Morning Joe - Judge again blocks Trump’s bid to restrict mail-in voting

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

August 28, 2026 – 6am: Trump ‘renames’ Lake Ontario to Lake America Judge again blocks Trump’s bid to restrict mail-in voting Iran war reaches 6 months with no end in sight Annual ‘March on Washington’ returns to DC today Speaker Johnson claims GOP has ‘extraordinary’ record to run on Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on his visit to Ukraine, possible Russian sanctions Trump continues oil and gas stock trades amid Iran war 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.

That is Lake Erie. We think it is still called Lake Erie on the right. We're not quite sure at this point. Yeah. But we'll be by something like Ontario or whatever it's going to be called by the time we get to Buffalo. Anyway, you know what I'm talking about. Some of you do. Some of us do.

Yeah, right. Read the news. The great Al Michaels last night during the Patriots Brown's preseason game, a little commentary in a reference to President Trump's attempt to rename Lake Ontario, Lake America. Good morning. Welcome to morning, Joe. It is Friday, August 28th. I'm Willie Geist. Joe and Mika off this morning with us. MS Now contributor, Mike Barnacle, contributing writer to the Atlantic Eugene Robinson, managing editor at the bulwark, Sam Stein, and MS Now senior Capitol Hill reporter and host of way too early Ali Vitale. You know, Sam Stein,

it strikes you watching that event in the Oval Office yesterday where the president's holding up his signed decree to change the name of Lake Ontario. to Lake America. Just what an abject waste of the American public's time. So much of this with such serious issues on the table right now. It's not just a waste of time. It's a waste of money, right? We're going to have to change all the signage.

You're going to have to go through all the websites. You're going to have to deal with all the tourism issues, litigation that will arise from this. It's so stupid. And all because we're in a trade war with Canada that I couldn't even tell you why. And I follow this stuff pretty closely. Why are we in a trade war with Canada? It's not entirely clear, but in a peak of frustration, he convenes an oval office meeting, announces that he's doing this. And it just indicates to me that he's out of ideas, doesn't have anything new to offer.

I mean, we did this with the Gulf of Mexico, obviously. And here we are. I'll just add this. One tidbit, people don't really know this, but back in February 2025, so like the heyday of Trump 2.0, there was a poll that was done. and they looked at all the things that Trump had done to that point, the executive orders. And renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America was the least popular polling item, less popular than pardoning the J6 rioters. Okay, so I'm not sure this is the wind that he thinks it is.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah, going back to that, going back to that well, Gene. I mean, look, we showed the polls yesterday. President Trump is underwater on just about every issue, including issues that had been strengths like immigration and border security. Obviously, Iran has not gone the way now as we hit the six-month mark today the way he thought it would. And so he's doing anything and everything to turn the page and to distract, including just renaming lakes. Yeah, it's just absurd. I kept thinking of that great line from Succession where Logan Roy in exasperation says to his four children,

you are not serious people. This is not. This is not. These are not serious people. This is certainly not a serious president. It's just absolutely absurd. And the reason is that Prime Minister Carney in Canada and especially the provincial leader, Doug Ford, have been actually rude, not just defiant, but rude to President Trump. And Doug Ford told him, you know, to take. kiss where the sun don't shine. And that obviously offended the president such that he's attempting

to rename Lake Ontario. It's just, this will be a ridiculous footnote to an administration in which a lot of important stuff, most of it really bad, is happening. But it's just, this is almost insane, almost literally insane. And President Trump, Trump incensed also because Prime Minister Carney again and again hasn't put it quite as artfully, perhaps, as Mr. Ford has, but has effectively said the same thing to President Trump and saying it again now around the Lake of America. Let's get to more serious matters like a federal judge, once again, temporarily blocking the U.S. Postal Service from putting into effect a key provision of President Trump's effort to restrict

mail-in voting. Yesterday, the judge issued a temporary restraining order that halts parts of Trump's executive order to stop the postal service from delisting. delivering mail-in ballots to voters whose names are not on an approved list that was created by the Trump administration. This comes after the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the president's executive order to move forward. The court's conservative majority did not decide on the legality, though, of that order. The justices instead ruled 23 states who sued did not have the right or the standing to challenge it. President Trump has claimed without evidence again and again that voting by non-citizens is a wide,

It is not statistically. The Trump administration now likely to appeal this ruling, and it could again end up before the Supreme Court. But even if the administration is ultimately successful, it's not clear whether there would be enough time to implement the changes before the November midterm. So Ali Vitale, this is what a lot of people predicted, which it was going to get kicked back up eventually to the Supreme Court. But this all takes time. The ballots are going out, Mail-in ballots going out, for example, in North Carolina a week from today. The process is effectively underway while the courts sort this out. It's happening so close to November and so close to when ballots are going out that it really does lend to more confusion for voters.

I mean, when I was watching states like Texas and others do mid-decade redistricting, my biggest concern was, all right, voters might be confused in November what race they're actually voting in, maybe where they're polling places are. that's one layer of confusion. But if you're someone who typically votes by mail and now you're seeing that it could be thrown into flux, that only adds more confusion to the process. And so again, this is going to get kicked through the courts. And I think if it does end up at the Supreme Court, it's important for us to remember that the ruling that they issued to start the week was not one on the substance and the content within the executive order. They weren't saying, yeah, this is all good. The administration can definitely do this. They were making effectively a legal argument around timing and when the suit was actually filed. And so it'll be interesting to see if they actually rule on this what that ruling is. But again, the confusion just feels like it might be one of the features, not the bugs, of what this administration and Republicans are trying to do. Do you know what we're talking about here? We're talking about a clearly premeditated plan by the President of the United States to rig an election. That's what he's trying to do.

I mean, all of this stuff, every day we're in the courts with one thing or another. Thank God for some of the courts that they restrain him on several elements. I mean, we opened this program this morning by talking about the courts. the president signing with a great pen, you know, the naming Lake Ontario, Lake of America, or Lake America, whatever. And we cover this every day. It's a clown show. This presidency has evolved into a clown show.

Sam, that's perhaps true, but there are real world implications to it. As we talk about this bail-in voting, I mean, President Trump, let's remind her of years again, votes by mail. And they say, well, he's busy in the White House. He couldn't possibly vote in person. Well, he spends a lot of his time in Mar-a-Lago, he could. Put that to the side. He's putting out a theory of the case that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, which it's not.

We've cited study after study that shows it's vanishingly rare. So what's your sense of how this actually affects people's voting come November and how it might change the outcome? Well, there's a few things. First of all, I just want to applaud Mike Barnacle's succinct saltiness there. I loved it. It's what we need right now. on this morning. As for the merits of this mail-in-balloting. Look, you're right that there is vanishingly little voter fraud. And the idea, the predicate for this, that there is voter fraud, is created

by Trump's repeated insistence. So they say, well, we have to restore trust in the elections. The reason trust in the elections is low is because Trump's been on a year's long campaign to damage trust in the elections. So you asked, well, what is this going to mean for voting? A lot of people vote by mail, obviously. If the administration were to win on the merits of this case, it would be chaotic. States would have to scramble. They'd have to get a DHS certified list of voters who are ripe to receive the mail and ballots. Then the USPS would have to actually send the proper ballots to that list, all while state officials operate under the fear that if they screw up, they could be prosecuted by the DOJ.

that's three different agencies involved in administering a brand new election mail-and-balloting regime with about 65 days to go, including some states that have already printed their ballots and would have to reprint them to be properly certified. So you can imagine that would be quite chaotic, quite expensive. People who would get ballots may not get ballots. You're talking about people who are overseas. Troops, for instance, they vote by mail a lot. They would be particularly in trouble by this ruling. But let's say that this doesn't go into effect, that the Supreme court rules. No, you know, this is kind of idiotic to have the postmaster general be so detrimental and consequential in the administration of our elections. Maybe the founders didn't

think of that one and probably shouldn't have. Let's just keep going. Let's say, and then the vote happens. And then the vote's kind of close. At that juncture, it's not so hard to imagine President Trump saying, this is all fraudulent. I didn't get my save act. I didn't get this mail-in-balloting initiative through the Supreme Court. There is way too much fraud. fraud in this election. We can't sit these people in the House. And Mike Johnson shouldn't sit these people until we adjudicate what went wrong. That's the nightmare scenario. That's a real nightmare scenario. And it's not so hard to imagine. Why isn't it hard to imagine? Because we live through it in 2020. We live through this with Biden. Now imagine that happening in hundreds of different

districts. Yeah. And the idea that Mike Johnson is going to push back in President Trump, we've long ago abandoned that. And let's just go back to the beginning of this, which is this is a list of eligible voters created and cooked up by the Trump administration and then using the postal service with a stacked board of governors to carry it out. It's very messy and the clock is ticking. We're going to stay on this. But also today, marked six months since President Trump launched the war in Iran. It was in late February, the president announced the start of the war with a goal he said of ensuring Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, a goal that remains unachieved. Trump then repeatedly insisted to Americans. The war was simply an excursion set to last

just a matter of weeks. And we have right from the beginning we projected four to five weeks. This is a short excursion. No, but soon. I think so. It'll be said. Won't be alone. We've won this. This war has been won. I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. It should be ended. pretty soon. That was just March and early April. Now six months on, the president tells Al Jazeera, quote, I have no time scheduled. None.

I'm not in a hurry. I have no time schedule at all when he was asked how much time he was giving Iran to return to talks. White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt also said this week, no negotiations are happening right now between the U.S. in Iran. Meanwhile, the war has cost the United States more than $37 billion so far. U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have diminished greatly. Gas prices have skyrocketed as ship traffic trickles through the once open straight of Hormuz,

and 18 U.S. service members have died with many, many more wounded. The Trump administration is now turning to economic pressure, in part, as our Jonathan Lemire writes for the Atlantic, to push around to the background while hoping that gas prices come down even a little and that Republicans can shift the nation's focus to more politically palatical. topics ahead of the midterms. Let's bring an MS now contributor, Inzamam Rashid, who joins us now live from Dubai. Inzimam, thanks for being with us this morning. At this six-month mark, let's just take stock of where we are in the United States,

but also where our allies in the Gulf are and what they have been victim to because of this war. What is the state of things there and what is the state of negotiations such that there are? Yeah, you listed off all of those things that have happened throughout the last six months there, Willie. And it's remarkable, isn't it? That the president's saying that within days this war would have been over. He was saying that back in March and April. And yet here we are today with no end in sight of this conflict.

And the US allies, like the UAE, where I am, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the GCC states have been attacked considerably by Iran. a neighbour which has got capabilities of firing drones and missiles to these countries. We've seen that extensively over the last six months caused infrastructure damage caused deaths in these countries as well. And particularly damaging for this country is cause a huge impact to their economies here in the UAE, tourism down massively as a result, the backbone of the economy here in this country. and so they will have a long road ahead of trying to rebuild and get their economies back on track as a result of this war. But where are we right now? We're in a situation where, yes, we've seen the top tier of Iran's leadership wiped out as a result of those attacks by the US and Israel when this war started.

We haven't seen the new Supreme Leader, much to Bohemini. We don't know what health condition he is in, whether he's got any control over this conflict. but the people who are negotiating have tried to negotiate and failed. Let's take you back to when Iran and the US were meeting face to face, the Iranian delegation with Vice President J.D. Vance

up in the mountains in Switzerland, negotiations were happening, and it was my understanding that they were quite positive whilst we were up there reporting from there. And at that time, President Trump, from thousands of miles away, put out a post, threatening to attack the plane that would send the Iranians

back home. And then we've seen Iran and Oman negotiate around the Strait of Hormuz, that waterway where usually 20% of the world's oil would pass through. That is now trickling through that waterway. And when those negotiations were taking place, we saw the Iranian military attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz. So we are now in a situation where direct negotiations between the U.S. and Iran aren't happening. Iran and Oman are trying to find a way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But it seems to me that they are pushing this, the Iranians in particular, up until the midterm elections where they know that President Trump is seriously suffering with the American public. And so they know they've got the upper hand and we'll ride this out for as long as they possibly can. What about this idea in Zemam of economic pressure?

Obviously, the president talking in dramatic terms about an economic D-Day, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, using inflammatory language as well, talking about the economic asphyxiation of Iran. We don't know what that looks like yet, except that they're going to, the United States government is going to put pressure on allies to no longer do business with Iran, with enemies to no longer do business with Iran. Will any of that work? Will the regime at the top now of Iran, extreme as it is, respond to that kind of pressure? Well, I think there's a couple of questions there. Yes, one, will it work? But two, why was that this implemented earlier? If this is the way to get out of this conflict, is this is the way to hamper Iran. Why wasn't this implemented before? Why did we have to go through all this military

action? The likes of the UAE have now decided to cut off financial trade, commercial exchange and financial transactions with Iran. That will hamper them considerably. And it will have a huge effect to not only the people of Iran, but also Iran's military as well. What I will say, though, Willie, is that Iran are now in a bit of a mindset where they will endure any hardship throughout this conflict. They will let their people endure any hardship in order to get out on top of this war. And so I think they will be very comfortable to sit back, to take any economic sanctions and isolation that the US and other countries, particularly here in the Gulf, might put them in and effectively draw this out until they feel they've got an upper hand to get

out of this conflict. So yes, the economic sanctions may have a huge impact to the Iranians themselves, but it feels like the leadership doesn't want to get out of this conflict unless they've got the upper hand, which right now, with controlling the strait of Hormuz, it seems they do. MSNNAT contributor, Inzamam Rashid, live for us from Dubai this morning. Thanks so much for that context and perspective. We appreciate it. Still ahead this morning on morning, Joe. Thousands of people are expected to gather on the national mall today for a rally marking the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington. Reverend Al Sharpton joins us straight ahead. for a preview. Plus, House Speaker Mike Johnson says his party has an extraordinary record to run on ahead

of the midterms. We'll show you what exactly he's referring to with comments yesterday. And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers forecast this morning from Acuweather's Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking out there? Willing improving weather across much of the Northeast, but Acuether says lingering humidity along the coast with the spotty afternoon thunderstorm, Portland, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. shine and beautiful across the Midwest. Also watch the thunderstorms, though. Southeast in Florida, Texas is hot and dry.

What else is new? Your Acuether Travel forecast some minor delays this afternoon across the East Coast. They help you make the best decisions of be more in the note. Download the Acuether app today. Enjoy the view and the weekend. The annual March on Washington returns to Washington, D.C. today. The theme this year is defend the vote in reaction to the Supreme. Court's ruling in April that effectively limited a key provision of the Voting Rights Act

and opened the door to several redistricting efforts across the country. Today, civil rights groups will gather at the Lincoln Memorial to remember the moment when Martin Luther King Jr. first delivered his iconic I Have a Dream speech 63 years ago now. Joining us now one of the speakers at today's March, the host of Politics Nation on MS Now, our friend the Reverend Al Sharpton. He's also president of the National Action Network, which is hosting to do. day's event. Rev, so looking forward to this event today. You'll be speaking along with many others today about voting rights, among many other things. I guess the larger question is 63 years on as we

sit here in America, 26. What is the state of the dream? That is the real issue we'll be raising. Since 2020, Ma Luther King III and I have been co-chairing this with National Action Network and Dream Drummajor's Institute with his mother. When we started doing it annually in 2020, they had done before us. And we've never seen voting rights more under threat than we see today. 63 years ago, I was just a kid, 8 or 9 years old. And it was a breakthrough because 63, March, 64 Civil Rights Act, 65 voting rights act. Here we are with the Civil Rights Act of 64 under threat because of the end.

end of DEI. You don't know whether we're making advancements or not. You can't gauge or judge how much diversity is in a corporation or in government, because you can no longer deal with diversity issues. And now the voting rights issue. The bullet shot through the heart

of the Voting Rights Act by the Kailist's decision in the Supreme Court, a Trump stat court gives us a new urgency. So today we're coming across ideological lines. We have the heads of every civil, major civil rights group speaking.

But we also have Hakeem Jeffrey speaking. We have AOC speaking. We have Senator Bernie Sanders speaking. We have the chair of black caucus speaking. Because we want to show we have black faith leaders and Jewish faith leaders and Muslims. Because we want to show this is not about whether you're left or right. This is about who's getting left out of this process. And that's what Dr. King's dream was all about.

Rev, you know, I've heard people say, you know, we have to have events like today's because the work is undone. Actually, the work is being undone. It's being erased. The Voting Rights Act has been systematically destroyed by the Supreme Court. I mean, there's very little of it left to tell you the truth. So this mobilization is really important, but how can we take it forward? What can be done, given the stance of this court, which has allowed this administration essentially to dismantle those landmark pieces of legislation that you talk about, the Civil Rights Act and the voting rights act. The event today must be the kickoff or the work that we must do.

So we must go around the country. announced today voting brigades, particularly in the south. We're going on a southern tour. You must remember 63 when Dr. King and A. Philip Randolph and others did that march, it was a highlight in the capital. Then they went south and did the work. That's what we're going to do now. But you've got to get people's attention before you can go into trenches and deal with it. But we have people coming. We had 10 buses leave Houston, Texas last night. Atlanta's on the way. I mean, many. We have some states that buses messed up, but they'll be. be too then. But most of the

country to galvanize people, then you organize it. But if you don't have a flashpoint, it's hard to get people community by community. So that's what today is. And when you look at the fact that, as you said, it's been systemic. The goal today is

the midterm elections are paramount, because we need this new Congress, if we get a new Congress, a new House of Representatives, to offer a new voting rights act. So we need delay out today, not who you vote for, but what you vote for. And what you vote for is we need a new voting rights act passed by this Congress that's bulletproof by this Supreme Court.

I have a two-part question. And I don't mean the first part in any cheeky way whatsoever. But obviously, the iconic image of Martin Luther King from Lincoln Memorial is the reflecting pool in the backdrop. And we're here with a reflecting pool that's falling apart. The sealant literally coming undone. It has not been repaired. And then people be. prosecuted falsely for sabotaging it. And I'm wondering, first question is to the degree that that symbolism does work to your advantage, will it be incorporated in today's festivities? And then the second question is about the generational divide around this stuff, because when you talk to people in the field, they say, yes, the older generation understands this,

they've lived through this, they're more committed to the proposition that voting rights seem to be restored and fought for. The younger generation is harder to plug in. Is that your sense of how things go? I think that in some cases. It is, though we have a lot of young people in National Action Network and other civil rights groups, but I preached at Howard University here in Washington on Sunday. They're getting a sense now of what's going on because they are affected by mail-in voting. They are affected by their moving, they mark around, so to speak, in terms of their enfranchisement. Because now they're looking at the fact that, well, you mean, I may not get it. a job in a corporation because of DEI or I may not be able to aspire in a certain field.

So they're beginning to, in their lifetime, live what we used to talk about back in the day. Back in the day is today. And in terms of the symbolism of the breakdown and maneuvering around a reflecting pool, watch my speech today. Reverend Al, we will watch your speech today. But watching these pictures of an event that occurred in 1963, it caused me to think about the country that existed in 1963. Three months after the march on Washington,

President Kennedy was killed. Less than two years after the march on Washington, the first element of the 9th Marines landed at a place called Danang in South Vietnam. And we know the roller coaster after that, what happened to this country. And I'm wondering from your perspective, do you think it was easier to unify this country today or then than it is today? I think that in those days you had the division that was more structured because you must remember when they came to Washington 63 years ago, blacks couldn't ride the front of a bus till they got over the Mesa Dixie line to make the march.

We were able to rent buses and people flying in first class this year. So the divide was there. You couldn't use a toilet if you were black until you got north of Maryland 63 years ago. So it was more finite then. It became more subtle now. But this administration is bringing the southerties off. And that's been my challenge to people around the country. You think it's hard to get on a bus or get on a plane and come to Washington now?

Think of how hard it was for people that came from. from Texas and Mississippi 63 years ago under segregation. They couldn't even stop at a restaurant and get a meal. It was against the law. It wasn't accustomed. So it shows the progress we made that is now being regressed, and we must address that. 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington Rev, also the 15th anniversary of your show, Politics Nation, which we will be watching this weekend.

What can we expect? Well, we're going to show some of the highlights, you know, in 15 years, of hosting the show. I've had two sitting presidents, everybody from Haribela Fonte to Rita Franklin, and then a lot of the new players. So it's been a long time, 15 years hosting the show. And I almost remember when certain people around the table with you and I had more hair. I don't know what direction you're looking, Rab.

But we'll be watching this weekend and we'll be certainly watching your speech for the those reflecting pool lines. Rev, thanks so much. Coming up, we'll be joined by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut after his trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Zelensky. Tell us what he learned and what Zelensky still needs from the United States. Morning Joe's coming right back. We got a great record to run on. These incumbents, all the members of Congress, the Republican majority, even though we had a one or two vote margin, most of this Congress, what could go wrong, right? I needed an enforcer next to me to get this done, but he's coming. He's

coming. I got reinforcements. But look, we got the votes delivered anyway. And we have an extraordinary record to run on. We passed over 800 pieces of legislation, landmark stuff to fix the mess that we inherited from the Biden Harris years. Okay. It was a disaster. Speaker Mike Johnson speaking yesterday in Texas, Ali Vitale, what is the record that Speaker Johnson is referring to all these pieces of legislation? Again, blaming Joe Biden now almost two years in is kind of a sad approach to an election, but it's kind of what they're hanging their hat on here. Yeah, pretty tough stuff, if that's what they're looking to do in this midterm election, which is going to be a referendum on the fact that Republicans don't just have the White House

but both sides of Capitol Hill and don't have a ton of legislation to show for it. And by that, I mean, there wasn't a ton of legislation that went through the House, through the Senate, to the president's desk and was signed. They've got the one big, beautiful bill, certainly. If the Speaker of the House wasn't saying that he felt good about keeping the majority, that would be a pretty weird story for us to follow. So he's doing his job. be saying what he has to say and he's doing it in districts like Texas 28 where Republicans are

hoping that this is the year they can oust someone like Henry Coyar. We'll see. It's been a frontline seat for a while. At the same time, I think that Republicans privately will acknowledge that they have the headwinds here up against them on everything like affordability and the fact that when he's talking about legislation that they want to take on the campaign trail. Yeah, they're going to talk about the tax cuts in that so-called big, beautiful bill. That is not the thing that Democrats made the conversation. They made the conversation the fact that millions of people were going to lose access to health care because of cuts made to pay for things like those tax cuts in that bill. But then also consider the fact that they tried in bipartisan fashion to pass a housing bill.

They did it in Congress. And the president didn't even deign to sign it because he was pushing for his very ill-advised save act that is never going to be taken up or passed in the Senate because he doesn't have the votes to do it. So a total own goal by the president there, maybe that's an example of the legislation he's talking about. But again, Republicans privately acknowledge they know they have a big hill to climb in this midterm, especially with the Iran war hitting at six month and still going. You said it. Republicans control the House, the Senate, the White House, they have a majority on the Supreme Court. And two years after Joe Biden left town, they haven't been able to figure out how to write the ship. Let's talk about Ukraine a bit where Russia sanctions bill

that was co-authored by the late Senator Lindsay Graham could come to a vote on the House floor as early as next month. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who co-sponsored the bill, just returned from Ukraine, where he met with President Zelensky and other leaders to celebrate the country's Independence Day

and to discuss future military cooperation. Senator Blumenthal joins us now. He's a member of the Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Judiciary Committees, and is the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. Senator, thanks so much for being with this this morning. Just fill us in on your meeting, if you would, with President Zelensky, how he feels the war is going at this crucial stage and what more he needs from the United States.

President Zelensky rightly feels that Ukraine is turning the tide. And there's a throughline to my 11 trips to Ukraine, which is the grit and guts of President Zelensky, but also of his people. You know, I visited the military hospital near the border. The fight that's ongoing in Denepro, I was the first member of Congress allowed to go there since the beginning of the war. And that military hospital shows the face of courage and strength that President Zelensky echoed in what he said to me. He needs three priorities. The Russia sanctions bill, air defense, because his people have been slaughtered by, Putin's missiles and drones that are attacking civilian targets, not military. And he needs Starlink

to target even deeper within Russia the sources of those missiles and drones, the manufacturing plants and the launch pads. And I said to him, I would take those three priorities, most especially the Russia sanctions bill, because it passed the Senate by an 86 to 11 vote, completely bipartisan, after painstaking negotiations over several years by Senator Graham and myself with the White House, the U.S. Trade Representative, colleagues in Congress, and we are now at the cusp of passing it in the House. And it will make such a different between, because Putin's economy is on the cusp of major crisis and stopping the flow of revenue from sales of oil and gas, as this sanctions bill would do, can have a real impact in throttling Putin's ability to wage war.

Senator Blumenthal, when you speak today, if you can find them, people willing to speak to you from the Pentagon or people who have recently left the Pentagon. They claim that if the United States of America and other nations, but specifically in the United States of America, had fulfilled our obligation to arm the U.S. Ukrainians over the past year, year and a half or so, that the Russians would practically be back in Moscow? That is a critical question. And I want to go back in history to 2022 or 21 when Bill Burns was sent to warn Putin that he should not invade Ukraine, but there was no show of

real strength and support under that administration, as I and others urged be done. And now we are in 26. A CIA director again is sent to Moscow to urge that there be no escalation. Putin understands only strength, only force. He's a thug, a mob thug who understands only real action. Action speed louder than words. So the answer to your question is, if we had really supported Ukraine with lethal weaponry, if we had done it more promptly with not only the long-range artillery, the high mars, and with more adequate defense, thad, and patriot system interceptors, as Zelensky's asking for right now, it would not only send a message, it would bring Putin to the table. The ultimate goal here is peace. And Putin has shown he's

unsurious about peace. Zolinski told me, I want peace, but I need the Russia sanctions bill, I need air defense, and I need Starlink to be more accurate. And also just the support to know that when this conflict ends, that he has security guarantees, not just from European allies, but from the United States, I would imagine. As you look at both this ongoing Ukraine conflict and also Iran, Mike was talking a little bit about the lack of flow of information from the Pentagon, but I wonder if we can focus on the flow of information, even from state or the White House itself. I think the assumption might be, okay, talks are dead between the U.S. and Iran right now, but what insight has the administration

given to those of you on Capitol Hill serving on relevant committees on everything from this economic sanctions package to the state of play on negotiations or even to the state of play of the USS Lincoln being brought back from a long deployment in the Middle least. Do you have any briefings or any lines of communication with this administration right now? This administration is the least transparent to the American people, not just to Congress. It is... At least briefing Republicans? I recognize they're leaving Democrats out of the process, but is there some information? I can't speak entirely to what my Republican colleagues are hearing,

but they are making the same complaints I am. And it's the reason why there is such opposition to additional funding in a supplemental. And why that supplemental, if the vote were today, probably would fail. The lack of information about basics, like the cost of the Iran war and the state of play in negotiations, but most important, the lack of consistency at the very time that Director Radcliffe was going to Moscow to tell Putin, in effect, don't escalate. Elbridge Colby, the chief of policy in the Pentagon, was going to Europe and telling European allies, in effect, we're reducing our troop strength here. In his speech, he mentioned Ukraine once. There is an

inconsistency here. It's not just the lack of information. It is the contradictory messages that are sent. And Putin sees it as a sign of weakness. He knows that we've depleted our stocks of the interceptors for those patriots. and yes, we have enough to give more to Zelensky, and we should, and so should our allies. The Saudis have close to 2,000. The Germans have 3,000. Now is the time to show strength and push back on a mob thug. He understands only strength. Actions speak louder than words.

Senator Bloomfall, Sam Stein here. I'm glad you mentioned the interceptors, because that's what I was going to ask you about, which is there are now numerous reports. I think it's enough that we can basically be confident that these are accurate, that our weapon supply has been dramatically depleted and that it's due to the war in Iran. Obviously, this is what prompted concern that Vladimir Putin would attack NATO. What is the latest understanding about where we are in terms of our weapons stock? And I guess for people like me who don't really quite understand how you go about replenishing it,

What is the time frame for getting it back up to a supply that would be satisfactory for you? Great question, Sam. You know, interceptors can't be produced overnight. The best estimate is they take years to replenish when our stock is as diminished as it has been by the Iran War. The connection here to Ukraine is unmistakable. People are literally dying in Ukraine. Last night, tonight, when I was there, air raid. repeatedly, and they are hitting schools, apartment houses, hospitals. The Ukrainians face a long, hard winter because of the constant bombardment of these cities. It's hard to describe, we're put in words, the kinds of cruelty and barbarity that Putin is showing in killing civilians and abducting children. So I think the interceptors are vital as a humanitarian measure, but in the United States,

In the meantime, Zelensky has a strategy of hitting the sources of those missiles and drones at the place where they're manufactured and where they're launched. And that's why Starlink is important. And his third priority, as I said to him, you've given me three homework assignments, the Russia sanctions bill, air defense, and Starlink. And it is interconnected not only with each other, but also to the Iran War. The squandering of American strength and power in Iran cannot be underestimated. And the undermining of our credibility with our allies and also with Putin,

we carry a much smaller stick now, no matter how loudly we may talk to use Teddy Roosevelt's analogy. And it is undermining our credibility throughout the world. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, we appreciate you, reporting out your visit in Ukraine. Thanks so much for your time this morning. Thank you. Still ahead, new financial disclosures are raising questions about President Trump's investments, specifically when it comes to oil companies amid the war in Iran.

We'll dig into what those new filings reveal straight ahead on Morning Joe. New the release financial disclosures show President Trump's investment accounts continue to trade in oil and natural gas stocks, even as the president oversees the war in Iran. According to the filings, Trump's accounts executed about 3,600 trades in the first quarter of this year, totaling between $212 to $695 million. Those trades include hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shales in oil companies like Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and others. CBS News investigation found one notable transaction on April 7th.

That was the day the president declared a ceasefire in the Iran war. His accounts sold between $500,000 and a million dollars worth of ExxonMobil stock that day. ExxonMobil's share price closed higher at nearly $164, but opened the next day down by $10. The White House continues to maintain that Trump's stock portfolio is managed by third-party financial institutions. Coming up with ICE arrests surging across the country, New York State is banned. a program that allows local law enforcement to assist federal immigration authorities. New York Governor Kathy Hokel joins us straight ahead to discuss that and much more when Morning Joe comes right back.