similar to last november's race. not saying the recall did 20 points better than trump, 10 opponents worse than here. it maps on to the results of november and why biden is there the night before the election and looked at the map and the biden plus 30 and said if we can come close to that we'll do fine here. they came close to replicating it. >> steve, thank you very much. still ahead, new reporting putts to rest any question of whether social media giants know
5:14 am
5:15 am
5:16 am
[music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. as your business changes, the united states postal service is changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. it'but my nunormalorld with nucala? fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor.
5:17 am
5:18 am
♪♪ important new reporting on the world of tech. facebook's instagram app is harmful to a number of teenagers and facebook knows it. that's the bottom line. for the past three years the social media giant has been conducting studies into how its photo sharing app affects its millions of young users and according to a report in "the
5:19 am
wall street journal" the company's researchers found that instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of them, most notably teenage girls. the journal reports 30% of teen girls said when they felt bad about their bodiesen sta gram made them feel worse. the researchers said in a march 2020 slide presentation posted to facebook's internal message board reviewed by "the wall street journal" comparisons on instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves. we make body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls said a slide from 2019. summarizing research about teen girls that experience the issues. teens blame instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression said another slide. this reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.
5:20 am
among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of british users and 6% of american users trace the desire to kill themselves to instagram. >> these are internal facebook documents. they looked at studies and come to this conclusion, not an outside group. this is facebook admitting this internally knowing that their product in 2019 enin anxiety, depression and suicide. >> expanding the base of young users is vital to the company's annual revenue and doesn't want to jeopardize their engage. with the platform. the journal reports the documents also show that facebook has made minimal
5:21 am
efforts to address the issues and plays them down in public. more than 40% of instagram's users are 22 years old and younger and 22 million teens log on to instagram in the u.s. each day. instagram's head of policy reported in a blogpost writing in part that the company is researching ways to pull users away from dwelling on the posts. if any other company put a product out there and tested it on the market and saw it hurt people -- what are we? a bunch of guinea pigs? why is facebook allowed to actually put their platform out there and then what? change it in realtime as they realize how damaging it is to the american public and perhaps create suicidal ideation?
5:22 am
this is crazy. >> facebook admits in internal documents that girls report 13%, that had suicidal thoughts, suicidal ideations. that facebook pushed them there and a percentage of american girls the same way. willie, maybe four, five, six years ago we wept to give a speech at a new jersey university and rachel who was with us while we were speaking was talking to the head of students, the dean of students, when we go there and go around to places how are things going? how's the school doing? six, seven years ago, the dean of students said my biggest problem is instagram. said young women at this school
5:23 am
levels of anxiety, depression, suicide issal ideations. they skyrocket. we talk to them, counsel them and the problems around here it seems goes back to instagram. like five, six, seven years ago and since then one story after another story after another story talking about how instagram leads to anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation among our teenage girls and i started to say to mika facebook remind me of big tobacco. they know their product is damaging people. they know it's causing people to kill themselves. they know it's causing depression and anxiety. and they're not doing anything about it. i guess the question is just like the question on why they can let people be slandered and
5:24 am
publish lies that kill people, i guess the question is, why is there one rule for facebook and one rule for the rest of us? >> yeah. this story "the wall street journal" story landed like a bomb in our house yesterday. i have a 14-year-old daughter and we are in this conversation right now about whether instagram is a good idea or not. this from march of 2020. just of a year ago internal facebook research. a pressure to look perfect and addictive product can send teens to eating disorders and depression. not the three of us saying that. internal facebook conversations that "the wall street journal report"s this data is presented to mark zuckerberg. he was on capitol hill recently talking about this. as you know on instagram as a young girl or woman the teeth are white and perfect.
5:25 am
the vacations are impossible and fomo. looking at a group of friends that you are not with. thinking about the things you don't have or trying to live up to an ideal presented there a filter or with rented cars orr a house that's not theirs. you can see how unhealthy that is and maddening to know that facebook for three years has been all too aware of the effect their product makes but makes them $100 billion a year. instagram for facebook and the audience is young. 40% 22 or younger where the bread is buttered. up to someone on the outside apparently to do something about it because facebook knows and doesn't seem to want to do anything. we'll talk to a u.s. congressman who represents parts of silicon valley. democrat ro khanna tackles these
5:26 am
issues next on "morning joe." welcome to allstate. where you can pay a little less and enjoy the ride a little more. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ now, get new lower auto rates with allstate. because better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. trading isn't just a hobby. it's your future. so you don't lose sight of the big picture,
5:27 am
even when you're focused on what's happening right now. and thinkorswim trading™ is right there with you. to help you become a smarter investor. with an innovative trading platform full of customizable tools. dedicated trade desk pros and a passionate trader community sharing strategies right on the platform. because we take trading as seriously as you do. thinkorswim trading™ from td ameritrade. ♪ because we♪take trading as seriously as you do. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
5:28 am
5:29 am
...we get unlimited for just $30 bucks. sweet, but mine has 5g included. relax people, my wireless is crushing it. that's because you all have xfinity mobile with your internet. it's wireless so good, it keeps one upping itself. switch to xfinity mobile and save hundreds on your wireless bill. plus, save up to $400 when you purchase a new samsung phone or upgrade your existing phone. learn more at your local xfinity store today.
5:30 am
♪♪ joining us now democratic congressman ro khanna of california. >> congressman, since i brought up the -- brought up the institution of congress talking about instagram and what we all know it's been doing not only to all of our girls but the girls' friends and everybody that talks to us when we're out there, what can be done? this sounds a lot like big tobacco. they know the product is harming people and they're doubling down on targeting because they make so much money from young people. >> absolutely right. i texted my staff saying get me the clip of scarborough. it is outrageous. not just girls. facebook recommended qanon clips getting people to join based on people's profile. there's an internet bill of
5:31 am
right that is we have proposed saying you have to have opt-in data. you have to do basic regulations with kids. it is stuck in the committees but you are right to hold us responsible and point out the flaws. i'll send it to people in the valley and my colleagues. >> what can congress reasonably do here? reading through this "the wall street journal" article and a letter was sent in august to facebook saying you need to tell us what you know about the damage to teenagers caused be the product and said the answers were so evasive said senator blumenthal that he suspected facebook was hiding something and now we know it's the internal research. what can congress do about this for a private company? >> i don't think we need more information. i think we know what they're doing is wrong.
5:32 am
we need regulation. we can start out with very basic things. they should basically have to get any person's consent before collecting data. why does this matter? they target young people and adults based on profiles. if someone is anorexic they can be targeted with negative information about body information and needs to stop. they need to be held to the same safety and public health and consumer safety standards as other companies selling products and the same standards for minors. other thing is there's the child protection act applying to kids under 13 but folks lie about it. there are folks on instagram under 13 and need liability if they use the products. there are a host of things but i think the point is exactly right. it is not that congress doesn't know what to do.
5:33 am
congress hasn't acted. i've been in congress five years. stuck in the energy and commerce committee. these folks are responsible for misinformation and it is not the first amendment. the first amendment doesn't protect the right to cause bodily harm or the right to incite violence. >> congressman, thank you jirngs coming up, one of the next guests served as a top white house advise every to president obama. now cecilia munoz is helping afghan refugees and joins the conversation just ahead on "morning joe."
5:35 am
it's another day. and anything could happen. it could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. or it could be the day there's a cyberthreat. get ready for it all with an advanced network and managed services from comcast business. and get cybersecurity solutions that let you see everything on your network. plus an expert team looking ahead 24/7 to help prevent threats. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. comcast business powering possibilities.
5:36 am
5:37 am
every single day, we're all getting a little bit better. it's a whole new world we're better cooks... better neighbors... hi. i've got this until you get back. better parents... and better friends. no! no! that's why comcast works around the clock constantly improving america's largest gig-speed broadband network. and just doubled the capacity here. how do things look on your end? -perfect! because we're building a better network every single day. i can't believe it's been a quarter century since i made my tv debut. all different back then. back then i remember if you wanted to take a picture you would use a camera.
5:38 am
now not a telephone. if you used a telephone people would look at you odd. it stays there. what about the old days when they took pictures with you way back? when they pulled that thing and exploded and stuff. i got a picture of my great grandfather. thing took six hours to take the picture and as the picture of my great grandfather, every guy had one picture back then. him like -- i got to get back to feed them hogs. who's going to feed the hogs? somebody got to feed them hogs.
5:39 am
now, in the future, of course, it will be different. 50 years from now people will be going, hey, you want to see 100,000 of my great grandfather? >> who was funnier? norm macdonald on his final stand-up appearance. he passed away yesterday at 61 after a year's long battle with cancer. letter marn said in every important way norm was the best. "saturday night live" twitter account posted today is a sad day. we mourn the loss of norm. one of the most impactful comedic voices of his or any other generation. but most of all he was just funny. no one funny like norm.
5:40 am
suspect that the truth, mike? look at the tributes paid to him yesterday from the most brilliant minds in comedy. david letterman, conan o'brien, jon stewart. and you could spend months on youtube just watching clips of norm and frankly many of us have over the years. >> i did that yesterday. just plain funny is exact. you see him and you smile because you know as he begins a long build-up perhaps sometimes or a quick build-up to a joke it will be really funny. i was watching yesterday a clip of norm on the couch as a guest on letterman and telling a story of a ball game with bob euchre, the legendary announcer and got dave laughing so hard that dave could not continue any line of
5:41 am
questioning and norm just kept going and it is a short clip. like two minutes. i was sick laughing at it. that's who norm was and in my mind and will be forever in these clips. >> talk show apeerpss. his stand-up. his time on "snl" on weekend up date. fearless. he made o.j. jokes so relentlessly and ultimately he was fired by the person running the show at the time who was a friend of o.j.'s. if you go and want to dig in there he is as burt reynolds. he had a netflix show. low rent production to sit at a desk for 45 minutes and talk to somebody. norm being norm. i have shared so many laughs with so many friend particularly with my dad who loves norm macdonald. leaves us in smiles and he will be so very missed. leaves a big hole for a lot of
5:42 am
us who love him but luckily his legacy lives on online. >> absolutely. thank you. we want to turn to covid now and update on how hospitals in the south are doing amid the pandemic. in alabama, all icu beds are occupied. every single one. "the new york times" reports dozens of patients in the state in recrept days have needed beds that were not available. in texas, nearly 170 hospitals have icus more than 95% full. according to recent data about 700 intensive care beds remaining across the state. last week in florida, 24 hospitals reported having more icu patients than available beds. meanwhile tennessee now ranks first in the country for new covid-19 cases per capita.
5:43 am
the state is averaging more than 6,800 cases a day. that's about 100 cases for every 100,000 people. the state's worst virus surge yet. joining us now the chair of the metro nashville covid-19 task force, dr. alex jungarere. high school chief of the vumc division of orthopedic trauma. it is good to have you on. this lack of icu space is another sign of the pandemic ripping through the south. it is fair to say at this point and you can correct me if i'm wrong that people that need icu beds for other reasons may not get them? >> good morning. you're absolutely right. not only is tennessee the worst for new cases, from the beginning of the pandemic
5:44 am
tennessee is worst number of cases per capita of any state and feeling that in the hospital. just a few days ago i had a patient who's a trauma patient coming in after a car wreck. fixed him and got him stabilize and five days later had covid and died from covid and not the trauma and the numbers across florida, texas are exactly what we see here in tennessee. people are dying. it's just really unnecessary, unforced error because just like everywhere else these are unvaccinated patients for the most part. >> do you have a sense of how many children are in icus in tennessee with covid? >> we have about -- across the state about 20 or so pediatric patients in icu but seeing that the pediatric hospitals are filling up with covid patients as well as other viruses because people get out there and seeing
5:45 am
this upsurge. we had a 17-year-old kid die from covid this weekend in east tennessee. 17 years old. imagine that. it just breaks my heart because i suspect they're probably unvaccinated and unnecessary that we have this. frankly it is lack of leadership that is causing this problem. >> dr. fauci said on the show yesterday that a thing to keep in mind is that you're not getting vaccinated for yourself but, for example, for the children. who can't get vaccinated and children under 12. are we seeing children that are very young getting covid in tennessee? >> we are seeing that. fortunately most of those kids are not critical but here's what we need. we need to not opt out of masks in school. two largest school districts in tennessee did not allow that.
5:46 am
we need to encourage vaccinations. not just covid but all kind of vaccinations in tennessee to keep the children safe. that's something that's actively being attacked and we need to make sure that the public health infrastructure such as the local health boards stripped of powers and the state health department which talked about dissolving doesn't happen. needs to protect kids, neighbors and friends for those reasons. >> good morning. good to have you on the show this morning. you are the head of the covid-19 task force in nashville. nashville is a bit of an oasis from what's happening in the state and the south in terms of the way you have done with it. is that still true? are you doing better in nashville than elsewhere in the state? if so, why? >> yes. in short. we are -- have a highest vaccination rate in the state. consistent with the national average. the cases per 100,000 is one of
5:47 am
the top one or two districts in the state. the reason is taking it seriously. we are vaccinating and one of the first in the state to do state at home orders and mask man dates and have an active vaccination drive that we have been doing from the beginning over 500 pop-up events, mass vaccination events but at the end of the day we are in tennessee and nashville has people that commute in and out of the state and visit the city and proud of that but we need the vaccination rate up. i'm proud of bridgestone arena the home of the predators that require vaccinations to be able to attend events. big businesses are requiring vaccine or testing and hopeful that that leadership will percolate throughout the state. >> you're there on the ground in a state with low vaccination rate fighting the good fight. if things continue the way they are, if the vaccination rate remains relatively low in the state of tennessee, seeing more
5:48 am
pediatric patients, where do you see this heading into next year? >> i wish i could say somewhere good. i think a lot of my colleagues are exhausted. i don't see this miraculously going away. people say there would be all the people that got the disease and immune. mutations happen. that's how delta happened. my hope is that people see that this is real and listening to actual factual information such as what you have been giving for 18 months and do that with people that they're close to impacted by this. they will have family members suck or die. i know people that actually have gotten vaccinated now because they have a close family member impacted and while i hate that's what it comes to perhaps that's my hope that that's what will get people to do what is needed to protect everyone. >> professor at vanderbilt
5:49 am
university medical center, thank you so much for your advice this morning. coming up, some 65,000 afghan refugees are making the united states they should new home. and three former presidents are pitching in to help with the resettlement efforts. that's where our next guest comes in. former obama policy adviser cecilia munoz joins us straight ahead to explain. keep it right here on "morning joe."
5:50 am
how did we come up with the idea to combine our famous mac and cheese with our iconic grilled cheese? by saying yes. yes to new inventions! yes to clean and fresh ingredients! and yes to living life to the flavor-fullest. panera. live your yes. order on our app. ok, let's talk about those changes to your financial plan. bill, mary? hey... it's our former broker carl. carl, say hi to nina, our schwab financial consultant. hm... i know how difficult these calls can be. not with schwab. nina made it easier to set up our financial plan. we can check in on it anytime. it changes when our goals change. planning can't be that easy. actually, it can be, carl. look forward to planning with schwab. schwab! ♪♪ johnny: '76 steelers. ray: '78 team was better. ray: we argue like it's our job, but medicare advantage? schwab! that we agree on. johnny: 98% of the
5:51 am
folks who use it give it... johnny/ray: ...high ratings. ray: cause it's got record low premiums...johnny: they check in with me at home, gave you a ride to the doctor. ray: then covid showed up. johnny: but medicare advantage showed up too ray: with that telehealth thing... johnny: food delivery... ray: i bet you like that. it's times like these that show who you can count on. johnny: if you're waiting for me to say i count on you... announcer: medicare advantage. twenty six million seniors count on it. as your business changes, the united states postal service is changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. we've seen the news lately, full of stories of afghans fleeing danger and starting new lives here. so many american stories started exactly this way. this is a moment for the american people to respond.
5:52 am
we have a choice. we can choose to step up for those who put their families at risk for us, who served with us, who would be us. >> that was part of the new ad from welcome u.s., a new organization helping with the resettlement of the roughly 65,000 afghans evacuated to the united states after the taliban took control of that country. the group was started by former obama and bush administration officials and former presidents bush, clinton and obama, along with all three former first ladies, are honorary co-chairs of the organization. joining us now, co-founder of welcome u.s., cecelia munoz, former director of the white house domestic policy council under president obama. you've got a good bench behind you helping support this organization. but tell us exactly who these people are.
5:53 am
65,000 afghans, how they're doing, where they are right now and what is the effort to relocate them? what does that look like? >> we know some of them have already come to the united states but most of them are folks who have been evacuated from afghanistan who are at military bases around the world waiting to be cleared to come to the united states. what we want welcome u.s. to do as an organization and website is connect americans with ways to help them once they get here. >> and tell me some of the challenges involved with that, and hopefully not given the political divisions we're seeing, but maybe also because of the political divisions we're seeing. but what do you need to do to execute this effectively? >> well, the most important thing is to engage the american people. we've been really, really excited by the outpouring of support from both sides of the aisle, people of all walks of life who understand these are folks who helped our troops, helped us, and that it's now
5:54 am
time to stand up for them. as they arrive, we are hoping that we can connect regular americans to the local organizations who are meeting them at the airport, helping them get set up in homes, helping them start their new lives. and this is as much about the needs of the people from afghanistan who are starting new lives in the united states as it is about us, frankly, mika. this is our country to be a place of welcome, which is something that as americans we've always prided ourselves on being. this is really the best of who we are. >> good morning, cecelia. it's willie geist. congratulations on the work you're doing. it's difficult work. i think it's important to let people know what this journey looks like through the eyes of an afghan refugee. they come to america, find a home. they had to leave their home country under pressure because they didn't want to be killed by the taliban, many of them. they arrive at a base in the united states and go to cities like st. louis or tucson or
5:55 am
wherever they end up. what does that process look like for them? how do they begin life in america? >> when it's done at its best, there's someone there to greet them and navigate helping them get their children into school, helping them find where the grocery store is, helping them with a new job. for the refugees who are coming, this particular crisis is obviously an enormous moment in their lives, but it's also just a moment in their lives. in the united states we've resettled refugees for generations. we know these are folks that will be successful, but they will be more successful if we lend a hand. and frankly, we will be enriched at least as much, really more even than the families we're helping. this is as much about us, the welcomers, as it is about the people we're welcoming. >> right now thousands of refugees from afghanistan are living in airports around the world, doha, dubai, germany and elsewhere.
5:56 am
and many of them are en route to the united states of america where there is a famous slogan, nimbe, not in my back yard. people will say we have to help these people, they helped us. but not in my back yard. what is the larger plan for finding places that are receptive to accepting these people who did, indeed, help us? >> so this is the plan. so you mentioned the phrase, and the other phrase i would mention is out of many, one. that's what the united states is. that's what we pride ourselves on. and what i'm so excited about is that we've had an outpouring of support of regular folks on both sides of the aisle who understand that this is a time to stand up for people who stood up for us, and that we are at our very best when we are at a place of welcome. when we help people make a new start, that's the essence of the american story and that's what we have an opportunity to do
5:57 am
now. and i'm grateful to say that people from all walks of life, companies, veterans organizations, faith-based groups, regular folks are coming together. we want them to come to welcome u.s. on the internet as a place to find ways to help. and many are coming forward and that's an exciting moment. it says something about us that is tremendously important as americans and what we represent to the world. >> cecelia, what about the message that you're delivering right now about welcome.us that might be important for us to brace now more than ever before? >> well, look, i think about this as being a moment to remind ourselves who we are as americans. so many of us trace our own histories to a story very much like the story of these afghan families who are coming. this is an opportunity to stand up and do good, remember who we are, and to do well by people who did right by us. so welcome.us is a place to
5:58 am
connect to ways that you can help. >> i love it. for more information and to get involved, go to welcome.us on the web. cecelia, thank you so much. it's great to see you and thank you for doing this. >> thanks so much, mika. time now for final thoughts. willie geist, i send it to you. >> first of all, that's a great effort right there. people ought to check out, if they can. final thought for this morning is gavin newsom doesn't just survive, but he wins overwhelmingly by nearly 30 point. it will come down a little from that number. but there was consternation over the summer about this race. it was a question about mask mandates, vaccine mandates, covid restrictions, and gavin newsom fights and survives to make it to his next election a year from now. >> yeah, and the autopsy, the instant autopsy points to a large element of trumpism being a factor in his enormous victory in california and we just heard
5:59 am
another aspect of it in terms of welcoming afghan immigrants into the united states. i think it's going to be quite a while before we come to settle the enormous, enormous damage that the trump administration did to this country in four short years. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi, there. i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is wednesday, september 15th. let's get smarter. this morning we're going to start out on the west coast where the results of the hugely expensive and contentious california recall are in and it wasn't even close. california democratic governor gavin newsom easily held onto his seat, winning by a nearly two to one margin, with about 70% of the vote now in, the governor is up by more than 2.5 million votes. here's what he had to say after
6:00 am
learning he held onto his job. >> i'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, so much of the negativity that's defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years. >> i want to bring in california's favorite son, nbc's jacob soboroff in sacramento, national correspondent, steve kornacki, with the break down, and tim miller, an nbc political analyst. we cannot forget this cost californians, you and your neighbors, a quarter of a billion dollars, and it was basically a blowout. are the people there surprised at how things turned out? how do they feel about this price tag? are they awa
130 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC West Television Archive Television Archive News Search Service The Chin Grimes TV News ArchiveUploaded by TV Archive on