Morning Joe - DOJ drops Reflecting Pool charges in stunning reversal

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

August 3, 2026: 7am — DOJ drops Reflecting Pool charges in stunning reversal  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.

Live shot there of Washington, D.C. and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool looking terrible. Welcome back to morning, Joe. It's just before 7 a.m. It's Monday, August 3rd. I'm Jonathan Lemire. Thank you for being with us. We're going to begin this hour with an analysis by our friend Peter Baker of the New York Times, who pointed out that President Trump's most recent polling numbers have hit new lows heading into the midterms. Peter highlighted several new polls in recent days that find that barely a third of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as the war. war in Iran continues, and gas prices remain high. The president's poll numbers are currently at or near the lowest they have ever been in some nonpartisan surveys. What's more, the latest surveys indicate Trump is now all but the most unpopular second term president at this stage of their tenure in the history of polling going back to the 1940s. There's only one exception, but it's a

complicated one. The only exception is Richard Nixon, who we should note, had even less public support at this stage in his second term. But here's the caveat. Nixon at that moment was just days away from resigning over the Watergate scandal. So Trump only bids the one guy who had one foot out the door in his second term. Not great. Meanwhile, for the second week in the row, President Trump posted a lot of AI generated content on his social media site. It was a bizarre range of slot posts from him kissing a golden crucifix, there it is, to him in a white Elvis-style jumpsuit. I mean, I think he looks great. And there's this one here, where he's walking next to a shackled alien and a military base. We're not sure what that one's about. Maybe it's previewing an October surprise.

He also controlled Greenland in one post, there. Then minutes later, suggested that Venezuela would be the 51st date. And just like last weekend, the president posted a Trump-2020 image. So that That's where the president's mindset was this weekend amid those terrible poll numbers. Jen Palmeri, still with us. Join the table we have, the Pulitzer Prize winning hosts of Pablo Tori finds out. MS. Now contributor, Pablo Tori. Also with us, the co-hosts of The Rest is Politics Podcast, the BBC's Katty K and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.

And Katty and Anthony have some exciting news for the rest is politics, U.S. listeners. They are headed on tour in our... October leading up to the midterms, they will start in Georgia, and then they make their way across North America with plans on stopping in seven cities, including one in Canada. Jen Paul Merritt compared this to a Harry Styles-esque run. Caddy Kay, tell us more about the show you're bringing on the road. Okay. First of all, I'm tone deaf, so I'm promising everybody I'm not going to sing.

That is, that's for sure. But thank you, Jen. I like the plug. Look, it's, you know, ahead of these midterms, super important midterms, any excuse to get Washington, D.C. Frankly, Lemire, I'm sure you'll agree. A very good one. Get around the country. We'll be talking to people, taking their questions. We're super excited. This is the first time. We've done a tour around the U.S. We've done big shows here in the UK, but it'll be fun to see what U.S. audiences in those key states are talking about ahead of the midterms, right, Anthony?

Well, I mean, Canada. So he has to come. I'm just excited that Canada is no longer the 51st state. So we go to Toronto. We're not going to throw eggs and tomatoes at us. I mean, it's just sort of unbelievable, John. You know, when I look at those tweets, though, and I think of the 11 days that I had as Trump's White House Communications Director,

these guys are in a bunker when he does that. And I'm sure there's one or two people that are helping him do it. But, I mean, it's just mind-boggling that he's numbing us to all of this nonsense. So, Jen, let's dive into the polls that we just talked about. Breaker wrote such a smart analysis about, I mean, these are historically bad. But it's not just that they're bad. It's that the administration is showing no signs of trying to improve them, right? All he's doing so far is doubling down on things that earned him those poor poll numbers. Obviously, the war in Iran has no end in sight, but they're still pushing on the deportations, you know, which have become

extremely unpopular. He's done very little to roll out any sort of economic policy that could help with inflation. He's just, he's everything he's doing making it worse for himself and Republicans this November. Well, and that, and that's why, you know, people have always been concerned that he would run again in 2028, right? Or least attempted. And now he's like he's, he keeps every, every weekend, there's some new, there's some new sign of that. That's not helpful Republicans in 2026 either, right? It's like that he's just so focused on his legacy, the war in Iran, nothing's getting better, worrying about stupid things like the reflecting pool. And even with, but, like, we have to remind ourselves, even with these historically low poll numbers for himself, Republicans, his standing within the Republican Party, this was not true of President Nixon at this point in his presidency.

In fact, it was Nixon who was Republicans who forced Nixon out. Right, right. It is merely the entire history of polling, Jen. That's all. It can't be that long. That's all. Anthony, you know, I want to put a question to the mooch here because one of the things that I am thinking about as we look at the AI slot posts that are being made while the history of polling reflects that this is the second most unpopular person, shy of Richard Dixon, ever, is there are some people who are perhaps already paying a premium to get those posts before everybody else. There is a subscription aspect, a Bloomberg terminal aspect, to access to that photo of the president, your former boss,

that alien through a hypothetical government site, I guess. Could you just put that into context as well, just like the idea that, oh, by the way, there is this get the news first for a specific reason dynamic there? Well, listen, it's terrible. I mean, it's got to be a lot of different ethics violations to do that. And I think this is the problem that a lot of people on Wall Street don't understand. What he does things like that, then the Clarity Act stalls because his opposition doesn't want to give him a win on something like that, which is, of course, the cryptocurrency regulation.

And so he has broken every norm. He's taken things right up to the line. And in many cases, and I think this is one of those cases where he's over the line. But he doesn't care. And his poll numbers reflect that because his attitude, and I've said this on our podcast, and Katty's probably tired of me saying it, he wants to make money and he wants our. attention. So the AI stuff is attention-related. The express tweeting stuff is to make him and his friend's money. And that's what he's going to do over the next two years. He's not concerned about the American people or whether gas goes to $7 by election day. So that's the trouble here. I mean, that picture of Elvis, I'd pay early. Trade on that. That's the one. That's one.

Oh, this is not giving out sports scores, guys. I mean, come on. Can you mad? I mean, that would be another night here for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, it's an untapped market. He'll get there eventually. So Rich Lowry has a new piece in the National Review titled, The Iran War is Eating Trump's Presidency.

He writes in part this. An Iran war that was supposed to be brief and then was supposed to be over is imposing an increasing price on Donald Trump's presidency. The Iran War is different than Iraq. Yet the political trajectory looks similar. Then, as now, an unpopular conflict is putting downward pressure on a Republican president's approval rating. The same way that Bush's success toppling the Taliban created the predicate for the Iraq war, Trump's stunning capture of Nicholas Maduro made

it easier to believe that the Iran war would be a cakewalk. Perhaps Trump will manage a satisfactory conclusion, and he has more room to bounce back up again politically than Bush did after years of the Iraq war. Still, the next Republican president to launch major military operations would be well served to be more prudent and mindful of worst-case scenarios than were either of his two otherwise very different GOP predecessors and Katty. I think the comparison is pretty spot on. But more than that, it is, as we spent a lot of time in the first hour today, talking about how Trump simply, he's in this bind of his own making.

And there's no good way out of this. There's going to be either political or geostrategic or both consequences to matter. what he ends up with. Yeah, I mean, I think, look, behind all of this is a competency question. Why did the Trump team this time around not surround themselves with real experts who understood Iran, who understood what Iran's motives might be, who understood the likelihood of Iran shutting the straits of Hormuz, and what kind of action America would have to take to prevent that? And if he had surround himself with experts who really understood this and then gone out and made the case to the American public, I think we could have had possibly a different outcome.

I mean, there's a reason you go to Congress. It's not just for the legal reason to get Congress's backing and the financial backing for a war, which clearly the president didn't do but should have done. It forces a president to make a case to the American public. And that's useful when things start to go wrong or when the war drags on, not the four to six weeks he promised, but now more than six months.

I think that would have been very useful to him. I mean, Anthony, when you look at this war, and I think the comparison with Iraq, goes so far, but Iraq we were coming out of 9-11. It was a different mood in the country. Yeah, they made an erroneous case for going into Iraq over Afghanistan, but there at least was some public support for it. I don't think there was, the public in America going in February into this war, they had no reason to think that Iran was a greater threat to them in February of 2026 than it had been six months before, or one year before or two years before, right?

Candy, I thought we won the war. I mean, he tweeted over the weekend. Many times. This is the 107th time that we've won the war and they're totally decimated, yet the Strait of Hormuz is closed. And our strategic petroleum reserve is at the lowest level that it's been since 1983. So, yeah, you know, the president doesn't care. I think someday an historian will figure out what the real motivation was for that war.

but it's not what he's saying it was because, again, he dropped those bunker buster bombs in June of 2025 and said that he eliminated the nuclear threat. So ultimately, we really don't know what he's doing. There's no push inside the Congress to help us figure out what he's doing or what the motivation is. But by next Sunday, you guys will be on Morning Joe Monday morning saying, you know, we won the war again because he'll be tweeting about how successful he was with these non-nobes. negotiations. Okay, Anthony, you and I both had the same job. You for President Trump, me for President Obama as White House Communications Director. We're sitting there in the tiny upper press offices in the West Wing. We have the insane AI slop tweets over the weekend.

We have him pulling back from attacks on Iran again after saying there are the, I think Jonathan said 11 now rounds of supposed talks with Iran or Neo-Deals. What do we suggest that the president actually do? this point, knowing who we're dealing with. So I tell you, listen, stay away, try to go into the old executive office building. There's a bowling alley that Richard Nixon put there. You and I are going to bowl, you know, at least three or four games to stay away from him. And that's actually what's going on. And so there's one or two people that are helping them generate those AI tweets. There's nobody in that White House is saying, hey, you probably, it doesn't make sense to be

kissing a crucifix after you posted yourself as Dr. Jesus on Orthodox Easter. And so I would tell you, listen, if you want to keep your job, I didn't. I got ejected like a James Bond villain after 11 days, like bowled out of the Asin Martin. But if you want to keep your job, let's go bowling. Because if you say anything to him that he doesn't like, he's going to hit you with a ray gun. There's the answer. Go bowling. Co-host of The Rest is Politics Podcast, former White House Communications Director,

Anthony Scaramucci, thank you so much. The Harry Stiles S. Tour of The Rest is Politics Podcasts will kick off this October. Ticket information is available on their website. The rest is PoliticsUS.com. Tickets available and going fast. Still ahead here on Morning Joe, we're going to talk about the state of play in North Carolina. That's the focus of Jen's latest podcast episode for her new series Long Play. We're going to get to that. Plus, oh boy.

We're going to take a look at the big moves across Major League Baseball. ahead of today's trade deadline, including the Dodgers adding yet another superstar to their roster. The Rich Get Richer. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. You are the host of a new podcast series titled Long Play, Winning the South, in which you travel to southern states to talk with voters ahead of the midterms. And we're going to get to the brand new episode on North Carolina in just a moment. But first gen, for last week's episode, you were down in Texas talking to residents of Tarrant County. So this is super interesting because Tarrant County is like the swing area of Texas.

This is Fort Worth. And we spoke with three women, three Republican women. One was another Trump Republican. The other two evangelical Christian women that had voted for Trump in the past and are really concerned about so interesting the MAGA takeover of school boards in their districts and are voting for Democrats because of it. So let's take a look at the clip. When did you realize that you'd been duped by culture wars in this school? I started to see it once my son entered kindergarten and I got involved in PTA. And I'd be doing the copies for the teachers of all of the worksheets that they were going to do with the kids for the following week.

And there was nothing on it about politics or gender or sexuality or anything like that. It was ABC's in one, two, three. So sort of anti-world politics come down to the school district level. and exploded here in Tarrant County. I just started to frustrate me because I kept hearing people raging about these issues. And then I'd say, well, can you show me the example? And then when you're debating people and they'd say,

oh, you liberal snowflakes, you, and I would say, I would say, I'm a Republican. And you are all three women who have been Republicans for most of your voting lives. Who's voting for James Tallerico? Also gave him my money. Yeah. I like him.

Yeah. He was a middle school. teacher in public school in Texas. And they started cutting all his funding. And he said, well, if I can't change my school, then I'm going to need to change my state. And that's so becoming of a leader. I want a middle school teacher who's like, hey, this is broken. Somebody needs to fix it. Why not me? So, and not just, and they're also not just funny from James Talricka. They're voting for Gina Inahosa. You know, what I had heard in talking to Republicans before going down to Texas was maybe people won't vote for Paxton because of all of his corruption issues and they don't like him.

but they're not going to cross over and vote for Tala Rico and Gina and Oso. And then we find that these women are that upset about what's happened. And so interesting, having been lied to, it's sort of the callback to remember, you know, when Glenn Yonkin won in 2021 and 2022 and Loudoun County and critical race theory and, you know, all the fights of the school boards, it's like there's a backlash to that. People, and, you know, what I hear is not, I heard or I read, but I saw, I. experienced. I know. People are saying, like, I'm not believing these lies anymore. That's my Democrats are daring to dream about Texas. So, Jenna, your latest episode just out this

morning, you sat down with Democrat Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in North Carolina, Jamie Agar, who discussed the failures of the current leadership in that battleground state. People's frustration over Hurricane Helene recovery. Was there a sense of just like nobody has my back? Yeah, nobody has my back. When is this application going to get reviewed? I sent it in three months ago. I don't know what's going on. You know, businesses that had to make payroll for a month without any revenue. Yeah, like you did. Was the leader of Western North Carolina, Chuck Edwards, adequate in responding to that storm? Could we have done better? Absolutely. He wasn't out and about it enough, wasn't doing stuff. I just think that's sad when our leaders aren't living up to the expectations of what true leadership is, right? So this is interesting. So, you know, when you talk to consultants,

and North, uh, that work in North Carolina and say, why hasn't a Democrat won there statewide? You know, we have governor Roy Cooper, but nobody's won the Senate for Democrats since 2008. Barack Obama's the last Democrat to win the presidential, um, in North Carolina. And they all say, it's because we are not Georgia, our rural area. We have a lot of rural areas in the very conservative. Jamie Ager is running in a, the such rural area, the western part of the state, Asheville. Um, and an interesting guy in that his grandfather was in Congress, a mountain Democrat. He's really created his own identity there and running against a Republican who now wait for it has a harassment claims against ethics, ethics investigation. The new series

is so interesting, available on YouTube now. Janet's a really great watch. And certainly, I mean, one of the themes here is this is a real anger against like the rich getting richer at the top benefits while the bottom does it. The same is in Major League Baseball, Pablo. Let's talk about the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend. Let's talk about the rigged system that is major league. The MLB trade deadline is later today. But the actions have started and the headline deal by far to Rick Scouble, arguably the best pitcher in baseball,

goes from the Tigers to, yes, the Dodgers. The two-time defending World Series champion, Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the highest payroll in league by far, who have the most revenue stream by far. And there was a real anger around the game. that first of all, the Tigers seem to settle for not a great package. Yeah, but why weren't other teams stepping up? Why weren't like a Milwaukee Brewers type trying to make a bid here?

And instead, the Dodgers, him going to the Dodgers seems to reinforce too many the economic unfairness inherently in Major League Baseball right now. Yeah, the picture economically is darkly hilarious if you're concerned at all about, like, what is the future of baseball, what is the gap between the haves and the have-nots? and really is it just the Dodgers having having the most? Here's the number that jumped out of me that I circled here. The payroll for the Dodgers is now $430 million. And I'm a Yankee fan, and even I am like, that feels like a bit much.

The tax number of $180 million, and this is stunning to me, the tax number, the taxes they pay on it, higher than the entire payrolls for 16, for 16 of the other 29 teams in baseball. And so the question here, Jen, is like, okay, you guys. have now seven top flight starters. Seven. It's, this is an embarrassment of riches that, again, is unprecedented. And so what I think you're seeing, by the way, in the small markets where why we're in people bidding, why are people, yes, disturbed, but also quietly feeling like this says something meaningful about the direction of the sport is that so many of those small market teams are calling for a salary cap. And this now is Exhibit A. So there's going to be a call for a work stoppage by the owners. And the reason this is interesting is because in the present tense,

the Dodgers seem to be locking up the World Series. But next year, there might not be baseball. Yeah. I mean, the league, both sides, players and owners are digging in for a fight. There needs to be, yeah, maybe our salary cap, but also some sort of salary floor. Like small market teams must be more. It's a lot to figure out. Like better revenue sharing. But the game is so hot right now, baseball, it would just be disastrous to go out with any kind of labor stoppage next year. The counter quickly to the Dodgers is why they felt like they had to make this move. They just got swept by the Red Sox this weekend. I'm just going to say, we will end this baseball discussion on this.

Somehow, and no one understands this. No one gets this. No Red Sox fan understand what's happening. Since the end of June, they're 28 and 5. I'm calling for a complete and total shutdown of the ALEs until we figure out what's going. Yeah, yeah. It is preposterous. I don't get it.

No Red Sox fan understands what's happening. We're just enjoying the ride at least for now. All right. Coming up next here on Morning Joe. There are few leaders, few leaders with more fight in them than Haley Stevens. What should voters read into not just the closing message, but the closing messengers in this race? You know, Michiganers understand that the Democratic Party has been a little clique in Michigan for a very long time. And that click always likes to uplift its own.

Is Whitmer in the click? Look, corporate Democrats have made their choice. And I think it's time for the folks in Michigan to make theirs. These are folks who fight and win for Michigan. They win tough races. That's what's at stake right now. Michigan Democratic Senate candidates, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and Abdul El-Said speaking with Ali Vitale ahead of tomorrow's closely watched primary race.

Ali is going to join us next with a closer look at what's become a prime example of what Democrats are wrestling with right now as the party's moderate and progressive factions go head-to-head. You're going to want to watch that. We'll be back in just a moment. The evidence shows, and we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hearned, willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. We can state and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he caused damage, and that damage is over $1,000.

So despite those assertions in July, you see the Reflecting Pool there, the Department of Justice announced it's dropping. Felony charges against a former Olympian after acknowledging the damage the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was actually caused by flawed installation rather than van. The motion to dismiss was filed by D.C. U.S. Attorney Janine Piro in a Friday news dump after prosecutors concluded that the damage that had been attributed to former Olympian David Hearn actually stemmed from defects in the installation of the reflecting pools liner. Mind you remember, no bid contract. It was rushed to try to get done before July 4th, and then it was green and fallen apart. The filing stated that information obtained after the indictment showed the damage was caused by, quote, botched work performed by the

Project's contractor who was hired by the Trump administration and not by criminal conduct. Hearned pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of destruction of property after authorities alleged he damaged the iconic reflecting pool during a June visit to the National Mall. So you think the matter's over? Nope. In response, President Trump lashed out on social media, stating he disagreed 100% with Janine Piro on the reflecting pool. I don't know what she was thinking, Trump wrote.

To me, it's a. pure case of vandalism. To me, doing a lot of work there. Interior Secretary Doug Bergam echoed the president's message in a social media post of his own, writing, the evidence is clear. Vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the reflecting pool.

Neither Bergam nor Trump provided evidence for these claims. Let's bring in MS now legal analyst Charles Coleman. Charles, I mean, we have for a decade now grappled with moments where Donald Trump has tried to assert his own reality and sometimes he gets away.

with it. Enough people believe him. This one, though, is, you know, top tier in terms of, you know, his own U.S. attorney had to sort of regudely admit, like, hey, there's nothing here. And yet Trump just flat out, you know, doubles down. So first, though, give us your reading on what Piro said on Friday. Well, John, what we're seeing here is pretty extraordinary when you think about the type of talk that Janine Piro had publicly back at the beginning of July around her being able to establish this case beyond a reasonable doubt. And that now entirely changing courts are basically saying that we don't have the evidence. There's nothing here. This was something that she is now shifting the blame to the Department of the Interior for basically giving her bad facts and

information. And so I think that from her perspective, thinking about this as a former prosecutor, she looked at it. She decided that she was into deep, that she had bad information and had already put enough egg on her face. And so she decided, I need to get out of this as quickly as possible. Now, Charles, from a legal procedure perspective, obviously, Janine Piro has called for the end of this. The president seems to be doing the opposite. Is there anything else to do here? Is this now just going to live in the realm of, I guess I'm paying $100,000 a month to get early access to Donald Trump claiming this is still vandalism? Is that what we're just getting right now?

That pretty much is what we're looking at right now because there's nothing that can be done jurisdictionally if Janine Piro has decided that she's not going to pursue this matter. it would be very, very unwise for Todd Blanche or anyone else who's going to be heading up the DOJ to try to supersede that decision because they just don't have the jurisdiction to do so. So for me, as I'm looking at this, watching the president continue to beat this drum when we've heard from the chief prosecutor in the jurisdiction where the reflecting poll exists say that there's nothing here and that they cannot prove this sort of case for vandalism unless there's some new facts that either that Janine Piro doesn't know and the, Secretary of the Interior has not put out, this needs to go no further than it already is gone.

When even Janine Piro is too worried about her reputation to continue to pursue a case. But what do you, the president, so she did say this. The president did respond the way he did. Doug Bergam responded the way he did. What do you think that this means for, you know, possible further prosecutions here? Well, Jen, I think it puts a very, a very big damper on the relationship between the president and the head prosecutor here. I mean, I'm not to your question, to your point, I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of Jeannie Piro, but what I will say is that in this instance, she demonstrated what prosecutors are supposed to do.

She already realized that, hey, I really embarrassed myself already to a significant degree by claiming to have facts that I clearly did not and not having done my homework. And that type of break, that type of independence from this president creates a real gap in terms of there being a working relationship that's there despite her appointment. We saw President Trump talk about this in his tweet, and we don't necessarily know whether it will ultimately be a bigger fissure in the relationship between Janine Piro and President Trump. But it could be the type of assertion of independence that she's looking for because as a prosecutor, you realize, look, my office is not political.

I'm supposed to deal with the facts. If I can't do that, then maybe I don't need to be here. Trump is clearly embarrassed by this whole. matter in the reflecting pool cannot admit a mistake. And then has cabinet members stand up for him? I mean, the whole thing is... It was a thousand dollars. It was a thousand dollars. It's not lose track of how important. It just, it just truly, truly egg on everybody's face here. MS Now, Legal Anast Charles Coleman, thank you for joining us this morning. We really appreciate it. We're going to have more about this story when one of the attorneys for David Hearn, lawyer Norm Eisen, joins us next

hour. Up next to this hour, we're going to bring in MS Now's, Allie Vitale, with her reporting on the closely watched Michigan Senate race ahead of tomorrow's pivotal primary. We'll be right back. Crazy storms in New York City this morning, but wow, looks lovely in Grand Haven, Michigan at 7.40 a.m. And Democratic voters in the great state of Michigan are set to cast their ballots tomorrow in that state's primary election for U.S. Senate. Congresswoman Haley Stevens and progressive candidate, Dr. Abdul-Alda. Al-Said, are locked in a tight race that could help determine control the Senate as well as the future of the Democratic. Party. Lots of eyes on this one. Let's bring in MS now, senior Capitol Hill reporter and host of

way too early, Ali Vitale. Allie, please set the stage for us. Yeah, you're right that there's a lot of eyes on this race, because what we're talking about here is really what does it mean to be a Democrat from Michigan in 2026? The Mitten State is always a battleground, but Tuesday night, the battles between two Democrats who each say they are best positioned to win this toss-up seat in November with two very distinct messages. The mittens are off in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary. I have no doubt that if you're a corporate pack, Congresswoman Stevens is really good at getting stuff done for you.

It was offensive to hear my opponent say, I can't string together two sentences. I certainly did that on the auto rescue. This intra-party brawl between Dr. Abdul Al-Said and Congresswoman Haley Stevens will say as much about this perennial battleground as it does the future of the Democratic Party. Money out of! El-Said is running as a political outsider.

bucking the progressive label, but boosted by and sounding like many of them. This is an election between Abdul and the billionaire class. This is the money versus the many. The money is central, especially with groups like the pro-Israel A-PAC, spending millions to back Stevens. This is a record spend. Now, the big difference is I'm fighting for Medicare for all. I'm willing to say we need to abolish ice. They also differ on continued U.S. aid to Israel.

To me, it is about why are we sending bombs and tanks? for no reason to other countries. That doesn't make sense to me. You've spoken specifically about Israel, but I wonder how that would manifest when it comes to aid of other kinds. So, for example, if you're in the Senate and a Ukraine aid package comes up,

would you vote against that? So what I'm against is unconditional foreign military aid. Ukraine aid is not unconditional. We're not just funding the military of Ukraine because we want to. We're funding the Ukrainian military because they're actively fighting a war

against a guy who transgressed against their boundaries. That's conditions. Is there anything that would make you reassess the U.S. aid posture towards Israel right now? You know, look, I'm running for a six-year term, and that is certainly a long runway for issues to continue to evolve. I want the U.S. and Israel to be working together to get aid into Gaza. Bailey! Stevens closing pitch is all about receipts.

I'm a tough as nails Democrat who wins, races, and who fights and delivers for people when it matters most. touting past work with President Obama and flipping her house seat while promising action on affordability. We need a manufacturing champion in the halls of the United States Senate, meaning jobs, meaning lessening our dependence on China through our supply chain to lower those costs. She's backed by most of Michigan's top Democrats. There are few leaders, few leaders with more fight in them than Haley Stevens.

What should voters read into not just the closing, message, but the closing messengers in this race. You know, Michiganders understand that the Democratic Party has been a little click in Michigan for a very long time. And that click always likes to uplift its own. Is Whitmer in the click? Look, corporate Democrats have made their choice. And I think it's time for the folks in Michigan to make theirs. These are folks who fight and win for Michigan.

They win tough races. That's what's at stake right now. This will be a tough race. Great to be back in Michigan. Republican Mike Rogers is back on the ballot after a narrow loss in 2024. So this primary is paramount. Actually, I think I'm going to vote for El Sayed to keep what's her name out. So we're going to get Rogers in there. Why are you voting? What's important to you?

Oh, wow. Good money out of politics. And I think Abdul Tseid is just a candidate to do so, you know. Do you worry about what people say, can he win, can he beat the Republican? I don't give a craps about that anymore. I'm tired of that negotiating politics. That negotiated politics, I think, was a sign of the frustration and pushback on traditional ideas of who is electable. And that's a very real strain within the Democratic Party right now, as we all know. If that sentiment prevails, that's likely good for Elseid. There are polls

that show him with momentum. But Stevens, as the candidate who beats Rogers and the general, ultimately, we will see. But this seat is a must win for Democrats if they have any hope of reclaiming control of the Senate. And on Tuesday night, voters are going to give us some real answers about what kind of candidate, progressive versus moderate, insider versus outsider, that they think can win in a battleground. Jan, you know that Michigan really well. What are your thoughts here? Well, first of all, it's obviously a very important Senate race, but also the sort of opening bell of the 2028 race, because if El-Sayed wins and then goes on to win Michigan, that proves that, and he's not, he's said he's not DSA, he's not Democratic socialist, but obviously very progressive, has made Gaza a

big issue that I think that gives that side a lot of momentum going into 2028. And if they, but if, if Haley, if Haley Stevens holds on goes on to win, that puts you in a different footing. But, Ali, what does it feel like the, on the ground what people are worried about? How, I know, you know, Gaza was a huge issue in 2024, hurt Kamala Harris. Then do you have a sense from reporters, from voters, from voters, where, you know, what is weighing most heavily on them when they're making this choice in the Democratic side? I'll give my sense as a reporter. The idea of Gaza certainly is one of the big litmus tests here. And I think for Democratic voters, that is something they are grappling with in Michigan.

I also heard a lot, though, when I talk to voters, both Trump voters and Democratic voters, that cost of everything is weighing on them. I think the biggest difference was how much patience or leeway are they willing to give the president, for example, on something like gas prices that they are connecting to the war in Iran. And I think the consistent thing I heard was whether or not they wanted to have patience or give him leeway on the issue was that they never felt like the war itself was explained to them. And so I think that's one of the key pieces of this. But for Democrats broadly grappling with this, the reason that I think it's such a test, and I love that you frame it through 2028, Jen, is because this is really one of the first battleground states where consistently we've seen Democrats put up, quote unquote,

moderate candidates, people like Alyssa Slotkin to win in purplish states. This would be the first real test if El Ceyed wins, if he goes on to win in November of seeing a more progressive candidate wins statewide. And I think that might change some of the strategy around what electability looks like in 2028 when it comes to someone like an AOC or someone else in that progressive lane. We'll see. MS now, senior Capitol Hill reporter and host of way too early Ali Vitale. Thank you so much. And Katty Kay, I just looked. you don't have a Michigan tour date yet. There's still time.

But whether you, the podcast, there it is again, makes its way to the Mitten State or not, give us your thoughts here about how this contest tomorrow does feel like it's even larger than just for a primary, you know, for a Senate seat. Because it seems to be a bit representative of the battle within the Democratic Party right now as to what direction it needs to be heading into ahead of 2028. We definitely need to add Detroit to our tour, Jonathan, clearly. Look, I had a conversation with Debbie Dingell, the congresswoman from Michigan last night. And one of the things that she was pointing out is that this has become kind of a election campaign, this Senate race,

that got into a fight between about Gaza and Israel. But actually, that is not the primary concern, as Ali was saying, of most Michigan voters. Their primary concern is the concern of voters all around the country. And that's affordability. And I think that the real question for Abdul-Assad is, is he being, if he wins on Tuesday and the poll suggests he may well win on Tuesday, can he kind of prove those other general election polls wrong? Can he prove that a progressive can actually win statewide? And if he does, is that because he's a progressive? Or is it because he's a particular political talent? I mean, you've got Ron Fornier comparing El-Syad to an early Bill Clinton. That's an extraordinary. endorsement of his political talents. And is that really why he up against Haley Stevens, who most people in Michigan would accept is not a great candidate? Her team has not been particularly good. So what was the real race here about? Was it about progressivism? Was it about Gaza, Israel? Or was it just that he, he's been great on social media? He's a very good political athlete. And she isn't.

And is that why he's ahead in the polls? We will have complete coverage of that Michigan primary race next couple of days here on MS now. of course, Morning Joe. Caddy Kay, thank you so much. Still ahead here. We're going to dig into the decision from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to rescind, we think,

President Trump's so-called anti-weaponization fund. Plus, Trump says he's called off more strikes in Iran amid yet another potential deal. We'll have the latest coming up on Morning, Joe. Ooh, pretty shot there. Dallas, Texas, 6.54 in the morning. Here's my attempt to segue.

Plenty of people in Dallas, surely this past weekend, went to see Spider-Man, brand new day, which had a huge $355 million debut weekend, the second biggest domestic opening ever, just behind Avengers Endgame from a few years back. The fourth edition in the Spider-Man Chronicles received positive views by critics,

earning 90% of Rotten Tomatoes. It's already earned $573 million internationally. In second place this weekend was Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which sailed to another $52 million in its third weekend. Together with Spider-Man, the films have featured. fueled the biggest collective weekend in box office history. Rounding out the top through is Pixar's Tour Story 5 earned another $6 billion. They had did mega business last month.

And Pablo, the lesson here is clear. If there's a movie that features Tom Holland and Zendaya, the Odyssey and Spider-Man, people will go see it. Their agents are quite happy. Do it okay for themselves that too. It does feel like there is a monocultural revival. Like the bigness of it becomes self-justifying, speaking to the Texasness of it. it even like the idea, I'm trying to still workshop the segue with you, the idea that I got to see this because everyone else is seeing it and also it's good. Yeah. I mean, that's the promise of

going back to the movie theaters. There's this whole movement. We know the pendulum swinging towards everyone's going to be streaming their own weird little show at home, just give them that ability. And now Hollywood's realizing what if we gave up on this? What if the lesson from sports this summer is? Lots of people want to be around other people watching the things. that everyone's talking about. Yeah, the World Cup's a great example of that. I think you're right. Hollywood does seem swinging back.

Big good movies. Make them good. People will see them. What if they were good? Yeah, the box office has been busted bunkers all year before this run right here. All right. Still ahead here on Morning Joe. We're going to bring you a fact check on the very false and very misleading claims from

H.J. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. During his contentious interview yesterday on CNN, Morning Joe is back in a moment with that and much, much more.