Morning Joe - Democrat Josh Turek leading in Iowa Senate poll

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

July 10, 2026: 8am — Democrat Josh Turek leading in Iowa Senate poll 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.

Good morning and welcome to morning, Joe. It's Friday, July 10th. Good to have you all with us. Along with us, we have the co-host of our 8 a.m. Hour, staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, co-hosts of the rest is politics podcast, the BBC's Katty Kay, contributing writer to the Atlantic. Eugene Robinson is with us this morning and managing editor at the bulwark, Sam Stein. Sam, we want to start with something you noted on social media. You posted about what's, the Trump White House has been up to lately, and it basically is our top stories. Casually, back to war with Iran. Casually, back to violent confrontations with ICE. Casually, back to sporadic trade war policy, casually back to demanding Greenland, and soon to be casually back to litigating the Epstein files. Where to begin? Well, I'll tell you, and Sam, since economics is the key issue in this campaign. And I talked last week and most pollsters, a lot of pollsters called me after said, yeah, that's exactly right. The three top issues are one costs, two costs, three costs. The Wall Street Journal editorial page this morning, their lead editorial is on how Donald Trump's

tariffs are jacking up costs. And I say, businesses don't know what the trade rules or tariffs are going to be in a few years or even tomorrow with Mr. Trump. His trade oscillations and border taxes are a major reason the economy hasn't performed as well during his first term and why Americans are so unhappy. That's the Wall Street Journal. That's not the nation. That's the Wall Street Journal. And so you have the Wall Street Journal saying that these tariffs are hurting the economy badly. And then you have the Iran war, which, of course, we can't stumble out of with Iran controlling the straits or the president's in a difficult position because we went in in the first place. But still, you have this feedback loop.

And as you said, next week when Todd Blanche, the guy who tried to cover up these files, according to Maggie and Jonathan's book, he was a mastermind in the situation room of trying to cover this up. While JD would say, hey, let's get everything out. The president won't mind. That's going to put, just Todd Blanche's hearings, you're going to put the Epstein files front and center for another week. Yeah, I guess I wrote this because I was shocked at how little attention or emotion, I suppose, was happening around the fact that we were now bombing Iran again. You know, this memorandum of understanding it lasted a couple days.

And suddenly we were back at war, but no one seems to have noticed it. It's like a sort of slow burn war. And then I looked up and then, of course, this horrible story out of Houston where this Lorenzo Oroho is killed by ICE. And I thought back to Minnesota and just the sort of visceral reaction everyone had when Renee Good and then Alex Pready were killed. And it felt like we were just sort of casually again accepting the idea that this, that I said just shot a man. And then, you know, of course, Trump is overseas and he's talking and he's like, I'm just going to cut off trade with Spain. Just going to cut it off entirely. And I thought back to the spring of 2025 when he would do these kind of sporadic announcements.

And I'm like, that is a radical thing to say we're just going to cut off trade with a country. A holy. That should be a huge story, but we're just doing this. And then, of course, the Epstein files. And it just got me to thinking that this is not a unique observation because this is sort of the thing that underpins basically 10 years of Trumpism, which is we grow so callous to this stuff that it becomes almost accepted in our universe or at least it becomes part of our universe. And the Overton window switches so much that suddenly it's, it. It just seems every day that a man is killed by an ICE agent or that we cut off trade with the country or that we're just casually bombing another country. And it just, that is Trumpism, right?

We just become inert to it. Well, and there's a description for that that you can lead to a conclusion. But let's focus in on what's going on in Houston. There are growing calls for an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo, Salgado, Aroho by ICE agents. during a traffic stop in Houston on Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security says Salgado weaponized his vehicle and tried to run over an agent who fired in self-defense. Where have we heard that before?

Yeah, yeah, and it's always been a lie before. I mean, when they gunned down Renee Good through her side window, they claimed that she weaponized it. It was a total lie, but that total lie spread by ICE agents, that total eye was spread by Christine Nome, that total lie was spread by right-wing media people. That lie about the shooting down or the gunning down of Renee Good through the side window spread by the entire MAGA ecosystem.

And it was disgusting. Proved to be a lie. It proved to be a lie because they had video. And those ICE agents, one of them at least out on the job. So again, just like before, surveillance video. These people are being gunned down in the streets of, America. Let me say that again. Like Sam said, I don't think we've grown numb to this. I think people in the White House have grown numb to this. You're gunning down people in the

streets of America. Gunning down people in the streets of America. This is not going well. No. Traumatizes and terrorizes communities. And politically, it's horrible for you. And yet you just continue. And as we have said here from the very beginning, you will never get the numbers that you want to get. That this, this is politically not sustainable. When you just go out and you put these random numbers out there telling ICE agents, you have to go out and you've got to get these numbers. Or else you're going to get in trouble. You won't be able to keep your job.

That's not sustainable because you will never reach those numbers. You need to go to a plan B or a plan C. because this ends in tragedy every time. Well, and they're ultimately here, like in these other cases in Minneapolis, it ultimately was surveillance video obtained by local station K-H-O-U, raising questions about the ICE account of what happened. The footage shows agents in an unmarked SUV attempting to box in Salgado's van before he makes a U-turn and drives away.

The SUV then makes a three-point. turn and drives forward to follow the van. The shooting itself is not captured, but separate video reportedly shows no visible damage to the ICE vehicle contradicting claims it was rammed. There is also no body cam footage of the incident. The family is demanding all evidence be released, and for an independent investigation to take place, they also say the three men who witnessed the shooting, including the victim's brother, are being pressured to sign, get this. This just sounds like a massive cover-up once again, because this is what ICE does. Federal investigators. This is what ICE does. They lie. They continued lying after they gunned down

Renee Good through the side window. They continued lying about Alex Preti, but the video was there, and it will come out here too. The lies will undo them, and they are gunning. down people. And by the way, making U-turns for ICE in this case and in Renee Goods case, is that grounds for killing somebody, for gunning down somebody? Because this guy that you killed, he wasn't even who you were after. Just all the shooting into cars. So it's remarkable. Similar to Minneapolis, the evidence, the investigation, even reportedly the body, potential witnesses, all being swept away. I mean, if they're trying to deport witnesses after immediately saying that this man was trying

to ram them with this car. They're locked. I mean, that's fitting a pathetic profile of attempting to say what happened before anyone has any idea what happened. And in a situation where someone has shot in the street, the rush to judgment is the first sign that something is completely wrong. Well, and Willie, we saw this again, time and time again. We saw it up in Minneapolis. We saw it with Renee Good. We saw it with Alex Preti. Just they lied through their teeth time and time again. We don't know the facts on the ground yet because they don't want us to know the facts on the ground. They don't want us to hear what the witnesses have to say. They don't, you know, they reportedly taking that, taken them into custody and are trying to self-deport them. And so, again, if Americans assume from passing, actions that they're lying through their teeth, well, they, they, you know, if passed this prologue,

they're probably right. Joe, I was reading the statements from a few months ago in the shootings and the deaths of both Renee Good and Alex Pready. You basically can cut and paste what the Department of Homeland Security said about those shootings with what they're saying here, which is that this man, Mr. Rojo, quote, weaponized his vehicle. They haven't called him a domestic terrorist yet, as they did with Alex Pretty. And of course, everything that Christy know, who's now gone, but everything that ICE said in those moments turned out to be false because we had video, because we had eyewitness accounts, but their reflex is to lie about it. And Gene Robinson, they've lost all credibility. The minute you hear this exhalation from ICE, you can't believe

it because of our experience in the last year or so. We should also point out there were no body cams that was part of the one of the changes that was supposed to come about after the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Where were the body cams? They didn't have any in this instance. Mr. Oroho and lived in the United States for 35 years going to a job in construction, has three kids. And also, we should point out, they shot and were pursuing the wrong people. They thought they had surveilled a white van with someone that looked like someone they were going through. What does that mean? That they were Latino, maybe?

I don't know, but we need some answers on this because they were looking for someone who was not in the van that they pulled over. And because they got it wrong, there was a confrontation. and now Mr. Oroho is dead because of it. Yeah, they pulled over a guy who looked Latino. They were racial profiling, which of course they're not supposed to do, except that it's kind of okay to do now thanks to the Supreme Court once again. So this is exactly what ISIS has done before. So, you know, it's infuriating to see people gunned down in our streets

in this way. I just hope that that soon, like in five minutes, there has to be some federal judge who's going to order that witnesses and evidence be preserved, at least kept in the United States, until this is properly investigated, let alone adjudicated, because you cannot believe a single word ICE says,

just not a single word, including A and V. It's completely, they just lie. They lie. And do we accept this? As Samstein said, you know, it's just another Friday, right? We accept stormtroopers, you know, seizing and not just seizing, but killing people in the streets of one of our major cities for no reason, the wrong person. It's incomprehensible that this takes place in the United States of America that just celebrated 250 years of freedom, but seems to really want to go back on that now.

Still I had an update on the U.S. Senate race in Maine, where Democrats have a hard deadline to pick a new candidate. We'll talk about the latest in that campaign when Morning Joe comes right back. Welcome back. A growing number of Republicans are now joining Democrats in demanding answers about the current health status of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky lawmaker has been hospitalized since June 14th, and his staff has not made public for the reason, nor what he's being treated for. Yesterday, Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace publicly called for McConnell to provide some sort of health update. The South Carolina lawmaker wrote on social media, if McConnell is in as bad shape as Biden ever was, or worse, he needs to step aside. This charade can't continue.

We can't demand of others what we won't demand of ourselves. Additionally, here's what Republican Congressman Marlon Stutzman of Indiana said yesterday. His constituents deserve answers where he is at. As a Republican, I think we need to hold our own party accountable. And so the fact that we haven't heard anything, really, from Senator McConnell is very discouraging and concerning. And I think that for the representation of the Republican Party and to get some of the bills done that we want to get done in the Senate, it's critical that we have a senator from Kentucky voting in the Senate chamber. Do you know that he's alive?

I don't. You know, just the things that I've heard and seen from some friends is that he's obviously not doing well, but don't know if he's alive or has passed away. Well, those comments come after a few Republican senators said they spoke with McConnell for about 20 minutes each. Earlier this week, President Trump, when asked, says he has no idea how McConnell is doing. Still out here on Morning Joe,

what a former Olympic canoe racer is saying this morning after pleading not guilty to a felony charge of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. You're watching Morning. Joe, we'll be right back. A live look there atop the Washington Monument looking towards the Lincoln Memorial, and yes, that reflecting pool, and though, can't really tell from this distance. A colleague of mine was by the pool yesterday sent around photos, much of it is still very green.

And a former Olympic canoe racer has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of damaging the newly renovated reflecting pool. 67-year-old David Hearn entered the plea in DCC. Superior Court after prosecutors accused him of causing more than $1,000 in damage by pulling up sealants from the pool. Hearn has said he only examined the loose material and let it go when a park worker told him to. Defense attorneys call the case politically motivated, while U.S. attorney Janine Piro says that vandalizing national monuments has consequences, calling it, quote, an affront to our shared history.

Hearn was released without court supervision and is due back August 5th. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Washington, D.C. beautification news, President Trump's plans for a 250-foot triumphal arch in the nation's capital cleared a key hurdle yesterday. The National Capital Planning Commission, which we should note is led by Trump's allies, voted to advance the controversial project. Commission staff members did recommend that the design of the arch be sure. shrunk in order to comply with local laws about building height, though the commission's chairman said that issue could be resolved at a future meeting. This arch is proposed for Memorial Square,

a busy traffic roundabout between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. It would still need final approval before any construction begins. Many believe it would really mar that sort of sacred space on the entrance to the cemetery. And on that news comes, as the White House North Portico looks a little different this morning, after huge tarps will put up late in the day yesterday. Here, you can start seeing him here. The White House says the tarps are there to protect the president's latest renovation project. Interior Secretary Doug Bergam said yesterday that the North Portico columns are undergoing repairs, which he claims will be completed very quickly. The columns are just the latest construction project by the administration, which also includes, of course,

Trump's $600 million ballroom, the east, which is where they're going to go where the East Wings remains used to be, and of course, that Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool still green. The administration claims the columns are going to simply be fixed up and restored to as they look now, but there are some who wonder if Trump will try to change those two. Still ahead here on Morning Joe, we'll turn back to politics and we'll bring you the latest on the chaos up in Maine, as Graham Platner has still not yet officially ended his his Senate campaign. Plus, we're going to go through a U.S. Senate race in the state of Iowa that's starting to gain a lot of attention as a possible Democratic pickup. You're watching

Morning Joe. We'll be back with all that and more. He was picked to run not by people in Maine or from Maine, but by consultants for highly progressive movements. The initial headhunters, Dan Moraff and Leanne Fawn, told Mr. Platner, he was the one, a hero of the movement. I think it was the spring of 2025, and we went through thousands and thousands of prospects. Is this guy going through puberty in real time? But hey, grown up McLevin and the lady who runs a cat cafe, they're professionals, right?

How did they get the bed so hard? At this point, you hadn't vetted Grand Platter. You hadn't done a full scrub of who he is. How did you go about vetting him? And why did you? We paid, yeah. People the kingmakers. This is why we need to stop taking political advice from Dungeons and Dragons Pollucous.

Our thanks to The Daily Show. We've done a lot of work for us this morning. So as mentioned, Grant Platner still has not formally dropped out of Maine's Senate race. Despite posting this video on social media on Wednesday, in which he said he suspended his campaign, the Democratic nominee has not, at least as a, this moment, filed the necessary paperwork to withdraw. Now, new reporting from Axios reveals Platter privately told his staff he plans to officially

leave the race on Monday. That's the very last day for him to do so and still meet the state law deadline. If Platiner does not formally file the paperwork to end his campaign by Monday, well, his name will appear on the November general election ballot. But the main Democratic Party is moving forward with fighting his replacement, saying it will hold a nominating convention with roughly 600 participants, 100 state committee members, and 500 delegates selected by county parties. Joining us now, the host to Politics Nation on MS now, the Reverend Al Sharpton, he is the president of the National Action Network, co-founder and CEO of All-N-together, Lauren Leader, and senior writer at the dispatch and columnist at Bloomberg opinion, David

Drucker. David is in Iowa. We're going to turn to him in a minute for a very interesting race there. But let's start with Maine. Lauren, to you first. This is, I mean, we have every reason to believe the platinum will still drop out on Monday. But what's clear is a mess has been left. And it's a state that, you know, has tripped and reliably blue for a number of cycles now. But Susan Collins managed to survive. What is your sense here as to what the Dems need to do? What kind of candidate they need to pick just have a shot to win? Well, it is incredibly complicated. And I've said here before, Susan Collins, as much as Democrats want to beat her,

has been a very, very strong candidate for cycle after cycle. She has been very difficult to beat because she knows the state very well, and she's generally represented it well. I think the issue now is that whoever they get is going to have a level of scrutiny that is, you know, off the charts as they should, as should have happened with Platner. And it's incredibly difficult to catch up. They have a very short frame. So, Lauren, you have a piece for notice that just posted about this race.

And what you think, some of the conclusions have been reached incorrectly. Tell us about it. Well, so look, everyone in their cousin in the last few days has had an opinion on the platinum race, suddenly saying that they thought all along he shouldn't have been in the race. I mean, it's just like so little too late. And one of the takes that I have not seen anywhere was really my experience, which is that here on the show and then in my own social media, I called on Plattenor to drop out over a month ago.

And when I did, I was hit with a barrage of absolutely virulent anti-Semitism. I was accused of being a shell for Israel. I was told that I must be in the pocket of A-PAC and that that was the only reason why I opposed Plattner. He had a deep bench of ultra-lefty supporters who believed that this was a conspiracy orchestrated by Israel and Jews to defame him, rather than looking at the very plain evidence that he had some really serious character issues. And those were the things that I called out. And the reason why I think this is important to highlight is because Platner himself in his sort of very defensive video

the other day is continuing to blame this sort of idea of there's a vast conspiracy to take him out rather than taking responsibility for his behavior. And that is what I saw from his supporters. the level of hate, the very specific hate that accused me of being in the pocket of Israel because I thought someone who was abusive to women and had a Nazi tattoo on his chest wasn't appropriate for the United States Senate was shocking to me. Well, certainly unacceptable anti-Semitism in any way. The new piece is available on notice now, but you're right. I mean, Israel is going to be a flashpoint for this election, both for Democratic primaries

and also for the general November. So, Reb, let's set that aside for the moment and talk about, I mean, Platter-Denor have an appeal for all of his flaws, and they were clearly many, you know, he did electrify sort of grassroots voters, you know, progressives and the like. He garnered real enthusiasm, and part of what Democrats in Maine are going to have to do now is try to, whoever their candidates end up being, try to still connect with those voters who were excited, some for the first time, excited to vote for Platter. We should not ignore that he had an appeal on the issues that resonated. We should not appeal that even when some of the early negative things came out about him,

people stuck with him anyway. But he inevitably had to withdraw based on what kept coming. Let's not forget, some of his major supporters, Bernie Sanders and others, called on him to withdraw. So it had nothing to do with the fact that people had foresight and said earlier. What I would look for, though, is whoever the Democrats choose to run, you know, I ran for president once. What I would say is fine. We asked, I've got to step aside. But you have a sitting president convicted of sexual harassment. And this week, it was ordered to pay $5 million to a victim.

So we showed more of a standard than you have. You want to really have this debate? I would turn it back on the Republicans. We act like we do not have a glaring example of somebody that was accused of sexual misbehavior and was found to be guilty by a jury in a court. That is what they ought to be running against Susan Collins. Are you denouncing Donald Trump like we made Platton a step aside? Yeah, Trump found liable this week still saying he'll appeal that $5 million award to E.G. and Carol.

So from Maine to Iowa, David Drucker, you know, Maine has all long been seen as a, Democrats are pretty optimistic about a pickup chance because, again, Maine has, despite the Collins' exception, Maine is a state that's gone very blue in recent decades. Iowa, though, has gone the other way in the Trump era. It's become reliably red, but this race, this race may be different. Tell us what you're finding on the ground there in Iowa. So I'm in northwest Iowa, which, whatever the darker shade of, Red is for red. That's Northwest Iowa, very conservative socially and otherwise. And I've been spending

time with Rob Sand. He's the Democratic nominee for governor. And it's really sort of the flip side of what a populist campaign could look like that doesn't claim that there are evil dark forces rigging elections and rigging nominations and rigging votes. He doesn't talk about foreign policy issues. He doesn't blame anything on APEC. And in fact, what he does at his town hall meetings, I was at three of them yesterday is he goes after both parties, but for not doing the job that is available for them to do under a system that he said works, it's just the people that are within the system that are not doing what they're supposed to do. And really interesting, Jonathan, he asks Republicans, independents, and Democrats to raise their hand, and they kind of look at him at first. And he's like,

look, we need to all get along and not be suspicious of each other. And that's why I'm doing this. And once he knows who the Republicans are in the crowd, once it comes time for Q&A, he gives them the first question and he wants to have a conversation. It's so different than what I've seen from some of these other democratic populists. Now, obviously different states, different voting pools will demand different kinds of candidates. But this is the sort of democratic campaign that I think can win in a red state. It acknowledges the politics. He still has areas of disagreement with the majority of voters here in Iowa. He acknowledges them up front.

He tells them where he's coming from. He tells them why. And I think it's the sort of politics that doesn't have to feel as though it's divisive and dark, which has just made it interesting to cover because whether you're on the right covering Republican primaries or the left with a lot of the Democratic primaries that I have been covering, not to mention these general elections, I don't often see a politics like this. And Democrats growing more optimistic about both the Senate and gubernatorial races there in the Hawkeye State. All right, everybody stay put. We've gone from Maine to Iowa. Next stop on our tour,

Texas, where Senator Ted Cruz warning Republicans, the Senate race there is going to be a battle. We'll be right back. Do you think that Jimmy Talarico really has a chance to win the race for the United States Senate in the state of Texas? So look, unfortunately, I do think he has a chance. I think this is a real race. I think it's going to be close. I think we're going to win. I think we're going to keep Texas red.

But the polling right now shows this as a one or two-point race. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas with that warning for his party about his home states closely watched Senate race. Those comments coming on the Sean Hannity show on Wednesday, speaking with guest host, Texas Governor Greg Abbott. So David Drucker, let's get your thoughts here on that race. You know, the Trump weighed in. Paxton becomes a Republican nominee. He has plenty of baggage. And, you know, but Republicans have been on-slaught against Tala Rico in recent weeks.

Polls show, though, it's real close. Look, this is a very good Democratic environment, right? Voters are unhappy with Washington. They're unhappy with the president. And Texas, though very red, is not as blanket red as you might think when you look at a lot of the suburban metropolitan areas. And you look at the fact that you have a very well-funded Democratic nominee in James Tolariko, who's very good at politic and very good at paring a lot of the attacks coming his way. And what we saw in 2018, which was, I think, the best way to sort of compare this is that even in a state that had not elected a Democrats statewide in many years and that streak is continuing. Beta Aurora came within under three points of defeating Senator Ted Cruz.

Voters were unhappy with Washington. They were unhappy with Trump. They were not satisfied with Cruz as their nominee at that time because Republicans were particularly down on him coming out of that 2016 convention. And here you have, again, a Republican nominee that people are not thrilled with. He's got a lot of baggage. He is beatable. I would still say this is Ken Paxton's race to lose, but it is tight.

And he can lose. So Lauren, Democrats have said, well, at minimum, because this race is going to be close, Republicans are going to be forced to spend a lot of money in Texas, money they could use elsewhere. But there are others in the party who feel like, yeah, Texas has been our white whale, but they feel like this is a shot, they do have a chance to get it. Yeah, well, because Paxton is such a weak and complicated candidate, but it's a tough field. I mean, this is like Democrats dream to get back Texas. It's always been, it's been a long shot for a long time.

I agree with David. Tala Rico is probably the best shot we have. he's running an amazing race. And if he keeps with it, you know, it may be that he can really pull it out. And the turnout issue is going to be the factor. It's different in an midterm year than it is in a presidential. But if those cities that Houston, Dallas, Austin suburbs really get going, it's possible. All right.

We'll be watching it. Lauren Leader and David Drucker. Thanks you both. Reverend Al, stay with this. Because up next, we want to hear from you about the important questions you have for law enforcement after a student athlete was found dead off the coast. of Mississippi over the holiday weekend. We're back in the moment with that.

Reverend Al later today, you will address the media with the family of Nolan Wells calling for transparency in the investigation of the death of their 18-year-old son. Nolan went missing over the holiday weekend after taking a boat trip with his friends to Horn Island, which is off the coast of Mississippi. His body was then found on Monday following a multi-day search. What questions will you be posing to law enforcement?

We are going to pose the questions for the fans. family and they'll be with us and Attorney Ben Crump on how we can assure, be assured it will be a fair investigation. There's not a lot of confidence in the family that here you are in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, that it will be fair. You have Nolan, who is black, the three, that with them white, racism is a question. We do not know if it was racist or not, but we do not not know that it wasn't. And so Nash Action Network and I are going to weigh in the seat to support the family and finding out what happened and that justice is served.

And so important to be able to shine a spotlight for these families who would perhaps not have other recourse. Absolutely. That's what you do. You put the spotlight on. And again, we're not getting to any conclusion. But we're going to make sure that the right questions are raised to get to the right conclusion. All right. We'll be looking for that. Reverend Al Sharpton, thank you for that and for the work that you do. as we head in our last minute of the show, we of course will be also watching in Politics Nation this weekend's 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday here on MS. Now, we'll also be watching, Shirley,

the World Cup this afternoon. We have 3 o'clock. We have Spain versus Belgium. Winner gets the right to play France next week in Dallas. And then we've got a doubleheader tomorrow. You know, Caddy Kay will be watching nervously. England plays Norway and then Argentina, the defending champions, take on Switzerland. of those two matches will play in the other semifinals on Wednesday. Should be a fun weekend.

We hope you enjoy it. That does it for us this morning. Thank you so much for watching. We, of course, we'll see you back here Monday morning at 6 a.m. Eastern for another morning, Joe. Money, power politics with Stephanie Rule is up next after a short final break. Have a great weekend, everybody.