had protected by the constitution for 50 years. how much of that informs how you create the show, to try to touch upon current events and worries? >> i'll tell you, the only way to survive going to work every single day is to leave the world out of it. because the thing that we do, and forgive me if this sounds trite, i don't mean it that way, but we do make-believe, which is to say, at the end of the day, we go home and there is no one missing an eye and there is no one forced to be pregnant, and no one raped. that's what allows us to do the work and get up the next day and do it again. we are in such a dangerous place in our country, such a misguided place where integrity is last on

the list. and power is first. how we got there, i remember when trump was elected and i reached out to lizzie and i said, whatever are we going to do? and she said, don't let the bastards grind you down. there's no answer to this question, i'm sorry, that will make sense. but margaret atwood and the story we're telling and the shape of our country and our world are hand in hand. and i don't believe the writers are trying to write about the world, they are following the characters in this story. the fact that they're lining up is terrifying. and it confirms margaret atwood's profound intelligence. >> it's a very upsetting -- one

thing i think about all the time is the fact that it's so clear in our world, misogyny is at the rep till onbrain stem of all of these nationalist movements. you know, there's no -- so, there's no sense of making men's participation, in my experience, men seem to participate in pregnancies, but we're just going to punish the women. and it's something about the show that i think about all the time. and that margaret, who is a student of history, sees as very, very familiar. and again, we would do well to listen to her warnings. i do want to say, when i see

ann, i -- it's a very bizarre experience working on this show, because it is one of the greatest experiences, i think i can say this, on ann's behalf as well, of all of our lives. it's the sweetest group of people, and maybe it's in compensation for this very, very dark material. but it's a very loving group. >> it is. >> it's an amazing creative experience. >> that is great to hear. and of course, misogyny that you talk about, bradley, of course, is being met with extraordinary across the globe. middle school girls in iran, pushing back, fighting back. >> yeah. >> stories of 10-year-old girls being raped and having to leave their state. women in america being energized

in a way they haven't been in quite some time. there is a reaction and it's not just here. there's a reaction across the globe. >> the new season -- >> congratulations. >> congratulations. the new season of "the handmaid's tale" is airing now on hulu. bradley whitford and ann dowd, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> great to see you. i've got to say, ann asked the question that we all asked, which is, is there a question there, lemire? >> it lines up and it's not good. >> is there a question, lemire? >> it was a well-phrased question and, you know, she chose to answer it in her way and that's completely fine. the show looks great. >> you know, the thing is, though, willie, i didn't know there were rules. we have to ask questions? because i just talk. and people are like, okay, i'm going to pretend joe just asked me a question. i'm going to find a question in

that 30-minute dialogue. >> it's like a dinner conversation, right. you don't pose questions to the guests, you just talk and somebody else talks and we've been doing it that way for 15 years, that's us. >> in fact, we're going to talk for a fourth hour, starting right now. we're four minutes into the fourth hour of "morning joe." 6:04 on the west coast, 9:04 here in washington, d.c. and ahead this hour, it's now less than one month to the midterms and we are taking a closer look at the pennsylvania senate race. the state's lieutenant governor, john fetterman is making news this morning with his first in-person sit-down since he had a stroke in may. we're going to play for you what he had to say about his recovery and speak with the reporter who conducted that exclusive interview. nbc's dasha burns. plus, new polling out of georgia still has democratic nominee raphael warnock and republican nominee herschel walker in a statistical tie. >> explain that for me.

>> as top republicans stand by walker, even though a very curious tale he told on the campaign trail just yesterday. we'll play for you those comments. but, willie, our top headline this morning is in ukraine. >> yeah, let's begin this hour with russian forces continuing today to step up attacks across ukraine. this morning, the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is without power and is thought to have only enough fuel to run diesel generator backups for ten days. ukraine's state nuclear operator has called those generators, quote, the station's last defense before a radiation accident. meanwhile, president joe biden says russian president vladimir putin miscalculated in ukraine. nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel has the latest from ukraine. >> we're now in the southern city of mykolaiv. and this was the region's administrative headquarters, destroyed by a russian cruise missile earlier in the conflict. earlier today, i spoke with the

region's most senior ukrainian official, and he said that after increased russian nuclear threats, that they are now dust ing off old soviet-era, cold war- war-erra plans for evacuation shelters. this all comes after harsh comments overnight from president biden against vladimir putin. as russia widens its assault against ukraine, firing missiles far from the front lines, at cities including zaporizhzhia, kyiv, and lviv, president biden speaking to cnn accused president vladimir putin of putting the world at risk by threatening to use nuclear weapons. >> i don't think he will. but i think it's irresponsible of him to talk about it. >> u.s. and nato officials say that they do not see evidence russia has deployed or plans to use nuclear weapons. the president calling putin a rational actor, saying he misjudged ukrainian resistance

to russia before the invasion. >> i think he is a rational actor who has miscalculated significantly. >> reporter: but president biden accused putin of playing with fire on a level not seen since the cuban missile crisis 60 years ago this month. >> he, in fact, cannot continue with impunity to talk about the use of a tactical nuclear weapon, as if that's a rational thing to do. the mistakes get made. and the miscalculation could occur. no one can be sure what happened, and it could end in armageddon. >> reporter: russia is arguably at its weakest point in the war, low on troops, it has implemented a partial draft and is even offering pardons to convicted prisoners in exchange for combat tours. low on weapons, russia's increasingly reliant on iranian drones with russian arms productions squeezed by sanctions. in rare public statements, the

gchq says that russia's military position is increasingly desperate. russia's forces are exhausted. the use of prisoners as reinforcements and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts speaks of a really desperate situation. >> reporter: and little can be more dangerous than a desperate nuclear power led by an unchecked leader who promised a quick victory, but may be facing a slow and humiliating defeat. in addition to updating and modernizing those old cold war era nuclear preparation plants, ukrainian officials say they also need urgently from the united states and other allies air defense systems, primarily to protect against those iranian kamikaze drones. >> nbc's richard engel reporting for us from ukraine. and guys, back to president biden's comment last night about the miscalculation, that's just objectively true. vladimir putin thought he was going to roll into kyiv, be a cakewalk for a couple of weeks, and he would take back the

country. the ukrainian people, the ukrainian military, had another idea, and here we are, seven, eight months into it. >> well, joining us now, democratic senator, mark warner of virginia. he's chairman of the senate intelligence committee, and to willie's point, senator, we were talking earlier with admiral kirby about this. it seems vladimir putin has been in a corner, and everyone talks about what the off-ramp is, how this ends. obviously, most people would like this to end with russia moving back out of ukraine. and yet he continues to push himself more into a corner, almost without -- indiscriminately, without any thought for himself about an off-ramp, with a war that is going terribly for him. how do you deal with a leader that doesn't seem to care that he's in a corner? >> carefully. you know, this is a guy that's been an autocratic leader for 20-plus years. in the covid environment, his number of advisers he's talking to gets smaller and smaller.

you've seen not only the russian military perform horribly on the field, you have seen a united west. you've seen nato and our allies in asia, all stand up against him. and now with this conscription, you know, what's not -- what's gotten some public reporting, but russia has lost over 200,000 military-aged men, exiting the country. >> more people leaving -- >> than being conscripted. so how he maintains that -- >> the attacks -- nobody is attacking the boss yet. nobody is attacking putin. but the folks around the boss, some of his military advisers, they're under constant assault as well, from within russia. >> but that seems dicey, too. >> so what scares you the most about a cornered vladimir putin? things are not going to get better for russia. >> things are not going to get better. there are a lot of things that i disagree with the administration on. but moving us in concert with our european allies have been really important. the solidarity of nato is really important. what happens next? we're in an uncharted territory. the next month between now and

when the winter sets in in the middle of november, we hope the ukrainians will be able to take kherson and drive the russian troops back across the river, but it's going to be a wild few weeks. >> any suggestion that when winter comes, when things freeze in place, that negotiations can begin? >> again, i think there's some speculation. is there a fully thought-through plan. absolutely not. and again, with every ukrainian success, frankly, the maneuverability of zelenskyy, the ukrainian president, gets mitigated, as well. >> and you say it's going to be a wild few weeks. >> because once you get mid-november, at least for the next few months, because of the winter, it will -- troops will freeze, and then we'll see also some of the ramifications of will the europeans stay strong when their energy costs go through the roof this winter. one of the reasons why, frankly, would be good national policy as well as economic policy, we ought to continue to make sure that american oil and gas are in

this mixture. why we need to go ahead and revisit permitting reforms, so particularly in terms of american natural gas, we can supply that supply, rather than counting on friends or not so good of friends in the middle east. >> jonathan lemire is in new york and has a question for you. i hope he has a question for you. >> senator warner, good to see you. there's been a debate in washington as you well know for several months about the u.s. sending enough weapons to ukraine to defend itself, but not so much that it could perhaps escalate the war with incursions or attacks deep into russia. and in the wake of what happened over the weekend, u.s. officials are saying, hey, we're going to send more defense weapons, but still seem to hesitate going further than that, despite kyiv asking for it. where do you stand. what sort of weapons should the united states be sending? >> jonathan, i think we should send more anti-missile defense weapons, but i do think that we've got to walk this careful line where you don't give carte blanche to the ukrainians to have additional strikes into

russia itself. and at the same time, you've got to not get so ahead of the europeans that they all of a sudden say, okay, america, you put up $65 billion. we're going to make you carry the whole burden. so i do think this is a navigation of a very, very challenging time. and on this one, i give the administration a high marks. >> let me ask you about bob menendez, who after saudi arabia's announcement of opec's, opec plus's handling of oil prices and the barrels of oil that they release or won't release said basically, we need to freeze our relationship with saudi arabia, including arms sales. says they're underwriting russia's war. they're backing russia against ukraine. do you agree with him that we need to freeze our relations with saudi arabia? >> listen, i'm as angry at saudi arabia and their irresponsibility as anyone. but i think even as you guys said on this show yesterday, you

know, the truth is, certain areas, obviously, we have huge conflicts with saudi, in other areas, as a counterbalance to iran. we've got to sort this through. in a way that puts pressure on the saudis, but does not drive them more into the russia camp. one of the things i think would be, you know, and i don't think this would mean backing off from our climate change goals, but if we can replace some of those fuel sources coming out of the middle east with american fuel sources, particularly as we transition to cleaner energy generation, i think that's good centuries, that's good economic security, and it would be a tangible pushback against the saudis. >> and shouldn't we have more -- for national security purposes, and also, so we're less dependent. >> absolutely. >> shouldn't we increase energy production in the united states, understanding, let me say to my friend, understanding, we're in the middle of an energy

transition right now. but we have the ability to be less dependent on russia. to be less dependent on saudi arabia. >> we have to be. >> to be less dependent on venezuela. these people that are talking about, oh, we can't drill at home, because it's bad for the environment, let's get dirty oil from venezuela. >> one thing is, joe, particularly, let's go back to natural gas for a moment. we don't even need to drill more if we simply utilize what we've already drilled. we've got to have the transmission capability to get that to places in our country, and frankly to be able to export to our european friends. you'll see costs, i've been told, in january in the uk, where an average home will get $5,000/per month energy cost. the british government will subsidize that, bring it back down to a reasonable number. but how long can any government do that with a very cold winter in front of them. >> let's talk about china. how do they play into what's happening right now in russia. >> i think you've got the chinese economic team, who are concerned about this alliance or

friendship that has no bounds. i think xi and putin said. >> it does have bounds. >> it's personal relationship between these two autocratic leaders is a real challenge for all of us who live in democracies. i think the long-term challenge of our time is not russia, but it is going to be china's attempted to dominate field after technology field. we in this country have stepped up on semiconductors. we've pointed out the problems with huawei in terms of next generation wireless. i know we're taking a big look at synthetic biology and making sure that we maintain the technology edge. and that's going to take the kind of investments perhaps in other domains the way we just did in semiconductors. >> all right. >> chairman of the senate intelligence committee, democratic senator, mark warner of virginia. thank you very much. it's great to see you. we're getting to see everyone again finally. nice to have you in the studio. coming up this afternoon, we'll get an inside look at the fed's

deliberations over raising interest rates, as president biden continues to say we are not headed towards a recession. andrew ross sorkin will be here to explain. also ahead, nbc's dashya burns joins us with her exclusive sit-down with john fetterman as he tries to mock down concerns about his health. plus, protests in iran enter their fourth week in what could be the boldest challenge to the regime in over 40 years. we'll have the latest when "morning joe" returns. the laten "morning joe" returns.

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a live look at l.a. so we have to stop what we're talking about in the break. i will not let you finish that story. but los angeles, it's time to wake up at 22 past the hour now. continuing our coverage of the headlines this morning, fresh clashes have broken out between protesters and security forces across iran, nearly a month

after the death of massa khomeini. the 22-year-old died on september 16th after she was detained in tehran by the country's morality police for inappropriate attire. authorities are waging a deadly crackdown amid the four weeks of protests marking one of the boldest challenges to the islamic republic since the 1979 revolution. with reports of strikes now spreading to the nation's vital energy sector. the norway-based nonprofit iran human rights says at least 185 people, including 19 minors have been killed and hundreds have been injured. the government reports 20 members of its own security forces have been killed. joining us now is senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, creme sajapoor. he focuses on iran and u.s.

policy towards the middle east. sam stein back with us as well. good to have you on the show this morning, kareem. i guess, what do you make of these latest protests? at first, analysts said, well, it is -- these protests exist, but it won't make a mark. do we still feel that way? >> no, mika, i think this is now the most serious threat that the iranian regime has faced since 1979. there's something that feels inexorable about -- >> visceral -- >> about especially what these young girls in iran want, which is reminiscent of the antiapartheid movement in south africa. they're not facing racial apartheid, they're facing gender apartheid. you have a regime led by very old men. the only tool kit they have is repression. that has worked for them in the past. they can repress street protests, but when you start to see strikes among oil workers,

merchants in iran, and you see the scope of these protests expand on national level, it's much more difficult to contain. >> and joe, parallel with 1979, what's different, one thing that's different is technology. and these young people, they've gotten a sense of what life could look like without repression in their lives. >> what's also different is, in 1979, you obviously had leaders running that revolution. you had khomeini in paris. he was the figure that they rallied behind. this is just organic. it's middle school girls that are rising up against leaders. it's women, it's men, it's everybody. i would love for you to explain, you sent out a post yesterday that showed how iranian troops had no problem gunning down people in the streets. just shooting dead in the street. and you said, there's a expression for that, it's like

drinking water. explain. >> we say, when something comes so effortlessly to someone, it's like drinking water. you see the nonchalance in which these security forces in iran were just shooting people, as if they were going out for an afternoon stroll. and the supreme leader in iran, ayatollah is probably the longest serving dictator in the world. he's been in power since 1989. it's what i call the khomeini doctrine. he believes that when your population is rising up, you should never back down, you should never take a step back, because that's not going to pacify -- >> it sounds like what the shah was thinking in 1979. >> that was one of his key takeaways, you never back down. and he believes that the soviet union collapsed because gorbachev tried to reform it. he's seen the arab uprisings.

the only dictator who's still around is bashar assad, why? because he didn't apologize. he crushed the protesters. that's the only playbook he has. >> you know, i would love for you to explain something to our viewers who may not be well versed on persian culture, persian history. i remember after getting to congress, talking to generals who at the time, wherever they would talk about iran, would tell me, to a general would say, well, what is the most dramatic change in the world? the biggest impact in the world? they would say, if we could turn iran. and they would all talk about what an extraordinary culture it is. they loved the iraniiranians. they said, we worked with these people, we trained with these people. they are -- they believe that it was an extraordinary culture with an extraordinary history.

and they just -- they couldn't come to terms with the fact that a barbaric tyrannical theocracy had grabbed control of this great civilization. >> you're absolutely right, joe. this is a 2,500 old civil lagos. national geographic magazine called the persian empire the world's greatest historic superpower. the last 35 years has been an aberration, where you have a regime who has come to power whose identity is premised on three things, death to america, death to israel, and the compulsory veiling of women, which is so unnatural for people. so i think that if this regime falls, which is still a big i have, but i think it would be one of the biggest implosions since the collapse of the soviet union, because the results would be felt in ukraine, where iran is now sending drones to russia. it would be felt in venezuela, where iran is keeping in power the maduro regime.

and it would be felt very profoundly in the middle east, where iran is to much of the middle east what putin is to europe. >> oh, wow. >> i have two questions for you. one is, how is this different fundamentally, not than in the '70s, but in 2009 and 2010, during the green revolution, where we were sitting around having a very similar conversation. how technology was opening up the iranian culture. you have twitter just in its fantasy then, but people were tweeting protests. suddenly iranians could communicate with the world and broadway what was happening in the streets there. and then the way it ended. is second question is, looming over all of this is the nuclear negotiations. the 2015 promise of the nuclear deal is you essentially let us have access to your nuclear technology. you forego nuclear weapons and we integrate you into western civilization over time, more or less, simplistic. but now we're trying to reenter these negotiations, so how do

these protests affect those talks, and how did the ending of that nuclear deal affect these protests? >> those are two important questions. so on the first, i think what is somewhat unique about this iranian regime, even by standards of dictatorships, it's not only politically authoritarian, but also economically and socially authoritarian. they police every aspect of your life. we're going to deprive your political freedoms, you'll run the economy to the ground, but you also can't -- you can't -- if you're a woman, you can't dress how you want, go out with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you can't drink alcohol. there's no social release for people. these protests were triggered by a social grievance, which was the killing of this young woman for improper hijab, but the grievances with widespread. they're economic, political, and social and as you guys both alluded to, there's now 50 million smartphones in iran, so everyone is a citizen journalist. that's one thing. when it comes to u.s. policy toward iran, up until now, for

the last 16, 17 months, really the soul u.s. strategy toward iran has been to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, which barack obama signed and donald trump exited in 2018. i think we now have to rethink that approach. iran is not just a nuclear challenge, it's obviously also a regional challenge, but similar to what ronald reagan did during the cold war, vis-a-vis the soviet union, he negotiated with him at the same time that he denounced them as an evil empire. he employed gorbachev to tear down the wall. and i think now, if the iranian regime gets desperate enough and they come to us and say, that nuclear deal you offered us two months ago, we think we'll take it now, i think the united states should put these negotiations on ice, because if we were to do a deal now with this regime, it would actually be meddling inside iran, in order to empower the regime against the protesters. >> that's a great point.

>> the first deal empowered the regime. >> right. >> i understand people -- i -- i understand the thought behind it, but, i don't know how we can do that now. >> well, you couldn't see how we could do it before. they've been the epicenter of terror since 1979. and i'm not idealistic, anybody that's been watching today says, we've got to figure out how to work with china and with the saudis. but in this case, going back and doing a nuclear deal, does the administration really want to do this. >> my sense is there's an internal divide. i think people at the white house understand the importance of this moment. i think for president biden, it would not reflect well politically to all of a sudden unleash billions of dollars to a regime which is crushing the spirits of its young society. and they're not going to change their ideology. but i think, still, at the state department, you have folks who are still committed to the policy of before.

>> senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international piece, kareem, thank you very much for your insight. up next, the markets opened moments ago and recession is on the minds of traders. we'll play for you what president biden said when "morning joe" returns. t president biden said when "morning joe" returns. ♪limu emu & doug♪

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can feel rough on your skin? for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. it's the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. next is the new great garlic. the tender rotisserie style chicken is sublime and the roasted garlic aioli adds a lovely pecan flavor. man, the second retirement really changed you. the new subway series. what's your pick? should the american people prepare for a recession? >> no. look, they've been saying this now how -- every six months, they say this. every six months, they look down and say what's going to happen the next six months. it hasn't happened yet. there is no -- there's no guarantee that they're going to -- i don't think there will be a recession. if it is, it will be a very slight recession. that is, we'll move down slightly.

>> but you just said that a slight recession is possible. >> it is possible. look, it's possible. i don't anticipate it. >> president biden talking to jake tapper over at cnn last night about the economy. meanwhile, treasury secretary janet yellen agreed with the president, saying yesterday the economy is, quote, doing very well. joining us now on set, co-anchor of cnbc's squawkbox, our buddy, andrew ross sorkin. so, andrew, what is a slight recession? how does wall street hear that? >> this is a little bit of semantics. some people would argue, we're already into a recession already. it's really about what a hard landing or a soft landing looks like. there's nobody on wall street today and maybe the conventional wisdom will prove to be. but there's a view that six to nine months, we talked about what jamie dimon said, that it's going to get tougher. the hard part for so many of the businesses that are out there is today, the businesses look fine. they look and they go, it doesn't look terrible today, but they think that it's going to get worse letter. pepsico came out with its numbers today and was able to pass on a lot of those costs to

consumers. so, what does a slight recession look like? something that doesn't last too long and doesn't feel much worse than where we are right now. >> john, part of that comment is a political calculation. he doesn't want to concede, yes, we're diving into a recession. >> midterm coming up. >> midterms are a month from now. and recession is about the scariest word in politics or right up there. yeah, this obviously behooves the president to be able to downplay that. we heard from jamie dimon saying, that he does believe a recession is coming. it could be sort of significant, next year -- half a year or so. >> we talked about the possibility of the stock market falling another 20%. the hardest part, who have money in the stock market, they're seeing the market go down, and think to yourself, if the market is supposed to go down and all of these smart people are saying it's going to go down another 20%, i should get out now, with the idea that i'll get back in later. and the problem with that is always sort of market timing and, you know, you've got to be right twice, right? you have to get out at the right time, back in at the right time,

and that's hard to do. >> there's always the psychological element of it. front page of the "wall street journal," andrew, proposal aims to regulate gig workers. >> the gig economy. this has been the long debate forever, since the advent of uber and lyft and the like about whether those employees should be considered employees or contract workers. thus far, uber and lyft have pushed back for years now, in all sorts of various state debates and at law-making efforts. this would be a push federally to change that dynamic. and the real question is, there's lots of workers or folks who drive a lyft or an uber who might do it for ten hours, 15 hours a week. but then there's a whole other group that are doing it for 40, 50, 60 hours. should they be considered employees and therefore have to receive benefits and the like? if they were to, the cost for an uber or a lyft or what not would

probably go up 20 to 30%. interestingly, at a time we're talking about inflation and increasing wages, one of the things that's increasing inflation, there is a debate to be had about whether you want to do this now or later. >> throw in doordash and other companies like that, that all gets more expensive. >> there was a built of a kerfuffle on twitter yesterday -- >> i knew we would talk about elong musk at some point on the. >> ian bremmer reported that elon musk spok spoke to vladimi putin and it seemed that putin relayed to musk what it would take to end the war in ukraine. musk has now denied this. said, i did talk to putin, but i talked to him 18 months ago, it was not about this, it was about space, and has come out and said, don't trust ian bremmer. there's sort of four doors, if you will, or options. one is that elon musk is actually talking to putin and is now lying about it. that's possible. the other is potentially that he

lied to ian bremmer, maybe trying to show off about what was happening. the other possibility is ian bremmer is lying -- >> or got it wrong. >> i don't think that he has necessarily incentive to do that. and the fourth sort of, my good faith hypothesis, which i'm hoping is the case, is that somehow all got misunderstood and conflated. which is maybe that elon musk says to ian, you know, i talked to putin, maybe doesn't say when he talked to putin and continues on, and continues talking about ukraine as if it was all happening now. ian misunderstands it, and reports it as if it had just happened. that seems -- i hope for two people that i imagine in both elon musk and ian bremmer, that if they're all acting in good faith, that's probably is what happened. >> or maybe musk is talking to putin but didn't want that to continue to be public. >> that was door number one. >> that was one. >> it's easy to get confused.

we should note that john kirby said that there are currently dialogues between the u.s. officials and russian officials, on at least some level. so some people are talking -- >> the complicates part is, elon musk has been out quite publicly even in the past couple of weeks talking about what he thinks should happen between ukraine and russia and really, the talking points were very similar to what putin would be advancing. >> loudly denounced by keefe after musk's proposal. >> cnbc's andrew ross sorkin. covering all the ground for us. >> coming up next here, we will speak with nbc's dasha burns about her exclusive interview with the democratic nominee for senate in pennsylvania, john fetorman. dasha pressed him on whether he's being fully transparent with voters about his recovery from a stroke in may. we're back in a moment. from a sy we're back in a moment

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and they've been saying, something is better somewhere else. and i'm here to tell you it's not. so i've been telling this little story about this bull out in the field with six cows. and three of them are pregnant. so you know you got something going on. but all he cared about is kept his nose against the fence looking at three other cows that don't belong to him. now all he had to do is eat grass, but no, no, no, no he thought something was better somewhere else. so he decided, i wanted to get over there. so one day, he measured that fence up and he said, i think i can jump this. that day came where he got back, and he got back, and as he took off running, he dove over that

fence and his belly got cut up on the bottom, but as he made it over the top, he shook it off and got so excited and ran to the top of the hill, but when he got up there, he realized they were bull too. >> okay, consequences. these are consequences for tom cotton and rick scott. i mean, you stand alongside of herschel walker -- >> you just don't know what's going to happen. >> okay, no, at this point, we do. >> he tells a story about a bull, who impregnated and then wanted to abandon multiple cows wild -- while lusting after three more. this is what herschel said. >> georgia values. >> this is what -- >> rick scott talking about georgia values and rick scott thinking right there, lord, deliver me from this speech. >> actually -- >> tom cotton saying the same. willie geist, i mean, herschel walker said, you know you got something going on. and that's exactly what the two

senators there are thinking, he's got something going on. he ain't right. he tells a story in the middle of this, in the middle of this political crisis about a bull that impregnates three cows and then wants to abandon them, to go impregnate three other cows over a barbed wire fence. come on, what do we do? heilemann would say, this is confession. of course it's confession. but why bring it up? >> so here's what happened beforehand. they got in a huddle, tom this . the play we're going to run is we're talking about crime, we're going to talk about immigration and the economy. ready, break. they went out and herschel walker told the story about three impregnated cows. to the delight of the crowd there too, which tells you actually a lot about this race, which is that they just don't care. it's about power. he gets them a vote in the

senate. he can do anything. >> this crowd is sitting there laughing. herschel walker is telling a story about a bull that impregnated and abandoned them to go over a fence to impregnate three more cows. ask they are sitting there laughing. this guy's kid, one of his multitude of kids saying my dad abandoned us. >> nevers was raising us in the house once. >> he was never there once. he was out running across the country trying to impregnate other women. that's basically what christian said. >> do you remember -- you remember this because i believe you were in it. the movie with will ferrell "the campaign" i remember when it came out and it was ludicrous.

like it was just a hilarious depiction of campaign life, but here we are sitting talking about bulls impregnating cows. and. >> he's the embodiment of that movie. >> cotton and scott stood behind it. so what does that say about them. a new university of georgia poll out this morning has democratic nominee warnock and herschel walker still in a statistical tie. hello, georgia. >> the question is who are those 43%. >> in the state's gubernatorial race t shows brian kemp with a double-digit lead over stacey abrams. >> let's turn to pennsylvania. that important senate race there and nbc news exclusive interview with the lieutenant governor john fetterman. it was his first in-person sit-down since he suffered a stroke in may. is and correspondent dasha burns

joining us live from pittsburgh. tell us about the interview. >> reporter: let me set up what you're about to see here. in this interview, fetterman had a screen in front of him. the campaign has been open about the fact that their candidate requires closed captioning to conduct interviews so he can read our questions as we ask them because of lingering side effects from his stroke. nbc news agreed to that accommodation. this comes at a critical time for fetterman. his lead over his republican opponent dr. oz is narrowing, as we're just one month away from election day in this critical race that could determine the balance of power in the senate. >> everything about has changed. basically having a conversation with your wife to having a conversation with your children. >> reporter: pennsylvania democratic candidate john fetterman explaining how he's coping with the after effects of a stroke he suffered in may just

days before the primary. nbc news agreed to fetterman's request to use a transcription program during this interview because he still experiencing auditory processing issues from the stroke. meaning he can't always understand what he's hearing. >> walk me through why we need the closed captionsing, how it works. >> it's how things happen. because sometimes i will hear things in a way that's not perfectly clear, so i use captioning. i'm able to see what you're saying in captioning. >> reporter: stroke experts say it's not a cognitive issue, and fetterman says he's still fit to serve if elected. >> i always thought i was pretty em fetic -- i think i was very empathetic, excuse me. that's an example of the stroke. i i thought i was empathetic before having a stroke. after having that stroke, i really understand much more kind of the challenges that americans

ta in and day out. >> when you have moments like you had just now, what's that experience like of not being able to get the words out in the way you want them to. >> i don't think it was hard. it was about having to think more slower to just understand. and that's sometimes the processing that happens. >> reporter: aside from releasing a letter from his cardiologist on june 3rd, the campaign denied requests for medical records. >> don't voters deserve to know your status now? >> as i said, being in front of thousands and thousands of people and having interviews and getting around all across pennsylvania, that gives everybody and the voters decide if they think that it's really the issue. >> reporter: fetterman's opponent, dr. oz, has called his

health into question. >> john fetterman is either healthy and he's dodging the debates because he does not want to answer for his radical left positions, or he's too sick. >> reporter: but fetterman hoping it's another health issue that will turn voters out in his favor. >> dr. oz likes to make fun of me i might miss a word, but he's missed two words and that is a yes or no on the national abortion ban. >> reporter: while oz is focusing on crime hitting fetterman on his record as had of pennsylvania's board of pardons where he advocated firefighter the early release of some convicted murderers. >> for voters who say i'd rather prioritize the safety of me and my kids in and around philadelphia than prioritizing clemency or lower sentences for criminals, what do you say to those voters? >> i actually have a record in fighting crime. as mayor during four terms.

>> reporter: and fetterman has done severalers and views since he's been back on the campaign trail. the difference here, though, we were physically in the room with him. according to the campaign, that's the first time he's sat down face to face with a journalist rather than doing the interview via remote video. i will say our team did notice a difference between the conversation when the closed captioning was on versus when it was off and some small talk before the interview captioning. it wasn't clear he was understanding our conversation. but stroke experts do say that these symptoms don't mean that he has any sort of cognitive impairment or his decision making skills are impacted, and these are side effects he can fully recover from. and once we did have the captioning up and running, he was able to fully understand me for the entirety of that 25-minute interview. it was wide ranging and folks

can go online to watch the entire thing. >> the campaign says it's an auditory pob. he once he read them off the screen, he answered them in full. dasha burns, thank you. we have been talking about this interview all morning and to see it in its full context is important and for dasha to provide insight into what it was like in the room once he saw the words on the screen, we saw his answers. they were full. >> exactly. first of all, we know a little bit more about what it takes to get an interview like that executed. she did such a good job. s especially given that this is the story and yet you also want to cover the entire campaign at the same time and get a full view of the candidate. where he stands on the issues, but also get a sense of what his health conditions are and push him on transparency. she did a really good job balancing and even with the tone of the interview.

it's a lot. >> people on both sides want cheerleaders. that's not anybody's job. dasha did a great job. and that's the question that's on voters' minds, especially independents in this race in pennsylvania. >> yeah, and the other question for fetterman is to what degree do you lean into this and say i'm overcoming a health issue, like a lot of people, and get out there and do more interviews. >> that's all he can do. that does it for us this morning. jose diaz-balart picks up msnbc's live coverage in 90 seconds. msnbc's live covere agin 90 seconds. i'd like to thank our sponsor liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. contestants ready? go! only pay for what you need. jingle: liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.

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