Morning Joe - Government shutdown continues: Senate resumes votes on funding bill

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Government shutdown continues: Senate resumes votes on funding bill Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ted Cruz also weighed in to say how fun he thinks it is that only Democrats would be affected. President Trump is going to use that as an opportunity not to tell people you're furloughed for a few days, but instead to send pink slips and to get rid of left-wing bureaucrats who are imposing left-wing priorities that are contrary to President Trump's priorities. Yes, we need to get rid of people who are contrary to people. President Trump's priorities. And what are those priorities again, Ted? Let's stop attacking pedophiles.

Okay. Thank you. I thought that's what the problem. I think that's... That fits. Stephen Colbert with a call back to Ted Cruz's slip-up during a Senate hearing earlier this week. We have a lot to get to this morning,

including the very latest in the government shutdown. And whether today's vote in the Senate will be any different Will it continue? That's one of many topics we're going to cover with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries when he joins us this morning. Plus, we'll dig into President Trump's apparent endorsement of Project 2025 proposals after repeatedly denying he knew anything about them during his campaign. Meanwhile, the Trump administration says the United States is in armed conflict with drug cartels. The question is, is that a legal justification for lethal Strikes. Plus, we'll get a legal analysis on a possible prison sentence for Sean Diddy Combs ahead of

today's hearing, and we'll be watching the Supreme Court this morning as the justices are expected to release which cases they will hear this term. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Friday. It's been a long week, Willie, October 3rd. And, well, I'm not going to get my rescue cats and congratulations on your Yankees. Thank you. Very exciting. Very exciting. Yankee Nation.

We did it. We cleared the hurdle. I think if Cam Schlittler, the rookie pitcher who threw for eight innings, 12 strikeouts, no walks, if he wanted to run for mayor, he could probably hop in the race right now and pull very high.

He was incredible. This is a guy who started the season in AA, moved up to AAA, came up mid-season, was solid throughout the year, showed flashes, but never anything like this in a decisive playoff game against the Red Sox. He grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts, family of Red Sox fans, played college baseball at Northeastern up there. Now pitching, and obviously the biggest game of his life, the Yankees' biggest game of

the season, and was lighted out, just gave up a handful of hits. As I said, 12 strikeouts, no walks, no runs as the Yankees win the game for nothing. Jonathan Lemire, my condolences to you, but you have to be. to conceive. That was a hell of a performance by the kid. Yeah, I was hoping that growing up in Walpole, Massachusetts, he would be embedded Red Sox fan. Maybe he would fall back on his family heritage and just lay a couple in there for us. I mean, he put them in there, but they were at 100 miles an hour, and the Red Sox couldn't hit. I mean, yes, he was fantastic. Tip your cap to him. As for the Sox, there's a lot of injuries. They kind of overachieve this year. Making the

playoffs in itself was the goal. Losing to the Yankees, obviously, a tough one. to take. And all of their flaws were on display last night. The lineup featured four minor leaguers. They couldn't make the plays in the field when they needed to. All four Yankee runs came in the fourth inning and a variety of like blue pits and seeing-eye grounders. And it would have been an Indian inning double play ball that Nate Lowe, our first basement, booted.

I mean, here's how it started, this Cody Bellinger flare that normally gets caught in Bellinger's credit. He went all the way to second base. I mean, the Yankees did just enough. They pressed the play, Willie. and the Red Sox just simply weren't up to it. I think Red Sox fans will spend this winter looking back at game two, a game where they had a number of chances to win that game

and finish the series in two straight. Last night, they just couldn't touch Littler. And now the Yankees, congrats to them, they go and get the Toronto Blue Jays and which should be a good series. Yeah, and Mika, they tie the Yankees, the Blue Jays for the best record in the American League. They lost the tiebreakers, so the Jays won the division. So that'll be a fun series up there. A bunch of other games to talk about.

But my apologies that you won't get those rescue cats. Can you just get them anyway? Like, did you need permission from the 80s? I'm not getting a cat named Cam Schlittler. No, don't do that. Okay, so. Just Cam. Just Cam.

No, it's going to be Crochet and Maza. It's going to be two. I'm bummed. But congratulations. Thank you. Also with us. Me too. I know.

It's bad. Did you stay up? You're crazy. I'm not well. Watch with the board. We didn't go. Didn't go to the stadium, but wanted to watch with my kids last night. And, you know, we'll always.

to bed, very sad. That hurts. Also with us, MSNBC, senior White House correspondent, Von Hilliard, Pulitzer Prize winning calmness, and MSNBC political analyst, Eugene Robinson, senior writer for the dispatch and calmness for Bloomberg opinion, David Drucker, MSNBC, Capitol Hill correspondent, Ali Vitale. She is host of way too early and so happy today for a different reason. And managing editor at the bulwarks, Sam Stein is with us. Great to have you all. Today, as we look at day three. of the government shutdown, and there is still no sign of a resolution as Republicans and Democrats continue to trade accusations as to who is to blame. Votes on a funding bill are scheduled to resume

in the Senate this afternoon following a break yesterday. But if those votes fail again, no votes are expected over the weekend, which would extend the shutdown at least until Monday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats will have another chance today to vote. to reopen the government and that negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are not going to accomplish a lot. I think what, you know, government agencies ought to be doing is the job and the work, and that's what I try to stay focused on. There is a blame game that goes on every time there's a government shut down. I don't think that's constructive. I don't think it's

about who wins and who loses. I think the people that lose in this are the American people and probably most specifically federal workers. So I'm all about getting the getting it back open again. I think shutdowns are, um, nobody wins. And I think honestly, for the most part, they're, they're stupid. We really shouldn't be shut the government down. And it shouldn't be taken hostage to do other policy things that are totally unrelated to funding the government. Okay. So let's talk about policy. Thune also defended the Trump administration's plans for a permanent federal layoffs due to the shutdown, as well as revoking billions in federal funding for projects in blue states. He said,

none of those things would happen if Democrats helped reopen the government and warned Democrats are, quote, playing with fire. Schumer responded yesterday, suggesting Americans were turning against Republicans, writing in part, Americans blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. And the longer they drag it out, the deeper, the pain and that blame will grow. Ali Vitale, it didn't stop Taylor Swift from dropping an album, I take it. That's why you're happy today. But I do want to ask about this blame game because I see messaging that is extremely loud and effective from Republicans, and in many cases, not true. How does this come down to policy?

How do Democrats play that messaging game with the truth if these lies are out there? and secondly, this is the Republican bill. I mean, maybe at this point, in order to prevent people from being fired, the Democrats, what are their options at this point? Those are all the considerations. And I can tell you, listening to the life of a showgirl is very different than covering the show that we are seeing on Capitol Hill. Because Leader Thune is actually right.

There is nothing good about a government shutdown. and using it as a consistent leverage point only underscores people's lack of faith in our governing institutions, especially Congress. But let me just chart for you the way that this is going to go because I think it actually says a lot about where we are in the process. So the Senate's going to come back in town today. They're going to do another round of votes on this clean continuing resolution, which is the Republican plan, as well as the Democratic continuing resolution, which includes their health care priorities. Both are going to fail. Then they're going to leave town for the weekend. Everyone kind of comes back to town Monday afternoon. And they try to try

again, it's not clear that the weekend is going to let any steam out of the pot. In fact, I think there are some moderate Democrats who are just going harder at a press for a bipartisan deal on something like Affordable Care Act subsidies, which you ask about the policy considerations here, Mika. There are many Democrats, including Senator Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, who's a moderate Democrat. She's retiring. She went directly on Fox News yesterday morning, speaking on the president's favorite news network about the benefits of doing a deal on the affordable Care Act for people who have backed Trump and Republicans most recently in the 2024 election. Millions of Americans who are in Trump states, who are in Trump districts, would benefit from

this kind of a deal because it would prevent their premiums from spiking early next year with their health care costs. Of course, that's true for Democratic voters, too, and it really shouldn't be a consideration. But the politics of this is so intertwined with the policy that her going on that network and making that pitch only shows the way that moderate Democrats are digging in on this strategy, hoping that there can be some kind of a deal. Whether or not that's the off-ramp, I guess we're going to continue to see. I think the way we've seen the Trump administration, Republicans like Russ vote at the Office of Management and Budget, pulling out funding for projects in New York or energy projects that are in states that Kamala Harris

happened to win in 2024. That kind of pressure campaign is pretty unprecedented. The way that we've seen agencies communicating about this shutdown likely violates some rules about partisan speech through taxpayer-funded entities, but I think the concern with that kind of pressure campaign, even though it works for the MAGA base, doesn't exactly help Republicans bring Democrats to the negotiating table, which may be the off-ramp that we need here. Right. David Drucker, we've heard Speaker Johnson say a couple of times this week. There's nothing to negotiate here. Not only we're not negotiating, I don't see anything to talk about, and he's there kind of appears Republicans, John Thune, the president, of course, obviously, and his team, happy to watch Democrats flounder

a little bit here. So what breaks this fever, if anything? Is there anything to talk about? Is anyone talking? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. But look, Willie, we have a playbook to look back on. We know how this stuff goes, right? Any time one party instigates the shutdown, the party with more votes just sits around and says, this is what you caused and we're not going to play your game. And we're content to sit here unless the polling changes and the polling never does change and wait until you come to your senses, right? I mean, I remember, you know, 12, was it 12 years ago now? 12 years ago this fall, we were, I don't know, this day four maybe of the Obamacare shutdown. And President Obama was like, this is ridiculous. We're not going to

let you hold government spending hostage and negotiate so that it proves that this tactic works. And Democrats waited, and they waited patiently, and they waited, and they waited. And finally, House Republicans who cause this thing, they caved. And I think Republicans, looking at the playbook that has worked so well against them so many times, are content to sit there and just wait until Democrats finally throw their hands up in the air and cave. And let's recall, even though there are policy disagreements and debates going on, what shutdowns quickly become about is power. I have more votes than you, even if I sort of need your votes,

and I'm not going to bend the knee to your minority votes because otherwise it's going to make me look weak. And right now, you know, where Democrats are is that I think their party and their base and their activist base and a lot of Democrats who are understandably upset with how President Trump is doing things, they want this fight. They always wanted this fight, whether it was about Obamacare subsidies or not. And they haven't given up on having the fight. And that's sort of the conflict that the Democrats find themselves in internally.

And you hear Republicans saying, we can't let the opposing party use a government shutdown as leverage for their policy priority. So let's talk about what's going to happen now as this rolls along. President Trump appears now to be openly embracing the conservative blueprint Project 2025. remember that from last year amid the government shutdown, despite distancing himself from that during the 2024 campaign. In a social media post yesterday, the president announced he would be meeting with his budget chief, Russell Vote, identifying him as of Project 2025 fame to discuss agency cuts amid the shutdown. Vote told House Republicans on a conference call this week, mass firings at the federal level would happen in addition to hundreds of thousands of government

workers who were typically furloughed during a shutdown. Those comments come after Trump spent much of last year, of course, denouncing Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's massive proposed overhaul of federal government, drafted by many of Trump's longtime allies and now administration officials. Back during the campaign, Trump repeatedly insisted he didn't know anything about the blueprint, that he never read it, that he had no idea who was behind it. I have nothing to do with Project 2025. that's out there. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it.

This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do. President went so far as to call that plan seriously extreme, said he was conceived by people on the severe right, his term. When asked about Trump's reversal, a White House spokesperson, told the Associated Press, Democrats are desperate to talk about anything aside from their decision to hurt the American people, by shutting down the government. So Vaughn Hilliard, you've been reporting on this. You can talk about Donald Trump.

I don't think anyone believed last year during the campaign. He didn't know what Project 2025 is. We've put that to the side for a minute, but what is he meeting with Russell vote about? What are these, it looks like they're going to target, as they say, left Democrats, people in the government actually using politics to decide who gets fired or at least furloughed.

Right, Willie, number one, he denied it repeatedly, but back in 20, I remember listening very clearly. I was sitting in my car in Ohio watching a live feed of Donald Trump at a Heritage Foundation event in Florida talking about how they would be the ones to build this blueprint for what a Trump 2.0 administration would look like. So all those denials, they were flat out falsehoods from the very get-go. And he was speaking to people like Russell Vote, the Heritage Foundation. These were folks here over the course of the last decade, J.D. Vance, right? Jeffrey Clark, who have articulated this MAGA vision of what

the executive branch should look like for the last decade. And right now, they are in power and in the position to be able to do that. And Donald Trump is their vessel. The man who is essentially, effectively running and making the decisions of the federal government is OMB director Russ Vote. You heard directly from Speaker Johnson yesterday be very specific in saying that it was now Russ Vote who would have a subjective view on the priorities of the federal government, the admins priorities, and make sure that those are the ones that are funded, that vote has to decide which services are essential and not. It's Russ' vote who is deciding which federal government employees are essential workers right

now, and he's arguing that some of those essential workers are those that are going to have the ability to go through the process of firing other federal workers, which is caught up in litigation, but this comes down to the whole argument that Donald Trump and his cabinet are making, that the executive branch is run by one man, and that is Donald Trump, and he can go and cut USAID funding. He can go, right, in fireworkers at his own will. He can go through these things, and he doesn't need the approval of any agency. Yeah, there's some questions about the legality of this, but the White House has put forth the same idea about it's akin to his powers in foreign policy. He can kind of do what he wants. And we well know that President Trump doesn't always like it when

a staffer suddenly is elevated and gets in the spotlight. But I'm told, and I wrote on the shutdown for this morning is the idea that he likes the idea of Russ vote playing the bad cop here, that he is wielding the hatchet and is looming Sam Stein as someone who could go through with these mass layoffs. They haven't committed to it just yet. But it's remarkable just how politicized this shutdown already is. Votes already, first of the one we should note, has canceled or frozen up to $25 billion in projects, clean energy, transportation, and alike. None of them, none of them in states that Trump won in last year's election. We have Trump himself saying that the vote may get rid of a lot of things that we, quote,

didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things. And also, remember the Hatch Act was a quaint thing where people cared about some years ago. You know, it's supposed to prevent government employees using government resource to do political things. Every government agency website, whether it's Department of Justice or HUD or any of them, all have banners that say something along the lines of like, oh, we can't help you right now because of the Democrat shutdown. And when we ask the White House about it, they send it out of, they triggers an out of office reply in their email. And it does the exact same thing saying, we can't talk to you right now because the Democrats

shut this thing down. Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt that they want to make Democrats feel some political pain for this, right? I mean, they're obviously targeting, and they're not even hiding it. They're obviously targeting Democratic power. They're going after Democratic states. These out-of-office replies are like both churlish and very partisan and probably illegal. And they don't really care. The idea here for them is that if you can just make Democrats feel enough pain,

ostensibly that those Democrats will pave. And I don't know if that's necessarily the smartest way to go about this, right? If anything, you can make the case that Democrats will probably, you know, double down and say, no, we're not going to give in. And part of the problem here is not just the way that vote is acting right now, but it's the way that he's been acting in the months preceding now. There have been government funding deals that this administration has reneged on. They've used recisions to say, you know what, this agreement that Congress has struck on government funding levels, we don't like it. And so we're going to undo parts of it with a simple majority vote.

If you were in a negotiation and you and the other party said, sure, we'll do a deal, but we have the right to go back on it. I mean, what is the incentive to do a negotiation going forward? And then finally, I'll just say, as a strategic matter, and again, I actually think the White House probably is in the upper hands here because I think, as David points out, they can just sort of wait out Democrats, but as a strategic matter, when the economy is not doing particularly well, when the job market is not doing particularly well, I'm not totally convinced that firing thousands of more workers and withholding tens of billions of dollars in federal funding for more projects, is the

smartest move. If anything, it's going to hurt the economy, it's going to hurt the standing of the president, and you're going to get ownership of the bad things that emanate from a shutdown when you do that. So I know these guys are acting extremely tough, and it probably will work because the numbers are on their side. But they are grabbing ownership of this shutdown, the more that they let Russ Vatt basically dictate what the consequences are. Well, you know, Sam, I mean, that's interesting. And I think that's probably right. It does seem like the White House and Republicans, they certainly have the power, right, to conduct this however they want. Now, I would argue this looks like a pretty serious

overplay of their hand to say, okay, now we're going to fire 1,000 and 1,000 workers. And there are some numbers that came out yesterday that suggests a different story in my old newspaper of the Washington Post did a poll. They did a poll. Who were you blaming for the shutdown and 47% of respondents said Republicans and 30% said Democrats. That's a big difference. That's counterintuitive. That's not the way these shutdowns have worked before. But you can look at the history of government shutdowns. And if you look at it as a set of data points, you could come up with two interpretations. One is that the party that's out of power that's sort of causing the shutdown always gets blamed. And the other way you can look at it is that Republicans always get blamed

because they're the anti-government party. And when the government shut down, Republicans get the blame because they don't like the government in the first place. Now, again, that's just a hypothesis at this point. But, Allie, did anybody notice that poll? Did anybody notice those numbers and did it. One thing I have not seen, for example, is a graph in stories, a paragraph in stories saying, you know, Republicans said their private polling says just the opposite. But I haven't seen that paragraph. And I don't know if they have it yet, right? Because it's so early, we're on day three of this shutdown. I think both sides are just kind of going off vibes at this point. But I do think that the more polls you see like that, the more that each side is going to

have to reconsider what's going on here. And there's still more yet. to be seen of what the actual fallout and impact is here. We've done partial government shutdowns in recent years. We have not done a full government shutdown since that 2013 one that David Drucker was talking about. And I think that means that people haven't felt the full pain of a full shutdown in a long time. And we don't yet know what the impact is. The early signs show Republican bravado might have a very soft foundation. Sounds like a lot of people's jobs are at stake as this gets fought over. Allie Vitale von Hilliard. Thank you both. Stein. Thank you as well. And still ahead on Morning Joe, House Minority Leader

Hakeem Jeffries joins us to discuss the ongoing government shutdown and the next steps for Democrats. Plus, we'll have the latest on air travel over Germany after planes were grounded due to drone sightings in Munich. And a reminder that the Morning Joe podcast is available each weekday featuring our full conversations and analysis. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. This morning we're learning new to do about the attack in front of a synagogue in northern England that left two people dead and three others injured on the holiest day of the Jewish year. NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez has more from Manchester. A scene of terror at a synagogue, police confronting the attacker.

They've shot him, but he's still alive, and they fear he has a bomb. When he tries to get up, officers open fire. The violence shattering the reflective calm of Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day. A vile individual committed a terrorist attack that attacked Jews, because they are Jews. Police say two men from Manchester's Jewish community were killed, three others seriously injured, and saying they believe the attacker was Jihad al-Shami,

a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent. This is as close as police will let us go, but they say the attacker arrived at the synagogue at the end of this street at around 9.31 a.m., first ramming his car into worshippers and then jumping out, attacking them with a bladed weapon. I heard bang, bang, and then we heard the helicopter, we heard the siren. Locals say it was mainly children and elderly people inside the synagogue during the attack. Police praising the community, including the rabbi, for blocking the doors and keeping the killer out,

deploying a robot to search his body for bombs, finding none. He was wearing about his body a vest which had the appearance of an explosive device. King Charles saying he is deeply shocked and saddened. especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community. Josh Simons is a member of parliament and part of that community. Everybody in this community will be holding their children tonight that little bit closer. And how is this community feeling tonight? Frightened, scared, hurt.

There's been a surge of anti-Semitic violence in both Europe and the U.S. since the start of the Gaza War, including this firebombing attack in Colorado in June, which killed an 82-year-old woman. synagogues across the U.S. on high alert after Yom Kippur, the day of atonement turned into another day of tragedy. NBC's Raf Sanchez with that report, and of course this comes amid an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks since the October 7th attack in Israel. President Trump, and this happening also, by the way, has informed Congress that he has decided the United States is in armed conflict with drug cartels. It is a move.

that drastically changes the country's posture toward these groups and expands the military's ability to target them. The decision was announced in a confidential notice sent to Congress. It states that drug cartels are now considered non-state armed groups and have been designated as terrorist organizations, placing them in the same legal category as al-Qaeda and ISIS. The United States has hit at least three boats in recent weeks that President Trump said

we're carrying drug trafficking gang members. This comes, as NBC News reported last week, that the administration is weighing possible strikes inside Venezuela. Jonathan Lemire, what more are you hearing about this? I think this is causing a little bit of a debate about the legality of walling up these boats. There is, and members of Congress, were finally briefed on this week, and we're told the DOD's arguments to justice this, we're met with some skepticism. This seems like an overreach, perhaps an overly expansive

definition of what the president can do here. Now, the White House, as always, points to Article Two Powers, saying the president has the ability to wage war, you know, without congressional approval in a limited means for self-defense, the White House is claiming that these drug boats and the fentanyl on them, even though there's real skepticism as to how much fentanyl's actually there, they haven't proven it yet, and fentanyl doesn't usually come from Venezuela, you know, that that, whether that's actually a national security issue or not, is that really in self-defense? That seems to be the heart of this, David Drucker. But the White House, they like how this is going.

We know there are people, they're real hawks on a Venezuela in the administration that includes the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that includes Stephen Miller, that they feel like this is a right political issue. And we know these warships, or there's some looming near Venezuela. And White House officials to us are not ruling out an escalation of strikes, potentially even within that country's borders. Yeah, look, I think there are two separate issues here, Jonathan, right? One is that the policy of trying to respond to the drug cartels in a more forceful manner.

And I think, I mean, if you were to talk to Americans across the country, regardless of politics, that, you know, there'd probably be some level of exhaustion after decades of trying to fight off drug traffickers and all of the crime and personal human devastation that comes with the drug scourge. the United States, right? And so an administration that says, listen, we're not going to take this anymore. We're going to take the fight to these cartels. We're going to do something about this. As a general policy matter, it's probably going to be very well received. As we've been discussing the constitutional issue of what any administration, not just the Trump administration,

but what of any administration is allowed to do without congressional approval is a completely different matter. And I think what was curious here, what was very interesting about how the administration is framing this is that the president has determined that we're in a war with the cartels, right? And that's very interesting because Congress has the power to declare war. They're the only ones that can declare war. We don't do that really anymore. And that's understood by everybody, but usually after initial quick moves by an administration with the military, Congress is informed. And if it's going to be an ongoing operation, right, Congress usually gives some sort of

sign off, right, an authorization for the use of force, use of military force, something like that. But, you know, as we've seen since Trump's second term began, Congress has been happier, or at least Republicans in Congress have been happy to shed power and give it to the executive branch. They don't really sign off on spending anymore. It makes us wonder, you know, whether this government shut down, how you end up solving it when the president doesn't really need congressional approval to spend money or not spend money, and do they need any congressional participation to use force on an ongoing basis or not

when Congress isn't going to object? All right, David Drucker coming up. we're going to dig into Apple, removing an app after criticism from the Trump administration, as well as an administration official claiming ICE agents will have a presence at the Super Bowl. Morning, Joe, we'll be right back. 37 past the app's app store has removed an application that helped warn users about nearby ice agent activity. The app, ice block, allowed users to report sightings of ice agents within a five-mile radius. It did not share personal information about the agents, but was removed based on

quote, information from law enforcement about safety risks, according to the company. Meanwhile, a top advisor to President Trump says ICE agents will be at next year's Super Bowl in California after music superstar, a superstar bad bunny was announced to be the halftime show performer. NBC News White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez reports. He's one of the biggest pop stars in. the world with the most streams on Spotify for three straight years. Bad Bunny is facing mounting MAGA backlash. It's so shameful that they've decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much.

Bad Bunny was just selected to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, but he's been an outspoken critic of President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, recently revealing why he opted not to tour the continental U.S. saying, quote, ICE could be outside my concert. Now, President Trump's homeland security advisor, Corey Lewandowski, is suggesting there will be immigration agents at the Super Bowl. Will ICE have enforcement at the Super Bowl for the Bad Bunny, Super Bowl halftime show? Benny, there is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you. A DHS spokesperson tells NBC News, ICE always supports the highest security events.

The 31-year-old, who's a U.S. citizen, recently wrapped up a sold-out residency in his native Puerto Rico, as he told Tom this summer. This was much more than just a concert. What did it mean to you? Everything. This is a dream come true. It would not be the first time a Super Bowl performance sparked political controversy. In 2020, Jennifer Lopez featured kids in cages, seen as a protest of the Trump administration's immigration policies. Two years later, Eminem took a knee. Gabe Gutierrez reporting there.

Gene Robinson, putting aside the performative outrage and everybody getting whipped up about a guy who's going to perform for 12 minutes, a halftime of the Super Bowl and the snowflakey that goes along with all that. There's also this idea that there have been these safe havens over this last decade or so, free of politics, generally speaking, entertainment, sports, things like that, where we all get together and cheer together regardless of who you support politically and now sort of the long arm of the government, even reaching into the Super Bowl. Yeah, no one is safe, no place is safe from politics these days,

or from political showmanship, from, I mean, how many, how many, you know, illegal aliens are they going to catch into the Super Bowl, you know, where it's just ridiculous. But they're not going to, they're probably not going to like Bad Bunny show at the Super Bowl because he's very political. He's from Puerto Rico. and he has a lot to say. And I predict he's going to say it.

And so that'll be another big controversy when it happens. You know, ultimately, the question about immigration is the same question it's always been. We need comprehensive immigration reform. Everybody knows how to do that. Nobody's willing to do that. And so we'll just argue about it and do sort of demonstrative things that actually don't get us anywhere. We should note, Bad Bunny also hosting SNL this weekend for its season premiere. David Drucker, you know, he is political.

I actually was mildly surprised in an era where so many big corporations seem to be bending the knee to the White House. The NFL would go with Bad Bunny to host a Super Bowl halftime show this year. But to Gene's up and Willie's point just now, this is just performative outrage. It's, there's, you know, but it's we're going to see it also next year at the World Cup sites, the administration has said. They're going to have ice agents there as well, and they're injecting politics into what should be just a celebration of sport and culture. You know, look, I mean, I think we've seen this on both sides, frankly, and I hate to both sides this thing, but sometimes it's warranted. Here we're seeing it in particular with the Trump

administration and with his supporters. And, you know, I think most Americans, if you were to travel the country and talk to them. And I mean, most Americans would say, yeah, I don't know if I like this performer or that performer, but, you know, who really cares? Is their music good? It's a football game. It's a halftime show. And I don't really care as long as their music is good. My biggest complaint is, are you any good if I'm going to have to sit there and listen to you for 30 minutes with a microphone? But I think this is part and parcel of our hyper-politicized culture right now where everybody has to pick aside and pick a team politically instead of when it comes to the game and comment on something and then be outraged about it. And it doesn't

help when our nation's top political leaders engage in this because it foments it. But it is something that has been going on for quite some time. And look, I'm a Lakers fan. And when the Lakers play the Celtics. I wouldn't mind if law enforcement just rounds up the Celtics and get rid of them for me. Wow. Especially because the Lakers need to help these days and I'll take what I can get. But I think when it comes to politics, it would be nice if we could go home from work, watch a game and not have this in, because it's not good for everybody is my point. It's really not good. Well, my takeaway way from watching this just play out this segment and listening to some of the sound that we played is, I mean, it is really jarring and disturbing to see, and I'm going to continue to be jarred

by this and not become a nored to it, but it is jarring and disturbing to see somebody from Department of Homeland Security reveling in the policy that is put in play. It is their policy. I have to respect that. the coarseness and the cruelty of reveling in a policy to hear these people from Homeland Security saying, we will come and find you, we will track you down, we will run you down, and relishing the concept of plucking migrants off the street and throwing them into cars and loving that and just enjoying talking about it and enjoying engaging in the threats of it all.

that is not what I think where Americans want to be. I hope that bears out at the polls and in the voting booths, but it is hard to watch. I don't know anybody who would support enjoying that act, whether it's the policy or not, is really, really sad and cruel and painful for these people. David Drucker and Eugene Robinson, thank you both very much. We appreciate your being on.

Have a great weekend. So still ahead on Morning, Joe. We're going to go through the other elimination games in the MLB playoffs as the postseason moves now to the divisional series. Plus, we'll talk to Alibitali about what she says was the biggest story overnight. A little lightness is always needed. Morning Joe is back in a moment. Playing Playing over that beautiful shot on a Friday.

morning of the National Mall in Washington is a cut from Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl. Yeah, it's out. The Grammy winner's 12th studio album released at midnight just a few hours ago. Features a dozen new songs with some lyrics appearing to refer to her fiance, Travis Kelsey, as you might expect. Taylor took to social media shortly after the release writing, I can't tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right. Swifty's spending the last few weeks trying to decipher any Easter eggs or clues Swift might have dropped about the album. Fans expected to visit movie theaters this weekend as well for a theatrical release party that includes a music video premiere. Ali Vitale, you are our resident Swifty.

Oh my gosh. What is all that stuff? Tell us about that in just a second. Oh, my gosh. What in the world? Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Are you ready?

That is fantastic. This is like peak swift behavior, right? It's like my amazing team here knew how excited I was about this album. I came in. There are streamers entering the studio. It says the life of a showgirl. And they even put me on this poster next to the queen mastermind, Taylor Swift herself. I never thought I needed to see myself in showgirl gear.

But like, does this my new career pivot? Okay. It looks good. That's your new headshot. That's your new headshot, Alley. Professional headshot. And I love the cupcakes in front of you. So I trust you've listened to the album front to back already.

I'm reading about a disc track for Charlie X, CX, perhaps. There's a lot going on in this album. Tell us about it. Look, we thought that this was going to be boppy, dancey, very similar to her 1989 in reputation albums. There was also a question of if we were going to get any reputation vault tracks, because you guys know she's been doing this. As she was re-recording many of her old albums,

we were also getting new songs from that era. So far, we don't have any of those, though the Swifties are clowning around on social media, questioning if there's going to be some kind of extra release. But for now, we know that we have the life of a showgirl. And yes, there are some potential disc tracks of Charlie X-E-X. There's a little bit of bad blood to borrow another swift phrase between those two. But then we've also got some songs that are, I think, my personal favorite, opalite,

which is supposed to be about Travis Kelsey. And he teased the fact that his favorite Taylor album is her 1989 album. Those producers now on this album back with Taylor Swift. So I imagine Travis Kelsey has a lot of new bops that he loves as well. I'm listening through. I love it all. And frankly, like we cover so much news that is heavy that this excuse for levity right now, I am very, very grateful for it.

I think many of us are. So I think that's one of the reasons why we did go all out this morning in Orange, My show people came wearing orange and blue, which are, of course, the colors for this album. So it was nice to have an excuse to have a little bit of fun. We went, like, all out here. Yeah. You really did. Allie, we're all wearing our colors.

I got my Yankee tie on, which is now very boring. In contrast to your Taylor Swift get up right there. Also, Taylor's going to be at 30 Rock a bunch next week. She's got the full hour of Seth Meyer. She's doing Fallon, so she's got a big rollout plan coming. Allie Vitale, really showing off the range this morning, fluent in the government shut down at the top of the show. And now here we are equally fluent in Taylor Swift. Congratulations really to you this morning. Allie. Thank you to my fellow show girls.

All right. We'll be right back with more morning, Joe. Thank you.