Morning Joe - GOP senator: ICE should dial back enforcement sweeps

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

October 1, 2026: 7am — GOP senator: ICE should dial back enforcement sweeps 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.

Welcome back to morning, Joe. It is Thursday, October 1st. It's the top of the hour. Jonathan Lemire and Caddy Kay are still with us and joining the conversation we have. MS now contributor, Mike Barnacle. You did not go last night, did you. Are you nuts? No. Over there. No, that's too much, Mike. Yeah, that's too much. I told you not to go. I know. And host of On Brand with Donnie Deutsch. Donnie is here. And if you look at Donnie, you can see. He does not look tired. He looks all. Color of orange. Yeah.

Brand up. Are you drinking a lot of carrots? No, I was in Portugal, and it was 85 degrees there. Okay. And you ate a lot of carrots. And tanner. And on spray tan. Yeah.

That is great. I knew it was the spray tan. Okay. Well, you know, he's not. You know, he doesn't wear spray tanner. I don't. Republican Senator, Jim Jordan. Oh.

Jim. Justice. Yeah. And is either baby dog. And baby dog. Is it baby doll? Is that his dog, baby doll? Baby dog, I think.

Yeah. It's so cute. Anyhow, Republican Senator Jim Justice says the Trump administration should reconsider and dial back its approach to immigration enforcement. You think? The West Virginia lawmakers spoke to Politico on Tuesday, warning against the intense crackdown that has impacted rural communities in his state. He urged officials to, quote, step back and acknowledge potential mistakes, adding, quote, before you know it, you get people that carried away in their job and whatever it may be. And all of a sudden, then you're dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years. And I don't know that. We need to be doing that stuff.

But yesterday, Senator Justice appeared to clarify his comments on social media, stating he fully supported President Trump's immigration strategy full stop. There we go. He then praised ICE officers, adding that enforcement should, focus on, quote, criminals who are here illegally and putting Americans in danger. And here we go. That is not what's happening. Here we go. Almost had it.

That is not what's happened. Almost had it. He was almost there, Senator Justice. Then he had to back down, got scared. Got a phone call. Got a phone call, got scared. Whatever. Like, really, what job is worth that?

I don't understand. This ICE operation is breaking the heart and soul of America in every way. I don't, I don't understand. And Jim Justice doesn't have to worry in West Virginia. He's Jim Justice in West Virginia. You're governor, senator. Say what you want. Just be honest, speak your mind and tell the truth.

You know, I would tell you whenever I would do something that people didn't like and that call, it's very simple. Are people, you know what? Here's a great thing about America. We got elections every two years. You don't like it. I'm going to do this. I'm going to keep doing it. And if you don't like it, vote for the other guy.

Okay. Guess what? They voted for me anyway. So people get scared with a little bit of blowback when you do the right? thing? I don't understand the weakness of it, the timidity. I don't understand it. And I will say, whether you're talking about West Virginia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, wherever you're talking about, small family businesses are being hurt. Factories in Springfield are being hurt. Mike, it's immigrants who are helping a lot of small family businesses keep their restaurants open.

It's immigrants are helping a lot of small family hardware stores keep their businesses open. It's immigrants that are helping entrepreneurs keep their small businesses and their factories open. We've heard from those people. And I can tell you, I always, you know, you look at me and you know, what's Joe? And he's a gum shoe reporter. Is that what you call it? Yeah. Gum shoe reporter. And I do really, whatever restaurant I go into, I sit there.

How you doing? how's business going? What you need? What don't you need? I kind of have my congressional cap on, but I'm reporting wherever I go. Small businesses. I go to hardware store.

I ask the same. How's everything going? What do you need? What do I hear now? Especially when I go into restaurants, good restaurants, that are half empty, because they don't have

their prices are sky high. They don't have servers to handle the entire restaurant. It's really, because of Donald Trump, and Stephen Miller, we're now in sort of a ice, post-ice era where a lot of family restaurants can't keep the whole restaurant full because they don't have the help to do it. I wonder when that blowback starts to be recognized.

That's probably one of the reasons Jim Justice said what he said, because this small business officers are like, give us some help here. You guys are out shooting and killing people that have been workers for three, 30 years? We need those people helping us in our stores. Joe, you know what you're doing right now is you're describing what really ought to be and perhaps is and will be the underlying theme of what drives people to the polls in a few weeks in this country? And it is the theme called, what kind of country do you want to live in? And we live in a country now where there are millions of people who are here, including Haitians, who we were speaking about earlier in the last hour,

people who are afraid to leave their homes, people who are afraid to send their children to public schools, people who have left hospital jobs, restaurant jobs, all kinds of jobs, all kinds of employment that have made them thrive here in this country since they arrived within the last five or ten years because of the fear of what? The federal government of the United States of America

pursuing them as if they are convicted criminals already. This worst of the worst that they use as a phrase for what they're doing, what ICE is doing, ICE is an out-of-control vigilante outfit, totally untrained, ill-prepared, and unequipped to enforce any laws. They should not be entrusted with any laws. But the people that they are pursuing are the core of America, always have been, dating back hundreds of years, years, the people who arrived here from countries like Ireland, where my folks came from. Germany, where Trump's folks came from, Scotland, where Trump's mother came from. Why did they come here? They came here because of one word, freedom linked to another word,

America. That's being slowly destroyed. That's the theme of the countries that we ought to be thinking about on Election Day this year. What kind of country do you want to live in? And you know what? That's not a liberal thought. That's a very conservative thought. By the way, the Wall Street Journal editorial page wrote about it for 30 years. But Ronald Reagan is the last speech to America. Let me say it again. When we open the doors to immigrants, we are younger, we are stronger, we are more vital, we are more prosperous.

And if we were to ever close that door, we would become older and we would become weaker, and we would become poorer, and we would become less vital. Ronald Reagan said it. You know, Eisenhower decided to use his last speech to America as a general and a president to warn about the military industrial complex. Because it's so important to him that we keep that complex in check. Ronald Reagan could have talked about anything. He could have talked about what an extraordinary job he was doing, pushing back the Soviets. He could have talked about mourning in America.

talked about a million different things. Instead, he talked about hell. You can go to France and you won't be a Frenchman. You can go to Turkey and you won't be Turkish, but you come to America and you become an American. That's the American dream. And that's the American dream Ronald Reagan believed in, conservative used to believe in, and that Donald Trump is cutting the rest of America off from. That's the way the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, talked about it. immigration as well. You didn't have to go back that far. This is a new thing. And by the way, we're reporting this week that ICE is going to rush 5,000 new agents into the field by the end of the year. So it's not like they're dialing this back, despite what they may be trying to show publicly.

They're ramping this up because of Stephen Miller. A federal judge ruled yesterday that a door dash driver shot in the back by an ICE agent in Austin, Texas last month, will remain in custody on charges he assaulted an officer while trying to evade arrest. The judge ruled the the case against Wilbur Garcia-Perez can move forward after prosecutors played body cam footage of the September 20th encounter in which the 28-year-old Venezuelan allegedly made contact with an ICE agent with his driver's side mirror. The footage has not been made available to the public, but a few still images of that video have been released. Let's go live to Austin. MSNANO reporter David Noriega.

David, we spoke to you yesterday before this hearing. You were in the courtroom yesterday. What more can you tell us about what happened there and what happens next? Morning, guys. A couple of things stood out to me about the hearing. The first was that Mr. Garcia was physically present. And, you know, he was in a wheelchair with his left arm in a sling. He was shackled.

He was occasionally during the course of the hearing seemingly wincing in pain. He seemed reasonably alert and calm, but clearly is still. suffering the consequences of having this bullet still lodged in his torso. And by the way, just given the conversation you guys had, I think it's worth noting that he is not a criminal. He's a door-dash driver without any kind of criminal record. Now, to the body cam video that was played in its entirety in this court hearing, I should note that DHS still has not made this video public in the sense of publishing it online in a way that would allow us and other media outlets to do the type of visual analysis that we do

with this kind of incident where we slow things down, analyze frame by frame. All we have is the one time that they played the video in full in the courthouse behind me. That's the video that those screenshots come from, those stills come from, that you guys just put up, which shows the initial stop. It doesn't show the moment when Mr. Gertes was shot. It shows the moment when these two ICE agents initially stopped him. And there's one thing I really want to focus on, which is that the ice agent, who was allegedly struck by Mr. Gertesis, by the sideview mirror of his vehicle,

who is also the ICE agent, who subsequently went on to shoot him, that ICE agent during the course of the stop was standing in relation to the car in a way that goes very clearly against all manner of law enforcement best practices, law enforcement guidance for any major urban police department, any kind of police department that receives training on vehicle stops. He was literally leaning against the car, making physical contact with the car during the course of the stop,

standing on the other side of the mirror so that when Mr. Garses drove off, which, by the way, at this point is not under dispute, He drove off, he tried to flee, he engaged the agents in a vehicle pursuit, but when he drove off, the vehicle was already making contact with the ICE agent. I spoke to a law enforcement source who used to run big urban police departments who told me that is, based on my description of the video, a pretty flagrant, again, just not abiding by basic law enforcement training and best practices. Why is this important? Because it tells us something about the conduct of this ICE agent who subsequently went on to shoot Mr. Gerses in the back during the course of this encounter. It shows us, you know, perhaps something about the extent of his training in terms of how he needs to be conducting vehicle stops and how he needs to be

engaging with the public. And this is also very relevant, given Willie, what you just mentioned, about the 5,000 new recruits. This agent was a new recruit. He was hired last year. We know that ICE has been having trouble with a lot of these new recruits. They've had to fire a lot of them. And now they're looking to hire 5,000 more. And this is, by the way, something that DHS has, a clear institutional memory of because when they vastly increased the ranks of the border patrol in the 2000s, they wound up having serious problems with a lot of the guys that they hired. Corruption problems, violence problems, sexual assault problems. And this is something that, you know, a lot of people are concerned we're about to see again

with ICE, guys. All right, MS now is David Noriega reporting live from Austin, Texas. Thank you very much. Keep us posted here. There's so many different angles to this story. beyond the shootings, which are horrific, that we're seeing the streets across the country and the detention centers that they keep building the conditions inside them, what's happening to families inside them. Also, a new feature in the Atlantic is highlighting one aspect of the immigration

crackdown that's creating a separate crisis. The United States is deporting large numbers of immigrant parents without their children. Joining us now, the reporter behind that piece, staff writer at the Atlantic. Caitlin Dickerson, she previously covered immigration for the New York Times during President Trump's first administration. And Caitlin, I remember recently, I think it was Danbury, Connecticut. I was seeing reports of kids on the first day of school coming home to no parents because they did raids on the first day of school. But tell us a little bit about what you're finding, how many people who are in families are being targeted, who were simply in the process of trying to get legal status when they were taken away, leaving families, even children

behind? So what I found in my reporting is that the number of kids who are being left at home without one or both of their parents is really massive. Brookings researchers didn't estimate as of last April they thought more than 200,000 kids in the United States, the majority of whom more than 70% of whom were U.S. citizens had lost at least one parent to ICE detention or deportation. They also believe that more than 30,000 children have lost both of their parents. So you're right. There are so many stories to keep up with right now, so many aspects to this immigration crackdown that it's hard to keep up. But I decided that I wanted to focus on these kids who I discovered are being left in very precarious situations.

So, you know, losing one parent is extremely destabilizing. often we know the person who's deported is the breadwinner. They're at work like the man we just saw who was, you know, a door dash driver. And ICE went after him. People are out on the streets when they're working and that makes them more vulnerable to ICE arrest. And so I interviewed families who had one parent left behind who was incredibly scared, you know, trying to make sure that they weren't going to maroon their children completely with no caretaker. And so parents who were individual parents who'd been doing everything right, you know, they entered the United States legally, maybe under a parole program where they requested asylum, which is legal, they were going

to ICE check-ins and court hearings. They're now actually doing the opposite and going underground hiding from ICE because they're so scared of leaving their children all alone. And then, of course, I wrote about kids who were left all alone. There's a two-year-old in my story named Eber, who's been living with his mother's former coworker since January. His mom was detained last November, he just turned two. He doesn't even seem to remember his own mother when they speak over FaceTime. The woman caring for him is facing incredible strain as our caregivers across the country. It's expensive to care for these kids. They're emotionally traumatized. And it's very, very difficult to reunite these families. And none of this seems to be under consideration when ICE is

going out and arresting parents. Kayla, I want to read a little bit from your piece. You write this, quote, some children end up with foster families after caregivers burn out. Some have landed in the homes of abusive relatives or acquaintances. In January, two-year-old Orlin Hernandez-Raeus was left with his aunt's ex-partner, who was known to be dangerous when ICE detained his mother. She begged deportation officers to reunite her with Orland before she was deported to Honduras, but that did not happen. Soon after, Orlin's body was found with broken bones and signs of sexual abuse,

and his caregiver was charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Then ICE director, Todd Lyons, blamed his. mother saying she chose to leave her son here with a violent murderer who took his life. That is a hard passage to stomach. Can you just explain a little bit more, talk about that story a little bit, but also, I mean, when we say some of these children as young as two years old are left behind with no parents, what does that look like in the moment?

The parents are disappeared and then in the immediate aftermath, what happens to these kids? So because ICE isn't in many cases working with local authorities to ensure that kids are safe, these situations in the moment can look very haphazard. You know, you have neighbors coming in, noticing that a child is alone or getting a phone call from a child who's alone, you know, former co-workers, like I mentioned of one of the mothers in my story, really anybody who's around scrambling to find housing and safety. And I'm glad that you brought up the case of Orlean because, right, I described a scenario where a well-meaning caregiver who's taken in a child whose parent was deported for an indefinite amount of time is facing incredible strain, as is, of course, the separated parent and the child. But I also found cases like Orleans where someone who wasn't well-meaning, you know, an adult who was estranged, who had a history of abuse, even convicted history of abuse, swooped in after a child's parent was a well-meaning. You know, an adult who was estranged, who had a history of abuse, even convicted history of abuse, swooped in after a child's parent was detained by ICE, the parent was powerless to stop this from happening,

and took a child into their home. I write about a mother who dealt with that scenario with two of her children. You know, her ex-partner was estranged from them. He had multiple DUIs. He had convictions for domestic violence, including of children. When this mother was detained, he took two of their children. into his home, and it took months for this mother to try to get the kids back. Frankly, the only reason that she was successful was because she was hooked up with a pro bono family lawyer in Los Angeles who argued the case from the time the mother was detained and then ultimately deported to our home country. But this is something that we know most parents taken into ICE custody aren't going to

be able to do on their own. You know, family courts are extremely difficult to navigate. And because ICE isn't making sure that arrangements have been made. for children before detaining and deporting parents, this is a scenario that is becoming more and more common to the tune of, like I said earlier, perhaps hundreds of thousands of children. Oh, my God. The new piece is available online right now. Staff writer for the Atlantic, Caitlin Dickerson, thank you very much for your reporting.

And moments ago, Time posted its new, wide-ranging interview with President Trump. ahead. We're going to speak with a reporter who conducted the interview. Plus, Donnie's latest edition of Brand Up, Brand Down, which includes the sleep industry, social saunas, and canned wines. And spray tanner. These seem like a lot of Branddowns. I'm just going to say, you're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back.

That's my HSBC fan. I like this. I need this in my speech. I know. I'm a sweater after. Oh, yeah. I'm just a sweater. He gets so heated up.

Marco Rubio, he's arid as the desert compared to me. I'm going to hold this for you. I walk down the hall and I'm sweating. Come on. You're a sweater. Look at that. Jason or something. It's my HSBC fan.

You like that? Perkel gave it to. Come on, that's good. Thanks for my fellow. And then I asked for five more. I have them all over the place. It's a microphone. No, it's a fan.

I know. I'm just telling the audience. It's a microphone. So they're not, never let them show you sweat. Nobody ever said that to me. Sixth grade solo. Apple for the teacher. I'm sweating.

It is horrible. Who else is sweating? Oh. Oh, is this a segue? How's that for his segue? I don't know if Donald Trump's sweating, but if I thought, he should be because he didn't sweat or he can be. He's a sweater too.

AP just came out with a new poll. And I'm going to say the numbers on the economy are, in my memory, the lowest I've seen for any president. Yeah, it's really, really stark. This just dropped from the AP. Only 17%, 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy. Do you know how many Republicans that means? I mean, how many Republicans don't approve?

If it's 17%, the Republicans do that's on the cost of living. The cost of living is 17%. Overall, the economy, 26. But it gets even worse, reading into some of the crosshaps. Now, 68% of those surveyed directly blame Trump. They're not just saying, like, oh, this is a victim of circumstance. There are other things out of his control. A majority of Americans, 65% say it's his policies.

The tariffs and the war in Iran are what's highlighted here are to blame for what's happening here. It's extraordinarily bad numbers. And we're talking about earlier, as I wrote on today, I mean, this is a White House and Republicans who now really feel the bottom could be dropping up. We've seen a number of elections lately when it breaks late, breaks one way. One way. And there's a sense it's breaking Democrats. I just remember that, you know, 1980, Reagan.

and Carter were tied going into the weekend by Saturday or Sunday. Carter knew he was going to lose in a massive way. My election, last poll we got in on a Friday, it was like 50-50. It was tied. People were shocked. It was that close because I was supposed to lose. I ended up winning 62 to 38 percent, and that happened, not just in my district. It happened all over America in 94.

All of these guys, when I met him, they were supposed to, like, lose by three points. I ended up winning by 20. So, sort of wave elections. But you know, Donnie, what drives wave elections so often? He did in 1980 with Jimmy Carter. Of course, you had the Iranian hostage crisis. But you just had a terrible, terrible economy. You had high interest rates.

You had inflation. You had all of this stuff going. What happens here? If you're a Republican, what in the world do you do? You have no message if you're a Republican. And the Democrats, who've been all over the place, the one thing they're doing really well is they're unified in their message. No matter what they're asked, they all go back to costs.

And you can't, the grocery store doesn't lie. And on top of that, when you see Trump out there and he's talking about building ballrooms and you see, you see the money his family is making, it just pisses people. People are pissed off, you know? And when you see 17% numbers, you don't see that in anything. In my first campaign, a guy told me, Mike, elections are about contrasts. Yeah. Like I was 2930.

my opponent at the time was like in his 60s. It's like young, old, young old, whatever. Fast look. Always contrasts. Here, Democrats couldn't ask for a better contrast. Republicans couldn't ask for a worse. You've got people who were struggling. They get the receipts, the grocery bills. They can't afford.

They get the receipts. They see how much their gas is costing to fill it up. The diesel. They see the home heating. They see rent. They've got all of that over here, right? Contrast that to, Donald Trump's family, his son's making billions of dollars on crypto, making billions of dollars,

like getting defense contract loans of over $600 million for companies and for hedge funds that they just are whatever they are, that they just got into. The contrast of the corruption with middle Americans struggling just to get by every week, who, that is a strong contrast. Well, the big driver in this election is anger. Anger at what's going on around them. Anger because they know what's going around them. Gas and groceries are their existence.

And every time you see the President of the United States, more often than not, he's surrounded by billionaires. That's his crowd. That's where he goes. Another terrible contrast. Yeah. And that's why he thinks the economy is doing well, because he's hearing from them that it is doing well.

There are also, he's brought in ballrooms to have nicer parties with billionaires while people can't buy their groceries. Join us now, Senior Political Correspondent for Time. Eric Cordillessa, his new interview of President Trump, just posted online moments ago. Eric, good morning. What's your headline out of the conversation? Well, you know, it was a fascinating conversation with President Trump where, you know, it really struck me sort of on a larger sort of thematic note that, you know, he spoke so much about,

particularly the construction projects, the ballroom, the new helipad, the cosmetic changes he's making to the White House. And it seems like he's spending a lot of his time and energy focusing on things that he can control, you know, marble, granite, ballrooms, you know, the kind of doorknobs that he installs on the White House as all of these major factors around his presidency, these forces of the war in Iran, the economy, the midterms that are looming are increasingly spinning beyond his control. and he's in, you know, perhaps the most precarious position of his presidency today. Eric, what was his mood when you asked him about the midterms specifically? Because it's kind of hard to get a read sometimes. Does he not care? Does he care, but he doesn't want to spend his own money enough or travel around the country? What did you think he's really thinking about the midterms and the implications of the Democrats taking either or both houses?

He didn't seem too worried about the midterms. I can tell you he is planning a last-minute sort of sprint around the country. country over the next four to five weeks. He's going to be visiting 32 of what, you know, his political team regards as competitive House districts where he hosts MAGA-style rallies to try and lure turnout among his most fervent supporters. He's planning to spend tens of millions out of his political operation, MAGA, Inc. He has a $400 million war chest that he's been reluctant to spend a lot of money out of today. He recently committed to and gave some money to Ken Paxson and others who were in trouble. But,

But, you know, my understanding of people close to him is that he does want to preserve some of those funds to keep his sort of financial arsenal in place for when he's no longer president as a way to continue to exert control over the GOP in the years to come. So, Eric, perhaps some of the president's lack of apparent concern over the midterms is because he has an October surprise up his sleeve. Tell us what he told you, please, about not ruling out declaring a national emergency or potentially trying to invoke the Insurrection Act around the midterms. Well, you know, I asked, you know, whether he was going to do that. There have, of course, been speculation around that. Some of his allies had been encouraging him to do that, and he said he might. And then he wasn't going to rule it out. He did say, interestingly enough, that he did not have plans to deploy ice agents to polling places,

which is another idea that some MAGA hardliners have been pushing, which, you know, many people, of course, worry would intimidate voters going into the election. But, you know, over and over again, President Trump wouldn't rule out very, exercises of executive power, whether it's around the election on declaring a national emergency invoking the Erics, Inurrection Act, he also would not rule out the possibility of bringing in wrecking balls to Washington to demolish the Kennedy Center if he's not able to get his way and approvals to remake it to his liking. And he believes that, you know, if he's going to pour money and time and resources into it, he should be able to get the recognition

that he wants, which is to have his name on it and to have the sort of physical evidence of his presidency outlast policies that may not. Eric, did he speak at all about the issue of this ongoing war with Iran and the negotiators, Whitkoff and Kushner and the fact that nothing seems to ever get done here? He did. He said that the only reason it is still going on past his initial timeline, which was six to eight weeks because he wanted to go further. You know, speaking to both President Trump and others close around him, you know, they're putting a lot of weight on what they're calling economic strangulation

of the Iranians that they believe it'll be kind of the last step to bring them to the table to make some kind of deal. But he also said that he was not in any rush. He also acknowledged the possibility that he might ramp up bombing after the midterms in the interview. You know, I know talking to people who work with him behind the scenes that there's a sense of urgency. They recognize, and they say that he recognizes in ending the war, particularly because of the domestic political ramifications that it has caused to him. And the fact that it was sort of a huge galvanizing impetus for the coalition fraying in various ways. You're seeing candidates distance themselves from the war in Iran-Republican candidates. So, you know, they're eager to come to a deal and get it to come to an end.

But as of now, there's nothing in hand. The exclusive new interview is available to read online now. And in the new issue hitting shelves on October 16th, senior political correspondent for time, Eric Cordillessa, thank you very much for sharing that interview with us, a lot there to talk about. And Donnie's, brand up, brand down, is next time, morning, Joe. What a beautiful shot of Madison, Indiana. Yeah, right there on the border with Kentucky. A beautiful morning to start the day.

And it's time now for Brand Up, Brand Down with Donnie Deutsch. And we start. Donnie, I think, is from Madison, Indiana, right? He's... Corn fed. He's from whatever the opposite of Madison, Indiana is. Yeah, exactly. Very, I don't know what the word is.

What's the word? Tan. Yeah, he's done. His tan. Look, okay. Don't hate the player. Donnie is just a little too much. Okay, so chronically exhausted Americans.

Yeah, nobody at this table can. There was a CDC, the survey of 27,000 Americans, starting with the entire Morning Joe team. And the verdict is America is exhausted. 72% of people in this country have experienced fatigue or exhaustion. And 16% say it's pretty much all the time. And interesting enough, women more than men. Yes.

And the other thing, people under the age of 44, more fatigued than older people, which is kind of counterintuitive. Wait, that's, well, because I think it's a generation of people who are like not used to like, it's not the greatest generation. So it's the opposite of that. So the greatest generation doesn't complete. Wow. That was, wow. Okay. Donnie says don't trust anybody under six. Take it. Perhaps because of that, brand up to the sleep industry. Yeah, $100 billion dollar industry. And the sleep industry now is everything, of course, it's oral rings, it's special mattresses, it's special dimmers. It's everything

to get people to sleep. Of course, people are exhausted. And it's just, it's the, you have also what's called the sleep tourism industry, hotels that are building entirely around their pillows, their blankets, their sleep. America wants to go to sleep. So we, what thing you're seeing in today's brand up brand down? There's a lot of intertwined stories, a lot of synergy across our talk of talk. Apparently, look at this next one here. There really is, but I also find that you, you also, you make these things extraordinarily personal about you. Last time it was why being single and lonely was better with people. And now today, you say, I can't even.

Seniors talking sex on TikTok. Come on, yeah. Okay, look, this is not. This is not religious. No, no, no, no. This is not salacious. This is more health-ridden stuff. 160,000 viewer, TikTok followers by a sex for senior site.

A lot of people are obviously, you know, I'm trying to do this first. What are they talking about? Well, they're talking about a lot of the health issues, ED, difficulty of sex at a certain age. And a lot of younger people are watching it because they want to help their parents and they worry about when they get older than what's going to help their parents. You know, this is a very, very feisty group today. You know, this is a great brand down for one. About their parents' sex like. I'm sorry.

That's not. So. I'm just reporting the news. Oh, my God. I'm just reporting the news that there's a lot of people. over the age of 60 are interested in maintaining their sex lives. And talking about it on TikTok. My kids want to know nothing about my sex life.

Well, of course. Exactly. It's all kids. Okay. You guys are very, very contentious. I just said it. This is a good brand up. Yeah.

University of Chicago has basically said, you know what? No smartphones, no laptops, no AI for the core courses. Pin, paper. Obviously, there's a lot of people who just saying, you know, we have an entire generation being raised on AI. And University of Chicago and their law school is saying, no thank you. They're going to give you courses that you can't use any of your instruments.

I think that's a great thing. I would tell you, the thing that I don't understand is, and this has happened especially over the past five years. AI is used so much, chat GPT, that you'll have people in college, they'll have people in high school doing exceptionally well throughout the entire semester. Then they'll take their final and they'll get Fs.

And my question is this, why doesn't every teacher make them put away those devices and test them in class? throughout the entire semester because they're using chat GPT. And you can see it. The younger people are getting, the less able they are to write a sentence, the less able they are to write a paper, the less able they are to sit down and read a book.

And this is on schools. You know, Hugh Grant, I say Hugh Grant has made like no screens, no tablets in classrooms, a big thing for him. He was like five years ahead of his time. because reading books, writing the retention, it makes such a huge difference. I will say, I think the pendulum is swing. I can speak for my kids. I'm hearing when they come home.

I had to test say how did it go. It was hard. I had to put the computer away, pen, paper, what did you remember? What did you learn? What did you take in? So there's no influence of AI. Those blue books in college, you write? In fact, I was just recently read, the business that makes those blue books booming.

Because more colleges are starting to return. current in the class reading. So connected with technology, though, part of the reason why get the screen out of the class right, because they're on screen too much, young adults are saying they're lonely and lonelier than ever before. In fact, adults under 35 now report the highest loneliness of any age group. It's no surprise. It's the irony of social media, which has the word social in it. You've got people who didn't have to go up and learn how to connect with people. So you're able to stay behind your screen, and we're building a lonely generation. Younger people today are very lonely.

It's a sad story. This is one of the great, I think, social challenges of our time for people under 40 is just how lonely they are, how separated they are, how social media. Disconnected. How these so-called social networks have isolated them. Isolated entire generation, Mike? It is a pan-dial. You know what part of all this is, and it's not in the list of brand down today, but it ought to be, is lack of eye contact in America. Right.

Yeah. Lack of eye contact. They just don't do it. I would tell you this. Donnie has a solution. Let's see where you're headed. No, he says he has a solution for people under 35. And Donnie says, say, go to a sauna with him.

Tell us about that. But do not make eye contact. Trust me. You do not want to make eye contact with this guy. Big grade up for social sources over. 300. Now, these are very upscale places with cold plungers, so onas, all kinds of health things. This is replacing this because,

This is the new third place, not work, not home, social saunas, wellness centers. A lot of people don't drink anymore. And these things are hotter than ever. I don't want to see people in a sauna. I don't want to see people in a sauna. But you're not part of this younger generation. You're not the Pepsi generation. I don't think they want to either.

Mika, what do you say? You guys are really aggressive today. You're not having any of it. I mean, it's like going from no connection to seeing everybody naked, sweating. Too much connection. This is, you know, you can't stand in the way of a wave. Just like we're going to see a democratic wave. We're seeing a social wave.

All right. We're not a ways. Connections. America's gathering place now. American mall. By the way, I hear these things are coming back. Kind of. You would think with the retail business, everybody talks about it, but they're back.

It's up high. Traffic is up 5.2% this year. It's been up for three straight years. A lot of it has to do. The anchors are no longer retail stores. They're Dave and Bus. their lifetime fitnesses, their luxury cinemas, and this is where people are starting to congregate.

That one in Jersey that opened near U-Willi, people get in front of it, it's now it's on fire, and malls are back, and I would have never guessed that. Okay. They really are. I'm going to Paramus this after. Yes.

Come on. Garden State Plaza or Paramus Park? This Thursday. It's a Tuesday. Yeah. You got to hang out at the Bram's mall. Okay, so one more. One more.

Do you just torture? I don't want to take this one. Don't take this? Yes. This is a result of know-your-value that now, for the first time in history, over 50% of women are keeping their names. They're not changing that.

And women under 35 and 60%. And it just kind of, it shows where we are, where women are involved. They're all kidding aside. It doesn't know-your-value thing. People are just not... Is what you say this, Don? That's what I know what it is.

I've never met a more hostile crowd than today. This is really... I'm going to go home and lick my wounds. This was just a very... Cost of the crowds at the social side. Very tough. There's a little bait and switch with Mika. This is a bait and switch.

I can't wait to take your name. No. Get married. She goes, I'm going to keep my name. I like my name. I really like, I'm really proud of my name. Yeah, but you know, before.

Mary, I'd have been. But you know, no, women don't do that bait and switch thing. But say one thing before you get married. Then afterwards, you get married. Well, I use it. Like in town and stuff, but I'm for work, I feel very confident about this. I'm glad you do. No comment.

No comment. Wow, what an addition of brand up. Yeah. It's been really bad at all. Very uncomfortable. I got to say. Funny story about it was before. Before, when you're talking about,

yes, Mekyll and they take my name and I, we're sitting there at a restaurant, Harold Ford, Jimmy were there. Harold and I, we're from the South. We're from the South. And so Mika goes, I think I'm going to hyphenate my name. And Harold Ford goes, no, no, Mika, no, Joe will be run out of the South. Hyphenated name.

I won't hyphenate. That's a very long night. That would be a long name. That's a very strong. Donnie George, no thank you. You can't fit that on the jersey. Oh, my God. A morning, Gerald, softball jersey.

Okay. Coming up, thank you, I think, Donnie, Tanner, Donnie. I'll be back next week. Our next guest is the man. What public sauna are you going to right now? You know, I don't want to watch people. Let's not deep. Let's not step on Danny Myers' jeans.

Even Danny's creeped out. Our next guest is a man behind some of New York City's top restaurants. Now, Danny Myers out with a new book detailing the secrets behind his remarkable success. All right. And he's going to join us next on morning, Joe. Can we get the Lysol out just in the sun? See, thank you. If you go in the sauna, the tanner is.

not recovered. No. Stop. Can't stop. I can't stop. I can't stop. Won't stop. Our next guest is a force buying the beloved New York City restaurants, Eard Square Cafe, Ramsey Tavern, and the Modern, as well as the founder of the

international sensation, Shake Shack. One of my favorites. This is a problem. Which grew from a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park to a billion-dollar chain, now best-selling author and restaurateur. Danny Meyer is out with. the new book detailing some of the secrets and stories behind his great success. It's called What Could Possibly Go Right?

The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture and in it, Danny, argues that optimism, even in the face of failure, isn't naive, its advantage. And Danny joins us now. Danny, you have started by just giving us some outrageously. I mean, this was not right. Outrageously, great. What happened here? Those are called crullers. Those are from daily provisions.

And, you know, like I used to bring my teachers' little gifts if I wanted to get a good grade. That was pretty useful. You buttered us up. You've got an A here, Dan. I have a sugar high that's not healthy at this point. You also gave us Joe coffee here, which we are going to use, even though it has my name. Oh. We'll still use it.

Stop. You know, I love what could possibly go right, because I just, whenever I've approached anything in life, we said, I'm going to do it. And people go, yeah, but it's not going to work because I do it, da, da, da, da, da. Yeah, now, I'm going to do it. It's going to work. And it's amazing that power of optimism and also because you don't see the thousand things that go wrong. You just keep going, right? Well, when you read this book, what could possibly go right?

You see that a lot of things actually do go wrong. Right. And yet, when you have the underlying ethos, what could possibly go right, it's a great way to help solve the problems when they do exist. And I got to say, especially at this time when so many people are so negative and cynical about so many things, it's not a bad way to start the day by just asking that question. Where did you get that from? I got that probably from growing up in St. Louis. When I grew up there, we were as purple of a state. We always were the Bellwether state in the country.

And I was the middle child of three, Republican dad, Democratic mom. and the nice thing about all the arguments we had is that the food over dinner was the thing that made us all shut up and just get along. Oh, that's nice. And that's why I got into my business. Were your parents' optimists? I think they were.

I think they were all civic-minded people and they had that in common. And that's actually been the fuel with which I've gone through business. I love it. So, Danny, let's take one example of your successes, which is Shake Shack, and tell us how this ethos,

describing here, allowed it. Sorry, I'm still digesting, Mike. I know. You're so good. I've had several.

How you took a hot dog stand in Madison Square Park, a hot dog stand, and now it's got some 700 locations around the world, Shake Shack. What was that process? How did you build?

Yeah, the process was that the hot dog cart was really just part of an art project in Madison Square Park back in the summer of 2001, right before 9-11. And the whole point was to try to

take care of the park, give people a reason to use the park, see if we could make a couple bucks for the Madison Square Park Conservancy. And we lost money that year, but the community had so much fun with the hot dog cart. They said, bring it back. We did it three consecutive years. And then I asked the question, what could possibly go right if we turn this into a kiosk? And my mom and I donated this kiosk to the park. So the park would become our landlord, generating revenue for the park, bringing people to the park, and that became ShakeShack. And then five years later, we opened a second. It was never something that I designed for the purpose of growth.

What do you think it is about Shake Shack? Because we know what it is just sort of instinctively, why we love it. But why do you think it has exploded the way it happened? Well, Americans, and I think the entire world, have proven for many, many years that they like burgers, shakes, and fries, right? You could do all those things a little bit better. But more importantly, I think if you do them with hospitality, that's what scales. And so you talked about how many there are in the world.

I don't really think about the units as much as I think about scaling the feeling. And that's why I really wanted to write this book. That first one, it was such a phenomenon. And the lines would be so long that I and my brother and friends, we would wait for a rainy day and then sprint there. Because you'd have a shot at getting the line and only have to wait 20 minutes, half hour, I'm supposed to an hour, hour and a half or more. It didn't remain all these years later, so, so good. You write about essentiality, which I think is an interesting word,

but you feel like that is one of the keys to what has made you so successful. Yeah, essentiality is a great way for me to describe those things in life. At a time when we have way too much choice of everything, restaurants, TV shows, books, everything, songs. There are a few that are so essential in your life. life. And by the way, your show is that for me, where you thank God that that place was created. You thank God you had that teacher or that boss, that restaurant. And God forbid the thing went away, your life would be diminished. If morning Joe, we're not here, my life would be very different.

And I want to open restaurants in the exact same way that you do your TV show. Was there ever a point, I mean, the restaurant business, food service industry is brutally competitive. Was there ever a point where you hit a wall and said, you know, that's it. We're not going to try to build anymore. I don't want to go this way or that way. Yes. Tell me. Yes. Well, after I opened, I had opened Union Square Cafe and then 10 years later, my second restaurant,

Gramercy Tavern, and then four years after that, 11 Madison Park and Tobler. And I said, I am never opening another restaurant as long as I live. And if I do, it's only going to be a joint. And then I open blue smoke. Oh, yeah. What a choice that was, baby. Well, I realized that loose smoke, the joint was even harder for me than the full-service restaurants had been.

And then I realized it's a really stupid thing to say never. So let me ask you, because everybody's seeing what could possibly go right and the arrows going up. Let's just temper this and let people know. You've learned from some hard knocks. You really learned from your father's bankruptcies. you learned when you had to close your first restaurant. And, you know, we always say, I always say, Mika says, I think a lot of people say,

you learn more than your failures from your successes. But that's not, you know, you learned from your failures, but you kept your eye on the successes that were ahead. That's it. Talk about working through those failures. Yeah, exactly right. If you look at the cover of the book, you see that arrow. And the arrow ultimately goes up into the right,

but not before being kind of a roller. coaster. Right. And you definitely, I definitely have learned from my failures. They don't feel good in the moment. And sometimes it takes some time to reflect back and say, well, what was it we learned? And really what I wanted to try to do was to tell those stories, share what I learned. And hopefully the rear can take from that that, you know what? Optimism is an action. It is, hope is, like, I kind of want that thing to happen. Optimism is actually something that you can do where you just Don't let have pessimism have the last say. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. I am taking this entire concept to the know-your-value community because I work with women who are always thinking of what could go wrong. What could go wrong. And I love this. What could possibly go right is the way we need to think. The new book, what could possibly go right? The essential journey to scale an enduring culture is available to read now. Best-selling author and restaurateur, Danny Meyer.

Thank you so much. And Danny, as a St. Louis Cardinal fan, here's to another St. Louis, Boston Red Sox World Series. Just not like 2004, please. All right. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. We turn back to politics now.

President Trump heads back to Texas today to promote his economic agenda just weeks after his midterm convention in Dallas. It comes as a new AP poll released moments ago shows 30. 65% of Americans blame him for higher prices. Fox News analysts, Britt Hume, says numbers like that are a major problem for the Republican Party headed into the midterms.