Morning Joe - Morning Joe 10/17/22

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Republicans have a narrow lead weeks before midterms, polling shows

Well, if Mr. Walker were here, I'd ask him about this disturbing history of violence that we've seen from him. And we're not just talking about one woman, but multiple women. He threatened to kill his ex-wife, put a gun to her head. He's threatened other women. And when asked about that, he really hasn't given account for this kind of violence. And I want to know from him why he thinks he's ready to represent the people of Georgia and if he's ready to face up to this history of violence. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock going after his

Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, who was a no-show in last night's Senate debate in Atlanta. Walker has claimed not to remember the violence. Last night would have been their second meeting. In two days, we'll have highlights from Friday night's debate, which Walker did attend. We'll also preview tonight's governor's debate in Georgia as early voting gets underway in that state today. Plus, the pro-Trump election denier running for governor of Arizona refuses to say whether she will accept the election results if she loses next month. We'll play her remarks. Also, another anti-Semitic rant to report, This time from Donald Trump going after American Jews claiming they better, quote, get their act together before it's too late. Yeah, she says that

they need to act more like evangelical Christians. Wonderful. And we'll get reaction to that. Also new this morning, Ukraine's capital rocked by more explosions overnight with drones blasting buildings and sending people running for cover. We'll get a live report from Kiev. Also, protests intensify in Iran with the country's president now blaming President Biden and the supreme leader, claiming the regime will not be toppled. And we'll go live to China as President Xi Jinping is set to secure a groundbreaking third term in power. We'll break down what this means for the balance of power across the globe. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Monday, October 17th. With us, we have the host of Way Too Early in White House, Bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, and the host of MSNBC's Politics Nation,

president of the National Action Network, Reverend Al Sharpton is with us this morning. So we're going to get to all of that. Jonathan, really quickly on this anti-Semitic screed that Donald Trump went on yesterday. A lot of observers saying that I saw yesterday, at least conservatives saying this was his worst anti-Semitic rant yet. Tell us, give us some reporting from it. What was it about? What was behind it? No one knows. It seemed to have come out of nowhere, this rant from the former president over the weekend. But he has danced very dangerous to anti-Semitic remarks before.

Remember a couple moments during the campaign that happened? His defense would always be, well, my daughter married someone who is Jewish, Jared Kushner, so therefore I can't be anti-Semitic. But this is pretty repulsive stuff yesterday. And it was, you're right, widely condemned. And not just by the usual Democrats. There were some conservatives who also spoke out against this. Obviously, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups worried about

what this could yield, condemned Trump, what Trump posted on his fledgling social media site. We haven't gotten anything else from the Trump camp on this, but we should take a moment and put this in context.

This tweet comes at a moment where bias incidents and hate crimes, anti-Semitic incidents are already skyrocketing. They've really been on the rise in recent years. And it feels like we know the president has inspired the violence of January 6th, has seemingly called for his supporters to be violent other times related to the Mar-a-Lago case, setting out warnings, seemingly threats to the FBI. And the fear here is this could be interpreted by his followers as a moment to potentially commit violence against Jews. And that is deeply worrisome. And we will now need to see who else

steps forward and do any Republican lawmakers also condemn these remarks in the days ahead. Well, and again, I mean, even the final line, Jews need to basically get their act together before it's too late. Obviously, deeply disturbing because it's not sending a dog whistle. That's out and out left. You know, the thing is, there were some observers that said, as always, it's not about Jews in Israel. It's not about Jews in America. It's always about Donald Trump. He's still smarting by the fact that over three out of four Jews in America voted for Joe Biden. So there are

people close to him that suggest that still rankles him, that he got beaten so badly among Jewish voters in America. But to do that and then to say basically they better get their act together before it's too late. That certainly does sound ominous. It sounds ominous, like saying that Mitch McConnell has a, quote, death wish. Yeah. Yeah. He's got a lot. Republicans appear, by the way, to have a narrow but distinct advantage, roughly three weeks away from the midterm elections. The latest New York Times Santa College poll finds 49 percent of likely voters said they plan to vote for a Republican to represent them in Congress, compared with 45 percent who plan to vote for a Democrat. That is an improvement from last month

when Democrats held a one-point advantage among likely voters in this poll. The economy and inflation are the two top issues followed by the state of democracy, abortion, and immigration. You know, the thing is, Reverend Al, you can talk about abortion, the state of democracy, immigration. Those numbers, though, not only down low in that poll regarding what

most Americans are concerned about, but over the past three or four weeks, I've seen in one poll after another, the economy inflation always near the top. There was one poll that showed democracy. I think NBC poll had it number two. But other than that, it's always been about the economy. It's always been about inflation. You have an overwhelming number of Americans believing that the country's going in the wrong direction. And so that is becoming, as we get further and further into this campaign, that's becoming more of a burden on Democrats, especially after last week's terrible inflation report came out that showed inflation is still red hot. You can deny reality, but you can't escape it. The fact of the matter is, as much as I and others

want to deal with the fact that democracy is at stake here and there are many issues in criminal justice. People are reacting to their own economic condition. When you look at the fact that gas prices are going back up, groceries are going up, you for one K plans. We're looking at the headlines this morning. Oh, he's taking a 25 percent hit. This is where people live. And the Democrats have to address that, have to deal with that. Certainly, it is not, in my opinion, the fault of this administration or the Democrats that we're in that condition. But if you don't address it and say tax cuts to the

wealthy and other things are the reasons that we began this slow walk here. And you just talk about things that are not immediately the concern of people. You lose their votes and you lose their ear. People are concerned about pocketbook problems. And, Nick, it's something we talk about all the time here. We said it last week, said it to our panel in Washington, that, yes, yes, crime is a huge issue. And you talk to Americans, they're focused on that. They're focused on inflation. They're focused on the economy. Even if they're making more money, they feel every week like they're falling further and further behind. I certainly remember how that was all consuming with my family when inflation was skyrocketing in the 70s,

when my dad would go past the Circle K store on Summit Boulevard in Pensacola, Florida, and you would just see gas prices go from 35 cents to 50 cents to 75 cents to over a dollar. At that point, you're like, I don't really follow. People say I don't follow the news that much. Just something has to change. And so all of these issues that we talk about that matter so much to the state of democracy that women are concerned about because it has to do with their freedom, their choice to make decisions about their bodies, their lives, their futures. The people care about that. But what's in front of them every single day?

They're looking at their grocery prices. They're looking at their gas prices. They're looking at the fact they can't even afford a used car because that market's skyrocketing. They're looking at rent. If you're a young voter, sure, you love the fact, if you're a young voter, sure, you love the fact if you're a young voter that maybe that your college loans were forgiven. Maybe you like I'm old, so I don't like it. Maybe you like what he did on marijuana. All of these things maybe for younger voters sound great, but then they're trying to buy their first house and they can't do it because the costs have exploded and because interest rates are so high. This is going to be a real challenge for Democrats over the next three weeks.

And right now, history's in the Republicans' favor. And now, again, the latest inflation report shows inflation really burdening Democratic candidates across the country. It's not like you can think about anything else when your own personal economy is struggling. And then you look around and the environment is changing. Your community is changing. People are leaving. Some people have to move away. Crime is rising.

Crime rising in a way where you hear people talking about it. You might even see it in your community. And that makes a big before you think on anything else. It's the first thing you're going to think about. Now, early voting begins today in Georgia, and we are watching a tight race that could determine the balance of power in Washington. Polls have consistently shown Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock with a slight lead over his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker. The latest survey has the incumbent Warnock with a three point lead that is just within the margin of error. The nominees went head to head on Friday

night and Walker's strategy was clear. Tie the Democrat to President Joe Biden. This race ain't about me. It's about what Raphael 1-9 Joe Biden had done to you and your family. He and Joe Biden, they don't show any strength and we have to protect this country. Can you tell me why he voted with Joe Biden 96% of the time if he was standing for Georgia? That tells you that he's for Joe Biden, I'm for Georgia. It is very clear that my opponent would rather be running against anybody except me. But either me, there are only two people who are going to sit in this seat, either me or my opponent. And I think this race is about who's ready to represent the people of Georgia.

The candidates also clashed over the issue of abortion as Walker, who claims he is anti-abortion, again denied allegations that he paid for the procedure for an ex-girlfriend and urged her to get a second one. I said that's a lie. And on abortion, you know, I'm a Christian. I believe in life. And I tell people this, Georgia is a state that respects life, and I'll be a senator that protects life. And I said that was a lie, and I'm not backing down. I think that the women of this country and the women of this state woke up one summer morning, and a court protection that they've known for 50 years was taken from them by an extremist Supreme Court. And I stand where I've said I've stand in the past, that a patient's room is too narrow and small and cramped a space for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government.

We are witnessing right now what happens when politicians, most of them men, pile into patients' rooms. You get what you're seeing right now. And the women of Georgia, the women of Georgia deserves a senator who will stand with them. I trust women more than I trust politicians. There was also an odd moment when Walker tried to defend himself after being accused of misrepresenting himself as a member of law enforcement. Take a look. One thing I have not done, I've never pretended to be a police officer and I've never threatened a shootout with the police.

And now I have to respond to that. We are moving on. No, no, no, I have to respond to that. And you know what's so funny? I am with many police officers and at the same time have to- Mr. Walker, Mr. Walker, Mr. Walker, excuse me, Mr. Walker, please, out of respect, I need to let you know, Mr. Walker, you are very well aware of the rules tonight. Yes. And you have a prop that is not allowed, sir. I ask you to put that prop away.

Well, it's not a prop. This is real. He said, I have a problem. I've never worked with law enforcement. Mr. Walker. Excuse me, sir. Yes. You're very well aware of the rules, aren't you? Well, he brought up the truth. Let's talk about the truth. Thank you for putting that prop away. This is from my hometown.

This is from Johnson County, from the sheriff of Johnson County, which is a legit badge. Everyone can make fun, but this badge gives me the right. And let me finish. If anything happened in this counter, I have the right to work with the police and get anything done. Does that have arresting authority or it's an honorary badge? It is an honorary badge,

but they can call me whenever they want me and I have the authority to do things for them, to work with them on things. Yeah, he can work with the community. It's an honorary badge. The National Sheriff's Association said the badge is like a trophy. It's for a trophy case, not to flash in public. There's another Georgia debate last night, but Hershel Walker wasn't there calling it a one sided sham. Let's take a look. Oh, you don't have any. That's it. We played some of that before. Let's bring in right now. Political reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Greg Blustein.

Greg, a couple of observations that I that that I had when I saw the first debate and And I heard from a lot of other observers. Warnock in his first debate with Walker seemed almost detached, almost robotic. He certainly did not sound like a preacher of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. And he didn't seem to really find his footing until Walker wasn't there last night. On the other side of it, Walker's handlers were thrilled, said it's the best debate that Walker could have ever had. I guess that is damning with faint praise. But were you hearing similar reports on the ground? I was even even Democrats were saying they were surprised that Hershel Walker held his own, that that he handled himself. He didn't collapse on the debate stage in a sense.

But look, that debate on Friday night could have easily focused almost entirely on Hersel Walker's personal baggage. And it didn't. There was only a few questions about abortion, about his past history of violent behavior and erratic behavior and lies and falsehoods, conspiracy theories. And instead, it was mostly focused on other issues. And in that sense, it played against Senator Warnock because it didn't focus on some of the issues that have been dominating the local and national coverage of this campaign. And look, Hershel Walker had to had to basically show his campaign was on the verge of collapse and also give reason for some of these waving Republicans to back him and his allies, along with many Democrats, feel like, you know, he did that. So, Greg, why any any news from the Warnock camp on why the

senator waited for Herschel Walker to be absent from the debate stage before he started hammering him on these issues that I think most expected him to go after him on Friday night? You know, he is a skilled orator. He is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. But he's also only participated in a few debates in his in his political debates, I should say, in his experience. He's not a veteran politician. So some of his supporters said, look, the debate stage doesn't necessarily suit him either. He was much sharper last night in front of an empty lectern. It's a very different scenario for him. But he had some of the sharpest attacks I've ever heard on Herschel Walker last night. Well, Greg, you wrote about the debate. While Friday's debate performance didn't erase

Walker's vulnerabilities, it may quiet some GOP fears that the party's most reliable voters were on the verge of abandoning him. Walker came out punchy and aggressive, interjecting frequently as he tried to knock Warnock off message. Warnock was more cautious and deliberate, though he also gave Democrats reason to chair. And I do agree with that. I mean, I don't think I guess, you know, if you want to brawl. No, I don't want to brawl. But I mean, if you're going to say something about somebody on Sunday night, if you're going to get aggressive and go after him on Sunday night, Jonathan O'Meara, the question is, why are you muted and reserved when they're actually right there in front of you on Friday night? It was a really, I must say, it was a,

um, I'll just put it this way, it's a surprising performance, a very muted performance by Warnock on Friday night. And Saturday night, him coming out swinging is kind of like the Atlanta Braves coming out swinging and batting practice on Sunday night. Too late. I think that reference is too soon for our Braves fan currently talking to us there, Joe. But you're right. I heard from some Democrats Friday night and again over the weekend who were a little disappointed with what happened on Friday. I'll be clear. They thought Warnock was all right, but they were surprised that Walker did OK.

Now, again, let's be clear. We're talking expectations game here. Like, you know, if he hadn't tripped over himself on his way to the podium, that would be an upgrade as to what people thought he would do Friday night. But he did OK. You know, Warnock was better on him on most issues, but didn't deliver sort of the knockout blow that a lot of Dems were hosting, helping what happened. Greg, let me ask you, it was also surprising to Democrats and frankly, some Republicans I heard from as well, how little time during that debate on Friday was actually spent about the abortion issue and the claims that Walker paid for this abortion from a former girlfriend. And she says wanted him wanted her to get a second.

It came up a little bit. He denied it again. But there wasn't a lot of follow up. There didn't seem like it was a moment that Warnock really seized upon. Do we think that's going to remain his strategy at this point to sort of leave that alone? If so, what will Warnock's closing argument be? Yeah, it was about a minute of the hour-long debate, really. It was a very brief exchange in the debate. This has been Senator Warnock's strategy, though. He hasn't played into it.

He's called it a pattern of disturbing behavior for Hershel Walker, but he hasn't leaned into it. He doesn't want to further unite Republicans against him, I think, is the strategy there. But instead, he has leaned very hard into the other issues that have plagued Hershel Walker's campaign, including violence against women, including his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman. That's been a factor throughout this entire campaign. That's something that his campaign ads have inundated the Atlanta airwaves with footage of Cindy Grossman talking about that past abuse. Greg, let me ask you this. I was in Atlanta Thursday night for Morehouse College, and I was a little surprised that a lot of people on the ground that seemed to say they were giving Hershel Walker more than a chance, which is beyond, to me, common sense. But the reality is that going into that debate, I think Raphael Warner's strategy was rope a dope.

And we're all saying the dope wasn't as dopey as we thought, though he was still a dope. But tonight we have Stacey Abrams debating Brian Kemp. What is the forecast there? Because here you're dealing with two different political animals than you dealt with Friday or Saturday night. They're both experienced. They both are very good on this stage. Stacey Abrams, probably one of the best on her feet in political America. What would you predict would be the strategies and what's at stake for both of them tonight? Because the gubernatorial race is being polled much differently. Yeah, Reverend, I mean, not only are they both experienced, they're both experienced with each other. This is a rematch. So they both know each

other's strengths and weaknesses. Right now, the polls show Stacey Abrams with a sizable deficit between five to even 10 points in some recent polls, although she says internal polling shows her even closer. But she's got to go and energize her base of supporters. She's been looking to do that even over the weekend, specifically with events targeting African-American voters, younger voters. She'll look to continue to do that with this debate by firing up her supporters. Well, I think Governor Kemp just basically has to tread water. He basically has to, you know, come out without any big gaffes, big blunders, because he feels like he is so far ahead in the polls. He doesn't want to do anything to energize the other side. All right. Political reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greg Blustein. Thank you very much. And in the next few days, President Obama will be traveling to Georgia and Wisconsin to

support Democrats. So we'll be watching for that. And still ahead on Morning Joe, we're covering a number of big headlines from overseas this morning. First, we'll go live to Ukraine on the heels of new Russian missile strikes in Kiev. NBC's Cal Perry is standing by, plus a live report from Tehran following a massive and deadly prison fire there. This as nationwide protests in Iran enter a fifth week. And as China's President Xi Jinping opens the Chinese Communist Party Congress with a warning to Taiwan. NBC's Janice Mackey-Fryer will join us from Beijing.

You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. Twenty seven past the hour this morning, air raid sirens are ringing out in Kiev after another round of Russian attacks against the Ukrainian capital. For the second straight week, emergency crews are on the ground there responding to the damage reportedly caused by kamikaze drones. U.S. officials say Russia's depleted military stockpile is being replenished by Iran, which is preparing to send even more weapons to Vladimir Putin's army in the coming days. Joining us now from Kyiv, NBC News correspondent Cal Perry. Cal, what are you seeing there this morning? Yeah, good morning, Mika. So a chaotic morning, to say the least, here in the Ukrainian capital. It was about 6.45 in the morning when we heard

the first series of explosions. About an hour and 15 minutes later, there was a second wave. We now know it was 28 drones, according to the mayor, that were fired at Kiev this morning, five of them making it through and striking the building that you see on your screen now. A very difficult scene to watch. We were just there. We've just come back. These pictures from our photo, Sammy Winsley, there are people we believe still trapped in that building. At least three people are dead at that scene, four wounded, more than a dozen people were rescued. These drones are doing very clearly significant damage. The government had warned for a long time that the Russians would move from these cruise missiles to these drones. And this morning, it was clear. You could hear it. It sounded, and they call them

here mopeds. They sound like mopeds. They fly slow. And again, they're trying to overwhelm these air defenses. The other thing here, guys, that we saw that we have not seen is small arms fire, machine gun fire from the ground, soldiers firing into the air, trying to knock these drones out of the sky. The problem is, even if you knock them out of the sky, soldiers firing into the air, trying to knock these drones out of the sky. The problem is, even if you knock them out of the sky, they are starting large fires as they impact on the ground and into these buildings. The last thing I'll leave you with, this neighborhood has been struck now on four separate occasions. It is clear to us the target that the Russians are trying to hit. I'm not going to get into the details of that target,

but they continuously miss and hit residential areas. Today, it was obvious. We knew what they were trying to hit. They hit this residential building. And now you have more casualties here on the ground, guys. NBC's Cal Perry, thank you very much. And now we turn to Iran, where a massive fire broke out this weekend at the country's Avine prison. It's a building that holds hundreds of dissidents, including some arrested during recent protests in the past month around the country. An Iranian state news agency reports at least eight prisoners died in the fire, while over 60 people were injured.

As you can see here, video captures the moments that large plumes of smoke rise from the facility, which is located in the capital city of Tehran. The state news agency reporting that prisoners intentionally set fire to a workshop and warehouse full of clothes in a bid to escape, with some even trying to exit by way of a minefield north of the prison, leading to additional explosions. This all follows widespread protests within the country following the death one month ago of Masa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in the hospital three days after being arrested by the Morality Police. Joining us now with more is NBC News Tehran Bureau Chief Ali Aruzi. Ali? Hey, Mika. The fire was absolutely extraordinary and it sent panic throughout Tehran on the

evening that it broke out. I mean, the fire was so big, the inferno could be seen throughout north of Tehran. And it's important to point out, Mika, as you said, Evin prison is in the north of Tehran. Behind it are mountains. And in front of it is an entire residential neighborhood. So a lot of the residents whose apartments overlook Evin prison were in real time explaining what they were seeing and what they were hearing. At about 7.30 local time, news broke out that there was a fire. And immediately when we saw images of the fire, you could hear the constant sound of gunfire ringing for about four or five hours and the

sound of explosions. Initially, they said those explosions were caused by prisoners trying to escape through a minefield. Then they retracted that. And the stories kept coming out from local media were different. It's not clear what the source of the fire was or what was going on behind the prison walls. Initially, they said nobody had died. Then they said four people had died. And now today, the judiciary is saying that eight people have died. And there are also conflicting reports about a prison guard that may have died in Evin.

And then other state agencies here are saying that he may have died in the protests on the street. So it's all very confusing what's going on here. And this is all happening amidst the protests. And when a fire like that breaks out at Evin, it becomes more difficult for the government to contain the masses. There was a massive traffic jam leading to Evin that night. You could see cars had just swarmed across the entire area.

People concerned, people trying to get to their loved ones there. And the road was blocked and people were just honking their horns in anger, trying to get to Evin as special forces were surrounding the prison. And every day, Mika is bringing a new drama to Iran. Outside of Iran, yesterday, there's a competitor, a woman called Elnaz Rekabi. She represents Iran in the Asian climbing competitions. She was in the finals in Seoul yesterday, and she refused to wear her headscarf in the finals of that climbing tournament.

As far as I know, Mika, no athlete, no female athlete representing Iran in the last 43 years has ever dared to pull a stunt like that. But she went into the finals without her headscarf. And I can tell you that's going to be a huge inspiration to many of the people on the streets, especially women risking their life and their liberty to protest the mandatory headscarf. So every day something phenomenal is happening. I mean, look, these protests started over the death of Massa Amini. People were outraged about that. They went out onto the streets. But this is now becoming a much bigger, organic, homegrown movement that's being led by women, schoolgirls,

mothers, fathers, grandparents coming out onto the street. It's encompassing a very wide section of society, regardless of their socioeconomic background. You see very conservative women in the full chador protesting the mandatory hijabs. So these protests have created a seismic shift in society not seen here before. And things can't go back to the way they were before. But what that means for the future is completely uncertain because every day brings a new drama and more uncertainty in Iran as the ruling establishment face a crisis that they have never seen before. And it's just not clear how this is all going to pan out. So, Ali, talk about the pacing of the protests this past weekend at the end of last week. Do they continue unabated? Obviously, security forces have become far more aggressive,

taking even using deadly measures to stop the protesting. Does it continue unabated? Yeah, the protests continue. Look, Joe, they ebb and flow. Protests are exhausting for people. You know, they're up against columns and columns of security forces, which is exhausting for them as well, by all accounts that we're reading. Apparently, morale among security forces is low as well. But yeah, the protests have

been going on for a month now. They do ebb and flow. Sometimes they're not as big. They're very scattered. They're small pockets. And sometimes masses of people come out. It depends on what activists and other people are encouraging people to do. But they're not showing any signs of abating at all whatsoever. And what we're also seeing now is we're not seeing mass strikes in the oil sector that could cripple the country. But you're seeing individual strikes. Shops are closing. Businesses are closing as a response to this crackdown that's going on in the country. So the country isn't even functioning, Joe.

You know, the Internet hasn't worked for a month. Universities are all online. And when the Internet doesn't work, how are students meant to study online? All the universities are a hotbed of dissent. Every day they're chanting against the regime. So, yeah, it ebbs and flows. And some days the protests are extraordinarily violent and on both sides. And this is something that we haven't really seen before.

This time now, you're seeing the protesters strike back very violently. In 2009, a lot of the times when you'd see the protesters grab a security individual, you'd hear the crowd say, let him go, let him go. These days, they're encouraging the people that are beating up the security officials to go even harder on them. All bets are really off in this country right now. Yeah. NBC's Ali Arouzi, thank you very much for your reporting. It seems many women in Iran have made a decision that they are not turning back from, and the men who care about them are with them. We travel to China now where President Xi Jinping is set to secure a historic third term in power. Yesterday, a week-long meeting opened in Beijing where Xi is expected to be reappointed as leader. The move would reaffirm

a commitment to his policies for the next five years and possibly elevate his status as one of the most powerful leaders in China's modern history. Joining us live now from Beijing is NBC News foreign correspondent Janice Mackey-Frayer. Janice. Well, it was Xi Jinping's comments on Taiwan that got the loudest and most sustained applause at the opening address yesterday when he declared that Taiwan will unify with the mainland. And it's not that that statement is breaking any new ground. It's long been the position. And it came with the warning that China will use force if necessary, especially if

there's interference from the U.S. But what I found different from past statements and certainly from the speech Xi Jinping gave in 2017 is that Taiwan unification now sounds less like an aspiration or a slogan and more a statement of fact. So that was seen as a sign that Taiwan will be central to Xi's next term. How long that term is will be decided by Xi Jinping himself. The party congress happens twice in a decade. This one significant because Xi will assume this third term in power, which is precedent-breaking. And it also starts to move China into more uncomfortable territory

in terms of the degree of power that now lies with a single leader. In his speech, it was 104 minutes, he mentioned security and safety more than 70 times. He pumped up a stronger Chinese military. And he also warned of dangerous storms ahead. He didn't name the United States, but he did allude to challenges facing China and high winds, alluding to the fact that relations have certainly hardened under Xi Jinping's rule. People will also be watching to see if there's any sign of a successor and who might be on the path. Back in 2012, this is my third party Congress, back in 2012, before Xi Jinping took power, some journalists were invited to observe a dinner at

the Great Hall of the People. And I went and there were some people with binoculars and they were looking less to see who was clinking glasses as they were doing a toast to see who wasn't clinking glasses, because those are the nuanced signs that are part of this political season to find out where the loyalties lie. The one thing that does seem clear right now, even with the with the conflict getting underway, is that Xi Jinping will take on this new realm of power and he is uncontested and his power appears to be complete. NBC's Janice Mackey-Frayer, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. And we're going to have more ahead now on the significance of this Chinese summit. The Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, joins us. Plus, a troublesome start for the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss,

whose economic policies are being blamed for triggering a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention and the firing of her treasury chief. Steve Ratner joins us with charts and context next on Morning Joe. Moore is going to play straight up defense here on first and goal. Head off. Up top. Touchdown. See Kwon Barkley. Here's Cook. Delvin Cook picks up a first down.

Still going. Inside the 30. Cook inside the 10. The 5. Touchdown. Burrow throwing. This side of the field. Jamar Chase with the catch. And up the sideline. And there he goes. Jamar Chase to the catch and up the sideline and there he goes jamar chase to the end zone for the touchdown ryan's gonna throw it taking a deep shot for pierce down the field

he's got it touchdown a trap play inside and a beauty hall running freerees Hall inside the 10. He's going to score. Chopping him on the other side. They're down 10. Stephenson looking for a block. He got it for Myers. And there he goes. Kiss him goodbye.

Here comes Allen. Looking long. Throws to the end zone. And the ball is caught. Stafford. Robinson. Jump ball. Touchdown touchdown Kenneth Walker

Walker with a move through the goal line Kenneth Walker and that's a Seahawks touchdown boy some of the biggest touchdowns from the teams in week six of the NFL season yesterday I tell you what there's some surprises we saw some highlights there course, the Bills and the Chiefs, the game of the week, without a doubt. But the Vikings and the Eagles just keep winning. And the Sunday night game, Philadelphia Eagles, they hosted the Dallas Cowboys. And Philly quarterback Jalen Hurts gave Alabama fans

at least one thing to get excited about this weekend. He threw for 155 yards in the pair of touchdowns. While Dallas QB Cooper Rush was intercepted three times in the game. The Eagles, this is a shocker, were made the only unbeaten team in the NFL, improving to 6-0 for the first time since 2004 with their 26-7 victory over the Cowboys. And boy, what a great time to be a Philadelphia sports fan. The city also gearing up for a potential trip to the World Series as the Phillies head to San Diego for game one of the National League Championship Series against the Padres, who shocked the Dodgers. That's tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, in the American League, the Yankees and Cleveland are going to meet up in game five of the ALDS tonight to figure out who's going to advance to face the Houston Astros with the American League title. Garrett Cole came through. Garrett Cole helped stave off elimination for New York last night, holding Cleveland to just a pair of runs over seven innings. Harrison Bader homeward for the third time in the series as the Yankees beat the Guardians 4-2. And it's sort of a rough transition because, well, I don't want to talk to him right now.

Why? Because we just showed these positive highlights from New York teams, but I have to do it. You have to talk to him. Let's bring in the president of the Council of Foreign Relations, Richard Haas, and also former Treasury official and Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Ratner. Richard Haass, the Yankees, the Jets and the Giants. Well, and throw the bills on top of there.

What a sports weekend for New York, huh? Great sports weekend for New York, huh? Great sports weekend for New York. We were just talking here about the odds you get in Vegas for a Giants-Jets Super Bowl. Just putting it on the table. Since the Subway Series didn't work out, we'll see what happens tonight. The only problem is if the Yankees win, then they've got to play the Astros. Yeah. Let's get to what's going on right now. And Richard, we had live reports out of Kyiv, out of Beijing, also out of Tehran. Take those on one at a they cannot do on the battlefield by essentially continuing with indiscriminate attacks, now drones as opposed to cruise missiles, against Ukrainian cities, economic targets, energy depots and the rest.

And I think that's the strategy. We almost have two wars going on, Joe. We have a battlefield war, which Ukraine is winning, and an off the battlefield war, which Russia is trying to break the will. There's nothing in history. There's nothing I know about Ukraine that suggests to me that Russia will will succeed in this. But I think what we're now seeing is what we're going to see for for for some time in Tehran and Iran. This has gone broader and deeper than any of us, I think, that most people predicted. And the reason is it's not just as significant as it is about women's rights and human rights. It's also about just economic performance or the lack of it, deep malaise. The regime is now running out of instruments. So now they're going to bring out

their big one. They are going to bring out the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, the guys with the sticks. They're going to bring out people who are not going to have qualms about acting with violence. So as we learned, actually, when the Shah was overthrown just over 40 years ago, what matters now is how long the security forces are willing to hurt and kill protesters and at what point the unity of the security forces breaks? So we're going to find that out. Richard, they're killing teenage girls, first of all. And going back to Ukraine, this regime, who some people in the Biden administration still want to strike a deal with, this regime is not only killing teenage girls inside of their own country.

They are co-conspirators in war crimes in Kiev because it is their weapons that are killing women and children in Kiev. How do we deal with these people? I think there's zero chance right now the United States reenters the 2015 nuclear deal, the so-called JCPOA, zero chances. What would happen if we entered that deal in exchange for parking, not solving, but parking the Iran nuclear problem for a number of years? Iran would get out from under sanctions. That would provide an economic lifeline to this repressive and aggressive and just horrific regime. So I think there's zero chance that happens anytime soon, if ever. I think that's essentially put the kibosh on the nuclear deal, Joe. Can I ask you a question, too? Like the Saudis, obviously their their enemy is Iran.

Why in the world would the Saudis, why would MBS help Russia, who's being helped by their mortal enemy, Iran. And again, as I said, Iran, co-conspirators in Russia's war crimes against the Ukrainian people. Why in the world would they ally themselves with Iran, with Russia and Iran? Because you're asking the question, why aren't the Saudis and why isn't the Saudi leadership acting more strategically? I thought it was really interesting. The administration offered them a deal, basically said, we will put a floor under the price of oil. We will buy extra oil from you in order to fill the strategic petroleum reserves.

So don't worry. Just don't do these production cuts. The Saudis didn't do that. That suggests to me, Joe, they're not thinking strategically about the threat they face from Iran and how the United States is going to have to back them. They wanted to send a message to the Biden administration. They deny that. But I just don't see any other explanation for it. So it seems to me they're just acting impulsively and they're not they're not acting strategically at all. So, Richard, a lot of eyes also on Beijing

the last few days. The Communist Party conferences there, Xi Jinping making his bid to remain in power for yet another term. Give us a few of your takeaways as to what you heard from him. We heard last block report there from the ground about the bellicose rhetoric about Taiwan, but also about China's economy and its COVID policies that, at least to this point, have really hamstrung the nation's growth. Did you hear anything that's going to change that? Absolutely nothing. Xi Jinping has created, and now he's going to be the inheritor of a terrible economic inbox. The COVID policy, which is essentially dysfunctional, they've got more financial problems than you can count. A lot of Chinese people who have invested very heavily in real

estate, their savings, a lot of older people, they are now really vulnerable. You've got a demographic problem. You've got drought in China like you don't have in other parts of the world. You just add it up. So right now, Xi Jinping has created a terrible situation on himself. And what he articulated, I would call back to the future, a more repressive regime, politically, a more state-controlled economy, like the Jack Ma's of the world have no place in this in this China and more aggressive in terms of foreign policy. And that's what scares me. It's this combination of not having economic performance. He's clearly appealing to nationalism as a kind of ticket. This is going to become the future legitimacy of the regime.

We're going to bring about the, quote unquote, rejuvenation of China. That means bringing Taiwan in, whether it wants to come in or not. And it clearly it clearly does it. I think this is a warning message to us. What I see this him saying is we've got to he he China, he Xi Jinping is going to wait maybe three, four or five more years. And then they might feel ready. They're economically trying to become more self-sufficient, less vulnerable to Western sanctions. So I think we've got a few years to militarily and economically put our ducks in a row so we can put into place adequate deterrence against China. So Taiwan, I don't think, is an immediate problem, unlike the other two stories, unlike Ukraine, unlike Iran. Those are now problems. I think Taiwan is a three, four,

five, six year problem. And the real question to me is who uses this warning time better? Is it Xi Jinping in China or is it the United States, Taiwan, Japan and other countries? Do we organize ourselves so Xi Jinping in a few years, no matter how much he wants to move against Taiwan, will back off because he'll realize that the cost of it would be too great? And Steve Ratner, I know the kids from Brighton to northern most parts of Scotland are here. They want to see your charts, obviously, on the train wreck that is the British government. But before we do that, that caused by the British government, before we do that and talk about Liz's trust, let's talk about China for a minute. As Richard alluded to, Xi gets ultimate power at a time when the economy is just battered from a zero COVID policy, demographic problems,

the fact that Hong Kong has been severely compromised as the center of economic growth. And you go down the list, Jack Ma, of course, that case proving what other entrepreneurs in China know, that Xi is not their ally. In fact, if they get too successful, he's their enemy. Just a really a dark cloud, a gathering storm over the Chinese economy. What can you tell us about the disastrous moves, at least I believe, he's made over the past five years and what kind of impact that's going to have on China in the years to come in this next five-year term where he seeks ultimate power. Yeah, Joe, you've listed it exactly right in terms of a lot of the factors that are weighing on the Chinese economy at the moment. I would add to it Xi's own policies in

which he has been circumscribing market activities. He under the banner of so-called common prosperity, which is an admirable goal to reduce income inequality in China, which has reached epic proportions. He ended up acting very, very capriciously against different industries, shutting some down, circumscribing others. And all of that did did have a major impact on the Chinese on the Chinese economy. In his speech at the party, Congress was also disappointing because he barely referred to the market economy. And when he did, it was in fairly halfhearted terms. And so people are perceiving that there's going to be increased state control over the economy. The state owned companies, which they had been moving away from because they're obviously inefficient and

unproductive, they're now moving back toward in terms of where they're putting capital, where they're putting emphasis. It's going to be a much more highly regulated economy than it was. And so all of that is unnerving for China as much as for the rest of the world. I do want to put this in a little bit of context. China is still going to grow three and a half percent or something like that this year. We're going to grow approximately zero. Their inflation rate is between three and four percent, or as you know, up over eight percent at the moment. But they've got plenty of economic problems. They have a 20 percent youth unemployment problem that they're going to have to try to address, as well as this broader question of just what kind of economy do they want

to run. It is worth noting that what didn't get much attention is just as Xi was doing what he was doing, the financial regulators were trying to loosen up some restrictions on stock investments from overseas and things like that to try to bolster the market. And so the reaction of the stock market was actually pretty muted. And particularly, the tech companies came out, they at least perceived to have come out of this unscathed, they're no further scathed than they already are. And so the tech stocks actually moved up a bit. So it's going to be interesting to see. We won't really have their full agenda until next March when he appoints the rest of his leadership team and they actually lay out a formal economic plan. And until then,

it's going to be like it always was for China, trying to read a lot of tea leaves. So let's go from Beijing to London. And the British, how did the British solve a problem like Liz Truss? Well, they could solve the problem by Liz Truss by getting somebody besides Liz Truss to take that job. And indeed, there's a lot of speculation going on in the UK that that might happen. But in the meantime, they're stuck with her. And as you know, they've walked back now much of the economic program that they first unveiled just a few weeks ago, changed the chance of the exchequer and so on. But fundamentally, the British economy is a weak economy and they have some real structural and performance issues that they have to deal with. And this chart you can see is really giving you the sort of the punchline, so to speak,

which is that real wages after you adjust for inflation in the, have not gone up since before the great financial crisis. They went down, they kind of came back up a bit. And now with inflation in the UK as well, they're right back where they started. And you can see on the red line, our real wages, which are nothing to brag about compared if you went back further in history. But at least we got up to about a 15% real wage income, real wage increase before that red line turned down, which is really inflation, not so much wages. And so why is this happening? It's happening really fundamentally because Britain has suffered from low investment. You can see on the left the pace of their investment versus the pace of our investment. And it suffered

as a result of that from low productivity. Productivity, which is how much each worker produces, is kind of the holy grail of economic performance because without productivity growth, you really can't have wage growth. And so you can see, again, their productivity growth, which was decent until around the financial crisis, really kind of flatlined. Ours, again, nothing absolutely fantastic in our history, but moving up. And the consequence of all that, as you can see on this last chart here, is their growth rate has but moving up. And the consequence of all that, as you can see on this last chart here, is their growth rate has been really slow. And again, you can see if you go back before the financial crisis, the U.S., Germany, the U.K. were kind of tracking

not that far apart. It's never been the greatest economy in the world, but it was doing OK. But now it has slipped further and further behind and lost an enormous amount of ground to Germany as well as to us. And so that's fundamentally, I think, what lies behind the British political instability at the moment, where you've had so many prime ministers, so many chancellors of the exchequer, so many economic plans, and they're still not nearly out of the woods. Steve, to what extent do you think Brexit in any way was a contributor to this? And does it in any way lead to something of a new debate about Britain's relationship with Europe? It's a great question, Richard. Well, it obviously doesn't relate to everything that happened before Brexit in terms of particularly why I showed you 15 years of economic performance,

because a lot of that does predate Brexit. There's no way to prove the impact of Brexit today, but I think anecdotally people would tell you it's had an impact. All the uncertainty, all the uncertainty about the Irish backstop border and how that's all going to work has certainly curtailed investment for the moment and has had some economic impact. Whether it will or won't change their attitude toward Brexit, we'll have to see. As you know, it was virtually a 50-50 vote. It's true that Britain decided not to join the euro when it was created. And a lot of the same commentary existed then as it does now. It's going to be low investment. The country is going to be isolated,

whatever. And that worked out OK. So we'll have to see. I don't think under this prime minister there's going to be any revisiting of Brexit. But if there's enough political change, it could well happen. All right, Steve Ratner and Richard Haass, thank you both very much for your insight