this week on, for example, whether to end funding for the war in ukraine. that is something that 70 house republicans voted for a couple weeks back. you're going to see a lot of this potentially play out this week. >> yeah. it's another fascinating week of watching the dynamics between the house republicans and the senate republicans. senior congressional reporter for punch bowl news, who spends his time covering that with me on capitol hill, andrew, thank you for joining us on this monday. i will now go to capitol hill while "morning joe" starts right now. is it something that concerns you, of, you know, of the people making sure that they don't go out of their right mind if something like that happens, because i know what i'm thinking of could happen if that, for example, they do say -- jack smith says, "okay, i'm going to put donald trump in jail."

>> i think it is a very dangerous thing to talk about. >> okay. >> because we have a tremendous ly passionate group of voters. much more passion than they had in 2020, more than 2016. i think it would be very dangerous. >> yeah, there's been no deterrence put in place. well, that's not entirely accurate. there have been some deterrents put in place. look, what you just said, donald trump's last words about it is dangerous to go down this route. yeah, it could happen again because you have a group of individuals, like you have an audience for him and for what happened on january 6th. so, yeah, i believe it can happen again. >> that's capitol police officer harry dunn who defended the capitol during the january 6th insurrection reacting to donald trump's veiled threat about

another january 6th style attack. the former president spent yesterday rage posting on social media amid new reporting on how his legal troubles are draining resources from his 2024 presidential campaign. we're going to dig into all of that. meanwhile, it was a rough weekend of headlines for florida governor ron desantis. not only did he seem to downplay the severity of that attack on the capitol, he's taking a lot of criticism for his state's new teaching guidelines on black history. also ahead, more looming labor strikes could have a tremendous impact on the united states economy, putting the famously pro-union president, joe biden, in a tough spot as he heads into his own re-election bid. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, july 24th. i'm jonathan lemire. the rest of the gang has the morning off. fear not, we have a great group here in washington with me. we have washington bureau chief for "usa today," susan page is here. white house correspondent for

"politico" and co-author of "the play book," eugene daniels. congresser reporter for "the washington post," jackie alemany. as well as white house editor for "politico," sam stein. great to see you on a monday morning. >> let's start with the greatest question of our age, "barbie" or "oppenheimer." >> you know i saw "barbie." >> i didn't want to -- >> great movie, fun. it was a bunch of adults in there, which was kind of fun. laugh out loud. you have the president, the political move. i can't spend 3 1/2 hours watching a movie about the bomb. i don't have the patience for it. >> i saw people who were seeing "barbie." people were dressed in pink or barbie outfits throughout the streets all weekend long. it did almost record-setting numbers. anybody else, jackie, get to anything? >> i feel i failed on my patriotic duties.

i tried to get tickets, but everything in d.c. has been sold out. i did not plan ahead. >> there you go. worldwide box office numbers there. $337 million for "barbie." $174 million for "oppenheimer." i saw it at 10:00 a.m. on a friday. >> i was wondering where you were. >> it was one of the theaters that served beer and food. >> beer at 10:30. >> it lived up to the hype. cillian murphy is truly spectacular. the cast was great. it was -- it's probably christopher nolan's best film, and he's had quite a few. >> what does it say that you chose "oppenheimer" and you chose "barbie"? >> if you know us -- >> i would have -- >> that's off the board. it's how it was going to break down. we'll have more on a blockbuster weekend that may have saved the

movie season after disappointments. let's dive into the news. a date has been set for the first federal trial of a former president of the united states of america. on friday, judge aileen cannon announced that donald trump will be due in court on may 20th, 2024, to face 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. you'll recall the justice department had asked for the trial to be held in early december of this year, while trump's team requested it be postponed until after the entirety of the 2024 election. so here, judge cannon appears to split the difference, writing in part this, the court rejects defendant's request to withhold setting a schedule now. nevertheless, the government's proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial. and news on the documents case comes as trump awaits other possible charges for his alleged efforts to interfere in the 2020

election r in a series of posts on truth social last night, the former president railed against what he falsely claims is interference for the 2024 race. one message read in part this, "do they understand the damage being done to america? it will only get worse. we must stop these monsters from further destroying our country." trump also shared this ominous post which read, "nothing can stop what is coming. nothing." if there was any doubt about the meaning behind that message, the user who initially posted it later re-truthed himself, this time with a qanon slogan as a hashtag, directed at the so-called leader of the far-right group. of course, some of this language, as we heard also in the radio interview at the very

top, sam, comes with the ominous warnings surrounding january 6th. we know what happened that day. doesn't seem donald trump is being particularly subtle here. >> no, i mean, it's the same notes over and over again, same stuff we heard prior to january 6th. really ominous. enough of it is vague that he can get away by saying he never actually incited what's to come. but, you know, the trial date combined with the likely fact he will be the nominee means that sometime in the spring of 2024, we're going to have a tinderbox of a political situation, which is trump is coming out of the primary victorious, this trial begins, maybe one of several on the horizon, and this type of messaging is only going to be amplified, right? he's going to say this is why -- you're doing this in the context of the election. you're trying to diminish my standing. this is the only thing you have going for you. then we'll see where that goes. you know, look, i don't know

what you're hearing on the hill or what you're hearing from the justice department, but i have to imagine that they read these things, they see these things. internally, how do you respond to that if you are sitting there and you're merrick garland or anyone else involved in these prosecutions? >> well, "the new york times" had an interesting dive over the weekend about the budget that jack smith has set. it's around $25 million a year, funneled just to trump prosecutions. amongst the pool of money, $1.9 million, i believe it is, is going to security for merrick garland and secret service detail because of the level of threats. it's clear that the former president hasn't changed his behavior in terms of, you know, riling up his supporters in ways that can ultimately end in, as we all say, really dangerous situations. but, you know, on the other side

of the coin here, the trump campaign is really in an unprecedented situation right fou. has there been a candidate simultaneously toggling multiple investigations? >> it's a rhetorical question. >> yeah. while also, you know, campaigning to be the president of the united states? and raising record amounts of money that are, in the same vein, going to the legal bills? >> we should note, susan, trump said last week he received a target letter as part of the january 6th election interference investigation. there's some thought that an indictment could come as early as at some point this week. that's going to be another moment where we already know -- talk about the trial date set there in may. to sam's point, it is probably coming out of the primaries at this moment.

he'll be the republican nominee. it's in the window between the primaries and the conventions, between when the general election ramps up. we may have the republican standard bearer flying from courtroom to courtroom because there is a new york trial date, too. we've never been here. >> there is the legal issues. the political issues, seeming to be, so far, helpful versus hurtful to him. there's the logistics, too. multiple trials will be going on. some require his attendance. the judges have to coordinate so they don't have more than one at a time requiring his presence, not to mention the primaries in the campaign. to say we've never been here before is to understate the enormity. i mean, there's almost a comic aspect when you look at the calendar for next year. >> i mean, when you look at may, for the republican party, this is kind of the worst-case scenario, right? you have him having to go to court, and defendants are going

to like that. republicans seeing all that information coming out, to see him flying around the country going to the venues, talking to judges, maybe pleading the fifth because it's hard to see how his lawyers allow him or want him to talk in these moments. that is going to be too late to change anything. that man, if he is the nominee at that point, he will be the nominee in november. it is hard to see how the republicans get out of this one. you know, i talked to some folks over this weekend. they said, "well, you know, we could, if things go really bad, we could try to flip it and get a new person," like they had an idea of in 2016 after the "access hollywood" tapes came out. that is not going to work. i don't see, especially as we have the barely veiled threats working out, and if the republicans have the gall to do it at this point. >> there's no sign showing the republicans want to do this. this is the direction that this

trump-defined republican party is heading, and not unhappily. >> yeah, two very different things. it may help him this year in the primaries. could be different in the general election. the white house and biden re-election team is like, this is going to happen. let's let it play out. don't get in the way if he is self-destructing. let's talk about how the republicans are handling it now in the primaries. florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate ron desantis seemed to downplay the january 6th capitol attack in an interview he gave thursday. here's what he said with "stay free with russell brand" podcast. >> it was not an insurrection. they were there to attend a rally and protest. it devolved in a riot, but the idea that this was an idea to overthrow the government of the united states is not true, and it's something the media had spun up just to try to basically, you know, get as much mileage out of it and use it for

partisan and for political aims. >> meanwhile, former vice president mike pence, another 204 hopeful, weighed in on the january 6th attack over the weekend. despite rioters calling for him to be hung that day, pence still stops short of saying that trump should be criminally charged. >> the president's words were reckless that day. i had no right to overturn the election. while the words were reckless, based on what i know, i'm not yet convinced that they were criminal. i do think the department of justice has lost the confidence of the american people. in one town hall after another across new hampshire, i heard a deep concern for a perception about the unequal treatment of the law. i think one more indictment against the former president will only contribute to that sense among the american people.

as i said, i'd rather that these issues and the judgment about his conduct on january 6th be left to the american people in the upcoming primaries. >> sam, sam, sam. this is, in a nutshell, the conundrum the republicans are in. where for some of them, particularly the florida governor, the theory of the case of their campaign is trump is going to be implode and we'll be the next person to pick up the pieces and embrace his followers. yet, they can't bring themselves to attack him. >> no. >> because they'd risk losing the followers and, therefore, nothing happens, except his lead grows. >> right. it's like, this is sort of the fundamental question of the election, right? did trump lose? that's first and foremost. if you can't bring yourself to say, "yeah, trump lost 2020 election," you don't have a reason to run. secondly, did he act fundamentally in a bad way on january 6th?

if you can't attack him for that, there's really not much you're going to attack him for. no offense to the other issues out there. i don't think you're going after trump because he didn't build the full wall. people aren't going to care as much. that is the fundamental question, is how he acted on january 6th. desantis, de-sande-santis, sorr desantis, he shows an inability to go for the jugular. we crunched the data, how voters feel about january 6th. the predominant sentiment is they want to move on. they don't necessarily think trump was in the right, in fact, a lot of them think trump was in the wrong, but overwhelmingly, they say, it's in the past. we need to move on. i think what pence was getting at there is that sentiment. though he was the target of people who wanted him hanged, i think he wants to say, i'm not obsessing over this. we have to move on, get on with it. i don't think that is a winning issue in a pprimary, but it

reflects the will of the voters. >> it is two years of trump and his allies trying to downplay what happened that day. >> and something to use to his advantage. trump plays the victim, fundraises off this, says he is being persecuted wrongly. that should be a weak spot for him, turning it into a political advantage. a key figure disappeared off the radar in recent months, jackie, and that's mark meadows, trump's chief of staff who was chief of staff on january 6th. what's he been up to? >> he has been conspicuously quiet, hasn't tweeted in months. we have a bunch of reporting from over the weekend about sort of his behavior that has raised eyebrows from his allies, having them feverishly speculating about the extent that he is cooperating with prosecutors, and especially in the shadow of trump, he's been able to hide a little bit.

we shouldn't forget he was a key person in propping up trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. he was someone we sort of go into this text message that he sent between him and eric herschmann, white house counsel at the time, joking about his son, blake meadows. meadows had dispatched to try to help him find the unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, saying even his own son had trouble scrounging up any evidence that what trump was saying was true. yet, we continued to see meadows publicly and in private with trump, fuel this argument and this conversation in a way that, obviously, ultimately ended up being fairly dangerous. you see -- i think the most interesting part of this is jack smith has been asking people about the text messages in conversations, in these grand jury testimonies.

he's been asking witnesses, you know, did they privately express and believe that election fraud did not happen? you know, there was countless studies that the trump campaign actually commissioned. they came back from outside groups, outside consulting groups that said they couldn't find any such claims to back up what trump was saying or evidence. then publicly, why were they saying something else? i have to say, you know, it's been really interesting to see these republican candidates recalibrating their answers to the january 6th question, but i think a lot could change in the next two weeks once we see an indictment. jack smith is sitting on a ton, a mountain of evidence, far more than we learned during the january 6th committee, the congressional committee's report, and i think once that gets into public view and everyone pours over it, i think we could maybe see these answers. >> waiting for this moment. >> there has never been a party that has had the candidates not

be able to go after the biggest vulnerability of another candidate. this is his biggest vulnerability, and they are unable to go after him because they know it hits them, his voters go against them, and it makes him stronger. we saw him get more money in quarter two than he did in quarter one after he was federally indicted. these are things that all of these candidates and the campaigns that never, ever had to deal with in history. >> after the next indictment comes down, if it is as damning as we're led to believe, if the argument then becomes they make it about his electability. fair or not, he can't win because of these things. >> they're doing it now. >> they have to be sharper than they are now. it's not breaking through. trump's legal problems are shadowing his entire campaign. also, dividing lines between his campaign and his criminal defense are continuing to blur. "the washington post" reports that as charges against trump mount, quote, fighting those prosecutions is increasingly

dominating his time, resources and messaging, making the centerpiece of his candidacy an appeal to stay out of prison. "the post" continues, what is likely to come is a campaign like the country has never seen before. a candidate juggling multiple criminal indictments while slashing the department of justice and his opponents, shuttling between early primary states for rallies and courtrooms for hearings, and spending his supporters' money on both millions of dollars worth of campaign ads and burgeoning legal bills. to illustrate the impact, more than half of the money trump raised last quarter went to a pac footing his legal bills. however, and unsurprisingly, trump is not relying on any of his own personal fortune to cover that. according to the federal election commission of more than $35 million raised between march and june, the campaign received just under $18 million. the rest went to the save

america pac, which has been spending millions of dollars on lawyers representing trump and allies in the multiple ongoing cases. according to the newspaper, as the legal and political efforts merge, the campaign is no longer enforcing traditional boundaries between the teams, with the understanding that aides' involvement in discussions about the cases could lead them to face their own subpoenas or liability down the road. susan page, i mean, first of all, there was not a glimmer of surprise at this table when we learned that donald trump is not paying or using any of his fortune to pay for his legal bills. >> i was shocked. >> but this right now sums up the dilemma that he and the republican party are in. >> you said they're blurring the line. there is no line. trump's political strategy is his legal strategy, and the legal strategy is the political strategy. the best thing that could happen for donald trump is for him to win another term in the white

house. it'd put him in a powerful position to do what he wishes in terms of federal prosecution. more complicated if he's indicted by georgia or the case in new york, but it is all one and the same. it's trump inc. that is this election that we are now hurdling into. >> i mean, that was the theory, he jumped in this race so early, in part thinking it might prevent the charges from coming. that didn't work. now, he's running to try to win to stay out of prison. that's clear. next on "morning joe," there is major criticism over the controversial, new guidelines for teaching black history in the state of florida. we'll show you how governor ron desantis is responding. plus, we'll go live to jerusalem amid mass demonstrations against a controversial law that would really limit the power of israel's supreme court. also ahead, say good-bye to the bird.

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sun has come up in washington, d.c. beautiful shot of the white house on this monday morning, just before 6:30 a.m. here on the east coast. let's get to some more headlines now. florida governor ron desantis appears to be trying to distance himself from the recent changes that have been made to his state's public school curriculum. last week, the florida board of education approved new

guidelines for teaching black history, which suggests that enslaved people reaped benefits from skills acquired during centuries of forced labor. reaped benefits. the move comes months after desantis criticized an advanced placement course on african-american studies. the changes are now facing significant backlash. vice president kamala harris visited jacksonville on friday and slammed the new curriculum, calling it extremist propaganda. this prompted desantis to defend his state while also denying any personal responsibility for the new education standards. take that listen. >> you should talk to them about it. i didn't do it. i wasn't involved in it. i think what they're doing, i think they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. but the reality is, all of that

is rooted in whatever the factual. they listed everything out. if you have any questions about it, just ask the department of education. you can talk about those folks, but these were scholars who put that together. it was not anything that was done politically. >> sure. some republican presidential candidates are also speaking out against the florida education's new guidelines. former congressman will hurd wrote this, unfortunately, it has to be said, slavery wasn't a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. it was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms. here's what chris christie had to say, too. >> i didn't do it and i'm not involved in it are not the words of leadership. you know, look, governor desantis started this fire with the bill that he signed, and now he doesn't want to take responsibility for whatever is done in the aftermath of it.

from listening and watching his comments, he is obviously uncomfortable. he only started to focus on this when he decided he wanted to run for president and try to get to the right of donald trump. i think people see this as politically manipulmanipulative i'm talking about, margaret, we're dividing our country into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces. >> yeah. >> politicians are pitting them against each other to create conflict. that's not going to break the country bigger, better, stronger or freer. >> eugene, let's start with how inaccurate and offensive some of the teaching is from the florida new curriculum there, but also how governor desantis and his anti-woke policies have put him in a box with speaking to a seemingly smaller and smaller portion of the electorate. >> this is what happens when you base your entire kind of political career on this. when you say that everybody needs to be anti-woke, that's -- this is where you end up. when you talk to folks in florida, the whole point of the

bill that came through, this is in reaction to a bill that he wanted. it was maing clear what he wanted. it was because he felt, and a lot of people around the country are feeling, we can't teach the correct history in this country because it makes white folks uncomfortable. people like me, they beat them, raped them. that is uncomfortable for kids to hear. that's what these folks are saying. when you use that as a political cudgel, you have to own it, right? at this point, it is on ron desantis. he may not have created these policies with the school board, but at the end of the day, he made it very clear what he wanted to the folks in the state. >> completely agree. you have to put it in the context there has been an effort to desanitize american history, special american colonial history, and this was done in that context. the curriculum, if you read it,

it's just one line. it uses the word "benefit," and that is problematic. what is striking to me, beyond just that it got to this point to begin with, which is crazy, is that there's not someone in that orbit, in his universe, who has the maturity and the capacity to say, "this wording is problematic. maybe we can revise it. we recognize we've sort of lit a fire. let's try to revamp it." that would be a sort of rational, human thing to do, like, "look, we didn't mean to offend anyone. let us, you know, scrub it and replace it with something else." but in a political context, you can never admit that you've made a misstep and, more importantly, i think, for desantis, he doesn't want to back down from something that goes with his brand, which is, we are going to push back against all these efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, and we want to sanitize our history. >> i mean, it also is -- it has real impact on the state. his anti-woke agenda, florida has a teacher shortage now,

right? it's become harder for people in the state to want to teach. >> yeah. we'll get into the layer of the fundraising issues that december -- ron desantis is having and staff he's had to fire, but this is another political fight he's picked and now losing. >> looking at his body language during that statement, it was like bobblehead desantis was back. i think sam is absolutely right. it speaks to an issue that people have long criticized desantis for, especially some of the people on the trump side of things who previously worked for desantis in florida, which is, he can't keep staff because he doesn't take advice from anyone. he doesn't have any senior people around him to help him navigate this. he is speaking to an increasingly small slice of the base, not even the electorate. as you just noted, you know, we're right out of the gate here, and he is blowing through money.

he had, you know, a fairly decent haul. he's blown it all on staffing. he's already laying people off. it sort of feels like rick perry 2016. scott walker, as well, i guess. a handful of them, for that matter. >> sounds about right. >> you talk about his body language, showing how uncomfortable he is. look at chris christie's body language. is anyone in this campaign having more fun than chris christie? the chances of him getting the nomination, pretty low. i mean, maybe if some kind of bank shot against new hampshire. but he is making the case that the other republicans are afraid to make, and he is having a ton of fun. >> he is pitching himself as truth teller. if donald trump skips that first debate, you can imagine governor christie is going to train his fire on governor desantis. >> the first to endorse donald trump. >> never lose the context for the validation he gave trump in 2016. "washington post"'s jackie alemany, i suspect you have a

busy week ahead. >> "barbieheimer". >> don't worry about the impending indictments. get to the movies. thanks for joining us. coming up on "morning joe," protests are intensifying in jerusalem as there is an attempt to overhaul the country's judicial system. we'll get a report on where things stand. plus, the french government undergoing a shuffle after crises and riots erupted nationwide in recent weeks." morning joe will be back with all of that. all of that.

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welcome back. as we turn to news overseas now, tens of thousands of israelis marched from tel-aviv to jerusalem this weekend in protest of a controversial law to be voted on today in israel's parliament. if passed, the law would limit the ways in which israel's supreme court can overrule the government. as "the new york times" reports,

the law would bar the court from using the contentious legal standard of reasonableness to block government decisions, giving ministers greater leeway to act without judicial oversight. israel's government says the law would free up elected officials to perform their duties, while the opposition insists it would hurt democracy by removing a key check on government outreach. we should note, president biden has warned against prime minister netanyahu from enacting this reform. joining us live from jerusalem, nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez, standing amongst the protesters. what are you seeing around you, and what should we expect today? >> reporter: jonathan, as you can see, we are seeing thousands of israeli protesters braving the summer heat, gathering in front of the israeli parliament in a last-ditch effort to try to stop this legislation. earlier on today, we saw them blocking roads. israeli police using water

cannons to try to dislodge them. a number of arrests were made, but, jonathan, this is really the last roll of the dice for this protest movement that has been so sustained for seven months, leading to what many think is the biggest political crisis in israel's history. few people alive today can remember a moment when this country was as divided as it is right now. prime minister benjamin netanyahu, if he were here, would tell you this legislation is necessary to curb the powers of the unelected supreme court and restore the supremacy of the government. many protesters genuinely believe if the legislation goes through, it is the beginning of the end of israeli democracy. it's not just the people on the streets who are afraid of that. big business today announcing that 150 of israel's largest

companies are closing their doors. these are shopping malls. these are major stores, in protest at the legislation. jonathan, there is a real danger that what started as a political crisis may turn into a security crisis. over the weekend, thousands of israeli military reservists have said they will stop showing up for duty if this legislation goes through. this is having a particular impact on the israeli air force. in some squadrons in the air force, half of the pilots are reservists as opposed to regular duty. if those reservists don't show up, it is not clear that the israeli air force can continue to function at full strength. we caught up yesterday with guy palone, one of the leaders here, also a former fighter pilot. he explains why the pilots who have dedicated their lives to defend the country have taken this drastic step. take a listen.

>> we are not going to continue to risk our lives to serve in an air force for a country that is not democratic. it is as simple as that. israeli democracy will not be the same. if this means confrontation with our brothers in israel who think differently, then, we're worry, but this is what it's going to be. you're either for this kind of legislation or you are fighting against it. and this is something that has never happened in 75 years of existence of israel. frankly, it's frightening. >> reporter: jonathan, despite everything, the warnings from those air force pilots, the size of the crowds here on the streets, and that plea from president biden, every indication is prime minister benjamin netanyahu is preparing to have a potential vote at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> nbc's raf sanchez live from jerusalem, thank you and please keep us posted. let's bring in the president

emeritus on the council of foreign relations, richard haass. let's start there. if the vote goes through as raf says is expected, what does that mean for israel as a democracy and as well as its relationships with the united states and other allies? >> jonathan, israel will continue to be a democracy. the real question is what kind of a democracy? what is going to be the nature of the israeli state? israel has always been a jewish state, but it's also been a secular state. they were showing some accommodation with the palestinians after the 1967 war. what were seeing in israel is not just a battle over this judicial proposal. we're seeing a battle for the future character of israel. what is the role of religion in the state? how dominant will orthodox be? will there be an element of working with the palestinians or will the settlement take over?

democracy will survive, but it'll be a very, very different israel. that's what you're seeing play out on the streets of the country, is a battle for the future soul and character and personality of the country. because the political realities and demographic trends, i'll be honest with you, i think the orthodox, i think the more conservative israelis are most likely to prevail. >> richard, we want to turn now to the war in eastern europe. russia claims to have shot down drones both in moscow as well as in crimea this morning, with an ammunition depo on the illegally annexed peninsula getting damaged in the attack. "reuters" reports it is unclear whether the drones in moscow were struck in midair and collided with a high-rise office building or were targeting the building itself. we're looking at footage of the damage now. meanwhile, russia continues to step up its attacks on ukrainian port cities. earlier sunday morning, a series of blasts in odesa killed one person and injured over 20

others, including four children. one of those blasts severely damaged ukraine's historic transfiguration cathedral in that city's center. the orthodox cathedral was consecrated in 1809, destroyed during the soviet era under stalin, then rebuilt when ukraine became independent. richard, the spasm of violence from putin comes at a moment in the war where president zelenskyy over the weekend acknowledged the counteroffensive was going really slow. he blamed a lack of ak in additio ammunition, a lack of supplies for that. the west has been funneling things their way, you know, from the start of this war. how -- what do you make of where we are now, and how much more time does ukraine have here in this fighting season, to show some progress? >> what we're seeing, jonathan, there's multiple wars. it's the wars between ukrainian and russian troops, as you say,

the counteroffenive is going slowly, possibly because of the shortage of ammunitions. they're being churned at an extraordinarily high rate. also, the russians are dug in, in defensive positions, and they've sown the fields with enormous amounts of mines. the defense seems to be holding its own against offense, even though ukraine is slowly, slowly, slowly regaining some of the territorial loss over the last year, year and a half. we're also seeing a wider war. we're seeing a war against economic targets, against, you know, obviously the entire ukrainian ability to export agricultural products. we're seeing it against the cities, now against the religious site. what we're seeing is a slight widening of things. coming to your basic question, i think in a few months, the battlefield will look somewhat like it looks today, more similar than dissimilar. then you're going to have a big debate. okay, we've had two fighting seasons. should there be a third? should there be any changes? whether it's at the end of this

fighting season or the next one, i think you're going to have a much more robust debate about whether there needs to be something diplomatic, even to use the loaded word, compromise, so we make sure there's a ukraine that we can, at the end of the day, preserve and save. at the same time, it still pursues through other means other than military its diplomatic goals. elsewhere in europe, spain yesterday plunged into political gridlock after an inconclusive national election ended with no clear majority. the far right opposition party and its coalition partners secured 169 seats in parliament, but that is seven short of the 176 required to win an absolute majority. prime minister pedro sanchez's socialist party and its likely coalition partners also fell short. they have 153 seats. the results led to a hung parliament. both coalitions will need to negotiate with smaller parties to try and reach the majority

threshold. it's also possible that a new election could be held if no deals are made. those elections in spain and the impact of the rise of the extreme right in europe is something that's being watched closely in neighboring france. joining us now from paris, french transport minister. mr. minister, thank you for being with us this morning. let's start right there. from your vantage point in paris, as you're watching what's happening in spain, what is your level of concern about what's happening with your neighbor? >> thank you very much. thank you very much for your invitation this morning. of course, we are watching closely what is happening in spain. it is partly what we've seen a lot of with democracies, which is more difficult coalitions, hung parliaments sometimes. we're seeing parliamentary parties across europe. what is expected, the far right would be extremely high, actually, the far right party

loves crowns, which proves that when we fight on pro-europe agenda, pro-democracy, western values agenda, as pedro sanchez and the main right-wing party did, they can be first. now, there are discussions on the coalitions that will probably take some weeks. i think it's also a positive signal that the far right is not on the rise, which cannot be stopped in european democracies and european countries. >> so interesting to hear what's happening in spain, but let's turn back to ukraine. what we're seeing with this stalemated -- or largely stalemated military situation is a test of patience for americans. talk about the patience that you see in france and europe for sustaining this battle if there is not a clear military outcome in the months ahead. >> it'll probably take time still, but what we see very clearly is that putin bets on the fact that european

countries, the u.s., would lack patience and would sustain to support ukraine for a few weeks, few months, but not for a long period of time. we are ready to support ukraine for as long and as much as necessary. we are doing it, the u.s. and european partners, and there should be no doubt we'd bring the military support as necessary. nobody knows how much time it takes, but ukraine is up and fighting. it was three months ago. we'll see what's happening in odesa, and we'll bring the support to rebuild, for instance, rebuild the train systems and what is necessary. it calls for support by the u.s. and european partners with france in the forefront. we will not lose it. >> mr. minister, this is richard haass. as you correctly said, the far right party in spain actually lost ground in the recent elections there. we're not seeing that in france. we're seeing the far right party, the national front still

looks very strong in the polls. we see the alienation, the polarization in french society. what confidence do you have and why that the center in france can hold the way the center seems to be holding in spain? >> of course, very difficult to say and to explain fully what we see, that we have a different political system from spain or germany or italy, for instance. we have the presidential system. we also have a more radical, sometimes political culture. but we have stability. in the system, president macron, as we know, won twice against the far right candidate. it was difficult. it was not a given. we also demonstrated we were able to stand at the center with a pro european agenda. of course, it's a fight which will take a long time, to be very frank. far right parties or extremist parties are strong. they use social difficulties and political fatigue in all our

democracies. in the uk with brexit, in the u.s. in recent years. let's be honest, it will not be a simple fight. it will not just be a few years moment. it'll be a longer fight for my generation in politics to fight. what is interesting in spain is that there is no -- leading to the far right gaining ground, using social difficulties to get momentum and to get votes. so we will do this fight again, against le pen, her party. i'm sure if we show the pro-democracy policy, we can remain strong at the center. >> transport minister, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you very much. richard haass, you have many titles. of course, years of government service, your role at the

foreign relations, or home and away, folks should subscribe, but what you're known for is "morning joe's" golf correspondent. the open ended in liverpool yesterday. give a recap, if you will. the final golf major of the year. >> 36-year-old american brian harmon won. he was leading over 50 holes, jonathan. stunning, dominant performance. let me give you one statistic. he made 58 of 59 putts within 10 feet. 58 of 59. nobody, nobody putts that well. he was the most consistent, steady golfer on a very, very narrow, very, very difficult golf course. just a dominant, dominant performance. by the way, congratulations, and you're right, you called it the open, not the british open, and that is impressive accuracy for someone who prefers fenway park. >> i had been so generous with you to this point.

richard, i was going to mention the yankees sweeping the royals but we won't do that. richard haass, one correction, the only time we've ever seen putting like that, sam stein, miniature golf. the guy doesn't miss. >> don't miss. >> navigates the windmills. >> you have to make sure it's coming on the down. >> the crocodile. >> richard haass, thank you so very much. still ahead here on "morning joe," bidenomics, that's right, bidenomics gets a major upgrade from one of the world's most influential banks. white house wants you to read that. we'll look at the new forecast for the u.s. gdp. meanwhile, the white house also landed pledges from a series of high-profile companies on the security of artificial intelligence. we'll be joined by the ceo of one of those very companies straight ahead on "morning joe." my asthma felt anything but normal.

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one more indictment against the former president will only continue to that sense among the american people, and as i said, i'd rather that these issues and the judgment about his conduct on january 6th be left to the american people in the upcoming primaries, and i'll leave it at that. >> i heard tim scott yesterday say that, like, well, it's not really the president's fault. well, the president invited them there. he incited them by telling them the election had been stolen, and then he requested that they march up to the capitol. of course, like donald trump, said he'd march with them and then immediately marched back to the safety of the white house and then watched what went on. >> two very different takes on january 6th from a pair of republican presidential candidates yesterday. meanwhile, another 2024 hopeful

is losing support from people with deep pockets. we'll look at the brand-new reporting on why big money donors are now backing away from ron desantis. also ahead, an update on extreme anti-migration measures taken by the state of texas at its border with mexico. moves that the department of justice says violates a number of federal laws. welcome back to "morning joe." just after 7:00 a.m. now. it is monday, july 24th. i'm jonathan lemire in for joe, mika and willie. susan page and eugene are still with us. we have ali vitali and jim messina. let's start with morgan stanley, revising the look on the

american economy. the firm credited bidenomics for stronger than expected gdp growth. the bank projects 1.9% gdp growth for the first half of this year, nearly four times higher than the bank's previous forecast, which had been 0.5%. and looking to next year, they raise their forecast for real gdp in 2024 by a tenth of a percent to 1.4%. the revision comes as president biden has been on the road trying to sell the american public on his infrastructure investment and jobs act. the legislation directs billions of dollars toward construction on bridges, roads, airports and seaports. it also includes plans to increase the availability of broadband internet, to replace lead pipes and build electric vehicle charging stations. morgan stanley's chief economist said the president has created a, quote, boom in large-scale infrastructure. those words, jim messina,

certain to appear on a joe biden bumper sticker near you. the president has been leaning in on the infrastructure. we're seeing shovels in the ground this year. particularly in recent days, bidenomics has become the buzzword at the west wing, maybe not the catchiest, but it is their attempt to claim credit for what they think has been a good economy, even if voters, polling suggests, don't feel that way. >> exactly right. the economic narrative is what you have to have to win a presidential election. when i was president obama's campaign manager, middle of the night, bill clinton would wake me up at 2:00 in the morning and say, "presidential elections are a referendum on the economic future. so the democrats have been saying it for a while, stay focused, stay on message and move an economic agenda. they're doing a very good job.

>> talk about the risks involved. wrapping your arms so fully around an economy, you know, though the metrics have largely been good, we're a ways out from the election. the talk of a possible recession has faded but has not disappeared. of course, for any incumbent, as you note, the economy is going to play a decisive role, one way or another, but this one is fragile. why do you think the american voters still frankly think the economy is not good, despite the numbers saying it might be. >> they need to be reminded. this is repetition over and over. the biden campaign is going to own the economy either way, and they're smart to steer into it. i love bidenomics. i know it is not the catchiest phrase, but it moves to what they need to say to the swing voters. here's what we've done. here's what your life will be if you re-elect us. it is a smart political move. >> ali, democrats like worry and complain. a number of democrats have been anxious about this. why is the white house doing a

better job telling this story? those you speak to on capitol hill, are they all in on pied bidenomics? >> they have to be. they've been hemming and hawing over this since the early stages of what was build back better, which became the inflation reduction act, and here we are in the implementation phase. that's the word i hear the most on capitol hill, is messaging around implementation. that's where it is important that the white house, branded as they will, bidenomics, however clunky. i remember when klobomentum was here. that's a throwback for the table. i think it allows most of the democrats on capitol hill to take this back to their districts and not just talk about the economy as this esoteric idea but, instead, try to show people it's what's happening, whether it is putting shovels in the ground on infrastructure projects, expanding broadband, that is the impact i hear from democrats, from operatives, from lawmakers who want more messaging.

they're never going to be satisfied. let's no amount of messaging that can be done that will make them feel good about the messaging, but to the extent they can feel good, you're seeing the white house put that strategy in play now. >> jim, how did the white house get into this pickle, where we've had constant strong jobs numbers, increasingly good news on inflation and, yet, joe biden getting so little of the credit? what responsibility does the white house have for that state of affairs, and how hard or easy will it be to reverse that? >> well, look, what you realize when you work in the white house, which i did, is that the bully pulpit of the presidency is much more difficult in the age of social media. it is difficult to get your message out. every single day, you have to continue to hammer at it. they're going to 30 cities in 60 days hammering at this. ali is exactly right. democrats are historic bedwetters. we love to panic all the time. the fact is, you have a white house absolutely singularly focused on the economy, and you're not hearing capitol hill lose their minds because they

realize the white house is doing exactly what they should be doing at this moment in time. >> there might be a storm cloud on the horizon for the economy. that's ahead of the 2024 presidential election. president biden is facing several major worker strikes that could have a dent in the u.s. economy. friends at "politico" note that it's creating a problem for biden, at least for the time being. there is a potential workshopage involving the teamsters of ups as well as the dual strikes in hollywood. unions are urging the president not to intervene, but in interviews with "politico," senior biden administration officials did not rule out the possibility of the president getting involved. eugene, the president has, of course, fashioned himself as the most pro-union, pro-labor chief executive we have maybe ever had, at least in decades. he's had a few issues before, the railroad workers a few

months back. this does loom as a concern. people you speak to in the white house, how worried are they, and what's the strategy? >> yeah, they're democrats, so they're always worried about something on the horizon. >> yeah. >> with this one, though, they feel a lot of it is out of their hands for now, and they're the watchers in this case, right? they are waiting for both sides to say, "hey, biden, we want you to come in. "that is where they see him as being involved, instead of, you know, the rail workers strick, when that happened, they say it was because of the economy. huge impacts of the economy. ups, a fourth of the par se par that go around the country come from ups. it's huge. when americans can't get their stuff, they get pissd off. this white house is waiting and watching to see how this shakes off. as you know, when we get to the press briefing room and talk to karine jean-pierre, they don't comment on individual strikes. they like to stay out as much as they can, but they are working

behind the scenes to hope this figures out before they have to get involved. >> the labor secretary is in an acting role, too. jim, if you were still in the white house right now with this union trouble, particularly for a president who identifies so closely with them, what would be your strategy. >> i'd do what they are doing, but the one you worry about is ups. you take people's amazon packages, you have a problem. the senior adviser who is close to labor is shuttling back and forth between folks saying, "when you need us, we are here." president biden is the closest president to labor. now isn't the time for white house intervention. you wait until you can put everyone in the roosevelt room and say, "let's fix this." >> we'll keep an eye on that. last hour, we reported on new developments surrounding the florida board of education approving new guidelines for teaching black history, which

suggests that enslaved people reaped benefits from skills acquired during centuries of forced labor. vice president kamala harris visited florida. she went to jacksonville and slammed the curriculum, calling it extremism propaganda. joining us now, co-founder of all in together, lauren leader, who is looking at the role that vice president harris is playing in the administration, as well as the re-election campaign. lauren, your new opinion piece for "the hill" is titled this, "kamala harris is far from the worst vice president: why do polls say otherwise?" in it, you wrote this, is harris really doing such a terrible job, so out of touch with the american people that she deserves this historic disapproval? or as the first female vice president of color, is she on the receiving end of well documented and deeply ingrained bias? vice president harris is not

perfect, and she has sometimes been her own worst enemy, struggling to keep good staff and appearing still and scripted at public appearances. but it's hard to square the outsized negative attention she receives with any rational critique, and impossible not to see parallels to the only other woman ever to come so close to our nation's highest office, hillary clinton. the parallels are hard to miss. impossible expectations and double standards for women, sometimes called the double bind, have dogged the vice president from the start. women in positions of power, especially black women, face ingrained bias at everyy are la angry, aggressive, and more likely to be subjected to online hate. if harris can turn around her polls, and she must, she not only helps the biden ticket and her own political future but paves the way for the generation of women leaders who will follow

her. for their sake, let's hope she succeeds. lauren, thank you for that piece. let's speak about this moment, where we see the vice president front and center. in florida over the weekend, talking about this curriculum, also, she has been this administration's leading voice on abortion rights. >> she has. i think that's really where she's at her best. you saw her, you know, i think this weekend -- excuse me, friday's talk about, you know, taking it right to florida and confronting desantis in his own backyard over the absolutely outrageous manipulation and rewriting of history, i think was really some of her finest public speaking. i think she's going to need to do more of this. when i spoke to folks on her team, they're conscience we're in the early days of the campaign. they haven't fully ramped up getting her out on the road in campaign mode, but i think they

need to. what winds up happening, and i'm so glad ali is on this segment because she knows this as well as anyone, what happens so often for women candidates, outside the vice presidency but around the country, is they are subject to more negative attacks, more disinformation, more sort of manipulative bias in the attacks that come at them. really, the only way to address it is to fight back. to date, she's really not been able to do that or hasn't done that. i think appearances like what she did friday are her effort to carve that out. it's been tough. i mean, she was essentially asked to take on a role that's only ever been defined by white men. to somehow redefine it and be successful, it's new territory. it's extraordinary complicated for her. >> lauren, i am also glad to be having this conversation with you because you and i have been texting about this since you put out your piece, over the course of writing and talking about my book. the double edge with kamala harris, i think, is not surprising for a lot of us to see that she has some of the lowest disapproval of any vice

president in history, simply because of the double binds you present, but i wonder if you can talk about how her team is looking at this moment, where the campaign season may actually unshackle her to do more of what we saw that worked for her in 2019, when she, herself, was running, attacking and being the prosecutor. do they see this as an opening for her to sort of turn things around? >> i think they do. you know, my point in the piece is that that is exactly the right strategy. you know, it is very tempting to say, when you see a candidate like her, you know, vice presidential candidate in this ticket with low approval ratings, it is easy to say, we should sideline her in the campaign process. i think that is completely strong. it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. the biden administration needs to get her out there. she is a strong surrogate. the only way you turn around the numbers is by putting her out there to do that. there is a piece in the "wall street journal," also, this weekend also the response of democratic donors to her. it is clearly mixed. some, you know, to your point in the last segment, a lot of hand

wringing and anxiety about whether or not she is a liability, but the folks who really know her and have brought her out have found her to be an extraordinarily effective surrogate. the point is, you can't -- it's different for a woman than it would be for a male vice president. >> yes. >> she has to be given the chance to turn it around. the only way to do that is to lean into her as the surrogate on the issues she's most comfortable with, on the issues where she is passionate. to your point, where she can be unshackled and you let kamala be kamala. it is different. she's the first. there has to be a sort of i couldn't playbook, if you will, new way forward so she can turn this around and fight back against what is pretty profound miss in the entire system. >> lauren, this is susan page. you liken kamala harris' experience to hillary clinton's, and you see parallels there. talk about lessons learned from hillary clinton's experience in that campaign.

what did she do that kamala harris ought to do? what did she fail to do that kamala harris ought to do now? >> i'm so glad you asked that. jen palmieri was here last week, and we had this whole conversation about it. look, the famous moment in the debates where trump is lurking over hillary, and she said later she wished she turned around and hold him to back off. the campaign at the time felt it would be a mistake, as they discussed it afterward. i think that was wrong. she needed to do that. the whole system was different, too. hillary ran pre metoo. she has different things to contend with. the fact remains, when women allow the narrative to take over and they don't directly fight back, that narrative wins. we know this from lots of research and other campaigns. it is essential women fight the disinformation and negative attacks head on, and not --

that is something i think hillary could have done more of. you can't blame her. it was the system she was operating in. every candidate has to learn their lessons in their own time. i hope kamala learns hers in time for the '24 election. >> coco-founder and ceo of all together, lauren leader, thank you so much. eugene, you cover the vice president. i know there has been frustrations from the west wing about the vice president's performance to this point on some issues, but they think she's found her voice on a few things, when president biden acknowledged he is not comfortable on messages like abortion. >> they feel she is, one, well suited, not just because she is a woman but because she was a prosecutor. she's worked on these issues for years. that's one. they also feel like, and since the trip to africa, i went with her to ghana, and she came out after walking around the slave castle and had no notes. it had been a long time since i've seen kamala harris without any notes or reading from a script. she was completely unscripted. we've seen that over and over and over again.

we have seen her this weekend on friday, when she was there in florida, only had a couple notes. did not read from a teleprompter. she did that at howard, when she did this abortion event, the day they announced they'd do the re-election. her new team has gotten her much more comfortable with being herself and, as they tell me, being the kamala harris democrats fell in love with when she was on the senate, when she was talking to the republicans coming in that donald trump was nominating for attorney general or the supreme court. that is what they're trying to move her into. they feel much better that things changed. someone who covered her for a long time, it does feel different when you watch kamala harris now. >> the target of her speech friday was governor ron desantis of florida. let's turn to another headline about him, one he probably won't like. big money political donors are putting off plans to support his campaign. according to the "financial times," these billionaires have cooled on the florida governor

due to his spate of right-wing policies. at least two are withdrawing their support, for now anyway, because they object to desantis' clamp down on teaching about gender and sexuality, as well as his ongoing fight with disney and his restrictive stance on abortion. so far, the desantis campaign has relied on big checks from deep pocketed supporters over small dollar campaign donations. just one billionaire, ken griffin, gave $10 million to desantis' state-level political campaign. back in april, the hedge fund founder began rethinking his support after the florida governor signed a six-week abortion ban, as well as questioned america's support for ukraine. that same month, another republican donor halted plans to support desantis due to the campaign's stance on abortion and plans to ban certain books in florida schools. jim, take off your biden adviser

hat for us. >> yup. >> just weigh in as a political strategist, one who watched a lot of election cycles. what's your take on where things stand for the florida governor right now, who entered the race as a strong second to donald trump, the trump alternative. to be fair, in most polls, he is still second, but he's lost a lot of altitude since jumping in the race. is he already in a doom spiral, or can he turn this around? if so, how? >> look, it is panic time, but he can turn this around. he still has all the money in the world. $150 million sitting in his various accounts to make his case. that said, you have it exactly right, he has relied on these big donors to be the fuel of his campaign. his whole rational is, i'm the one who can win. that is peeling away, as well. he continues to slide in the polls. he had a disastrous three months. at some point, you have to say, what is the rational for your campaign? can you pull together? if we went around the room, i don't think any of us could tell you what the bumper sticker for

ron desantis is right now. that's the problem. he is competing in one lane and one lane only, which is, i'm the alternative to donald trump. now, he's got chris christie who, over the weekend, just eviscerated him on the florida stuff in a very effective way. he is starting to think to myself, like, what is my lane? i think it is panic time at the desantis campaign. >> let's get you in on a conversation we had last hour about his approach to trump. i mean, he started taking the fight to trump a little bit on certain issues. it's not full throated. whatever he is doing right now hasn't worked. what would your advice be to the desantis campaign? how would you deal with the race's heavyweight? >> take the gloves off. to be the king, you have to beat the king. this is a boxing match, and you have to go in and throw a punch. this whole thing about i'm not going to alienate the supporters by being mean to donald trump, in the end, that is an impossible strategy from a guy who has run a political campaign at the presidential level, you need a message. you have to figure out what your

message about your opponent is. these people, ali, are panicking over whether or not they should hit donald trump, at the exact time when voters in iowa are making up their mind. they will not talk about the king. if they don't, he's going to walk into the nomination. >> not only that, it's also come for the king, you best not miss, right? >> right. >> desantis has sort of stepped one foot in and then stepped one foot out. it is not earning him in friends in the trump circles he's trying not to alienate, and it is not gaining him any pieces of the trump base he is trying to peel off. it is a strategy where you can't have one foot in and one foot out. you have to go for it. the other thing that strikes me, and i feel i've had this conversation with sources for months now, is when you talk about the fact that his political brand or his lane or his motto, whatever you want to call the bumper sticker, the fact that it's not clear, it reminds me of conversations that i was having about kamala harris in 2019. the fact that other people in that race, joe biden was battling for the soul of

america, warren was, i have a plan for that, bernie sanders was the progressive revolution. no one understood kamala's. and it became toxic. her campaign answers were convoluted. there were a lot of reasons she wasn't a good candidate, and she's the one i liken to desantis in the field. we like the scott walker thing, but it's kamala harris. you come in with the expectation, the right profile, the money, but the expectation means you have to moan it. i don't know that desantis is doing that. plus, i could see him dropping out like she did before votes are cast. >> if desantis is the surprise disappointment in the republican field, who, to you, is the surprise achiever, the surprise person who is coming on stronger than you would have predicted? >> i can't say his name very well, but ramaswamy. >> ramaswamy. >> i did pretty good. >> not as well as her french.

[ laughter ]. >> he is now 5%, and none of us saw that coming. i think he is the kid of the moment. i have a lot of questions about whether or not. i think the one with real star power out there is tim scott. i think tim scott is in a competition for the vice presidency. i think when you see him on the stump, it's impressive. you look at him and say, this guy has real ability to message in a different way for a republican. while desantis is burning down the republican coalition in florida, you see tim scott trying to put it back together and say, "this is how you win at the general election level." i think he's impressed me so far. >> at least so far, senator scott has not caught fire with actual republican voters. not yet, it's early, but he hasn't yet. jim messina, thank you very much. great stuff. we appreciate you being here. still ahead on "morning joe," millions of americans are enduring a brutal heat wave. we'll show you some of the hardest hit areas. plus, search and rescue efforts are under way in greece this morning as wildfires rage

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beautiful shot of new york city, 7:29 a.m. it's not too hot yet there in midtown manhattan, but americans from coast to coast remain under heat advisories this morning, with scorching temperatures expected to spread to the midwest and the plain states in the days ahead. joining us now, one place where it's been brutally hot, scottsdale, arizona. it is nbc news national correspondent miguel almaguer. we just saw some reporting that, in recent days in maricopa county, not far from where you are, some people have been hospitalized from burns they suffered simply from falling on

the ground. that's how hot everything is in arizona. >> reporter: yeah, the ground can be over 120 degrees easily. it is like a searing stove you step or touch on, and it can damage you. it is tough to describe how stifling the heat is across this area. here in the scottsdale area, it is already 90 degrees. that's the overnight low here. over in next couple of hours, it'll raise another 20 degrees or so. it'll be another dangerous and potential deadly day here all across the region. this morning, a deadly and relentless heat wave. >> it is going to get hotter, and i don't know how we're going to make it. >> reporter: over the weekend, the blistering heat setting more than 50 new high temperature records. >> disgusting. >> dripping with sweat. >> reporter: 30 million people across 11 states remain under heat alerts. as it intensifies, so does the threat of heat-related emergencies. in the bell canyon area of los angeles, a dramatic rescue

captured on the citizen app. firefighters air lifting two female hikers overcome by heat. while at a nevada state park, where temperatures topped 114 degrees, two women found dead after their worried hiking group called police. the sweltering summer also bringing a dangerous heat wave to europe. in greece, wildfires forcing thousands of tourists to evacuate from the popular islands. back in the u.s., temperatures continue to rise. >> we're still far above our average for this date of 106. >> reporter: phoenix saw its record 24th day in a row with highs above 110 degrees. while in sweltering miami, the heat index has topped triple digits for 43 straight days. >> i'm from miami, born and raised, and i'm still not used to this. >> reporter: a summer heat wave for the record books to refuses to break. the heat in the southwest isn't

going to die down any time soon, and first responders are also taxed across this region. over the last couple of weeks, they've been dealing with 20 heat-related deaths just in the phoenix metro area, a sobering trend that will likely continue the next couple weeks. back to you. >> punishing and unrelenting heat. miguel almaguer in scottsdale, arizona, thank you so very much. miguel's report just mentioned the wildfire situation in greece. the situation in the city of rhodes forced the evacuation of thousands of tourists yesterday. the country's ministry of climate change and civil protection says it was the largest evacuation effort in the country's history, underscoring that this climate change and the extreme heat not limited to our shores. joining us now live from greece is nbc news foreign correspondent josh lederman. josh, we can see smoke behind you, i believe. give us a sense of what the situation is like now and how worried are they that it could

get worse? >> reporter: well, here on the island of rhodes, it is frankly completely out of control. there's a small fire burning here behind me, but if you take a look at this valley, it is just awash with this thick, black smoke. you can see just how windy it is. we are, thankfully, safely upwind of this fire, but that wind is just kicking up those flames, making it almost impossible for firefighters to really get a handle on it. they have been trying mostly by air. there are ten airplanes, as well as eight helicopters that are battling this fire. many of them sent in from other parts of the world. as soon as they get control in one area, the winds shift. another part of this island is on fire. earlier this morning, we were in a coastal town, big, popular destination for tourists here in rhodes. they were evacuating the town, and we could start to see those flames coming up over the hilltops. we got out of there pretty quickly.

now, we are told ghanati is completely in flames, and the fire has moved to the beach, taking with it many of the hotels there. you can see just how fast this situation changes. i want you to hear from a resident of rhodes who we found kind of just standing there gawking at this wildfire. here's what he had to tell us. how scary is it to watch your island go up in flames like this? >> to be honest with you, i haven't seen it before like that. but that was -- that was green, like, 40 minutes ago, and now it's burnt. it is scary. >> reporter: it came up almost instantly? >> yes, yeah, because it's pine. it burns so instantly. nothing a human can do, you know, not even the planes can stop it. >> reporter: jonathan, as we approach a full week of this fire burning, authorities say that the ecological toll is going to be disastrous. it is also taking a real humanitarian toll. already, 19,000 people have had to be evacuated here in rhodes, including 3,000 by sea.

we have been speaking to tourists who had to flee their hotels on foot. some of them had to walk 4 miles to safety, leaving all of their belongings back at their hotels. we saw people piled up on the floor of the airport, sleeping there, trying to get flights home. others seeking refuge in a basketball shelter, sleeping on cots with nowhere else to go. over in corfu, another hot spot for tourists here in greece, there is a brand-new fire burning. it's just showing how out of control this situation is, as temperatures hit about 113 degrees here in greece over the weekend, jonathan. >> truly heartbreaking and horrific images. nbc's josh lederman live in rhodes, greece, thank you, and stay safe. still ahead here on "morning joe," elon musk is ditching the bird. we'll show you the new logo for twitter. frankly, it's not called twitter anymore. as of now, just part of the rebranding changes for that, frankly, beleaguered flat form. plus, we'll have a

conversation with the future of a.i. with the ceo of a company that agreed to guidelines set by the biden administration. "morning joe" is coming right back with all of that. asthma'. it's the moment when you realize that a good day... is about to become a bad one. but then, i remembered that the world is so much bigger than that, with trelegy. because one dose a day helps keep my asthma symptoms under control. and with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy helps improve lung function so i can breathe easier for a full 24 hours. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy contains a medicine that increases risk of hospitalizations and death from asthma problems when used alone. when this medicine is used with an inhaled corticosteroid, like in trelegy, there is not a significant increased risk of these events. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase risk of thrush and infections. get emergency care for serious allergic reactions. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ♪ what a wonderful world. ♪

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and with that, we have learned that twitter's new logo is now just a stylized "x." just saw it. owner elon musk announced the company has begun the process of rebranding, and that it is time to say good-bye to the signature bird. musk chose the new design after asking his millions of followers to suggest an "x" logo, and musk then made it his new profile pic picture, as you can see there. this was the tech giant's headquarters last night. you can see the "x" projected on it. the ceo gave some insight on how she expects the rebranding the work, tweeting this, or she x'd

this? i don't know. we have to get new nomenclature now. the business would be artificial intelligence powered and would be centered in audio, video, messaging, payments and ali, another change for what used to be known as twitter. i can't really see this driving a lot of new business there, but i don't know, what do you think? >> i barely want to tweet on twitter. i don't want to do my banking on twitter. no one is -- i don't think anyone is asking for that. we wanted an edit button and a few more characters to get thoughts out. i'm souring on twitter broadly. i was never fully there. i'm trying threads. i don't know. maybe -- i don't know i'm looking for another twitter replacement, but maybe we can abandon the quest. i don't know. >> i posted a couple times on threads, but i don't have the energy for another social media account. >> too much. like the movie, like, he voicemailed me, so i messaged him, so i myspaced. i can't do this anymore. >> yeah. let's shift gears and not speak of twitter again today if

we can help it. the biden administration, a far more serious topic, met with seven of the top artificial intelligence officials to develop guardrails for the technology. the administration announced it received various security safety and trust commitments from the major players on a.i. amazon, google, meta are some of the companies that agreed to guardrails, including internal and external security testing of a.i. systems before their release, third party discovery and reporting of vulnerabilities in their a.i. systems, as well as comprehensive efforts to earn the public's trust when it comes to the new technology. joining us now is the ceo of technet, linda moore. technet is one of the companies that agreed to those guidelines set by the biden administration. linda, thank you so much for being here this morning. a.i. is the topic of the moment. >> it is.

>> there's a lot of real concerns about it, about how it could be used for elections or even something perhaps more nefarious. tell us, first of all, first and foremost, tell us why your company decided it was smart to agree to these guidelines. >> actually, it was our member companies who agreed to it. we work with a lot of tech companies, almost 100. the safety and security in a.i. systems is so important, but the societal and economic benefits of a.i. are immense. so we are announcing today a $25 million initiative to demystify and familiarize american public and also policymakers with what those benefits are. we also are going to engage with po policymakers on smart regulation. friday's announcement was a good first step, and i think we'll see more announcements from companies. they're voluntarily instituting these changes themselves. we really want to tell that story about a.i. that hasn't been told. that's how it can further

medical research, treatments, cures, predict severe weather, all kinds of immense benefits to society. >> i mean, certainly, new campaign to increase awareness seems warranted. people hear a.i., myself included, and think "the terminator," which isn't a great image for anyone, including the future of a planet. >> yeah. >> we also hear people in the industry begging for guardrails, saying, "we don't know what we have yet." the white house stepped into the breach a little bit, but speak to that concern. what can you say to calm people who are worried about this technology. >> the good thing is companies already know a.i. is too important not to regulate. they want the trust of consumers and their business audience, too, to roll out the many benefits of a.i. so many companies are already using a.i. to further and expand their business, and also to deliver to consumers what they want. tomorrow, we're going to be hosting an event on capitol hill

in the heart senate office building, where we will be bringing together those business leaders who are already using a.i. with policymakers and deep subject matter experts so they can talk about how a.i. is already being used in our lives every day to detect fraud, to detect misuse, of all kinds of things, but also to really sow zero in on the benefits of increased education, increased medical research, treatments and cures, the ability to also produce more abundant and healthier crops. it's being used across all kinds of industries that people are not aware of. that's one of the reasons why we're going to be handling this through events like tomorrow and also this public awareness initiative that we'll be spearheading. >> we remember when social media bust on the scene, and policymakers were really slow to understand it and to set up some guardrails. still struggling with aspects of social media. assess for us a level of

sophistication among policymakers when it comes to the debate over a.i. >> well, i think there is a good awareness of what they don't know. so i think all the robust participation in majority leader schumer's sessions on a.i. already that he's held, and also all the sessions he's going to hold this fall, senators are, you know, coming out in droves. we've had over 70 senators participate in those. i think they really understand that this does have risks, but it also has enormous benefits for society and for our economy. it is going to change a lot of the way we do things for the better. i think that the really diligent approach from the white house is also very, very welcome. >> it is. >> yeah. >> there are a lot of concerns, other than the apocalypse and terminator, but how a.i. migh affec jobs, the market and economy. the meetings you're having and holding on capitol hill, they're

to tell the american people about how this is, you know, honestly going to affect their jobs and some of the jobs they're doing right now will no longer exist. >> well, the numbers are probably not as bad as what you think. that's part of what this campaign is about, right? explain what is going on. there are projections this will increase global gdp by 7%, which is immense. also, there have been studies that have shown that a.i. will complement 63% of jobs that americans hold right now. 30% of jobs will be untouched. also, employers all across the country are thinking about how this is going to impact their business and also their employees. they're really focused on re-skilling and up-skilling. there also needs to be new attention given to s.t.e.m. education in this country. less than half of our schools actually offer computer science and really advanced s.t.e.m. classes. how can students take classes they're not offered? all of these things need to come together to really pave the way for a stronger and better

workforce that a.i. will complement. it's a tool. >> yeah, this is certainly a conversation we're going to be having a lot in the months and years ahead. technet ceo linda moore, thank you for helping us have it today. appreciate you being here. >> thank you. epiup next on "morning joe, the women kicked off with a win on friday. we'll go live to new zealand as the reigning back-to-back champs prepare for their next match. "morning joe" will be right back. xt match "morning joe" will be right back the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you.

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sofia smith who scored two goals. after the 3-0 victory, the u.s. women turn their attention to the netherlands. they play wednesday night. joining us live from auckland is nbc foreign news correspondent molly hunter. molly, give us a sense of the scene at the world cup and the feelings around the u.s. women's team after they started off with a win. >> reporter: started off with a win, jonathan, that's right. if you talked to the players after, they felt like they could have finished more and that score could have been higher. 3-0 against vietnam, two by superstar, 22-year-old sofia smith making her world cup debut. vietnam is one of the eight nations making their world cup

debut. pretty exciting. tonight panama, another one of those debutantes, playing brazil. on the u.s. team there's a ton of excitement about these 14 players, including sofia smith who are making their first appearances on the world cup stage. i talked to sofia smith after that game and i had the chance to speak with megan rapinoe as well. take a listen. >> how did it feel? >> it felt good. it was exciting to get out there. it's been a long buildup and it's been good to go out and play. >> what's going through your head? >> excitement. i'm happy with our performance. we have so much more and we can fine tune a few things going into the next match. just excited. >> she's such a menace. she comes inside. she can beat you around the edge, so quick, so smart, finishes great. she's a do it all player.

we've been seeing this monster in the league for a few years now. i've been very excited to see her on the world stage and getting to wear the jersey and play in the biggest game. she didn't disappoint. >> reporter: that's megan rapinoe talking about the performance of sofia smith. you can hear the excitement for her younger teammate. we spoke with quite a few of her teammates and all of them say this is what she brings to the team. none are surprised she scored two goals. the expectations are sky high for her. the netherlands is match number two in wellington. much tougher match than vietnam. the netherlands is the team the u.s. beat to get the 2019 world cup title. lots of anticipation.

>> we'll be watching. it's a transition moment for the women's team. they have some veterans as well as these exciting rookies. it's going to be a fun tournament. molly hunter, thank you so much for the reporting. still ahead here on "morning joe," what we're learning about the timing of donald trump's classified documents trial in florida, and the former president's tirade on social media last night. plus, florida governor and 2024 candidate ron desantis down plays what happened during the january 6th capitol attack. we'll bring you his remarks. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ jitterbug! ♪ [ giggles loudly ] ♪ jitterbug! ♪ [ giggles loudly ]

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is it something that concerns you of the people making sure that they don't go out of their right mind if something like that happens? i know what i'm thinking could

happen if they do say -- say jack smith says, i'm going to put donald trump in jail? >> i think it's a dangerous thing to talk about because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters and i mean, maybe -- maybe 100, 150 -- i've never seen anything like it. much more passion than they had in 2020. much more passion than in 2016. i think it would be very dangerous. >> there's been no deterrents put in place -- well, that's not entirely accurate. there's been some deterrents put in place. i mean, look at what you just said. donald trump's words that it's dangerous. yeah, it could happen again because you have a group of individuals -- you have an audience for him and for what happened on january 6th. i believe it can happen again. >> that's capitol police officer harry dunn who defended the

capitol during the january 6th insurrection reacting to donald trump's veiled threat about another january 6th-style attack. the former president spent yesterday rage posting on social media amid new reporting on how his legal troubles are training resources from his 2024 presidential campaign. we'll dig into all that. meanwhile, it was a rough weekend of headlines for florida governor ron desantis. not only did he downplay the severity of the attack on the capitol, he's taking a lot of criticism for his stance on education in his state. also joe biden is in a tough spot as he heads in his re-election bid. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." i'm jonathan lemire.

we have washington bureau chief for "usa today" susan page, white house correspondent eugene daniels, congressional reporter for the "washington post" jackie alama and reporter for "politico," sam stein. we start with "barbie" or "oppenheimer." who saw what this weekend? >> i saw "barbie." it was fun. i have kids. there were a bunch of adults in there. hilarious. i couldn't go to "oppenheimer." i can't spend three and a half hours watching a movie about a bomb. >> i didn't see "barbie." there were people dressed in pink all through the streets.

it did record-setting numbers. jackie, did you get to any? >> i feel like i failed. i tried to get tickets. everything in d.c. was sold out. >> we can see the box office numbers. $337 million for "barbie." i saw "oppenheimer" at 10:00 a.m. friday. it was sold out. it is three hours. 10:00 a.m. on a fry. >> i was wondering where you were. >> it was excellent. killian murphy is spectacular. the cast was great. it was -- it's probably christopher nolan's best film and he's had a few. >> what does it say you chose "oppenheimer" and you chose "barbie"? >> well, if you know us --

>> we'll have more on a blockbuster weekend later in the show. let's dive into the news. a date has been set for the first federal trial of a former president of the united states of america. on friday judge aileen cannon announced donald trump will be in court may 20, 2024. you recall the justice department asked for the trial to be held in early december this year, while trump's team requested it was postponed until after the entirety of the 2024 election. judge cannon wrote, the court rejects defendant's request to withhold setting the schedule. nevertheless the government's proposed schedule is inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial. news on the documents case comes

as trump awaits other possible charges for his alleged effort efforts to interfere in the 2020 election results. the former president railed against prosecutors as well as president biden for what he falsely claims election interference for the 2024 race. one message read in part, do they understand the damage being done to america? it will only get worse. we must stop these monsters from further destroying our country. trump also shared this ominous post which read, nothing can stop what is coming, nothing. if there was any doubt about the meaning behind that message, the user who initially posted it later retruthed himself, this time with a qanon slogan directed at the so-called leader

of the far right group. some of this language, as we heard in that radio interview at the top, sam, comes with the ominous warnings that surrounded january 6th. we know what happened that day. doesn't seem like donald trump is being subtle here. >> no. i mean, it's the same notes over and over, same stuff we heard prior to january 6th. ominous. enough of it is vague that he can get away by saying he never incited anything. you know, the trial date combined with the very likely fact he'll be the nominee means that sometime in the spring of 2024 we'll have a tinder box of a political situation, which is trump coming out of the primary victorious. this trial begins, maybe one of several trials on the horizon. this type of messaging will be amplified. he'll say they're doing this in

the context of the election. this is the only thing you have going for you. we'll see where that goes. i don't know what you're hearing on the hill or from the justice department, i have to imagine they -- i mean, they see these things. internally how do you respond to that if you're sitting there and you're merrick garland? >> well, "the new york times" had an article over the weekend that the budget jack smith, it's around $25 million a year just to trump prosecutions. among that pool of money, 1.9 million is going to security for merrick garland and secret service detail because of the level of threats. it's clear that the former president hasn't changed his behavior in terms of, you know, riling up his supporters in ways that can ultimately end in, as

we saw, dangerous situations. on the other side of the coin here, the trump campaign is in an unprecedented situation right now. has there ever been a presidential candidate that is simultaneously toggling multiple investigations? >> it's a rhetorical question. >> while campaigning to be president of the united states and raising record amounts of money that are going to his legal bills. it's an unusual situation. >> we should note, susan, that trump said he received a target letter as part of the january 6th election interference investigation. there's some thought that an indictment could come as early as this week. that's going to be another moment where we know this may -- talk about the trial date in

may. it is probably coming out of the primaries. he's the frontrunner in the polls. it's in the window between the primaries and the convention. we may have the republican standard bearer flying from courtroom to courtroom because there's a new york court date set too. >> there's the legal issues, first former president to face this legal peril. there's the political issues that appear to be helpful to him. there's the logistical issues too. there are multiple trials going on. some will require his attendance. the judges have to coordinate so they don't have more than one trial date at the same time requiring his presence. not to mention the primaries and the campaign. to say we've never been here before is to understate the enormity. >> when you look at may, for the

republican party, this is the worse-case scenario. you have him having to go to court. there are republicans who are going to see that information coming out, to see him flying around the country, talking to judges, maybe taking the fifth. it's hard to see how his lawyers will allow him to talk. it's going to be too late to change anything. if he's the nominee, he'll be the nominee in november. it's hard to see how republicans get out of this. when i talked to folks over the weekend, they said we could flip it and try to get a new person, like they had an idea in 2016 after the "access hollywood" tapes come out. that's not going to work. the veiled threats are working now. >> eugene, there's no sign republicans want to undo this.

one reason this has strengthened his position is because this is the direction that this trump-defined republican party is heading and not unhappily. >> it's two different things. it may help him in the primaries. different in the general election. the biden team is like, this is going to happen. we'll step back and let it play out. let's talk about how republicans are handling it now. florida governor and 2024 republican presidential candidate ron desantis appeared to downplay the january 6th attack friday. here's some of what he said on the stay free with russell brand podcast. >> it was not an insurrection. these are people that were there to attend a rally and they were there to protest. it devolved into a riot, but the idea that this was a plan to overthrow the government of the united states is not true. it's something that the media

spun up just to try to basically get as much mileage and use it for partisan and political aims. >> meanwhile, former vice president mike pence, another 2024 white house hopeful, also weighed in on the january 6th attack over the weekend. now, despite rioters calling for him to be hung that day, pence stops short of saying that trump should be criminally charged. >> the president's words were reckless that day. i had no right to overturn the election, but, while his words were reckless, based on what i know i'm not convinced they were criminal. i think the department of justice has lost the confidence of the american people. i mean, in one town hall after another across new hampshire i heard a deep concern for a perception about the unequal treatment of the law. i think one more indictment

against the former president will only contribute to that sense among the american people and, as i said, i would rather these issues and the judgment about his conduct on january 6th be left to the american people and the upcoming primaries. >> sam, sam, sam. this is in a nutshell the conundrum the republicans are in. for some of them, particularly the florida governor, the theory of the case of their campaign is that trump is going to implode. yet, they can't bring themselves to attack him because they risk losing the followers and, therefore, nothing happens except his lead grows. >> this is the fundamental question of the election. did trump lose? that's first and foremost. if you can't bring yourself to say trump lost, then you don't have a case for why you should run because the presidency was

taken away from him. did he act fundamentally in a bad way on january 6th? if you can't attack him for that, there's not much you're going to attack him for. i don't think you're going to go after trump because he didn't build the full wall. i don't think people care as much. that's the question, how he acted on january 6th? and desantis can't bring himself to make these attacks. it suggests an inability to go for the jugular. we crunched the numbers on this. people just want to move on. they don't necessarily think trump was in the right. most think he was in the wrong. overwhelmingly they say it's in the past, move on. pence wants to say, look, i'm not obsessing over this.

let's move on. i just don't think that's a winning issue in a primary, but it reflects the will of the primary voter. >> it's also a direct effort of two years of trump and his allies trying to downplay it. >> not just that, but turn it into his advantage. trump campaigns on this. he says he's being prosecuted wrongly. >> january 6th shadows all this, jackie. you have new reporting about a key figure who disappeared off the radar, and that's mark meadows, trump's former chief of staff. what have you learned about what he's been up to? >> it's been easy to forget about mark meadows. he's been quiet. he hasn't tweeted in months. we have a bunch of reporting over the weekend about his behaviors that's raised eyebrows and have them speculating to the

extent he's cooperating with prosecutors. we shouldn't forget he was a key person in propping up trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. he was someone -- we go into this text message between him and eric hirschman, white house counsel at the time, joking about his son, blake meadows, meadows dispatched to help him find the unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and he said his own son had trouble finding any evidence that what trump said was true. we continue to see meadows publicly and in private with trump fuel this argument and this conversation in a way that ended up being fairly dangerous. i think the most interesting part of this is that jack smith

has been asking people about these text messages in conversations, in grand jury testimony. he's been asking witnesses, you know, did they privately express and believe that election fraud did not happen? there was countless studies that the trump campaign actually commissioned outside groups that said they couldn't find any claims to back up what trump was saying or evidence. then publicly why were they saying something else? i have to say, you know, mike pence -- it's been interesting to see the republican candidates recalibrating their answers to the january 6th question. a lot could change in the next two weeks once we see an indictment. jack smith is sitting on a mountain of evidence, far more than we learned during the january 6th committee, the congressional committee's report. once that gets into public view and everyone pours over it, i think we could maybe see these

answers. >> there's never been a party that has had the candidates not be able to go after the biggest vulnerability of another candidate. they are unable to go after him because they know it hits them and it makes him stronger. these are things that all these candidates never had to deal with. >> i wonder if the pivot is the republicans can't address his conduct, but if it's as damning as it is, they make it against his vulnerability. fair or not, he's not going to win. florida governor ron desantis is facing backlash over his state's new standards for

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ron desantis appears to be trying to distance himself from the recent changes that have been made to his state's public school curriculum. last week the florida board of education approved new guidelines for teaching black history, which suggests that enslaved people reaped benefits from skills acquired during centuries of forced labor. the move comes months after desantis criticized an advanced placement course on african american studies. the changes are now facing significant backlash. vice president kamala harris visited jacksonville friday and slammed the new curriculum

calling it extremist propaganda. this prompted desantis to defend his state, but also denying any responsibility for the new standards. take a listen. >> you should talk to them about it. i didn't do it. i wasn't involved in it. i think what they're doing is -- i think they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a black smith into doing things later in life. the reality is all of that is rooted in whatever is factual. they listed everything out. if you have any questions about it, ask the department of education. you can talk about those folks. these were scholars who put that together. it was political. >> sure. some republican presidential candidates are speaking out against the florida board of education new guidelines. former congressman will hurd wrote, unfortunately it has to

be said, slavery wasn't a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. it was literally dehumanized and subjugated people as property. here's what chris christie said. >> i didn't do it and i'm not involved in it are not the words of leadership. governor desantis started this fire with the bill he signed and now he doesn't want to take responsibility for whatever is done in the aftermath. from listening and watching his comments, he's obviously uncomfortable. he only started to focus on this when he decided he wanted to run for president and try to get to the right of donald trump. i think people see this as politically manipulative and i'm talking about, margaret, we're dividing our country into smaller and smaller pieces and politicians are pitting them against each other to create conflict. that's not going to make the

country bigger, better, stronger or freer. eugene, let's talk with how offensive some of this teaching is from the florida cricket curriculum there. >> this is what happens when you base your entire political career on this, when you say that everybody needs to be anti-woke, this is where you end up. when you talk to folks in florida, the whole point of the bill -- this is in reaction to a bill that was making clear what he wanted. this is because he felt a lot of people around the country are starting to feel we can't teach the correct history of this country because it makes white kids uncomfortable. that is what these folks are

saying. when you use that, you have to own it. at this point this is on ron desantis. he may not have created these policies with the school board, but at the end of the day he made it clear what he wanted to the folks in that state. >> completely agree. you have to put it in the context that there's been an effort to desanitize american history and this was done in this context. the curriculum if you read it, it's one line. it uses the word benefit. that's problematic. what's striking to me, beyond just that it got to this point to begin with, which is crazy, is that there's not someone in that orbit, in his universe who has the maturity and capacity to say this wording is problematic. maybe we can go back and revise it. we recognize we've lit a fire. let's revamp it. that would be a rational, human

thing to do. look, we didn't mean to offend anyone. let's scrub it. for desantis, he doesn't want to back down from something that goes with his brand, which is we are going to push back against all these efforts to promote diversity and inclusion and we want to sanitize our history. >> i mean, it also is -- it has real impact on the state, his anti-woke agenda. florida has a teacher shortage. it's harder for people in the state to want to teach. >> we'll get into the fund-raising issues desantis is having and staff firings he's had to conduct. jackie, it seems like it's another political fight he's picked and now losing. >> even looking at his body language during that statement, it's like bobblehead desantis is back. sam is right.

it speaks to an issue that people have long criticized desantis for, especially people on the trump side of things who previously worked for desantis in florida. he can't keep staff because he doesn't take advice from anyone. he doesn't have any senior people around him to help him navigate this. he's speaking to a small slice of the base, not even the electorate. as you noted, we're right out of the gate here and he is blowing through money. he had a fairly decent haul. he's blown all of it on staffing. he's laying people off. it's like rick perry in 2016 or scott walker as well, a handful of them. >> you talked about his body language. look at chris christie's body language. is anyone in this campaign having more fun that chris

christie? the chance of him getting the nomination pretty low, but he's making the case that the other republicans are afraid to make and he is having a ton of fun. >> he's pushing himself as a truth teller. >> the truth teller who was the first to endorse donald trump. >> never lose that context. coming up, the latest from israel after massive protests have taken place ahead of a controversial vote over court reforms today. "morning joe" is right back. remember the pain? cancelled plans? the worry? that was then. and look at me now. you'll never truly forget migraine. but qulipta® reduces attacks, making zero-migraine days possible. it's the only pill of its kind that blocks cgrp - and is approved to prevent migraine of any frequency. to help give you that forget-you-get migraine feeling. don't take if allergic to qulipta®.

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welcome back. we turn to some news overseas now. tens of thousands of israelis marched from tel aviv to jerusalem protesting a new law.

if passed, israel's supreme court could overrule the government. the law could bar the court giving ministers legal leeway to act without oversight. israel's government said it would free them up to perform their duties. president biden has warned against prime minister netanyahu from enacting this. joining us now is raff sanchez. tell us what you're seeing and what we should expect today. >> reporter: we're seeing thousands of israeli protesters gathering in front of the

parliament to try to stop this legislation. we saw them blocking roads. israeli police were using water canons to dislodge them. a number of arrests were made, but jonathan, this is really the last roll of the dice for this protest movement that's been so sustained for seven months leading to what many think is the biggest political crisis in israel's history. few people alive today can remember a moment when this country was as divided as it is. prime minister netanyahu would tell you this legislation is necessary to curb the powers of the unelected supreme court and restore the supremacy of the israeli parliament. many of these demonstrators say they genuinely believe if the legislation today goes through, it is the beginning of the end of israeli democracy and it is not just the people on the streets who are afraid of that. big business today announcing

that 150 of israel's largest companies are closing their doors. these are shopping malls, major stores in protest of this legislation. jonathan, there's a danger that what started as a political crisis may turn into a security crisis. thousands of israeli military reservists said they'll stop showing up for duty if this legislation goes through. it's having an impact on the air force. half of the pilots are reservists as opposed to regular duty. if those reservists don't show up, it's not clear that the air force can function. we caught up yesterday with one of the protest leaders. he's a former fighter pilot. he explains why these pilots who have dedicated their lives to

defending their country took this step. >> we're not going to continue to risk our lives to serve in an air force of a country that's not democratic. it's as simple as that. israeli democracy will not be the same. if this means confrontation with our brothers who think differently, we're sorry, but this is what it's got to be. you're either for this legislation or fighting against it. it's something that's never happen in the existence of israel. frankly it's frightening. >> reporter: jonathan, despite everything, the warnings from air force pilots, the size of the crowds here on the streets and that plea from president biden every indication is prime minister benjamin netanyahu is preparing to push ahead with the final vote around 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> thank you and please keep us

posted. let's bring in the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas. richard, if this vote goes through as expected, what does that mean for israel as a democracy and as well as its relationships with the united states and other allies? >> well, jonathan, israel will continue to be a democracy. the real question is what kind of a democracy? what's going to be the nature of the israeli state? they've always been a jewish state, but also a secular country. in principle it was pursuing accommodation with the palestinians. what we're seeing in israel is not just battle over this judicial proposal, we're seeing a battle for its character. will there be any accommodations

for the palestinian movement or will the settlement take over? it will be a very different israel. that's what you're seeing played out on the streets, is a battle for the future soul and character and personality of the country and because of political realities. i'll be honest with you. i think the orthodox, the more conservative israelis are most likely to prevail. >> richard, we want to turn to the war in eastern europe. russia claims to have shot down drones in moscow and crimea with an ammunition depot on the illegally annexed peninsula being damaged. is it clear the drones were struck in midair or were they targeting the building? russia continues to step up its attacks on ukrainian port

cities. a series of blasts in odesa killed one person and injured 20 others, including 4 children. one of those blasts damaged ukraine's historic transconfiguration cathedral. it was destroyed during the soviet era under stalin and then rebuilt when ukraine became independent. this spasm of violence from putin comes after president zelenskyy acknowledged the counteroffensive was going slow. he blamed a lack of ammunition, a lack of supplies for that. the west has been funneling things their way from the start of the war. what do you make of where we are now and how much more time does ukraine have here in this fighting season to show some progress? >> what we're seeing, jonathan, is further evidence there are

multiple wars. it's the war between ukrainian and russian troops, and the counteroffensive is going slowly possibly because of the lack of munitions. also the russians are dug in. they're in defensive positions. at the moment the defense seems to be holding its own against offense even though ukraine is slowly, slowly regaining territory it lost over the last year, year and a half. we're also seeing a wider war. we're seeing a war against economic targets, against the ukrainian ability to export agricultural products. we're seeing it against the cities, now against a religious site. we're seeing is a slight widening of things. to your basic question, i think in a few months the battlefield will look somewhat like it looks today. then you'll have a debate.

we've had two fighting seasons. should there be a third? should there be any changes? whether it's at the end of this fighting season or the next one, you'll have debate about whether there needs to be something diplomatic, even a compromise, so we make sure there's a ukraine to preserve and save at the same time it pursues other means its diplomatic goals. coming up, one of our next guests asks the question, how seriously should we take a no labels candidate? that discussion is straight ahead on "morning joe."

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depression. >> scary. >> that was a clip from the fx series "breeders." it follows paul and ali who struggle to deal with the ups and downs of life. joe sat down with the stars. here now is that conversation. >> we're back again, fourth and final season. we have a five-year time jump i

understand and yet, you all are once again struggling. talk about the fourth season. >> the fourth season begins with paul and ali, parents of luke and ava, who are now 18 and 16. at the end of episode 1, luke, who's 18 and about to go to university, drops a very big life-changing bombshell around the dinner table, which takes us all by surprise and rather takes the wind out of the big news that ava, his younger sister, was also going to drop on the family as well. so it's laughs and tribulation right from the off. >> laughs and tribulation. and as always, as i know, older children always seem to

overshadow the younger children. daisy, i think all of us cringe when we hear about this coming especially christmas dinner. my god, what is it about christmas dinners? but this happens here as well, right? >> yeah. it's a big bombshell. just when things appear to be getting back to some kind of normality, our relationship is back on track, and then we get enormous news and we have to react in the calmest and most sensible way we can, but we're privately in shock. >> daisy, the thing that i think so many people can relate to in this series is, you know, you all are dealing with your

marriage. it's always a challenge. you're dealing with teenagers. my god, that's always a challenge. we all know that. but on top of that, as a mom and a wife, you're dealing also with parents that you're having to take care of. it just comes at you so quickly from all directions, doesn't it? >> yeah. they're being pulled in so many directions. this season really shows that in the biggest way, because i think there's also a common misconception that kids get older it's going to get easier. your parents are also aging. i think they feel spread very thin. >> you do such an incredible job, all of you, of balancing it. just when you're ready to go, my

god, i have enough in my own life, you have just the perfect touch that keeps people connected. talk about that balance. >> thank you. i think we just wanted to get in everything that made us feel most ashamed and everything that made us feel most joyful into a family comedy show, so there is that balance of great love. ali and paul have great love for each other. the troubles they go through are actually no different to literally billions of other people and the love they feel for their children is real and profound, but it also comes with the challenges that everybody as a family knows to be true. we've got so used to things

being quite anodine and inoffensive that a parent shouting at their child looks like some form of abuse or something. it's 100% natural. it's everywhere. everybody at some point is going to shout at their kids and everybody's been shouted at by their parents. i think that's the balance. it's not a wait until your father gets home business. paul is a good dad. he's a good three-dimensional dad. sometimes he's going to be happy and sometimes he's going to be annoyed. same with ali. they're also coping with aging, their children aging and their parents aging, which is worrying

there other ways, because you're having to be the middle person between the younger generation and the older generation of your family. it's very full-on. >> no days off. you guys do such an incredible job. so great to have you here. thank you so much. the fourth and find season of "breeders" premiers july 31st on fx and streams on hulu. the premier episode actually is two episodes, so we don't have to wait the next week for the second episode. thank you guys so much. still ahead this morning, fresh off his world wide tour, four-time grammy winner jason isbell joins us to discuss his

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we should discuss why he said he was going to repeal and replace obamacare and couldn't get it done when he had a republican congress. we should discuss why he promised to build a wall across the entire border. he'd need 110 more years to finish the wall at that pace. he said he was going to balance the budget, and he added to the deficit. >> chris christie responding to a discussion about what should be discussed other than trump's legal issues if trump were to attend the first debate.

plus, we'll dig into the possibility of a third-party candidate and how serious of a threat that ticket could be. and speaking of tickets of a different sort, americans bought a lot of them for the opening weekend of "barbenheimer." we'll have more on the record box office numbers for those blockbuster films. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." it's 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. here in the east. i'm jonathan lemire in for joe, mika and willie. we have former white house director of communications to president obama jennifer palmieri. amy walter is here. and capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. garrett, we'll start with you

and the date that's set for the first federal trial of a former president of the united states. on friday judge aileen cannon announced trump will be due in court on may 2024. >> we're starting to see a conversion of events not unlike the "barbenheimer" phenomenon here where you've got donald trump's legal calendar and political calendar starting to line up in one busy queue for the spring of next year. his political leads continue to grow. as the investigation into donald trump intensifies this week, the former president firing away on social media at the prosecutors who may soon indict him on a second round of federal charges as they look into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. >> getting indicted and arrested by sick government thugs would be my great honor.

>> reporter: mr. trump calling prosecutors campaign managers for president biden, while accusing them of trying to, quote, steal another election even as the their investigation continues. a grand jury hearing evidence from will russell last week about the former president's state of mind around the election. the potential charges against the former president have become a topic of debate among his primary opponents. >> the president lied to them and told them the election was stolen. >> i'd rather these issues and the judgment about his conduct on january 6th be left to the american people in the upcoming primaries. >> reporter: while mr. trump is the current frontrunner, his legal calendar appears set to collide with the 2024 political calendar. a federal judge in florida on friday set a mid-may start day for the classified documents trial. that will follow a march start date for the new york trial on

charges related to alleged hush money payments to stormy daniels. mr. trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases. >> so when will we find out more about the special counsel investigation? it's more or less impossible to say for sure, but the grand jury is expected to reconvene tomorrow. it's possible we'll see the wheels start turning again that early. >> put this in perspective. >> you can't. >> it presents the republican party with such a challenge right now. >> if you were trump's opponent,that's what you're hoping is going to start to dawn on republican voters. right now this is all theoretical and nobody's had to cast a ballot yet. as we move into 2024 and maybe we have more indictments by

then, voters in places like iowa and new hampshire start to go maybe having somebody under indictment in these multiple cases and going to trial would not be a great idea. it's not happening now. that's not to say it's going to miraculously happen. if you're his opponents, that's what you're hoping is going to happen. >> it's hard to imagine swing voters are going to look at this guy and go, hey, three indictments, that's for me. right now, though, he's only tightening his grip on the republican party. >> the perils of going after donald trump in light of all these things we're talking about

when voters in this republican primary simply don't want to acknowledge the fact that might make trump not the best candidate for their party heading into this election like he was in the past. we're not seeing other candidates beyond chris christie going after trump in that same way. whether that's because they're looking at the numbers or they know it's not to their advantage to go after him because they want a spot on his ticket or maybe in the cabinet is another thing. >> we have a new data point of how at least one of these republican candidates is handling this. nikki haley this morning confirmed that she would support former president trump to be the republican nominee. then she went onto list the reasons he would lose in the general election. take a look. >> i have said it very clearly that we need a new generational leader. we've got to leave this negativity behind. >> would you support him if he

gets the nomination? >> i would support him, because i am not going to have a president kamala harris. we can't afford that. i will tell you, you look at these indictments, there's probably going to be a fourth indictment. we can't have him as the nominee. he can't win a general election. that's the problem. we have to have someone who can actually win. that's what it's going to take. >> nikki haley talking about a president harris, seemingly suggesting that president biden would not serve a full four years in office were he to be reelected. feel free to jump in on that. we're starting to hear more from republicans who are afraid to take on trump directly, but are finding a way to criticize him by talking about his lack of electability. >> i've paid attention to nikki haley for a while in the last weeks, because she seems to be trying to do a nuanced, very

poll tested argument about why trump can't win. it's kind of a gold watch strategy. i think with republican voters it's probably more effective than chris christie, which is a full-on bludgeoning of trump. i've seen her for a while say, if there's more indictments, it's going to be chaos and confusion. even if he's elected, he won't be able to get anything done. she makes the argument that even though we may like him, he can't win. is this going to work? it's easy to say, wow, why don't they take him on more frontally? i just don't know if it would work. he's probably going to be the nominee. but seeding the ground as haley

and a couple others are doing to show he can't win is probably their best opportunity to beat him, but i still don't see how this pans out. amy was making the point that iowa and new hampshire voters are probably going to be nervous act trump's electability. trump has such a head of steam nationally. even if he doesn't do well in these early states, he could just overwhelm everybody. >> every data point is he's going to do well in those early states. there's new polling out from iowa, new hampshire and south carolina. i think the closest anyone comes to him in those states is like 17 points in new hampshire. those early states are looking like a blowout right now. i think the gold watch strategy makes a certain amount of sense, but if you started it a year ago, it would have made more

sense. there's data that you can't go to republican primary voters and say this guy is terrible. you have to give people a bridge to get off of donald trump. but when you're saying in the same breath, as nikki haley was starting to do in that clip before she got cut off, of course there are problems in our justice system. you're not building that bridge. you can say, yeah, i agree with everything trump says about the system, but this indictment's real. it's a complete catch 22. basically these candidates are stuck in this box where there's no good way to go at him now that it's basically too late in a lot of ways. >> trump has weaponized these prosecutors and indictments. it's about you, not just about me.

there's a lot of buzz about a third-party candidate. certainly it's alarming people, particularly democrats, who fear if they were to put forth a third-party candidate, that that could only hurt president biden. >> right. some of this is political ptsd. you don't have to look very far back. you go but for those third party candidates, hillary clinton would be president. understandable why democrats would be worried about having a third-party candidate, especially one who presents as an independent moderate, winning back those suburban voters who weren't really into joe biden, but didn't like donald trump.

the data isn't really telling us all that much. if you ask a poll question to anyone, which quinnipiac asked the other week, would you consider supporting an independent candidate. 47% said yes, 47% said no. you could ask me to consider a lot of things. i would probably say i'd consider it, but i might not end up doing it. would you eat this tofu dog or this regular hot dog? i'd consider it, but i'd probably end up with the regular hot dog. the other thing we're starting to see is that it takes equally from democrats and republicans. i saw david axelrod the other day saying the bigger worry for democrats should be the green party candidate, cornell west. i think there are a lot of

people like nikki haley who are republicans who will not vote for joe biden. if there's another option that's not donald trump, they would consider that are. they would vote republican all the way down the ballot and vote for an independent third-party ticket. we only talk about the suburban moms versus the other ones. but a third-party candidate who is a green candidate who is pulling away from the real core of biden's appeal, which is younger voters or voters of color, even just a thousand of those votes would be detrimental to biden. >> the thing the no labels effort is perpetuating from 2016 is this idea of thelesser of two evils. this is coming up time and time again in our focus groups of

swing voters, and it's fascinating. trump's backbaggage is not the as any potential baggage with biden, which is his age. folks say i don't want trump, i don't want biden. when it comes down to the two, i guess biden, because he's the lesser of two evils. >> john huntsman, everybody's favorite republican from several cycles ago. there are democrats in this town still talking to their therapist about jill stein. i think i'm in the camp that sees this as more of a concern if you're joe biden.

if there's additional alternatives, i think that's worse. the biden campaign has also put donald trump in this box as an existential threat. >> i think the point of voters who dislike either option, they broke for trump in 2016, broke for biden in 2020. we don't know where they'll be in 2024. does this also speak to perhaps what is the biggest worry about president biden, which is lack of enthusiasm. people will be excited to turn out perhaps to vote against donald trump, but are there enough people out there excited to vote for president biden? >> president biden is doing a historically phenomenal job. does everybody feel that yet? no, they do not.

when the existential threat is trump and there are no other alternatives, they do well. reelects are hard and at this point a year out from the election, you're always going to have a lack of enthusiasm, but that existential threat is still going to be there come november of 2024. i feel confident that the biden team will be able to turn out the same amount of people that we needed in '20 to win. last week on friday, we had that poll on the show that showed that the third-party candidate actually might help biden as opposed to trump. the biden team just does not want unknowables. they want as much certainty as possible. let's do this again, the same rematch, the same issues at stake, the same democratic stress test for the country.

any kind of variable is really threatening. i don't think they're wrong to fear that. it's not paranoia. you want as stable a race as possible. >> the biggest stability factor is trump. then you talk about a third-party candidate. the biggest thing joe biden needs is donald trump to be his nominee. we have heard some breaking news. the israeli parliament has approved part of benjamin netanyahu's plan to overhaul the country's judicial system. the legislation significantly limits the supreme court's power to strike down the government's decisions. it passed despite hundreds of thousands of protesters turning

out to oppose the controversial measure. critics say it will erode one of the few checks on government power. prime minister netanyahu argues the changes are needed to correct judicial overreach. president biden in recent days had counselled the prime minister against taking the step, but the first part of it passed today in israel. another headline from overseas, the united nations have begun talking with north korea about a u.s. soldier who crossed the border to north korea this week. the conversations have begun through a communication line. no further details ohhen the talks were provided. private second class travis king has been detained in north korea since he crossed the border last tuesday. he had been set to fly to texas to face disciplinary actions and

a potential discharge after he spent 48 days behind bars for damaging a police car. north korea, meanwhile, has said nothing publicly about the matter. we will keep you posted. i'm watching the courthouse down the street for the next week or so. this target letter has been sitting like a sort of damocles over american politics for the last week. i'm all on indictment watch. like a weather nerd, it's indictment watch, not indictment warning at this phase. >> we'll get to it. nbc's garrett haake and amy walter, thank you so much for joining us. coming up, "barbie" and

"oppenheimer" made for a blockbuster opening weekend at the box office. andrew ross sorkin will join us to break down the record-setting debuts. plus, twitter may look a little different this morning. we'll show you the overnight rebranding that gets rid of the site's iconic bird logo. site's iconic bird logo. what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hi, i'm tony hawk, and like many of you, only pay for what you need. i take a statin to reduce cholesterol, but statins can also deplete coq10 levels. that's why my doctor recommended qunol coq10. qunol has the number one cardiologist recommended form of coq10. qunol. the brand i trust.

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a beautiful shot of seattle washington at 6:24. mariners rallied to beat the blue jays last night 9-8. and it was a historic weekend at the movies as "barbenheimer" shattered box office records. "barbie" took the top spot, followed by "oppenheimer."

together, both films combined for more than half a billion dollars across the globe, likely the fourth biggest box office weekend of all time and at the moment when the movie industry needed it. kaylee hartung has more. >> hi, barbie! >> hi, ken. >> reporter: from the pink sands of barbie land to the isolatd new mexican desert, audiences are flocking to the theaters. with "barbie" boasting a record-setting $150 million domestically and "oppenheimer "oppenheimer"with an 80 million opening weekend. >> barbie, timeless icon. >> reporter: "barbenheimer," as

fans have dubbed it, enjoying the biggest box office weekend since the pandemic. greta gerwig's "barbie" is raking in the highest ever opening weekend for a female director. the massive earnings come as hollywood is embracing a wave of nostalgia and hoping to avoid a downward spiral. unions are asking for higher pay. another summer surprise, "sound of freedom" a controversial faith-based film about child trafficking, raking in 100 million at the box office. >> i don't know if we'll ever see something quite like this again.

>> reporter: as "barbenheimer" has audiences tickled pink and hollywood seeing green. >> let's bring in now theanchor of "squawk box" andrew ross sorkin. why was this weekend so important for hollywood? >> this has really been the post pandemic story. there has been a great fear that people were never going back to the movies. this moment proves hollywood is in the business of creating moments. boy, have they ever this weekend. the real question is, does this hold up? what do the box office numbers like like next weekend and

after? it's not just what happens the rest of this summer. but in hollywood they're starting to think about what happens next spring and next summer as a function of the fact that so many of the movies that were going to be in production this summer are now on hold given the strike and what that portends for the movie business and for the theater business. >> it's a good point in the long-term. even in the short-term, that "mission impossible" sequel had a nice opening weekend and fell off in the subsequent weekends. next, the twitter logo is gone. >> when meta did threads it was going to be a thread or something like that. i was asked the question what are we going to call a post on

x, if you will. >> do we re-x something now instead of retweet? beyond this rebranding, it comes at a moment where twitter seems like it's only spawning negative headlines. >> i don't know. you saw last night in san francisco they put an x on the building. they lit it up bruce wayne style. to provide context and history for you, the name x and what elon musk says he wants twitter to be was something he tried to implement 20 years ago long before he owned twitter. he add created a financial services system that we wanted to call x. it's like a super app in china where they communicate, buy and

sell things, get cars, food, this and that. his long-term goal, he says, is to turn twitter into effectively a super app that does all of these things. whether he's able to do that remains the big question, and whether folks stick with him remains a big question. while a lot of people are complaining, it's not clear that that is translating into less folks using the service. it's clear that less advertisers are using the service. >> i'm not quite sure i'm ready to order food on twitter. we'll see. lastly morgan stanley put out a report criticizing bidenomics.

>> we've seen the stock market over the past two weeks move up literally every single day. it looks like it's going to move up again today as there seems to be a greater sense there's going to be a soft landing rather than a recession. we'll see where things stand. we'll hear from the federal reserve later this week. jay powell is going to be speaking in jackson hole in august. we'll get a better sense where the fed is thinking the economy is going. right now investors think the economy is moving in a much better direction. i should mention it's been held up by about seven companies. they're calling it the magnificent seven. it really is seven stocks moving up for now. when it comes to what the administration has done and where inflation is today, the administration, at least for

morgan stanley, getting a lot of credit. not, of course, getting credit for those on the other side of the political aisle. >> certainly not. andrew ross sorkin, thanks for joining us. we've talked a lot about these polls that show voters still don't feel great about the economy and don't necessarily believe these positive metrics. >> for them not to predict it's going to be better than expected next year, but also for them to say some of these policies that biden pursued is responsible for this economic news, you just don't get breaks like that. i know earlier in the show

people were talking about why biden wasn't getting more credit for the economy doing well and the white house should have done a better job selling it. i don't think it's possible for his numbers to go up on the economy when inflation was still going up and people watching the news are hearing that a recession is coming, interest rates are getting raised. now things are aligned that the white house can continue to make the argument that the plan is working. people can have faith. there's credibility that what they have tried to pursue has actually helped the economy. as inflation continues to go down, people will start to feel it. you think about this a year from now. they're probably going to be in a pretty good spot on the economy with voters. that's when you start to see his approval number on the economy

creep up. >> republicans a few months ago told me they thought the two areas where president biden was most vulnerable heading into this campaign would be on immigration and the economy. at least right now, the border numbers have cooled off. and it's good news for the economy. >> it's waiting until voters feel it. polls show voters aren't happy with biden's handling of the economy. until folks start to feel the benefits of these things, i don't know that voters' perception wills change on how biden is handling it. that said, there's been 800,000 manufacturing jobs created nationwide.

that's something republican republicans will want to take credit for. >> all over the country, signs say there's work being done by money provided by president joe biden. coming up on "morning joe," shohei ohtani might have taken his last big swing at home for the los angeles angels. we'll have that highlight ahead of the approaching baseball trade deadline when we come back. roaching baseball trade deadline when we come back somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions

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. high fly ball. home run! >> he's the best. shohei ohtani hit his 36th home run of the season yesterday. it might have been his last at angel stadium. but the team's recent success gives ohtani some reason to

stay. they ended up 6-3 before they embark on a road trip. he is a free agent at year's end. the debate is whether or not the angels will try to trade him. the angels are four games out of the wildcard. that's within striking distance. if they can hang around there, they'll probably keep him. the baltimore orioles beat the tampa bay rays yesterday. the orioles took 3 out of 4 from the rays on the road. baltimore, which began the month 6 1/2 games behind tampa in the a.l. east now has a two-game lead after winning 12 of their last 15. we have an orioles fan on hand with us. jen, you guys had a tremendous

weekend in tampa. how hopeful are you? >> look at me just beaming. i always complain it's always the yankees, it's the red sox. but to see that they're in first place because they keep beating the rays. i have lived through too many cold october nights in the '90s during the clinton administration watching the yankees beat the orioles year after year in the american league playoffs. so i am enjoying it while it lasts. it's awesome because it's such a scrappy team, not a lot of money. it's so fun to watch them do

really well. >> camden yards remains one of the very best ballparks. coming up on "morning joe," four-time grammy winner jason isbell joins us to discuss his laid latest album called "weathervane." eathervane."

♪

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♪♪ ♪♪ four-time grammy winner jason isbell is back with his

latest album "weathervanes," which is not only making waves on the charts but pushes for positive change. that song you just heard is titled "save the world." it tackled school shootings, calling for a commitment to build a safer world for our children and generations to come. jason, we're so pleased to have you with us this morning. let's start right there with such a weighty topic for that song. i mean, some artists shy away from controversial issues in their music, in their art. you didn't. you decided to take this one head on. tell us why. >> what i try to do when i'm writing these songs is document where i am in my life, an emotional sort of document of my situations, my worries, my

fears, my concerns. if i'm being honest with myself and my audience, then i wind up writing about pretty honest topics like this. it was a tough song to write. it's such a heavy and loaded topic when i don't necessarily think it needs to be. it should just something we're all working together to try to resolve. >> jason, such a delight to have you on the show. full disclosure, i'm a very big fan. i'm proud that lemire pronounced your name right. the whole album is just phenomenal. what i thought was interesting you tackle this issue and the fear and the trauma that parents

feel, but you don't try prescribe a solution. there's no refrain about ban assault weapons. you're also doing this event on august 15th to raise money for gun violence prevention groups. what are you trying to achieve with putting this song out there, getting your own efforts behind these groups working so hard to help prevent gun violence? >> good to see you. first of all, it's really hard to rhyme with assault weapons. my job is to rhyme, first and foremost. what i like to do is be aware and i like to make people on the other end of the line, people hearing those songs in their

cars and houses, i like to make them feel like they're not alone. we don't spend most of our time studying numbers and statistics and ways to solve these issues. we're not politicians. what i'm trying i'm trying to d people know you're not alone when you feel this way, when you feel afraid. i don't offer a whole lot of solutions because i don't have a whole lot of solutions. i just have this awareness that helps me write these songs. but in my non-creative life, i try to put as much of my action and money and effort as i can into taking things fair and equitable and true and honest and safe and real for the people who are in my audience and the people i know and the people i care about. i wouldn't be able to sleep at night if i did it any other way because i'm a very lucky person. i get to do something that i love for a living.

my parents, their parents, their parents, all those folks went to work every day and did a job that they hated. i love going to work. so for me to be able to live with that, i have to really put my money where my mouth is and try to help some people sometimes. >> in that answer you talked about just making people feel heard, connected, giving them some kind of hope. as we have discovered, your 2017 song "hope the high road" was a real lifesaver for me coming off of hillary having to lost to trump. if people don't know the song, the key lyric i would share is "there can't be more of us than them." but, also "i'm not going to fight with you down in the ditch. a songwriter from nashville,

grew up in alabama, it may cost him some fans. great, good for you. what was really important was you showed the nuance that nothing in america is a monolith. certainly the south is not. you come from a small southern town. sharing what it's like in that small southern town. then we have sort of the polar opposite, this jason aldean song called "try that in a small town," which seems to be rather than seeking to have people understand each other, divide, divied the country. i know you've spoken out about that. what do we need to know about your small town, florence, alabama, compared to the portrait that jason aldean is presenting to the world? >> well, i think in jason aldean's song, which he didn't write, other people wrote, but i think that what it appears to me

that's what's happening is these unfounded fears that small town americans have is being capitalized on. you're drumming up this fear that there's going to be riots in the streets and people burning the flag and people carjacking and the knock-out game. i don't know how the knock-out game wound up in this song. this is very clearly a debunked racist myth, that people just walk up and punch other people on the sidewalk. i don't know how this wound up in there. pretty much all these things point to a very n specific group of people as a perpetrator. they say you should be afraid of these people, and let me sell you something while you're afraid of these people. the way i see it, most of the issues in my small town in alabama, green hill alabama, florence, mussel shoals, that area, most of the areas there are based around addiction, opioid addiction, pain killer addiction, people not able to

get a great education or keep a job. i write about those things. when i write about a small town, i write about people who are addicted and trying to dig their way out, people trying to take care of their family and have some pride in themselves because i'm not trying to sell somebody a product. i'm trying to make something that is art and something that is creative. a lot of people are missing the fact that all the instances in jason aldean's song are just paranoia. i think it's actually -- i think the people who wrote it, the people who produced it, the people who released it, those people understand what's going on. but a lot of people think what's wrong with this? he ear just saying don't do bad things to people, but it's the particular bad things they're focusing on. none of those things are really a true danger to small town america. they're a danger to this concept of masculine whiteness. that's the thing that's being traded on here. i don't think that's okay. i think country music should be

three choruses and the truth. >> the new album, "weather veins" is out now. jason isbell, great to have you on the show. please keep doing what you're doing. >> thank you. i will. >> all right. alexi, let's close the show here by just sort of going back to where we began in some ways, where we think it could be as soon as this week, there may be another federal indictment of donald trump. none of these probes have dented his popularity in the gop primary at all. do you see that changing at all, particularly as more and more of his opponents are making the electability argument? >> one thing we'll watch this week, all the republican candidates will basically be in iowa ahead of their dinner on friday. it's a very interesting moment to see how or whether those

arguments start to change to being about electability. at the same time i think voters are smart enough to know that a candidate who says donald trump is not electable and goes on to support them is not someone whose message very clear. >> what a morning. that does it for all of us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage after a quick final break. we'll see you again tomorrow. inl break. we'll see you again tomorrow al with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma that can mean less oral steroids. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. my mental health was much better, but i struggled with uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia.

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right now on "ana cabrera reports," extreme heat turning more deadly. 30 million people in the u.s. are under heat alerts as scorching temperatures expand and more reports of heat-related deaths and things like this dramatic rescue out of california. tourists evacuated from hotels in greece as heat-fueled wildfires burn