Morning Joe - Democrats surge in polls as Trump pushes to make midterms about himself

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

September 8, 2026 – 6am:Polling averages show Democrats leading in key Senate racesTrump to push GOP to focus on him ahead of midtermsTrump claims gas prices will drop when we ‘win’ Iran warTrump downplays Iran conflict as ‘small potatoes’Canada imposes retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. amid trade warImpact of Canada trade war on upcoming midtermsWSJ Opinion: The ADF rises on the German rightWill Leitch and Pablo Torre: Sports latestMichigan beats WMU after controversial call 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.

The vice president said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war. But the U.S. resumed strikes for the first time in recent weeks. Can you explain to the American people if this is not a war? What exactly is it? Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing. We did Venezuela, and we did this.

In Venezuela, we lost nobody, and this we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam, you lost 100,000. people and in other conflicts. She lost tens of thousands of people. I can understand what he's saying. It's a military conflict, but it's very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war. That is how President Trump characterized the situation with Iran to reporters on Friday. Now he's back to calling it a war and one that we have not one. We'll go through that new social media posts. Speaking of the president's online activity, the Canadian prime minister said last week, he would start negotiating again with the Trump administration when the memes stopped. But the president

yesterday posted this AI-generated map of North America. It comes as tariffs from Canada are now in effect targeting roughly $20 billion of imported goods from the United States. Meanwhile, we've reached the post-Labor-day push for the mid-term election. We're going to go through new polling on the key races that could determine control of Congress next year. And good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Tuesday, September 8th. It's good to be back together again, along with Joe, Willie and me. We have the co-host of our 8 a.m. hour, staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire,

co-host of the Restis Politics Podcast, the BBC's Katty Kay, and columnist and associate editor at the Washington Post. David Ignatius is with us as well. Well, you know, you get after Labor Day Willie and you get a lot of things going. Of course, the pennant race is just about to start in baseball, college footballs coming back. And of course, the U.S. Open. We've had a great start to the U.S. Open as it moves to a pretty exciting conclusion. But, man, it looks like Tiafo, one of the great stories of this Open so far. Just unbelievable. This immigrant, this man from an immigrant family just really captivating the entire tennis world. And certainly, everybody in New York that's watching the open.

Yeah, a lot of Americans left in the tournament, which obviously makes it a lot more fun for those of us who are fans, particularly in this week as we move toward the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and this weekend's finals, you've got Shelton, you've got Tiafo on the women's side. You've got Pagula, Cocoa, Gough is still there. So you've got all the American headliners. or most of them anyway, still playing, which makes this week, it's just a fun time. It feels like once we move past Labor Day, it's the important part of the U.S. Open.

As you said, the pennant races heat up with, I know you're excited about this, and Lamier is too, the return tonight, Joe, of Aaron Judge after three months away. How exciting. Yeah, that's great. Klinging to a two-game lead, by the way, over the Red Sox. Who are these guys? They keep going on these winning streets, five in a row now for the Red Sox. And as you mentioned, college football, weird game last night, but a good first weekend.

So this is a fun time to come back sports-wise. Yeah, it really is. It's also when, of course, the weekend after Labor Day, the week after Labor Day is usually when elections are considered or have traditionally been considered to be launched. Actually, that's from the old days because now, of course, we're already bumping up against early voting in states like North Carolina. But if you look at the state of the race right now, and just right now, new national polling averages from Nate Silver finds Democrats are leading in most of this November's key U.S. Senate races. The date shows Democrats they had in every race except for the ones in Iowa and Kansas. You see Roy Cooper up 8.5 percent. John Ossoff, 8 percent in Minnesota plus five, Maine, plus four.

Ohio, 3.3, New Hampshire. Chris Pappas, despite yelling to anybody who will listen, he's losing, he's losing, he's losing, please give me money. The polling averages has him up by about three in New Hampshire. In Michigan, El-Said up 2.1 percent, Tala Rico, 1.8 percent. Mary Petola, a really good candidate for a Democrat in Alaska up. In Iowa, you have Republicans up in Iowa barely and in Kansas. But, you know, Jonathan Lemire, those are all a lot closer than the Democrats or Republicans would have expected some time ago. And is there any belief that the White House is going to change their behavior in a way that will help Republican candidates more as this election gets closer? I mean, Republicans keep looking to the White House for some sort of lifeline, and they're not getting it. The war continues. The tariff wars continue. Prices remain high.

Trump seems far more interested in his own personal vanity projects. The ballroom, now there's word that the construction on the arch is set to begin there between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Now, there's some reporting this week that Trump's going to kick off his road show. He's going to be traveling and doing rallies for some of these candidates come this fall. That's perhaps a mixed blessing. But, you know, you say that's a mixed blessing. I know Coral Rov is like, you know, wrote last week and Wall Street Journal, no, please don't.

This is the last thing they need. A different bizarre statement every day instead of different bizarre social media posts every day. Those sort of distractions are exactly the kind of distractions that Republicans say they don't need. No, they completely agree. And we're going to see it this week. Trump is going to try to make these midterms all about Trump. It's about ego, to be sure. It's also a bet that he can get, you know, some of his supporters who tend not to come out when his name is not on the ballot.

And of course, it will not be this fall to try to get some of them out this time. So we got this midterms convention this week in Dallas that it seems like nobody wants. And they're having trouble finding, giving people, giving tickets away to get people to go. You know, it's also opposite. You have talking about sports. The NFL comes back this week, and this convention is up against the first two nights of that season. America's going to be watching in big numbers. The football, not the convention.

We also have candidates afraid that they don't want to come off the trail for a couple of days. And then if Trump is going to make the ads about himself, and if indeed he follows through on this rally schedule, and we should note, you know, other talk earlier this year about him hitting the road for domestic campaigning largely hasn't happened. But if he does, well, then yeah, maybe, just maybe they turn out some of his, like, hardcore supporters. But at the same time, Joe, to your point, it risks alienating those who might be on the fence, those might be swing voters because Trump is so historically unpopular and is doing nothing to help his Republican candidates. Listen, here is just a reality. And you can go back to 2016. When Donald Trump's on the ballot, usually Republicans do better because people that don't

vote in elections regularly and certainly don't usually vote for Republicans will get out there and they will vote. And usually that'll pull some Republicans over the finish line. It didn't happen in 18. It didn't happen in 22 when he was selling people to go out even, you know, because his name began, not on the ballot. And chances are very good. It's not going to happen in 26 again because his name's not on the ballot.

Now, I know a race that you're very interested in, and a race that really transfixed a lot of the political class over the summer was Maine. Yeah. And the whole idea that if Troy Jackson came in as a last second substitute, then Susan Collins was once again going to find a way to win the election there again, as she always does. But right now, Troy Jackson doing pretty well. He seems to be hitting all the right notes. Wasn't sure when he started. It was a tough way to come in.

We've seen this happen before on a major level. But he's hitting all the right notes. And I think he really is speaking to Mainers in a way. that perhaps captures the essence of Graham Platner's campaign without all the drama. Right. So as gas prices hit record high this Labor Day weekend, President Trump is insisting to Americans

that costs will soon come down. Trump posted last night on Truth Social that oil prices will drop precipitously when we win the war with Iran. This, despite the president's numerous previous claims, the United States has already won in Iran. and his repeated assurances, the ongoing conflict now in its seventh month, isn't even a war. So which is it really?

Well, I mean, I would call this a war. There's no doubt about it, David Ignatius, it's a war. There's also really two ways to look at this. Number one, there's the way that Donald Trump, the politician would want people to look at it, not a war, going to end soon, gas prices are coming down, or the way that Donald Trump, the president, looking at it, which is we're going to continue to do our best to choke Iran off economically. And on that second point, which I think you and I have said for quite some time now, it's the only way forward. You're not going to win this war militarily. You're not going to

win it by sending a lot of troops to Korga Island or to the strait. You're going to win it by economically strangling the Iranian economy. It does seem like some progress is really being made there. Talk about it. So, Joe, I think that strategy of economic pressure is the sensible one a month ago before I took a little vacation from my journalism. I said on your show and in the Washington Post that I thought basically Trump should shut up to stop talking about this war and let the economic pressure push Iran to the point that Iran finally said, okay, you know, let's talk, let's time for time to negotiate. What we're seeing is that as the economic pressure really begins to have an effect, Iran

really is being squeezed now, they're pushing back, they're hurting. So what we just saw in the last few days is the Houthis, their allies in Yemen, beginning to fire directly on Saudi Arabia, causing several dozen casualties in Saudi Arabia, and that has pushed oil prices back up. Donald Trump only talks about how oil prices are going to come down when they've just gone up. So we have that. We have a broader proxy wars resuming Israel is on the attack again in Lebanon against Hezbollah. So I think, Joe, we may be entering a new phase in which Iran responds to the economic pressure.

And then Trump has to decide whether to just keep squeezing, avoid the military conflict that I think you and I are saying would be unwise for him, but make sure that economic pressure is tight as Iran flails and tries to strike back. But in this period, as we head toward the midterms, there's every likelihood now that oil prices will stay high. Caddy, for months and months now, President Trump has just wanted this war to go away. He thought it would be four to six weeks. Military decisiveness would prevail. He thought quickly it has not. Gas is 415 a gallon this morning. It was 3.20. a year ago today. Fertilizer through the roof, which is hurting farmers, not to mention the

beef policy and the tariffs and everything else that come with it. But in terms of Iran, I think it seems when you talk to Republicans, they've accepted that this isn't going to end in time for the midterms, if you want to add politics to it, but they don't quite know when it's going to end or how and what economic policies really will expedite the end of this war that President Trump said was small potatoes and that wasn't a war and then called it a war in that. post. Right. And the people who don't know this is going to end soon are the generals who are advising the Secretary of Defense that this is putting enormous strain on the American military. And it can't be upheld at this level for a long time because all of those troops are out there having to be

on kind of a state of permanent residence readiness because they are being told that this is a war. Whatever the president wants to call it, they are, the American military knows that this is a war and it's putting a lot of pressure on them. But from the Iranian point of view, As they feel this economic pressure, what are their options? Their options are to strike. What they want to do is draw President Trump back into military conflict. The way that they do that is by taking military action of their own. And so you're going to see this cycle, I think, between now and the midterm elections,

where the Iranians do keep hitting because they want this not to be about economic pressure. That's what got them to the table back in 2014. They want this to be about military pressure. So I wouldn't expect to see the Iranians let up on these kind of other military activity. whether it's from Iran or from the Houthis. Well, you're going to be hearing a lot more threats as the economic grip titans. You're going to hear threats of them attacking the U.S. homeland, which of course, an extraordinarily stupid thing for them to do.

If they did that, all they would do would be to unite all Americans in this war. So that's certainly not a move they're going to make. Or if they do, they'll make it. it'll be the end of their government. Americans will support them to their government. So you're going to hear them sounding more and more extreme, more and more radical as this economic grip tightens around them. And the hope is at some point they do come to the table and they negotiate a peace

that actually doesn't put them in a more powerful position than when this war first began. We've got a lot more to get to this morning. Still ahead on morning, Joe. Canada's retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. are now, in effect, extending the ongoing trade war. And, you know, we talked through the Senate races. This is going to have a direct impact on the Senate race in Maine, in Michigan, in Minnesota, in Alaska, in Ohio. We'll get into all of that as well. And as we go to break, a look at the Travelers forecast this morning from Accuethers Bernie Rayno, Bernie, how's it looking?

Mika, it's a terrific Tuesday, Iraqi weather travel forecast in the northeast. How about sunshine? 81 in Boston, New York City. Beautiful day in Chicago, maybe a shower in Louisville. Some drenching thunderstorms, Florida Peninsula, East, Texas. Other than that, the southeast

is hot and dry. No big travel delays, except from Miami this afternoon. We're also tracking Hurricane Lowell, unfortunately producing damage in the western islands of Hawaii of Kauai, Nihau. as it moves away this morning. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know,

download Yak your weather up today. I had a German Shepherd, and there was a dachshend that used to antagonize her at the playground, and it kind of reminds me of that. It kind of reminds me of that. And this little yippy dog, they used to just bark away. And for a long time, 110-pound German Shepherd was ignoring. the Doxon, and then one day she'd had enough. And unfortunately, Prime Minister Carney did walk away. They were given the opportunity for a great trade deal and that they didn't want it. And it looks

like it's for political reasons. But the U.S., it is not much of a hit to us, if any. You know, Scott Besson's not that stupid to David Ignatius. He's just, I'm sure he's not that stupid. And yet the petty insults against Canada, deeply insulting, I think, to every American that understands America has thrived. America has grown through the years because we have a 5,525-mile border with our friends. Yes, yes, our friends. With our friends to the north. And it is a peaceful border, and it has been a peaceful border over the generations. And they have gone along with us in wars, even some wars they disagreed with, because they've been great allies. When you hear this sort of talk, this childish talk from a Treasury Secretary, toward this such an important ally, first of all, what do you think?

And secondly, what would you like to tell the Treasury Secretary? this morning about Canada's importance to America's national security today and through the years that he obviously didn't learn in school. So, Joe, when I hear Secretary Bessett, who is a smart guy and a experienced financial trader, use a phrase like, you know, yappy little dog to describe another country, I really do scratch my head. I think there is a competition among Trump's inner circle to be as nasty and vituperative as the president is and to have these clever one-liners. But surely Bessett knows that this is self-destructive. If you asked anybody, what's this all about?

What's the trade issue that's led to a trade war between the United States and arguably its closest allies? People would just shrug their shoulders. Nobody could tell you. It's just, it's a self-perpetuating problem. What struck me as I've talked to people in the last few weeks is that this is now beginning to spill over into areas that really matter. For example, the so-called Five Eyes partnership that includes Canada,

the UK, Australia, New Zealand, maybe the most successful intelligence partnership in modern history is beginning to fray a little bit. I don't want to say that it's coming apart. But I hear that questions are being asked by our partners. Do we really trust the United States with our secrets? You know, at a time when we get blasted, when President posts maps showing our country covered by an American flag,

do we really trust this other country, intelligence, about trust, most fundamentally, with our secrets? So they're increasing implications beyond just the economics to Trump. And now to best it seems like a kind of trash-talking sport. And I think one thing that may change that is voters in the border states in Minnesota and Maine, you know, have a deep affinity for Canada, beginning to say, hey, wait a minute. You know, we're not comfortable with this. But it is, as I said earlier, it's a crazy little trade war and nobody can tell you really what it's about.

And it's Canada, guys. It's Canada. Our friends, our neighbors to the north who we love. And what a contrast over the weekend. Scott Besson, who is, David said, is playing a character. He is a smart guy and a successful guy, but he's doing the thing that Donald Trump thinks he should be doing, which is being a jerk, frankly, while being interviewed by the daughter-in-law of President Trump. It's a perfect moment for this era.

But the contrast of attacking Canada while Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff bow, bow, almost literally, to Vladimir Putin over the weekend in those conversations. But it has to be pointed out, I guess, as this week, 25 years since 9-11, that 40,000 Canadian soldiers, 153 of whom died, fought with us after 9-11. They weren't attacked. We were attacked. But they sent their troops to go fight with us after 9-11. Joe, we can go back to D-Day if we want to in Juneau Beach, the Canadians fighting alongside us. So we didn't think we had to say these things out loud anymore that Canada is a great partner and a friend and has been on our side through history, and we've been at theirs.

But in this moment, it has to be said out loud. A great ally, a great friend. It's ridiculous. A great neighbor. And a neighbor that has allowed the United States to thrive through the decades, through the generations, because we didn't have to worry about war to the north. Because they were such great allies of ours. And we really, Mika, again, going back to the election, whether you talk about Maine, whether you talk about Michigan, whether you talk about Minnesota, whether you talk about Alaska, even Ohio. There is a connection.

There's a connection, a business connection, but a real love and affinity. I think one of the great moments over the past year was in the Stanley Cup playoffs. When you actually had the mic go out while a young woman was singing in Go Canada, you had Buffalo's finest saying, don't worry, we got you. Finishing the Canadian National Anthem Forum. It was beautiful. And that showed really, really the clearest form, what a great affinity Americans have for their Canadian friends to the north. It's just this administration.

And it's been that way forever. But to David's point, I mean, these international partnerships, how long do they look at this as a passing problem? Right. Maybe solved by elections. Or do they look like at this as a serious threat to the relationship? Right. Canada's retaliatory tariffs have officially gone into effect. impacting roughly $20 billion worth of U.S. goods.

The tariffs supply to a range of products like steel and aluminum, clothing, cheese, and electronics, and range from 15 to 25 or even 50%. They went into effect late last night at midnight, and come after talks between the U.S. and Canada fell apart last month. In the fallout, the U.S. imposed its own 50% tariffs on Canadian. goods, and Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to retaliate. Since then, the president and members of his administration have escalated rhetoric against Canada, with Trump even renaming Lake Ontario, Lake America. The president mentioned the renaming in a larger post on social media just

hours before Canada implemented its new tariffs. Trump also threatened to stop the sale of jets from a Canadian aircraft manufacturer writing. If they want our market, they must build here and stop treating America like a piggy bank. We will note that the company, the president, mentioned, it employs hundreds of workers in the state of Kansas. Well, of course it does. Jonathan Lemire, I know you have a question for Caddy K,

but first, if you can just underline that fact that there are so many economic ties between the two countries and you can't hurt. Canada without hurting people, workers in Maine. You can't hurt Canada without hurting workers in Michigan, without hurting workers in Minnesota, without hurting workers in Alaska. Back to our Treasury Secretary, they're hurting the working class. Well, he knows it, but he doesn't care because what we're talking about are working. I mean, take just Maine, for instance. I mean, a lot of family restaurants, a lot of small family businesses really get hammered this year because all the Canadians that

always came across the border and came into Maine for the summer, didn't come. Huge part of the economy. Did not come. It's a huge part of the economy. Now, Scott Besson and his billionaire friends, they're not going to miss that money, are they? Of course not. But I'll tell you what, a family business is barely getting by that depends on tourism dollars every season so they can make it through the winter and open back up when the spring

comes along and keep their family business. It's been in the family for generations going. that doesn't reopen that spring. And Scott Besson, he'll still be making billions and billions of dollars on interest and on stock market. These people in Maine and Minnesota, in Michigan and Alaska, their family businesses will shut down and won't reopen again. And maybe it's a joke to him, but I'll tell you what, it's not a joke to those small business owners. No, fair to say, Susan Collins, deeply concerned about this. Yeah, whether it's Maine, it's Michigan, it's,

Wisconsin, it's all of those states, their economies are intertwined with Canada, particularly the northern parts of it. Then this nation's economy is deeply entwined with Canada. I mean, you're right about, first of all, what an advantage it has been to not have to defend our northern border. But think about this. American sports leagues have teams in Canada. That just doesn't happen anywhere else in the globe. There are teams in Toronto, Montreal, the like. So this is a big deal. And it does seem just frankly rank immaturity from the Treasury Secretary and others who do seem to be trying to outdo themselves and insulting our neighbor to the north. And Caddy, I mean, it also just, this underscores just how unreliable

the United States looks in the eyes of the rest of the world. You know, Canada certainly is a NATO partner. Canada is a close ally. You know, Canada has been there for us. You know, again, Article 5 for NATO invoked exactly once, while it was 25 years ago, this week for September. 11th, and this just reinforces our allies around the world that if we're picking this fight with arguably our closest, most docile friend, you know, how can they ever trust us to be there for them? So a European senior European diplomat recently told me there are three things that all of America's allies have to do with Donald Trump. One is flatter him, one is be firm against him, and the third one is to future-proof themselves. Well, Mark Carney didn't get the flattery

memo, but he is definitely future-proofing Canada against the US. And I think that is what America has to be worried about, that what Donald Trump is doing, what Scott Besson is doing, what these silly memes are doing, is reinforcing the message to other countries that they have to do trade deals with each other. Canada's done 20 of them in the past year. They have to do defense deals with each other. Canada is now talking to the Germans and the Swedes for its submarines and its fighter jets, rather than talking to the Americans. And they have to get themselves in a position where in five years time, in 10 years time, they are less dependent on the United States. There is no way that that is good for American workers. You had presidents after the

Second World War that realized that America's trade relations, having good trade relations with other countries was good for American workers. But now you've got other countries, Joe and Mika, saying, we don't think America is going to be there for us and we are going to try to make sure that we are not dependent on America. There is no way that doesn't hurt the United States going forward. Well, no way at all. And it hurts the United States. It hurts Western democracy. It hurts freedom. Yeah. It hurts Ukraine. You look at our allies and the way that voters there are making their decisions. You look at Germany this past weekend, a very bad weekend for Ukraine.

You listen to what Steve Whitkoff had to say, just praising Vladimir Putin saying just being in the very same room with him is one of the great honors of his life while Putin is killing and raping and and kidnapping young children from Ukraine. And then you have what happened in Germany, where a political party that has neo-Nazi elements in it and also is decidedly pro-Pooten, openly pro-Pudin, won a state victory in East Germany. Now, eastern part of Germany,

we'll talk about how significant that could be. I personally think it's just a warning shot for Western democracy, but we're going to get David Ignatius to tell us. his take on what happened when AFD won a state election, or at least won a plurality of a state election in the eastern half of Germany, and why so many people in Washington and across Europe are freaking out about it. That's when Morning Joe returns. All right. Welcome back to Morning Joe. Look at that beautiful shot of the skyline. It's a beautiful shot of the skyline. But then they're literally cranes all the way. I think they're building a helipat.

I don't know. There's a lot going on there. A lot of construction. But at least a reflecting pool sucking guy. Yeah. All right. R9. I'm not sure.

I haven't seen that. Germany. The Wall Street Journal editorial board is writing about how the AFD is rising on the German right. The editor's right in part, quote, A political crisis in Germany is the last thing Europe needs. but it may be what Europe gets. Voters in the eastern state of Saxony-Enholt on Sunday plunged politics into disarray with a strong show of support for a formally outcast party of the insurgent right.

The signal is clear. Even if the electoral math might not hand the AFD a working majority in the state government, voters are exasperated with traditional parties. The frustration is driven primarily by the, the permissive immigration policies Berlin pursued for a decade after 2015, which are proving difficult to wind back. Add to which the economy suffers an anemia, Berlin is struggling to cure. The AFD hurts its own cause by refusing to discipline or expel leaders and members accused and in some cases convicted of parroting Nazi slogans and the like. Some Americans,

conservative may cheer on the AFD's rise. That's a mistake. The party's instincts are anti-American, and in power, it would undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from within, rather than strengthening America's alliances in Europe. But the AFD's faults don't absolve politicians in mainstream parties of their obligation to show voters they can deliver real change on an out-of-control, migration policies, and economic decline. Otherwise, expect results like those in Saxony and Halt to become Germany's new normal. Something, Joe, you have been talking about on this show literally for 10 years. Since 2015. Yeah, for a decade for 11 years. Just saying what the Wall Street Journal is saying now in 2026 in that last paragraph, talking about how the center

in Europe needs to have reasonable, rational immigration policies. And it's something again, we played the tape a couple of weeks ago of how we warned time and time again in 2014, 15, 16, 17, that either the center in Europe was going to figure out how to handle the immigration crisis in Europe, our right-wing extremists would start getting elected. And those right-wing extremists a lot of neo-Nazi overtures there would take control. If the center wasn't going to do it, the extremists would. And what's happened? You have seen the middle in Europe hollowed out.

You have extreme parties on the right. You have extreme parties on the left. And now you have this election, AFD, which, you know, Germany's done everything they can to create this firewall. And again, to show you how blind the West was to this crisis, In 2015, after Angela Merkel allowed hundreds of thousands of Syrian immigrants in, without any background checks, just opened the doors Germany. Let 300,000 maybe, 350,000 in without any questions at all. Overwhelming Germany, Time magazine named a person of the year.

I remember Mark Halperner was on set with me that morning, and two minutes after this image came out, We just mockingly laughed and said, don't they understand? Don't the editors of Time magazine understand that we are going to be paying for the repercussions, the backlash, the political backlash of this for years to come? And we have, with Brexit, Donald Trump picked up on it, and now David, Germany. that backlash continues in part because of the just absolute failure, whether you talk about Germany or you talk about France or you talk about Britain, the absolute failure of the political center in Europe to come together with a governing policy

that can inspire its people. I agree, Joe. It's haunting that this has been coming on. And so obviously a real problem, a rise of a populist right-wing party in Germany that was speaking about immigration problems that apparently people in Berlin and Frankfurt were not worrying about, but people in the German middle class, working-class Germans were increasingly worried about it. It's important to note that the place where the AFD, this right-wing party, broke through in yesterday's elections, Saxony. the Anhalt is a former East German city. It's relatively poor. It's a place where people haven't seen a lot of opportunities,

so they're very vulnerable to this kind of rhetoric. The one positive thing that I noted, Joe, is that Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Meritz, said, after this result, this has shaken us. In other words, to your point, this has shown us that what we're doing is, alienating too many German voters. There are two more regional elections coming up in the next few months. And unless merits really shows Germans that the center can respond to problems that people

feel, this could compound. As you said in introducing this subject, this is more a warning shot than a devastating change in the German body politic. But it could be coming if German leaders don't take these issues more seriously. Well, Willie, German leaders need to be shaken. Europe needs to be shaken. There has been such an extraordinary blind spot. Whether you're talking about Germany, whether you're talking about France, whether you're talking about Great Britain. I remember talking to a good friend, who is the most left-wing person I knew? Her family were from Manchester. They despised Thatcher. And I said, well, you're obviously going to vote against Brexit. She goes,

I'm voting for Brexit. We've done our part on immigrants. We've done our part. And then she went on and on. Again, person who's never voted for a conservative, never voted for Tory candidate in her life, went on and on on this immigration problem. But it's not just the immigration problem. Obviously, there's an economic problem as well.

They regulate too much. They tax too much. Their economies have been sagging. So what happens? If you're in the eastern part of Germany, if you're in the depressed part of Germany where everybody's leaving and you're seeing a lot of immigrants coming in, what's going to happen? You're going to blame it on the immigrants. You're not going to blame it on a government that doesn't get out of the way and let business

actually grow the economy. Yeah, and Chancellor Merce, who, by the way, is a traditional conservative but not conservative enough in this moment for many people in German, apparently. He's got historically low approval ratings. He was kind of at the center of this race as well, Caddy. And this has echoed across European capitals, as you know, very well. It is a relatively small state, and this party did win 44%, not a majority. But there's a reason that people in London and Paris and Brussels and all over Europe are sitting up this morning

and taking note of a party whose platform was anti-immigration and also very anti-Ukraine. They want to cut off all aid to Ukraine and reestablish ties with Russia, of which, as David pointed out, it was a part going back to the Cold War. Yeah, I mean, I think Joe, your, Joe's point is right that immigration has been badly handled. You wouldn't have had Brexit without those waves of refugees coming across from Syria. Saxony-Anhalt is actually an area of Germany that has half the number of immigrants. of other areas of Germany. So it's not like there is a huge immigration population there. They've had chemical industry restructuring that's lost jobs. They've had very high energy prices because of the

Ukraine war and because of cutting back on gas from Russia. They've got an aging population. They've had a huge decline in public services. So I think all of that, those economic factors also play into this, but it's very easy as well for populist parties to point to the immigrants as the problem. it doesn't seem that's actually the case in this area of Germany particularly. But the reason this is ringing alarm bells is you've got elections coming up next weekend in Sweden, where the far right is polling well. You've got those huge presidential elections in France next spring. And then you have elections in Spain, in Italy, in Poland, also where the far right parties are polling well.

And so they're all looking at Germany and saying, wow, if for the first time since 1945, a party that is called a far right party can win a state in Germany, what does that portend for us? And I think those are the signals that are the European countries. And as Joe, as much as it is about immigration, although I think governments are handling that better, trying to.

It's really about economic growth. They've got to get growth up. They've got to get economic opportunities up. And they have to bring down energy prices. Sounds familiar, right, to American voters too. Right. And you're exactly right, Katie. And that's the problem

when the government doesn't respond well on the economic front. And when you see Germany going from being in an unassailable position economically 15 years ago to being where it is today, that's when people in the center start looking around and say, who do we blame for this? And instead of, you know, talking about deindustrialization or AI, our robotics or all these other things, they look to immigrants to use them scapegoats. No, if the economy were going well, this message would fall on death ears. And that is the message. The problem is the economy. Europe, European leaders have lost the plot on how to grow the economy.

But in the absence of being able to do that, people are going to look for somebody to blame. And sadly, in this case, as in the case of the United States and the case of Britain, it goes back to immigrants. The Washington Post, David Ignatius, thank you very much. David's latest column on why America's absence is inviting the war. Europe fears most is online right now. Read it. Coming up, we'll go through the highlights from the U.S. Open. Plus, the controversial call in the Michigan-Western Michigan football game that changed the ending and is still being talked about days later. We'll be right back. Underwood. Five seconds left. Underwood, he's going to toss it towards the end zone. After review, there's one second remaining in the game. Third down.

Terry, I would assume that this is based on where they feel like... Ridiculous. The most talked about play over the weekend, Big Ten officials finding it in their hearts to give Michigan one second on a game that was over. It appeared Michigan had lost at home to Western Michigan, something you do not do at Michigan. And with that added second, Michigan's due over.

Yep. Bryce Underwood launches one to the end zone. Buchanan does make a great catch. And Michigan wins by one point. Joining us now, Pulitzer Prize winning host of Pablo Torre finds out. MS now contributor Pablo Torre and writer for New York Magazine

and the athletic Will Leach. Guys, good morning. Will, I got to start with you because you're a Big Ten guy. Nice win by the Alina over UAB, by the way. We like the way the program's headed. But let's talk about what happened. I was watching that game live. That game was always.

That game was over. Western Michigan played great. Michigan was terrible. It would have completely changed the program at Western Michigan. It would have changed Michigan season, obviously. How did this happen other than the Big Ten saying we cannot have Michigan losing its first game and being out of the conversation? It was certainly strange. Of course, for everyone that was watching the game, we saw the clock run out beforehand. But it turned out, the Big Ten, as they kind of showed later that night, in an oddly funted social media message. Kind of, they basically said, no, no, no, there's a camera that you don't have access to that we do. And they showed the video, and it appeared in their video, that a player who had stepped out of bounds had touched the ball with one second left. This was not a video that anyone watching at home was able to see. And, in fact, it was something that no one even knew existed until the most convenient possible time for it to be shown. So, yes, certainly when you consider how much power the Big Ten has, how important Michigan is to that, how frankly Western Michigan,

remember this was a game that they got $1.6 million to play, right? They were paid to kind of come in to do. They're really kind of the powerless team in the situation. The notion, that to me is the wild part about this. I wrote up for the athletic this week. The notion that, you know, instant replay existed essentially to like correct historical wrongs, right? Like the Don Dickinger call gets correct or Missouri doesn't get the fifth downs.

But basically, how many times have we watched the game seen a clear watch the replay and be like, oh, okay, well, I know what happens. And then I know what happened. I see now. Thank you, replay. And then have the officials come with the exact opposite thing. And now we learn there are secret cameras that we don't actually know about controlled by the league that has a lot of money to be involved in this.

It really, I don't know how anyone can have faith in replay other than just give us one more thing to be angry about. Well, but here's how we can have faith in replay. And the athletic wrote another story yesterday about this, about how the Big Ten released, the conversation of the officials that were reviewing the replay. And Will, you remember last year the ACC started doing this in some games and you sat there

and you go, oh, okay, wait a second. I see what they're looking at. That makes sense. And you actually walk through it with the officials and I think there was a controversy of play. I think it was in a UVA game. I'm not sure. But by the time they made their decision, you're like, okay, I

understand why they're making that decision on when he has possession of it. They released that. The next day after it was too late to put the cows back into the barn. And when you look at all of that the next day, you're like, okay, I can see how they made their decision. So I guess the question is this, when is every conference going to allow viewers to go in and listen to what the officials are looking at when they do the replay?

So this doesn't happen again. Yeah, it was telling when the ACC did that, everyone was like, fans were like, fantastic. That's wonderful. That we can see what's going on. Please do this SEC and the Big Ten. They're both like, no, no, no, no, that's not. We're not doing that at all. And I think, you know, there is a sense of a lack of transparency,

generally speaking, to the point where if, again, they have the opportunity to do this, we could have theoretically had real-time access to that conversation. The Big Ten and the SEC, the two most powerful conferences that are, there's always the fear they're going to produce like super conferences, where it's almost an AFC and an NFC, and that's what runs college football. They have so much power in the sport.

if they don't want to be transparent, they don't have to be. I think it leads to not just them putting this thing out a day later and people not believing them, but the notion of like, well, of course the Big Ten is not going to let Western Michigan beat Michigan. Of course. And again, maybe I understand the call. I understand the argument they made. But the way the power structure is put together in this sport right now, what impetus is any

sports fans who actually believe them in that scenario? It should be said, probably Western Michigan. their coach, the president of university, to handle this with total class that night and the next day at a press conference, moving on to the next week. But I'll pose the question to you that our EP Alex Corson posted me this morning.

If the shoe had been on the other foot, if that had been Western Michigan, do you think at the big house, the Big Ten would have looked and said, you know what, Western Michigan, we're going to give you another shot to beat Michigan? There would have been an insurrection. We would have been occupying various establishments,

physical buildings, calling for election monitors. Look, the way this happened, I just got to say, this is a reflection, the conversation is a reflection to where we are in sports, where we don't actually believe the things we're being shown. These are not the clocks you're looking for. It's like, no, we got some clocks in the back, actually. Those are the real clocks, not the ones in the front. It's because the money is flowing in ways where it's like, look, the Cupcake game, Western Michigan getting paid, that is an ancient tradition. When you have an era of gambling and now opacity, you are wondering, like, what's going on here?

And so, yes, I want cameras inside the hooded tents where the refs are to Joe's point. I want an extra decimal point added to the clocks. Can we get some decibles? Like, we're doing nice round numbers. Meanwhile, there's another sponsorship opportunity, John? You can't sell a clock sponsorship to get decimal points so you could actually make it a more transparent. sort of explanation as to why this is happening. Yeah, we have decimal points in basketball.

We see that. Yes. At the very least, it shouldn't be too hard to sync up this mysterious backroom clock with the TV broadcast, like, so we can all know what's going on. I'm calling for a complete and total shutdown of all college football clocks. I will note, though, that sometimes there is the Patsy team that goes in and gets paid and then beats the home team. UMass beat Rutgers last week.

Appalachian State did it to Michigan. And by the way, though, Western Michigan, they held the ball for like 40 minutes. Like the way they played the game, actually, the game itself, Michigan should be embarrassed. On a couple of levels, one of them is the football level. I had the ball for less than 20. Any other pretty uninspiring, we were talking about earlier, pretty uninspiring first weekend of college football, a lot of blowouts, not that many good games. We had power failure last night. Any, in Florida State, any other storylines jump out to you?

Oh, just watching Lane Kiffin at LSU. You know, the guy knows what he's doing. He's making an argument. We talked about this last week. How is it that he's getting guys who were just in NFL training camps? what he's saying to everybody and how he's carrying himself is, this is the pros. It's all the pros. Look at me walk out with Theo Vaughn and Libby Dunn and all these influencers. Watch me dab up these recruits. I'm going to pay millions of dollars to on the way to my

nationally televised game in which also there's a conversation in the SEC around not just can I get ex-NFL players, but also are we going to give this sport an antitrust exemption as he's lobbying on camera next to Nick Save and next to Pat McAfee, the whole. whole thing smells like lobbying. And so this is where you got to sort of say, Lane Kiffin has figured out this is the era in fact that we are living here. Even in his halftime interview at that game, he jokingly said they were up by whatever, 31 to 3 goes. Just imagine if we had pro players, we'd be up by more. He's leaning in. We passed through that newspaper I passed to you. Which one? The one right in front of you.

Oh, yeah, sure. Check this out, guys. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which usually writes about tariff policy in the midterm elections, writes this this morning. Pablo Torre won. you can pop in right here. Pablo Torre won. Mark Cuban, push in on that a little bit. There you go. Zero talking about your investigation. Your long investigation was questioned by other owners in the NBA.

So there you have it. A different score. Let's talk baseball. As we turn the corner after Labor Day, we focus on these pennant races. Aaron Judge is coming back for the Yankees. Tonight, they're up two on the Red Sox. I hadn't heard. We've waited long enough, Willie.

There he is. Where he's back. What are you looking at? the baseball race. I mean, I have to say, we talk a lot on this program about the miracle Boston Red Sox. And I want to know if the, if the Sainhood applications are still being processed. Where are we? Because I like the Yankees.

I do. Aaron Judge being back. We've said all the time, Aaron Judge has as much influence as an individual player can have over a team in baseball statistically. It's crazy. And I'm flipping my way over to the standings. I'm just wondering, like, how are we feeling? How are we feeling, Red Sox lobbyists?

Yeah, we're certainly happy for you guys, Aaron Judge is back, as you can see. I'm delighted. You know, Joe, I mean, the Sox can do continue to win with this sort of upstart, anonymous crew. Mickey Gasper couldn't be picked out of a lineup unless you were someone who really knew stuff about mustaches. And yet he's hitting like Barry Bonds in the last few weeks. We're two back, three with the tiebreaker.

But, you know, we're just, as you know, Joe, we're just looking at. up at those Yankees and we're grateful to be in striking distance right as they proceed to make another run to October glory. I think what we understand is that Aaron Judge has come back and the Yankees are going. They failed utterly last year to play up the expectations, but they're going to win the World Series in five games. So we understand that. We are the little engine that could.

And, you know, with people like Mickey Gasper, a 31-year-old journeyman who had the best month of anybody in baseball history other than maybe Babe Ruth and one or two others. We've got a bunch of other guys. Some guys that just kind of walked onto the field. Seriously, couldn't play for any other team. There is the guys that have won helped the Red Sox win since June the 25th. There's not a player on that team, I think, that the Yankees would have gone out and gotten. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's, there's another no-name player that steps up and is a hero.

It's, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty inspiring and you just kind of hear that little engine that could, even though the Yankees are going to win in five. I think I can. I think I can. I mean, it is, it is, it is, I think I can, I think I can. The sound of sandbag. I think I can. It's a remarkable.

Oh my gosh. There are very few Red So inspiring, who can claim to have seen this coming. much is to be clear. We should also know, Ray is still in first place now. And Ray's and Yankees have a huge series looming. Both, I would say,

both the socks and Yankees have relatively easy schedules down the stretch, but that one, four games in the Bronx looms large. Big four games set. But also the macro picture, the Dodgers are the favorites. The Dodgers, of course.

The Dodgers' ownership is embroiled in a federal scandal, by the way, which we're covering on the podcast as well. And by the way, labor stoppage looming. Don't. This is what we're doing. We're playing baseball

until no one can agree to play baseball anymore. And so I'm just warning you all. I'm just warning you all. Let's enjoy this last season. Enjoy Aaron Judge. Hey, Will, take us out of the NL East, if you would. The White Sox quietly having a great season, obviously with the blessing of Pope Leo,

they're number one fan. Also, the Brewers. I mean, they're the best team in baseball by record right now. What else are you looking at down the stretch here? Yeah, it's funny. We talk about the labor stuff. I mean, certainly the Brewers are our team,

for this notion that the Dodgers are this, Titanic team that no one can stop. The brewers are better than they are and have the best record in baseball. And I think are pretty primed to make a pretty good run that may undermine, I would say, some of the arguments about revenue sharing and the labor issues in the sport. But not that it's going to stop the scaring of all that looming tower that is that labor thing that's coming up. But to me, the brewers are the brewers.

And again, the rays. Sorry, I know it's a Boston, New York thing. But the rays are better than both of them. And it's better than both of them. It's true. It's true. That's shocking. I'm shocked, sad. But of course, Yankees will win it all. Hey, let me ask you, Will, about the U.S. Open. There are a lot of great stories here, a lot of great matches. But I don't think any is inspiring as Tiafa. For those that don't know about Tiaf's background, his father and mother immigrated from Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s during the brutal Civil War. His father gets on a construction site. They build a tennis center, and he's on the construction team. They build a tennis center in Maryland. And the people that he's working for are

like him so much. They say, hey, why don't you run our grounds? And so he didn't have a place to live with his twin sons. So they let him stay in an abandoned office. He raises his kids there for 11 years. They grow up on the tennis courts for their first 11 years. And one of those. two twins. You're looking at him there. You talked about the quintessential American story, the toast of New York City. There he is. Tiafo. It's been wonderful. He plays at one o'clock today with a chance to get to the semis. There's guaranteed going to be at least one American in the semis. It'd be pretty wonderful as him. He has kind of got close to this before and never quite gotten over the top. But his win in the last round was as great as he has ever played. It does kind

to feel like this could be kind of his moment again. We almost had four Americans in the quarterfinals for the first time since 1995, but he is the one that I've been Sheldon plays tonight, but I think it really is Tiafo the one that is peaking right now. And by the way, the way he won, like you said, against Medvedev, former U.S. Open winner, a former number one guy who was ranked seven of the world. Straight sets. Just dominated him, right?

It's what we've been waiting for from him, right? Like, he's shown this before. He's getting a little older, at least in the age of tennis players. But this is the time. Like, this is what he's been building toward. He's never quite broken through. If he can get to the semis, obviously, he's going to have the crowd around him. And the influencers, by the way, the other big story of the C-UOS open.

In retrospect, they should have not given ring lights to the first 5,000 fans in attendance. I think they know. Yeah. The selfie. Selfie sticks and ring lights. All right. Writer for the Atlantic Will Leach and MS now contributor Pablo Tori. Thank you both very much for coming on the show.

Pablo 1. This morning. Mark Cuban. Zero. You can hit the details the Wall Street Journal editorial page. We'll turn back to politics. Some Republican candidates are trying to separate themselves from President Trump on the campaign trail. Even telling the White House he can't come to their events.

What? We'll dig into that strategy and how the president may respond to that. Morning Joe, we'll be right back.