Morning Joe - David Ignatius: Growing feeling Iran can handle a long war better than the U.S.

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

David Ignatius: Growing feeling Iran can handle a long war better than the U.S. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

7270, Duke, 10 seconds to go. Now, to cut and run through the ball. They'll do better than this guy. Get it into Boozer. Back for Sarr. Ahead, Boozer, that ball deflected. Two seconds. That is just crazy.

I have watched a lot of NCAA games, a lot of March Madnesses. I mean, only the Christian Leitner, heartbreaker against Kentucky comes close to this one. Mika, that was an extraordinary. moment in college basketball history. And for you, not a very enjoyable one until you saw the replay. No, it wasn't. Your scream was so loud. But then I saw it, and I have to admit, along with the announcers here, March has

delivered another hero. That was incredible. And, you know, I come from Yukon Husky fame. Of course. In my local news groups. So I felt this. I loved him on all the coaches and players on the sidelines, like jump. into the, yeah, it was incredible. And John Lemire, so Mika, Mika was dutifully reading in.

Yeah. I was watching on my iPad through my headphones quietly. And suddenly just a loud, loud, bellowing yell fills up the entire house. And it took her, on the third, on the third replay, she understood why I was screaming so loud. That was an, I mean, me, there's just no way they should have ever been able to do this. They've got 10 seconds to burn here. All they have to do is burning, too. And right here, I figure it's over, right? One more pass, it's over, and they block it.

Just pass, feedback out. Look at that. John, Lamere. Some people probably got up to get dinner. Just extraordinary, John. Well, every time Duke loses on a buzzer-beater, an angel gets its wings. So there's that, first of all. Secondly, this is an extraordinary game.

My youngest son and I, we were at the Mets earlier in the afternoon. We came home. We watched this. We also screamed. Let's remember. Yukon was down 19 points in the first half. Trailed the entire game, made a big run. Duke looked like they were going to hold on right there at the end.

And then you're right. These last handful of seconds will be studied forever. They're one pass away. Duke is from winning. Or just hold the ball and get fouled. Just get fouled. And then make your free throws. And then Yukon has to.

to go the whole length of the court. But let's just say it. Brayland Mullins, the freshman, had not made a sink. He had missed all of his three-point attempts earlier in the game, hits that one from the logo to win, and he goes into immortality as Yukon goes to the final four. Yeah, just unbelievable. And for number one seeds, who are up by 15 or more at halftime, 134-0 until last night. And that's how we're going to be matched up. Final four, Yukon and Illinois and Arizona against Michigan. Let's go, Huskies.

We do have a lot to get to this morning on this Monday, March 30th. Lawmakers left Washington on Friday without a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security with no plans to return to D.C. for the next two weeks. Right now, it is not clear. if Trump's executive order to pay TSA employees, bring enough of them back, and fully cut down the long security lines at airports. We'll be watching that.

Meanwhile, oil prices are rising again, topping on $100 a barrel in the US overnight. We're gonna dig into new reporting on how the war has been very profitable for Iran. And Russia. As the country is making twice as much on oil sales as it was before the conflict, Conflict started, and millions of people across the country this weekend protested President Trump

and his administration's policies with another No King's March, and they took place in states across the country. Well, we got a report from a friend in Palm Beach County who called up. On Beach County had quite a march. To say just an extraordinary turnout. An extraordinary turnout across the country, Pensacola. Same thing, very conservative. Very.

He talked to a friend last night who just said the turnout was something they would have never seen in a conservative area like that before. With us, we have the co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast. The BBC's Caddy Kay, columnist, an associate editor at the Washington Post. David Ignatius is with us and senior writer at the dispatch and columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. David, we're going to get through all of the news really quickly. I've got to just say, though, without passing judgment on how this war is going or how it's going. going to end up. A lot of Americans reading the news would rightly be confused and concerned that Iran, that economist's report that we've all been hearing, Iran is making far more money now on oil revenue during this war than they ever did before the war. Russia also, another person outside of Donald Trump, that most, certainly most Americans and traditionalists

consider to be America's enemy because they consider us to be their enemy. Russia also, like Iran, doing far better than they've done economically in absolute years. And it is the Mullahs and it is a revolutionary guard that is making, quote, a mint off of Donald Trump's war. There are perverse outcomes of this war show a month in. You'd have to say that on the tactical level, the U.S. and Israel are continuing to pound Iran and take out targets pretty much at will. But on the strategic level, and I'd include the economic side as part of that, there have been reversals. The degree of dislocation for the global economy clearly wasn't anticipated. I think there's a growing feeling that Iran can handle a long more better than the United States.

We're seeing efforts to plan for contingencies by the U.S. military, sending special operations forces along with paratroopers, Marines, huge array of forces, giving the commander there, Admiral Brad Cooper, lots of options. My own feeling, Joe, as I look at this situation where nothing but bad choices for the moment for the U.S., there's no real diplomacy. happening and you don't want to have a ground invasion of Iran, do you? So the idea of just kind of building up this force, waiting for things to change, waiting for diplomatic options, perhaps, to increase, this force is capable of lots of rapid in and out moves. So the special operations forces can be there and be gone before you know it. So it's a situation, as one of my sources said to me over the weekend, where the U.S. might think about hurry up and slow down. In other words, don't force yourself to make choices before you have to.

Wait and see. Try to let time play on the side of the U.S., not Iran. See where this is in a few days, in a week maybe. Because right now, today, the choices that the U.S. faces are not good ones. Well, and especially, and we've been talking about, from the president, others, we've been talking about two weeks, three weeks, three to four weeks. I must say you look at all of the things, all the dominoes that have fallen over the past week or two and keep falling at a more rapid rate. Again, two things can be very true at the same time. One, David, we are, our military continues to do extraordinarily well at striking its targets. And as I've been saying here, and I know you've been saying as well, we are achieving a lot of military goals. But geo, Politically is what is trying to get Chuck Schumer to admit to. The military is going very well.

Geopolitically, it's an absolute mess. And of course, Republicans will want to focus on the military side of that, but not on the geopolitical side of it. But this is spinning geopolitically, not militarily, geopolitically, spinning out of control. So it seems to me both sides need to figure out how to come together. This is not wishful thinking. America can't stand to fail. America can't stand to lose. We've got to figure out. how this is a victory for America, but right now there are two very different wars going on, the military and the geopolitical, David. So I think that puts it well. I hope in the coming weeks, America's allies, you can still say that, around the world, will realize that they have a lot at stake here. I mean, the consequences for the world economy are growing. a month or two from now, we're going to be really suffering.

And by we, I mean, Europe, China, Japan, as much as the United States, may be more. So they have an interest in seeing what ways there are to de-escalate this conflict, to put pressure on Iran. As much as they may resent Trump's having gotten this war going, that doesn't mean that they don't have some selfish interest in financial interest in finding a way to end it. Right now, the diplomatic options aren't good, from what I hear, but they could get a lot better. All right, let's bring everyone up today on the very latest. Fighting continues throughout the Middle East this morning.

Now, more than one month into the war with Iran. Pakistan says it prepared to host talks between the U.S. and Iran in the coming days, but the warring parties did not confirm any participation, and the two sides appear to remain far apart. Speaking to reporters last night on board Air Force One, President Trump said Iran has agreed to most of the 15-point list of demands for the U.S. to end the conflict without providing details. Iran's state-run media has reported that Tehran had rejected the ceasefire proposal.

Trump also said Iran agreed to allow 20 more oil cargo ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping waterway as oil prices continue to rise. The president is framing that as a sign that negotiations are underway, but Tehran is telling a different story. The Speaker of Iran's parliament accused the U.S. of putting on a front of diplomacy while, quote, secretly planning a ground invasion. According to state media, he added that Iranian forces were, quote, waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire.

and punish their regional partners forever. President Trump, however, continued to signal some optimism last night while insisting he has already achieved regime change in Iran. I think we'll make a deal with them, pretty sure, whether it's possible and we won't. But we've had regime change, if you look, already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed.

They're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change. And frankly, they've been very reasonable. So I think we've had regime change. Sir, could you first see a deal in Iran this upcoming week?

I do see a deal in Iran. Yeah. Mr. President. Could be soon. David, so it's really hard to figure out exactly what is going on. behind the scenes because we heard of the negotiations that were going on and we're going to get an answer the following Wednesday, of course, on the Friday before the attack was launched that night. So Iran, looking at what's happened in the past, could very well come to the conclusion.

These talks of negotiations are just setting us up again. I'm just curious, number one, on the regime change that the president talks about, Every report I've read suggests that the, quote, new regime is even more battle-hardened, more battle-tested, angrier and more radical members of the Revolutionary Guard, number one. And number two, on negotiations. Again, we're seeing through a glass darkly, looking through a glass darkly, what reporting can you give us on the negotiations? Is there any reason to hope, or is the president just trying to calm the markets? So the reason to hope is that there's a lot of effort being put in by U.S. allies, led at this point by Pakistan, but aided by Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. They met yesterday in Pakistan, and they're trying to set a framework in which you could begin negotiations.

The problem is the situation in Iran is still very unclear, just who's leading the country. I'm told that their principal intermediary, not surprisingly, is the first. foreign minister, Araji, very experienced negotiator, professional, as President Trump said, but that's not the same as dealing with an IRGC-led regime. And so I think there's a lot of uncertainty. Who is the United States dealing with? What's the nature of this negotiation? So I think the president's a little bit premature. Again, my sense is that the U.S. is building more and more options militarily, and that waiting for those to ripen, not taking rash action, don't jump into Cargile and make sense for the White House. And I think, as I read

between the lines, I think that's where they're going. These diplomatic options may increase as other countries lean hard into trying to get cooperation from Pakistan, from Iran. We may end up with a different situation in a few days. But right now, Joe, I think the president's being over-optimistic. The White House had floated that the parliament, Speaker there may be the person who could lead the Iranian side of these negotiations. Well, reportedly the Israeli military killed him over the weekend. We are seeing the President of the United States here talk about, you know, seizing the oil, which is, which is something that is striking. I wrote a few weeks ago how that was not being publicly discussed. Now, though,

that it seems to be part of the U.S. options. And he told, the president told the Financial Times last night that an invasion of Karg Island is possible. And the Wall Street Journal has reporting on that today, as well as potentially ground forces heading into Iran to try to secure their nuclear materials, which would be deeply risky and deeply dangerous and also take days or weeks. We also have the Washington Post caddy saying that the DOD is preparing potentially for weeks of operations that would really escalate this. And I think we'd be politically very dangerous for Republicans, and most of all, of course, dangerous for our soldiers on the ground. And lastly, I just think we have to be clear.

The President of the United States has zero credibility in terms of how this war is going. He's declared victory about two dozen times. And he's shifting timetables. He's shifting goals. And the Iranians seem to be realizing they might be able to wait him out. And Trump, Caddy, is saying so often about trying to sound optimistic for the markets, the last handful of days, the markets seemingly haven't listened, despite the good news coming out of Trump's mouth. Like, oh, we're winding this down.

The price of oil only going up. Yeah, the president keeps saying and has done several times over the course the last few days. We've won, putting that in the past tense, and that there has been regime change. But as you pointed out, the markets don't seem to be buying that. I spoke to an economist over the weekend who said to me, traders aren't really buying the taco trade anymore. They think this is an escalate situation. They're looking at all of these American forces coming into the region. And as the president said to Ed Luce at the Financial Times, yesterday they're looking at the option of Kag Island.

And I thought his interview with Ed was really interesting because it felt like he was softening people up for the possibility of Kog being a possibility by saying it repeatedly in the course of that interview. It sounded like he was talking to Americans and saying, listen, now get ready for that. And denying that that could pose any problem for America and then they could just take the oil and only stupid people in the United States didn't want him to take the oil. But as we found, this is not Venezuela and the regime has not changed. Nobody else buys the idea that the regime has changed just because the president and Caroline never say that we've got rid of the people at the top. So I think David Ignatius is right. At the moment, there are no very good options. And the idea of escalating to de-escalate historically, when has that actually succeeded?

Traditionally, it's been escalate to escalate. And I think that is what is unnerving financial markets at the moment. It's why the oil price keeps rising, even though the president puts. put this pause on. And I'm, I've spoken to several people over the course of the weekend, some more sympathetic to the president than others. None of them seem to think that there are very good, clear options for America right now. We know, Jonathan Lemire talked about Corrig Island and the possibility of seizing the oil there, the overwhelming majority. Somebody's father at this table wanted to do this in 1979,

and it wasn't mine. He was coaching Dixie League, Dixie Youth Baseball. I may have been your father in 1979. But here's what I've never been able to sort through. The president of the United States has not been talking about getting Iran's oil. And yet, if passed his prolog, everything he's ever said about George W. Bush's failures in Iraq is that he didn't take the oil. And Venezuela, he said, unlike George W. Bush, he told me on a phone call, I'm going to take the oil in Venezuela. It would be shocking if that weren't on his his dance card, his strategic dance card here, because if he didn't take the oil, he would be doing exactly what he criticized George W. Bush for for the past 23 years. So again, there hasn't been talk of it.

So whenever I hear that come up, I'm like, okay, this is where we're going to end up. It just tracks. If it doesn't track, then it past is not prologue. And that's usually not the case with Donald Trump. Right. So the Department of Defense is reportedly preparing for weeks of potential ground operations in Iran. That's according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Post. Those officials said any potential operation would fall short of a full-scale invasion. It could involve raids carried out by a mix of special ops forces and conventional infantry troops.

And according to a exclusive report, reporting by the Wall Street Journal, President Trump is weighing a military operation to extract uranium from Iran. But military experts warn any operation would require plenty of manpower, a specially trained extraction team, and even a makeshift airfield, which could take several weeks. They say this mission would be the most challenging of Trump's presidency and could ultimately lengthen the war. I must say, David Drucker, I'd be surprised if special ops weren't used in this war by the end. That said, just judging by how unpopular the war seems to be, compared to past conflicts,

there's no doubt the headlines about boots on the ground, even if the special ops operation obviously could cause some real blowback. I'm wondering, what are you sensing as far as the political appetite of Republicans, independence, Democrats on expanding this war further? Yeah, well, I mean, the Democrats and independents, right? That's an easy call. There's no appetite for expanding it further. There's no appetite

for the war at all. And part of the reason for that is that the president didn't make his case to the American public, didn't go to Congress. I mean, forget for a minute, just going to Congress for authorization. He didn't go to Congress to solicit their advice, to alert them to what he was planning, and what

the objectives were. And so there's just absolutely zero buy-in from the American public and from members of Congress. Now, obviously, the American public also includes Republicans and plenty of them. They're very supportive. They've been very supportive. Joe, you and I've talked about this. One of the things that my sources have told me in terms of the potential political fallout down the line from the right is that in a case where we get bogged down, in a case where we have thousands or some high level number of boots on the ground, temporary bases, right? So that reporting from the Post just now, you mentioned about the possibility of a temporary airbase. This is where the president would have to start looking over his shoulder from the broader Republican electorate, right?

We've talked about how those loud voices on the right wing, particularly the podcasters in that group, don't speak for many Republican voters at all, but here's where Republican voters would start to get a little antsy. And, you know, I think, again, in a case where you don't have, and I think this is so key, where you don't have to find objectives that you're working towards, you have general objectives. And on any given day, you have, you know, you're getting closer to some general objective or another. But nobody is quite sure about the why now and what's going to, precipitate a beginning of the end, right? A lot of military success, but why now and what is the beginning of the end?

And so I think that's what the president has to be concerned about if he cares about the political support that he currently has. You know, I want to know what David just said. I got an almost comic. If there's anything comic about this war, there's almost a comic illustration of the disconnect between certain people on the right, whether a radio, podcast, whatever, and the MAGA base, in that there's been a lot of people harshly critical of this Iran operation. And for good reason.

They have legitimate reasons. But I saw a poll last week that showed among the MAGA base in this poll, 100% of people who are self-described MAGA followers support the President's war. So there is a disconnect there. There hasn't been the sort of split that a lot of people thought there's going to be. Now, maybe a lot fewer people self-identify as MAGA now that this war has begun. Who knows? But the self-identified MAGA voters are still, seem to be completely behind the president of this war.

Not the rest of the country. Those numbers are 39, 40%. Hey, John, John Lemire, I got quite a few. questions coming in to my phone after you mentioned that the parliamentary speaker may have been killed over the weekend by Iran. Tell us about your reporting. Yeah, so it's a mix. I said reportedly killed. And Israeli news site has said that he was hit by an airstrike and killed. There's some confusion now whether that's true or not. It points to the two things. First of all, the fog of war. We also know the foreign president of Iran was reportedly killed in the first days of the strike.

Turns out he's not. He's alive. So it's unclear whether this person is still with us or not. It's also unclear whether he'd be actually empowered to have any authority to have negotiations. The White House had propped him up a few days ago. We will see if that is, if that's the case. But also, Joe, Mika, it's a reminder that a growing concern among some observers of this war is the divide and perhaps growing divide between Israeli war aims and U.S. war aims. So that's something we need to watch as well. And it's unclear when any real diplomacy would begin. I mean, the expansion of the war in Lebanon, it just continues. And again, it adds to any potential

blowback that we're going to see in the years to come just continues to add to the blowback that all of us, not Israel, all of us, could be facing in the years to come. David, a final quick question. And Jonathan did say that there were reports that the parliamentary speaker may had been killed. I think we're in this situation, though, with the toughened revolutionary guard running Iran, that anybody that steps up and say, as I've said last week, perhaps a bit too bluntly, anybody that steps up and says, hey, I want to be Iran's, Delci Rodriguez, immediately gets killed by the Revolutionary Guard. Nobody's in a position to take that step out, are they? Well, I think Kaliabov has been looking his whole career for the opportunity to be in the kind of role he seems to be in now as the point of contact.

President Trump went out of his way and talking to Ed Luce to say that he was dealing with Kali Baff, saw him as a key figure. But I think it is true. This is a regime that's planned for the whole front line to be taken out and just slept carefully. about who comes in next. That's part of the problem. We talked about decapitation, but there were a lot of heads ready to step in for the next wave, and so it's been very hard to get that sense of a decisive change. But even Iran, with all the planning they've done, is an increasingly difficult situation. We have to remember that. It's hard for them to coordinate their moves, to even communicate. One thing that I'm told is a real problem in the diplomacy is who's in charge in

Tehran? Who makes decisions? You may be able to reach the foreign minister, but that doesn't mean that you've got a consensus of the government. So it is a chaos situation in Tehran. That's part of the problem. And it's so important for us to look over the horizon. Of course, everybody's looking at what's happening right now in front of them, and that's what we should do, because there is a lot of chaos. Things may not be going exactly as the white. House expected him to go. But as David said, it's likely very chaotic right now in Tehran, as far as leadership goes, communications, you name it. But it's important to remember how Iran was before this war. I mean, there already was economic chaos. That's why there were tens of thousands

of people in the streets. That's why the Iranian government felt the need to execute 6,000 to 30,000 people in the street. So after this war is over, you have people who may be able to cause destruction, but lead that country, that's highly doubtful. All right. Still ahead on morning, Joe. TSA officers could start seeing paychecks as soon as today. But how long will it take for airport security lines to get back to normal? We'll talk about that.

and lawmakers failing to reach a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Also ahead, we'll take a look at the massive No King's protests that took place in cities across the country on Saturday. And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers forecast this morning from Accuethers Bernie Raynow. Bernie has it looking. Well, in a word, Mika, warmer. Yeah, warmer era coming into the Northeast, your Accuweather exclusive forecasts. Also, a couple of showers from Buffalo toward Pittsburgh, clouds some sun, 64 in Boston, 67 in New York City. How about 68 in Washington, D.C., 77 in Chicago with a couple of gusty thunderstorms tonight from Chicago toward Detroit.

No problems from Texas to Florida except spotty thunderstorms, Tampa, Miami, and in Orlando this afternoon. There may be a few travel delays in Miami and some lingering problems at LaGuardia. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the accurate. they're up today. All right. Welcome back. 34 past the hour. Organizers say more than 8 million people marched in No King's protests across the country on Saturday, making it among the largest protests in American history. That equates to more than one in every 50 U.S. residents joining a rally and filling the streets for the movement's third major national day of action. More than 3,300 events were held in all 50 states and around the world to denounce the Trump administration's policies, including on immigration, the economy, and the war in Iran.

One focal point, the protests in Minnesota's Twin Cities, an estimated 200,000 people gathered for the flagship rally in St. Paul, honoring the memories of Renee Good and Alex Preti. And while largely peaceful, police in Los Angeles said they had to deploy and tear gas and arrested 74 people for failing to disperse after the No Kings rally there. And I'm reminded of Charles Barkley last night. Yeah. Showed me that on CBS. I did. I mean, there's something not to just go straight to Buffalo, Buffalo Springfield, Jonathan Lemire. But there is something happening here.

when you when you have so many people going out to protest you have people who have never been seen as as soft or whatever like people like charles barkley who has spoken out in an extraordinary way about the mistreatment of immigrants during the middle of a sports show that millions and millions of people are watching, Republicans that I've known my whole life calling the report on these no-kings rallies and how big they've gotten and quite frankly how heartened they were to see that people who were fellow conservatives with them through the Reagan administration, through the Bush administration. administration, that conservatives, real conservatives, are joining independents and Democrats and liberals and progressives to go out and say, hey, we may not agree on a ton of things, but we do agree that in America, there are no kings. It doesn't matter if the president of the United States

is browbeating and verbally attacking the United States Supreme Court because he wants them to ignore the 14th Amendment. In America, we still, because I'm conservative, I'll say this, we are still a nation of laws and not one man. What's so remarkable here is for decades now, we've seen celebrities like Bruce Springsteen or Robert De Niro attend events like this. What has changed this time around are people like a chariot.

Charles Barkley, who was most of his career pretty apolitical speaking out. And at these rallies, people who don't identify as Democrats or progressives, these are independents. And as you say, Joe, in some cases, Republicans, conservatives who are really troubled by the direction of this country, who are troubled by attempts to overturn the Constitution, who are troubled by this war in Iran, who are troubled by the president's priorities. And as a side note, yesterday on Air Force One, is he's defending the conflict in Iran and painting this good news story. He was holding up a picture of the White House ballroom

and defending that to reporters because that's what really got under his skin yesterday was reporting that the ballroom was over budget and not architecturally sound. He was upset at that, and people are like, what is this? This isn't impacting my life as I pay more at the pump as I pay more for groceries. And David Ignatius, another subplot here,

and we should mention the Epstein files too, But another subplot here are concerns about election integrity, both in 2026 for these midterms and 2028 for the presidential election. I know a lot of Democratic governors are nervous, too. You're writing about that now. It was a real theme this weekend. So, Jonathan, I think there is growing concern among Democrats. This is a time when president's popularity is down. but Trump and people around him have detailed plans for trying to, in effect, federalize the midterm elections to impose rules that might make it harder for people to vote, that might make it less possible for people to send in mail-in ballots.

There's a strategy that's been developing really since President Trump was elected last year to think about election rules. obviously the redistricting efforts around the country. So I think for Democrats that I talk to as they think about November and the likelihood that voters will turn out in large numbers against Republicans, a fear that there'll be steps taken that would reduce that Democratic vote and make the midterms turn out differently. So I think that's a theme we're all going to be thinking about more in the coming months as the elections approach. what are the rule is going to be? Have Democrats really figured out ways to bring legal challenges, be ready if they're crises at the polls? But I'm already hearing that as a theme under the surface that political professionals and lawyers are thinking a lot about.

Yeah, they're certainly already looking at whether the rule changes so far are going to make it harder for them to bring suits. Okay, now I get a chance to ask you the question we were asking the break just before we were rudely interrupted by coming back on air. The president, meanwhile, with all of what David is reporting and everything that we've seen over the course of the weekend, those huge big no-kings rallies, all of the polls going in the wrong way for him, the assumption now and things can change, but the assumption that the House looks very precarious for the Republicans. I think that's putting it politely. And yet the president, David, doesn't really seem to care that much about the midterms. Well, I would put it this way, actually, Caddy. I think he cares. But he doesn't ever believe that anything is about him.

I mean, I'm kind of shrinking him now and putting him on the couch, right? When everything's going well, it's all about him. And he will subtly acknowledge here and there that, you know, it's so strange, you know, when the president's, when there's a midterm election, the president's party always, you know, takes it to the gut. I don't know. People have been telling me. But he doesn't really sit there and internalize the fact that it's a, the midterm backlash is a thing,

but that the backlash that is building. as of today is a direct rebuke of his performance. Fair or not, and there's a great case to make that it is fair. It's about him and the things that he's doing and that people aren't happy. And that's why what you've seen from him is this obsession with the Save America Act, which would impose national voting standards. And what is his reasoning? He's telling Republicans, these midterms could be really bad.

You need to pass this. we're really going to be in big trouble. So he understands it, but he understands it in a bizarre sort of way that isn't just, it's not the way things work. All right. Coming up, we're going to take a quick break from news and politics to go through the top stories in sports. Pablo Tori is here to help us break it all down. Morning Joe is coming right back. 7270, Duke, 10 seconds to go.

Got to cut and run through the ball. They'll do better than this guy. Get it into Boozer. Back for Saar. Ahead, Boozer. That ball deflected. Two seconds. Mullins tosses it out.

The last second three-pointer sends number two seed Yukon to the final four. The Huskies rallied from a 19-point halftime deficit last night to defeat the number one overall seed beating Duke 73 to 72 and advancing the play. to play third-seated Illinois, which top number nine-seat Iowa on Saturday for a spot in the national title game. Top-seated Michigan also advances to the final four taking control yesterday with a 21-to-nothing run in the first half and blowing out six-seated Tennessee, 95-62. Michigan will meet fellow number one-seat Arizona in the next round after the Wildcats eliminated second-seated Purdue. the men's final four tips off this Saturday. That was incredible.

It was miraculous. Let's bring in the host of Pablo Tori finds out. MS now contributor, Pablo Tori. So Pablo, we have a lot to talk about, but how can we start with anything other than that extraordinary ending of the Yukon game? And yes, you're going to look at all the things could have done to win that game. But it's just something I never saw it coming. I'm sure you never saw it coming.

the ending was extraordinary. History had never seen it happen like this. A number one seed of 15 points at the half. The record for teams that were a top seed up 15 points in the half all time was 134 and 0. And now you have the one. You have the one loss. And the way it happens,

you know, as March has a way of doing this. Like we can always have critiques of the product, right? We've talked about this, the lack of Cinderella, All of that is over time proving unfortunately true. But Duke, Duke asphyxating. Duke choking is an American tradition that I think can unite a country in a fragmented, divided time. And that's exactly what we got in that game, an all-timer.

Well, you know, I didn't understand it when I first saw It's a Wonderful Life. It was, I think, Frank Capri did it in 1946 after all. But as Jonathan Lemire said, you know, when Zuzu says, look, Daddy, every time Duke chokes an angel gets its wings, I was like going, what does this exactly mean? Who is Duke? Who is the Duke? But now we know. Zuzu's pedals and Duke choking at the very end. So looking at the other, and I'll admit, after Alabama's out, I stopped watching other than the Yukon gang because Mika is such a big fan. And also the coach will tell you he's the best coach in the in CIA. I love him. I love Hurley. So is it Michigan now?

Is it Michigan or Arizona? Who do you think has the best shot at winning this? I mean, I am unfortunately influenced by recency bias and what we just saw for Michigan. I'm getting the score right here. It was a 95 to 62 blowout. So in terms of who has been coasting along. here comfortably, Michigan. Arizona had to certainly scrap

to make to the final four more recently. So, yeah, at the risk of being a guy who gets it completely wrong at the very end when it's the easiest to possibly get it right. Yeah, I'm looking at Yukon. I'm looking at Michigan and I'm looking at the aforementioned Dan Hurley probably getting to proclaim again

that he might have the closest thing to a college basketball dynasty in the modern fragmented era. How can you not love Dan Hurley? I will say LeMere, Joey Scarborough, and he knows such things, told me at the beginning of this tournament, it was Michigan's to lose. And boy, they sure look good right now. Yeah, there is a sense. I mean, the Yukon story yesterday, extraordinary. Who would bet against them? But people really follow this. So that Michigan-Arizona game, that might be the national championship.

Those are probably the two best teams in the country. At minimum, whoever wins that is the favorite for that title game. But look, this was the first weekend of the tournament was wonderful. This one, a little lackluster. But, boy, that game yesterday redeemed it. Yeah, Pablo, let's talk about a story. And it's a sad story. I would say it if you were talking about anybody, let alone one of the two or three greatest golfers of all time. The Tiger story is a terrible story. People, you know, from a distance, like, oh, gee, why would he?

You know, he said four back surgeries. I'm making no excuses. I've had one back surgery. I can tell you just one back surgery. The pain can be pretty debilitating. people that have had four-back surgeries and all the operations that he's had, his body has been falling apart for some time now. No excuse.

I'm not making any excuses, but it is a sad tragedy for somebody as beloved, as Tiger Woods has been for so long to be, you know, he's addicted to pain pills, not because he loves the ride, you know, so to speak, but because he's an extraordinary pain most of the time. I mean, this is a pattern that can be traced to the pharmaceutical issue that you just described. I mean, 2019, 2021, and now 26. These are all car crashes, three in the last decade, that have followed major surgeries and medical issues. And so from a perspective of, like, where was Tiger Woods now, as we've traced him from, effectively, Joe, child star growing up in front of America, to now this 50-year-old.

who's making his latest comeback, right? Will he play in the Masters? What's the question heading into this? He was just making his comeback to swinging a golf club in public. And so the fact that this happens, in a sense, in a tragic cosmic sense, it felt like we were due for another one of these

because, of course, the problem, the apparent addiction is not something that, you know, you can wipe away with little Vaseline on the lens on a soft focus sort of a feature about his comeback. It's real. And it's sad. And it's something that we're watching happen seemingly with regularity in his life.

Yeah. And it is, you know, John Lemire also, yeah, we've known. His dad threw him out there when he was three, four years old. So that's another thing. He's been on the spotlight his entire life. Again, I'm making no excuses for anybody so people that want to freak out can freak out somewhere else because I don't really care. I'm just saying what the truth is.

The guy's been under the glare of the spotlight since he was four, five, six years old. And you add to that chronic pain everywhere you go, people shouting Tiger, Tiger. It is a sad story. And here we're hoping and praying that he's able to get the help that he needs to get. And I suspect we won't be seeing any more car accidents because don't think. he's going to be able to drive anymore, which, of course, get a driver. Get a driver. It's a safe thing to do. Yeah, that was the answer all along. Get a driver. Tiger Woods can afford it. You know, get an Uber, whatever it is. Look, his life, as noted, is one of triumph and tragedy. He was

thrust into the spotlight so young. The first 10, 15 years of his career, as great as we've ever seen. And then a series of injuries, a series, of course, off the field distractions, his life becoming really a tabloid story. And then in recent years, even as he made a bit of a comeback in golf and got a couple more wins this here with a multiple accidents, you do hope he gets the help that he needs, both physically but also to kick whatever demons he's currently battling right now. Because this is worrisome.

It's for him, of course, but also for anyone else on the roads while he's driving like this. So let's hope this is the end of that behavior. Yeah, the demons are, I, I don't know what demons there are. I do know, though, he's an extraordinary pain, and he's been an extraordinary pain for a very long time. So this is a, this is, you know, it's not as easy as putting the guy on the couch and saying,

Tiger, what are your demons? This is like, the demons are the pain every single day of his life. That's it. Pablo Torre, thank you very much.