Morning Joe - How ‘Closed' primaries shut out millions of American voters

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

June 23, 2026 - 8am: How ‘Closed' primaries shut out millions of American voters 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.

Let's get to the top story, which of course is Iran reportedly prepared to allow UN nuclear inspectors back into the country following negotiations in Switzerland. Although inspectors were already allowed in the country under the previous agreement, this could mark the most tangible outcome from the latest round of U.S. Iran talks. Still, there remain questions surrounding Iran's nuclear program enrichment activities and any long-term agreement for future discussions. Much of the progress announced this week was procedural with committees formed, communication channels established, and a roadmap drafted for additional. Not the best picture, J.D. Van. Come on, we got to do better than that. It's like, you know, people do like every time I'm talking about my mouth wide open and everything. Oh, come on. Vice President J.D. fans, who led the U.S. delegation in Switzerland, argued the inspector's return, is an important for his.

staff and President Trump also projected confidence yesterday. We have the Iranians allowing weapons inspectors, nuclear inspectors into their country for the first time in a long time. We're obviously going to bolster those inspects, that inspection regime to make sure they can never have a nuclear weapon. I think Iran, I can say it is sort of a different scale is in its own way working out very well. Maybe it's hard to say just as well, but maybe almost just as well. And we're doing very well in terms of. terms of negotiating a fair and reasonable deal. One of the things that we are doing also when it came up last night is money that's being

unfrozen is going to be used to buy food and the food's going to be bought exclusively through the United States from our farmers. And corn, soybeans, all of the things they need are going to be bought from our farmers. So our farmers are very happy. Iran's foreign ministry said this morning, I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think the farmers are happy. visit scheduled for inspectors from the IAEA.

So Willie, here's, yeah, I mean, here's here was Donald Trump's problem. He had a war that wasn't going to ever end. Right. And he's got political problems at home. The White House was putting out polls yesterday that show, even though this is going to be terrible for his legacy, even though it's going to be terrible for the region, even though it's going to empower the Iranians and make them even stronger than they've ever been before, most Republicans are glad he made this move. And I would guess ultimately, politically in the short run, this will be a better move for him because people just don't want to be in an endless war.

Long-term consequences are going to be worse than the Iraq war. But short-term consequences, politically, White House thinks they've made the right move. Yeah, I mean, he's wanted this war to end since it's basically two weeks into the war. Remember he said, we're going to go in quick, overwhelming force, take out their military capability. We're going to sink their navy, put them at the bottom of the sea. We're going to change the regime, and then we're going to be out of their endgame. We took out Iran. We did what Bibi Netanyahu asked us to do.

And Jonathan Lemire, simply put, this just was a lot more complicated and difficult than either he knew or he was advised by the people close to him. And as gas prices rose, as people didn't understand why actually we went to war, was there an imminent threat to the United States? As you said there was at the beginning, as he saw the people were not going to rise up in the streets and take down the regime, as he told them to on that first day. he realized he needed a way out. And now here we are, four months in, and he's desperate to find it. And this is clearly the play from the White House is to try to memory hole this war. I mean, to Joe's point, like the long-term modifications here are significant and real and likely disastrous for the United States and its interests.

But in the short-term, the short-term political decision here is to pretend this never happened. To say, look, gas prices are coming down. Like, you know, the prices in other areas are coming down. But they went up with this. But that's not how they're either. Look, the straight-in-form moves is open. Like, they're just going to keep pushing. They are going to ignore the fact that these problems were caused by their decision to go to war,

and they're going to point to say, hey, things are better now. And they're going to say in this news cycle, which is so relentless and so fast, the voters aren't going to be thinking about this in November. That's the bet they're making. Now, that bet may prove incorrect, but that's what they think, that they'll be, that the November will be decided, the midterms will be decided on other issues, not this. Yeah, I mean, the biggest problem, and as we've all been reading through regime change, biggest problem that J.D. Vance and other people inside the administration and

Epstein, especially Dan Bonchino, we're jumping up and down saying, number one, don't go to war. Number two, you've got to release the Epstein file. Stop, you know, Todd Blanche, sitting in the situation room, you know, sort of mastermining this cover-up of the Epstein file. So even as this war fades, and if they can, memory, hold it, with the base, with the low propensity voters, with, we'll call them the Joe Rogan voters, just for lack of a better term. With these voters, they're going to remember that they promised one thing on Epstein files he did another. They promised one thing on foreign wars and did just the opposite. That's right. Suppressing the Epstein files is unforgivable to a lot of voters in this country. And that story is going to come back,

by the way. It already is because of this book. And that Donald Trump promised no new wars. It's fascinating to watch the spin J.D. Vance's camp. When Republicans are critical, they say, well, you guys you're criticizing us because you just want forever wars, to which they say, no, we wanted no wars, which is what you promised us going into this. And now we're in this quagmire with no clear way out of it. Let's bring to the conversation, Politics Bureau Chief and Senior Political Political Colonists at Politico, Jonathan Martin, and decorated combat veteran, former commander of U.S. Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling, he is an MS now military analyst. Guys, good morning. General Hartling, I'll start with you, just your assessment of where these negotiations stand from your

point of view and what the best case scenario is for a resolution here. One of the things I'm doing, Willie, is not just looking at domestic news articles, but also articles from the region. And it just seems repeatedly there's a dissonance between what our spokespeople are saying versus what the Iranian spokespeople are saying. Both sides have their own view of this. My view is, as we went in to discuss the MOU over the weekend, which is basically an agenda for what they're going to talk about, they evidently confirmed that that's pretty good agenda, but they added some more things. But we really haven't gotten into the meat of the issues yet. You know, the next 60 days are going to be tough. And even with those 60 days, we know the

president yesterday opened the administration, I should say, open the straits. for Iranian oil to get out. So we're already starting to see Iran benefit from these peace talks. It is, you know, one of the things that struck me yesterday, I had a friend remind me that the 22nd of June was the day that Hitler invaded Russia and also that Napoleon invaded Russia. Neither one of those two individuals successfully achieved their strategic objectives. And yet this is the same list as we're hearing from Maggie Hayes. and Jonathan Swans' book that President Trump is comparing himself to people that seem to be authoritarian but actually lose the battles they're going into.

So, Jay Mart, Jonathan Martin, let's talk about the politics of this. I'm just curious. Given the landscape, the president's going to Pennsylvania, he undoubtedly has some news channels that will cover this in a way that doesn't point out that the deal they're working on. right now pales in comparison or matches that of the deal the Obama administration struck and won't cover it this way, although this is unusual for the New York Post. Is there a political consequence to what has happened so far in this war that Donald Trump started himself? Well, I think the deeper consequence was what Trump feared, which is not being, not being Herbert Hoover, not starting the

Great Depression, but, you know, undermining his own political prospects because gas was going to hit five bucks a gallon, his numbers were going to fall deeper into the 30s. And I think that's what he feared more than anything else. Now, the question is, can the Hawks do what the Hawks have done the last three months, which is every time Trump is closed at cutting a deal, can they yell Obama Obama and pull him back from the ledge? That's what you're going to see happen now, I think. I think you're going to see more grumbling about the MOU from the Hawks. And I think anytime you see either the Iranians not fulfill one of their elements of the bargain or do some kind of provocation in the region, you're going to see the Hawks urge Trump, well, now you've got to close down the streets again.

You've got to start the blockade again. We have to control the straits. And if not, you're going to be Obama. That's been their cudgel for the last two months. They played it and played it and played it until Trump finally lunged for the deal that he was craving because he was tired politically of the consequences of the war. I just am not sure, guys, that Trump's ever going to restart this conflict. He wanted an exit ramp politically. He was sick of this. Hades seeing his numbers fall, and he got the exit ramp he wanted. All right. General, you have a new piece out for the bulwark entitled Iran showed us the future of asymmetric warfare. And in it, you write in part, quote, many Americans still imagine asymmetric warfare as something that happens overseas and is

confined to military operations. They picture insurgents planting roadside bombs or terrorists operating from distant safe havens. Increasingly, however, the battlefield looks very different. The target is confidence in alliances in governmental institutions and who is elected to lead a nation in expertise regarding the affairs of state at home and abroad. Tell us more. I went on to talk, Mika, in that article about what I used to do as a commander U.S. forces in Europe. And that included evaluating the armies I was working with, the 49 different countries that make up the European continent. We were very close. I visited most of those during my time as commander and got to know them. We would evaluate them.

on the strength and weaknesses of their government, how many alliances they had formed, how they used the military, the trust of the civilians that were part of that society, the cultural norms. And we saw that when Russia invaded Ukraine a few years ago, that Russia was weak in all those areas. And I harkened back to my time, Russia was not one of the top 10 or even the top 20 of the 49 countries in Europe, in my view. and we saw them falter on the battlefield. The same thing now is happening to us. People are evaluating not just our military because they know it's strong,

but also our capability to govern the institution's strength of our nation, the kind of alliances we continue to have or not have. And they're saying, hey, we're slipping. The military might be very good, but do they have all of the institutions behind them and are they following the rules of law and the norms of a democratic society? And truthfully, you know, if I were evaluating our nation right now, like I did, the nations of Europe, we would have slipped. And I think that's how the world is seen.

And it's only being exacerbated by the president picking fights with the prime minister or Italy or announcing Starmor's resignation before he had a chance to announce it. When you do those kind of things, you not only lose the trust in the governments, but you also see that people will not share things with us. And that's what alliances are all about. So this invasion of Iran, the military attack in Iran, may have shown our military power in a great way, but all of the other things are fading. And that's what's concerning, I think, to many who study this kind of stuff. General, thank you so much.

The new piece is online right now at the bulwark. MS now military analysts, retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hurdling, thank you so much. And Willie and John this year, just look at what's happened in 2026. You've had the Ukraine war that was supposed to in three days actually start to shift Ukraine's way. We're seeing a lot of explosions in Moscow and throughout that country. Airports being shut down, people not being able to get gas and gas stations. And then you look at it, the Iranian War, Donald Trump, thought it was going to be over in two weeks. It's going to be an interesting two weeks.

It's what he said. And now we see it's continuing. It's continuous. And we're having to bribe them with half a trillion dollars. So this, you can really see the tide has changed and asymmetric warfare really, really can bog down the bigger countries. Yeah, I think the conventional thinking that we could just bomb them into oblivion. They like the term obliterated. Remember those podium banging press conferences with Pete exit at the Pentagon for all those weeks about their Navy is at the bottom of the sea. We have superiority. Our military is superior. There's no question. But what they didn't anticipate or perhaps underestimated, John, was that Iran had other levers that could pull, namely shutting down

the Strait of Hormuz and that it did keep a bunch of its missile capability to attack, perhaps not the United States, but all of our Gulf neighbors as well. On that point, we did anticipate that they would close Strait of Hormuz. We just didn't act on it. The President Trump ignored the advice that would happen. believing that they would be able to overwhelm them or to take this straight of who was back or that Iran would capitulate. But your point is exactly right. And the Pentagon is behind in this sort of technology.

This is not what we've made our investments. In fact, with this new president, with this president in office, they've outlined billions upon billions of dollars in building ships in the Trump class. They're talking about battleships. Do you know how? I mean, battleships that would have been great in like 1987, but you look at the number of drones that are going to be produced by Iran versus up. us. We're fighting a 1987 war. Yeah, we're fighting the last war. And Ukraine has offered to help

the U.S. is starting to finally take up them up on some of these, you know, sharing the technology that they've developed on the fly for this war to great effect. And you're right. They're striking deep within Russia now. But the DoD is going to have to start changing how they think about warfare because it's changed on us. I mean, you could go back and look at Pete Higgs at the press conferences the first several weeks of this war and being so enraged, if anybody questioned, whether the Iranians had any fight left. And I'm suggesting that they didn't, you know, love the American military or they didn't love America.

I mean, you can just go on and on. And it's all there. It's worse than a mission accomplished banner saying you won the war in Iraq. If you go back and look at those early press conferences, they were wrong about everything. Coming up, it was quite a celebration late last week at the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. But Jonathan Martin says,

there was a shadow looming over that day in the sun, and he explains what it was straight ahead on Morning Job. Vandalism. Vandals, you know, we have 100, we have a, I think, 290, 300 foot slit right through, probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind. National Guard, please, have been all over the mall. How would these vandals have gotten so close to do something like that?

I mean, we didn't have a lot of them then. Who would think that somebody would go into a pool and take a knife and start cutting it? Did you have proof of that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your photos or video? Well, let's put it this way. When you have a 350, I think it's 350, not 250, a 350 foot slid from one end to the other, you think that's proof? Yeah, that's proof of a really bad no-bid contract, well.

And the worst. That's what the bid is. I mean, devoid of reality lie that you can just see for yourself. Yeah. The size of the alleged gash apparently keeps growing in President Trump's mind. The president claims vandalism is to blame for the large pieces of liner that have been floating in the water at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. The president also claimed without evidence that somebody put fertilizer in the pool causing the massive algae bloom. He told reporters the pool would have to be drained again to repair the more than $14 million renovation job.

I don't read it anymore of this. No, it's really, it's actually quite symbolic. But actually, this is where we are. This is where we are. This is where we are. This is where we are where you have, Jonathan Amir, you've got a president who is focused on his legacy now. But so much of his legacy has to do with changing things in Washington, D.C. It's like Donald Trump, the contractor is coming out in sort of this next phase of his presidency.

And he really is. He's obsessed with it, whether it's putting gold on anything. thing that doesn't move in the White House, whether it's tearing down, you know, the east wing of the White House, whether it's this reflective. He's obsessive about it because he's Donald Trump the builder. And the focus on it is if you're she and you're looking at this, you've got to be thinking, my God, he's lost his mind. Yeah, I mean, more power to him, he probably would say. I mean, yeah, and it's not just that. It's also the Kennedy Center. And of course, he was dealt a defeat there and his name has come off of it. It's trying to build this, what I would deem a

blasphemously like an arch that would obscure that sacred view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. And now there's this. I mean, this is pure fiction. This is pure fiction. And he's all over two social claiming that it was Antifa, that Obama played a role somehow, that the former president Obama was something to do with the algae bloom here in the pool. He's provided no evidence of this slash, 300-foot slash down this side.

We even had a dead duckling in the pool, reflecting pool, Willie, because of, you know, of the, whether it's toxic algae bloom or the chemicals they poured into it to try to turn it blue, which that didn't work either. And let's remember this is because of all the celebrations coming in the mall in the coming days for the 250th, including the Trump rally. And he's afraid of what that backdrop's gonna look like.

This is the snapshot of the whole administration. You have incompetence doing a bad job. You've got corruption. No big contract to the pool guy in Palm Beach who lives near Mar-a-Lago, who has no idea how to do this kind of work. And then when it fails because of the incompetence, you create a conspiracy theory. You tell lies about people.

You detain American citizens for questioning who put their hands in the water, or you suggest that reporters who pick up a piece of the paint that's floating and show it to a camera. You have Janine Piro on TV saying they're looking into investigating and perhaps prosecuting that reporter for telling the truth. They are completely spinning out after wasting $16 million of taxpayer money. on this nonsense project that's now going to have to be started over again. And Donald Trump cannot stop talking about it. He's obsessed with it.

He's creating these wild conspiracy theories as John said that. Again, blaming Obama. Obama. And by the way, the length of the slash, which no one saw, went from 290, 300, 250. He's making up numbers about this slash that these vandals and Antifa went in to cover for his own incompetence and corruption. of the administration. Well, speaking of Obama, Jay Martin, your latest column for Politico magazine, you write about the opening of the Obama Presidential Library. Quote, the unveiling of presidential libraries has always been one of those political rituals that blends past,

present, and future. In Chicago, however, it was as if yesterday, today, and tomorrow, all converged. It was inevitable that the current president would share. shadow the gathering because this is, like it or not, the age of Trump. Who he is and what he's done to the country and presidency is inescapable. Yet in their impassioned effort to argue that there is and was a better way, the Obama's all but dragged Trump on stage with them. Obama invoked the country's founding and its promise, simply citing checks and balances, an independent judiciary and the necessity of a peaceful transfer of power to assail Trump. Those values, Obama said, didn't belong to any party, but were American values we can all share. So Jay Martin, talk about the shadow looming over this event.

Well, first of all, I'm just glad to have an alibi, guys. I was not the one creating that 4,000-foot, jagged line across the reflecting pool. I was in Chicago, so it wasn't me. Now, look, these events guys are so fascinating, right? Because obviously the politics of the present is always inescapable. You know, there's a famous moment where Jimmy Carter unveils the JFK Library in 79, and Teddy is sitting right there about to launch his primary challenge of Jimmy Carter. Don't forget George W. Bush's library in 2013 open in Dallas. That morning, Barbara Bush goes on The Today Show.

and says the country doesn't need any more bushes. Sorry, Jeb. So there's always sort of present-day politics infused with the past. But it's so striking with Obama because on stage, you've got his two would-be successors, the two heirs to the throne who were a generation older than him, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, who the previous week had mixed it up long distance because Hillary said Biden never should have run and hurt his legacy by running. A little awkward.

Then you've got the president, which obviously is as thick, in the air as the humidity was, which is Trump. Trump's everywhere in their remarks, because he has to be given what's happening now in the country. And then, guys, lastly, the future is inescapable, because they're looking down at a crowd. And who's in the crowd in front of them? Well, it's Josh Shapiro. It's Gavin Newsom. It's Mark Kelly. It's Pete Buttigieg. And yeah, it's two local boys named Rahm Emanuel and J.B. Pritzker. So this event ostensibly is about Obama's library, but it's really about the politics of the past, president, future, and they're all converging there in one glorious place at one time. Coming up a live report from Pennsylvania, where President Trump is holding a rally today in a key midterm battleground,

we'll get the lay of the land there and what voters are saying about their priorities ahead of the general election. That's straight ahead on Morning Joe. Chris Wright, please. Yes, thank you, Mr. President. So 10020, 141 years ago, Albert Einstein, 121 years ago. Albert Einstein published a paper on the phone. Good point, good point. Well, there you go.

Nobody cares. But people should care about this. It's Election Day in New York, where voters will head to the polls for a series of high-stakes democratic primaries. Mayor Zoran Mabani will test his political influence as he and his allies back. several progressive contenders in their attempt to unseat two Democratic incumbents. Let's bring in MS now, senior Capitol Hill reporter and hosts way too early, Ali Vitale, and political anchor for Spectrum News, Errol Lewis. My thanks to you both for being here.

Errol, I know you've been watching these races closely. Let's just start with the Mondani factor here. You know, he's obviously only a few months in. Poll numbers look good. This is a pretty aggressive use of some political capital to take on incumbents from the Democratic Party. why is he doing this? That's right. He's spending all of his political capital, and he gave the reason, really, in a speech just the other night, a final rally for the candidates that he's supporting. He's saying that the path to the White House in 2028 starts today, Tuesday. He's saying that this is the path forward for the whole Democratic Party, not just a matter of bumping off a couple of incumbents here or there. They've essentially, he's kind of thrown himself in with those who want to make war on Democratic moderates. One of the incumbents who they're trying to unsubstant, who they're trying to, unconstitutional. seat is the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. So these are not just, you know, kind of backbenchers who haven't been doing much. This is part of the House leadership that they're

saying needs to be displaced today right now in order to win more in the next few years. But obviously the electorate in New York City, very different than most of the rest of the country. Does Mount Donnie offered a theory of the case as to how they'd scale up? It's a very interesting question that I intend to ask him the next time I interview him. I mean, Because look, I mean, some of what's going to happen. I, you know, I moderated the debates with all of these, these candidates that they've been pushing. They've got some ideas that will not sell in Des Moines or in, you know, Cleveland or in some of these other parts of the country. And I don't know what the plan is on how to sort of turn that into, you know, what we, wait, what I have heard from their strategist is that they want people who are going to fight, fight, fight, you know, get themselves arrested, introduce legislation, whether or not it has a chance of

getting a hearing or ever becoming law. And I guess in the long term, they want to shift of the entire political discussion substantially to the left. And that's the goal. When you talk about scalability, that is one of the things that fellow New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries would point to in his tenuous truce, it seems, with Mumdani. And in a lot of these primaries, it pits the Jeffries-backed candidate, the incumbent, against Mumdani's own desires. So how are you thinking about that, kind of a subplot of New Yorker versus New Yorker? Well, yeah, it's a real fight. I mean, it's a real scrum. And it's happening down. I won't, I won't bore everybody with the state legislative races that are part of this entire insurrection that's

going on. But look, the reality is they're spending tens of millions of dollars on these races. And I think there's going to be a question that's called, at some point in the future, was this the best use of democratic time and money and energy and ideas to fight over a five or six degree difference between program. They're all progressives, you know, but they're saying, well, you're not the right kind of progressive. You're not right on this issue. You're not right on that issue.

You're not young enough. You know, you've been around for too long. You're not fighting hard enough, even if there is no legislation that could conceivably make it through a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. So New York is among four states that will decide primary elections today, but not every registered voter will get to cast a ballot. And, Allie, you have reporting on that. Please.

Yeah, because many of the races that, that we're talking about here in New York today are examples of safe blue seats, which means the real contest and, of course, the real choice for voters, happens now today, not in November. And yet millions of voters might not be able to have their voices heard when it matters. As more states redraw their congressional lines

ahead of the midterms, 88 eyes or 52 days. The general election map is getting more predictably red or blue. Now it's even harder to vote. That doesn't just give party an edge in November. In most places, it makes November almost a formality. The real contest in these safer seats is in the primary. And so here we are sitting in New York. Election Day is Tuesday. All of you could vote, but raise your hand if you are. If we are voting? If you are voting on Tuesday.

Well, that comes with a caveat, Alley. More than 20 states in D.C. have closed or partially closed primaries, including New York. So if you're not registered with a party, you likely can't vote in the primary. I'd say, I'm here to vote. I say, Mr. Brady, you're not registered. I said, I know. I want a provisional ballot. I get a provisional ballot, knowing that it's not going to count. My point is, is that I want my voice to be heard, and I want them to know that I am there. These voters are just a few of the more than 39 million Americans, not registered to or affiliated with either party. Somebody calls up and says, are you going to vote?

And I say, well, I can't. I'm an independent. They said, well, you could register as a Democrat. You could. Yeah, but I'm not. I'm an independent. I'm sure you've had similar conversations. I did pick aside and then I decided, you know what, no more.

I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not going to either party because I don't belong to either party. Closed primary supporters argue it keeps the party strong and protects the process from meddling by outside actors. Yeah, they do that a lot. They say you don't want Elks Club members voting in Rotary Club elections. John Opdike founded Open Primaries, a group that advocates for opening up the process. It's a good image. And that does sort of sound right. Right, logical, irrational. The thing that they won't actually grapple with is that that's what happens in a closed primary system. According to Optike and the organization's own polling, about 40% of

registered Democrats in New York City say they're actually independence. They just joined to be able to vote. And there's a million more that won't do that. According to Gallup, Americans are increasingly identifying as independent, reaching a record high of 45 percent in 2025. Depending on where they happen to live, millions of voters might not be able to use their voices until the race is already in effect decided. That is unless parties or states make a change. We should be in a position to choose who, represents us to just let them know what's important to us without having to be constrained by joining their club. Now, these voters were passionate. They were also hopeful that more states would

change and open up their processes so more people could participate in the primary. And some states, like Oregon, are considering doing that. That said, other states are trending in the opposite direction. Take Texas, where just this month, Republican Governor Greg Abbott told attendees at his state's party convention, he was going to, in his words, make clear in the future that only Republicans vote in Republican primaries. So again, Lamere, it begs the question, what happens if you're a voter who refuses to pick a side? Yeah, it's really interesting. It comes in connection with her at the same time as, you know, we're just seeing, Errol, fewer and fewer true swing states anymore, swing districts anymore, swing states and swing districts, in part because of their districting

efforts we're seeing, that's including happened here, you know, there's talk in New York, We have seen it in California, we've seen it in Texas, lots of states. And it does feel like there's sort of this basic sort of fundamental American ethos of like you try to talk to your neighbor, you try to build consensus. And we're seeing more and more politicians don't have to do that anymore. No, that's right. It's harder and harder to do that. There used to be, and it's still enshrined in some state constitutions, that there should not be gerrymandering.

There should not be partisan gerrymandering. There are supposed to be independent commissions in some states. There's supposed to be, again, just a legal prohibition. against doing what so many political party leaders want to see done. And it doesn't seem to be working. You know, the reality, though, is you have to really accept that. People do sort themselves, according to ideology, religion, and other kind of factors. And if everybody in a small town all believe kind of in the same direction that they want certain things to happen, who are we from the outside to tell them that, no, you can't associate and do that. We want to make sure

that all kinds of other people get in and sort of muddle the very idea. that you say you want to come together around. So it's a longstanding problem. You know, George Washington and other founding fathers distrusted parties for exactly this reason, factions, but people do tend to sort of group themselves. I mean, the Democratic parties, the oldest political party in the world, they came together to get the bill of rights passed. There were people who didn't believe in what, you know, the First Amendment, Second Amendment, Third Amendment, you know, so, so to the extent that people want to either in a legislative body or as voters get together around certain, ideas, I think we want to make sure we don't sort of do away with that, that people who truly

can't pick aside on something like abortion or voting rights or, you know, the right to carry arms. If you can't make a decision, maybe you should stay outside the room and let those of us who have an opinion get together and figure out what to do. Political anchor for Spectrum News, Aero Lewis. Ariel, great to see you. Thank you for joining us. MS now see your Capitol Hill reporter and host of way too early. Al Vitale, thank you as well. Next, we're going to live to Pennsylvania for a preview of President Trump's campaign stop in a battleground state some rare bit of domestic travel for Trump. And before we go to break, we'd like to mention today at noon. The 92nd Street Y will be streaming my conversation with former U.S. Surgeon General

Dr. Vivek Murthy about connection, community, and the power of simply showing up. You can watch it at no cost by visiting the web address on your screen, 92NY.org slash showing up. tune in. It'll be right back with more. Morning Joe. Welcome back. President Donald Trump is heading to Pennsylvania this afternoon for his first major public event since signing the agreement with Iran to end that war. Trump's going to deliver remarks at a Mack truck facility in a swing district near Allentown, where Democrats are hoping to flip a Republican House seat this November. Let's bring in MS-Now White House reporter Laura Barone Lopez, who joins us live from Lehigh County. Laura, you've been speaking with voters there ahead of what has become a pretty infrequent occurrence.

Trump out of the White House, not going to one of his clubs, actually out into the country. Tell us what the voters have told you and whether we think Trump's going to spend much time on the Iran War or try to really move past it. That's right, Jonathan. I mean, this is an attempt by the President to try to move past the Iran War, try to move past those high gas prices. And he's going to be speaking here at Mack Trucks, which is behind me.

You can probably see some of those trucks. there about the economy, about manufacturing here in McCungy, Pennsylvania, as he tries to move past these bad numbers on the economy in this swing district. Now, I spoke to a Mack truck worker who voted for President Trump in 2024, who said that he has soured, use the word soured on President Trump because of inflation, because of the high cost of living and high prices. Now, I also spoke to a small business owner of a local coffee shop here in the Lehigh Valley and some Republicans and Democrats about what they would tell President Trump about the effect of his tariffs, the Iran war, and his handling of the economy on their lives. So what I would say to him is please have way more consideration for what small businesses can handle when instituting these policies, because we are not all his friends.

We are not all billionaires. We don't all own a monopoly. And what we do have is a lot of folks working behind the counters trying to make ends meet. And when you institute tariffs, when you institute a war that nobody wanted, it impacts our bottom line. And it impacts our ability to hire and pay our living wages. What would you tell the president? What do you want him to do about it? Low prices so we could afford things because it's very hard, you know, trying to make ends meet. I think that he just is here for something that's going to benefit him, not really us.

I don't think he really cares that the prices here in the Lehigh Valley are skyrocketing. And, you know, our wages aren't getting any better, but the cost of living is worse. And when he comes, it's, you know, taxpayers has to pay for all the police, you know. And I just think it's not really necessary for him to come. If he did what he did, if he did what he's supposed to do in the office, we wouldn't need him to put on a big show here at Mack Truck. Now, that first person I spoke to, Juan Vargas, the owner of Nowhere coffee, told me that even though tariffs were lifted on coffee, that the president took those away at the end of last year, that he has been locked into high prices, that he has lost revenue in time. Now, one of the biggest takeaways, Jonathan, from the voters that I spoke to, especially those Trump 2024 voters in this swing area of Pennsylvania is that they said that none of them said that they were happy with the president's handling of the economy. all of them talked about the high cost of prices, the high cost of gas, the high cost of groceries,

but few of them said that they were necessarily decided on the races in these upcoming November midterms. And few of them said whether or not they had decided to flip and vote for Democrats. So there's obviously work here to do in this swing district. And so striking over the last couple of weeks we've had reports from places like Ohio, Florida, and now Pennsylvania. And the vote is all sort of saying the same things. Trump supporters, unhappy, that he broke his promises, unhappy that he's not focusing on high prices. We're going to watch that theme going forward.

MS Now, White House reporter, Lara, Borlaupes, Laura, Lopez, Laura, thank you so very much. Coming out next on Morning Joe, President Trump's name has been removed from the Kennedy Center, but the scaffolding and the tarps have yet to be taken down. But we're going to take you behind those obstructions that's next on Morning Joe. Welcome back. MS Now has obtained new picture showing that President Trump's name has been removed from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this month, a crew set up scaffolding and tarps to comply with a court order to remove Trump's name from the building. But so far, the scaffolding and tarps remain in place, as you can see, continuing to obstruct the view of the building's facade, which at least one Democrat has called an act of petty defiance. Despite that, this photo taken behind the scaffolding offers a first look, a partial look, at the Performing Arts Center's exterior

after Cruz removed the letters of Trump's name. This is video showing additional images of buildings facade without Trump's name, also obtained by MS. Now, similar pictures were first shared by the Washington Post. And that does it for us this morning. We'll see again tomorrow, 6 a.m. Eastern for another morning, Joe. Money, power politics with Stephanie Rule,

is up next after a short final break. See you tomorrow. Don't know.