out, like scott, former president trump, abortion leaders showing support for herschel walker and continuing to give money to him sort of stopping the blow. it's very unclear what the impact will be on the election. definitely a rough few days for the campaign. >> republicans at least at this point circled wagons around walker. we'll see in the fall with voters when new polling comes 0 ut in days ahead. thank you so much. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. [ cheers ] >> making history! he's done it! he has done it! 62! a single-season home run leader!

he is the king! case closed! >> how about aaron judge walks into history with a 62nd home run of this season breaking the american league record said by roger maris, and as far as you and i are concerned, willie, i'm sure, breaking the single season all-time home run record. the only people that are -- in front of him have a massive asterisk, because they were all at the height of the roid war. all roided out themselves, but aaron judge, nome does he does he set this record. he does it with his mom in the stands and proves throughout this entire process he's really one of the, one of the good guys in -- >> he is. >> -- baseball today. >> i'm chuckling watching that shot of his mother. that was just relief right

there. she's been on the road with him. she's been, the last couple of weeks traveling show. tie the record 61. would he break it? you can just see her sort of fall back into her care, ah. finally, he did it. not a moment too soon. second to last day of the season. today last day of the regular season and he can breathe a little, relax. did it top of the first inning, too. kind of got it out of the way. as you say now, 62 home runs. the all-time single season american league home run champion. there will be debate whether he's the real home run champion. roger maris' son says, yes, aaron judge is the real victor. aaron judge, no, record 73. in the number in the books i respect that. the american home run champion, but as you said, joe, raising two yankee fans in my house, he's just a great guy, and a great role model. and the kind of player who you want your kids to watch and say, yes. that's how you handle success. that's how you handle failure. that's how you're a good

teammate. that's how you prepare. that's how hard you work, and that's how you carry yourself through life. so -- couldn't be happier for aaron judge. 62 home runs. now exhale today and get ready for playoffs. >> and -- and beloved son. adopted. was asked at a press conference if he was looking for his birth parents. he said, i have one set of parents, and -- you know, i may not have grown up in my mom's stomach but i grew up in her heart, and -- that is all that matters. got to say, talking about this in a minute, and mika's waiting for us to talk about it in a minute. >> no. this was -- but -- >> but i will say major league baseball series, they know that bonds and sosa and -- they know they cheated. everybody knows they cheated.

so don't give the record -- don't let the record stand for people you know cheated. this guy did it the right way. just like maris did it the right way, just like ruth did it the right way, hank aaron and willie mays, don't reward the cheaters setting all of these records over two or three years. >> officially their names in the book. six seasons with more home runs and aaron judge had all of them, you said, by bonds, maguire or sosa, admitted, to -- well, steroid users. aaron judge is the face of that home run record, should be. asterisk, baseball fans understand that. you know that. anybody watching knows's in my mind, aaron judge is the real home run champion. >> he's the champ. >> for me, he is the champ, and the season, joe, he puts and

hitting about .310 right now, probably not get the triple crown. fall a little short on batting average, but one of the best seasons in the history of major league baseball. as you said, doing it the right way. >> yankees had a chance to tie it earlier this year and not only gabe him a number low by comparison to other superstars, they then -- in a weird way, tried to embarrass him making that number public thinking the public would side with him. didn't happen. now -- big -- big -- heyday coming up. because, let' yankees lacked vision earlier this year. >> i was going to say, mika. forbes magazine, yankees worth $6 billion. aaron judge worth about one of those. >> talk about this with mike who's coming up in a few

minutes. we can discuss this more. also following new developments in the trump documents case as the former president appeals to the supreme court in the dispute over classified materials seized from mar-a-lago. we're going to break down what exactly he's asking the court to do. and the october surprise in the georgia senate race. how the abortion allegation against republican herschel walker and the broadside from his adult son may or may not shake up that race. and that's where we begin this morning. republican leaders are doubling down on their support for georgia senate nominee herschel walker despite allegations the anti-abortion former college football star once paid for a girlfriend's abortion. in a series of statements yesterday he voices and the gop including former president donald trump, accused democrats and the media of running a smear

campaign against walker with election day less than five weeks away. >> well, the only problem with that, the problem with that is that his own family is coming out. >> yeah. >> his own son is coming out and saying this about him. >> "herschel denied charges and no doubt he is correct." saying former president trump. not sure how he'd know. trying to destroy a man with true greatness in his future, just as he had athletic greatness in his past. meanwhile, two sources tell nbc news the national republican senate committee is organizing an effort to have republicans appear with walker on the campaign trail in georgia in the leadup to election day. willie? >> those details, again, on monday the "daily beast" reported in 2009 walker gave his then girlfriend nearly $600 so she could have an abortion. the woman, who requested

anonymity citing privs is concerns provided a receipt from the abortion clinic and a get well soon card she says was sent by walker. the "daily beast" says it corroborated a story with the friend she told at the time. walker called it a flas flat-out lie. and in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk, herschel walker is against this. and the national party, anti-abortion group, rallied to the side of herschel walker. reflectively, despite details of the story and despite this woman herschel walker said he doesn't know, providing receipts and a check from herschel walker. >> well, i would say the corruption is complete, but, well, that -- that was known to americans a long time ago during

donald trump's first campaign for president. what we -- this is -- it is a good sort of update. a good check on where the republican party stands. did they fall in line, every single one of them fall in line? on one day when -- their leader actually attacks the senate minority leader, and puts a death wish on him. and then make racist statements about his wife. no republican comes out and condemns him by name, and then the next day his son comes out, the sonof herschel walker comes oun on this report on this abortion that -- the son says herschel walker is lying about, and the son confirms what we've all read, that he's abused his wife. he's lied about the abuse.

he has four children. >> hasn't raised any of them. >> out of wedlock i think the son said. never raised one of them. lied about most of them. he lied about his education. syd he graduated from georgia. he never did. lied about working for law enforcement. he never did. he lied about working with the fbi. he never did. and from a distance he seems to be, and i'm being very polite here. he seems to be a deeply disturbed man. incapable as some of his friends from his home town said, incapable of returning a small georgia town let alone being a united states senator. now, this is evident. this is evident to everyone in the republican party. they know that. but -- the corruption of the party has reached such a level

that even somebody with herschel walker's background and with -- with the stories from his ex-wife that, you know -- he'd abuse her. put a gun to her head. all of this just doesn't -- they don't even flinch. so, well, let's see what impact this will have on the race. bring in political correspondent for the "washington examiner" david drucker. his new piece titled "walker abortion allegation and tongue lashing from son to unseat warnock" and "way too early" jonathan lemire. i have to say, david, it's -- i -- you know, i think i'm running this with a football. i actually did expect one or two republican senators to come out and condemn this behavior. i -- i -- i also, more importantly, i expected quite a

few to come out and defend mitch mcconnell and his wife from the -- the soon to be assembly majority leader and his wife from racist attacks, but, man. they are standing shoulder-to-shoulder regardless whatever horrific conduct is taking place. >> well, look, joe. they're focused on winning the senate majority getting into a circular firing squad with donald trump is not going to help matters at all. not only will trump attack them possibly some of their candidates, but it's just something that really gets an important segment of the republican base, a segment they need to show up on november 8th upset, and they don't see any value into it. they've been there before. they've done it. and they just don't see that anything good politically comes from it and right now they're completely focused on politics. i think on the walker matter, one of the things that trump has

taught republicans, and they've talked to me about this over the years is that when you're facing personal scandal, accusations, whether true or not true, you can weather the storm if you refuse to concede ground, refuse to apologize. accuse the left of severe tactics and you just press on. i think president trump proved that by winning in 2016. we all know the story. and republicans have really taken it to heart. >> yeah. >> saying, we say all the time, well, this works to decide a senate majority and whether an attack ad or not, you know, people talk about the 51st vote in the u.s. senate. what this one means, but this is literally possibly the race that could decide the senate majority when you take a look what is happening in other senate races, and this is a difficult race for republicans, even though they have so much going for them. when you look at polling, governor brian kemp is on track to win re-election.

having to work for it but on track to win and herschel walk sir in a dogfight with raphael warnock and something like this could hurt, maybe it won't, but it could, so republicans look at the map, the count, and say to themselves, herschel walker won the republican nomination with 80% of the vo et in the primary's we got nowhere else to go, and so we're full-speed ahead. >> let's talk about bottom line of this, jonathan lemire. democrats were expecting just a couple weeks ago to run away with pennsylvania. that race has tightened up. ron johnson moving ahead in quite a few polls. arizona still a comfortable lead, but that's going to get tight by the end. nevada, you reported, going better for republicans, but many people expect, and you look -- yesterday steve kornacki looked at all the senate races and has it tied right now, and much of

the republicans hopes are hinging on winning georgia and nevada and taking those two seats from democrats to get into majority again. obviously this complicates things and on top of that, talk about the reaction you heard yesterday about not just the allegations but also more importantly a conservative, where you go on this twitter feed, always talking about ron desantis, a conservative kid, but herschel walker's son attacking herschel walker for being a terrible dad. how does that make this scandal different from the ones that maybe we saw even with donald trump? >> let's start there with christian walker. seeing him now, a gen z prominent social media presence, you know, conservative as you say, pro-desantis and others, really turning on his father yesterday.

a blistering video suggesting he had been about absentee father, ruined his life, his mother's life, and saying his father lied, lied and lied. there's a different, right there, between what we saw in 2016 with donald trump in the wake of the "access hollywood" tape and what herschel walker is going through. donald trump's family was with him, stood behind him and so far the gop seems to circle the wagons around walker, but to the larger point, margins in georgia are expected to be so narrow even some defection or some republicans decide to stay home, maybe it turns off independents or swing voters thinking about walker that might be enough to cost them that seat. warnock an incumbent, impressive figure. democrats believe he's a rising star if he can hold off and win this race. that's going to be close.

this doesn't help republicans certainly lp and you're right about the map. republicans have momentum, but after a summer clearly heading towards democrats, a series of legislative wins. saw biden's poll numbers go up. republicans self-destructing on a number of things. things have gotten tighter. some is inevitable. it's october. parties come home. rally around your own candidate. always a tightening, but republicans still have issue of the race may switch again to economic ones and think that is good for them. they feel good about the state you mentioned, nevada in particular. pennsylvania is getting closer, though we should note, ahead, dr. oz, getting closer and feel good where they are in a number of states. georgia remain as question mark. this walker stuff complicates matters. >> david, in your new piece in "the examiner" you right some georgia republicans are waving all the allegations as immaterial as a trajectory to the campaign. talking about herschel walker. frankly all of this is noise, a

strategist in the peach state said in an email. end of the day this is a nationalize the election. everything else is superfluous noise. stand by policies we have to regain the senate, a veteran georgia republican added explaining why he is not convinced this drama will sink walker. our kand might not be perfect but they will do the job. the argument we've heard in the last 48 hours, david. that the senate is too important to turn our backs on herschel walker now, despite everything we're hearhearing. >> that's what you'll continue to hear from republicans and in a nationalized election, so many of our elections are. counter to what they were like decades ago where we would see a lot of ticket splitting and a lot of localized races in midterm elections, when things are nationalized, voters will look past the peccadillos and flaws of a particular candidate and say to themselves, if i'm upset about rising inflation, upset about rising crime, some

issues that poll extremely well with swing voters and independents and everything else, i'm just going to vote on the check for the white house regardless of the package it comes in. now, in talking to georgia republicans yesterday and on the phone talking to republicans down in georgia yesterday, they told me that the allegations were a little less concerns if they had to pick, than christian walker's twitter tirade, of course, we showed a graphic of, a screen shot of that, but he went on twitter and was very specific in criticizing his father for being about absentee father and abusive spouse and they tell me that could hurt a lot more than the abortion allegations reported by "the daily beast." i think this is a dynamic to watch, but republicans are going to try and keep the focus on issues that work for them, and in the fundamentals of this campaign it's inflation, it's

crime. in some cases talking about the southern border and lack of security there. these are the things that they feel can get them past the finish line in a very close race. as we know, midterm elections historically in this century in particular a lot of these races are close even in wave elections. the individual races are extremely close and what gets the challenger across the finish line is that feeling among voters, particularly the swing voters that are going to decide georgia's senate race. that's who is going to decide it. that for all of my doubts, i just need to put a check on the white house and i'm going in that direction. >> christian walker pointed out in his video at the very end, said this is a candidate issue. it's not about him. it is. and it seems republicans have made their decision about this candidate a long time ago. knowing everything they know. about him. that's got its questions in itself. senior political correspondent for the "washington examiner" david drucker, thank you very

much. >> made that same decision about donald trump. dr. oz. i mean -- >> you think about all -- >> j.d. vance. >> exactly. >> made their decision. >> they don't care. >> it's clannish. not with a k, with a c. whatever, whoever's in their tribe in their clan, they're going to vote for. >> yeah. >> and it just -- i guess nothing else matters. i can't imagine being that type of voter. >> yeah. >> but there are a lot of them out there. >> so we want to turn now to the latest developments in the battle over classified documents former president trump kept in his mar-a-lago home and club after leaving office. after leaving the white house. the former president has filed an emergency request asking the supreme court to allow the special master to review the roughly 100 classified record that federal agents seized from the florida estate in august.

specifically the trump team asked the high court to vacate part of a ruling issued last month by the 11th circuit court of appeals. that ruling allows the justice department to resume using those classified documents as part of its criminal investigation to determine if trump or his advisers mishandled national security secrets or hid or destroyed government records. the supreme court justice assigned to the 11th circuit is justice clarence thomas. he ordered the justice department to respond to trump's request by next tuesday. >> yeah. you know, willie, the trump team, donald trump, trying to defile legal gravity. they went forum shopping in florida and -- >> doing it here in a way. >> though i don't like to criticize several judges because i think for the most part they do their best through their own

world view under the law. a district court not doing that at all. in fact, making a fool of herself, overturned by the 11th circuit and now, of course, even stepping on, legally stepping on the special master. i got to believe this is all -- they're succeeding. you have a circuit perhaps the most conservative circuit in america, the 11th circuit, sort of the right answer to the 9th circuit out west. you can only delay it so far when the 11th circuit overturns this district court judge in florida and i know clarence thomas is at the top of the briefing and everything, but end of the day, they're going to have to convince, i believe, a highly skeptical supreme court to reverse the most conservative circuit in america. i don't think it's going to happen. >> yeah. the trump team went forum shopping and the 11th circuit set "no sale" and the judge

cannon meddling in the special master she appointed saying wait. this isn't going the way it's supposed to go. now donald trump, surely we know him. look, i appointed three of these justices they owe me a favor get this to the supreme court and see what they can do for me. bring in former fbi official chuck rosenberg. chuck, good morning. what do you make of this latest motion trying to get this all the way to the supreme court? a dead end? >> well, probably in the end this isn't going to work out for mr. trump. let me explain why. first, there's no requirement that the supreme court even take this case. the issues are rather narrow and rather modest. and, frankly, somewhat uninteresting. and check from a legal standpoint. number two, really, even if they take the case, willie, there's no guarantee mr. trump wins. third, even if they take the case and mr. trump wins, really only talking about a process to

review documents that's ultimately going to end up in the hands of the folks who need it. the government doing the investigation. rather narrow, rather modest. i think in the end, joe's instincts are right, as they often are. i don't see the supreme court overturning a conservative 11th circuit on this rather narrow question. >> so, chuck, certainly trump knows, the trump team knows geography and could end up with clarence thomas. talk to us about the role he could play here, and we should reiterate, the lone vote on the supreme court against an effort there with documents there. also note his wife, ginni thomas last week believes the 2020 election was stolen and talked to the committee about her efforts to overturn results in wisconsin and arizona. what do you make of this and is there any chance he might, given public pressure, recuse himself? >> well, let me take the first

part first. eep of the justices of the supreme court, there are nine you know, oversee different parts of country for emergency matters. justice thomas is assigned to the 11th circuit, which includes this litigation that we're talking about, jonathan, but i don't think justice thomas is going to rule on his own. if anything, the supreme court would get involved. if anyone gets involved the supreme court as a whole could get involved. again, i think there's a fairly good chance that they refuse to hear the matter altogether. should he recuse, well -- you know, it's an interesting question. right? his wife is obviously an elections denier. they maintain they have separate lives and separate opinions when it comes to his professional work and i credit that. but it does raise an appearance question. right? you want judges and justices to recuse when there's an actual conflict. let's say a financial interest in the outcome of litigation. that's not the case here.

but often judges step aside when there is an appearance of a conflict. that's up to him but something he ought to think about. >> the thing is, of course, though think doesn't pertain to elections. it pertains to the classified documents of the documents themselves. so chances are good he won't do that. i do want to just -- chuck, underline, though, how thin of ice donald trump is on legally here. he is right now fighting. he's not even fighting a central issue. he's fighting something that should be basic part of their pleadings, which is, that these documents were declassified. that has been his argument. the special master said, okay. if you declassified them, tell us when you declassified them. right? this is -- this is not -- this is not a massive perry mason

moment. okay. declassified them. okay, tell. no. we're not going to tell you and actually hiding, i cannot even believe the special master hasn't embarrassed enough to say they don't have to say when they classified them or not. fascinating. the classification status isn't, in the end, even -- even going to determine whether he's charged or not. >> yeah. such a good point, joe. right? so one of the statutes at issue, one of the statutes on which the search warrant as predicated as the espionage act. it came into existence after world war ii in the 1950s. so it doesn't matter in the end. the important thing, though, and i don't want folks to lose sight of this is that the government in doing its damage assessment right now today, tomorrow, can

still use the classified information that seized from the home. so that work is ongoing and it's important. absolutely right. when the judge asks you a question it's not the same as pontificating on television as i'm doing now. you have to answer the question. you have to answer the question. so when the judge wants to know whether or not these documents were actually declassified, mr. trump and his team have refused to answer that fundamental, basic question. so on one hand it doesn't matter in the end. the case won't turn on the classification status of the documents. on the other, i think their failure to answer the question is quite telling. can i add just one thing which i think is important? >> sure. >> not directly on this matter. i loved opening of or show. i'm a huge baseball fan. give a shout-out to pujols finishes two all-time in rbis and number four in home runs. >> chuck! >> we will certainly do that, chuck.

certainly do that, and -- >> okay. >> and by my count third only behind hank aaron and babe ruth. so should he stick around another season and get past that 714? >> oh, you know -- that's a great question. you know, i'm a huge fan of albert pujols, always have been. always admired him. he said it's his last season, he's not coming back. i respect that. i don't think he has anything else to prove. one of the all-time great ballplayers. >> senior fbi official and baseball enthusiast. thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. and still ahead on "morning joe," president biden heading to florida just days after hurricane ian left widespread damage across the state. we're looking ahead to what we can expect when he meets with governor ron desantis today. >> do you think it governor desantis will let him borrow his

white boots? >> ah, nah, i don't think he'll wear those. >> white boots. like straight out of the nancy sinatra song, actually. plus, in the second day of testimony in the trial of five oath keepers we learned in the months before the january 6th attack the fbi received a tip about the extremist group's plans for an armed fight. the question is, what was that tip? why was that tip apparently ignored? also ahead, elon musk announced he's moving forward with his original $44 billion bid to buy twitter. >> and this is fascinating, by the way. i guess his lawyers must have told him they got you legally. so he decides to move forward with it. >> the latest on the on again/off again saga there. and more on the historymaking moment last night in texas. new york yankees slugger aaron judge setting a new american league home run record.

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fly ball! goes into history! he's done it! he has done it! 62! aaron judge is the american league single season home run leader. the a.l. king, case closed! >> it's -- it's a big relief. i think everybody can finally sit down in their seats and watch the ball game. you know? it's -- nah. it's been a fun ride so far. you know? getting a chance to do this, you

know, with the team we got. the guys surrounding me. the constant support. you know, from my family that's been with me there. you know, through this whole thing is -- it is -- it's been a great honor. you know? and also, you know, roger maris jr., him and his family, you know, supporting and being along for the ride, too. you know, a lot of thanks, and congratulations to them, too, for their constant support through this whole process. i know it's a tough situation. you know? your dad's legacy and you want to uphold that but getting a chance to meet their family. they're wonderful people and getting a chance to, you know, have my name next to, you know, someone as great as roger maris, babe ruth, those guys, is incredible. >> what a class act. complete class act. >> how nice. >> bring in best-selling author and columnist mike lupica. one of the things that irritates

mere, european soccer we call it, somebody scores a goal and run away from their teammates and not get hugged because they want the adulation, they want to be on the camera. here's a guy who made it all about teammates, crosses the plate. he doesn't, know -- pump his fists, look up into the crowd. hugs every single player on the team before he even looks up into the crowd. what a teammate. what a guy. >> you know, joe i was watching that last night. that receiving line of yankees, and i imagine that line stretching all the way back to the 1920s and babe ruth. because, you know, it's kind of cool what judge has done here. he's brought the '60s back in baseball. '60, '61, '62, and this sport was built on home runs. baseball became a big deal in this country in the 1920s when babe ruth got there from boston. he hit 54 first year in new york, then 59 then 60 in 1927.

34 years later maris comes along to break that record and now 61 years after maris' 61, in '61, here comes this guy who, who seems to tower over baseball the way babe ruth once did. when the sport became a big deal in the american century. >> so, mike, talk about whose record this really is. aaron judge, as i said earlier, says, i recognize, i acknowledge barry bonds at 73 in 2001. to me, that's the record. maybe just flashing some of his humility. tom verducci as "sports illustrated" has a great piece writes bonds is the official home run champion. judge is the authentic champion. one has the official designation. the other is unofficial but has prestige of authenticity. which would you rather have? tom verducci writing this morning. where do you stand on this question, mike? is this the record? >> yeah. it is for me, willie.

i don't mean to date myself, but i'm looking back at the steroids era in baseball. remember that year in dallas where they wiped it away as a bad dream for bobby ewing? that's -- that's the way i'm looking at this now. i believe that aaron judge is the single season home run champion, and people can -- listen, people can debate bonds and maguire and sosa all they want. in my mind henry aaron still hit more home runs than anybody in history. aaron judge more in a season than anybody else ever hit legitimately. okay? and what he did over these last weeks and why it was such a cool thing is, he had us hanging on every swing again. it was like this in '61 when mantel and maris were chasing babe ruth. his nickname is "all rise." and he's right.

every fan would come to their fans. how about his mom? ever seen, did he do it? yeah, he did it. it only made the moment more perfect, for me, at least. >> she spoke with us a of us for that. just a big exhale of relief and finally for her son who could finally get this off his shoulder. and one last question. hitting in major league baseball was terrible. if you put it in context of this season. in other words, the last 50 years batting averages haven't been this low. guys all throwing 100 miles an hour, all kinds of breaking stuff and nobody was -- then 15 home runs of aaron judge this year. so he's doing it in a time when hitting is down, breaking the record makes it even more extraordinary. >> yeah. you're right, willie. an era of dominant pitching in major baseball. relievers come in and throw hard. starters asked to go four, five innings to maintain velocity throughout. rarely see a hitter for a third time. that makes what judge has done all the more impressive.

break from the crowd. i think 73 is the record but verducci writes about judge's authenticity. resonates. well done there. and it is remarkable. certainly pains me to say it. the yankees, joe, but he is a class act and handled this well. you could see the pressure really built on him in recent weeks and in the wave of relief. not just on his mom, on judge's own face yesterday. probably fall just short of the triple crown but still a remarkable season. one of the best seasons ever. it should be noted, he cleared the next home run leader by 20 home runshuge gap. head and shoulders over the rest of the field. babe ruth the only other player to do that. >> i have to say, willie. lemire was pushing up to put xander's grand slam in a rain hitting for a team finished in last place for the fifth time in

11 years. if you get a chance, read mike lupica's column. whether be yankees or red sox? four world series championships, and, but five last-place finishes. very compelling, and interesting, mike. some people said, ah, take the red sox, but yankees' fans say, no. i would not be cool being in last place if, five of the last 11 years. but let's talk about, quickly, and we got to, i know mika's going say we need to get back to hard news. go quickly to the national league east. i followed baseball for a very long time. never seen a team like the atlanta braves last year i think something like 38-15 after the all-star break. this year over the last 110 games, or something like 83-35. the mets have had a great season. the braves, the last two years,

second half of the season, they have been the best team in baseball. just extraordinary. >> joe, you know, their best is as good as the dodgers' best, despite the games dodgers won this year. they're an extraordinary team and's beat a great mets team. have to go into the wild card series. if they win that have to play the dodgers, because when the braves had to act like the champs last weekend in atlanta, that is exactly what they did. buc showalter said pitched better than we did, hit better than we did and they're going to win the east for the fifth straight year. i'm telling you, nobody wants any part of them in october. >> all right. mike lupica. thank you very much for joining us. i know we'll talk about this again soon? and coming up, some of this morning's must-read opinion pages including a take why the allegation against herschel walker likely won't stop republicans from voting for him.

also ahead, china's president is on track for an unprecedented third term. >> because he did so well in the second term. right? not really. >> looking at how his growing power is raising concerns about an invasion of taiwan. "morning joe" is coming right back. it's the subway series menu. 12 irresistible subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪

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49 past the hour. kind of an ugly commute in washington, d.c. this morning. >> no. it's beautiful! >> it's raining, dark, cloudy. >> kind of "harry potter"-like. >> it's beautiful. >> time to go to work. welcome back to "morning joe." next week thousands of communist officials will ganger in beijing for the party's congress expected to reappoint xi jinping for an unprecedented third term at leader of china, and as his

power grows there are concerns it could embolden him to take control of taiwan possibly by force. joining us now, nbc news foreign correspondent ralph sanchez who recently visited the island. what did you find out? >> mika, joe, good morning. we heard from people on the island, both government officials and ordinary people on the street that xi jinping is a different kind of chinese leader's this is a man accumulated an enormous amount of power's he has very few political guardrails at this point and he sees it as his destiny to take control of taiwan. what's also different is that in joe biden you have a u.s. president saying explicitly for the first time that he is prepared to send the u.s. military to defend taiwan, even if that means war with china. in his first ten years in power, xi jinping presided over a vast buildup of china's military

might. now, on the cusp of a third term, xi pledged to restore the communist party, taking control of taiwan by force, if necessary. taiwan's foreign minister tells nbc news it's a threat they cannot ignore. >> the threat is there. the threat is real. even the we don't know when china is going to launch a military attack against taiwan, but we have to be very realistically prepared for it. >> xi jinping appears to be going to get a third term. do you believe that will embolden him to move against taiwan? >> that is one factor we need to look at seriously. >> reporter: president biden breaking we decades of precedence saying he'd order the u.s. military to fight against a chinese invasion. >> yes, in fact if there was an unprecedented attack. >> reporter: honoring that pledge could mean all-out war between the u.s. and china.

like ukraine, the u.s. supplied taiwan with billions of dollars in advanced weaponry, but unlike ukraine taiwan is an island and may be impossible to resupply in war breaks out. >> in the process of discussions with our good friend the united states to see how we can accumulate enough stockpile for us to fight a war, if the war has to happen. >> so you need materiels in place before this starts? >> we need it in place and high-powered weaponry. >> reporter: to see for ourselves we traveled where this may likely begin. an island of kinmen just six miles off the coast. you can see the city looming in the distance. these spikes are meant to stop chinese forces from landing on this beach. they're old and really if ever put to the test a sign taiwan and possibly the u.s. are

already at war with china. for now, taiwanese troops on this island tested and taunted by what they say are chinese civilian drones overhead. this video of taiwanese troops throwing rocks was mockingly shared on chinese social media. they did not deny chinese drones were flying in the area. back in taipei, these volunteers are preparing for the worst. dozens of young civilians learning the skills they need to support their people during an invasion. >> survival is the biggest challenge of our generation. >> reporter: after decades of military rule, taiwan today is considered one of the freest countries in the world. [ chanting ] this is something impossible to matchen in china. a democratically elected president arriving at a raucous political party in the heat of a free and fair election. but also a more self-affecting

reason for protecting taiwan. it produces more than 90% of the semiconductors. microclips that power everything from microphones to airplanes to smart fridges. this could cause trillions in economic damage meaning chaos for consumers in the u.s. and china. >> disastrous for china, too. they would fate large-scale unemployment, consumer goods that we would face. >> reporter: the question? is that a price jinping is willing to pay? experts tell us consumer in the u.s. would feel the ill pact immediately, fewer supplies on the schedules, higher price, worldwide trillions of dollars of loss. that's the risk. one of the world's geopolitical flashpoints. >> a terrible few years for china. you look at the sagging economy.

doing worse than it has in decades. look at a zero covid policy that's been absolutely disastrous and destroyed their supply chain. destroyed exports. you look at the fact that they went out and obliterated any pretense that hong kong was a financial center of asia, which is was before the crackdown. you could go down the list. can jinping actually go after top entrepreneurs in china and the investment climate is worse than it's been in quite some time. despite all of these failings, do you -- do you see the party lining up behind xi without oversteps on his part? >> a man who centralized power

in himself in a way we haven't seen in quite some time. smashed the collective leadership in china and the man calling all the shots. interesting, the taiwanese foreign minister said to us an invasion might start not for the obvious international relations that there's a spark that escalates but could happen for chinese domestic political reasons that xi could look around, see the covenant he's made with the chinese people, which is, you don't have a lot of political rights but you have economic growth, has broken down. youth unemployment extremely high in china and might feel he needs to launch invasion of taiwan to rally his people around him to try to distract from what as you said is an extremely difficult domestic situation in china right now. joe? >> raph sanchez, thank you very much more that reporting. and stilled ahead, headlines across the country plus a live

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live look at the white house in a rainy wednesday morning in washington, d.c. welcome back to "morning joe." it's wednesday, october 5th. today is yom kippur. wush wishing all those observing a lively holiday and an easy fast. joining us, msnbc and nbc news contributor claire mccaskill and charlie sykes is with us. >> we're going to -- let's do the herschel story, but before we do, charlie -- our party,

man, our former party -- >> it -- >> i guess we can't be shocked. we can't be shocked, because you saw what happened with donald trump. all of these self-righteous people who spent their entire lives being holier than thou, how character mattered when they wanted bill clinton impeached. you couldn't be a leader without good character and then fall in line for donald trump. now we got herschel walker. i must say that herschel walker, obviously, this -- this situation has something that the -- the donald trump situation didn't have, and that is, you actually have a family member. you have his son coming out and talking about all of the horrible things their family has gone through. it's a tragedy.

i don't see this political fodder. i think the real tragedy is that herschel walker is even running in this race because he has never -- by the way, we've all known this for years. he's never appeared at least publicly to be well as a person, and so donald trump has thrown him into the middle of this. it is a tragedy for the entire family and the republicans are sitting back, pretending that nothing's wrong when the son is talking about just how screwed up his life has been. >> no. ah -- now, there's a lot to unpack there, including that fact that you wish there had been somebody who loved herschel walker and could have prevented this. the republican party did not have to put herschel walker up for this senate race. his candidacy a absurd and tragic. joe, at this point, we can't be surprised anymore.

the gop is not just sitting back it is actively leaning forward and embracing herschel walker despite allegations that he paid for an abortion. their reaction is not as much of a revelation as a reminder of how much this party has been broken, and by the way, i throw out a preview of what would happen in 2024. the republican party would rally around donald trump no matter what he said no matter what he did or been indicted, because, let's face it. this is a party that has just decided that winning is all that matters. that -- that even if herschel walker in his messy, reighed personal life actually paid to, in their minds, murder an unborn child, it's okay, because it's all about getting control of the united states senate. you know, it wasn't that long ago that, know, had you candidates in missouri and in indiana who were essentially, you know, whose candidacies were

tanked by saying stupid things about abortion. that's like the before time. so now we have, we have herschel walker and a republican party that is absolutely all-in, despite the hypocrisy and abortion and despite the fact he is so manifestly unfit to be a u.s. senator. >> yeah. and claire mccaskill, let's just -- just so people don't think all of this blurs together and it's been the same, i would like to suggest that things have actually gotten far worse in the republican party and let's just, we'll make this personal just for purposes of talking about a time when republicans did come out and criticize donald trump, and mika was attacked by donald trump when he tried to face shame her saying, lied her saying she looked badly from a face lift. i remember republicans like ben sasse, paul ryan, others coming out saying you don't do that. when donald trump accused me of

murder 12 times you had republicans coming out begging him to not terrorize the poor woman's family, when the husband was writing letters to him pleading for him to stop. you had republicans saying, please, don't do this. please, stop. we've now gotten to a point, though, where there are no guardrails. >> and people are desensitized. >> they've become so desensitized over five years that even after january the 6th, even after top-secret, highly classified documents being stolen. even after all of the crimes that are being investigated, the potential crimes being investigated, they're -- the most self-righteous, those who have been the most self-righteous over the past generation are the first to stand in line saying -- this is fine. the son has problems. we're all behind herschel. >> you know, let me make it personal for a minute. ten years ago we had a

republican nominee for the senate say something that was offensive. in light of everything that's been said by donald trump, it appears trivial at this point, but ten years ago the republican leadership including the nominee for president, including the leadership of the senate, they all circled and said, no. we do not want todd akin in the senate. they didn't -- they said, don't come to our convention. they all stood up knowing that this senate race in missouri was at stake, and then like now, like it has been for many, many cycles, the senate was closely divided, but they decided that character and the norms that we all accept in this country, well, we did, anyway, before donald trump, were more important, and now look at this. they have handcuffed themselves to donald trump in a way that

has taken integrity and character off the equation for the republican party. it is a very sad moment. i don't care what party you are or what policies you care about. this is a depressing moment for american politics, because of how far these people are willing to go in order to grab power. by the way, even if they get the senate, it's not like they can, know, run the table with what they want to do. there's a democratic president, and they don't have 60 votes. so it is really sad, and frankly, depressing, that no republicans are standing up and saying, forget about the allegation on abortion. just his son. and the abuse that he is alleging and four children with four different women. none of whom he ever helped raise. many of whom he can't acknowledge. i said last night, you know, dr. oz can't keep track of his houses and herschel walker can't keep track of his children.

>> yeah. and we've been saying this morning, this is not the first time republicans could have paused and questioned herschel walker. go back to his wife of nearly 20 years saying publicly herschel walker held a gun to her head and said "i'm going to blow your brains out ". also, herschel walker's alleged hypocrisy on abortion most likely won't matter. many pro-lifers will be upset but not likely to abandon them. elections are about choices and often imperfect. the choice bean warnock and walker isn't a hard one for republicans or pro-lifer. warnock is a solidly progressive democrat, and walker could be a major disappointment to his voters as a senator, but couldn't possibly be as problematic to them as warnock.

probably have not heard the last word in the walker talks, it will take more to have a large effect on the outcome. politics, it seems, is too important these days for questions of character to matter. that's probably true, charlie sykes, but by that argument, a candidate could do anything in his or her personal life and it wouldn't matter as long as the candidate could win the general election. >> well, that's right. you know, and henry olsen has written pieces ethics shouldn't matter. a fellow at the ethics and public policies center. inaptly named at that center. that captures really the new ethos of the right, including commentators in the "washington post" like henry olsen that politics is too important for character to matter. too important for right and wrong to matter. politics is too important for morality to matter and internalized this, because this ought to be a very difficult

choice for republicans. it ought to be a very difficult choice for pro-lifers in, in fact, they believe or come close to believing what they claim to believe, but also stating a reality. that in the current world, i mean, look at the way pro-life groups have rushed to embrace herschel walker, rick scott, donald trump -- >> let me -- let me interrupt you a second. charlie, let me just ask you. you and i. we are both very conservative. you know, i actually tell the people who watch the show. i warn them, right? i'm not a member of the resistance. i am repeatedly a very conservative person on crime. i never thought that the so-called reforms were a good thing. you know, i -- i'm very conservative on illegal immigration. i think that if you come to america, the first thing you do should not be illegal. you should not get in front of the line of people who want to

come here from pakistan or india or china or ukraine or from across the world. i could go down the list. very conservative. you know, when i saw donald trump saying, in early december, talking about a muslim registry and muslim ban. could never vote for that guy. it's not hard, charlie. it wasn't hard for me. it's not hard for you. >> it's not. >> and i must say, too, the people that i served with back in the '90s, wasn't that long ago, it wasn't hard for them either! we were hard core conservatives. >> right. >> if a -- if a leader stepped out of line, then like newt gingrich, they got sent home. this shouldn't be hard. henry olsen in this quote saying, oh, elections are -- no. really? when did that happen? because no republican was saying that in the 1990s when bill clinton was president. >> no.

and this has been, has been rapid. one thing for a right-wing conservative to say definitely vote for roy moore even if going after young girls, but now we're seeing where this all leads. a certain point you accept the big lie you have to accept all the lies. if you decide donald trump is fit to the president of the united states you can't argue anyone else should be held to an ethical standard. that's what's happened here. it is more important to control the senate than any of these other principles, and i think that that is, has been where the republican party has been going for some time, and we're seeing it, know, full fruit. so coming to full fruition. so olsen is probably right most republican voters are going to go along with this, but not all of them. i guess the question is, is there a residual sense of, no, i'm sorry.

politics is not completely immoral. politics is not completely post-ethical. we actually do stand for something, and in a state as evenly divided as georgia, that might be decisive. certainly do not look for any leadership from the republican party, and by the way, you're talking about republicans not pushing back. far as i can tell, liz cheney is the only elected republican in america that has pushed back against donald trump's clearly overtly racist slur against elaine chao calling her cocoa chao born not in china but taiwan. so we've got -- there are not only no guardrails for, no suggestions of violence, but no gashedrails for racism or the kind of hypocrisy you're seeing with the herschel walker story. >> and there haven't been guardrails for racism.

consistently racist towards elaine chao. a racist towards women of color, sitting members of congress telling them to go back home or to go back to where they came from. >> swallowed it all. >> this has been a constant republicans went along with it. oh, but i did want to just -- if i can just make sure people understand. when i say that -- that i was -- not supportive of some of the reform. make sure they know. i'm not talking about policing reforms. i'm talking about the criminal justice reforms, which i don't think that was the time to do that, when crime is at a 50-year low. that, of course, was a far different time, before donald trump became president. >> yes. columnist nicholas goldberg has a new piece for the "l.a. times" entitled january 6th, climate change, war in europe. voters have other things on their minds and nicholas writes in part "americans these days in particular the swing voters being watched and courted so

esuch white housely are underwhelmed by abstract ideas far away crises or problems scheduled to materialize sometime in the future. with some exceptions they're focused on the here and now. pocketbook issues, quality of life issues, better schools, safer streets, cost of living. most people don't have or feel they have the leeway in their lives to worry about other americans' problems or tomorrow's dangers or crises in distance countries that affect distant people. paying the bills, staying safe, making sure the kids are okay, these are the humdrum day-to-day challenges most people want to see addressed, but don't be fooled. the big threats especially to american democracy and the fate of the planet may seem abstract but they matter more than ever and we're seeing that some will argue in the major weather stories that we are seeing and here in america and around the

world," and i do think an argument can be made as to why ukraine matters in every way to the safety of the world and also to democracy here in america. >> uh-huh. >> but -- while i like the point that the kitchen table issues are important. i agree with it. i do think the republicans have set themselves up to be given the conversation we just had here. the party of inhumanity. how cruel, they don't care about values. they don't care about people, and the policies they stand by reflect that. >> but the point of the piece, claire, is, it's the economy, stupid. it's the economy, stupid. it's the economy, stupid. and you look at one poll after another, and the economy, inflation, always on the top of voters' minds. >> you know, i frankly think this column could have been written in any election in the history of this country. this is nothing new. >> sure. >> people do aware about what's going on in their lives, and how

much ground this is costing them, but i do think nicholas goldberg left out a couple of things here. i think there are a lot of swing voters really concerned about the courseness that seemed into politics because of donald trump. i think that's why joe biden won. a lot of women in suburbs across the country said i don't warrant to have the to look at the liar every day. the guy i find offensive every day the next four years. i also think he left out women and how they feel about what the supreme court has done. and how that is impacting their lives. i saw just another story this morning of a young woman who's losing her baby as a result of the hurricane is in the hospital and there is a real question about what she will be able to receive in terms of health care because of the laws in florida. so it is -- it is really something that is present. women's minds. i think nicholas goldberg left that out of the article and that

could be the determining factor in november. >> i want to pick up on claire's point, just there, about abortion rights. because republicans in recent weeks are around internal abortion slipping as an issue as midterms approach. less important than say over the summer in the immediate aftermath of the dobbs decision. i'm not so sure about that. i think voting registrations indicate women are signing up in droves. new women voters. men's support of this issue as well. that's chargely going to break for democrats. republicans, yes. trying to make it about the economy, to that column's point. they think that's where they have had advantage and see there are signs. more economic data. growing talk of a recession around the corner. they feel that's their wheelhouse but not clear that's the only issue determining the election this year. yes, ukraine, they don't think as important as it is a single vote will be cast in november about the war in ukraine. climate change? we know from polling that's

becoming more of an issue. we'll see if that actually moves the needle this november or not, but, willie, i think it would be a mistake as important as economic issues are, a mistake to underestimate the women's vote here in wake of the dobbs decision. >> and we've heard that from democratic candidates running a very tight race, dobbs decision completely changed the trajection of the race. ukraine forces continue to make rapid gates in the eastern and southern parts of their country and russian troops are struggling to hold the line. joining us now live from kharkiv is nbc news correspondent erin maclachlan. what can you tell us? >> reporter: willie, at the yoots announced a new military aid package for ukraine, president zelenskyy saying it's a matter of time before russians are pushed out of this country. in village after village, the

ukrainian flag hoisted high. ♪♪ residents relieved to sing their national anthem. [ speaking non-english ] the united states announcing another $625 million package of military aid for ukraine. this morning russian president vladimir putin formally annexing four ukrainian territories. russia does not even firmly control all of that land. overnight president zelenskyy declaring dozens of settlements liberated in the south and east this week alone. our soldiers are not stopping, he says, as the kremlin scrambling troops to reinforce the front lines with tens of thousands of russian men dodging the draft. on monday russia's defense minister said they managed to call up 200,000 for service with training under way. i'd rather stay home this russian draftee seize, if needed, it is needed.

our crime from ukrainian conviction. recently liberated town here, ukrainian troops cart away ammunition and armored vehicles abandoned as moscow's forces fled. we fight for our land, for hur children. this serviceman says, adding, all this comes at a very high price. it's a price paid daily by ordinary ukrainians. mclye and alexander traveling in a convoy of civilians trying to escape russian-occupied kubiask. they came under fire. 24 were killed. i lost consciousness and woking unby screaminging of children, he says. nikolai shot in the leg trying to escape saying his son died while driving the lead car. his head fell on the steering wheel of the car, he says, but he managed to press the brake and stop the vehicle.

because your son was able to hit that brake, he was a hero? yes. what else is there to say. overnight in the kyiv region a first for the kyiv region. according to ukrainian officials, iranians supplied kamikaze drones striking a number of critical infrastructure targets setting buildings on fire and injuring one according to ukrainian officials. willie? >> nbc's erin maclachlan report on the ground in ukraine. still ahead on "morning joe" a live report from florida as the state continues its recovery from hurricane ian. also in the state of florida, moments ago nasa gave an official go for launch. we'll go live to kennedy space center as spacex prepares for a historic blastoff today. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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we must register to become first-class citizens, and if the freedom democratic party is not seeded now, i question america. is this america? the land of the free and the home of the brave? our telephones off of the hook because our lives are threatened daily, because he want to live as decent human beings in america. >> wow. one of the leading voices of the civil rights movement. fannie hoover speaking at the 1964 national convention democratic convention in new jersey. joining us, pulitzer prize winning journalist tom ricks and we continue our week-long discuss of his new book entitled

"waging a good war." also with us is retired u.s. army ranger adrian lewis. professor of military history at the university of kansas, and one of the reasons adrian is on today is we're going to focus on the civil rights movement and tom's book, and the lessons they learned actually from the military. tom, why don't you set the scene for us as to what you have in your book. what you learned about how this non-violent movement actually learned some incredible philosophies from the military itself? >> we learned a lot from the mil military, and one thing i loved about writing the book i found so fascinating is as i wrote it, i began to think, wow. u.s. military also could learn a lot from the classic civil rights movement.

both organizations are very good at two basic tasks. training and tactics. the u.s. military excels at tactics. how to fight what to do on the battlefield. where i think the civil rights movement really out-scripts the u.s. military especially in the last 20 years or so, watching the u.s. military flounder in afghanistan and in iraq. >> uh-huh. >> is the u.s. military is not as good as the civil rights movement at formulating strategy. that's the beginning point. that's something i'm interested to hear what professor lewis has to say about that, and the end point. what do you want the end game to look like? what is, what the u.s. military would cause phase four, which is what the civil rights movement called reconciliation. what do we want things to look like at the end? they always thought about it from the very beginning, as their strategic song put it

"keep your eyes on the prize." >> professor lewis, why don't i let you respond to that question and those thoughts about where the u.s. military could learn from the civil rights movement, and, also, what you thought of the book. >> first, thanks for having me. it's good to be with you and congratulations, tom. it's a great piece of work. i read all of your work, as a matter of fact, i've reviewed some of your work and i appreciate what you, the contributions that you make. i agree with what you said. i agree with the argument you're advancing here. i would even push it back further go. i would go all the way back to the policymaking part of it. in world war ii we got the policy right. got to the vietnam war, didn't get the policy right. in other words whshs it comes to taking moral high ground, world war 2, got it right. in vietnam we associated ourselves with french imperialism. we were not able to tell the

american people the truth about what we were doing in vietnam. as you know. mcnamara lied to the american people about vietnam. nixon lied to the american people about vietnam and as a consequence of that you know the outcome of vietnam. so i would say two things. one, get the policy right in the first place and then the strategy will come. if you're on the right side. and in the civil rights movement, as you pointed out in your book, martin luther king and those leaders are on the right side of history. they are espousing and promoting values and ethics that are more in line with americans, with the founding fathers values and ethics. not with the segregationists. not with the jim crow proponents. so i'd say, get the policy right first and then the strategy will come after that. >> so, in fact -- >> in your book -- about the

culture of the american military, you also reach back to your roots as an army ranger about how essential it is to perceive the truth, and to tell the truth to your comrades in battle. could you talk about that? >> right. no. you're right. in your book, i appreciate that you quote the ranger handbook there about how significant it is to tell the truth. and we don't have to look back far in our history to see the problems with lying to the american people. we can take a look at the war in iraq. george w. bush and colin powell were not straightforward with the american people about wmds, about the significance of the threat from saddam hussein and as a consequence of that we lost the support of the american people. i was living to the program a little bit earlier, and we were talking about the inability, some in the gop, to not tell the

truth. well, there will be consequences for that. >> i -- we're still waiting, but, yes. i'm hoping that there are consequences for lying, and for completely just deleting your core values from your party, but we'll leave that right there. tom, let's point out, the professor talked about the army ranger handbook. here's, in your book, discussing how civil rights leaders took a page from the u.s. army when it came to how they shared information with each other. the u.s. army's ranger handbook carries one of the rules supposedly promulgated in 1759 by major robert rodgers during the french and indian war. tell the truth about what you see and what you do. there is an army depending on us for correct information. similarly, one lesson civil rights activist diane nash had taken away from participating in sit-ins, it was absolutely

essential to report ground truth accurately. when you're really honest with yourself and honest with other people you give yourself and them the opportunity to solve problems using reality. instead of lack of reality. thatic mas problem-solving much more efficient and, clearly, you talk about the impact of doing things this way in your book. i just want to jump to today. i ask you, tom to comment on where we are when there are so many levels of truth and how about ultimately that affects the civil rights movement of today. >> when people won't have the courage to tell the truth as they see it, when they think that political power is best obtained by lying, you wind up with a chaotic and fraught situation. you will not build a lasting piece based on lies. it really strikes me.

you quoted diane nash. she had the courage of her convictions. after the terrible birmingham church bombing, four little girls blown up by 16 sticks of dynamite in a church. what could be more uncivilized? diane nash had the courage to write a memo to martin luther king and other leaders of the movement telling, they were handling the response to that badly but a lot of negative energy circulating at the funeral and at the crowds and that they needed to follow the basic civil rights movement principle of recycling negative energy into something positive. she said, you are failing as leaders. you need to get out there and do something. >> tom ricks, thank you. back with us tomorrow for more on the new book "waging a good war: a military history of the civil rights movement, 1954-1968." retired u.s. army ranger adrian lewis, thank you as well,

professor, for being on this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe," a new opinion piece written by a former cia officer on why liz cheney is a living example of lessons the spy agency teaches about leadership. also -- coming up, the challenge and the value of being still. what does that mean? we're going to profile an incredible woman who was living and teaching just that, and also we are previewing an announcement that we have about the 50 over 50 partnership we have with forbes and "know your value." we'll be right back. trelegy for copd. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪ if you've been playing down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day,... ♪

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50 over 50 list celebrating women who are having their greatest impact over the age of 50. well over and proving that suction no longer has an expiration date. last year forbes and "know your value" celebrated our inaugural list, which included vice president kamala harris, general motors mary barra, walgreens rosalynn brew around many, many more. we honored many women of the first 50 summit in abu dhabi on and around natural women's day in march. mentoring is the focus of this annual summit with women from the global 30 under 30 list and 50 over 50 lists joining the likes of hillary clinton, tyra banks, cathie wood and uma aberdeen. while we have to wait until tomorrow to tell hue is on the next list, today we shine our spotlight on one woman who embodies the spirit of what it means to achieve so much later

in life. reframing the conversation around mental health and wellness. as a life coach, spiritual teacher and former host of "fix my life" she's fixed countless lives and continues to do so. she told a "morning joe" reporter at 69 seed just getting started. >> do you think you've had such a long career and i'm just wondering. at what stage in your career do you think you had the biggest impact in that calling appealing? >> this stage right now starting with the pandemic. when people really needed something, and they were more willing than ever to try anything. [ laughter ] so i started with a daily exercise, activity, with people from all over the world. teaching them how to breathe. teaching them how to get still.

giving them something to focus on, and i mean, 34 years in, i was still surprised by the response that i got, and it was called the "anti-viral message." i did it every day for 49 days during the shutdown, now, and then i went to once a week. so -- >> yeah. >> that, to me, was the greatest impact. not the 19 books. not the television show -- well, the television show would be second, but in that moment, and the reason is because people were so willing. i thank ms. corona. i call her "ms. corona" for two things. she said two things, gave two very clear messages. go home. get still. >> hmm. we don't like to get still. >> no, no, no, no, no. and you had to go home. home is where the heart is. and when you get still, the issues from the heart will come

out, and one of the things as women of color, not only have we been on survival mode, that we've been so conditioned, programmed, educated, taught, expected to "do" that we forgot how to "be." and when you get into the heart, your being starts to come forward. how are you being? what are you being? where are you being? which overrides the doing. so i thank ms. corona for that, because she showed us an aspect of our lives and beingness that i think we had forgotten about. >> hmm. so practicing stillness and mindfulnesses is something she does and urges others to do every day. it got her through some of her darkest moments, including the loss of her daughter, divorce and financial trouble. >> when my daughter passed and the grief was just so overwhelming, i was in the midst of -- my daughter passed. i was in the midst of a divorce.

i had lost a million dollar contract with a major publisher and they wanted me to pay the money back. they could have the contract. it was, pay the money back that really took me off, and i got a pearl handled pistol and was going to blow my brains out, literally. and i staped to think. okay. who's going to find me? what is it going to look like, going through all this pand i heard from deep within. stop being dramatic. stop it. put that -- this is what you're going to do. you're going to lay down and you're going to stay there until i tell to you get up, and that's what i did. i went to bed, and stayed there. >> oh. i mean, that's -- that's -- >> i can laugh about it now. i couldn't laugh about it back then, and but in those moments, you could have not told me that i would sit here today and laugh about it. i had the pistol. it's licenced. in my hand. you know? and -- when i started just going

through the -- and -- and for me it was grief. that's what took me there. grief and -- and sadness and sorrow, and -- not having a consistent, daily spiritual practice, because i was so busy rushing around and doing so much, and had fallen off my practice. after the initial shock horrified, give yourself time for the horrific, a health crisis, divorce, a loss. give yourself permission. i think what happens is we try to push through it. no, no, no. just don't buy real estate there. you know? stay there for a couple of hours. even a day or so, and then i promise you it is one step at a time. one step at a time, and

sometimes you'll fall over and sometimes you'll stumble ahead, and sometimes you -- you can barely get -- it's one step at a time, and you may not know where that step is going to lead you. that's why as ms. corona caught us and as i did with the anti-viral message, your daily spiritual practice that is your ticket. >> and changing so many lives, and i have to tell you. my phone's exploding right now with people saying how much they love her. from all over the place. so to watch the entire interview, head over to knowyourvalue.com, and also tomorrow we're going to have the 2022 "know your value" forbes 50 over 50 list with some really wonderful surprises, and also we'll have information on the big luncheon celebrating our honorees in new york city and our second big 30-50 summit.

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the white house says the president will meet with governor ron desantis for a briefing on relief efforts. the death toll in florida stands at 105 people as rescue teams continue to search the hardest hit areas looking for survivors. sam brock has the latest. >> reporter: even with the physical punches thrown by hurricane ian, the grind of going days without power and other essentials is also taking its toll. >> what have you encountered when you try to find ice or gas? anything? >> ice, the last two days. gas, nothing at all. >> reporter: ice is like gold. the lack of power means the ice is the only way to keep food from spoiling. at local supermarkets, the ice cupboards are bare. nearby, lines of cars pour in for food at a fort myers distribution site. what kind of a difference does it make to come here and get

meals and water? >> it's great. all the storage is out. >> reporter: the next level church providing 2,000 meals a day right now. >> we had people showing up in our distribution lines wanting to give a donation to the church but still in need of water and food. >> reporter: with the death poll topping 100, the massive search and rescue operation could soon become a full-time recovery effort. >> we can rebuild a home. we can get another boat, when you lose a loved one, there's no words that can describe how we feel for that family. >> reporter: losing a home is incredibly painful, too. >> this is everything we worked our whole life for. it's gone. >> reporter: others rocked by ian, like gordon myer, who currently has a neighbor's generator hooked up with a cable to his fridge, says he's out. has this experience changed your desire to stay in cape coral?

>> yes. >> reporter: you're reconsidering? >> we're leaving. >> reporter: one thing keeping his faith, the nebraska college students who drove 26 hours to clean yards and help get some residents back into their homes. >> feeling powerless is a terrible feeling. i know we have the power to help some people. >> sam brock reporting from florida for us. jonathan lemire, the president and first lady heading to florida. they will meet with governor desantis. they have been clear, there's no politics here. they're talking over a disaster for florida, and, yes, they will work with governor ron desantis. >> this is the president's second trip in three days to the site of a hurricane damaged area. puerto rico on monday, florida today. we heard from karine jean-pierre saying there would be no politics discussed today. no discussion of governor desantis' plan to fly migrants to blue areas. we know desantis has taken --

not been shy at attacking the white house as well. but while there are no overt politics that will be voiced today, there's always politics in the backdrop. it was almost ten years ago when then president barack obama went to new jersey to tour the damage after super storm sandy and received a hug from governor chris christie, a hug that was held against christie when he ran for president a few years ago. with desantis eyeing the white house in 2024, their interactions will be watched carefully. and even though there will be no politics in the air today, one assumes in the days ahead it will resume. both men, the white house and the state house in tallahassee, neither have criticized the other. they both have been complimentary of the efforts of each other. >> the white house press secretary said those migrant flights will not come up today. she said there's another time and place for that conversation. still ahead, former

president trump appeals to the supreme court now asking it to intervene in the mar-a-lago documents case. we'll explain why the filing goes right to the desk of justice clarence thomas. "morning joe" will be right back.

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herschel walker strongly denying accusations that i paid for a woman's abortion in 2009. >> they're claiming on september 12, 2009, that the woman has a receipt for an abortion. they're claiming that five days later, on september 17th, you sent a $700 check. and that you sent it in a get well card. >> i can tell you, i sent out so many get well and send out so much anything. >> what about the $700 check? >> i send money to a lot of people. >> do you enjoy sending vague cards to strangers for no reason

constantly? hallmark introduces the herschel walker collection. when you just want to say something to someone you don't know for no reason. like, get well soon, and/or congratulations on that great thing that might have just happened. here's a check. put in the number of dollars you think would be appropriate to soothe/celebrate you. the hallmark herschel walker collection. the perfect way to say you're sorry for the thing you deny ever doing. >> that's just -- we want to get one of those cards. welcome back. >> claire, you know, looking at the reaction from republicans on herschel walker, looking online, hearing what they said yesterday, it's very obvious -- they have said it, by the way. this is not me putting words in their mouth, character doesn't matter.

national security doesn't matter. they're even saying abortion -- this abortion doesn't matter. nothing but power matters. they're saying it. they only care about power. americans deserve more. americans should want more. americans should demand more. right now they're not. these are disturbing times. again, just -- these republicans are admitting publicly that they're operating in a valueless void. they don't care about anything but power. that cruised to actually damage candidates. it used to damage parties. are we beyond that now? >> it's going to be interesting to see how history finishes this chapter of the trump era and the embracing of lying. lying is now an ethos.

it's a party platform for the republican party. and it was interesting, the guest we had earlier talking about lying to the troops and lying to america about vietnam. that's what putin is doing in russia. he's lying about ukraine. it's not going well because of those lies, because there is not the support of the troops for what he is doing. and i think ultimately the lying that has become so fundamentally part of the fabric of the republican party is going to have a bad ending for them. it may not be in the midterms, it may not be in 2024. at some point in time, the american people will recognize the lying for what it is and say we've had enough. >> you know, donald trump made a bet when he hand picked herschel walker. one was that republicans wouldn't dare cross donald trump in the choice he made. he's been proven correct in that. also, a bet that he won himself in 2016, which is that character

doesn't matter. policy chops don't matter. having ideas about the challenges facing the country doesn't matter. if you're famous, well-liked and willing to say anything and stay in the fight no matter what comes at you, you can win. herschel walker is running neck and neck despite the allegations against him from his ex-wife, the children we learned about that he has. and this latest allegation about the abortion. but it doesn't matter to voters. donald trump has been proven right again -- or the leadership of the republican party who said none of that matters. we think he can win. we like him. he's famous. we love him in this state. he won us a national championship and a trophy, we're with herschel. >> despite lying working for law enforcement. despite lying about graduating. >> is he even fit to serve? >> he's not.

and they know he's not fit to serve. they want the vote. they want the power. that's all it's about. this is -- again, willie said something that for me, again, is just mind boggling. i got into politics because of policies, because of things i believed in, because of things i wanted to fight for. policy doesn't matter anymore to republicans. you hear republicans and right-wingers talking about how horrible joe biden is in press conferences, sometimes he stutters. sometimes he stumbled around. sometimes he loses his train of thought. i'd stack that up -- i'd stack that up against donald trump any day of the week where trump is so void, so vacant when it comes to policies, when it comes to understanding the basics of domestic policy, foreign policy, constitutional norms, or

history. there's really no comparison. again, you look at liz cheney. here's somebody that had a 95% conservative rating with the acu, now they're calling her a lib because she doesn't go along with what an authoritarian former game show host wants her to go along with? again, policies just don't matter. and now you have the republican party, now you have cpac, now you have a growing wing of trump republicans supporting authoritarians, strongmen. cpac started with trump, then orban and then vladimir putin. see how vladimir putin's approval rating spiked in the republican party among rank and file republicans. there is a wicked authoritarian strain in the republican party

in boston parlance wicked, in the republican party. it's all about strongmen. they worship strongmen, they worship authority, they worship power. no values when it comes to policy for so many of these members of donald trump's cult. let's bring in former senior operations officer with the cia, marc polymeropoulos, he's an intelligence analyst and author of "clarity in crisis." let me first of all talk about -- this morning, i saw a tweet. i won't mention the guy's name, because i don't want to promote any of these haters who think -- i've been seeing it a lot of my adult life -- where people just -- just because the other party is in white house, suddenly america sucks. i've heard it.

i will say, i've heard it from both sides. i've heard it from republicans when democrats are in power. i've heard it from democrats when republicans are in power. democrats couldn't call george w. bush hitler enough. a large chunk of them. they thought 9/11 was an inside job if you look at the polls. i'm so sick and tired of people tearing down the united states of america because their party is not in power. we heard it. we hear it from the trump right. i read it this morning in a piece where this guy who has been a so-called conservative writer for years was talking about the thin veneer of american civilization. it's coming to an end. america is collapsing. america is failing. how many times do we hear so-called republicans attacking our intel community? so-called conservatives attacking our military?

marc, let me lay this out for you and the american people -- i can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. you've been around the world. let's go down the list for a second. the dollar right now, stronger against other world currencies than it has been probably in half a century. poverty at 50-year lows. job openings at historic highs. job growth at historic highs. our military, if you want to take the measure that's been taken throughout time, if you look at the classic from 1987 "the rise and fall of the great powers" it's always what is the power relative to the rest of the world? by that measuring stick, the united states is stronger militarily relative to the rest of the world than we've ever

been. ever been. not since 1945, since 1776. you look at our economy relative to the rest of the world. stronger than it has been. you look at poverty rates at 50-year lows. you look at all of these things that are supposedly collapsing. the thing i take the greatest offense at is when you have people, when you have senators talking about how our military is weak and woke. when they are tougher -- and i say this -- i say this with the greatest of respect -- they're tougher s.o.b.s than they've ever been. they've learned from the mistakes we've made over the past 20 years. you put 2,500 u.s. troops in syria, they hold off the iranians, they hold off the russians, they hold off isis, they hold off turkey, they hold

off everybody. when the russians decide they are going to attack? they're dead. they're dead in about five minutes because our u.s. troops are tougher and stronger than they've ever been. yet, marc, you have republicans tearing down the united states military because they don't like the fact they lost the last election. it's really grotesque and it reminds me of why conservatives said they hated the left in the 1960s and 1970s. but the radicalism now is on the other foot. >> joe, i totally agree with you. i think one of the things that we have to look back as all the conservative commentators and a lot of republican politics who are kind of talking about the strength and the prowess of the non-woke russian military, look where that's gotten them. and the woke united states military and the deep state intelligence community. look what they've done in terms

of helping ukraine in some sense almost defeat the russian military and intelligence services. i agree with you. here's what i always come back to. i served for 26 years at cia, i spent a lot of time overseas. talking with my friends who still serve in the intelligence community and the diplomatic corps, it's remarkable because there are still long lines at u.s. embassies, at consular sections. people want to still come to the united states. they believe this is the land of opportunity both economic and political freedom. that is a metric that's interesting. look at the queues to get a visa to the u.s. around the globe, that line is still long. this is a great country. the rest of the world does know it. >> marc, your latest piece in the washington examiner gets at these questions of character. it's titled "liz cheney will sleep well at night." i learned many valuable

leadership lessons during my 26 years at the cia. a leader preoccupied with his or her standing in an organization is not an actual leader. when people tend to concerns over job security, they cannot tend to a key leadership principle. doing the right thing every time with courage and conviction. cheney will go down in history as a titan of leadership and integrity. indeed, we're watching greatness in a political environment nearly devoid of it unfold in front of our eyes. she accomplished sing that not many of her colleagues including from the left would or could do. she took righteous actions that she knew would cause her political downfall but also protect that what she cares about most. country. she sacrificed herself politically for the good of the country. she did it again two days ago talking about donald trump's social media posts attacking mitch mcconnell saying he has a death wish and making a racist

attack on his wife. but liz cheney stands alone. adam kinzinger as well. both of them are headed out of town in a few months. it will be lonely there. >> right. liz cheney is such a compelling figure. after i retired from the agency, i wrote the book on leadership. i go around the country now teaching leadership. i'm heading down to the philadelphia police department after my team with you this morning to talk leadership and integrity and ethics. liz cheney will go down in history. i think she'll sleep well at night. she did something that so many people don't do. she sacrificed her job for doing the right thing. i had a mentor at cia, she was one of the titans of counterterroism. she taught me something important. do the right thing every time. you never have a day off as a leader when it comes to

integrity. liz cheney is somebody the history books will be kind to. ultimately she did something that so many of her colleagues in the republican party can't seem to do. look back to the tweet the other day from donald trump. nobody condemned this. that's a sad state of affairs. in the end, you have to wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror. i think liz can certainly do that. >> claire mccaskill, the problem is there's just liz, maybe adam kinzinger as well. is there anyone else and what are your thoughts on what solves this? >> first of all, i think the column is terrific. i think what he is saying is what i was taught when i first ran for office. my father said tell the truth and do the right thing. everything else will take care of itself. now, that phrase, those two principles have been turned on their head with today's republican party, because now it's lie and self-promote.

that's the essence of what the republican party has become. it is, i think, a really interesting question. you talked about your mentor in the cia and none of us know who she is. and it is not about her being famous. talk about why these republicans think their fame is going to be in the long run more important than their integrity? >> when you put your job security above integrity and honor, that's not being a leader. they might keep their jobs. but again, how are they looked at in history? how do they look at themselves in the mirror? to me, these are not hard choices. i think a lot of us who certainly -- particularly where i was in the intelligence community, we're in the shadows. these are choices not difficult to make it seems to me, perhaps

you can make it across the entire political spectrum, particularly the republicans, they have chosen to back someone in the form of donald trump who is so ethically dubious, who has done things against the country. january 6th was a horrific stain. it amazes me people can't speak out about that when it's so obvious in terms of in essence doing the right thing. >> you write about leadership and the definition of leadership in this year, in 2022, is volodymyr zelenskyy. we want your assessment of where things stand in that war. ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the last few weeks. good start, long way to go. conversely, we're seeing russian troops fleeing. we're seeing the equipment remains poor. we're seeing a breakdown in communications and supply lines. how far can ukraine get in their counteroffensive? >> it's extraordinary what

they're accomplishing, but they have room to take back territory that's theirs. it's the fighting prowess of the ukrainians on top of the support from the west with advanced weapons systems and intelligence support. one thing i find extraordinary is the delta between what vladimir putin is saying in public, kind of these fanciful ceremonies in moscow orallies in red square, versus the capability of the russian military. the fact of the matter is whatever vladimir putin wants the russian military to accomplish, they can't. it's broken. the morale is destroyed. i think ukraine will keep pressing on. i think there's room for us to continue on with increased support. this is not going to be a stalemate over the winter. i think we'll see dramatic gains coming up. it goes down to the fighting pros we of the ukrainians and their spirit and morale incredible. >> let's talk about what you're doing after you get off the set here. you're going back down to philadelphia.

you've been reporting on the problems that the philadelphia police department has. all the people who quit over the past couple of years. morale terribly low. they don't feel like the d.a. has their back. they don't feel like politicians have their back. the number of shootings in the city, just absolutely horrific. by the way, there is a governor's race and there's a senate race there. if democrats don't think what's happening in philadelphia is not going to adversely impact them, they really need to get their head out of the sand. it is. let's talk right now about the philly police department and just how extraordinarily difficult the challenges are to be a cop in philadelphia. >> when i go down there, first i meet with leadership. we talk more big picture issues. today we'll talk about recruitment and retention. the philly police, they're hundreds short. that does not make the streets safe. and then i'll go out and meet actually the men and women who

bravely police some of the most dangerous districts in the country. the gun violence is out of control there. the message that i always have for the policeman and policewoman that i meet, people do care. i believe like what i did at cia, policing is an indispensable institution. sure, we have to have reforms, but my message to the men and women who suit up for a dangerous job is, you know, there are many people who believe in you and want to help you. coming from a profession in which, you know, 26 years at cia, three years in tough spots, there's always the mental health aspect of it. i want to make sure that the police force has those kinds of resources. it's a hell of a tough job. again, my message is that we're with you. of course we need reform. i think it's really interesting. the reception i get is extraordinary. at the end of the bay, people do want every once in a while someone to come and say thank

you. >> yeah. marc polymeropoulos, thank you very much. claire mccaskill, thank you as well. with the midterms just over a month away, house speaker nancy pelosi is making a bold prediction about the outcome of the election. >> i believe that we will win the did-- hold the house. we'll hold the house by winning more seats. we won 40 seats, we lost some when trump was on the ballot, but we held enough seats to hold the house with him on the ballot. he's not on the ballot now -- did i say his name? i didn't mean to. >> joining us now, one of the members of the 2020 democratic house majority congresswoman cori bush of missouri. she's out now with her new memoir entitled "the forerunner: a story of pain and perseverance in america." we look forward to talking about

that in a moment. first want to bounce off of the speaker pelosi comments. how do you feel democrats will fair as they head towards the midterms? >> i'm optimistic. i believe we will hold the house. i'm optimistic because since the -- i will call amazing win in new york just a little while ago, we -- and then also in alaska, you know, we're seeing the momentum, especially as we get closer to november, we're seeing the momentum pick up with people who say i don't share your views in other areas, but i don't want my right to abortion restricted. that's been a huge driver over the last several months. >> i wanted to go right there. when you talk to your constituents and you and your colleagues talk to voters across the country, how big of a role is the right to abortion in front of voters minds balanced

with their concerns about economic issues? >> you know, i've seen it play out both ways. i've seen it play out this is the abortion rights are the number one issue because some people are looking at it's not just about me, it's about my children and my children's children. also when we're talking about economics people are saying, well, gas prices are going down, but utilities are going up. so, how are we addressing that? we have -- as congress, we have looked at that. the president made strides to help bring costs down. but also using the defense production act to be able to help with inflation and to bring costs down. we have a lot more work to do. but the big push, that momentum is as it relates to reproductive freedom. that's why i am actually hosting a statewide tour all around my -- the state of missouri, i'm okay -- looking okay for my seat in november. i'm going out to help other

folks. we have a u.s. senate race happening that we cannot allow to go to the republican who is running. we have a horrible -- i'll call it horrible candidate for the u.s. senate seat. plus we have another seat that is flipible if we do the work. >> your memoir tells a remarkable story of your journey -- your journey from being a minimum wage worker, a survivor of domestic and sexual violence, being an unhoused parent, and moving through all of these phases, all of these challenges in your life to becoming a member of congress. talk about how that helps you represent those that too often have nobody remembering their plights day in and day out. >> i remember the pain from all of it still today. and i'm not saying that's healthy. i am in therapy, but i remember the pain of being hungry and

making sure my children were eating. i remember the fear that i had of closing my eyes too long at night, sleeping in the car, afraid that one of my children wouldn't wake up. i remember the pain of being brutalized by police officers where they through my body up in the air and i landed on the ground and i was stomped. i won't forget the pain. i remember the pain of all of those sexual assaults. the pain of the domestic violence when i was left for dead. i remember that, i walk with that every single day because there are people going through that right now. as i'm going to sleep at night, somebody is hurting, somebody is sleeping on the street, somebody is in an abusive relationship and we go on with our lives. if we don't see it, it's not a thing. i feel it, so i'm going to continue to fight as long as i breathe. i will fight for my people. >> given that you have shared so much of these really deeply painful feelings in this book, what are you hoping viewers take away and do from reading this

book? >> i've been criticized for pushing too hard or my stance in certain areas. why do you push so hard for police reform? why do you push so hard for the rights -- for bodily autonomy? why do you push so hard -- that's the reason. the reason is listed in this book. i write about how hard it is, pitfall after pitfall, hardship after hardship, is it because i deserve all these horrible things happen to me? did i deserve to walk through life in such a terrible way for some of those years? was it because it's just me? no, some of this is policy violence. we should fix it through policy. >> all right. the new memoir "the forerunner: a story of pain and perseverance in america." democratic congresswoman cori bush of missouri, thank you very

much for coming on the show and sharing your book with us today. >> thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," former president trump asks the supreme court to intervene in the mar-a-lago documents case. nbc news justice correspondent ken dilanian joins us ahead with the latest reporting on that legal move. and elon musk is preparing for today's historic spacex, and that's not the only reason he's in the news today. his purchase of twitter seems to be officially back on. we'll explain the on again/off again story. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. trying to control my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ enough was enough. i talked to an asthma specialist and found out my severe asthma is driven by eosinophils,

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for georgia senate nominee herschel walker despite allegations that the supposedly anti-abortion former college football star once paid for a girlfriend's abortion. in a series of statements yesterday, key voices in the gop including former president trump accused democrats and the media of running a smear campaign against walker with election day less than five weeks away. >> well, the only problem with that, the problem with that is that his own family is coming out. >> yeah. >> his own son is coming out and saying this about him. >> "herbal has properly denied the charges against him and i have no doubt that he's correct," wrote former president trump. i'm not sure how he'd know. they are trying to destroy a man who has true greatness in his future, just as he had athletic greatness in his past. meanwhile, two sources tell nbc news the national republican

senate committee is organizing an effort to have republicans appear with walker on the campaign trail in georgia in the lead-up to election day. willie? >> those details, again, on monday the "daily beast" reported in 2009 walker gave his then girlfriend nearly $600 so she could have an abortion. the woman, who requested anonymity citing privacy concerns provided a receipt from the abortion clinic and a get well soon card she says was sent by walker. the daily beast also reported that it corroborated a story with the friend she told at the time. walker called it a flat-out lie. nbc news has not verified the details of the story and verified the documents. throughout his campaign, walker has been against abortion including in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk. it's been extraordinary to watch

every republican group rally to the side of herschel walker despite the details of the story and despite this woman that herschel walker said yesterday he doesn't know, providing receipts and a check from herschel walker. >> well, i would say the corruption is complete, but, well, that -- that was known to americans a long time ago during donald trump's first campaign for president. what we -- this is -- it is a good sort of update. a good check on where the republican party stands. did they fall in line, every single one of them fall in line? on one day when their leader actually attacks the senate minority leader, and puts a death wish on him. and then make racist statements about his wife. no republican comes out and

condemns him by name. and then the next day, his son comes out -- the son of herschel walker comes out after this report on this abortion that the son says herschel walker is lying about, and the son confirms what we've all read, that he's abused his wife. he's lied about the abuse. he has four children. >> four women, never raised any of them. >> four women out of wedlock, i think the son said. never raised one of them. lied about most of them. he lied about his education. said he graduated from georgia. he never did. he lied about working for law enforcement. he never did. he lied about working with the fbi. he never did. and from a distance he seems to be -- and i'm being very polite here -- he seems to be a deeply

disturbed man, incapable as some of his friends from his hometown said, incapable of running a small georgia town, let alone being a united states senator. now, this is evident. this is evident to everyone in the republican party. they know that. but the corruption of the party has reached such a level that even somebody with herschel walker's background and with -- with the stories from his ex-wife that, you know -- he'd abuse her. put a gun to her head. all of this just doesn't -- they don't even flinch. >> we'll talk more about that ahead. plus in the words of donald trump, "i want my documents back." at least he's not denying it. we'll talk about the former president's latest reaction to the government's investigation of the classified materials he took from the white house. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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coming up, china's leader, xi jinping, has been in power for ten years with no end in sight. he's set to get another term in office, one that could have huge consequences for neighboring taiwan. the latest on the ongoing tensions there next on "morning joe." it's the subway series menu. 12 irresistible subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪

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we desperately need more affordable housing, but san francisco takes longer than anywhere to issue new housing permits. proposition d is the only measure that speeds up construction of affordable new homes by removing bureaucratic roadblocks. while prop e makes it nearly impossible to build more housing. and the supervisors who sponsored e know it. join me, habitat for humanity and the carpenters union in rejecting prop e and supporting prop d to build more affordable housing

next week, thousands of chinese communist officials will gather in beijing for the party's congress where they are expected to reappoint xi jinping for an unprecedented third term as the leader of china. and as xi's power grows, there are concerns that it could embolden him to take control of taiwan, possibly by force. joining us now, nbc news foreign correspondent, raf sanchez, who recently visited the island. what did you find out? >> mika, joe, good morning. we heard from people on the island, both government officials and ordinary people on the street that xi jinping is a different kind of chinese leader. this is a man who accumulated an enormous amount of power, he has very few political guardrails at this point, and he sees it as his destiny to take control of taiwan.

what's also different is that in joe biden you have a u.s. president saying explicitly for the first time that he is prepared to send the u.s. military to defend taiwan, even if that means war with china. >> reporter: in his first ten years in power, xi jinping has presided over a vast buildup of china's military might. now, on the cusp of a third term, xi pledged to fulfill what he calls the historic mission of the communist party, taking control of taiwan by force, if necessary. taiwan's foreign minister tells nbc news it's a threat they cannot ignore. >> the threat is there. the threat is real. even the we don't know when china is going to launch a military attack against taiwan, but we have to be very realistically prepared for it. >> xi jinping looks set to get an unprcedented third team as china's leader.

do you believe that will embolden him to move against taiwan? >> that is one factor we need to look at seriously. >> reporter: president biden breaking we decades of precedence saying he'd order the u.s. military to fight against a chinese invasion. >> yes, in fact if there was an unprecedented attack. >> reporter: honoring that pledge could mean all-out war between the u.s. and china. like ukraine, the u.s. supplied taiwan with billions of dollars in advanced weaponry, but unlike ukraine taiwan is an island and may be impossible to resupply if war breaks out. >> in the process of discussions with our good friend the united states to see how we can accumulate enough stockpile for us to fight a war, if the war has to happen. >> so you need materiels in place before the shooting starts? >> we need it in place and we need high-tech weaponry. >> reporter: to see the threat for ourselves, we traveled to a place where a chinese invasion

would likely begin, the island of kinmen, just six miles off the coast. you can see the city looming in the distance. these spikes are meant to stop chinese forces from landing on this beach. they're old and really if ever put to the test a sign taiwan taiwan and possibly the u.s. are already at war with china. they're already tested and taunted by what they say are chinese troops. this video was shared on chinese social media. chinese social ministry didn't deny that chinese drones were in the area. in taipei these volunteers are preparing for the worst. dozens of young civilians learning the skills they need. >> survival is the biggest problem of our generation. >> reporter: taiwan today is considered one of the freest countries in the world.

this is something impossible to imagine in china, a democratically-elected president. the u.s. has a more self-interested reason in protecting taiwan. the island produces more than 90% of the world's semiconductors. disrupting that supply chain could cause trillions of dollars in economic damage, meaning chaos for consumers in the u.s. and china. >> it would be disastrous for china too. they would have the same shortages that we would face. >> reporter: the question, is that a price xi jinping is prepared to pay? if there is war in taiwan, consumers in the u.s. would feel the impact immediately as far as

fewer goods and you could have trillions of dollars of economic damage. it's a risk when taiwan is such a key part of the supply chain. >> thanks so much. coming up next, a live report from fort myers beach for the very latest on the recovery efforts from hurricane ian. president biden heads to florida today to speak with those impacted by the storm and to meet with the state's republican governor, ron desantis. "morning joe" will be right back. "morning joe" will be right back the new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. for more on the new boss, here's patrick mahomes. incredible - meatballs, fresh mozzarella and pepperon- oh, the meatball's out! i thought he never fumbles. the new subway series. what's your pick?

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56 past the hour, hollywood and nashville is honoring the life and legacy of country music legend loretta lynn who died yesterday at the age of 90. we have more on the trail blazing star's rise from humble beginnings. ♪ i'm proud to be a coal miner's

daughter ♪ >> reporter: she was the queen of country music who started as a coal miner's daughter. loretta lynn born in 1932 in butcher hollow, kentucky. one of eight children with a hard upbringing. >> i write about my life. >> reporter: she was just a teen when she married oliver doolittle lynn and started having babies. eventually the song she sang to her children became a best-selling book and oscar-winning film. ♪ don't come home from drinking ♪ >> reporter: she sang about her husband's cheating. >> he says if it's true write it. so i did. >> reporter: she tackled sensitive topics like birth

control. she was the first woman to win the country music association's entertainer of the year and her grammys were joined by the presidential medal of freedom. one of country music's most enduring icons who never forgot her humble roots or her father. >> i would give anything in the world if he would have been here when i recorded "coal miner's daughter." i think he hears me and one day i will sing it to him ♪ the memory of a coal miner's daughter ♪ >> joining us now the managing editor for "country insider" brian mansfield. can you talk about the impact loretta lynn had on country music and women? >> she was one of the first female singers to write her own

material. if you look at the country artists that came before her, people like patsy cline, they didn't write her own songs, but loretta did. she really didn't have a filter. it changed way that people -- >> i understand her husband in many ways got her her first guitar and heard her singing around the house and thought perhaps more people should hear her. >> right. they made a record. he funded the record and they printed up like 2,500 copies and took off on a 14,000-mile journey to radio stations across the country to get them to play it. they did and she came to nashville and the rest was history. >> wow. >> hey, brian, it's willie.

she is top of mind. i just interviewed brandi carlile who holds loretta lynn up as a goddess along with dolly and tanya tucker. can you speak to the impact she had as a force in nashville to generations that followed? >> there's two things. there was the music. she was great at that. there was also the way she made people feel. every remembrance i've seen of her said i instantly fell in love with her or she made me feel like we had been friends for years. she had this ability to draw you in and make you love her. when you put those things together, that's magic. >> it really is magic. >> manager editor for "country insider," brian thank you so much. it's the top