"morning joe" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, august 5th. we're following a lot of breaking news this morning. china announcing a short time ago that it has sanctioned house speaker nancy pelosi for her visit to taiwan this week. we'll discuss what, if anything, this means for u.s. foreign policy. plus, democrats are now on track to pass a sweeping spending bill that is key to the biden agenda. more on the negotiations that won over senator kyrsten sinema, allowing the bill to move forward. and donald trump's arizona sweep is complete. kari lake wins the republican nomination for governor, becoming the fourth election denier and trump-endorsed candidate to win in this state.

>> look at that, there's a whole lot of crazy right there. election deniers. insurrectionists. weirdos, freaks, you have it all. the republican candidates in arizona, all of them extreme, all of them insurrectionists, all of them people who actually don't believe in american democracy. they believe in their form of government, where, well, you only recognize elections where your side wins. >> and this is what folks on the far right have been working on for quite some time. what this says about trumpism and the future of the republican party. also, a russian court sentences wnba star brittney griner to nine years in prison. we will have reaction from president biden and the latest on efforts to get her home. and monkeypox now declared a national public health

emergency. we'll speak with a top health adviser about this later this morning. willie, we have a lot to talk about. we also have some polls out of ohio. it seems that butter is down by 10 or 11 points, according to his survey, falling behind tim ryan. that one is -- that one is fascinating. you look at dr. oz in pennsylvania. it's a precursor. those things are a precursor to what happened in arizona. you talk about -- i have to say, you talk about extremes, and i think the arizona republican party, the rank and file selected, again, the most extreme slate of candidates, probably in modern american history. four election deniers. four people who, despite all of the federal courts, all of the trump appointees, all of the trump supreme court justices, all of the republicans up and down the line who have said that

this election was legitimate, all of the people who worked on the trump administration who said this election was legitimate, the republican slate of candidates this fall, insurrectionists, freaks, weirdos, really, really extreme. the most extreme slate of candidates in american history. >> yeah. some of those in arizona, not just casual election deniers. the nominee for secretary of state was at the capitol on january 6th. he was at the stop the steal rally. kari lake, the nominee for governor, has adopted the language of election denial. she was a different person a couple years ago when she supported barack obama. >> obama supporter. >> exactly. but she now says that, yes, i have evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. except i'm not going to share it with you because you're in the fake news. she keeps saying she has evidence but won't share it. that's sort of beside the point. now, the four of them are on the doorstep. they're one step away, one

election away in arizona from being in positions of real power where they could have, if they'd been in place in 2020, they could have done something to change the outcome of the 2020 election. they could have flipped votes there. it is not just arizona, as you say, it is pennsylvania, where dr. oz is also playing a part, pretending he is crazy. voters are starting to see through that in the poll you mentioned. same goes for jd vance, the venture capital guy, the guy from silicon valley, also playing a part. ohio voters, it looks like, are starting to see through that. none of these elections will be easy for democrats, but these are definitely the candidates they hoped to face in the fall. >> well, and the stakes, mika, could not be any higher. couldn't be any higher, especially these races where you have election deniers who are running. is it an overstatement? i don't know. i guess our viewers can decide whether it is an overstatement to say that our form of american democracy is at risk if we start

electing people who deny election results when their side loses. >> yeah. >> that's where we are. you don't want to overstate it. you don't want to be hyperbolic. >> but it is dangerous. >> but, yeah, so much is at stake this fall when you have these people who are insurrectionists, or who supported the insurrectionists. you have the republican gubernatorial candidate in pennsylvania who showed up on january 6th and, again, talks the language of insurrection, that talks the language of election denial. it's anti-democratic, and it is un-american. along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," the author of "the big lie," jonathan lemire. >> huge. >> and pulitzer prize winning columnist and editor of "the

"washington post,"" eugene robinson is with us. yesterday, it didn't look good, but sinema agrees to back the bill. it comes days after democrats lobbying her on the deal. in a statement last night, the moderate senator said she'd come on board after the carried interest tax provision was removed. the bill imposes a 15% minimum tax on large corporations after many companies paid little to no taxes after the 2017 trump tax cut. a new exile tax on stock buybacks was added, and lawmakers also agreed to add funding to combat droughts. the package includes many top items on president biden's agenda. including other tax reform measures, investments to combat climate change, help for people to pay for prescription drugs.

that was a big one they were fighting for. and the package reduces the deficit. both senate leaders spoke about the bill yesterday with senator schumer praising the package, while minority leader mitch mcconnell criticized its size. >> soon, the senate will vote on the groundbreaking legislation. i expect we'll have late nights and extended debates here on the floor. but in the end, we're going to make good on our word to pass the inflation reduction act. >> the democrats have decided to spend hundreds of billions of dollars of the people's money on a bill that has a lapse of the people's priorities. i'd dare our colleagues to walk up to a working class american on the street and ask them what the government ought to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on. well, first off, at a time of inflation, they'd probably tell them not to spend hundreds of

billions of dollars in the first place. >> you know, it is interesting. i guess mitch and republicans are against stopping prescription drugs and those prices from being high. that's anti-inflationary. i guess mitch and the republicans are against allowing medicare to negotiate with big drug companies to get better deals. that would drive down the price of medicare, so that's anti-inflationary. i guess mitch and the republicans are against limiting out-of-pocket drug costs for working class americans. that's anti-inflationary. i do understand why republicans would be against reducing the federal budget deficit by $300 billion after they raised it under donald trump year after year after year after year. same thing with tax credits. also, i'm pretty sure that

working class americans are sick and tired of oil companies and tech companies and amazon.com and occidental petroleum and nike, all these massive corporations over the past several years paying zero in taxes. you look at these numbers, willie. 77% like the democratic plan to place caps on prescription drug price hikes. they like the plan to allow medicare to finally get to negotiate with big pharma. 77%, 73%. 73% like the limiting out-of-pocket drug costs. 73% like reducing the federal budget deficit, even though donald trump and republicans hate that and have proven that by blowing a hole in the deficit over the past five years. they like tax credits for renewable energy tech. they like actually making the largest multi-national

corporations in america pay a minimum tax. it looks pretty popular. so i'm going to be curious to see all the republicans who are against this, actually this anti-inflationary package that actually lowers the deficit. >> those numbers are not just among democrats, we should point out. that's among all americans. you have three-quarters of the country supporting a lot of the provisions inside this bill. that is why chuck schumer feels he is on good political ground, as they look like they're going to pass this. that is why senator joe manchin of west virginia came around to it, because he believes it will, in fact, reduce the deficit. let's go to ali vitali, nbc news capitol hill correspondent. most people thought that, yes, senator sinema would come around eventually. she did last night, really getting this carried interest tax out of the bill. but it was, in fact, replaced by another tax on buyback of stock for corporations that democrats say will even this out in the end.

was she a tough arm to twist, or was she always going to be there for chuck schumer? >> reporter: look, this is one where democrats were hopeful that she would come around, but multiple senators i talked to over the course of this week said this is not something they're confident in until the vote actually happens. of course, having sinema on the record saying she's on board is a really big help. it doesn't do anything to speed up the process. we are still in for what chuck schumer warned us about, which is many late nights. in fact, those nights are going to be happening this weekend, so you're going to see a lot of tired senators going into their summer recess and a lot of tired reporters waiting for the house to come back and do their job to do their side of passing this bill. but what this is going to look like over the weekend, willie, is the senate parliamentarians still doing their scrub of this bill, making sure the final text will be ready for some point this weekend when they're going to start this process saturday afternoon. that's going to kick off the first vote on it, then up to 20 hours of debate.

then a very lengthy round of unlimited amendment votes. it is going to be a very long weekend in the senate. look, what the upside of this sinema thing is, for the democrats, this was always a top priority. in part, because of what you were talking about. a lot of the things that are in this poll very popularly, not just among democrats but across the political board. then, of course, the other piece of it is the fact that they would love to be able to go home and not just say they're doing things on climate, on prescription drug pricing, on all the other pieces that are popular in this bill, but the very name of it, the inflation reduction act, is the very counter they want to be able to bring to republicans who are trying to make, at every turn, this midterm election cycle a referendum on the economy. democrats now get to say that not only have they ticked through several policy priorities in this bill, but they've also done things to blunt the impact of inflation that americans are seeing on their wallet every day. >> all right.

nbc's ali vitali, thank you very much. greatly appreciate the reporting. gene robinson, a lot of very popular things in this bill. i do need to say, though, i do find it incredible that, for years, republicans, and i guess now some conservative democrats, go out of their way to continue to protect the wealthiest hedge fund managers in america. >> yeah. >> and that was the deal killer for kyrsten sinema, trying to save a provision that, as warren buffett has said for years, allows the richest hedge fund managers to pay lower tax rates than their secretaries and clerical staff that work for them. >> exactly. >> it is crazy. it is crazy. >> it is crazy. it is crazy. and i thought that maybe this time they'd finally gotten rid

of this. it is manifestly unfair. it is just a tax break just for these super wealthy hedge fund managers and lets them count what is clearly income as, you know, in some different category, and pay very little tax on it. it is ridiculous. who knows? i don't think anybody is quite sure why this is such a huge issue for sinema. my supposition is that she and perhaps other democrats -- who knows if there were other senators who secretly wanted to keep this -- will continue to get big campaign contributions from hedge fund managers. that's the only thing i can figure out. >> unbelievable. >> or maybe that's the business she wants to go into when she leaves the senate someday. i just don't -- those are the only reasons.

it's so manifestly ridiculous on its face, you'd think that'd be the first thing to do. but here it is. we still got carried interest. >> jonathan lemire, as the white house watches this unfold, chuck schumer says he's got the 50 votes he needs right now. believe the parliamentaian is going to rubber stamp this and it will, in fact, go through the senate. he has to be celebrating today. his personal numbers are in the 30s, if you look at more polling this week. if you look at the last several weeks, a lot of it bipartisan, this on party lines, major pieces of legislation going through the senate and signed on his desk. not just good for his party but much of it good for the country and something his democratic candidates can run on this fall. >> yeah. white house aides i've been in touch with will hold off on the full-on celebration until the vote is gone, because there are unpredictable characters. certainly, this is well on its way, and they are deeply relieved and very pleased. they point to the idea that,

suddenly, the biden administration here has overseen a number of major legislative victories. the bipartisan infrastructure deal, of course. the chips package this past week or so that will allow the u.s. to better compete with china, making computer chips. covid relief funds. the gun control bill. now this, biggest of all. is it smaller than build back better was going to be last year? yes, of course it was, but it is still significant. it hits a lot of democratic priorities, including on climate change. climate change, the largest investment ever made in this country. it gives democratic candidates something to run on this fall with a lot of popular items. we showed the poll. most things in the bill, perhaps except the carried interest loophole, carry well along democrats. they have a fighting chance and could do better than people predicted months ago, especially with the candidates republicans

put off, as we mentioned the top of the show. this is significant for democrats running this november. it is significant for this president, who has had a number of wins here and seems to have some wind at his back. white house aides will be watching a couple late nights. august weekend, that's tough for the u.s. senate, but they feel it is a good thing. it's almost there. >> we'll come back to this in a minute. some more news this morning, conspiracy theorist alex jones must pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the family of a child killed in the sandy hook shooting. after jones spent years pedaling false claims the shooting was a hoax. but his troubles may only be beginning as he focuses on his text messages. prosecutors are looking closely at those. they were mistakenly sent to prosecutors by jones' attorneys. nbc news correspondent anne thompson has details. >> reporter: alex jones learning the cost of his lies. >> members of the jury reached a

verdict reason a jury saying the info wars host must pay $4 million to a victim of the sandy hook shooting after years of this. >> sandy hook is a synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured. >> reporter: jones didn't face his lies about the shooting. >> it is 100% real. >> reporter: for the parents of jesse lewis, who brought the suit, the damages were less than the $150 million they sought. but far more than the $8 jones' attorney offered in closing arguments. a dollar for each of the claims. >> the jury returned a verdict for compensatory damages exceeding $4 million. that's a darn good start. we now have the punishment phase. >> reporter: jones may face even bigger troubles over the trove of text messages mistakenly sent to the plaintiff's attorney. >> i'd ask the january 6th attorney to -- >> i don't know they -- >> reporter: the texts include

intimate messages with trump adviser roger stone. the committee is looking into jones' roll in the rally and riot at the capitol. jones asked for a mistrial due to the emails. the judge denied the request. >> anne thompson reporting there. this is a money-making game and has been for a decade now for alex jones. i'm not sure people fully appreciate the pain that he has brought upon families who already were living with the fact their children were slaughtered inside a first grade classroom in sandy hook. that they've been harassed by people who listen to alex jones, who believe the conspiracy theories and the hoaxes that he puts out there. they've had to move. they've had to change their names. they've been told that they're liars, crisis actors. it is real additional pain on top of the unimaginable pain they're already in. >> unimaginable. the hatred, the cruelty. you know, it seems that, for too

long, we've lived in a political and media culture from the far right. it's been defined by these lies, falsehoods, by this slander of people, whether it's on twitter or social media or in podcasts or on the radio, and we've moved on to treasonous language. for good reason, i think a lot of americans, millions of americans, have asked where is the justice? where is the accountability? are there no rules? are there no guardrails in american culture to stop these sort of lies, where you have a guy, a conspiracy theorist who can actually tell parents of slaughtered 6-year-olds that your children never existed. and make millions and millions of dollars from it. or you can have news networks going on spreading lies about american democracy, spreading

lies about voting machines, trying to destroy companies' reputations. you have a president that, every day, would lie about people. i know that very well. again, no accountability. no accountability from twitter. no accountability from facebook. no accountability from social media for all of these lies. >> maybe -- >> mika? >> yeah? >> maybe, just maybe, we are starting to see, in time, over time, that there is a cost for being defined by these fire hoses of falsehoods. where you have alex jones now being accountable, at least $4 million to start. we're moving on to the punitive stage. rudy giuliani being disbarred. one network after another on the far right being sued for billions of dollars for the lies they spread about dominion and voting machines.

perhaps, just perhaps, this is the beginning. this is the first guardrail that's being put up there to send a message to other people, to other liars out there, that actually would lie about 6-year-olds slaughtered to make money, to protect the gun industry, maybe this is the start of accountability at long last. >> it might be. it might be. i find his behavior in court to be repulsive. he continues to try and snake his way out of arguments with different lawyers and the judge. i draw a direct line to even some of the politicians we're seeing now. in arizona, kari lake, just cravenly lying about the contours of our democracy and how to behave in it if you want to be in a democracy. pushing lies, pushing conspiracy

theories, hurting people, just loving hurting people, it is repulsive. >> it's money. >> it's disgusting. >> it wins votes for hope and change kari. hope and change kari decided to adopt donald trump's lies. hope and change kari got tired of being an obama supporter and thought her best chance of getting elected would be to stop being hope and change kari and start being stolen election kari. it worked in the primary. >> insurrection kari. >> perhaps -- >> bill of rights for rapists kari. you name it. >> perhaps these lies will be called out by the voters. in a few hours, the jury in the defamation trial be reconvene to deliberate on possible punitive damages to be paid out to families of sandy hook victims. we'll be following that. more now on the text

messages. the attorney for the sandy hook parents suing jones confirmed the january 6th committee has requested the two years' worth of records from jones' phone that were mistakenly sent to him. >> whoops. >> by jones' lawyers. >> uh-oh. >> this is a request and not a subpoena, but the attorney says he intends to comply. jones heavily promoted the stop the steal rally and is alleged to have been involved in the planning and funding of it. jones did speak with the january 6th committee back in january, where he claims to have pleaded the fifth nearly 100 times. a spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. let's bring in congressional investigations reporter for "the washington post," jackie alemany. msnbc contributor. jackie, what more do you know about this and other requests, perhaps for records by the committee? >> good morning, mika.

yeah, these text messages from alex jones could be a treasure-trove for the january 6th select committee. they're very likely to actually receive these texts. as you just noted, alex jones was not that cooperative with the committee. as we've seen previously, text messages have been key evidentiary building blocks for the committee as they've done their work in the past year. in a subpoena letter from congressman bennie thompson, they noted several areas and topics that jones' text messages could provide further light on. one, jones was involved with the planning of the january 6th rally on the ellipse. we've previously reported about some of his communications with planners of the rally, like wren and ali alexander, as well, ana tortuous insurrectionist who was

cooperating with the committee. they're also extremely interested in what jones said to trump after his infamous december 19th tweet, where he told his supporters, be there. it will be wild. jones went on "info wars" that same day and called the tweet one of the most historic events in american history. we also note jones was in touch with people like roger stone and others who were staying at the willard hotel, which was sort of the home base for some of these schemes to overturn the results of the election. especially as the committee is pursuing further threads, trying to shed light on former president trump's ties to extremists and what exactly he knew about some of the planning taking place that day, jones' texts could be very key evidence in that regard. >> yeah, jackie, as you say, alex jones could be a link between a lot of these pieces the committee is putting together, including his friend

roger stone. you talk about the willard hotel, that sort of command center that was set up there, especially on the night of january 5th with the group of people trying to help donald trump with his attempted coup. does the committee have any sense -- i mean, obvious, alex jones didn't tell them anything. he pleaded the fifth more than 100 times when he sat with them. does the committee have a sense or suspicion about what his role may have been in getting people to the capitol and trying to pull off this coup? >> they have a superficial sense. they also have been able to sort of cobble together a picture based on cooperation from other players who were around jones and close to him. again, people like ali alexander and maybe some other names we haven't yet heard from. but i think what the committee has realized, even after a year's worth of investigating and obtaining hundreds and thousands of documents and interviews, is that there are

still evidentiary gaps here. people have successfully been able to avoid being fully transparent. we've seen entities like the secret service, the department of defense, and so i think -- and their failure to turn over everything required of them. i think there is an expectation that they'll learn more about the efforts about planning the rally on january 5th and january 6th, and the role that jones played, whether there was any coordination. you know, we've already seen some threads of this in the previous eight hearings. there were some text messages suggesting that the former president knew that -- and was telling supporters in a quiet way that he was going to be walking to the capitol after his speech. how did they know that? so there are a lot of questions here. investigators are hoping that

jones' text messages could shed some new light on that. >> all right. "the washington post" jackie alemany, thank you so much for your reporting on this friday morning. have a great weekend. thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," breaking overnight, china sanctions house speaker nancy pelosi on the heels of her trip to taiwan. what she's saying about beijing's reaction to her visit. plus, russia's foreign minister says moscow is ready to hold talks about a potential prisoner swap following wnba star brittney griner's conviction. we'll have the latest on the effort to bring her home. also this morning, congresswoman liz cheney gets a little help from her father, former vice president dick cheney, ahead of a tough primary challenge. we'll show you the ad. it's pretty impressive. with more infections being reported, the biden administration declares monkeypox a public health

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brittney griner has been sentenced to nine years in a russian prison after being convicted yesterday on drug charges by a moscow court. griner, arrested in february at a moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, made a final plea in closing arguments, apologizing and repeating she

never intended to break any russian laws. >> i want the courts to understand it was an honest mistake. i had no intent on breaking any russian laws. i had no intent. i did not conspire or plan to commit this crime. and i hope that, in your ruling, that it doesn't end my life here. >> griner must also pay a fine of about $16,000. shortly after the verdict was announced, president biden released a statement reiterating the u.s. position, that griner is wrongfully detained. writing, quote, it is unacceptable, and i call on russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates. griner's wnba team, the phoenix mercury, participated in a 42-second moment of silence, signifying her jersey number,

before last night's game. attention now turns to the potential for a prisoner swap between washington and moscow. this morning, russian foreign minister sergey lavrov said the kremlin is ready to talk through an existing back channel after no substantive response to a u.s. offer for griner's release in june. the offer was a swap of griner and another american being held in russia, paul whelan, in exchange for russian prisoner viktor bout. whelan was imprisoned for spying, charges he and his family deny. he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020. joining us now, senior international correspondent keir simmons. keir, any more word on the

potential contours of a deal and if it is being taken seriously by the russians? >> reporter: mika, i think the russians are taking it seriously, but i think what we now have in store is pretty brutal politics, frankly. sergey lavrov, as you said, say he is ready to talk. he also criticized america for what he called public diplomacy. that comes after peskov criticized what he called loudspeaker diplomacy. the foreign minister spokeswoman, again, she, too, criticized the white house for kind of making all of this public. i think we're in a really difficult place, honestly. we need a reality check here. this sentence of nine years, just one year short of the maximum sentence possible, gives the russians time. i don't think you should expect

the russians necessarily to be prepared to move fast. there is the opportunity for an appeal within ten days by brittney griner's team, and they are suggesting they plan to do that. but we've discussed before, i mean, it is incredibly unusual for the white house to openly, you know, kind of put on the table the offer they're making. my prediction is that the russians will now view that as a starting point. i don't think they're going to be prepared to do a two-for-one deal, brittney griner and paul whelan for this arms trafficker. i suspect they'll look at the deal with trevor reed, where a drug trafficke was swapped for trevor reed. they'll say, that was one for one. sorry to say it, but i think this is an example where inside the beltway politics, good, probably smart from the white house point of view, inside the beltway politics is not good

geopolitics. the white house felt they needed to indicate, particularly ahead of the midterms, they were doing everything they could to try to secure brittney griner and paul whelan's release. but publicly negotiating, i mean, the russians are criticizing it, let's be clear, it is the russians responsible for what's happening to brittney griner. it is an appalling sentence. but publicly negotiating is a strange way to negotiate. by the way, keep in mind, too, what the russians ae trying to do here is embarrass the white house. they, once again, try to show america as being weak. they will see this as an opportunity to do that by turning around and saying, okay, that's what you're offering. this is what we want. we're going to stand firm until we get what we want. >> secure your right, and the public posture from the white house is unusual, but they were getting so much pressure from the rest of the country. they'd been silent for the first couple months of her dtention

and then there was push to do something and, therefore, they are. you're right, there is concern it might not be successful. >> it is understandable. the u.s. domestic politics is understandable. i don't think it helps brittney griner's case. >> exactly right. what is the concern level in international diplomatic circles that this is just going to embolden russia to do something like this again? there will be an american or otherwise, some sort of civilian they can detain, then try to hold them up for another public relations coup and prisoner swap? >> that's another one of the issues. what we've done, what we've seen effectively is a stunning policy shift from a policy that said we don't do these kind of prisoner swaps, for precisely the reason you're suggesting. what you do is you say to russia and many other countries, arrest another american citizen, and you can get whoever it is you want back from an american prison. we've seen a shift from that

policy to what we now appear to have, which is that, yeah, america is prepared to swap when needed, when they're under domestic political pressure. again, just to be clear, it's completely understandable. understand feels for brittney griner's family, for paul whelan's family. it is understandable, the politics of it. but there are huge risks here for other americans in the world, and i think, also, again, risks to the negotiations themselves. because while the russians are criticizing this, what they're calling this public diplomacy, they're also going to be enjoying it, frankly. >> yeah. gene robinson, of course, the problem with a one-for-one swap is you have paul whelan, who has been there longer, has a longer sentence, and his family is, of course, not going to -- is not going to be quiet if he's left behind for political purposes or

because he doesn't have as high of a profile, and the biden white house, let's face it, i mean, they haven't been pressured to gain his release as much as brittney griner. so i think this discussion is important because maybe the white house has backed themselves into a corner by publicly talking about a two-for-one swap. seems to me they have no other option, to get both out or none out. >> that's probably right. you probably have to get them both out. i mean, the whole thing is complicated but effective. brittney griner is a famous person. she is famous around the world. she's one of the best basketball players in the world. known throughout the united states, known throughout russia.

that complicates things. i think keir is probably right, that the russians will feel they now don't have to do a two-for-one. on the other hand, they do really want this arms dealer, viktor bout, who has been in a u.s. prison for a decade. he's a bad, bad guy. you know, a merchant of death. richly deserves to be in a u.s. prison. but he's been in there for a decade, and i can understand why the administration would be willing to say, okay, it's worth, you know, making that trade. he is somebody that, for whatever reason, the russians really, really want to get out of the u.s. prison. they want him back home. apparently, putin wants him home. lavrov apparently raises this with u.s. officials.

bout's situation is raised regularly, and has been for years. we'll see how badly they want this guy. >> all right. keir, why don't you stand by. we have a lot of other foreign policy news to talk to you about. house speaker nancy pelosi's trip to taiwan and the reaction to it by china. we'll be back in a moment. (vo) red lobster's seafood summerfest is fire! turn up for the grilled lobster, shrimp and salmon trio ...and our hottest summer duo, steak and lobster! it's lit! don't miss red lobster's seafood summerfest.

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taiwan, saying china is trying to isolate the island. >> we have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo here in asia. continuing the status quo with taiwan. they may try to keep taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate taiwan by preventing us to travel there. we've had high-level visits, senators in the spring, a bipartisan way, continuing visits, and we will not allow them to isolate taiwan. >> that's speaker pelosi earlier today. china now is conducting military drills near taiwan in response to pelosi's visit. japan's prime minister condemning the exercises, after missiles landed in japanese

waters. china's diplomat walked out of a high-profile dinner in cambodia. included at the dinner was secretary of state antony blinken. we're learning this morning, just minutes ago, actually, china says we are going to cease talks with the united states on the economy, on climate change, and other matters we've been discussing because of speaker pelosi's visit, throwing a full diplomatic tantrum here. >> the chinese are furious. i think they are deliberately furious. i mean the sense that it is not surprising. richard haass has been saying this clearly on the show for many weeks. i've been listening. i think the timing of this ahead of the 20th chinese communist party convention, where president xi is expected to get his third term, i think the timing of this is significant. they will see nancy pelosi's visit as significant because it is so close to that moment.

also, they will see it domestically as an opportunity to assert the power of china, the confidence of china in the world now, and that will be a good message the chinese government, i think, will think as they head towards this decision to give president xi more time in the presidency. i think really what we're seeing here is a kind of reality of the situation surrounding taiwan, and in the world, a much more assertive china. in a sense, you could call it what the russians call hybrid warfare. it is an example of what the chinese call the wolf warrior diplomacy. shouting loudly. criticizing openly america's policies. we're seeing that play out here. effectively, the chinese are asserting themselves over taiwan through this pelosi visit. i say all that because, clearly,

there is the domestic politics surrounding this here in the u.s. but the reality and the geopolitical sense is that, again, some of this is politics and deliberate politics. >> gene, it works, actually, perfectly, for xi politically at home, domestically, where, again, he is trying to be crowned king for life or whatever he is trying to do. trying to gain more power than any political leader since mao. but his economy is in trouble. his zero covid policy was a nightmare. him busting up hong kong has led to this once extraordinarily vital center of commerce in asia to start to fall apart. his enslavement of 2 million uighurs continues to haunt him on the global stage. so he has a nice, little,

diplomatic war here. it plays well at home. he's been sort of amping up the jingoism as he moves to the fall. nancy pelosi going there sends a good message, i think, regarding america's stance toward taiwan, but it is a great opportunity for xi at home to use it for his own domestic political purposes. >> yeah. maybe he will see it as a great opportunity, and he is making all this noise, you know, in advance of his getting his third term. but, you know, remember that people in china, chinese citizens, they know about the economy. they know what's happening with the economy. they know how bad and disastrous the zero covid policies have been. you know, they're not necessarily thrilled with how the government has been handling things recently.

remember, before the pelosi visit, she made a very big deal, the chinese made a very big deal. she cannot come, must not come. maybe it was all for show, but she came anyhow. so what i'm hoping is that this flurry of getting up and walking out of the dinner, we won't talk to you anymore, all of that is enough for him to feel that -- for xi to feel that he has saved face after pelosi basically, you know, did something in his face that he demanded she not do. hopefully, you know, this is enough and he'll get his third term and things will calm down. >> keir, briefly, we were talking at the break, let's look ahead a bit. the g20 is scheduled for indonesia, likely to be the first face-to-face meeting for presidents biden and xi since biden took office. it'd be after, we presume, xi

gets another term. where do we think the relationship will be then? can these two sides start to mend fence, or is this tension only going to get worse? >> i think it is a great question. in the end, this is brinksmanship. the question is, at what point does it stop, if you like, and a reality check come in on both sides? the issue here, though, is that there is a view in various parts of the world, russia, china, maybe saudi arabia, that america is weaker, that it is going through a very difficult period, and that the right diplomacy is to take advantage of that. that's, in a sense, why you could argue the pelosi visit was important. in the end, what people will remember is that she did go. ultimately, if that view turns out to be wrong, and it may well, that america is weaker, then things like this pelosi visit may be part of sending that message.

so how will they interact at the g20? we shall see. but it is a very different world, and president xi is going to go in there believing that he is facing an american president as an equal. >> nbc's keir simmons, thanks so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. coming up, hungary's far right leader, viktor orban, gets a starring role -- >> can't make this stuff up. >> -- and standing ovation at cpac. >> a guy who attacks western democracy. >> at cpac. >> he's now beloved by, well, you can't even say conservatives. i guess the extreme, anti-democratic right. >> just add it to the list. >> it's crazy. >> we'll have much more on the troubling extremism that we are seeing in the republican party. plus, we'll go through the changes democrats made to the party's spending and tax legislation that got joe

manchin, kyrsten sinema, and steve rattner on board. >> steve rattner is on board? wow. >> his chats on why he thinks this version of the democrats' agenda is better than the original build back better one. "morning joe" is coming right back. i'm the latest hashtag challenge. and everyone on social media is trying me. but if you don't have the right auto insurance coverage, you could be left to pay for all of this... yourself. so get allstate.

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contain the virus. welcome back to "morning joe." it is friday, august 5th. jonathan lemire is still with us. >> can we change that to "new york times" best selling author, jonathan lemire is still with us. >> we're proud of him. >> thank you. thank you. >> yes, i can't even think of anything snarky to say. you did a great job, lemire. great job. >> i can. >> go ahead. >> the yankees are playing .500 ball, so we don't need to get into that now, but huge week for jonathan lemire. wrote a great book, well deserved. if you look at the print and e books combined, he is number two on "the new york times" best seller list, behind some weird thing. >> i appreciate the kind words and i think the lack of snarky words will come to an end, as

john heilemann is hecking me. >> i was just complimenting the guy. i was saying you'll remember in 2012 or 2011, when mitt romney wrote his book, coming out at number one with "the new york times" list with the double daggers. it shows unusual buying patterns of the book, showing that his pac was buying books to get him on the list. lemire, not a single dagger. legit. >> thank you for that information. totally useless information. >> professor of princeton, eddie glaude is here. >> eddie glaude jr. is with us, too. >> uselessness is in the eyes of the beholder. not in jonathan lemire's view. >> looking at useless right now. so, no, jonathan lemire has really written the definitive book on the big lie, so it is very -- it is a point of pride

for all of us here on "morning joe." let's start with politics and what's happening in arizona. nbc news projects that 2020 election denier kari lake is the winner of the republican nomination for governor in arizona, with mark finchem and himedeh running for secretary of state and attorney general respectively. it could result in arizona having election deniers overseeing its elections and certifying and defending results in the most important swing state. >> certainly one of the most important swing states. john heilemann, you have arizona, politically at least, on a razor's edge. this is all very good news for democrats or terrible news for the united states, depending on whether these election deniers are too radical to be elected or, in fact, are eventually put

into office by arizona voters. >> yeah, that's the thing, joe. there's obviously been this debate in the party. democrats have done a lot to help some of the radical candidates become the nominees of their party because they think they're more beatable, and they probably are. more beatable doesn't mean they're 100% beatable. so you're playing a little bit of russian roulette here with the democracy. you know, i think the reality is that arizona is fully a swing state, fully a battleground state in presidential politics, but it's the most recent one. unlike places like pennsylvania or michigan or wisconsin that have been battleground states for decades, this one recently was almost entirely a republican state. you worry, if you care about democracy and are a democrat, you worry that maybe arizona is a battleground state in presidential election years, where turnout is traditionally high, but in a midterm year, we revert back to a traditional

pattern where you have the older and whiter electorate, which is usually the case, and the candidates in arizona could end up, one of them, more than one of them, ends up sneaking into office. then you have a real problem. i think someone raised the other day, it'll be an interesting question for the biden campaign if one of the people or more than one gets in, do they decide, if joe biden is running for re-election or whoever the democrat is, do you try to build a way to 270 without arizona, knowing that state might be kinky at the end of 2024? >> you know, eddie, this is no fluke when you see four candidates running on the same platform, all being elected, right? this isn't some trick of accounting. it is voters going out and saying, we like what we hear in arizona. i guess the question will be, in a general election, are there enough people who say this election is too important. i have to stop these people from being put into office. they've been clear and explicit about what they would have done in 2020. that is to try, and they would have had some power to try to do it, to prevent joe biden from

being named the winner of the state which, of course, he was by a narrow margin. >> absolutely, willie. gives a sense of the nature of the republican base, what they desire, what they want. one of those folks, i think finchem, is affiliated with the oath keepers. these are noxious folks. >> yes. >> it gives a sense of what is at the heart of the republican party, but like you say, we will see what happens in the general election. arizona is a much more complicated space when we talk about the general populus. let's see what happens. a new poll in the senate race in ohio shows democratic congressman tim ryan with a sizable lead over his republican opponent. the latest poll from senator street pac, a nonpartisan committee, shows ryan leading his opponent, jd vance, 49% to 38%, among likely voters. 12% remain undecided. joe, what do you make of the polls? this is not the first one that

shows ryan in the lead. >> yeah, ryan has been in the lead in quite a few polls. who knows? maybe this is outside the margin. but you have, again, tim ryan, a guy who has served youngstown, ohio, for a long time. they know him, running against butters, who is, like, i like san francisco. i hate san francisco. i like venture capitalism. i hate venture capitalism. i mean, you know, he goes back and forth. loves silicon valley, hates silicon valley. he is obviously a phony. i think it's showing up in these polls. just like dr. oz, guy who votes in turkey, lives in jersey. i mean, votes in turkey, gives in jersey, running for senator in the keystone state. >> why? >> i mean, there's a song or a chant there somewhere, john heilemann. again, you look at the republicans. you look at what they're doing

with legislation across the country. you look at 10-year-old girls having to flee their states who are raped because the state is going to force them to have their rapist's baby. you look at other republican legislators that are putting together arapist's family's bill of rights. if a young girl is raped and tries to end the pregnancy, the rapist's family members can sue her for $20,000, each one of them can. in texas, they're fighting the federal government's attempt to stop moms from dying on operating tables. this is really crazy stuff. we saw it play out in kansas the other day. now, you look again at butters and dr. oz and some of these crack pots, some of these phonies running. i mean, i've got to believe, if you're mitch mcconnell, if you're a republican that

actually thought this year was going to be easy, you've got to be shaking your head at this point. >> mitch mcconnell has seen it before, joe. he did some interviews earlier this year where he was like, you know, you could tell he was haunted by the specter of 2014 and some other of the elections where they have -- they had issues. 2010. then this tendency in this new century for republicans to, especially on the senate side, to mess up opportunities to win seats they should be able to win. mitch mcconnell knows what this feels like, and he must be having the sinking feeling again. i'll say, there's nothing that makes me want to say happy friday more than hearing you do your jd vance imitation. always cheers me up. it is getting better and better. getting better and better. almost ready for primetime, very good. >> disturbing. >> it's the reality. the thing we talked about after the kansas vote, all those things are true. you cite some very vivid examples of thing. they're so vivid that they cut

through all the media clutter. the story of that young girl in indiana. for people in kansas who, for the last 50 years, say whatever you wanted to say about abortion, and i'm not doubting anyone's beliefs or religious convictions or whatever, but talk about what you thought of pro-life, pro-choice, whatever. then dobbs happens. the world changes. and the things that people have seen in the time since dobbs have been the kinds of things that people who essentially had a free vote in the past, where they could say whatever they wanted about being against abortion, had to look up and go, oh, this is what it means to be anti-abortion. this is what it means to be staunchly pro-life. this is what governors going to do. this is what the human consequences are going to be. that is both a powerful thing at human level, and we saw the consequences in kansas, but also for democrats, there have been a lot of people out there the last few days saying democrats need to harness this energy in a proactive way. if you give the party these bad

candidates, you pointed to in the senate races, give them a big issue like this that seems to have so much power, as demonstrated by kansas, again, it doesn't give democrats a cakewalk to take control of the senate or hold control of the house, but it could be the final thing that makes this an even match, basically, in november and gives democrats a fighting chance to do both those things. >> in the senate at least. eddie -- and some of the governors' races. eddie, you look at the kansas results, and you see people who voted republican. you see counties that voted for donald trump. you see rural counties that donald trump may have carried by 80%, you know, now at 60% or 50%. there were a lot of pro-lifers who voted to protect abortion rights. you can't help but look at this extremism, this radicalism.

the state compelling 10-year-old girls who have been raped. states stopping the protection of moms dying on operating tables. in michigan, we have a candidate who said the raping of a 14-year-old girl by her uncle is a perfect example of why they have to have this 14-year-old girl, compelled by the state, deliver her uncle's baby who raped her. that person just won the republican nomination in the state of michigan for governor. this has gotten real, real fast. >> real fast, joe. you know, i keep hearing in my head over and over again something senator mccaskill said. the dog finally caught the car and is like, oh, no, what have i done? the radicalism around abortion. now you have dobbs. now they have to deal with the consequences of it.

i think the way in which, you know, folks around pro hfpro-ch the whey they canvassed kansas, the way they appealed to folks who are pro-life in the state, they didn't run around talking about abortion in some idealogical sense. this is about choice. this is about your daughters. this is overreach and extremism. i think it was really effective. we moved out of the idealogical extremes around the issue and went to the heart of it. what are you thinking about your daughters? how are you thinking about these extremists taking over the government? we see the effects. yeah, the dog has caught the car, and look what's happening. >> the question of january 6th and the attack is on the ballot, as well, with her primary election less than two weeks ago, liz cheney of wyoming is out with a new political ad featuring her father, former vice president dick cheney. >> in our nation's 246-year history, there's never been an

individual that's been a greater threat than donald trump. he tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters rejected him. he is a coward. a real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. he lost his election and lost big. i know it. he knows it. deep down, i think most republicans know it. we're so proud of liz for standing up for the truth, doing what's right, honoring her oath to the constitution, when so many in our party are too scared to do so. liz is fearless. she never backs down from a fight. there is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure donald trump is never again near the oval office. and she will succeed. i am dick cheney, and i proudly voted for my daughter. i hope you do, too. >> i'm liz cheney, and i approve this message. >> wow. >> mika, extraordinary ad there. liz cheney has a big, uphill climb ahead of her. doesn't care. she's standing there.

>> doesn't care. >> in the breech, leading the january 6th committee, saying this is more important than leading an election. maybe i'll lead and i'll take the deal, but she is trailing in the polls. >> that is a powerful ad. delivered by a powerful man, her father, who is saying, looking americans straight in the eye and saying, this is a bad guy who is bad for america. liz doesn't care. she should win. she may not, but she will continue to fight and she will win. he was saying a couple things in that ad. john heilemann, i don't know if you had the same reaction i did, but i took a moment. i was taken aback by that. i thought it was incredible. >> mika, i heard from liberals all day yesterday who were like, basically expressing what i felt, which was like, i never thought i'd tear up over seeing dick cheney on television. >> mm-hmm. >> the reality is you look at the ad, and what you see -- again, put aside all your feelings about dick cheney and

the bush administration. put it aside. you can see there a father's love for his daughter. >> and belief in her. >> and his belief. that transmutes into belief. i have no doubt that dick cheney believes everything he said about donald trump, too. again, someone who did a lot of things that a lot of us, a lot of people, a lot of americans object to when he was vice president. but in this one moment, in this ad, you can see about two, three places, what looks like emotion from dick cheney pop through in that ad. >> yeah. >> you know, whether that'll move the needle or not. i will say this, though, people talk about -- willie said -- he's right, the polls say this and that in wyoming. i'm not predicting an outcome, but wyoming has a small number of republicans voting in this primary on the republican side. i do not trust the polling there. doesn't mean i think liz cheney is ahead and doesn't have an

uphill fight, but people running against her, including the main opponent who people don't know, she is known, you know, the cheney name is known by 100% of those in wyoming, it is unreliable polling, a small turnout electorate, and a ton of money and save liz cheney money pouring into the state. i still wouldn't bet on her winning, but i don't want anybody to think this is over. i don't think it necessarily is. >> it's not over, john heilemann. what i heard from the ad was he believes that she will fight and win, and you know what, she might not win this. of course, she might not win, but that doesn't mean she's not going to run for president. ultimately, if you believe in democracy and you believe in america like dick cheney does, you'll believe in liz cheney who will continue the fight and ultimately win, if you believe in democracy. if you are considering yourself a citizen of the united states of america, that's what he was

saying. >> let's pause a second, willie geist, and talk about how bizarre things have become in the republican party. dick cheney is seen as a liberal by republicans. that liz cheney is -- >> dick cheney. >> yeah. liz cheney is seen as a rhino because she doesn't support donald trump. despite the fact she has a 96% lifetime acu conservative rating. ideology, conservatism, none of it matters to this party. this is about as perfect a -- if you could say five years ago, we're going to do a lab test to see how much donald trump has corrupted the republican party, the republican base, how much he has brainwashed them, how much he's turned them into a personality cult, i'd say, take liz cheney and dick cheney and

put them in this experiment. see if they would be painted as libs and rhinos. sure enough, here we are, five, six years later. that's exactly what happened. now, consequently, i personally believe the consequences are going to be devastating for the republican party. they've already lost the house, the senate, the white house. they may do well in '22. long-term effect, i think it'll be devastating. but let's just stop and look and see. we've talked about the issues. generally, how radical they've become, that liz cheney and dick cheney are rhinos. >> yeah, and that is the primary attack on liz cheney in wyoming, that she betrayed donald trump, which tells you the whole story, doesn't it? i mean, john is right, progressives saying yesterday to me, i love dick cheney now? it's frying people's synapses. they don't know how to process what they're seeing right now. >> so confused. >> yeah, i mean, what an

incredible snapshot. dick cheney and liz cheney, who, as you say, are actual conservatives, actual republicans and not trumpists and not cultists, that they are now being cast out of the party as rhinos. man, it happened fast. joe, another story we're going to talk about, the party of ronald reagan yesterday at cpac giving a standing occasion to the authoritarian president of hungary, who is against democracy. >> so sick. >> a standing ovation. all of these go together as that snapshot you're talking about of a party that's completely been taken over by donald trump. >> well -- >> against democracy. they are, make no mistake of it, the republican party, which, mine, back when i was a member, we talked about small government. we talked about pushing back against big government, pushing back against strong men, pushing back against authoritarian leaders. of course, maybe donald trump is on his way out. maybe not. who knows?

but i just have got to bring this up, john heilemann. even republicans in tallahassee are shocked by this strongman tactic of ron desantis yesterday, who suspended an elected leader, suspended a state attorney in florida. for those of you that don't know, the people elect them. why did he suspend this guy? because of what he was thinking. because of what he said. not because of any actions he took. >> right. >> for even thinking something and expressing those thoughts. ron desantis, the governor of florida, suspended an elected official, a state attorney from another party. it is -- it is really -- the strongman trend in the republican party is so frightening. >> well, yeah.

joe, i'll say with desantis, this happened and is exactly the same thing intellectually, back after they passed the so-called don't say gay bill and there was the controversy with disney, when they repealed the disney tax status, when ron desantis went to tallahassee and called a special session, rammed that through, took away a tax break that disney, the state's largest employer had for decades, he did a press conference. with the down there with the circus at the time. he basically said, you know, people are asking me whether this is punitive, and the answer is, yeah, it's punitive. i'll tell you why we're taking this away. we don't like the -- i watched a bunch of zooms, and i saw a bunch of people who worked for disney in burbank say things about the so-called don't say gay bill. we don't welcome those people in this state. that's another example of it. it wasn't for anything disney had done in the state. it wasn't for anything, the way they treated the floridians or employees. he is saying there are people

who work at disney saying stuff i don't like, so public policy will be shaped on that. we'll take away the decade long tax break. that's a governor saying, if i hear stuff from you i don't like, if you campaign against me in a way i don't like, if you express opinions i disagree with or that i don't think are what floridians believe or whatever, i will use the tools of the state to punish you. this is just another example of exactly the same thing. it is the kind of thing that we used to say, the kind of thing you would have seen in the eastern block before the fall of the berlin wall. >> right. >> it's nuts. that guy is supposedly the republican frontrunner if donald trump doesn't run. >> and he did the same thing to the tampa bay rays for a tweet. >> yup. >> for a tweet. and i know, you know, probably his people are going, oh, it's great. liberals are attacking -- no, this is crazy stuff.

>> crazy. >> two things can be true at the same time. you can be attacked by rational people in the media. at the same time, you can do something that's very bad for the state of florida, very bad for american democracy and, ultimately, hold on, wait for it, because you aren't getting it, i keep warning you, republicans, let me tell you, as well, it can be bad for american democracy and bad for your own future political careers. >> it could be. >> this is the sort of -- i really want to say the word, i won't say it -- this is the sort of stuff that always circles back around and gets you in voting booths. good luck with that. >> i just want to put some detail on the story of florida republican governor ron desantis suspending one of the state's top prosecutors. hillsborough county state attorney andrew warren, twice-elected democrat in the tampa bay area, vowed not to enforce the laws limiting abortion or laws against

gender-affirming care for trans minors. here's what both men had to say yesterday. >> we are not going to allow this pathogen that's been around the country of ignoring the law, we are not going to let that get a foothold in the state of florida. we are going to make sure that our laws are enforced and that no individual prosecutor puts himself above law. >> i was shocked at the blatant violation of one of the most fundamental principle of our democracy, that the people, the voters elect elected officials. i've been elected twice to serve as state attorney, and i served as state attorney and have done it well. crime is down. we're protecting people's rights. we have fought so hard for public safety and fairness and justice. if the governor thinks he can do a better job, he should run for state attorney, not president. >> i mean, what a dope. mika, ron desantis is such a

dope. he didn't even wait for any action to take place. and he is doing the same thing that these freaks and insurrectionists and weirdos are doing, that are putting the lives of 10-year-old girls who have been raped at risk. who are saying that uncle that raped 14-year-old girls, that is a perfect example of why they have to force the 14-year-old to have the baby. they're playing -- i used to say for the 33%. now, we're down to, like, 20%. ron desantis is doing all of of this crazy stuff in a state that, not so long ago, was a swing state, and he is doing it hurting florida, going to war with mickey mouse, going to war with the tampa bay rays, going to war with the voters of the state of florida, nullifying their votes for a guy who has been elected twice now, all to

appeal to, like, 20% of americans who may be voting in republican primaries in presidential elections. >> while it is -- >> it is crazy. >> -- technically a suspension, the "tampa bay times" points out that warren has technically been fired through a clause in the constitution. the governor named a judge he appointed last year as his replacement. the editorial board of the "tampa bay times" categorized desantis' actions as craven, legally suspect, suspiciously timed, and odorously soaked in autocracy, partisanship, and bad faith. in other words, completely in keeping with this governor's behavior. it continues. the governor's ten-page order is a smear job full of what ifs and supposition that would be laughed out of court. pull out to 20,000 feet, jonathan lemire. i say this without exaggeration. this is just the truth.

republicans' core values, they're repugnant. they stand for rapists, stand for racists. viktor orban coming to cpac, to name a few. insurrectionists and election deniers. meanwhile, democrats are working on passing the inflation reduction act. >> yeah, governor desantis -- first of all, pretty good writing in the editorial. governor desantis is playing to the right as he can for, as joe pointed out, a smaller part of the electorate, but probably enough to win re-election in florida. he's making a bet this can take the trump base, were trump not to run, and position himself in 2024. certainly doesn't seem, you know, very republican, eddie glaude, to undermine the local authority, local voters there. he is trying to impose it from top-down, from the statehouse in tallahassee. two things. first, just that, your reaction to what we're seeing from the governor. a related, connected moment i

think was overlooked, as we're talking about trumpism and the big lie, how it has control over so much of the republican party. we know the candidates in arizona we've been discussing, who have all suggested trump's defeat was irregular, that he actually won, and some voices in the party stood up to him. liz cheney, her father, and there were a handful of congressmen who voted to impeach him. one was peter meyer from michigan. he said, we're all republicans and have to be in this together, embracing his opponent. if that becomes the trend in november, they could win. that could be the democratic strategy, backing candidates who are thought to be too unwinnable, it could backfire. >> i thought of dick cheney,

darth vader. sounded like him but he was back, i suppose. think about it, not only did desantis suspend the attorney general, these patriotic seminars he is forcing teachers to take. one example that was reported, they have to report that washington and jefferson opposed slavery, without mentioning they owned slaves. that's something that's happening there. in arizona, in these examples you gave here, what we know is that the problem is not simply donald trump. it goes all the way down. we see this idea, the fealty to party opposed to country actually is a threat is dmoek democracy, as much as the politicians trying to exploit the hatred. it cuts deeper. we have to get beyond the melodramatic folks who are supposedly the evil actors and

see something that's actually much more dispersion and insidious in our politics, it seems to me. >> mika mentioned the progress on the reconciliation bill overnight. senate democrats could pass the party's spending bill as early as this weekend, after arizona senator kyrsten sinema yesterday agreed to back the legislation. in a statement last night, the moderate democrat said she'd come on board after the carried interest tax provision was removed. the overall package includes top items of the president's agenda, including a 15% minimum tax on large corporations, after many companies paid little to no taxes thanks to the 2017 trump tax cut. the bill contains investments to combat climate change, caps on prescription drug policies, and allows for medicare to negotiate drug prices. all items popular among voters.

let's bring in economic analyst steve rattner. carried interest tax is out. the excised tax on stock buybacks is in to replace that. what do you make of this package? >> i think the package is still a very strong package. these changes are not for the better. we can get into them. but they're relatively small in the great scheme of the enormous scope of this package. it'd address climate change, prescription drug prices. it'd extend subsidies for people who buy insurance under the affordable care act. it would still impose a very substantial minimum tax on companies. perhaps, very importantly, as the chart is showing, it'd have a major impact on the deficit. this chart on the left shows the original build back better plan, which was never deficit neutral. it'd always have increased the deficit. particularly, it'd increase the deficit in the first five years and theoretically made it up in the back five years. that's a long time away.

the new bill is free of those gimmicks. programs that expire but aren't really going to expire, things like that. it is relatively relatively neu. ultimately cutting the deficit by more than $300 billion. that's an important, positive piece of this. >> steve, when you say it avoids gimmicks, usually there are some gimmicks to at least give the appearance it is deficit neutral or it will reduce. you're saying this actually will reduce the deficit over time. it'll take ten years, but over time, it will? >> that's right, willie. of course, that assumes that it goes into effect as expected and they don't end up changing things later on. but, yes, this would actually reduce the deficit in the second five years. if you go into the next decade, the committee for responsible federal budget said it could cut $2 trillion from our total debt. it is very positive in that regard. i don't think there is any question about that.

>> big piece of this legislation, steve, as you point out in your second chart, is the biggest action on climate change in american history. what are we talking about there? >> this is quite extraordinary, willie. so the chart here shows we have, in fact, been reducing our co2 emissions gradually over more than ten years, but we need to accelerate that to meet our targets under the paris agreement, which is that little red dot down in the bottom right corner there. the dotted dark line shows what would have happened without this legislation. we would have continued to reduce our emissions, but we wouldn't have gotten close to paris. this actually, in the turquoise dotted line, as you can see, makes up half of the gap. it gets us about halfway from where we would have been to paris. there's still more to do, but that's an extraordinary move. it is a huge package of tax credits and incentives, some government grants, that we have to pour through the details, but

also seem to be quite thoughtfully constructed. >> so how do you pay for all this is the question? one of the ways is with the 15% minimum corporate tax on big corporations. talk about that, steve, but also this curious hangup that senator sinema had about the interest tax. she was protecting hedge funds and the like. >> sure. yeah, the corporate minimum tax is very important. what happened in 2017, as the left illustrates, is donald trump's tax cut of 2017. it was a huge gift to companies. it resulted, as you have pointed out, joe in particular, many time on this show, in a massive tax break for large companies. you can see on the left, 39 large fortune 500 size companies that had pre-tax income of $120 billion over this three-year period and had negative income

tax. they got an income tax refund for taxes they had paid in earlier years. on the right side, you can see in the dark bluish colored bar that that meant they actually had a negative effective tax rate, these 39 companies. what this bill would do would be to impose a minimum 15% tax on all companies that make over $1 billion and strip away a lot of the tax preferences they got under the tcja from that calculation. the compromise with sinema does trim this slightly. i won't get into the technical details. not changes i would have made, but not fundamentally changing the nature of this. what she did do in response to your question about carried interest was she took away the carried interest -- took away the removal of the carried interest provision. it is not a lot of money. it was only $14 billion over ten years. but it was one of the -- it is one of the most unfair

provisions of the tax code that allows private equity people, which i am one, hedge fund managers to pay a much, much lower tax rate on the earnings than ordinary people pay on their income. that's very unfortunate. it is symbolic in terms of money, but important in terms of principle. that's not a great change she asked for. >> "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner, thank you very much for those charts this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," it is jobs day. with the july numbers to be released in less than an hour, stephanie ruhle and andrew ross sorkin will be here to break it down. plus, brittney griner has been sentenced to nine years in a russian jail. the executive director of the wnba's players association joins us to respond. and as monkeypox cases continue to climb across the country, the biden administration takes action, declaring it a public health emergency. dr. ashish jha joins us on what

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the world health organization issued a similar declaration last month, calling it a global health emergency. more than 26,000 cases have been reported in nearly 100 countries. some cities and states issued their own emergency declarations, allowing them to free up funding and resources to help respond to the outbreak. joining us now, dr. ashish jha, he is white house covid response coordinator. thank you very much for being on with us this morning. what do americans need to know about warning signs or prevention with monkeypox, and how prevalent is it? 26,000 cases, what does that mean in the grand scheme of things? how dangerous is it? how easy is it for it to contract? >> yeah, good morning. thanks for having me on. those are fabulous questions, so let's talk about what we know about monkeypox. this is a virus we've known about for 50, 60 years, so it is

not a novel virus. we have 6,600 cases in the united states. thankfully, no one died of this disease. we hope serious illness remains low, and we'll do what we can to make sure that happens. 98% of the cases are among gay and bisexual men, spreading through prolonged skin-to-skin contact. so it is not something that i think the average person needs to be concerned about contracting -- you know, getting, contracting. it is not easily spread. there's a theoretical risk it can be spread through surface, but that's not what we're seeing. right now, we're really seeing almost all the spread happening through prolonged skin-to-skin contact. >> dr. jha, i was hoping you could respond to the criticisms put to the biden administration in response to this outbreak, including the supply of monkeypox vaccine will be limited for months after officials waited too long for the maker to process enough viles. also, that there has not been enough targeted communication to

the community most impacted by this. and that it has been slow to declare and use its emergency health powers. >> let's take each topic. they're important issue. there is one small danish company that makes all the vaccines for the world. we have procured more vaccines than the rest of the world combined, so we have been on this really from day one. do we wish we had more vaccines? of course. but there is one company. right now, we're working on expanding their manufacturing capacity, bringing some of the capacity right back home to the united states. working with manufacturers here to expand vaccine supply. i think in the weeks and months ahead, you're going to see a substantial ramping up of that, and we'll have more vaccines coming. in terms of communication, early in the pandemic -- or sorry, early in the outbreak, what we way was it was spreading in the gay and bisexual community. we reached out, had

communications, seen what they were seeing, and it's been an important partnership for us moving forward. in terms of the public health emergency, what public health emergency does, it gives us some new tools. we have been ramping up testing, treatments, and vaccines from the beginning. the secretary of health and human services, xavier becerra, made the decision that declaring a public health emergency gives us more ability to speed up vaccines and treatments. i think the timing was appropriate. again, i want to remind people, very important, we want to be on top of this thing, 6,600 cases. thankfully, no deaths. our goal is to continue being, you know, one step ahead of the virus. >> dr. jha, let me ask about the pandemic and covid. as you know, thanks to these vaccines and the boosters and have followed, a lot of people psychologically feel okay with getting on with their lives. if you go out this summer, you rarely see a mask. you see some, but people have moved on.

we have this highly contagious subvariant and worries about what will come with the fall. schools will reopen. how should parents and school administrators, how should americans be thinking about covid as we enter the fall? >> it is a great question about covid. the way i look at it, a lot of americans -- it is not as prominent on people's minds. a, that's a good thing. b, it is because of all of the work we have been doing in this area. because of vaccines, because of treatments, we've been able to lower the death rates of this virus substantially. that has meant that it is not as deadly as it was two years ago. i think that is, again, all good stuff. as you said, we have ba.5 out there. highly contagious. if you've not been vaccinated in a while, high risk of breakthrough. if you were infected six months ago, you probably don't have much protection against reinfection. really important for people over 50, if you haven't gotten a vaccine shot this year, important to get one. in terms of school this fall, i have three kids going back to school this fall, what i say is

the goal here, and very clear -- let me be very clear about this, every kid back to school, full time, in person, that should be our only standard. that should be the standard we are judged against. we should be able to accomplish that. we have the tools and capabilities to do it, and i'm very confident we'll be able to pull that off. >> all right. white house covid response coordinator, dr. ashish jha, thank you very much for all the information this morning. coming up, an influential republican convention gives a standing ovation to an authoritarian. we'll have much more on the hard right speech from hungary's leader, and why they did that. and we're keeping an eye on wall street. the futures board is flat ahead of the july jobs report. we'll have the new numbers from the labor department in just about one hour. also ahead, the premier league kicks off its 31st season today. former u.s. national team goalie tim howard will be here on what to watch for this season.

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an astonishing end to an incredible season, one for the ages! manchester city, the amazing liverpool to win a fourth title in 5 seasons by a single point. >> as moe the bartender said when i opened the door and light came into the bar, it burns. city, winning again, the moment from the final day of premier season last spring, what with us now to preview the new season that begins today, and yeah, it's early and yeah, there's a reason why, the legend of the u.s. men's national team now a premier league analyst, tim howard.

tim, first of all, i've got to say, i would have much more difficult time dealing with city winning these things as a liverpool fan but for the fact that pep has so much respect, i love listening to both of those guys talking about how great the other team is. it's a far cry from what we used to see from some premier league managers. >> if we look at pep and juergen, the respect they have is amazing. the are two of the world's greatest managers and they go head-to-head every single week, our group is lucky, we get to cover that week in and week out. >> what a season last year. why don't you explain to american viewers, why the premier league is starting earlier and why you and i are talking about who won the world cup earlier this summer?

>> well, the world cup this year, for the first time, is during our winter months, which causes some issues for the premier league because it's going to be a six week gap and that will be challenging for so many of the premier league clubs, as we began to talk about what that looks like and we try and decide who's going to win and he's going to get relegated, those are interesting conversations on how the managers will manage six weeks without their players. >> handicap the race for us. is this going to be a two team battle again, city and liverpool or if not is there another team that can come up? >> there's always a possibility but i tend to agree, it's city and liverpool. what they've done to create this massive gap between the other teams, the numbers don't lie, they are so far ahead of the other teams. i believe, some of my

colleagues, believe that manchester city will win again but those two teams will be the best. >> and, they just keep buying, city just keeps reloading and what and off-season. >> well, that's what makes the premier league so great. they have the money to buy in abundance and they by quality players. you see on your screen, he was a big impact city player for manchester city. i think he's going to just get stronger. >> the roman era over at chelsea, going to be fascinating to see what happens with the american numbers, also, speaking of american owners, talk about arsenal as well, up, down, they actually have shown for the first time in a few years, signs of life, what do you expect this year? >> the ownership group has been nothing but fantastic, they

have backed their manager who i played with for quite a few season. he's a good young manager and believes in the system, history the team down, they are the youngest squad in the premier league, 24 is the average age. it just missed out on champions league. i think this year they get it. >> i've got to ask for your sake and the sake of the long- suffering roger bennett, what do the prospects look like this year? >> poor roger. i saw him two weeks ago, everton with the manager, they just staved off for relegation but they have a lot to do. they need fine-tuning and i don't think it's something that they can get done within this transfer season. >> nbc sports premier league analyst tim howard, thank you

very much for being on the show this morning. it's just about the top of the third hour of morning joe and we are awaiting a key economic report. the july jobs numbers. we will see if the labor market has been able to withstand the fed's efforts to address inflation by raising interest rates and american democracy in danger. from the recent success of election deniers, two republicans embracing hungary's far right, authoritarian leader to the governor of florida, suspending an elected prosecutor over a political disagreement. can the republican party be pulled back from the brink of liberalism and to that point, far right hungarian leader viktor orban received a standing ovation at cpac yesterday. he addressed the conservative gathering on its opening day and the washington post described his speech as one that could have been delivered by any republican candidate on the campaign trail this year.

viktor orban made headlines recently for denouncing european countries that intermingle with other races. yesterday, he said, those of the u.s. and hungary, who share his views, should unite. >> i am and old-fashioned freedom fighter. we have to be brave enough to address even the most sensitive questions, migration, gender, and the clash of civilizations. a christian politician cannot be racist. i'm not enough. this war is a culture war. hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. the mother is a woman, the father is a man. my government is, without compromise. we decided we don't need more

genders we need more rangers. less drag queens and more chuck norris. >> donald trump is expected to address the convention tomorrow . let's bring in staff writer at the atlantic, and appelbaum, jonathan lemaire are still with us as well. >> and, my gosh, you can go through chapter and verse of viktor orban, talking about mixing races the way david duke and the clan talks about the mixing of races, attacking western democracy, running an anti-somatic campaign against soros and others. talk about your thoughts, as you are seeing members of cpac, people who think they are conservative, giving this man,

this autocrat, a standing ovation? >> i think it's important to remember, what it is they really admire about him. and what it is, that has hit viktor orban's real achievement, and that is, to have altered the political system of this country , to have repeatedly changed its constitution, to have eliminated almost all independent media, nothing left except a few websites. and by doing so, to have remained in power, and probably to remain in power, and definitely. this, it seems to me, is what that part of the republican party that's represented by cpac now admires and what's to emulate here in america. it's the idea that you can stay in power forever, if you just change the rules, and that is the essence of viktor orban's appeal. >> again, this guy that has attacked western democracy,

brags about being in a liberal he's been caught bugging the phones of reporters, political opponents, he has run news media that's critical of him, out of business and out of the country, and he is a right wing autocrat, and you have cpac and match lab he worked in bush's administration. i remember meeting him going, he's such a bush, he's a republican establishment he's so safe, middle-of-the-road, and now, he's having viktor orban. >> he knows what his audience once, he knows what dog food the dogs will eat. remember, back in the spring there was a discussion about

doing cpac in hungary, and they backed away from making a big deal out of going there, because of russia and ukraine and they thought it would be too far to go and celebrate viktor orban in hungary but donald trump calls him is good friend and we were talking about strong man politics in the last hour and viktor orban is that. tucker carlson, took his show, to hungary and interviewed viktor orban and made the pilgrimage, that was the leading indicator of where things are going. most popular person on fox news who went and basically bestowed a big wet kiss on the behind of viktor orban, that was what a year ago? this should not be surprising and i think it does speak directly, the analysis of in terms of yes, changing the rules to stay in power for a long time but i think there's more something visceral there, which is, the republican party has become enamored of strongman politics. there's putin, viktor orban,

trump, desantis. if you are a big, white man, pounding her fist on the table and getting what you want through force, that is the thing that apparently what much of the republican, what used to be called the conservative base but is now really the authoritarian base, is for. >> strongman who gets what he wants to force but also hits upon these divisive wedge issues and let's say it, crosses the line in a flat out racist language. he did it at home and he's doing it in dallas. and those remarks got cheered in that arena. tell us, just how worrisome is this and what does that say about where the republican party is right now in 2022. when tucker carlson goes to hungary and the leader comes here and get cheered?

>> we need to see cpac for what it is. john is right about this being enamored with strongman, what is at the heart of it? we heard great placement theory. there are echoes of eugenicists theories, there are historical parallels, the know nothing parties of 1850s, david reed of pennsylvania, 1920, at the heart of the 1924 immigration act which created the category of illegal alien and what it meant for the white nation, we are going to consolidate this notion of the country as a white america. there's the 1939 madison square garden, 20,000 americans, gathered for a pro-america rally. these are in the united states. it wasn't alabama, either, it was new york city. these are echoes of trends, of elements of american life that we need to simply identify, we can't dance around, we need to call it for what it is.

this is the ugly underbelly of america in full view. >> to go along with everything is talking about, you should assume that the speaker slated at cpac is a parade of election deniers from election donald trump all the way down, and ann, from your point of view, within europe, or bond, how isolated is he ? mark there's been the talk of the rise of authoritarianism in europe but really in the war in russia, ukraine, it has crystallized the fact that in some ways he stays alone in western europe and eastern europe even, as people who are taking the side of vladimir putin against ukraine? >> yes, i think in fact, one of the reasons that viktor orban is so enthusiastically with the right, is he is losing support in europe. he had links before, for example, to the polish far right government, but the polls have reacted very differently to the war in ukraine, they've

seen it as a direct threat to themselves and to the peace in europe. orban has direct links to putin and he's an admirer of putin's violent style, so he's decided to go a different direction, and that has left him alone. and i think it's important, he's always made a great effort to find international links, i mean one of the ironies of somebody who claims to be an anti-globalist, is that he is really one of the most globalist politicians there is. he looks for international support to echo his message at home, and that's what he is doing here. but it's important to remember, he's by himself in europe on his opposition to helping ukraine. >> let me ask you about ukraine, we are getting mixed signals from intel, british intelligence tells us that the russians actually are reaching a point of exhaustion whether you're talking about weapons or reinforcements, other news from

the front not so positive. what is your reporting telling you. what are you learning about where this war stands right now as we move toward labor day? >> i was in ukraine about three weeks ago, and the conviction that ukrainians half, that they will win is real and it remains. and it's really quite remarkable. and i was in odessa, near the southern front which is where a lot of the fighting is. what we can see now, is that the russians have halted their assault. they are not able to move forward anymore, and we can see the ukrainians increasingly making incursions into southern ukraine and promising to take back territory and they already begun to do so. the weapons that the u.s. gave ukraine a few weeks ago, the high mars have made an impact and they destroyed the logistics and the ukrainians are moving forward now.

>> interesting, it does seem, even to inflation, the high gas prices, the coalition the anti- putin coalition, the pro- freedom coalition among republicans and democrats, seem to be holding up, just as you have republicans coming out and praising speaker pelosi for going to taiwan. >> this has been the question that i've had for republicans and democrats alike, how long will this last and the answer is, it's going to be a while. this is something where there's not much of a divide between the two parties. they are united on this. and officials recognize at a certain point, the money will run out. at a certain point there's only

so many weapons they can send. they can't find ukraine indefinitely but the end is not near. it's something this administration and both parties in congress are committed to doing. there are more concerned particular this fall and winter about europe and certain parts of that coalition staying as strong as they are now. but right now, they are united here and it's a rare moment of bipartisan consensus, praising the job that biden has done on this. >> are you surprised that republicans and democrats continue to stand shoulder to shoulder on ukraine, even through some pretty difficult domestic times, economically? >> yeah, given the nature of our times it's hard, and always surprising when you see anything that resembles solidarity that ends up being adored but this one of the rare occasions where the parties, where taking the opposite position, there's a cost to being, we saw flirtation with

this in the beginning of the war, where republicans who flirted with the notion of coming down on putin side, not standing with the rest of the world, they saw what the political cost of that could be, and i think it scared them it's like one of those places where it it wasn't trolling the lives and it wasn't something they could get away with for free because too many voters were disliking putin enough, they wanted to see the more traditional bipartisan response to this and i think the political cost is what has kept some republicans that might have drifted into the more pro- putin camp has kept them on the side and let biden keep that consistent consensus on the issue. >> we are always trying to measure the staying power of donald trump whether it is politics were policies. but certainly on nato, most foreign-policy advisors thought if trump were elected to a second term, and it's very likely that very lucky that he and the republicans would remove the united states from

nato or at least, he would try to do that. how fascinating they had a vote to expand nato, one of the most important expansions in the history of the organization, and the pro-putin caucus was a caucus of one. the junior senator from missouri, that was about as telling as europe's move toward being pro- ukrainian. >> i think when we can see that our political systems are genuinely under threat from someone who wishes to undermine them, that there is a kind of rallying around our system and our values and i'm pleased to see the congressional republican party, with the exception you noted, has mentioned, i mean i think the ukrainians are, in a way, doing us a favor and showing us what it means to have a patriotic, aggressive, active, even

military defense of liberal values, and i think it's not surprising that americans and europeans instinctively see that and admire it and the politicians do, too. >> thank you, have a great weekend. and still ahead on morning joe, and just a few minutes, the july jobs report will be released. stephanie will be here to break down the numbers. and later, tuesday was a big win for abortion rights, but with the issue on the ballot in at least three states come november, ken actavis repeat the victory? later, russia said it's ready to discuss a prisoner swap after wnba star brittney griner, is sentenced to nine years in prison. former ambassador to russia will be here. and arizona democratic sinema

senator sinema announces her support for the parties inflation reduction act. we will go live to capitol hill on how quickly democrats can now get it passed, and as we go to break, a look at this date in history, august 5th, in 1957, abc aired the first national broadcast of the clark's american bandstand, live from philadelphia, in 1963, the u.s. united kingdom and the soviet union signed the nuclear test ban treaty, which banned all tests of nuclear weapons except those conducted underground in 1963. in 1966, the beatles released a double a signal yellow submarine paired with eleanor rigby, and in 1991, president

reagan began firing more than 11,000 federal air traffic controllers, who were on strike , ignoring reagan's return to work order. that was something. you are watching orning joe, we will be right back. ay our freedoms? which side are you on? people who work for a living and care for our families, or the trump republicans who block everything our families need? this november, it's time to show which side you're on. vote for democrats. ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad. - as someone with hearing loss, i know what a confusing and frustrating experience getting hearing aids can be. that's why i founded lively. high-quality hearing aids with all of the features you need, and none of the hassle. lively offers bluetooth, fda regulated hearing aids delivered to your door for thousands less than you'd expect and remote access to an audiology team seven days a week. better hearing has never been this easy.

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senator kiersten sinema has agreed to back democrats the reconciliation bill, clearing the way for a vote this week. yesterday, it didn't look too good. her decision comes after days of fellow democrats lobbying her on the deal. in a statement, the moderate senator said she would come on board after the carried interest tax provision was removed. the bill also imposes a 15% minimum tax on large corporations after many companies paid little to no taxes, after the 2017 trump tax cut. a new excise tax on stock buybacks was added and lawmakers also agreed to add

funding to combat droughts. the package includes many top items on president biden's agenda. including, other tax reform measures, investments to combat climate change, help for people to pay for prescription drugs, that was a big one they were fighting for. and, the package reduces the deficit. both senate leader spoke about the bill yesterday with senator schumer, praising the package while minority leader mitch mcconnell criticized its size. the maximum the senate will vote on this groundbreaking legislation. i expect we will have some late nights and extended debates here on the floor but in the end, we are going to make good on our were to pass the inflation reduction act. >> the democrats have decided to spend hundreds of billions of dollars of the people's money on a bill that laughs at

the people's priorities. i would there any of my democratic colleagues to walk up to a working-class american on the street and ask them, what the government ought to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on? well, first off, anytime of inflation, they will probably tell them not to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the first place. >> it's interesting, i guess -- >> dassault -- >> republicans are against stopping prescription drugs and those prices from being hiked because that's anti-inflation. i guess, mitch and the republicans are against allowing medicare to negotiate with big drug companies to get better deals, that would drive down the price of medicare, so that's anti-inflationary. i guess, mitch and republicans are against limiting out-of- pocket drug costs for working- class americans. that's anti-inflationary. i do understand why republicans

would be against reducing the federal deficit budget by $300 billion, after they raised it by record levels under donald trump, year after year after year after year. same thing with tax credits, also, i'm pretty sure that working-class americans are sick and tired of oil companies and tech companies, and amazon.com, and occidental petroleum and nike, and all of these massive corporations over the past several years, paying zero in taxes, and you look at these numbers, will, 77%, like the democratic plan to place caps on prescription drug price hikes. they like the plan to allow medicare to finally get to negotiate with big pharma, 77%,

73%, 73% like that limiting out- of-pocket drug costs, 73% actually like reducing the federal budget even though donald trump and republicans hate that, and have proven that by blowing a hole in the deficit over the past five years. they like tax credits for renewable energy tech and they like actually making the largest multinational corporations, and america pay a minimum tax. it looks pretty popular, so, i'm going to be curious to see all the republicans who are against this, actually this anti-inflationary package, that actually lowers the deficit. >> and the numbers are not just among democrats, that's among all americans. your three quarters of the country supporting a lot of the provisions inside this bill, and that is why chuck schumer feels like he is on good political ground as they look like they're going to pass this, and that's why senator joe manchin i west virginia came around to it because he believes it will in fact, reduce the deficit.

let's go to allie, most people thought that senator sinema would come around eventually and she did last night. really, just getting this carried interest tax out of the bill but it was in fact replaced by another tax on buyback of stock for corporations that democrats say will even this out in the end. was she a tough arm to twister was she always going to be there for chuck schumer? >> this is one where democrats were hopeful that she would come around but multiple senators who i talked to over the course of the week said, this is not something they are confident in, until the vote actually happens. of course, having sinema on the record saying that she's on board is a really big help. it doesn't do anything to speed up the process, we are still in for what chuck schumer warned us about, which is many late nights and in fact the nights will be happening this weekend so you will see a lot of tired sentiments going into their

recess waiting for the house to come back and do their job to do their side of passing the bill but what this will look like over the weekend is the senate parliamentarian, still doing their scrub of the bill, making sure the final text will be ready for some point this weekend, when they will start the process, saturday afternoon and that will kickoff the first vote on it and up to 20 hours of debate and a very lengthy round of votes, and it'll be a long weekend in the senate but what the upside of this enema thing is that for democrats, this was always going to be a top priority, in part because of what you guys were talking about, a lot of the things in this hold popularly, not just among democrats but across the political board and then the other piece of it is the fact that they would love to be able to go home and not to say they are doing things on climate, prescription drug pricing, on

all of the other pieces that are popular in the bill but the very name of it, the inflation reduction act, is the very counter that they want to be able to bring to republicans who are trying to make every turn, this midterm election cycle a referendum on the economy and democrats get to say that not only a basic to several of their policy priorities but they've also done things to blunt the impact of inflation that americans are seeing on their wallet every day. >> thank you so much, greatly appreciate the reporting. >> coming up, the july jobs report is causing this hour. it's another measure of how the economy is reacting to the fed's attempt to cool down inflation. andrew ross sorkin has business before the bell. morning bell is back in a moment. welcome to allstate, where you can bundle and save. isn't that right phil? i'm in the metaverse, bundling my home and auto insurance. bundle home and auto and save. call a local agent or 1-888-allstate

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conspiracy theorist alex

joan must pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the family of a child killed in the sandy hook shooting after joan spent years peddling false claims the shooting was a hoax. but, his troubles may only be beginning, as he focuses now on his text messages prosecutors are looking very closely at those. they were mistakenly sent to prosecutors by joneses attorneys. >> alex jones learning the cost of his lies. and austin texas journey seeing the info wars host must pay $4.1 million to the parents of one of the sandy hook victims, for years of unfounded claims like this. >> sandy hook is a completely fake with actors, in my view, manufacture. >> but jones did an about-face from his lies about the school shooting. >> is 100% real pay

>> for the parents of jesse lewis who brought the suit, the damages were far less than the $150 million they sought but far more than that eight dollars jones attorney offered in closing arguments, a dollar for each of the claims. >> the jury returned a verdict exceeding $4 million, that's a darn good start. we have the punishment phase. >> he may face even bigger troubles over the trove of text messages mistakenly sent to the plaintiff's attorney. the text include what the attorney called, intimate messages with trump advisor, roger stone. the committee is looking into jones role in the rally and right at the capital and jones attorney asked for a mistrial based on the email's and the judge denied the request. >> ann thompson reporting for us, this is a moneymaking game and has been for a decade now. for alex jones but i'm not sure people fully appreciate the

pain that he is brought upon families who were already living with the fact that their children were slaughtered inside a first grade classroom in sandy hook, that they have been harassed by people who listened to alex jones, who believe the conspiracy theories and the hoax that he puts out there, they've had to move, change their names, they've been told they are liars and that they are crisis actors. it is real, additional pain on top of the unimaginable pain that they are already in. >> unimaginable, the hatred, the cruelty, and you know, it seems that for too long, we've lived in a political and media culture, from the far right, it's been defined by these sort of, lies, falsehoods, the slander of people, whether it is on twitter or social media or in podcasts, or on the radio. or treason, we've moved on to treasonous language. and for good reason, i think a lot of americans, millions of americans have asked, where is

the justice, where is the accountability. are there no rules, are there no guardrails in american culture to stop these sort of lives lies where you have a conspiracy theorist who can actually tell parents of slaughtered six-year-olds, that your children never existed, and make millions and millions of dollars from it or you can have news networks going on, spreading lies about american democracy, spreading lies about voting machines, trying to destroy companies reputations. you have a president, that every day, would lie about people and i know that very well. and again, no accountability, no accountability from twitter, facebook, no accountability from social media. for all of these lies. maybe, just maybe, we are starting to see, in time, over

time, that, there is a cost for being defined by these fire hoses of falsehood where you have alex jones being accountable, at least $4 million to start, we are moving onto the punitive stage. rudy giuliani, being disbarred. one network after another on the far right, being sued for billions of dollars. for the lies that they spread about 2 million voting machines. perhaps, just perhaps, this is the beginning. this is the first guardrail that is being put out there to send a message to other people, other liars out there, that would lie about six-year-old slaughtered to make money to protect the gun industry? maybe this is the start of accountability at long last. >> one of our next guest says

the realists have it wrong when it comes to ukraine. former ambassador michael mcfall said there's only one way to end the war there, and he will explain what it is, just ahead on morning joe. ♪peo♪ ♪good times.♪ ♪insurance!♪ only pay for what you need. ♪liberty liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

welcome back, the attorney for the sandy hook parents, suing alex jones, confirmed that the january 6th committee has requested two years worth of records from jones phone, that were, mistakenly, sent to him by joneses lawyer. this is a request and not a subpoena but, the attorney has said he intends to comply. jones, heavily promoted the stop the steal rally and is alleged to have been involved in the planning and funding of it. jones did speak with the january 6th committee back in january, where he claims to have pleaded the fifth, nearly

100 times. a spokespersons for the committee declined to comment. let's bring in congressional investigations reporter for the post, jackie almonte. what do you know about this and other requests by the committee? >> good morning, yeah, these text messages from alex jones could be a treasure trove for the jensen select committee. and they are very likely to receive these text, as you noted, alex jones was not that cooperative with the committee and as we've seen previously, text messages have been key evidentiary building blocks for the committee, as they've done their work throughout the past year. in a subpoena letter from congressman thompson, they noted several areas and topics that joneses text messages could provide further light on. one, jones was involved with

the planning of the january 6th rally, on the ellipse. we previously reported about some of his communications with planners of the rally, people like katrina pearson and others and allie alexander as well. another notorious insurrectionist who was cooperating with the committee. they are also extremely interested in what joan said to trump after his infamous december 19th tweet, where he told his supporters, be there, it will be wild. jones went on info wars that same day and called the tweet one of the most historic events in american history and we know that jones was in touch with people like roger stone and others, who were staying at the willard hotel which was sort of the home base for some of these schemes to overturn the results of the election, and especially as the committee is trying to shed light on former president

trump's ties to extremists, and what exactly he knew about some of the planning taking place that day, joneses text could be very key evidence in that regard. >> the washington post, thank you so much for your reporting on this friday morning, have a great weekend, thank you . coming up, back in 2010, here is how 60 minutes profile the man named victor boot. >> taking advantage of military context at the highest levels, federal prosecutors allege that he became a one-stop shop offering an unlimited supply of cold war weapons to bad guys around the world. now, the convicted arms dealer is at the center of a potential prisoner swap to free american basketball star, britney griner from a russian jail. we will look at how that exchange could play out, straight ahead on morning joe.

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i wanted to take a moment to recognize the passing of my mother, emily, i've heard from so many people around the world , just overwhelmed with beautiful letters, emailed and text, thank you, so much. this week, my family and i said goodbye in maine there's a tiny church on a tiny island and for decades my dad and mom love to go there by boat, to celebrate mass or quiet moments together. my mother, a sculptor, was deeply connected with nature. and spent some of her most favorite moments, alone in nature, finding trees and old trunks to work on as an artist, with her chainsaw and ask, she spent decades working on her art , revealing the secret shapes

of trees, to ultimately become a world-class sculptor, with massive pieces, featured today at museums, galleries and public locations around the world. but for ian, mark and me, she was, mom. she taught us the tangible feeling of fulfillment that comes from building something with your hands. joe actually asked me and my brothers about our favorite memories with their mom, and it was always about creation, building barns, fences, maple syrup shacks, crazy cakes, halloween masks, bunny hutches, gardens, rebuilding boats, piece by piece and of course, always going back to her studio to fulfill the vision of her sculptures. the sculptures, mixed nature and emotion from lament to ukraine, she captured powerful emotions and taught us all about the profound impact of art, after so many amazing

memories flooded out, we discovered we couldn't think of one thing, joe, that she bought for us at a store, ever. i will say, except for secondhand clothes dinner table.hand clothes dinner >> yeah. it really was remarkable, when we had dinner together after the funeral, which was really extraordinary and perfect, i asked ian and mark and you what were your favorite moments and ian had so many. as did mark and you. >> at that point. >> but had so many that i can't believe the great detail that she went into, how she threw, she threw everything at being your parts and to use a sports analogy, she left everything on

the field and rebuilding a canoe and getting planks and going out and wrapping it around barrels. but there are thousands of different stories like that. when they were making paramis mall and they are blowing up an area around par amis mall and ian was -- >> he was really into rocks. >> and your mother taking him out after the workers left and driving out there and picking through rock by rock, piece by piece. it really was incredible. that dinner was a perfect tribute to your mom and just how she did so many things for you all. but i've got to say, too, the funerals, mika, your father, we all said good-bye to him at the most stately of cathedrals. the cathedral of st. matthew, you have an ambassador there, cabinet members, the leaders of washington and the country

there. and that was perfect for your dad. it really fit him perfectly. but for your mom, here we were just a few people, a handful of people in this small, small church, as you said, on a small island and i think this is exactly what bamba would want. your parents a remarkable contrast and the way that we all said good-bye to her. the world said good-bye to her and your father. it just fits them perfect will. >> for my mom it was all about the creative process. and we got to celebrate that very privately. i used to ask out loud, why my parents always made things so hard. but the process itself was the beauty of my mother. because it was so enjoyable and so fulfilling. all of my mother's pieces, no matter how arched or leaning or heavy, some of them several

tons, stand on their own. she had an engineer's mind and she raised ian and mark and me that way. teaching us, building us, to stand on our own. we'll be right back. - as someone with hearing loss, i know what a confusing and frustrating experience getting hearing aids can be. that's why i founded lively. high-quality hearing aids with all of the features you need, and none of the hassle. lively offers bluetooth, fda regulated hearing aids delivered to your door for thousands less than you'd expect and remote access to an audiology team seven days a week. better hearing has never been this easy. try lively risk free for 100 days. visit listenlively.com. ♪

welcome back to "morning joe." federal prosecutors announced charges against four current and former police officers for violating civil rights and other crimes for their role in the raid that killed breonna taylor. two current and two former louisville police officers have been charmed with violating her civil rights in the botched raid in 2020. that led to her death. attorney general merrick garland announced the charges yesterday after he said he spoke with taylor's family. he said the charges also include

conspiracy, use of force and obstruction. garland said two of the defendants met in a garage after the killing and agreed to tell investigators a false story. it comes more than two years after taylor, a 26-year-old black medical worker was killed during an early morning raid. officers opened fire. killing her after her boyfriend fired a gun toward the door. when he thought an intruder was trying to break in. one of the officers was acquitted of state charges earlier this year. the jurors in the park land school shooting sentencing made a rare visit to the place where the tragedy took place. 12 jurors and 10 alternates toured margory stoneman doug high school on thursday, that is the cite of the february 14th, 2018 shooting that left 17 dead and 17 others injured. shortly after the massacre, the building was fenced off and sealed with dried blood,

valentine's day gifts and bullet holes still in place. the shooter has already entered a guilty plea and jurors must decide whether he'll be sentenced to death, or spend the rest of his life in prison. now to the continued reaction from the major story this week out of kansas. where voters turned out in high numbers to protect abortion rights in that conservative state. in what was the country's first test of the issue since the supreme court over turned roe v. wade. now democrats and supporters of abortion rights are looking ahead to how that result could be repeated in upcoming elections. later in fall, voters in several other states including michigan, kentucky, and vermont will also cast ballots on the future of reproductive rights. for more on that, let's bring in "morning joe" reporter daniela bravo. you wrote about this and the impact of women's voters on your

latest piece for know your value. what did you find. >> good morning. first and foremost, this issue isn't going away. voters in kansas struck a nerve at the center of the turnout were women from both sides the aisle and more specifically young women. this is of course the first major moment since the supreme court's decision earlier this summer to overturn roe v. wade. but beyond abortion itself, this issue seems to be about personal freedom, it is about exposing the disconnect between state legislators and constituents and it is an issue that is strong enough to bring out voters that would not normally participate. and this is the reason why it could have a big impact come november and have tripping down effects. in mifrpg, there is a question about the part of the state's constitution and that could have a big impact on the governor race and overall voter turnout and we're seeing similar abortion access as you mentioned

in kentucky and vermont. i actually spoke to the ceo of vote.org who has been following reproductive rights legislation and how it is effecting voter registration and why she saw the kansas outcome coming. >> i wasn't surprised because we were able at vote.org to see immediately after the supreme court made its decision, we saw next week, a thousand percent increase in registrations. that is almost unheard of. and to see that 1,000% increase turn into all votes wasn't surprising. it tells me that voter tz right now are really energized. other interesting thing that we saw is that kansas is not alone. they have the largest spike of registrations. but notably we saw 500% increases in texas, indiana, illinois, tennessee. those increases are quite high in registrations and that all happened in the week after the supreme court decision. >> and mika, the key here is that those numbers about

registration in kansas did actually translate into votes. and what is also interesting, and something to keep an eye on, is there have been some gop candidates like doug mastriano running for governor in pennsylvania and south dakota governor kristi noem who hasn't ruled out a presidential run and both have previously been quite outspoken about restricting access to abortion. but are now sort of changing their aggressive tune and even being let vocal about it. but the bottom line, mika, is that this issue is not going away and kansas made the illustration of what is to come in other states come november. >> all right. "morning joe" reporter daniela pierre bravo. read her report at know your valley.com. it is now the fourth hour of "morning joe." 9:00 a.m. in the east and 6:00 a.m. out west. and we have a lot to get to. including the latest of the fate