Morning Joe - China’s Xi hosts Putin and Modi at regional summit

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

China’s Xi hosts Putin and Modi at regional summit

No federal troops in the city of Chicago. No militarized force in the city of Chicago. We're going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago. We're going to protect the humanity of every single person in the city of Chicago. The mayor of Chicago at a rally yesterday, it comes after a holiday weekend marked by gun violence in the city with more than 50 people. shot. We all want the dignity of people in Chicago protected.

54 people shot this weekend in Chicago, seven killed. I mean, and those numbers just keep piling up. Also ahead, we'll bring you the lettuce from Beijing following yesterday's summit, the leaders of China, Russia, and India. Back here at home, President Trump seems to be

Playing to his base questioning the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine, it comes amid chaos at the CDC with several high-profile resignations in response to the Trump administration's vaccine skepticism. You know, what's interesting here is, I don't know. Can we put that back up again? And so Trump tells drug makers to, quote, justify the success of COVID meds after the FDA limits vaccine approval. I do wonder if this isn't actually him saying to the drug makers tell them what I did, right? Like how wrong they are and what, because he's not going to sacrifice Operation Warp Speed, Willie. I mean, he knows, he hears, you know, even his Democratic friends, he hears scientists, he hears people in media saying, this was an extraordinary success. So it's kind of like, yeah, God, please tell me. Was this a success or not? Objectively a success that saved

Objectively. Countless lives, and he's been touting it lately in that cabinet meeting last week went on a long rant about the success of Operation Warwick speed and he was right to do that. And now he has to be, he has to have it both ways. When he's talking to certain groups, he has to sort of

toe the Bobby Kennedy Jr. line that, well, it might be tied, it might end up to problems. But maybe he does want an organization to come back and say, yes, it works. Yes, this was a success and have somebody else say it for him. I mean, the crazy thing is, are you really going to let this guy who's been engaging in pseudoscience is, you know, past 20 years, undermine what really should be seen as his greatest presidential

accomplishment. I mean, in terms of opening up business, opening up society, opening up the world, saving millions of lives, saving billions of billions of dollars. I mean, and he's going to. I find I heard, believe he's going to let Bobby Kennedy Jr. Trash the legacy as much as Bobby Kennedy Jr. is trying to trash that legacy right now. And that is what he's doing. It is.

He's now packed that panel of vaccine experts who aren't necessarily experts and don't have any medical experience, but are skeptics along with Bobby Kennedy. They make up that panel so they can make these outlandish claims about vaccines, including the COVID vaccine. And as you say, tarnish the legacy of President Trump. Yeah. And we're going to go through the. highly anticipated debut of Bill Belichick in college football.

Now, coaching at the University of North Carolina. Now, along with Joe Willie and me. You know who else I was rooting for? Who? Alabama. Oh, you know what? That went terribly. That went about it.

That went terribly. Bad as it could have gone. But Willie, here's the deal. There was a coach. They got fired in the German soccer league after three games. They just knew he wasn't going to succeed. And I'm sorry. said it to Paul Feinbaum, even after we beat Georgia last year in that game,

it doesn't look good, doesn't, you know. And if you take away that Georgia game where we came back, he's five and five since then, DeBoer, and he's lost to his many unranked opponents in a year and one game as Sabin did during his entire tenure at Alabama. He doesn't fit there. He's a nice guy. I wish him well.

You know, Dubuque A&M or whatever, but he's not, we've talked about, he's not an SEC coach. Paul Feinbaum was on TV last night talking about just the panic in Crimson Tide Nation about this team and about this coach. But DeBore has a $70 million buyout. That's a check they don't want to have to write right now. But it's going to cost them a lot more to keep losing. I mean, the thing is, I mean, they were stupid to give it, but it's like half. After the first season, Sabin was 6 and 6. And I remember fine bomb saying, oh, well, I bet your wish he had.

And I'm going to go, no, I'm glad. It's not about the wins and the losses. It's looking at the kids when they're on the field. Are they ready to play? And they were always ready to play under Sabin. They just aren't here. Florida State was 2 and 10 last year. Now, much better this year, clearly based on the way they played the other day.

That quarterback is really good, the transfer. but still, that's a game as an Alabama fan. You fully expect to go in and win. Yeah, and our guys look confused, constantly in offense and defense. The defense wasn't aggressive me. I know people want to hear this off the top of the show. And also, they look scared. The quarterback looks scared.

Not a good sign. No. So along with Willie, Joe, and me, we have U.S. special correspondent for BBC News and the host of the rest is Paul. She was angry about the game too. Gaddy Kay is with us. And columnist, an associate editor for the Washington. Post, David Ignatius joins us. Good to have you both this morning. Let's get started, shall we?

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi at a summit in China yesterday. As the New York Times reports, it was a scene almost certainly intended for an audience on the other side of the world, the leaders of China, Russia and India, the three largest powers not aligned with the West, smiling and laughing like good friends as they greeted each other. Analyst told the paper the friendliness between Mr. She and Mr. Putin was meant to convey a close bond between them as leaders of an alternative world order challenging the United States.

The paper continues, Mr. Modi sought to show that India has other important. friends, including China, regardless of an unresolved border dispute if the Trump administration chooses to continue alienating New Delhi with tariffs. Meanwhile, China will mark Japan's defeat in World War II with a massive military parade tomorrow. NBC news correspondent Janice Mackie Freyer has more from Beijing. Mika, it will be an historic gathering here for this military parade, which will show off China's latest missiles, fighter jets, and hardware, as well as its geopolitical clout with the leaders of Russia, North Korea, Iran, and others, joining Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

This is the first time the leaders of those four countries are going to be appearing together. Now, the parade is meant to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the surrender of Japan, and it also looks to reshape the narratives around it with respect to China's contributions. Western diplomats and dignitaries are largely avoiding it. Slovakia is the only NATO state attending because of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's among the guests and he has been in the spotlight here for the past several days. Putin had a bilateral meeting today with Xi Jinping, where they declared again how close their strategic partnership is. And on the war anniversary, Putin told she, quote, we were always together then and we remained together now. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, Putin appeared to be among friends.

He mingled with other leaders. He held hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before they took a long car ride together. And the idea seemed to be to project an image of friendship among these SEO states as an alternative to a world order dominated by the U.S. But all of it has been helping Putin ease his political isolation since meeting with President Trump about Ukraine. Putin publicly blamed NATO for the war and didn't say anything about ceasefire talks, even though there was a deadline to do so. Now, the parade they'll all be at, it's China's largest ever, and the security is intense. Roads and schools are closed, people living near the parade route, aren't allowed to leave their homes or even look out the window. Rehearsals have involved more than 40,000 personnel.

It's going to go right through Tiananmen Square, Paschi, Putin, and Kim, who could well be standing side by side. according to North Korean state media, Kim is on his way. He's arriving by armored train. President Trump has also talked about wanting to meet Kim this year. So this show of force tomorrow in Beijing will be very closely watched by the U.S. because it will also be its own show of unity. Mika. NBC's Janice McKee Freyer with that report. It's like a scene out of Austin Powers. What are they going to do? Shipping Edia means bones next? I mean, it's like, Who's not going there that's oppressing, you know, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people? Gang's all there.

And Kim Jong-un being the last arriving by train. And they'll all be standing side by side. I mean, you literally had Putin and Modi holding hands yesterday. Clearly, this meeting, a shot at President Trump, who, by the way, the number of drone attacks since that summit in Anchorage between President Trump and President Putin have doubled. he's only stepped up the war Putin since that summit. It's been absolutely savage. You do wonder at what point the U.S.

you wonder at what point the U.S. Senate steps in and says, enough, we're going to pass this bill, Mr. President. We need you to come along with us on it. How long till the president says to the Senate, all right, go ahead. I mean, clearly, clearly Putin thumbing his nose at the United States of America.

So David Ignatius, You can go back to Nixon going to China, to Deng Xiaoping going to Mika's parents' farmhouse in 79 for the normalization of relations with China. But it's always been a triangulation. The United States and China balances against the old Soviet Union or maybe the U.S. and Russia balancing against a growing China. There's always been the idea we're going to triangulate two off of each other. And the wild card in there and growing in power every year was always India. And India was a great balance against China's rise. So the prospect of seeing, for those that don't follow the geopolitical moves closely over the decades,

the fact that all three of them are lined up right now against the United States, tell me, first of all, tell me your thoughts on the consequences of that. And secondly, what does the United States need to do? What does the President need to do? What do we need to do to break that up? And again, sort of get a rebalancing of the formula that's work for 50 years. Joe, I thought that the summit at Tianjin was a significant setback for the United States. The image of Vladimir Putin holding hands with the leader of India Narenda Modi.

It was a sign that Putin is getting away with it, that three years into this war, he is now claiming this was the West's fault. And he has an audience of prominent world leaders who agree with them, including somebody who was a key person in America's efforts to create a new kind of informal partnership to contain China, namely India. India's repositioning toward Russia and China reverses diplomacy that's been conducted since the administration of George W. Bush at least. And it's a really significant setback. In terms of the broader outlook for Trump's foreign policy, he's now looking at failures or lack of success in each of the major diplomatic initiatives that he undertook. The Ukraine war is still far from settled. Russia is essentially thumbing its nose at President Trump. The Gaza war continues in a bloodier than ever direction that has got Israel divided against

itself, just a terrible situation for Israel and the Palestinians, both. And Trump seemingly unable to make his peace policies, one of the central things he ran on. I'm going to go make peace to make those policies work. And this weekend summit was a symbol of just how. how tough the obstacles to him succeeding in foreign policy become. Caddy, the war in Ukraine is front and center, obviously, tariffs also in the mix, 50% tariffs from the United States placed on India in some ways driving Modi to that photo op where he's holding hands with Putin and that incredible, extraordinary show of support for Vladimir Putin,

as he, as David points out, steps up the war in Ukraine right now. So what is the message this group of leaders yesterday and through the week at this military parade is trying to send to President Trump? Look, I mean, it takes something to get the Indian prime minister to look like he's being cozy with the Chinese leader. It takes something also for the Japanese to be talking to the Chinese, which is another thing that has happened recently. And that something is Donald Trump, that he is pushing people who would not necessarily be allies around the world into alliances with each other. in order to enact a show of force against Donald Trump. I mean, when it comes to the war in Ukraine, the war in Ukraine suits the host of this summit, China, very well.

They would like to have America's attention split between Ukraine and Europe and Asia and not be fully focused on Asia. So Chairman Xi has no interest other than keeping their war in Ukraine going, which is why he's sending missile parts and weapons parts, not weapons necessarily themselves, but weapons parts to Russia. But I guess, David, the question is,

what does Donald Trump do in reaction to this show of force? He's already had the Europeans come over and say, okay, we are actually united President Trump. We're not going to be, you can't split ranks between us. Now he's got the Asians effectively saying the same thing. What does Trump make of what he's seeing in China? So Trump's set a deadline for peace in Ukraine for early this month. And he's got to do something in response to his own deadline.

He either has to find a new way to put pressure on letter of Putin. That's unlikely. Putin's very dug in. Or he has to really embrace Europe's effort to stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression. That'd be a significant move. Or, and maybe this is most likely, he's going to decide to walk away. I tried, you know, I've done my best. That's it.

I'm out of here. which would be a terrible embarrassment for him, not to say a real moral quandary for the United States, which has helped Ukraine resist this Russian aggression. Similarly with the war in Gaza, he's got to complete the policies that he began. And I think that's the, I would say, the biggest failure of his foreign policy is execution. He's had some big ideas, but an inability to follow through. So we're going to have a back-to-school September, if you will, in which Donald Trump is really going to be tested at home

on his economic policies, the fragmentation of our public health system abroad in these key areas that we just have been talking about involving key adversaries, and we thought with India potential allies. Well, and hopefully the India tariff deal will get resolved because that is a serious, serious problem. again, having all three of those powers aligned against us. But it seems to me that actually the Russia, because Russia is hurting so much, even though they are just completely pounding Ukraine

right now, their economy is hurting, their military has been savaged over the past three years. They've got up to a million casualties. They keep losing people over and over and over again. I mean, at some point, we can strike a deal. Let the U.S. Senate pass the tariffs, give the $90 billion funding bill to the Ukrainians and see what happens. He'll come to the table. Still ahead on morning, Joe, is President Trump casting doubt on the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine? We're going to dig into those comments.

As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy continues to face backlash for the upheaval at the CDC. It is not remarkable what's happening at the CDC. We all knew it. Also, a certain doctor from Louisiana who made Kennedy's appointment possible, knew it before it happened. And he and the other Republican senators voted for him to savage our health care system anyway. Think about that. They knew what he was going to do at HHS. He's been saying it for 20 years.

Pseudoscience, eh, that's too mild of a term. And yet they voted for him anyway, doctors voted for him anyway, the savage America's health care system. Plus, we'll look at the rising crime rates in Republican-led states amid the federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s police department. And we'll also take a look at what happened in Chicago over the weekend. Over 50 people shot, seven killed. And a reminder, the Morning Joe podcast is available each weekday, featuring our full conference. conversations and analysis. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. You're watching. Morning, Joe. We will be right back. Welcome back time now for a look at some of the other stories, making headlines this morning.

It's about the Red Sox of the Yankees being two and a half games out in the first place because the Blue JCP losing? No, that's not it. We're going to get to sports. a little later. So just hold off there. The president of Venezuela says his country is ready to respond to America's growing military presence in the Caribbean. Nicholas Maduro called the U.S. buildup unjustifiable and immoral. Wait, wait. The guy that stole an election is preaching morality now? Okay. And the Pentagon has deployed multiple warships to the region amid President Trump's threats to use the U.S. military to crack down on drug cartels. After more than three decades in the House, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler of New York

will retire next year. The 78-year-old said in part, quote, watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that. As the New York Times reports, Nadler's retirement will also almost serve. touch off a crowded primary fight over a rare open Democratic seat in the heart of Manhattan. We'll be watching that. And President Trump says he will award former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani with a presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. Trump made the announcement yesterday in a truth social post calling Giuliani the greatest mayor in the history of New York City. Trump's decision to honor the former mayor comes two days after he was injured in a car crash in New Hampshire.

According to state police, Giuliani was the passenger in a car being driven by his spokesperson. The vehicle was struck from behind. Giuliani's head of security says the 81-year-old was taken to the hospital for a spinal fracture, adding that he is, quote, recovering tremendously. So Jonathan Lear, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, as, as, uh, as, as, uh, As our daily news alum, let's talk about Giuliani. First of all, hoping he recovers well and gets out of it. Giuliani, though, many people would say he did an incredible job as mayor of New York City. And some of the same people would say he deeply tarnished it by trying to steal a presidential election.

But, yeah, talk about Giuliani's record as mayor of New York City. Well, first, we certainly hope he recover. some questions about the circumstances of that car accident, but police said they'll have updates in the days ahead. Yes, his first, he was first of all as a hard-charging prosecutor before he ran for mayor here in New York City. Most, even his critics would argue, very successful in his first term, really helped bring crime down. David Dinkins, his predecessor had hired a lot of police officers. Giuliani put them to use. He and Commissioner Bratton, head of the NYPD at the time, with their broken windows theory, undeniably successful bringing down crime. Second term, less so

seemingly confrontational with a lot of communities in the city. Reverend Sharpton has spoken about that quite a bit. But let's be clear, he was a performed heroically on the morning of September 11th. And for weeks afterwards, really sort of hit the grace notes what this morning grieving stunned city needed. Right. And you know, at a time that the president of the United States, first couple of days, seemed off balance up until the time he came to New York and stood on the pile of rubble, Giuliani stepped into the void there at an extraordinarily important time. And he was who America was looking at for several days after 9-11. And I will say also, he and Bill Bratton, no doubt the before and after effect of that has been stunning. And what it taught New Yorkers

was, we don't have to live in a dirty, dangerous crime-ridden city. Yeah, those are the high water marks, no doubt, of the Giuliani tenure. The driving down crime in the first term, what he did after September 11th. But as you said, Joe, his 2008 presidential campaign was a bust. And then, of course, he aligned himself with the Donald Trump's efforts to steal the 2020 election, tarnished in the eyes of most. It did just align himself. But as you wrote in your book, was the leader, a leader of the movement to steal an election. So we'll see. Got this board, I think. Yeah. Yeah. But the president says he can give him the Medal of Freedom. In Chicago over the weekend, at least 54 people were shot. This is just over Labor Day weekend.

and seven killed. Several of the incidents were mass shootings with multiple victims at a single scene. In one instance, a teenage girl was hit with a stray bullet. The violence comes as President Trump threatens to send federal agents and national guard troops to Chicago to quell the crime there, despite objections from the city's mayor, Brandon Johnson, and Illinois governor at J.B. Pritzker. Unfortunately, Joe, this is not unusual in Chicago, which has been plagued by gun violence for generations, not years for generations. Yeah. The question would be if President Trump sends in the National Guard, are they going to go into these neighborhoods where the gun violence is taking place? If so, what role would they have? How could they help to stop it? Or like in Washington, would they be at Navy Pier and Wrigley Field? Well, my concern is you have leaders in Chicago that see this, as you say, we've been reading about this for years now every weekend. And maybe crime has gone down. But, you know, we had the mayor of Chicago on last week saying, oh, we don't need any more police officers. Police officers aren't the answer. No police officers. I think he said no five times. You look what's happening this

weekend. You know, I actually think that J.B. Pritzker should do something radical. I think he should pick up the phone, call the president, and say, you know and I know, you don't have the constitutional authority to deploy the National Guard here and to police my, you can do that in D.C. You can't do that in Chicago. But let's partner up. These are the most dangerous parts of my state, we would love to figure out how to have a partnership that's constitutional that respects the sort of balance of federalism between the federal government and the state government. And let's work together to save lives. Because right now, just a, hey, nothing to see here moving along. No problem here. Hey, Donald Trump, we don't need you. And, you know,

the mayor talking about we're going to protect people's dignity in our city. will protect their lives. That's protecting their dignity. You know, it would be radical for us to figure out a way to actually do what I've been saying from the very beginning on Washington, and that is seeing politicians creating partnerships that protect their people. Yeah, it seems unlikely, though, if passes prolog, that either the governor or the president will take that step to have that moment of outreach and unity. You're right. We had the mayor on here last week, who correctly noted that hiring police officers isn't the be-all and end-all. You have to do other things, too. It has to be a

holistic response. You have to do things in the community. But you're right. He stubbornly said he didn't want, he would not accept more police officers. And I think he would, you know, a lot of mayors would disagree with him, even those who would be considered themselves Democrats, even real progressives. But I think there is the element to your point, Joe, is that if there were to be a partnership, these troops would have to be used correctly. And that's not been the case in D.C. for the most part. They have largely been deployed to tourist attractions, to Lincoln Memorial, maybe to Union Station, only a little bit into the neighborhoods where there actually been a rising crime. We really don't need tanks at Union Station. You do not. You can get on

the Acela without much trouble there. But so we there's no, that's what the governor's point has been, that if these troops come to Chicago and we agree, the president doesn't have a right, he might try anyway, that he wouldn't be used the way they're needed. So with all this talk about the National Guard in Washington and Chicago, there's been a renewed focus on crime rates in other parts of the country, including states governed by Republicans. New analysis from the New York Times highlights the high crime rates in cities like Memphis and Nashville, whose Republican governor of Tennessee dispatched his National Guard troops to Washington, despite Memphis facing a murder rate about twice as high as Washington. That's according to the FBI.

Seriously. I mean, what an idiot. You're actually going to help Washington, D.C., when you have cities that have twice the crime rate as your own state? I mean, it's the same thing Gavin Newsom is saying to Speaker of the House. Oh, wait, you're attacking San Francisco? San Francisco's a lot safer than Shreveport Monroe, which is right outside your district. What do you say? You're something like 400 times more likely to get killed in Speaker Johnson's homestead of Louisiana than, as he's probably saying now,

the greatest governor in the world. who's some state of California. Okay. That's the insanity of this. These red state governors sending National Guard up to D.C. When D.C. probably has a lower crime rate per capita than their home state.

Well, it's all to please President Trump. So you've got a guy, a National Guardsman from Murphysboro, Tennessee, being called up not to protect his own state, but to go to Washington and stand outside the Lincoln Memorial. Republican governors of Texas, Ohio, Missouri, all lead states with cities that have higher crime rates than Washington as well. None of those, though, have asked for federal intervention either.

Yeah, David Ignatius, it's all showbiz, as John Lennon would sing, and nobody loves you when you're down and out. It's all showbiz, and you see these red state governors. I mean, I could go down the list. I mean, you look per capita, whether it's Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, Louisiana, whether it's Bessemer, Alabama, whether it's Freeport, Louisiana, whether it's Monroe, Louisiana, whether it's Little Rock, Arkansas. I could keep going on and on and on. But there are mid-size and large American cities that are far more dangerous per capita than Washington, D.C. And these clowns of governors are actually sending National Guard troops away from their more dangerous cities to go pose in front of a Krispy Kreme don't. donut shop in DuPont Circle.

Yeah, I mean, it's not show business for people who get shot. And there is just way too much crime in America's cities in red states and blue states alike. You'd think a sensible country would stand together and say, let's address this crime problem, that Democrats would have every bit as much of an interest in doing that as Republicans. often in these cities, it's Democratic voters who end up paying the most severe cost in terms of violence. And yet, like everything else in this country, this just gets, accelerates as a partisan issue. It's just a shame.

But it is true that the murder rate, crime rate in Chicago, as illustrated by last weekend, is just way too high. Nobody should accept that. And nobody should say that that's a politicize that. They should, authorities in Illinois and Chicago should say, you know, either have a plan to have better enforcement on their own or, as you said, reach out to the federal government for assistance. I'd love to see Governor Pritzker do the same thing that Governor Westmore has done in Maryland. Maryland was a high-crime state, Baltimore in particular. Westmore, who has a deep understanding of criminal justice issues, having come up, as West Moore will say,

but when I was 11, I had cuffs on my wrist. He knows what this is, and he managed to make his way into the military, into a distinguished career. He knows this from every side, and he has brought that crime rate down in Maryland, by being tough about it, by making no compromises, by being the guy who funds community policing, stands behind it. Somehow the Democrats have to own this issue. Republican governors who have crime problems in cities and their states have to own the issue. We just need to be honest. We have a problem as a country. It's too violent.

Everybody knows it. I just have been traveling overseas. This doesn't happen overseas. It shouldn't happen here. People need to say enough. We've had it. Well, and as we've been saying here, don't just look at the crime stats going down and say, oh, well, it's safer now than it was during COVID or post-COVID.

But that's, that's praising, I mean, that's faint praise. I mean, it's just, it's not enough. And the showbiz part of it is red state governors sending their national guardsmen and women up to Washington, D.C., when they have more dangerous cities and towns in their own home states. But, Caddy, David, makes the great point that a lot of people around the table are making over the past several weeks, that most Americans feel like things are too dangerous. I keep going back to that Washington Post Bowl that was just taken a couple of months ago.

91% of residents in Washington, D.C., say Washington's too dangerous. Violence is too dangerous. People of color, black residents of Washington, those struggling, working class, and others are the most likely to say, Washington is too violent. The rich and the white in this Washington Post poll were the least likely to say Washington was too violent. So, I don't know, it just seems to me the Democrats have to start by doing what David just said.

I mean, acknowledge Americans don't want to hear about crime stats when they feel uncomfortable walking in the streets or their children walking in the streets of their own cities. Yeah, I mean, every country in the world has a lot of crime. the big difference in America is that there are a lot of guns out on the street and that the combination of crime and guns makes people feel very insecure. If you're being carjacked and you know the guy has a gun, it exponentially raises your risk factor compared to if you're in another country and somebody stops and tries to steal a car and they don't have a gun. I mean, that's just the way it is.

And you're right. It's the poorer areas, often the black areas of this city that have the most crime, but that's not where we're seeing the troops going down. They're wandering around Georgetown, my neighborhood. they're wandering around the national mall. I think there's another showbiz element to this, Joe, which is here are the troops in Washington ostensibly to tackle the crime, but there is a big ice factor going on in this city at the same time.

If you go to some schools in some neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. at the moment, the parents are very anxious about taking their children to school. There's a whole community system that's grown up around it. It's very efficient with phones. You've got kind of watchers, community activists on the pavement, watching, kind of whistling, literally whistling to mothers as they leave their house with their folding their five-year-old children's hands to say, okay, you can come out now and we'll make sure you're safe to the next block to get to school. That's also what's happening in this city at the moment. There's a lot of ice raids happening. And I think that's kind of, that's actually maybe the real story of this crackdown.

and some of the National Guard element of that is for the show of the cameras to show that Donald Trump is being tough on crime. But what you're not seeing is the fear that people are feeling about taking their children to school. Right. And I mean, and what you're not seeing are enough of these troops in southeast Washington. And other areas where the people desperately need and want more uniformed officers. But Caddy brings up children going to school. That really quickly. We'll get to it later on. But Jonathan, that brings up one of the most compelling stories of the weekend, and that is Guatemalan children shipped on to a plane,

and then a federal judge stops it and says, I want to be very clear here. The children are not to leave. The government wouldn't respond to her. She very, very direct saying, don't even try to suggest this was, there was any ambiguity here. No ambiguity. get those children off the plane until we have a hearing.

Yeah, now the judge couldn't have been clear. We'll see how the government responds. They have been in defiance of some court orders to this point. But back to connecting all this together, there is a sense with terms of Chicago, the National Guard. We've raised the idea that the president doesn't have the authority to do so. But there, I bet the no decision has been made, but I haven't been told by some in the administration that the Guard will be deployed

to safeguard ice raids, to therefore provide security to ice agents, Much like that was the pretense in Los Angeles. There's Los Angeles to protect federal buildings and to protect federal. That's what they did in L.A. The thought is that might be how they try to, how the bank shot to get some of these guard troops to Chicago, that pretense. First of all, would accelerate these ice raids, which I know many in the community do not want. But secondly, would allow the president to have a show of force, have his troops in the city with a perhaps more legally justifiable means. That's being considered.

And the ice raids, of course, being done by people wearing masks. They're terrifying, and they are terrifying communities across the country. There's no question. I haven't seen one video of an ice raid where people are clapping for it. Have you? No. It's terrifying, and it's not what the president promised. The Washington Post, David Ignatius, thank you very much.

Coming up, a rough debut for Bill Belichick at the University of North Carolina as the coach, with the most Super Bowl wins got blown out last night. We'll dig into that and the other headlines from my. a big weekend in sports. Morning Joe, we'll be right back. Fourth and five. Manning in trouble, got it away. Caught, but not enough for the first.

The Ohio State Buckeyes opening their national title defense with a win on Saturday in that highly anticipated matchup with Texas, making that fourth down stop late against Arch Manning to hold off the Longhorns 14 to 7. Arch Manning, Joe, all the talk about this kid for people who don't know. He is the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, really, really talented, highly-touted player, but sitting on the bench for two years of Texas. This was his debut, not great.

I wish him well. I actually felt sorry for him because he's so overhyped. There was a point in the first quarter where I think he had more endorsement ads running than completions. I'm serious. I'm serious. And you just sit there thinking, It's way too much pressure. Why did he do the endorsement ads?

Why didn't, you know, but everybody's talking about how great. I've got to say, I've seen some good clips from high school. But even last year, they brought Archmanning in. He'd do a quarterback sneak. He'd run for 10 yards. I've been seen any NFL level talent. And so I was really curious to see whether I'd see it in this game. And instead, saw a kid, still a kid.

Again, a lot of endorsements. but it wasn't ready to play at that level. Also thrown into the fire at Ohio State against the national champion. It's the best defense. Pablo's here. Pablo Torres here. Even though it's the best

defense in the country, he was overthrowing guys underthrowing guys wide open without pressure on it. The thing with Archmanning, remember how LeBron James had chosen one tattooed on his back? Archmanning has a name that is effectively the same thing. Right.

This is a family in the mannings that we know has figured out the job that America cares about the most quarterback, that no one else can figure out. Here is a family that turns out star after star, Archie, to Eli and Payton and not Cooper. But here we have the son of Cooper trying to complete the circle. And, yeah, it's an O. It's a big red O at midfield, it turns out. That's the circle he got small. Nobody's saying here that he can't have a great year and can't even end up and running for the Heisman. But I still haven't seen anything.

Nobody's really seen anything that suggests this kid should be on every third commercial during college football games. Yeah, he's in every third commercial because of his last name. And, you know, the game also seemed fast for him. As you, Joe, as you said, he missed some open throws. I mean, that's a great defense. He also throwing things sidearm when he didn't need to. He just seemed overwhelmed by the moment. He led one drive there for a touchdown late.

We saw it. But otherwise, plenty of time to get back. better, tough schedule, but he was underwhelming on sale. I bet it gets a lot better even this week. He's mobile, too, different from Eli and Hayden. He can run. So let's give him some time. He has done, actually, the commercials not

withstanding a good job of trying to tamp down the hype around him. He's the one who said seems like a good kid. He's the one who said it's ridiculous for us to be ranked number one before the season starts. How does anybody know? And he's like, I haven't done anything yet. And he was willing to sit on the bench. He didn't force his way to starting jobs. He's not, no, no, no. Shocking curious.

I'll give him some time. We'll give him some time. Meanwhile, the new era of North Carolina football under Bill Belichick kicked off last night, and it was ugly. TCU, spoiling Belichick's debut with a 4814 blowout of the Targill. So Pablo, Chapel Hill was ready. The stadium was packed. It looked beautiful. They had all the fanfare. Michael Jordan was there. Lawrence Taylor was there. And then the game started. Yeah. You may recall Bill Belichick from the time he coached like 500 plus games in the NFL and gave up 48 points, zero times. Zero times. And he is now, you know, one for one in terms of getting blown out in college. And look, the whole, I don't want to make this into a whole, like, victory lap for me.

I think you do. Is that why you're doing? Is this about the ring cam? It's about everything. Oh, my God. The ring cam was so good. That podcast you did, where you went to, like, you went to the house. I was, I was, I was, Hillary for my journalism. You could, thank you for recognizing. I was, people were saying, well, hold on. Wait, you're going at journalism? I am. It's absolutely, you're talking about me. Maybe that's the problem.

My P-Body nominated podcast, notwithstanding. I will simply point out. Wait, I love your podcast. All right. Come on. Let's get the absurdity of this. The absurdity of this story is Bill Belichick is not who you remember. That is the whole story through the Jordan Hudson thing, which is absurd and ridiculous into,

of course, a game like this when it's like, wait a minute, we signed up for the greatest of all time. And we got truly a laughing stock. And I don't think it gets better. I don't think it gets it. It is after this game. I mean, look, he's the greatest NFL coach of all time. But what he is now is a guy who got blown out by TCU. And that is something that is very, very disquieting to anybody who remembers Bill Belichick of York. Also point out, John, he brought in 70 new players. It's like an expansion team almost. All these guys from different programs. The 30 transfers and all that. It's going to take a minute.

Of course. Even for a coach like Belichick, adjusting to the new system, adjusting the college ranks, it's going to take some time. Yes, in terms of the story, shall we say, tumultuous offseason, this doesn't help in terms of reinforcing the sense, reinforcing the sense that there's chaos at Chapel Hill. But again, I think that he will give in some time and prove, but it would be a lot to expect him to recreate the heights he achieved in the NFL.

There may be chaos. Chapel Hill, but it's nothing like what's going on inside the athletic department in the University of Alabama right now. I mean, why don't we just say it? I mean, seriously, this is what drives me crazy? Like, when things go wrong, when it's clear they're not going to get better, you have to make a change. Now, I said that in the middle of last year, that DeVore, though, a nice guy, just wasn't up to the moment. Is this year two? This is year two. And he just, Willie, he didn't have the background. He had a couple years at Washington,

and before that, I think it was at North Dakota State or something. But he was in no position to replace Nick Saban. And here's the thing. They've got so many five-star recruits. They have four-star recruits. They have the best athletes on the field here by a long shot. They looked scared. They looked confused.

They couldn't make tackles. Their quarterback was scared. You looked in his eyes. He was hanging his head in the first quarter. If you hung your head after a loss, Nick Saban would take you out and have you running laps. I mean, this is not just about Nick Saban. This is about having an SEC coach that knows how to coach a team. This is a massive team, a massive organization, and the board just will never be that coach.

There was a thing when Sabin was at Alabama, where Alabama almost had won the game before the game started. Because of the mystique, because of the new, you knew the way they were going to play. they always had the talent, but also under Sabin. They weren't going to make mistakes. They weren't going to let things slide. They weren't going to hang their heads. And it started, I take only a small amount of pride in saying this last year. No, it's true, though, when Vanderbilt beat Alabama in Nashville.

And the thing about Vandy is they beat them from the opening kickoff to the gold post being carried down in the river. True. Alabama was number one in the nation, undefeated. Millropeen talked about as the high spin front run and all that. And it sort of began to fall apart in that. Nashville last year. But I think about Vandy, not just for the symbolic reasons of Vandy now owns Alabama. It's that four and four is Kaelin DeBore in games that Alabama has been favored by 14 points. These are the winnable games. Do you know DeVore has lost more games to unranked opponents in a year than Savin did during his entire term there? One of the reasons I

laugh, and we can go statistic for statistic for an hour because Alabama has not lost. Because you know it hurts my children. I was thinking what's it like for Joe right now as Alabama loses the first season opener since 2001. You know what it's like? It's like watching Mike Shula coach as we lose to Hawaii and go six. I'm dead serious. We will be lucky to be a 500 team this year. But the thing is, again, it's not about wins and losses. I'll say it again. I remember at the end of, you know, and you heard, Feinbaum said, I was the one that brought Saved and Tuscaloosa. He said it at time and time again. Well, at the end of the season, they were six and six. Feinbaum specifically called me to go on a show to mock and ridicule me, saying, oh, they're six and six.

I bet you wish you would, you know, it had been sprury or somebody go, no, you remember the Arkansas game where they were behind? It's the first time in like 10 years where I looked down on the field. They go, oh, they're going to win because Saban had them believing. It's that leadership. It's not there. And when it's not there, you got to cut the cord. Here's the dark sort of, like, subtext, though. At the end of Saban's run, the lead was seemingly insurmountable for years and years, right? Nobody was making the runs that Saban was making into the playoffs. By the end, Georgia was catching up.

Georgia was catching up. Not really. Well, they were winning titles. They were there at the end. And the question is, I go back to January of 2024, when something fascinating happens in, like, 24, 48 hours. Nick Saban says, I'm out of here. This era of college football is not what I signed up for. And Bill Belichick leaves the Patriots.

And we see what happened now. One guy, Nick Saban, picked the right time, I believe, to get out of the game. Belichick got into it. And that's a great story. I understand completely why Nick Saban left. Like, who wants to recruit a kid every single year? Who wants to not be able to sit a kid on the bench the last game of a year? to teach them a lesson so they'll be better and work harder through the year.

No, now they just transfer so you can't really coach. So that's part of it. I will say also, though, there is another side of it too. And told Feinbaum, on the air here, if Alabama wants to win, then you'd be less concerned about ruffling Nick Sabin's feathers and more concerned about winning. And they need to bring Lane Kiffin back to Alabama because Lane will win them national championships.

up. Fine bomb said, that's not going to happen. Why's that not going to happen? Saban doesn't like, you know, Lane Kiffin. All right, well, I'm sorry, but do you want to win? Or do you want to do what we did with Bear Bryant for 20 years? And if anybody, like, was in the orbit of Bear Bryant, they get to coach the team. That's all I have to say, John. Yeah, no, it would, it would, I will defer to you on all things Alabama football, but it seems like a cleaner break from the Sabin era likely needed. I mean, in terms of this year, of course, with an expanded playoff system, You can lose a game or two.

You can still be playing in the postseason. They've got plenty of time to straighten things out. But the signs aren't encouraging. The overall trajectory of Alabama football, and we see in the SEC, LSU put up a big win this weekend. Wow, being Clemson, it's going to be tough as always. LSU could be ranked number one in the country this morning with the rain come out. And shout out to Miami beating Notre Dame at home the other night.

And also a shout out to the Cincinnati Reds. They're our favorite for beating the Blue Jays. So get there. America's team. With this table can agree. What we hope for as Yankees and Red Sox fans than where we are in September? We're in it. Two and a half games out, both of us.

It's September. Both of our teams are in it. We're literally tied right now. Two and a half games behind the Blue Jays. Yankees have a very stretch, difficult stretch coming up. Two weeks that end with a big series at Fenway. All right. Yeah, fingers crossed.

It is they're both teams in the wild card right now. In fact, the season we're to end today, Yankees, Red Sox will be playing in the playoffs. But with a month to go, Toronto suddenly has come back to the pack enough. Yeah. There's a shot at the division. All right, MSNBC contributor, Pablo Torre. Thank you so much for coming on this morning. Peabody Award winner.

There he is. Nominated. Nominated. Journalistically sound. Oh, my God. Okay.