is jake sullivan sitting down with wang yi, who is then going to sit down with sergey lavrov. it'll be interesting to see when they address the general assembly will lavrov be in the room. but it sets the stage for a biden/xi meeting. xi jinping is not here, he sent his vice president who sat down with antony blinken. you see outreach on the heels of four cabinet officials going to beijing earlier this year. it looks like a path for dialogue between biden and xi. you mentioned zelenskyy he heads to washington to make his case as well. thank you for joining us this morning. and thanks to all of you for getting up way too early with us on this tuesday morning.

"morning joe" starts right now. all right. you're looking at live pictures from capitol hill. where lawmakers have 11 days to get a spending deal done and avoid a government shutdown. but it seems there's no sense of urgency from far right republicans to find an agreement. we'll talk about that. meanwhile, many in the gop are criticizing a deal that is bringing home five americans who were wrongfully detained and imprisoned in iran. we'll explain why in just a moment. it comes as president biden is set to deliver a speech to the united nations general assembly calling for continued support of ukraine. the lack of prominent leaders in the crowd is raising questions about the importance of the annual event. we'll talk about that as well. a lot to get to this morning, good morning and welcome to "morning joe," it is tuesday, september 19th, and along with joe, willie and me, we have the

host of way too early, jonathan lemire. u.s. special correspondent katty kay is back. and former aid to the george w. bush white house and state department elise jordan, she's an msnbc political analyst. great to see you. >> a couple of great nfl games last night. >> i can't tell if you're sarcastic. a devastating injury for nick chubb, they didn't even show the replay it was so bad. i'll take a double header monday night no matter how so so the games are. >> jonathan lemire, it distracts us from the red sox baseball, right? >> yeah. the red sox did manage a win last night. the first in a while.

to willie's point, nick chubb, a devastating injury. here's my one piece of advice for everyone watching today. do not search this up on line. it is terrible. his season is over and one wonders about his career. and the pittsburgh steelers they got a win they needed. in the night cap the new orleans saints. >> you don't have to search it up today because as jonathan was saying don't search it up, tj played it. >> thank you, tj. >> let's get to the news this morning. a former assistant to donald trump reportedly told federal investigators that the former president repeatedly wrote to do lists for her on classified documents. >> wait a second. hold on. hold on a second. >> let's just -- it's very

serious. >> but willie, wasn't this the same guy who said hillary clinton should be locked up because of an email with a couple of classified documents and he's writing to do notes? >> call melania. >> on classified documents and handing them to staff? >> yeah. that's the -- mika is going to go through it. this is the abc news report. it's extraordinary. this story keeps getting more outrageous the deeper you go into it. one of his assistants says now. she's telling authorities and investigators. he wrote to do lists, things he had to remember for a day on note cards she would flip over and classified markings with them with a grocery list every day. >> when she has a list, she pulls up my sleeve, writes it on the arm, or writes it on my

forehead. >> no. a note bad. >> classified documents. >> this is all according to abc news. let's try and not -- it seems cartoon-esque. >> it's classified documents. >> several sources from statements from are molly michaels. she said the written request from the former president could come on note cards with visible classification markings used to brief trump while he was in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international related matters. sources tell abc news that can michael said investigators went to mar-a-lago the next day and found the documents in her desk drawer.

she then made arrangements to turn them over to the fbi. michael is believed to be the person identified in special counsel jack smith's indictment as trump employee two and handled many boxes from the white house. she also is believed to have taken some of the pictures in the boxes that were included in the classified documents indictment. sources told abc news after trump heard the fbi wanted to interview michael last year. trump allegedly told her, quote, you know nothing about the boxes -- >> this is again, mr. obstruction. he's been mr. obstruction his entire life. and here you go. he keeps doing it, keeps lying. and again, the people turning on donald trump are not left wingers. they are not resistance republicans. they are people that actually worked for donald trump. and worked for donald trump not

in 2017 but at the end. and even after january the 6th. a trump spokesperson said that abc news' report lacked proper context. >> and the president did nothing wrong. >> i just -- it is so unbelievable that it's hard not to crack a smile because it's so unbelievably stupid, so unbelievable. at the same time, this woman has turned over the information to the fbi and she's probably in a very serious situation. >> she is in a serious situation. >> i don't want to make light of it. >> it's got from tragedy to farce but it is a tragedy. elise jordan, you worked in the government, the state department. i just can't underline enough the fact if i were given classified briefings at arm services committees. if i were given classified

documents, they would never leave the committee with any of those documents. you just don't do it. i never knew a member who did. i never know a member who said one time, whoops, i accidentally took a classified document out of the hearing room. why? because you never did it. that's why these people out there that want to forgive donald trump, and say it's much to do about nothing. that's just a lie. there are so many people that served this country in the military, in the state department, in the d.o.d. in congress, that understood exactly what they could and could not do. and he has breached that code of conduct so many times. this is just the latest, most egregious and one of the most reckless examples, elise. >> just think of how many americas serve in war zones.

and when they have classified documents in there at a remote outpost and they have a skiff for sure but there are burned bags and things are burned and taken care of in a responsible manner. remember the blow back when bill clinton's secretary stuffed documents in his shirt. >> he was charged. >> yes. he got in trouble for it. here you have donald trump treating the paperwork, our secrets, as if it's just paper that he can use for a to do list and is suddenly environmentally friendly. it makes no sense at all. it shows how he doesn't have any base conception of how what he was dealing with was so important and was completely unfit for the responsibility of commander in chief. >> jonathan, as joses one of the other problems that trump has right now is that molly michael

was there through 2020, through january 6th, through the the time he left, she was a right hand to donald trump, she was his assistant. that's why he trusted her with this project. this is an abc news report right now. but multiple sources were working to verify that she and walt nauta were the ones that brought this up to donald trump and said go through these, what do you want to give, what do you want to keep? at one point he said that's all the boxes, tell them that's all we have. and at this point she said she knew there were many many more boxes and they weren't being forthright with the fbi. she is the right hand to donald trump, a key witness in this case. >> the report adds this damning detail. sources tell abc when trump

heard they wanted to interview michael last year, he told her you don't know anything about the boxes. so that would be a problem legally for the former president. yes, this reiterates and underscores what we have known about the trump white house, we were reporting how chaotic it was, how they ignored norms and practices, they turned up their nose at basic security procedures. they didn't always go through proper and regular channels and this, now we know, that even classified documents were used at times as scrap paper and in the closing days of the administration during that abridged transition because they fought to stay in office until january 6th everything was done so haphazardly at the end, it is not a surprise this inappropriate behavior continued. this is all going to add up, willie to more problems for this

president as it is members of his inner circle. these are members who worked faithfully for the former president are the ones potentially testifying against him. >> if they don't, unfortunately, because they have classified documents in their presence, they could go to jail. which by the way, is nothing political about that. i guarantee you at home, if you have classified documents in if your drawer with notes on them somewhere and the government finds out you have them, you're going to jail too. it doesn't matter what your party registration is. none of that matters if you're trafficking in classified documents. if you have possession of classified documents. like it's trouble. and katty kay, most problematic is you have a former president of the united states who stole classified documents from the white house, stole nuclear secrets in the white house, war

plans from the white house, planned invasions of iran from the white house and to show he knew what he was doing, he told one of his campaign managers here i shouldn't be showing you this, i could have declassified it if i was still president of the united states, but i'm not so i shouldn't be showing you this. he knew exactly what he was doing. and then he says to one of his staff members, forget that you ever saw this stuff, right? >> you know nothing about the boxes. >> you know nothing about the boxes. i guarantee you, in the trial, after she testifies, you're going to see those words up on a board in front of the jury. and i don't care how bias the jury is. donald trump continues to back himself further and further into the corner. and he does it here again with

yet more proof of obstruction. >> yes. i was watching that great classic "star wars" iv, remember the scene where he says to the storm troopers these are not the drones you're looking. it works for obi wan, i don't think it works for trump to say you know nothing about the boxes on somebody who photographed the boxes. we see she's the person who produced the photographs in this. she's looking like cassidy hutchinson for him, a little bit of a problem, somebody who has turned those documents into the fbi, presumably has been talking to the fbi, and seems to have done the right thing when she realized she shouldn't be having shopping lists written out on classified documents. donald trump also all through this time, remember, can't claim

he didn't know what he had he shouldn't have because he was asked repeatedly by the archives to return all of those boxes. so along the steps, allegedly there are things that knew he shouldn't have these things, decided not to return them, and then said to molly michael, even though you 'photographed the documents, have seen the documents with notes written on them, you know nothing about the documents. >> and katty kay will get a special gift for all guests who bring up star wars. going from obi wan's mind tricks to david letterman's stupid human tricks. >> on one hand you chuckle but my gosh the brazenness with

which donald trump said you don't know about the boxes. in this report molly michaels describes 15 boxes coming up to be turned over to the fbi. she said there were 90 boxes in the storage room. many more that donald trump was planning to give to the fbi if they had not gone to exercise the search warrant. more on that ahead. while donald trump is doing these things, while he is facing these crimes, and these alleged crimes and trials. republicans are worried about joe biden. two republicans warning about the political brinksmanship the house majority is playing on capitol hill. when it comes to president biden's impeachment inquiry. here's ken buck of colorado pushing back on gop allegations that president biden committed impeachable offenses. >> in the case of impeachment we're looking for treason, bribery, high crimes, misdemeanors. in this case high crime or misdemeanors. so the evidence is very strong

against hunter biden. there is very little evidence that links hunter biden with joe biden. we have three economies right now, the oversight, judiciary, and the ways and means committee, investigating hunter biden's activities. and they're doing a great job, uncovering a lot of good information. they just haven't found that link yet with joe biden. that's republican ken buck of colorado. meanwhile it appears that speaker kevin mccarthy does not have the votes to pass a short term funding bill with 15 republicans saying they're going to vote against it if it comes up. steve womack of arkansas shared his concerns about that yesterday. >> it's an unmitigated disaster right now on the majority side. look, i am fearful of what this leads to. remember, it's the 18th of september, it's really early in the process, and i say that tongue in cheek. i'm concerned there are too many

people up here who feel that government shutdowns are not that big a deal. let me assure you even if you don't think a government shutdown affects you, it's expensive, it affects you and we have to get this thing operational if we shut it down. and the question is, what changes to do that and was it a fool's errand in the beginning. >> you're seeing the private frustration spill out public now with the impeachment inquiry and the way that kevin mccarthy is held up on a number of issues, including a potential government shutdown by this small caucus that said we gave you your job, kevin mccarthy we gave you the votes in january to put you over the top now do as we say. >> the congressmen's warnings are prescient for someone who hasn't served a long time. we were there, had a government shutdown, it never ends well.

never ends well for republicans because they're the ones that force democrats' hands, a little more free with spending, unless donald trump is spending and then republicans spend it in record mick mulvaneys. record amounts. it's the republicans forcing the government shutdown. i will tell you with us, you find out very quickly over the course of a week or two all the things impacted by a government shutdown. it's not just liberal constituents impacted, it's moderate constituents, conservative constituents, libertarian who become far less libertarian when their paycheck from the government stops. this is a problem. and, you know, the bigger problem, elise, is -- and i say it all the time. i don't mind saying it, i've been saying it my entire adult

life. the federal government spends too much money. the federal government is reckless with our money. we have like a $33 trillion debt. that is devastating. i've only been saying that for 30 years. i've written four books. they're all the same book. and they all say the same thing. which is just exactly this. that we are headed for big problems fiscally. the problem, elise with the republicans making this argument now is that they haven't done any of the -- they've been reckless spenders. they went along with donald trump and if they were around when george w. bush was president of the united states, they went with george w. bush's deficits and record debt too. so you can't just be for deficits and curbing deficits and shutting down the federal government when a democrat is in the white house. that's why this is a terrible

political play for them. not only in swing districts but in every district, in every state. because they are raging hypocrites. look at that. contributions to the national debt. george w. bush, 6.1 trillion over 8 years. obama 8.34 over 8 years. trump 8.2 trillion over 4 years. donald trump and the republican congress added more debt to the united states' ledger than the first 42 presidents in u.s. history. the first 42 presidents. donald trump in four years did more than they did in 206, 207

years. >> joe, at least with the bush administration, for slight defense, there was a serious effort to try to reform social security. it didn't go anywhere but it was a serious well thought out effort. you saw nothing like that in the trump administration. instead like you said the republicans on the hill were happy the fiscal conservatives should spend and spend when they're in power. now, at the 20th hour, as these negotiations really should already have been settled for so many republicans to just be at a point of absolute -- it's just obstructionism. >> willie, usually when i'm in washington what am i working on? orphan relief, you and i, that's what we do. i don't usually go up to the

hill and talk to members. i don't say you need to look at this. i don't do it. i will say one exception to that is when i went up and talked to people who ran the freedom caucus. i said listen, stop with your madness. stop with the trump madness. they're going we're like you were when you were here. no, actually we focused on balancing the budget and we balanced it four years in a row. hadn't happened since 1920. for you to do that, you have to be methodical, work on it day in and day out and you can't be distracted by this trump nonsense. focus on protecting taxpayers' dollars. you know where that went, in one ear and out the other, and they blew through $8 trillion in four years, willie. such hypocrisy.

>> it is. your efforts were better spent on the orphans than the freedom caucus, though it was a noble try. >> always. >> there seems to be glee from the freedom caucus saying maybe we'll have a 10 day shutdown. so if you look at the way the dynamic is playing out with kevin mccarthy on the house floor told you are out of compliance by members of the freedom caucus, how does this get resolved? keep the government open when he doesn't have any power over most of his members. >> mccarthy was betting if he opened the door to the impeachment inquiry of president biden that would placate some on the hard right who were already upset with him about the debt ceiling deal he struck with the white house earlier this year and upset at the idea of signing off on the spending bill to keep the government open this fall and winter.

well, mccarthy was wrong. these members can't be placated, they don't want to be. many said they want the government to shutdown. what we're seeing from mccarthy is extraordinary frustrating. reporting each of the last several days about public and private admonitions he's giving to members of his own party who are suggesting we're not being serious people right now we need to learn to govern and seeing unhappiness from some republicans who say the pain of this is going to be too great. this isn't what we're sent here to do. but there isn't an obvious solution. there's a sense that mcconnell and republicans in the senate are working with democrats there to jam up the house but it's unclear how much pressure they'll put on mccarthy. mcconnell has been more hands

off. of course, questions remain about his health. the white house is watching this, they don't want the government to shutdown, they believe the republicans would get the majority of the political blame but that's risky too because if there is an economic slow down, we have the treasury secret later today to talk about this, some of that is going to come back on a president who's running for re-election and a healthy economy is issue number one. >> let's preview the fact that president biden is speaking at the u.n. general assembly today. this comes amid the ongoing war in ukraine, the debate over climate change, what to do about it, pandemics and other global issues. but only president biden among the leaders of five permanent members of the security council, the u.s., russia, china, france, and britain, are going to be there. what do you make of the no shows? if. >> it does make it a scaled down

general assembly and raises questions about how relevant this meeting is. it is important for ukraine, obviously. and zelenskyy is in new york. we saw the pictures of him earlier visiting ukrainian soldiers in new york hospitals. and he's going to be there desperately trying to rally the countries making sure they keep up the effort supporting ukraine with the offensive that's not going as fast as many would have liked. i think what's important for joe biden is the domestic u.s. audience. you saw the poll that 70% of republicans don't want the u.s. to send more money to ukraine. the numbers of democrats who don't want to carry on financing ukraine is growing as well. so joe biden up there, perhaps not a focus on the international audience he has but a keen focus on the domestic audience trying to keep americans on board and make that case once again that this is in america's best interest because if russia manages to take ukraine, the message to china is it can take

any countries and any rogue actor they can invade any country that would impact the u.s.'s national security. >> i would say this elise, you can borrow on your state department experience. but i want a room to myself, i want to lobby the nonaligned members myself. i don't want to trip over putin or xi or anybody else. i want to be able -- because right now there is a real battle with these nonaligned nations. i want to give them as much time as they need. spend as much time with them. i want to explain to them why ukraine is important. i want to explain to them why we're there for them. there are two ways of looking at this if you're in a meeting like a big show, fireworks, awesome. but if you want to get work done with non-aligned nations this is

a good opportunity for american diplomats. >> and it's an opportunity for all nations big and small to be able to say something. you know as well as anyone what truman intended when he launched the first session in 1946 of the u.n. general assembly. as the years have gone on, there are certain presidents in certain moments that have been really big. like when president eisenhower in '53 laid out what the atomic warfare policy was going to be. then you have bush addressing the assembly. and then reagan talking about tyranny. and in this age of social media, the power of a huge speech has been diminished. you don't see those moments happening and the leaders coming out for that moment. i wish they still would show up, though, and focus on what happens behind the scenes with

the counter parts that they probably aren't going to see in any other room for the entire year. >> all right. we'll follow this throughout the day. and still ahead on "morning joe." as expected donald trump will not be on the stage next week for the second republican presidential debate. we'll tell you what he has planned and why his event is getting some push back. plus florida governor ron desantis praised covid vaccines at the height of the pandemic. >> he took cameras into a senior citizen's place and said i am so proud to deliver to you a vaccine. he was mr. vaccine. what's changed? something changed? >> since then he's been on what seems to be an anti-vax crusade. i'm so confused. >> this is a guy who's with tommy tuberville, he wants to stop the marines from having a

commandant. >> fantastic florida. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

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youtube is blocking russell brand from making money off its platform after allegations of rape and sexual abuse. they said brand violated the sponsor policy. the three remaining dates of his comedy tour in the uk has been postponed. last friday he denied the claims saying his relationships all have been consensual. on sunday his management agency announced it had dropped brand as a client.

republican front runner donald trump skipping the next primary debate, once again will attempt his own counter programming. he's planning to travel to detroit on september 27th to give a prime time speech before current and former union members. it comes as thousands of auto workers are on strike against general motors, ford and stellantis. the trump campaign considering trump making an appearance on the picket line. but the union is not accepting this saying quote every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like donald trump at the expense of workers. so sean fain, the president of the uaw has been critical not just recently but in the past of donald trump. the union has not endorsed joe biden as yet in this case.

jonathan, i'll kick this to you. so donald trump in his "meet the press" interview on sunday went after the leadership of the uaw. so there is a personal element to this. so donald trump trying to create his own show away from the debate as he did last time. >> this is a general election play by donald trump first of all saying i'm too big for the republican primary debates. i don't need to. i skipped the last one, poll numbers went up. he's up 40, 50 points on the next highest republican. so sending that signal. but also making the move about the november 2024 map. that's michigan, detroit. this our union workers and shawn fain, the head of the uaw was critical of donald trump, it's clear he was again. trump people in his orbit believe the rank and file might. these are white working class

voters where trump has had success. we know the uaw hasn't backed biden yet. the president has also spoken positively about the striking workers there. but joe, this is an interesting maneuver by trump to sort of put forth what's going to be a central conflict as we head into next fall. >> union workers have traditionally -- they've organized democratic and voted republican a lot. working class voters have -- i even remember going back to when i was running in '96 i was attacking unions and a guy came in and said, congressman, if you keep your mouth shut you'll get everybody's vote in the union. i was like, yes, sir. it was an eye opener for me. but that was the play that donald trump made in 2016, remember near the end of the

campaign, they moved forward with really, really populous messaging at the end of the campaign. and he met with a couple of, i think, steelworker unions at the beginning of his presidency, thought that was the direction he might be going in that would cause a real problem for democrats. but then of course he had the biggest giveaways to billionaires ever with the trump tax cuts and never looked back. but this meeting and this push is critical if he wants to win back wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. >> he knows where the races are going to be won and lost and the potentials of staying out of jail are going to be won or lost. it's up in the states which are heavily union. i remember in ohio, 2016,

spending time in a steel town in ohio, talking to life-long democrats and switched parties to vote for donald trump because they liked the anti-china message, that he broke with republican orthodox and said they're going to shore up the social safety net they like. so there's a lot about donald trump they can still find appealing. it's a bold move going to michigan in the middle of the strike but it's not one that's uncharacteristic of him. >> and elise, you know through your focus groups that people are so less ideological than we on tv claim they are, or people in the news try to put them into a box. i've retold the story time and again about your trump voter in georgia when you brought up abortion said wait a second, i'm a man, why would i be concerned with that. okay, there's a great example but another great example is the

fact that "the new york times" and other outlets reported near the end of the 2016 campaign about the trump/sanders voters. people who would have voted for bernie sanders if he had made it through the democratic primary but instead switched from sanders to donald trump because of populism just like, much to the chagrin of the kennedy family, so many followers of bobby kennedy's campaign in '68 switched to george wallace after bobby was shot. >> you see those moments where these issues on the far right, the far left they just cross cut and those voters come together. and sometimes when you have voters in focus groups shifting from say being a hillary voter in 2016 to then going to donald trump in 2020, you say they're confused, they've gotten radicalized. with the trump sanders voters, you saw where donald trump

really tapped into something that other republican leaders hadn't understood that the populous forces taking over the party that was the emerging future of the party. and you know, his speech, choosing to do that counter program and be pro auto workers in detroit, that is a good move for donald trump. it separates him from the rest of the republican pack. makes him less business friendly, make ceos pay and be for the common man. you saw how jd vance was chosen to write for the workers. this is a shift from where elite republicans have been so long. and donald trump is continuing to firm up his grasp on that part of the republican electorate. coming up on "morning joe," sweden is making plans to boost military spending as part of the efforts to join nato. but its membership has been

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46 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." the united nations general assembly. we'll see hundreds of world leaders gathered today to discuss a variety of issues affecting international relations. among those topics, security in europe. specifically nato's commitment to the war in ukraine. one wild card in all of this is sweden and the question of if and when its bid to join nato will be complete. to join the alliance, every member state must agree to a new

country's membership. sweden is waiting for their membership to be ratified by hungary and turkey. however leaders in both countries have raised concerns. turkish president erdogan spoke yesterday regarding the membership. >> to be clear i don't see you committing this is something they're taking up any time soon. >> translator: for that to happen, sweden should keep promises. terrorist organizations should stop demonstrations on the streets and stop activities because seeing this happening is going to be very important for the turkish people. sweden carried out legislative amendments but it's not enough. >> let's bring in minister billstrem, thank you for being with us. like most americans we're excited about sweden becoming

members of nato. very excited. i am confused, though. what are you supposed to do after sweden has followed through on the commitments they made to erdogan. what are you supposed to do about protesters in your street? does he expect you to ban free speech in sweden? >> thank you very much. first of all we have to take into effect the try lateral memorandum signed at the nato summit last year was fulfilled. we fulfilled every commitment and that was acknowledged at the nato summit otherwise we haven't had the hand shake which you show between the turkish president, prime minister, and secretary general. secondly we believe the statement that came out means a lot to kyiv, they'll get a lot of things out of the statement, not the least the development and installment of an

antiterrorist coordinator. something we've been fighting for for ten years. >> very curious. i shouldn't be surprised but hungary's objections even more curious because they don't have a list of demands. orban, who man who bragged about liberal democracy there. a man who suppresses free speech, erodes the rule of law, is just criticizing sweden because there are people in sweden who are encouraging him to be more democratic but has he made any demands of sweden? >> he hasn't. it's worth noting hungary at the summit in madrid last year accepted to give sweden the status without any preconditions. so right now we rather expect there's white smoke from

budapest as well. >> obviously sweden is looking to join nato because of what happened in ukraine, russia's invasion there. as the u.n. general assembly gathers this week in new york, what's your sense of commitment to member states here backing kyiv, especially as the counter offensive has slowed down and there's a sense this war could drag on for years. >> you're right. the war is going to take a long time we're in for that, we have to prepare ourselves accordingly. we have to do that backing ukraine every way. and we should do that. and we are doing it. sweden is increasing our budgetary support to ukraine. making it the largest in history. but also give the efforts to the

american people, the fact without u.s. military support, ukraine wouldn't have lasted and we need to step up in the european union with our efforts and the financial support provided to ukraine has made it for ukraine to survive as a state but we should do more on the military side and give proper acknowledgement to the american people for all the financial efforts in military ways provided to ukraine. >> in some years there is obviously the issue of concern at the u.n. general assembly. covid dominated the last few years, ukraine the last two years, in previous years, terrorism. obviously this year ukraine is a big issue, but what issues do you think are at the forefront of this year's discussion trying to reach some positive agreements among members? >> i think in the list you

provided you can find many things that are interconnected. one of the most important things is to realize the war that russia has waged is important. it's an imperial war. and we need to show to the world what russia is doing, harming food security, increasing the risk of famine, disrupting supply chains, doing a lot of things stemming from the war. we need to counter the narrative. this war is somehow something that the west has dreamed of. it isn't. it's a war that countries in africa know about, it's colonialism. >> i was struck by the degree of unanimity in terms of wanting to join nato and help ukraine in

sweden. so what can the country do while your membership is delayed or in limbo? what more can you do? i see there's discussion of sending jets. do you think that can happen in time to help with the current offensive? >> yes when president zelenskyy visited sweden a few weeks ago, i was there and stood at the press conference when our prime minister made their speech. yes, it is true. we are training ukrainian fighter pilots to be ready for the moment they can use the air fighters. we do not rule out anything in this regard. we also provided the artillery system and armored vehicles. we're going to do more and step can up on our own defense spending. next year, 2024, reach a budget a 2% spending ratio provided by

nato. so we are fully prepared for nato membership. we come with forces and well trained troops and capabilities in cyber, new technology and space technology being the only one of two countries in the eu with the ability to launch satellites, the other france. helping ukraine is a long-term commitment from sweden's side. a failure in ukraine, seeing russia win would be the end of a rule-based world order, that sweden cares about. it means that jordan could be next on the list and who knows where we end up after that. so a failure for ukraine is not on as long as we have something to say about it. >> swedish minister of foreign affairs, tobias billstrom, thank you for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. coming up, quote, you don't know anything about the boxes. that was donald trump's reported

jedi mind trick -- >> stupid human trick. >> -- to his former aid. >> or it could be obstruction. >> i think that's what they'll call it in court. >> we are grateful that the aid is telling authorities about this. we'll tell you more about the new reporting just revealed. and hours from now president biden will address world leaders at the general assembly. the u.s. ambassador to the united nations joins us. what she says the u.s. plans to focus on. "morning joe" will be right back. oe" will be right back

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i plan to wear a bikini tomorrow on the senate floor. to do away with the dress code,

to me debases the institution. >> i think it's terrible. it's, you know, respect if for the institution must not exist anymore. >> i don't intend to change anything. i expect to do the senate the same way it's been done for 240 years. >> it bothers me big time. it's about tradition, discipline, organization, a show of strength. i mean, it's a joke. >> talking about a joke. >> speaking of jokes. the last person talking there. >> what a joke. >> holding up military -- let's see the blockade on military promotions for weeks. >> impacting military readiness if you believe any leader. >> that's a big joke, tommy tuberville. despite the looming threat of a government shutdown. the republicans focused on the new senate dress code. last week, majority leader chuck

schumer said he was relaxing the rules to allow all senators, including john federman where casual clothes on the floor. >> i'm not a fan of this. i don't think they should, but to talk about -- for republicans to talk about debasing the institution -- >> were they there on january 6th? >> after what their own members did before january the 6th, on january the f 6th, let me tell you something, historians will be talking about republicans debating the institutions, they won't be talking about hoodies. again, i'm about tradition. i think they should keep the tradition. i think don't loosen it up, i don't want people on the floor wearing what they want to wear, i say that as somebody who was

called off the floor quite a few times not to wear jeans or this or that. it's part of it. but again, for republicans to act shocked and stunned and deeply saddened when they have people in their midst, who encouraged the january 6th riots and then apologized for the january 6th rioters basically claiming that they were somehow political prisoners. it's a joke. >> i'm completely with you on the rules. i guess i'm old fashioned, too. i don't want my senators in hoodies and under armour shorts making speeches on the floor. that's a separate issue. >> in many ways, republicans that have gone with donald trump for the ride especially january 6th, have surrendered their right to be outraged about things the democrats do.

you can't be upset in the case of tommy tuberville, others we heard, susan collins, lisa murkowski have been more outspoken. but tommy tuberville is standing at the door preventing people from being promoted in the military, to use this, the hoodies and the t-shirts and shorts as his moment of outrage. i guess shame is dead in our politics. but my god is that shameless. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, september 19th. jonathan lemire, katty kay, elise jordan still with us along with willie, joe and me. and we have chris matthews and tim miller as well. we have a pair of new polls to start us this hour which shows

the race for the presidency is virtually tied. the latest cbs news/u gov poll finds a close race with 50% of voters backing donald trump and 49% saying they'd vote for biden well within the poll's margin of error. the survey finds 43% of likely voters would cast their ballot for biden and 42% for trump, also falling within the margin of error. >> it's still early, but it's not early to say you have a die indicted for stealing nuclear secrets, a guy who a state judge in new york state said he committed rape, a goal who stole secrets about america's military weaknesses, a guy who tried to

steal the election, a guy who committed -- >> incited a riot. >> and now we have evidence that he's telling his aide to. >> you know nothing. >> writing on classified note cards and telling her when the feds may be coming to get the classified documents says you know nothing about the documents when she's the one moving them around, taking pictures of them and getting notes from donald trump on those classified documents. >> well, i think that was a complete list, joe. i think there's something about trump that he has in common with his voters. he said on "meet the press" this sunday that he knew at 10:00 at night, election night in 2020 that he'd won. he knew. he lost that election by 7 million votes. he doesn't have an instinct he said i willed myself to win.

he lost pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, arizona and georgia which he asked to get 12,000 votes from later from the secretary of state. he doesn't have an instinct for anything real. and his voters don't have anything real either, they're for him. they're not looking at the details you mentioned. they it's all maga instinct. we should rule the country. the number of people who vote doesn't count. we will will. it's fund mentally undemocratic. it's a sense of we shall rule the consultant. the instinct thing of his is frightening. women must be punished for having abortions now he's out over the weekend talking to megabegin megyn kelly and

kristen welker like he's willing to negotiate. but it's nothing convey. that mirror doesn't convey, the fan doesn't convey, nothing i said yesterday matters. i can say anything i want. the old joke was it doesn't matter what you wear on the radio or say on television. trump believes that. he believes it. >> wow. >> and all the witnesses against him have no power outside the courtroom. outside the courtroom they will not be believed. you know they won't believe the witnesses. she says he has notes and post its and stuff like that. she's just lying. everybody is lying but trump. >> despite the fact they have so much of this stuff on video. tim, let's be clear here. i have said for some time, maybe we can't use fascist. i think we can start to say

there are certainly fascist overtones to this entire movement and george orwell once said the difference between fascist and communists, fascists are good at spreading propaganda, the big lie. they know how to use propaganda to confuse the issues. just look, this is pretty clear. this is -- >> yeah. >> you and i, former republicans, we disagree with a lot of democrats on a lot of issues. there's a big difference, though. it's people that support american democracy, against people who are against american democracy, whether it's on january the 6th, whether it's in wisconsin, trying to impeach a supreme court justice who just got elected. whether it's ohio, changing the rules of the game at the last second for referendums on

abortion or whether it's in tennessee, kicking out two black members who exercised their first amendment rights. >> i agree with that. the other element is the intimidation, the bullying into silence that you're seeing. one thing that's striking me over the last week is we've been seeing all of these leading democrats speak out. some with good reason like concerns, concerns about joe biden's age, what happens in the generally election. i've been noticing you're not seeing that among republicans. it's crazy. all the things you listed out, the corruption, the bigotry, the rape charge of donald trump, and there doesn't seem like there's any alarm among our former colleagues, joe. you're not hearing from remember the committee to save america. where's john kelly? james mattis? where's mitch mcconnell? where's paul ryan? none of these people are saying guys we have five months to stop this. let's assemble the avengers here

and do everything in our power to try to prevent this guy from ending american democracy from being our nominee again and that's not happening. you're seeing it on the democratic side more. that speaks to the culture within the party right now and how broken it is, with the details you listed out. >> it's interesting to hear publically the biden white house is talking about the economy, bidenomics as he puts it. we heard it, the alternative is what we've known and loved for 240 years in the country, that the democratic institutions will be completely brought down if donald trump goes to the white house. it seems from a campaign point of view they're working this balance of i've done this good stuff in my first four years but also remember i'm not minimum. >> an amazing election coming

up. this is going to be the big one. i think it is the big one. both of these candidates have their weaknesses. joe biden will be 86 that's a fact. you can argue whether he's had good days or bad days on the stump but it is, in fact, a reality. and trump is a bigger reality because it's what he says and believes about our democracy. i took tremendous pride like joe and mika and everybody here, we're in a country that has honest elections. we're not a stolen elections country. you don't have people getting hanged afterwards or being charged with stealing elections because back to stevenson who lost by 7 million votes. these characters all said afterwards, usually within an hour or two, i lost. and they went before the cameras and said i lost. that's how the world knew this was an honest country. people who lost made it official. when you talk about dress codes

on the united states senate -- i'm with you. i know all the rules why they're there. why you say the gentleman from mississippi and all that. you say it to keep calm and have a conversation and there has to be some kind of discourse. but the idea of not conceing an election was built into our election. hillary clinton did it the next morning, she had to book a cheaper hotel but she did it, owned it, told the cameras and donors there i lost. that's what america is about. sharing in the reality of our democracy. and this guy is still lying about it. he's a clep ptomaine yak. he doesn't pay his bills. instead of paying rudy, he has a fund-raiser for him. give me the money. i'm your friend, pay me my bill. he won't.

no but i'll have a fund-raiser for you. are you kidding me? it's a joke. he thinks he owns that money. >> you talk about these concession speeches and i love that stevenson, 7 million votes, trump lost by the same number. but doris kearns goodwin came on showing clips, i thought it was moving, showing clips of presidential candidates conceding. and not to the other opponent, conceding to democracy. conceding saying, i'm going to follow the voters, and the most moving were al gore after he saw the supreme court vote along party lines to vote for george w. bush. and then you had richard nixon

who conceded in 1960, despite the fact they believed illinois had been stolen from them, nixon refused to contest it because it's just something you didn't do. >> right. >> i want to tell the story, i'm sorry mika. they went to florida the week after the election and sat down there at the key biscayne hotel and had cokes. and nixon wanted to deliver the election to kennedy, he liked the guy personally, no personal thing. but it was clear he did it for democratic reasons. the country in the cold war, it was at its hottest heat. he said this country can't afford to have an undecided election. i am going to throw in the towel and he did it in public. you have to go before the camera for the whole world to see it so everybody knows this is certified. this is done. it's over. we have a president. and nixon did that. >> and then you add in all the

other issues that are sort of, you know, going to play a big role i think in this election and chris matthews, i'll ask you, what do you think the abortion issue will look like in this presidential election and how that will play for the republican candidate, might it be donald trump? >> i was for roe v. wade from 1974 on. i'm catholic, i don't like it all, but i think in a free country you have to separate, you know, render unto cesar the things that are cesars and to god the things that are god. we have to give everybody their freedom. i thought roe v. wade, as written by the courts, was politically and morally great because it said in the beginning of a pregnancy it's up to the woman and her doctor, that's the way most people feel and that's coming out in the polling. and later in the term, of course society as a whole has an interest in this. it was written, i thought, well. and we had it for years.

why the republicans throw this away? it protected them from the vote in every state where you have to deal with people like trump who says there has to be punishment, he wants women to be punished. and this weekend he was talking to meghan kelly as if he never said it. why do you let people say things it's not what they believe. his instinct was women should be punished and men should be let off because i asked about the men involved because there's always somebody involved. he said, no, the men must be protected? what? you're listening to this crazy person, abortion is the right of two people. that's trump he gets away with lying, clep ptomaine ya, steals the documents, won't pay his lawyers. and people say amen to this guy. amen. it's crazy. i'm sorry if if i sound

partisan. i'm not partisan on this one. i'm sorry mika. he's wrong about abortion. he's for punishment. are you these republicans who back him this fall, are you going to back him on this one, on abortion? answer your question around philadelphia and pittsburgh and center county and penn state and places like that, it will be an issue. elsewhere it's all we just love trump. >> i remember when he said that sitting across from you at that town hall. i'll never forget that. his gears were turning, what would a conservative say, he came out with punishment. so florida governor ron desantis way behind trump but still going through the motions in the primary. facing backlash for criticizing vaccines after he and his hand picked surgeon general advised

people under 65 to skip getting boosters. here is what fox news medical contributor dr. mark segal said about that yesterday. >> he should not be weighing in on vaccines. this particular vaccine is quite safe. it's a tiny bit different than the previous one. yes, the pharmaceutical companies should be more transparent. yes, i'm confident in this vaccine. but let me tell you where the decision should be made. not at a governor pulpit but in the doctor's office. how about we bring it to the doctor and patient. when did you have covid last? i don't want f you to have this vaccine. i make my recommendations and the patient decides. over the age of 65 for sure is the high risk group but i want to do it on a one on one basis. >> last week the cdc recommended everyone six months and older who had not received a covid-19

shot in the last two months receive a booster vaccine. the shots approved by the fda appear to be effective against the majority of the covid-19 variants but governor desantis said, quote, i will not stand by and let the fda and cdc use healthy floridans as guinea pigs for new booster shots that have not been proven safe or effective. they have been according to the fda. going on, once again, florida is the first state in the nation to provide truth not washington edicts. saying vaccines have shown little or no benefit. that contradicts claims from experts. tim miller, july 2021, desantis was a cheer leader for the vaccine saying these vaccines are saving lives. he was seen doing events promoting people to get the

vaccines. what's he up to here? >> this has been his strategy since july 2021. he thought he would rest the nomination by tacking to the maga right with cultural issues, vaccine is one. he thought he could do it with the abortion, the don't say gay bill moving that from the third grade to high school. he thought he could cut on the magas and the more normal, nikki haley republicans would go with him because they wanted to get rid of donald trump so desperate him. that was his theory. despite the fact he's lost half his vote share since december in the primary. he appears to be continuing down the same track. >> the tactics not working at all. i want to go back to what chris

mentioned earlier about what trump said about abortion over the weekend. it set off alarm bells among the democrats and the white house. the number of people who used to work in the white house affiliated with biden world fact checking that or posting what they could, saying no, this is the guy who appointed three supreme court justices that overturned roe. but there is a sense that trump gets away with it. and he makes things muddy enough people can read in what they want to hear. and he realizes, unlike most of the republican parties that abortion is a losing issue for their party in recent cycles. i think democrats are getting nervous trump can get away with it enough to make their lives complicated. >> after the midterm elections it was trump that came out early on and said the republican candidates had major played the abortion card or played it badly

being too strict on it. he was sending out warning bells then to find a way to address this to subvert the voters, the voters that chris was just speaking about. if he can present himself as some kind of broker in the this, even though he has, maybe the way the democrats respond is by replaying and replaying that clip of him saying the woman has to be punished. i can see that clip resurfacing in next year's election campaign because if democrats start thinking that trump has a way to neutralizing this, abortion is still clearly the major rallying force. it was the case in kansas, ohio, wisconsin. we'll watch virginia in a couple months time because abortion is a driving factor in that race too but they have to make sure they have trump on the facts and record on this rather than what he's saying now. >> and voters know that donald

trump is not some pro-life warrior at the end of the day. that it's disingenuous. he got three supreme court justices there and fulfilled his promises to evangelicals and that's what he needs. and i think that what i've seen, that biden and trump are basically tied head-to-head nationally, that means trump wins based on the electoral college so that's the bottom line we need to think about. >> chris matthews and tim miller thank you both for being on this morning -- >> let me ask quickly, seems in pennsylvania, the state you know so well, the state you're from, it seems that republicans, at least in pennsylvania, may have learned some lessons from the last couple of years, dave mccormick, a guy that donald trump worked aggressively to get out of the way for dr. oz is going to announce that he's going to be running for the

senate. and it looks like it's going to be a unified party. and he's running against bob casey. that's probably going to be the show down of show downs in 2024, isn't it in the senate? >> a great story, a great story to cover. mccormick was the guy that went to see donald trump and dr. oz beat him out because apparently he wasn't tall enough, this is trump world, he wasn't tall enough for trump. mccormick was the closest to pat toomey, sort of a moderate republican, okay on guns, and the perfect candidate to fit in and he blew him off, he wanted dr. oz from jersey, down the shore. this guy might be from connecticut by the way so you have to watch that fact. you have to watch that fact. he comes well, perfect,

connecticut. but i think bobby casey is going to face an election that's going to be a tough one. it's so interesting to watch, when we grew up, i grew up, there was a split ticket. pennsylvanians love to split their votes. now when you vote for the senate, you know, joe, you vote for the president. so except for susan collins, the only exception where she wanted and maine went for the democrats on the presidential line, those days are over. so it's going to be bobby casey and biden. and david urban who ran that campaign for trump, he took trump in '16 to parts of pennsylvania where hillary didn't go, up to erie and johnsontown. she's down in philly with bon jovi. i'm telling you, she missed the ticket because he knew where to go with the regular people who

could vote. you're talking about the uaw regs who could vote for a republican. and he won that election. and you are began is back again. >> so interesting. >> i spoke about it, same old world again, bobby kay and i joe scranton, joe biden, and trump. and mccormick is in the mix. it's going to be a tough one both ways. >> it's going to be fascinating. probably oz and the mastriano -- however you say the name -- those guys really aren't the republican party. i think mccormick is going to show better. he is a pittsburgh guy. he works in connecticut but he'll be back. that is going to be a battle. if you ask the republicans in the democrats and senate what

the top race is going to be, it'll be that one. they'll pour hundreds of millions of dollars into that race. still ahead, five americans wrongfully prisoned in iran are back in the united states this morning. we'll look at the deal that brought them home and the criticism of it from republicans. plus we're about two hours away from president biden's speech at the u.n. we'll get a preview of the president's main message from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. next on "morning joe." g.com ♪ somewhere, anywhere... ♪ ♪ i just want to lie motionless in a chair! ♪ booking.com, booking.yeah ♪ ♪ (psst! psst!) ahhh! with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary. spray flonase sensimist daily for non-drowsy long lasting relief in a scent free, gentle mist. flonase all good. also, try our allergy headache and nighttime pills.

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ask your doctor. five americans who had been wrongfully imprisoned in iran are back in the united states this morning. their plane touched down in washington just a short time ago. there you can see the detainees walking off the plane, greeted by family members they were freed after the u.s. released five iranians from american custody and agreed to allow

tehran access to $6 billion in oil revenue that had been frozen. the biden administration is facing criticism for the deal that did bring those americans home. republicans condemning the u.n. -- the unfreezing of the assets, claiming it amounts to paying a ransom and warn it could create an incentive for iran and other hostile nations to take more hostages. joining us is u.s. ambassador linda thomas-greenfield and james cleverly. ambassador let me talk with you. what more can you tell us about how the deal came forth, the great news those americans are now back on home soil this morning? >> well, the news is they are back. they are with their families. and this is a commitment the biden administration has been clear about since the beginning, that we would do everything,

everything possible to get american citizens who were wrongfully detained back home. and i think that's the story here. i think if you talk to the family members of these individuals, they feel the same. as well as other americans who are being held wrongfully, we're continuing our efforts to do what is necessary to get them released and brought back to their families. >> obviously it's great news. these images are wonderful to see this morning. that is those americans held for too long back on american soil. you have heard the criticism that the united states perhaps gave up too much, let tehran off the hook with unfreezing $6 billion of oil assets and giving up prisoners here. we heard similar criticism around the deal that brought brittney griner home. what's your response to that? >> the president would have been

criticized had he not brought them home. the story is they are home. the funds released are going to be used for humanitarian purposes. the u.s. will have complete insight on how those funds are being used. and they will not be used, other than to help the iranian people who are in need of humanitarian support. >> this comes against the backdrop of the united nations general assembly in new york this week. talk about the important issues on the table. the defense of ukraine to be certain. what's the defense to rally the world around ukraine but talk to us about climate change and others. >> the whole point is we are able to come together and address a wide range of issues. you discussed them, the sustainable energy goals, the contracts the government made

with themselves for things like improve education, improve the natural environment, those are way off track. so part of the discussion is how do we get back on track using ai, for example. but also, of course, making sure that while we continue to support ukraine in the self-defense against putin's attempted invasion of that country, we are also looking at things like food security. because the targeting of black sea grain so the grain crops coming out of the ports in southern ukraine blockaded by the russians. plunging millions who are already in hunger into further difficulties. so these are some of the issues we're working on with our friends in the united states and governments around the world represented in the u.n. >> you're representing the eu

because the prime minister chose not to come. he's facing a battle, the conservative party is down 20 points to labor in the uk. what kind of referendum do you expect in the elections? what do those numbers mean? >> one of the things that i've seen. i was the chairman of my political party in the 2019 general election. so in the end of 2019, we had a very, very successful election had one of the largest majorities in recent history. earlier on that year, in the spring of that year, we polled, at a national level election, we attracted less than 10% of the national vote. so the point is, come election time, the british people will see the choice ahead of them between a government leading the way on a.i. safety, leading the way on supporting ukraine,

leading the way on recovering from the economic downturn that the world has seen due to covid and i think they'll view that favorably compared to the weak proposition set forth by the opposition party in my country. >> can i ask more on the americans who got out of iran this morning. anyone who sees the pictures, the pictures of them being reunited with their family, it's heart warming. but you must have some concerns that these kinds of swaps where a country that takes, as a matter of almost policy and strategy, americans hostage abroad when they get exchanged like this, it does encourage them doing more. there are reports in the last few weeks there have been more american-iranians detained. there is an eu official imprisoned in iran. don't these swaps with the controls you put around them, i

understand, encourage the regimes to do it again. >> we have been clear to iran and other regimes who use hostage taking as a matter of policy that this is unacceptable. and we will hold them accountable. but we also have been clear that americans who are being held unfairly deserve to be home with their families. so again, this is something that we are constantly working on. we're constantly engaging with our partners to put pressure on these countries to cease this kind of behavior. it is unacceptable. and it is something that we will hold them accountable for over and over again if we have to. >> u.s. ambassador to the united nations linda thomas-greenfield and british foreign secretary james cleverly. thank you very much for being on

the show this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. and coming up, it is national voter registration day. and pennsylvania is celebrating with a new law that will make it easier for americans to have their voices heard at the ballot box. the state's governor, josh shapiro will join us to talk about the change and why he says it's good for democracy. "morning joe" will be right back. "morning joe" will be right back if you have moderate to severe crohn's disease skyrizi is the first and only il-23 inhibitor that can deliver clinical remission and endoscopic improvement. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. control of crohn's means everything to me. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save.

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today is national voter registration day, a nonpartisan movement to get everyone to register to vote. in connection today is also "i am a voter's" fourth annual register a friend day. the cofounder joined us

yesterday to discuss the importance of this day and this morning has a message for us with some special guests. take a look. >> hello, everyone. we are here to celebrate national voter registration day. and i am here with two very special friends who are going to talk about why this matters. >> your vote is your voice. that is one of the ways we can all e exercise our power. what's critical you have to be registered to vote in order to vote. so please register to vote. register as soon and as early as possible and stay engaged and thank you for your leadership. >> and the fastest and easiest way to do is go to vote.gov, you can do it right now and register. after you register tell all of your friends and family to do this today. >> all right. joining us now, pennsylvania's democratic governor, josh shapiro. this morning the commonwealth of pennsylvania is marking national voter registration day by

becoming the 24th u.s. state to enact automatic registration. >> governor thanks for being with us. tell us about how pennsylvania is making it easier to vote. >> look, now when you go to the dmv to get a driver's license, renew your driver's license, joe, you'll be able to automatically get registered to vote. unless you choose to opt out. there's about 1.7 million pennsylvanians who are eligible to vote but aren't registered. this is a safe, secure, streamlined way to be able to get them to register and get them to participate in our democracy. >> how many more voters do you think you'll get registered that you'll get to the table from this process just from what we learned from other states that already have it? >> we'll see, mika, and we'll report back but our secretary of state believes we'll have tens of thousands in the first year.

we'll track it and see how it goes. the key issue here is, we need people to participate in our democracy. that's what strengthens it. i've spent my career fighting to defend the right to vote as attorney general and, of course, as a candidate for governor, i made a commitment that i would enact automatic voter registration here in pennsylvania. so i'm proud to announce we're making good on that promise and making sure more eligible voters can participate in our democracy. >> it's always good news when more people of any party are registered to vote, participating in the process, and certainly with a set of elections coming up in 2024, including the presidential one between the sitting president and most people assume the former president, donald trump will get the nomination there. we spoke a lot about the philadelphia suburbs, bucks county and places like that, counties around pittsburgh. what's your sense around how

some of those persuadable voters may be feeling right now headed into this campaign? >> well, it's obviously early but they're the voters that help put joe biden over the top in 2020. and i think what they've seen over the last couple of years is a president who's delivered for them. a president who's made commitments to the commonwealth and delivered on them. a president who worked with me to get i-95 open in 12 days making sure we had all the resources we need. a whole lot of folks in bucks county ride on 95 every day to and from center city philadelphia. i think he has a strong track record he'll go out and make the case and i'll make the case with him. >> jonathan lemire, great to see you this morning, governor. as you well know we may be a couple of weeks from a federal government shutdown if no deal can be reached in the congress. if that happens, what's the impact on a state like yours?

>> look, i'm hopeful they'll be able to find a deal. i'm no stranger to having to bring both sides together, i'm the only governor in the nation with a full-time divided legislature. democrats lead the house, republicans lead the senate. so i know how challenging it is to bring both parties together. we've successfully done that in the commonwealth i'm hopeful washington will get its act together and do the same but the house is being held hostage by real extremists and i'm hopeful their voices will be silenced and kevin mccarthy will grow a spine at some point and be able to lead the house forward. if they fail to meet the obligations to the states, it'll be really devastating for us. it means folks who rely on the federal government for all kinds of services, from mental health to, you know, children who need extra supports to public safety those things won't be funded. it's going to put an incredible

burden on the statements. perhaps not in the first few days but as time goes on, it'll really make it difficult for states to be able to do the work we need to do. now fortunately here in the commonwealth of pennsylvania, we're in strong financial shape, we'll be able to weather the storm maybe longer than other statements. but the bottom line is the extremists in the house need to moderate and recognize they're there to serve the good people of this nation, get their acts together, stop pursuing an extreme agenda and just do their darn jobs. governor shapiro. conspiracy theorists across the nation have seized on false examples in pennsylvania of voter fraud that have been disproven have been diss proven and there's never been validity to it. can you talk about how the automatic voter registration is a first step in creating a process that voters can trust? >> well, look, elise, i'm no stranger to those conspiracy

theories. i went to court more than 40 times as attorney general to beat back those conspiracy theorists in the 2020 election who were trying to thwart the will of the people of pennsylvania. by the way, elise, won every single time. we protected the will of the people. automatic voter registration is a streamline, safe and secure way to make sure only eligible voters get to participate in our process. consider this. when you go to the dmv you have to provide all kinds of personal information in order to get a driver's license, and it is the same information you need to be able to provide in order to register to vote. so it just makes sense. it is common sense to use that platform to be able to engage folks who are eligible to vote to register them. we know it is a safe and secure way to do it, and we also believe it is going to increase voter participation. when you increase voter participation, elise, you strengthen our democracy. >> governor, katty kay here.

i came up and interviewed you in philadelphia a couple of days after the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. >> i remember. >> abortion really dominated -- >> at the constitution sepper, center, as i recall. >> absolutely. it was quite odd. i wonder today when you look at pennsylvania and perhaps with a message to what is happening in virginia this fall, how much do you think abortion is still going to be a driving issue in those key areas of the state that will help determine whether joe biden or potentially donald trump is the next president of the united states? >> well, i think it was obviously a central issue in my campaign and it remains on people's minds because here in pennsylvania we are seeing the effects of the extremists who go ahead and ban abortion in their states. we've seen, for example, an influx of women from west virginia coming to our clinics in pittsburgh to receive reproductive health care, to have an abortion.

it is critically important that we protect that in the commonwealth. i think the more extremist states go and try to rip away the freedoms of women across this country, the more people focus on the need to protect that here in the commonwealth of pennsylvania and in other states certainly. i'm always going to stand on the side of protecting real freedom, to protect a woman's right to choose. i think more and more voters are tuned in to that issue. i know i'm certainly tuned in to making sure we protect it. it is one of the reasons why i made a commitment during my campaign i would protect a full range of reproductive health care for women in pennsylvania. we have done that. just a couple of months ago i ended the contract with the so-called crisis pregnancy centers to make sure now that when women go to a clinic they get an honest and full range of health care options available to them when they're pregnant. i think we need to expand freedom in this country, not restrict it. folks like trump, desantis and

others, they're out there every day talking a good game about freedom, but actually what their policies do, actually what their plans do is to try to restrict freedom. here in pennsylvania we love our freedom and we are going to continue to protect it. >> pennsylvania governor josh shapiro, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. we appreciate of the. take care. thank you. >> thanks, mika. and coming up, treasury secretary janet yellen will be live in studio. we will ask her about the impact a government shutdown could have on the economy. plus, congresswoman mikie sherrill will join the conversation with her message as house speaker kevin mccarthy seems to be running out of options. "morning joe" will be back in just a moment. for those 60 years and older protect against rsv with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone

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incentives to attract more drivers while the schools are trying to limit the number of students who take the bus. for example, one district is offering parents $300 a month to transport their own children to school. mika. >> wow. and "the journal star" leads with illinois becoming the first state to eliminate cash bail. the pretrial fairness act went into effect yesterday. advocates say requiring cash bail creates a system favoring those with financial means. under the new law people charged with low-level offenses likely won't have to go to jail and instead will be released with a citation and court date.

law enforcement is still given discretion in certain cases such as repeat offenders. still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump's campaign is flowing a stop on the picket lines to show support for the united autoworkers. we will tell you what the union is saying about that just ahead on "morning joe." we are back in just one minute. your sleep number setting. and now, all of our new next gen smart beds have temperature benefits. save $400 on the new sleep number c4 smart bed. now only $1,499. sleep next level. shop now only at sleep number

all right. you are looking at live pictures from capitol hill where lawmakers have 11 days to get a spending deal done and avoid a government shutdown, but it seems there's no sense of urgency from far-right republicans to find an

agreement. we'll talk about that. meanwhile, many in the gop are criticizing a deal that is bringing home five americans who were wrongfully detained and imprisoned in iran. we will explain why in just a moment. it comes as president biden is set to deliver a speech to the united nations general assembly calling for continued support of ukraine. the lack of prominent leaders in the crowd is raising questions about the importance of the annual event. we will talk about that as well. we have a lot to get to this morning. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, september 19th. along with joe, willie and me, we have the host of "way too early" white house "politico's" john lemere. bbc news katty kay is back. former aide to the george w. bush white house and state

department, elise jordan. she is an msnbc analyst. a lot to get to this morning. >> willie, a couple of really good nfl games last night. >> i can't tell if you are being sarcastic. they were not great games but they were nfl games nonetheless, so we watched. a devastating injury for nick chubb, one of the best running backs in the nfl on the cleveland brown. they didn't even show the replay it was so bad. i will take a doubleheader monday night no matter how so-so the games are. >> yeah, jonathan lemire. it distracts us from red sox baseball. >> yeah, the red sox did manage a win last night, the first one in a while. to willie's point, nick chubb, the brown's star running back, just a devastating injury. here is my one piece of advice for everyone watching today, don't search this up online. do not look at this. it is really, really quite terrible. his season is over. one wonders about his career. it is a shame. he is one of the star running

backs in the league. the pittsburgh steelers though, they got a win they needed and in the night cap, the new orleans saints, 2-0. undefeated. >> by the way, you don't have to search it up today because as jonathan was saying don't search it up, tj played it. >> thank you, tj. >> okay. thank you. let's get to the news this morning. a former assistant to donald trump reportedly told federal investigators that the former president repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on classified documents. >> wait a second. hopped on. hold on a second. >> let's just -- it is very serious. >> but, willie, wasn't this the same guy that said hillary clinton should be locked up because of an e-mail with a couple of classified documents? and he's -- he's writing to-do notes on classified documents

and handing them to staff? >> yeah. i mean that's -- mika is going through it here but it is the abc news report. it is really extraordinary. i mean it gets -- this story just keeps getting more outrageous the deeper you go into it. one of his assistants says now, she is telling authorities and investigators that he wrote to-do lists, things he had to remember for the day on note cards that she would then flip over and they had classified markings on them, classified documents with the grocery list on the back >> it is unbelievable. >> i have my list every morning and my calendar. >> mika every day she either pulls it up an writes it on my arm and says these. sometimes you do it right on my forehead. >> a note pad. >> classified document? >> all right. this is all according to abc news. let's just try to not -- it is -- it seems cartoonesque. >> well, it is classified documents. >> anyhow, it is like several sources familiar with statements from molly michael. she worked in the trump white

house and continued as his assistant at mar-a-lago until last fall. she says the written requests from the former president could often come on note cards with visible classification markings used to brief trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international related matters. sources tell abc news that last august michael went to mar-a-lago the day after the fbi searched the property and found the notes trump had written on her classified -- to her on classified documents in one of her desk drawers. she then made arrangements to turn them over to the fbi. abc news reports that michael is believed to be the person identified in special counsel jack smith's indictment as trump employee two and handled many of trump's boxes from the white house. she also is believe to have taken some of the pictures of the boxes that were included in

the classified documents indictment. sources told abc news that after trump heard the fbi wanted to interview michael last year trump allegedly told her, quote, you know nothing about the boxes. >> this is, again, mr. obstruction. he has been mr. obstruction his entire life. >> yeah. >> and here you go, he keeps doing it. he keeps lying. again, the people that are turning on donald trump are not left wingers. they are not resistance republicans. they are people that actually worked for donald trump, and worked for donald trump not in 2017 but at the end and even after january 6th. a trump spokesperson, by the way, said abc news' reports lack pro context. >> and that the president did

nothing wrong. it is so unbelievable it is hard not to crack a smile because it is just -- it is so unbelievably stupid. it is just so unbelievable. at the same time this woman has, you know, turned over the information to the fbi. >> yeah. >> and she's probably, you know, in a very serious situation. >> she is in a serious situation. >> so i don't want to make light of it. >> it has gone from tragedy to farce, but it is a tragedy. you worked at the state department. >> all of this stuff is so important. >> i can't underline enough the fact if i were given classified briefings at armed services committees, if i were given classified documents, they would never leave the committee the with any of those documents. you just don't do it. i never knew a member who did it. i never knew a member who said one time, whoops, i accidentally took a classified document. >> exactly. >> out of the hearing room.

why? because you never did it. that's why these people out there that want to forgive donald trump and say, oh, it is much ado about nothing, that's just a lie. there are so many people that served this country in the military, in the state department, in the dod, in congress, that understood exactly what they could and could not do. he has breached that code of conduct so many times. this is just the latest, most egregious and one of the most reckless examples, elise. >> just think of how many americans serve in war zones and when they have classified documents and they're at a remote outpost and they have a scif for sure but there are burn bags and things are burned and taken care of in a responsible manner. remember the backlash that sandy berger got, bill clinton's nsa when he stuck documents from the

library of congress into his shirt and left. >> he was charged. >> yes, he got into trouble for it. here you have donald trump just treating this important paperwork, these treasures of america's national security, our secrets, as if it is just, you know, paper that he can use for to-do lists and it is suddenly environmentally friendly. it makes no sense at all. it just shows how he doesn't have any base conception of how what he was dealing with was so important and was completely unfit for the responsibility of commander in chief. >> jonathan, as joe says, one of the other problems trump has right now is that molly michael was in there through all of 2020 through the january 6th, through the time he left office. she was effectively a right hand to donald trump. she was his assistant. that's why he trusted her with this project. as you read through again, this is just an abc news report right now, but multiple sources were working to verify that she and

walt nauta according to the report were the ones that brought the boxes from the mar-a-lago storage room, brought them up to donald trump and said, go through these, what do you think we ought to give them and what do you want to keep? at one point he said, all right, that's all of the boxes, tell them that's everything we have. she says according to the report she knew there were many more boxes and they weren't forthright with the fbi. it would seem she is again the right hand to donald trump, a key central witness in this case. >> the report goes on to add this pretty damning details, sources tell abc when trump heard the fbi wanted to interview michael last year, trump allegedly told her, quote, you don't know anything about the boxes. so that is certainly -- would be a potential problem there legally for the former president and part of this investigation. on one hand, yes, this reiterates and underscores what we have known about the trump white house. we were reporting it in real-time, how chaotic it was, how they ignored norms and

practices, how they turned up their nose at basic security procedures at times, both in terms of battling the covid virus but also in handling of documents that didn't go through proper channels. now we know even classified documents were used at times as scrap paper. in those closing days of the administration during a bridge transition because, of course, they fought to stay in office until january 6th, everything was done so haphazardly at the end and things were thrown in boxes they souldn't have, it is not a surprise this sort of inappropriate behavior continued. this is all going to add up, willie, to more problems for this president as yet it is members of his inner circle. these are members who have worked faithfully for the former president are the ones potentially testifying against him. >> and the ones -- >> and having to get lawyers. >> -- if they don't, unfortunately because they have classified documents in their presence they could go to jail.

by the way, there's nothing political about that. i guarantee you at home if you have classified documents in your drawer with notes on them somewhere and the government finds out you have them, you're going to jail too. it doesn't matter what your party registration is. none of that matters. if you are trafficking in classified documents, if you have possession of classified documents, like it is trouble. katty kay, most problematic is you have a former president of the united states who stole classified documents from the white house, who stole nuclear secrets from the white house, who stole war plans from the white house, planned invasions of iran from the white house, to show he actually did know what he was doing he told one of his campaign managers, here, i shouldn't be showing you this, i could have declassified it if i were still president of the united states but i'm not. so i shouldn't be showing you this. he knew exactly what he was

doing. then he says to one of his staff members. >> whoof. >> forget you ever saw this stuff, right? >> you know nothing about the boxes. >> what did he say? you know nothing about the boxes. i guarantee you, in the trial after she testifies you are going to see those words up on a board in front of the jury, and i don't care how biassed the jury is, katty, donald trump continues to back himself further and further into the corner. he does it here again with yet more proof of obstruction. >> yeah. i was just watching that great classic, the first "star wars 4" where he says to the storm troopers, these are not the drones you are working for, they're not the ones you want.

it works for him but i don't think it works for donald trump to suddenly say, you know nothing about the box and try to produce a mind trick on somebody who has been photographing the boxes. we see she is also the person who produced many of the photographs used in this. she is starting to look a little bit like cassidy hutchinson for him, a little bit of a problem of somebody who has turned those documents into the fbi, presumably has been talking to the fbi and seems to have done the right thing when she realized she shouldn't be having shopping lists written out on classified documents. donald trump also all through this time, remember, can't claim he didn't know that what he had he shouldn't have because he was being asked repeatedly by the archives to return all of those boxes. so all along -- >> yeah. >> -- the steps allegedly there are indications that he knew he shouldn't have these things, decided to hold on to them and then was saying to molly michael, even though you

photographed the documents, even though you have seen these classified documents with notes written on them, you know nothing about the boxes. >> yeah, you know -- >> wow, that is -- >> -- nothing about the boxes. by the way, willie, katty kay will get a special parting gift, rice aroni, the san francisco treat, for anyone who brings up "star wars." we are going from jedi mind tricks to david letterman's stupid tricks. i'll let you guess which one donald trump engaged in at mar-a-lago. >> you chuckle at you, but my gosh, the brazenness saying you don't know anything about the boxes. she says there were 90 boxes down in the storage room. >> wow. >> many, many more donald trump was planning on giving to the fbi if they had not gone to exercise that search warrant.

more on that ahead. while donald trump is doing these things, while he is facing these crimes and these alleged crimes and trials, republicans are worried about joe biden. two republicans warning their own party about the political brinksmanship the house majority is playing on capitol hill. when it comes to president biden's impeachment inquiry and the standoff over the budget, first here is republican congressman ken buck of colorado pushing back on gop allegations that president biden committed impeachable offenses. >> in the case of impeachment we're looking for treason, bribery, high crimes or misdemeanors and in this case high crimes or misdemeanors. so the evidence is very strong against hunter biden. there is very little evidence that links hunter biden with joe biden. we have three committees right now, the oversight committee, judiciary committee and the ways and means committee, that are investigating hunter biden's activities and doing a great job

finding that information, they just haven't found the link yet with joe biden. >> that's buck of colorado. meanwhile, mccarthy does not have the votes to pass a short-term funding bill with at least 15 republicans saying they will vote against it if it comes up. they are demanding things that would never pass the senate. republican congressman steve womack of arkansas shared his concerns about that yesterday. >> well, it is an unmitigated disaster right now on the majority side. look, i'm fearful of what this leads to, but let's also remember it is the 18th of september. it is really early in the process and i say that tongue in cheek. i am concerned right now there are too many people up here that don't feel like government shutdowns are all that bad a deal, that they don't really affect people. let me assure you, and i don't care who you are, even if you don't think a government shutdown affects you, trust me, it is expensive, it affects you, and eventually we will have to get this thing operational once we shut it down. the question then becomes what

changes in order to do that and was it a fool's errand in the beginning. >> so, joe, you are seeing some of the private frustration. we have heard from republicans spill out into public now with the impeachment inquiry, number one, and then just with the way kevin mccarthy is being held up on a number of issues including a potential government shutdown by this small caucus that says, we gave you your job, kevin mccarthy, we gave you the votes to put you over the top, now do as we say. >> right, the congressman's warnings are prescient really for somebody that hasn't served there a real long time. i will tell you, we were there and had a government shutdown. it never ends well coming up, our conversation with president biden's special envoy for hostage affairs. how the deal came together to free five americans held prisoner in iran. that is straight ahead on "morning joe."

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♪ ♪ president biden is going to be speaking at the u.n. general assembly in new york city today. katty kay, obviously this comes amidst the ongoing war in ukraine, the debate over climate change and what to do about it, pandemics and other global issues, but only president biden among the leaders of five permanent members of the security council -- that's the u.s., russia, china, france and britain -- are going to be there. what do you make of these no-shows? >> yeah. it does make it a little bit of a scaled down united nations general assembly and raises questions about how relevant this meeting is. it is important for ukraine obviously and zelenskyy is in new york. we saw the pictures of him earlier visiting ukrainian soldiers in new york hospitals. he will be there desperately trying to rally the world's countries to make sure they keep

up the efforts supporting ukraine with this offensive that is not going as fast as many would have liked. i think the important audience really for joe biden is the domestic u.s. audience. you see the polls that show 70% of republicans don't want the u.s. to send any more money to ukraine. the numbers of democrats who don't want to carry on financing ukraine is growing as well. so joe biden out there perhaps not so much of a focus on the international audience that he has but a very keen focus on the domestic audience, trying to keep americans on board and make that case once again that this is in america's best interests because if russia manages to take ukraine the message to china is it can take other countries. the message to any rogue actor is they can invade any other country and it would impact america's own national security. coming up, treasury secretary janet yellen is standing by. she is going to weigh in on the threat of a government shutdown and much more. that is straight ahead on "morning joe."

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billionaires and millionaires that don't have any understanding of what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. so, shawn fain, joe, the president of the uaw, has been publicly critical not just recently but in the past of donald trump. has not endorsed -- the union has not endorsed joe biden as yet in this case. jonathan, i'll kick this to you. donald trump in his "meet the press" interview went at the leadership of uaw, but donald trump trying to create his own show away from the debate as he did last time. >> this is a general election play by donald trump on two levels. first of all it suggests, hey, i'm too big to participate in the republican primary debates. i don't need to. i skipped the last one, my poll numbers only went up. by some measures up 40, 50 points on the next highest republican. he is sending that signal. he is also making a move here about the november 2024 map. of course, that's michigan, that's detroit. these are union workers and you are right, shawn fain on our air

a couple of weeks ago, the head of the uaw, was deeply critical of donald trump. he was again in that statement. it is clear that the leadership of the union is not going to back trump, but trump people in his orbit believe the rank and file just might. these are white working class voters where they've had success. white house officials tell me that they think uaw will endorse biden. the president has spoken about the striking workers there. it is a move by trump to put forth what will be an electoral conflict heading into next fall. >> union workers have traditionally organized democratic and voted republican, a lot. working class voters have voted, i even remember going back to when i was running in '96. i was attacking unions that were attacking some of my friends in other races.

a guy came into me, he was fixing my phone and he said, hey, congressman, if you just keep your mouths shut you will get everybody's vote in the union. i was like, yes, sir. it was an eye-opener for me. katty kay, that was the play donald trump made in 2016. you will remember near the end of the campaign they moved forward with really, really populous messaging at the end of the campaign. he even met with a couple of i think steelworker unions at the beginning of his presidency, thought it was the direction he might be going in. it would cause a real problem for democrats. then, of course, he had the biggest giveaways to billionaires ever with the tax cut and never looked back. but this meeting and this push is absolutely critical if he wants to win back wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. >> yeah. he knows where these races are going to be won or lost and

where his chances of winning the white house, potentially even staying out of jail will be won and lost, and it is up in those states which are heavily union. i have a really clear memory of ohio in 2016, of spending time in a steel town in northern ohio and talking to union members who had been lifelong democrats, lifelong union members and switched parties in order to vote for donald trump because they liked his populous message. they liked the anti-china message. they liked the fact that donald trump broke with republican economic orthodoxy and said he was going to shore up the social safety net they liked. there's a lot about donald trump i imagine they could still find appealing. it is a bold move to be going to michigan in the middle of this strike, but it is not one that uncharacteristic of him. >> yeah. elise, you know through your focus groups that people are so less ideaological than we are on

tv. i told this story about the trump voter in georgia that when you brought up abortion, said, wait a second, i'm a man, why would i be kind with that. oh, okay. there's another great example that "the new york times" and other outlets reported near the end of the 2016 campaign about the trump-sanders voters. people that would have voted for bernie sanders if he made it through the democratic primary but instead switched to donald trump because of populism just like much to the chagrin of the kennedy family so many followers of bobby kennedy in 196 switched to george wallace after bobby was shot. >> you see the moments where the issues on the far right, the far left, they cross cut and the voters come together. sometimes when you have voters

in focus groups who are shifting from, you know, say being a hilary voter in 2016 to then going to donald trump in 2020, you say, they're confused, they've gotten radicalized. with the trump/sanders voters you saw where donald trump really tapped into something that other republican leaders hadn't understood that the populous force is taking over the party, that that was the emerging future of the party. his speech, choosing to do that counterprogram and be pro autoworkers in detroit, it is a good move for donald trump. it separates him from the rest of the republican pack, makes him look less business friendly and less for ceo's pay and more for the rank-and-file man. you look how j.d. vance chose to write an op-ed in support of the workers. this is a shift from where elite

republicans have been for so long and donald trump is continuing to firm up his grasp on that part of the republican electorate. coming up, president biden will soon address the u.n. general assembly in new york. we will have full coverage leading up to that speech in our fourth hour. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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their plan, maganomics, is more extreme than america has seen before. they're back at it again, threatening more cuts and to shut down the government again this month. now, what they do talk about is claiming all of these cuts are going to reduce the deficit. when it comes to reducing the deficit, let's compare the records a little bit. under my predecessor you remember the self-professed king of debt? turned out he was. he's actually emperor of debt.

he created more debt than any other president did in one year. >> that's president biden discussing a possible government shutdown and what he calls maganomics during a speech last week in maryland. joining us to discuss the potential impact of a shutdown and much more it is u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen. secretary yellen, thanks so much for being with us this morning. let's start there with a potential shutdown. we are by my math 11 days away from the deadline of september 30th, a week from saturday to get a new budget through to keep the government from shutting down. a lot talk about it in political terms with brinksmanship and all of the rest. from where you sit with treasury, what would a government shutdown mean for the economy? >> look, there's absolutely no reason why we should have a government shutdown. democrats in both the house and the senate and republicans in the senate are ready to pass appropriations bills for a continuing resolution to keep

the government open and operating for the american people. speaker mccarthy needs to find a way to do his job, which is to pass a continuing resolution or bills. so there's no reason. we've got a good, strong economy. it has a lot of momentum. inflation is coming down. the labor market remains very strong. we really don't need a shot to the economy in the form of a slowdown. there's no reason for it at all. >> and yet typically we may come up to the 11th hour but there's a deal struck to avoid a shutdown. if that doesn't happen due to the internal politics of the republican party, what happens to the economy would you say from treasury? >> we have not tried to estimate the impact of the should down. it would depend importantly on how long it lasts, but, again, there's really no good reason why there should be a shutdown.

when the debt ceiling was raised an agreement was struck about -- that would serve to lower the deficit by about a trillion dollars over the next decade, and we should just adhere to the bipartisan agreement that was struck. >> okay. madam secretary, front page of the "wall street journal" talking about rising oil prices posing a risk to an economic soft landing. so oil prices, inflation coming down, to use your words, not down but coming down and a hot economy, what do you say to the "wall street journal's" concerns that a soft landing might be at risk? >> well, i think we're really on a good path toward a soft landing, and net over the last year if you go back to last summer when oil prices peaked,

gas prices are down $1.20 a gallon, but it is true that oil prices have risen recently. gas prices are up somewhat. that's not desirable. i think it reflect in part saudi arabia's decision to continue oil supply cuts that it put into effect earlier. of course, the ending of the pandemic in china, even though china's growth is slower than expected, has raised demand for oil. so oil prices are up somewhat. my hope is, and i think what you see built into market expectations, is that they will stabilize or move down over time. that's my hope and expectation. >> madam secretary, of course we are on the sidelines of the united nations general assembly right now. you just touched upon a few international concerns, but as you survey the globe and speak

to your contemporaries in other nations, give us your assessment of where the global economy stands right now. most importantly, are there flash points or warning signs around the globe that could eventually lead to trouble for us here in the united states? >> actually, the global economy is proving more resilient than was expected by major organizations like the imf that information cast very slow global growth. germany technically is in recession. it has had several quarters of negative growth, but overall it is better in spite of big increases, surges in energy prices, and we are seeing tight monetary policy to bring down inflation in many developed countries. but the united states is enjoying slower growth than during the recovery phase, but

remarkable job creation, strong consumer spending, and that even with inflation coming down i think we are on a path toward what you might call a soft landing. now, china, china has both short-run and long-run issues in its economy. its recovery from the pandemic has been less robust than was expected and, of course, its property sector is suffering from a decline in home prices and over indebtedness of many developers that really pose some significant financial threats, longer-term negative population growth, slowing productivity growth. so policymakers in china face some challenges. they do have some policy space

to be able to address them, and it is my hope that they will do so effectively. there could be some spill-overs to the united states, but i believe they're relatively small. it is countries in asia that are likely to be more affected. >> madam secretary, i want to go back to the rosie picture that you just painted of the u.s. economy with inflation coming down and unemployment coming down and answer the riddle that the white house is finding so befuddling which is with those good numbers why polling amongst the american people so pessimistic about the economy. i wonder if it is because they've been through a period of inflation, they fear inflation may come back again, those high oil prices mika was talking about, the forecasting slower growth, 1.3% for the u.s. is it fears about the future? i'm not asking you to play therapist with the american voter but there seems to be a disconnect between the numbers

we are seeing and the way people are feeling about the economy and how do you account for it? >> i agree with you there's a disconnect and i don't have a simple and convincing answer. but americans have been through a lot. the pandemic really took a toll on american families, on children, on households. we are enjoying a remarkable recovery, but also with high inflation, much of it reflecting supply bottlenecks that developed during the pandemic, and then with russia's brutal attack on ukraine we saw a surge in gas prices, in food prices. americans have been reeling from high inflation. they do realize in polls that it is coming down and americans' financial situation actually improved during the pandemic.

interestingly, when americans are asked about their own personal financial situation they're positive on that. the negative results you cite mainly reflect their answers to how is the economy more broadly doing. you know, i think it is going to take some time. we've had a trifecta of legislation that president biden and congress have passed that we're investing in america in ways we haven't for decades. a bipartisan infrastructure bill that americans are going to be seeing roads repaired, bridges rebuilt, improvements in their ports and their airports and public transportation in the grid. semiconductor and chips bill

that is leading to enormous investment across the country in semiconductor manufacturing and, of course, critical important inflation reduction act that's leading to massive investments in the clean energy economy that will both lower carbon emissions in the united states but also create enormous numbers of good jobs in parts of the country that have really been missing out on growth. you know, what has happened over the last decade or so is that the growth the united states has enjoyed has been concentrated in certain parts of the country, particularly the coasts, and big parts of the country have been missing parts of the country have been missing out. that's beginning to change. we've seen since the beginning of the biden administration $500 billion worth of investment in manufacturing that has been announced in being undertaken

that is going to be creating a really good set of manufacturing jobs throughout the country and particularly in areas that have been missing out on growth since declining wages for a long time. >> treasury secretary janet yellen, thank you so much for being on the show. up next, a look at the long journey home for five americans who were wrongfully imprisoned for years in iran. and we'll get more insight on the deal that brought them home from a diplomat who works with the white house on hostage affairs. ostage affairs.

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landing at a military base this morning in virginia. they were freed after the u.s. released five iranians from american custody and agreed to allow tehran access to $6 billion in oil revenue that had been frozen. nbc news senior white house correspondent gabe gutierrez has the latest. >> reporter: overnight, five americans finally freed after years of delicate negotiations for their release. >> as far as we know, they're all in relatively good health. >> reporter: the prisoners boarded a plane in tehran and landed in doha, some of them smiling and sharing an embrace. the other two americans have asked for privacy and have not been identified. >> i spoke to them after they landed in doha. i can tell you that it was, for

them, for me, an emotional conversation. >> reporter: siamak namazi writing for almost eight years i have been dreaming of this day, adding he can't wait to get to an apple store. i am dying to find out what gadgets now exist. >> he's missed eight years. he wants to get married and have kids. >> reporter: still, the swap is controversial. the biden administration also unlocking $6 billion in iranian money frozen by u.s. sanctions. the white house says iran can only use it for things like food and medicine, with u.s. officials approving each transaction. but iran's president told lester holt last week -- >> translator: we will decide, the islamic republic of iran will decide to spend it wherever we need it.

>> reporter: republicans arguing the money was essentially a ransom. >> unfortunately, the deal that secured their release may very well be the latest example of president biden rewarding and incentivizing tehran's bad behavior. >> u.s. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs roger carsons, who was on the plane home and will give the first question to elise jordan. >> that had to be an incredible plane ride. can you talk about what these released prisoners were saying about their experience, how they felt to be free again? >> it was great. before they got on the plane, they had a chance to talk to secretary of state tony blinken, who let them know how grateful he was to have them home and the president was equally grateful.

then we got on the plane. i got to watch from a distance five people have the first unfettered, unmonitored conversations they've had in years. i think my impression was that of people that were overjoyed experiencing freedom and connecting with each other. it was good to watch and good to participate in. >> you just heard some of the pushback from republicans, mitch mcconnell among them, who obviously welcomed home these americans. we should say again what heartwarming images these are right now. but who raised concerns about how it was done and fears that it may embolden nations like iran to do something like this again. what would you response be? . we worked hard with congress to make sure they were apprised

every step of the way. i'd say that the majority of people we talked with seemed to be supportive of the president's effort to bring these people back. we took money from a restricted account in south korea that the iranians have had access to. we moved it to a much more restricted account in qatar where treasury will have oversight over every single transaction and we're restricting it to only buy humanitarian goods. because we allowed that money to go from one account to a much more restricted account, five miles per hour detainees came home. i think that's a good deal. you mentioned a few republicans spoke out against it. the one thing i can tell you is this is truly a bipartisan effort. bringing americans home is a nonpartisan effort. it's an american problem.

i think the majority of america is rejoicing that five americans are reunited with their families. this is a great day for these families and this country. >> these negotiations take a lot of time. in this case, there was money as well involved. what do you do about still more americans being held in iran at the moment, some americans being held in russia at the moment? what's the strategy? is each case different? are you feeling optimistic you can bring others home having had the successful reunion today? >> you can't be in this job and do this work unless you're an optimist. we're always cautiously optimistic on every single deal. every single case is different. we're working hard on all of them. in terms of bringing people

back, we have strategies on the roughly almost 30 cases that we have, and we're pursuing them to include the ones in russia. tomorrow the secretary of state will attend a joint conference held with canada, costa rica, malawi and the united states. we're going to be talking about how to defer other countries using hostages as a tool of diplomacy. we're hoping we can bring in other countries to come up with deterrence measures to put this horrible practice in the dustbin of history. people should know there are countries they should not go to. if you're a dual american-iranian citizen, we kindly ask that you not go to iran. the state department has put out a warning of which countries are

most likely to deter americans wrongfully. >> you also helped secure the release of britney griner late last year. you've been on the inside of many of these negotiations. going back to russia and the challenges it poses, which are different than those from iran, what is the latest on paul whelan? you successfully got britney griner out. paul whelan was not part of that negotiation. can you tell us anything? >> i'd love to go into some detail. sadly, i can't. we're making diplomatic moves to move this forward on paul whelan's case. i still routinely talk to paul and his family, keeping them abreast of what we're trying to do. we'll be doing some work and traveling in the upcoming weeks to further his case. and evan gershkovich, ambassador

tracy had a chance to go to talk to him yesterday. the president is dead serious about trying to find ways to bring all of these americans home. under the biden administration, we've now brought over 35 americans home over just a 2 1/2 year period. the president is intent upon making the hard decisions required to bring people home to this country. >> you jumped to my next question, which was about evan gershkovich. there was news today that his demand to be released during this pretrial detention period was rejected again today. roger carsons, thank uhs for being with us this morning. >> thank you very much. we're two minutes into the fourth hour of "morning joe." 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. in one of his strongest rebukes of the republican frontrunner yet, president joe biden told a

crowded broadway theater in new york city last night that he was running for reelection because donald trump was determined to destroy the nation. democracy is at stake, he told the audience at the event. according to the associated press biden said hate groups have been emboldened and children go to school fearing shootings. donald trump and his maga republicans are determined to destroy american democracy, and i will always defend, protect and fight for our democracy. biden also took trump to task for siding with authoritarians. i will not side with dictators like putin. maybe trump and his maga friends can bow down, but i won't. cameras or audio recording devices were not allowed inside the event. joining us now is john heilemann

and jim messina. he served as the white house deputy chief of staff to president obama and ran his reelection campaign. you've been talking to a lot of democrats and reporters about biden's age and what are you say is that, yes, of course it's not perfect, but this is the guy who can beat trump and we all need to stop freaking out. >> that's exactly right. take a deep breath. joe biden's already beaten donald trump once. he will do it again. his numbers are almost exactly where barack obama's were at this point in his company. obama won handily. we just need a contrast with donald trump. every single day donald trump gives us that contrast in ways that are politically helpful. >> let's talk about these two

fronts on display, which is he's trying to focus in public on the economy. he points to all the economic data that treasury secretary yellen just alluded to. then in private at that fundraiser on broadway in new york city yesterday, he said st stakes of this election are so high that i think donald trump would destroy america. if there were four more years in trump, the country wouldn't look the same. is that a good tactic, to talk about what you've done, but also to highlight the stakes of this vote? >> absolutely. when i ran president obama's campaign, bill clinton would wake me up about 2:00 in the morning once a month to remind me american elections are economic elections usually and you've got to continue to message that. the president and his campaign are doing exactly what they should be doing on highlighting his frankly amazing record on the economy, but at the same time setting up the choice

between him and donald trump. american elections are a choice. this choice is very clear and this election is going to be very close in these battleground states and you've got to drive that contrast with donald trump. that's what they're doing. >> the president of the united states has been noticeably more aggressive calling out his predecessor of late, even using his name. we know he's going to be delivering a speech in a week about the need to protect the democracy. certainly trump is going to come up there as well. do you think this white house right now is making the right argument that this moment in the race at a time when the polls show a dead heat? >> well, i think we've heard a lot of people for x number of months going back here when people are like, when is the president going to get in the fight? when is he going to get in there? i think all of us who spend a

fair amount of time both watching elections and watching this white house have been saying there's a season for everything. there's a time in georgia where joe biden is going to become directly engaged. hold your powder, hold your fire for a little while. from the point of view of biden engagement, it was a little early. we're starting to get a little bit of a taste of what the president is going to want to do. i think raising the stakes is something they understand really well. you remember right before the midterms in 2022 joe biden was on the democracy message in that big speech at union station right before the midterm elections. a lot of people thought that was a misguided effort on his part. he had a lot of confidence in that message and democrats ended up doing pretty well in the midterms. my question for jim though, we spent a lot of time talking

about the president's age because of the potential vulnerability in the polls on that question. here's the question i have for you, jim. the difference between joe biden and barack obama at this stage, barack obama had a very solid, very energized base. if i'm in the white house what i'm worried about is the size of apathy, lack of support, not great numbers on the democratic base side. that's something barack obama never had to worry about. does that not give you some concern for joe biden? >> i think it's something that the administration and the campaign understand. so i think it's one of the many gifts donald trump is going to give us. no one rallies democrats together like donald trump.

that will be helpful for the president and his base. the campaign is very focused on that as well. >> jim, another question her from me. what do you think of the upcoming impeachment proceedings against biden over allegations about his son and the story isn't pretty. what's the strategy for democrats to fight back against this impeachment? >> to just point out the truth, which is after five years of looking into this, there's no tie between hunter biden allegations and the president. literally the republicans are doing everything they can to give the democrats back the house of representatives.

all they're doing is talking about abortion, which is wildly unpopular, and now doing impeachment at a time americans are screaming at officials to do more on the economy. they're literally doing exactly what you shouldn't do if you want to hold the house. democrats can just contrast saying, look, this is what we're doing every single day to make your life better, while the republicans are doing a stupid political act that even some of them say is a witch hunt. it's just really bad politics and they're playing right into the democrats' hands. >> all right. two republicans are warning about their own party about the political brinksmanship the house majority is playing on capitol hill when it comes to president biden's impeachment inquiry and the standoff over the budget. first, here's republican congressman ken buck of colorado pushing back on the gop allegations that president biden committed impeachable offenses

followed by republican congressman steve womack of arkansas with his concerns over how republican leaders are handling the budget talks. >> in the case of impeachment, we're looking foreason, bribery, high crimes or misdemeanors. the evidence is very strong against hunter biden. there is very little evidence that links hunter biden with joe biden. we have three committees right now, the oversight committee, the judiciary committee and the ways and means committee that are investigating hunter biden's activities, and they're doing a great job uncovering a lot of information. they just haven't found that link yet with joe biden. >> it's an unmitigated disaster right now on the majority side. look, i'm fearful of what this leads to. let's also remember it's the 18th of september. it's really early in the process. i say that tongue in cheek. i'm concerned there are too many people up here that don't feel

like government shutdowns are all that bad a deal, that they don't really affect people. let me assure you -- and i don't care who you are. if you don't think a government shutdown affects you, trust me, it affects you. eventually we're going to have to get this thing operational once we shut it down. the question becomes what changes in order to do that and was it a fool's errand in the beginning? >> joining me congresswoman sherrill of new jersey. i'll start with the goverent shutdown. how do we avoid it? and i'd also like your insights on the impeachment inquiry? >> the speaker needs to top kowtowing to the extremists in the government.

>> how is he kowtowing? >> he continues to cede to all of their wishes including on this impeachment inquiry. he doesn't have the whole of his conference behind this. he doesn't have any evidence of wrongdoing by the president. he doesn't even have any evidence of a danger to the nation. yet he's willing to go forward with an inquiry that could lead to overturning a democratic election becausically because of the whims of the far-right extremists in this caucus. >> i want to ask you about american jobs and getting people to work, talking about the economy and not focusing on the impeachment inquiry and the other things happening in the house of representatives. what's inside this bill and how would it help american workers? >> this is really to take on what china put out over a decade ago about the future of the global economy and how china was

going to try to coopt u.s. technology and other foreign technology in their drive to take over the future. we are now saying we're going to compete. we're going to make sure that u.s. businesses have a fair playing field, that things like forced i.p. transfer dumping china uses to extract information from u.s. companies is no longer available so that u.s. companies can have a fair playing field. u.s. workers can compete fairly. >> just about precisely an hour from now, president biden is going to address the united nations. obviously ukraine will be at the forefront of this speech. he'll be trying to rally the world. some of his audience will also be a domestic one. that continuing resolution republicans put out a few days ago doesn't include a dime for ukraine. how much of a concern is it for you that the united states government is going to be able

to keep funding ukraine's war effort? >> it's a key concern of mine. we are the standard bearer for democrats across the world. we have worked closely to ensure it does not go unchecked. we have seen a lot of success for the ukrainians and fighting hard for their democracy and their values. we should support that. i'm very concerned you see a rollback. it strikes me, again, as we are working to support the ukrainians in their fight for democracy, as we are working to try to keep this government open and get the budget passed, as i am looking to the future with the american jobs opportunity act to make sure we have a strong economy going forward, all we see in the republican conference from the far right is chaos and trumped-up witch hunt impeachment charges that president trump is trying to get them to move forward on.

it really does beg the question if this republican conference cared at all about governing this nation. >> i have a question that's sort of a question that's not so much about your position on something, but more your assessment, which is a core riddle at the heart of our politics right now as we head towards 2024 is this. you talk to your constituents all the time. i assume you have a point of view about why it is at a place when the economy by every objective metric is getting better and there's lots of reasons for optimism about what's happening. we're still kind of coming out of covid in a lot of respects, but the economy is improving. nobody is feeling it. nobody is talking about it. the sense of pessimism about the state of the american economy and america in general is off

the charts. what do you think explains that? >> i think about this all the time. as you mentioned, throughout my district all the time i was just seeing some wonderful evidence of the growing economy as our structural engineering firms are expanding as we're reshoring american manufacturing. it's really striking how you're seeing the advancement of our economy in northern new jersey. however, you're right. i think too many people feel uncomfortable. this is a rapidly changing world right now. what it takes to make the american people feel good about our future is strong leadership. unfortunately, we have too many people in washington, as mitt romney pointed out, that don't seem to share the values of this nation and want to make sure we move forward together in a very strong way. >> thank you very much for being on this morning. we appreciate it. former white house deputy

chief of staff to president obama jim messina, thank you as well. coming up, president biden will soon address world leaders at the u.n. gener assembly. plus, another talk show host has plans to return to tv amid the writers strike. we'll tell you who. who my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ it was time for a nunormal 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.

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live picture as the sun just begins to come up at 6:23 in the morning in los angeles, 9:23 here on the east coast.

bill maher has reversed his decision to bring back his late night talk show in the middle of the hollywood writers strike. news came the day after several other talk show hosts postponed their returns following backlash for crossing the picket line. last week maher announced he would resume production on his show without writers because much of his production staff is struggling and it seemed like there was no end in sight to the strike. in a post on social media yesterday, maher wrote in part, quote, now that both sides have agreed to go back to negotiating table, i'm going to delay the return for now. drew barrymore did the same earlier this week. elon musk is planning another major change for twitter, which he renamed x. musk says the platform will be moving to a monthly subscription plan for all users. he made the comments yesterday during a live stream with

israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. musk did not give detail on how much the subscription would cost or what features would or would not be included in the lowest tier. he defended the move as the only way to, quote, combat vast armies of bots. and the united states military is working to recover debris from a fighter jet in south carolina. the wreckage was discovered after the pilot ejected safely, but the jet continued to fly on autopilot. sam brock has more. >> reporter: a high-level mystery in south carolina this morning. $100 million f-35 fighter jet missing for a day, eventually found last night in this rural area two hours northeast from joint base charleston. one resident thinks he heard it go down. >> i heard a plane coming across. i heard boom. >> reporter: others like vanessa

presley trying to get a read on how this search went off the radar. are people talking about how strange it is? >> yes, especially that cost that much amount of money, yeah. that's not something that happens every day. >> reporter: the aircraft went missing after the pilot was forced to eject on sunday. the military base making a plea to the public, if you have any information that may help recovery teams locate the f-35, please call the base operations center. how details of this mishap were communicated not sitting well with congresswoman nancy mace. >> our community deserves basic minimum answers. >> reporter: the military is not commenting on what might have caused the unexplained series of events. the faa is also also not responding to our request for comment, but is working with the military. in the wake of this incident and

two deadly crashes involving marine corps aircraft in the last month, the acting commandant ordering a safety standdown for all military aircraft this week. there's at least one crucial resource for getting some answers. >> we have a living pilot, a living witness to tell us what happened. i'm sure he's already told their story to the investigative team. it's our most advanced jet in this country and we need to find out what went wrong. >> nbc's sam brock reporting as this investigation continues. still ahead here, we are just minutes away from president biden's address to the cited nations general assembly in new york. ly in new york

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hospice provides patients facing terminal illnesses a way

to die with dignity, but it has also become big business for criminals, who are increasingly filing fake medicare claims totaling more than $100 billion. nbc news senior business analyst stephanie ruhle has details. >> reporter: you're looking at undercover video of a doctor accepting kickbacks for referring patients to hospice care, patient who is don't need it. >> you need to help me get some patients. >> i gave you nine patients. what the [ bleep ] you want? i can get 250 bucks a piece . >> reporter: this video from 2017 was part of an investigation prosecuted by the department of justice that ended in several guilty verdicts. >> this was the largest criminal hospice fraud prosecuted by the department of

justice. they looted our medicare trust fund for over $124 million. >> reporter: the men who submitted thousands of false claims to medicare, they bought expensive cars, jewelry and clothing, season tickets to the san antonio spurs and lavish trips to las vegas. >> worst than that, they lied to patients with alzheimer's, dementia. they put them on services they didn't need, risking their health. >> so this is part of the latest installation in nbc's "fleecing of america" series. stephanie ruhle joins us now with more. this is really such a sad way of all the terrible ways of committing fraud. why has this become more

prevalent in terms of the way they can steal so much money, and how big of a problem is this? . >> i hate this story so much. it's happening almost because it's the american way. when something becomes big business and big profits, that means fraudsters are going to follow. by 2020 medicare was paying out $23 billion. hospice care, which in large part is run by angels, it's usually nonprofit. it became a for-profit business and fraudsters quickly followed. it is happening in massive magnitude across this country and needs to be stopped. >> what is being done to stop it? >> there are some just invented shell companies doing this. then there's other companies that are inventing names and submitting them. remember, you get paid every

single day for hospice care. then other companies are pushing people to go into hospice who don't need it. i spoke to a woman whose mother needed to go in hospice care, but quickly learned she wasn't getting the right medications or treatment. this is judy from texas. >> we kept pushing for a doctor to come visit mother, but no doctor ever came. >> she did get medications for her mother, but from the company ceo who was not a doctor but used presigned prescriptions. what kind of medicine was she taking? was she comfortable? >> yes, they kept her very comfortable. she was on a fentanyl patch. . >> she wrote her senators for an investigation. officials were looking into the

company for over $60 million in fraud, including submitting claims for services never provided and paying kickbacks to doctors. 13 people pleaded guilty or were convicted. the government knows. the doj is prosecuting some of the biggest fraudsters. medicare is now looking at hospice providers and putting more restrictions and rules. in some states like california, there is a moratorium. no new hospice providers until they are all evaluated. it is heartbreaking. this is when people are at their most vulnerable. they want to trust the system, and they should be able to. >> you mentioned is there more become done to prevent this from happening? >> medicare is tightening their rules. independent bodies are looking at it. but for individuals, we need to be more diligent.

i know that's terrible to say but let me trust this hospice provider. you need to treat hospice like you would a doctor when it's a well visit, get references, look at their history and don't simply trust the system. that woman judy, when she moved her mother into the right hospice care, she eventually passed with dignity. everyone deserves that. >> it can be an incredibly difficult process to even get placed in hospice care. what can be done to just improve in general the admissions process but also hopefully at the federal level they're making changes. >> they are trying to improve the process, but that obviously takes time. if you are in that situation, do the due diligence. you can't just trust the system.

i hate to say it, but that's the reality. >> thank you very much for your reporting on this. we'll be watching of course "the 11th hour" weeknights on msnbc. up next, you could call it the trump blame game. another codefendant is sending their legal troubles on the former president and we'll tell you who that is just ahead. side you who that is just ahead ♪ oh what a good time we will have ♪ ♪ you can make it happen ♪ ♪ yeah oh ♪ now, try new dietary supplements from voltaren for healthy joints. 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. ♪ the citi custom cash® card automatically adjusts to earn you more cash back in your top eligible spend category.

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but fear itself. like, okay. have you checked out some of fear's work? >> that was standup comedian and writer who in stories about her struggles with anxiety and depression in her comedy routine and she joins us now. she delves further into her mental health journey in her new book titled "unreliable narrator." it's good to see you. thanks for being on. i love that clip. you sound like every young person out there, because there's so much to be anxious about. it's so invalidating to tell people to calm down. thank you for that. >> of course. it's my pleasure to be scared constantly. [ laughter ] >> all the time. but actually that's something that we're dealing with as a

reality with young people today. we talk about the mental health challenges that they're facing, but you rightfully point out they're also facing a very harsh reality. tell us about "unreliable narrator." >> this is a book of essays i wrote about my struggles with self-doubt and a lifetime of feeling like an outsider, that i don't know quite where i fit in. i'm a standup comedian. i think that sometimes catches people off guard as someone who's more shy and soft spoken and introverted. i think i've spent a lifetime kind of taking people by surprise with what's going on inside my head and kind of laying it bare and being pretty open about even the darker parts of what's going on inside my brain. >> you write about impostor syndrome, which is something we talk about a lot in the know your value community. tell us how you suffered from it and how you address it in the

book. >> impostor syndrome for me, i can't really remember a time when i didn't feel like maybe everyone else was operating from a guidebook that i was never ven access to. i'm still open to receiving it if anyone wants to send it to me. i think for me, impostor syndrome is something that you don't necessarily only experience early on when you're inexperienced in a career. it sometimes is this persistent feeling that you don't deserve the opportunities you get. i found the more success i had as a comedian, the worse my impostor syndrome got. i really didn't feel like i knew what i was doing or that i deserved to be there. the book is kind of my exploration of why it seemed to come up in so many different areas of my life, whether personally or professionally. i think i wanted to write a book

about self-doubt to explore why i had it and maybe cure it, but i would say there's nothing worse for your self-doubt than trying to write a book about it. >> your personal journey is fascinating to follow, because by all accounts, you were pretty shy growing up . you never saw yourself as someone who would be up on the stage. and then you say that getting medicated helped you a lot and helped you combat some of your anxiety and depression, which so many people, myself included, struggle with. then you suddenly start doing standup in falls church, virginia. talk about that improbable journey. >> i was a very shy kid, but my mom was an immigrant mom. she was a doctor who had come over from india. she was a little worried about my ability to hack it in the world. so she put my sibling and i in

public speaking classes at a young age. we were the only kids in a room full of adults trying to acquire those valuable skills for later in life. i learned to give a speech pretty early on. i entered a speech contest when i was 11, a community one at a hindu temple in our community. i gave a speech that was a funny speech. everyone else did a serious one. i did i think a takedown of boll lywood movies. i ended up winning the contest. i thought, okay, there's something about humor that gets people going. that kind of led me to standup. for me, antidepressants, when i first went on them, they gave me this sort of honeymoon period when you first go on meds where

you're like i didn't realize everyone is experiencing life on this frequency. colors are better, smells are better, everything sounds better. i was like, why not try standup? i don't know if i would have otherwise. >> doesn't seem like a natural fit to someone who's really anxious. then moving to standup comedy. to also then choose to make the anxiety so central to your act and what you do on stage and now a book. >> i think i started talking about anxiety and depression in my act because i was struggling with it so acutely at the time that i was having trouble writing about anything else because it was taking up so much room mentally. i didn't realize it would resonate with people. this is just sort of what's going on with me. sometimes when you're caught in your own brain, you forget other people might be having the exact

same experience. that's what i realized when i started talking about it, just how much it resonated with other people. that kind of helped me get outside my own head and remember we all can be struggling with the same things and we just might not see it. the book was my effort to get some of those messier topics, whether that be self-doubt or struggles with body image or mental health, get it down on the page and be like i'm human, i'm messy, hopefully some of this relates to your messiness as a human. >> it absolutely does. tickets for aparna book tour which includes the new yorker festival only october 7th are available now. the book "unreliable narrator" is out now. i love it. thank you so much for being on the show this morning and for

sharing so much of yourself. i think it's going to really strike a nerve. >> thank you. still ahead, president biden is set to address the united nations general assembly, where he's expected to call for continued international support for ukraine. we will have full coverage of his speech as soon as he gets to the podium. "morning joe" is coming right back. some people just know what road to take. those are the people who know to choose allstate. the service road is faster. gps: turn left. not happening. he knows better than any gps. and he'd point you in allstate's direction. go all the way down the road, past the big gray warehouse. gps: take the next exit. you're not from around here, so you don't know the back roads. i don't want to be late for the party. i'm gonna save us five minutes. some people just know what road to take. gps: you're on the fastest route. those are the people who know safe drivers save 40% with allstate. dude? dog food in the fridge? it's not dog food. it's freshpet. real meat. real veggies.

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did not specify a timeline. clark's lawyer argued he drafted a letter to georgia officials after the 2020 race saying the doj was skeptical of the election at the direction of former president trump. "the washington post" reports clark's lawyer said it would be simply impossible for him to do what he is charged with if he were not acting as a federal official and said trump had ratified his client's conduct. prosecutors called on one of clark's predecessors as head of doj's civil division. jodie hunt, as a witness to counter that argument. hunt testified that clark's job had nothing to do with election fraud investigations which were the responsibility of the civil rights division. we'll be following that and in our final seconds of the show, jonathan lemire, what are you looking at today? what stands out to you,

especially as we await president biden to address the u.n. any moment now. >> yeah, the president will be speaking in a few moments. the white house put out excerpts of what he'll say and as you might expect, a focus on rallying the record to support ukraine, an urgent call to combat climate change, calling for alliances and unity the. >> mika, i'm curious what biden is going to say about the progress of the ukrainians against russia and pushing back russia and then what president zelenskyy will say tomorrow along the same notes. how are they going to keep the international community engaged in supporting their fight? >> we'll be covering it all right here on "morning joe." that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage of president biden's address to the united nations after a short break. den's address to the united tinaons after a short break. ♪ )

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