Morning Joe - Morning Joe 10/25/24

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Obama and Bruce Springsteen fuel Harris' campaign push in Georgia

Georgia, we got 12 days to choose which way our country is going to go from here. We already know what time it is. That we don't have a moment to lose. If you want to stop that other guy, I don't call him by his name. I call him Agent Orange. She's running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant. I watched him from the Central Park Five to Project 2025.

And what I realized is that in this Donald Trump America, there is no dream that looks like me. All right. Good morning. Those were the high profile celebrities who appeared last night outside of Atlanta for Kamala Harris, a rally which also included former President Obama. Donald Trump, meanwhile, was in two swing states out west, disparaging America and praising an autocrat. I think he said America is a garbage can. So this is what I've never really understood. You know, all these Republicans that used to be conservatives are always talking about, oh, you don't love America. I've done love America.

I mean, there's never in the history of the United States, of America, since the Confederacy, of course, been a president or a candidate for president that has trashed America as much as Donald Trump constantly trashes America. If he's in power, it's great again. If he's out of power, it's a garbage can. And Kamala Harris has been saying time and time again, she loves America. She believes in America. It's just, M. And Kamala Harris has been saying time and time again, she loves America. She believes in America. It's just, Mika, it's really crazy. Well, it's interesting. Often we talk about how some of the people who are still shilling for Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress who still stand by him. And yet you hear Trump in the past day or so, absolutely just ripping to shreds his former generals, the people he hired.

So if he brings you in, make no mistake, he will turn on you, too. Well, yeah, I was just going to say, and Willie, the the crazy thing is, again, these people that used to be flag wavers for America now will wave their Trump flags. They sit back and smile and will vote for a guy that disparages the United States of America constantly, says he's going to arrest his political opponents and disparages generals who have given their entire lives for this country, I guess I guess, again, we shouldn't be shocked because, of course, he disparaged John McCain, said he wasn't a war hero because he got shot down. So this has been a long time coming. I don't think I ever expected him to be as disrespectful. Yeah. Of military members, of generals, of admirals, and of those who gave their life in

defense of this country. Yeah. And Donald Trump's eyes being a patriot, a term that he has used and his supporters use being a patriot means supporting him doing what he thinks is right. It has nothing to do with the country or the Constitution. It has to do with Donald Trump yesterday calling America a garbage can. He's called America a hellhole, a third world country. It brings to mind the line that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro likes to use a lot, which is, hey, Donald Trump, stop S-talking America. What is it with you? Why do you think America is so terrible? Kamala Harris's campaign has kind of seized on this, as we saw at the convention first and ever since. And that is patriotism has been reclaimed.

We are we support freedom. We support the Constitution, not Donald Trump. And I think the good news is I think most Americans do not believe that America is a hellhole or a garbage can. A lot of us are proud to have lived here our entire lives. We celebrate the country, and we'll see if people vote that way. Well, let me just say, if anybody believes that America is a garbage can that's voting this election, they're just stupid. They just don't know the facts.

I don't mean to bore people. They might want to take a trip. I don't want to bore people. Yeah, they may want to move somewhere else if they think it's such a hellhole. But I don't want to bore people. But let me just say it again. I got Richard Haas here. Richard, if anything I hear say is incorrect, you let me know. But let me say it again. America's military relative to the rest of the world, more powerful than at any time since World War Two. America's economic might relative to the rest of the world, more powerful than any time since World War Two.

America's technological might relative to the rest of the world, more powerful than any time since World War Two. America's military, by the way, so powerful that that most most organizations that rank the power of militaries have Russia number two. Why does he hate them? I don't, well, he hates America because somebody else is running America. But Richard, again, we always have Donald Trump. We always hear about him, I'll say, shit-talking the United States of America. The facts are just the opposite. Our our economy is the envy of the world. The GDP of Texas, bigger than the GDP of Russia.

The GDP of California, bigger than the GDP of all other countries except for three. Amazon's R&D budget bigger than the R&D budget of just about every G7 country. We are a colossus standing on the top of a mountain regarding power compared to the other countries who envy us. And of course, some see us as their enemies, their sworn enemies. And those are the very countries that Donald Trump right now is praising and the leaders who he's praising. Look, we have real challenges in this country.

Everyone around this table, everyone watching knows this, but I wouldn't trade our hand for anyone else's. Ironically enough, one of the most controversial issues in this country is immigration. People want to come to this country. People are lining up around the world at American consulates. Why? Because they want to go to America's universities. It's still the world's best. So on and on and on.

You mentioned the military, the economy, technology, our innovation base is second to none. So, you know, you look at the China's, the Russia's and the rest, their internal challenges are incomparably greater than what we face, whether it's demographic, economic, political, you name it. You know, on Gary Dardis, Willie said something that was so moving a few weeks ago. He said 7 a.m. across the world in just about every country, you can go look for the U.S. consulate and there will be lines around the block of people who want to come to America. And it reminds me of what JFK said about this country. We Americans, we may have our challenges, but we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in. And speaking of walls, people are going to be looking at those walls at Yankee Stadium, Willie, that are about 225 yards from home plate, our feet from home plate.

Willie, what are you expecting tonight? And please introduce our guests while you're at it. Okay, we got Jonathan here. We got Rev here. And we have Meacham. And John Meacham is here as well. And John and I will, of course, be eating pimento cheese sandwiches. Back to Willie.

And sipping sweet tea while we're watching the series tonight. Willie, set it up for us tonight. Well, we Yankee fans are embracing the underdog role here. Obviously, the Dodgers have the best record in baseball. They've got the best lineup in baseball. They've got home field advantage. We just hope we can steal a couple games in this series against the mighty, mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.

They've got the second best player in baseball. Imagine that in Shohei Otani. They're really, really good. So we hope we can hang in with them. We're going to throw a kid named Garrett Cole out there who's going to start and do what he can out of the gate. So we're the underdogs, but you know what? So was that 1980 hockey team, Joe. So we'll see what

happens here. Oh my God! Cannot do this, Willie. You know, Lemire, I really, this is plagiarism. This false Southern humility. He has taken a page from my book and I do not appreciate it.

Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Stanton, Garrett Cole. This is the best team in baseball, top to bottom. Their payroll is, you know, it's bigger than about 50 percent of the countries across the planet. I mean, this is this is a Yankees team. I will say this, really, this Yankees team is so great that if they even lose one game this series, I would consider the whole season a failure. I mean, the list you just did about why America is top of the world.

Just substitute Yankees. Yankees have a bigger GDP than every other nation on the planet except three. It's the best team money can buy. The Dodgers are a Cinderella story. Plucky upstarts by names of Mookie. Mookie? Shohei.

Oh, Shohei. Likes those guys. Oh, that's nice. America's team. Yeah. We love an underdog story here. We're wrapping our arms around the Los Angeles Dodgers. So let's figure this out.

I'm giving you 10 seconds. He's an angel, right? He played for the Angels. He played for the Angels, that's correct. Garrett Cole, where did Cole play for? He was a Houston Astro. Oh, he was an Astro. Okay, but Stan, he came up in this system, right?

No, he's a Marlin. Oh, he's a Marlin? America's team, Joe. What about Soto? Soto was from New York. Nationals and Padres. Oh, Nationals and Padres. Oh, Nationals and Padres. Aaron Judge.

Aaron Judge. Okay. Homegrown talent. Bring it home, Joe. All right, predictions. Let's go around. What do you say? Yanks and six.

Yanks and six. Rev? Yanks. I got to go with Yanks. I'm a New Yorker. Okay, what do you say? I'm going Dodgers and seven. Willie, what do you say?

I think Yankees and seven. They got to steal one of these two games. Game one is tonight. Game two tomorrow night. They come back for three in New York. If they can come back 1-1, they've got a chance to win in seven. I just – the Dodgers can be hot. They can be incredibly inconsistent too.

I don't know how a lot of these guys are – Yeah, not a lot of pitching. I'm going to go – and this is – I think it's going to be Dodgers in six. Okay. I really do. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Vice President Kamala Harris.

I usually am wrong, and I'm good with it. Let me hold your hand now. Wait. Okay, so Vice President Kamala Harris. Hey, John Meacham, you know what the thing is? You know what? Just because he went to Swanee, all right, there's some of us who do not denigrate the University of the South. John Meacham, you and Keith, who will you be cheering for tonight?

Well, I'm a Yankees fan because this will surprise you. I came to it through a literary experience. You don't have to tell us the history. You don't have to tell us the history. Are you voting for Trump now? What's going on with you? Listen, John, we don't need the history of this. I want tell us the history. Are you voting for Trump now? What's going on with you? Listen, John, we don't need the history of this. I want to hear the history.

No, you do. You do. No, Colonel Rupert. So I read a book called Dynasty, the subtitle of which was when rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for U.S. Steel. And it was an account of the Gehrig-Ruth years. And so I think it's kind of a patriotic effect. I don't agree with this. So I think, you know, it's very important.

Thank you. Thank you. Shays Rebellion. It's kind of like you telling my son that rooting for Chelsea is like cheering for Microsoft. Held a rally last night in Georgia where she appeared side by side for the first time with former President Barack Obama. A crowd of 23,000 people, the largest of her campaign. Also heard from Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry and Bruce Springsteen. I want a president who reveres the Constitution, who does not threaten but wants to protect and guide our great democracy, who believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power, who will fight for a woman's right to choose and who wants to create a middle class economy that will serve all our citizens.

There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear, Kamala Harris. So when I think about America, I think about my grandmother's quilt. We are all shapes, sizes, and colors, but we are one. And it was so important for me to stand with a candidate who understands that we as America, we are a quilt, and I could never stand with a candidate who wants America to be a sheet. Kamala Harris is ready for the job.

This is a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice, who need a champion. Kamala wasn't born into privilege. She was raised in a middle-class family. She worked at McDonald's when she was in college to pay her expenses. She didn't pretend to work at McDonald's when it was closed. Over the last years, and in particular the last eight years, Donald Trump has become more confused, more unstable, and more angry. You see it every day.

He has become increasingly unhinged. But last time, at least there were people around him who could control him. But do notice in this election, they're not with him this time. There's a choice that everybody has. So let's imagine it for a moment. It's either Donald Trump in there stewing, stewing over his enemies list. Or me working for you, checking off my to do list. You have the power to make that decision.

It is your power. It is your power. You know, Jonathan, her closing statement, her closing theme is going to be very basic. It's going to be he's about him. I'm about you. And again, as I said yesterday, the October surprise has not been what one of the greatest journalists in America, Jeffrey Goldberg, has reported. It's not what a great general who dedicated his life and whose son gave his life defending this country have said. It's about what Donald Trump has said himself, where he said, this is going to be about me. I am going to arrest my political opponents.

I am going to shut down CBS News because I don't like how 60 Minutes edited a package. I am going to obsess over exacting revenge. He talked he's talked about retribution. He's talked about all these things. But it's it's fascinating. You usually don't have your opponent playing right into your hands. But that's exactly what Donald Trump has been saying. And yet, despite all of the unconstitutional things he has been saying and promising over the past several weeks, this race is tied this morning. It is a dead heat, this race. And internals from both campaigns

suggest they're within a point in like every battleground state. The Trump campaign thumping their chest a little more than the Harris team. But it is a tie race. And it is this is going to be the vice president's closing argument is that this idea is that Donald Trump has no plans. He has no policy proposals. He has maybe one about no taxes on tips. That's it. Everything else is just about himself. It's about Rev.

It's about retribution. It's about grievance. It's about going after his political enemies and potentially using the military to do so. While the vice president is trying to say, look, I have all these. You may not have loved everything about the Biden administration, but we did a lot of good for a lot of people. Look at these proposals. I'm going to go even further in a number of areas here. She is trying to say, look, he's about himself. I'm for you. And that soundbite there, the idea of the to do list, they love that, I'm told. And we're going to hear that a number of times each and every day for the next 11 days. No, I think that that is exactly what we're looking at. I did

four cities yesterday in Michigan on our non-partisan National Action Network tour, but laying out the facts on both candidates. I had the Central Park Five with me and a brother, George Floyd. And I'm still hearing arguments, not the majority of them, but some among black men. I'm still hearing arguments among some of the Arab Americans as we toured just yesterday. And I think it is very tight. I think we also have to deal with the fact that Donald Trump is, it reminds me of a battered mate syndrome where you beat down your wife or you beat down your husband saying you're lucky you're with me. You're nothing without me. And people are falling for this because of their own biases, some misogyny, some race and others that they bring to the table

because they couldn't rationally be listening to Trump and Karras and come up with Trump. It's what they bring to the table as you bring to a battered marriage. If you already think you're less than something, you accept somebody telling you that. And that's what Donald Trump has, a battered syndrome campaign. You're nothing without me. You shouldn't be even allowed in my presence. And people with insecurities or biases feed into that. So contrast what we just saw there in Georgia from Vice President Kamala Harris and her supporters with Tyler Perry talking about America being a great quilt like his

grandmother used to make with Donald Trump and his rally last night in Tempe, Arizona. Here's what he said. When Kamala came in, she deliberately dismantled our border and threw open the gates. She threw them open. The gates to an invasion of criminal migrants from prisons and jails, from insane asylums and mental institutions, from all over the world, from Venezuela to the Congo in Africa. A lot of people coming out of the Congo, not just South America. They're coming from 181 countries as of yesterday. Right. And we're a dumping ground. We're like a we're like a garbage can for the world. That's what's happened. That's what's happened to us. We're like a garbage can. You know, it's the first time I've ever said that. And every time I come up and

talk about what they've done to a country, I get angrier and angrier. First time I've ever said garbage can. But you know what? It's a very accurate description. So there it is, John Meacham. We were talking about that comment at the top of the show, calling America, quote, a garbage can with 11 days to go until the election. Just the contrast you see as someone who's written many beautiful words and told a lot of stories over the course of your life. What do you see when you watch the Harris rally contrasted with the Trump rally?

Well, the conventional politics from Jefferson forward, honestly, has been that the politics of optimism, the politics of hope have tended to prevail, at least rhetorically, because, you know, all democracies are human undertakings and they're shaped by the tension between hope, which is about looking forward, and fear, which is about the anxiety created. It's an ancient definition. It's the anxiety created by the anticipation of the loss of something you love. The anticipation and anxiety

about the loss of something you love. And so the politics of fear is really powerful. But what has prevailed until now has been ultimately a politics of hope. Jefferson talking about where the world's best hope, Lincoln saying we're the last best hope. Ronald Reagan saying we're the last best hope of man on earth. You can track the phrase. And we face a very clear choice. There is no mystery about what we're going to decide right now and what's going to be would conduct a recognizable, coherent presidency. And Donald Trump risks taking us so far down an authoritarian road that we would become unrecognizable. People feel that a kind of a center center left presidency is worth is just so much worse than this risk of the man who thinks we're a garbage can taking power again. But I don't I don't quite see it. And I speak as someone who, you know, President Biden is my friend.

I have helped him when I could. But I've voted for a lot of Republicans and I'd love to be in a place where I could vote for a Republican again. But this, to use a very technical term, Willie, this ain't it. This ain't it. Yeah, not even close. Yeah. Donald Trump saying that we're a garbage can, saying that we're a stupid nation. That's you know, who's saying that? What leaders around the world are saying? None, none. They may not like us, but they like us because we're too powerful. They like us because our economy is too strong. They like us because our military is too strong.

They like us because our cultural reach is too strong. They like us because our military is too strong. They like us because our cultural reach is too strong. They like us because our hard power is too overwhelming. They like us. They don't like us because our soft power, too overwhelming, our cultural power. You can go down the list. Donald Trump alone is saying we're a garbage can. And he's I guess he's I guess he's teaching his followers to say that or saying that we're a stupid nation. Go to Silicon Valley. Not real dumb. Not real dumb. Richard, you know what's so fascinating? There are two threads that are coming together over the past two years. Post jobs. We've we've heard a lot of people talking about how women have had their rights taken away.

A right that they had for 50 years, that right to make decisions over their own body, whether they were black or white, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, whether they were considered themselves personally pro-life or pro-choice, whatever they, they still at the end of the day, if they had a complicated pregnancy, which we've been talking about, a reproductive emergency, they could make that choice to save their lives. They can't do that anymore. So you have that freedom that has been taken away. Now what Donald Trump promises at the end of this campaign is to take away other basic freedoms, the freedom of speech. You look at Nancy Pelosi, who's been critical of Donald Trump. So now he's saying she's an enemy of the state and suggests that he can use the military, the National Guard to attack people who engage in political speech. He does not like

at the same time. He is saying his generals, too. He is saying that he's going to go after CBS News. He said he was going to go after Comcast with CBS. He says he said that his people have said they're coming after our show specifically. Why with CBS? Because he didn't like how they edited Kamala Harris's 60 Minutes interview. So now we've got women's rights, reproductive freedoms to make decisions over what's best for them. We have political speech with Nancy Pelosi and Democrats called enemies of the state because he doesn't like what they say about him. And we have First Amendment rights, really sacrosanct in this country. The right for the media to be critical of politicians, to ask questions of politicians.

And he's promising he is promising. These are his words, not mine, not yours, not the New York Times, not MSNBCs, not CBSs, not Nancy Pelosi's. These are his words. He's promising that just like he took away women's 50 year right to reproductive freedom, he's going to take away the right to criticize him and he's going to take away the right to criticize him. And he's going to take away the right of news programs to speak honestly about him. Couple of thoughts, Joe. We've come a long way since Ronald Reagan's city on a hill, the shining city on a hill to America as a garbage can. I'd work for Reagan. You were in Congress.

The idea that you would have a Republican candidate so denigrate the United States is, it's to me, almost unimaginable. Never thought we'd reach that point. The women's issue, one interesting question is whether there's going to be a closeted or secret women's vote in favor of Kamala Harris. Last 2016, pollsters didn't pick up certain things that were maybe pro-Trump. My hunch is, I can't prove it, my hunch is a lot of women aren't going to tell, particularly from conservative areas, that they're voting for Kamala Harris.

Let me help you really quickly and then continue. In 2020, a lot of pro-Trump votes weren't picked up. In 2022, a lot of pro-democratic votes weren't picked up. Going in, and we're seeing it again here. It's hilarious because, you know, it's not true. You know, the number is a lot higher. People are telling pollsters that abortion only six percent of people are saying that abortion is their top issue. That's what they said in 2022. Exit polls showed it up in the mid 30s. Post-Obs reproductive rights are undefeated.

They're undefeated not only in liberal states, they're undefeated in states like Kansas and Kentucky and in Wisconsin. And it's not even close. That's one of the most interesting things about this election. I've had several meetings with pretty well-known pollsters this week, and everyone's saying the race is too close to call. The other possibility is the race is too close to call. The other possibility is the race is too opaque to call. We don't necessarily know what is going on, that the pollsters may not be picking up some important trends, important developments. So we're all assuming we're not going to know the result till late the next day or maybe for days or weeks. Maybe, but maybe not. I actually think there's more unknowns. And one last thought, you were

talking about the enemy within, the criticism of the press and so forth. What's so interesting about this election is normally American presidential elections, and I defer to John here, but to use a football analogy on this day of the World Series, they take place within the 40-yard lines. The differences between the candidates tends to be far less than the similarities. This is an exception. This is an exception in American political history, where actually we've got one of the two candidates is pretty much in an end zone. Kamala Harris represents, if you will, a degree, I think, of what's worked for this country over 75 years. And Madisonian democracy. Yeah. And basically Jefferson believed,

Jeffersonian belief that you need informed citizenry and a free press is central to an informed citizenry, which was Jefferson's basic insight into American democracy. And we have a very different, for the first time, we have a very different strain representing one of the two major political parties. And Jonathan, really quickly, I just I've got to follow up on what Richard said, because, you know, I'm always telling people how brilliant Richard is, aren't I? Especially about the Giants. So respectful.

He just really cut through the fog of polling. It's not too close to call. It's too opaque to call. Right now, it's looking like black men and Hispanic men and working class men may not be going to Harris as much as they have in past elections. How do you weight that? Right now, it looks like white white voters with college educations are breaking in historic numbers toward Kamala Harris. We also saw I saw a poll yesterday, just a poll, but also showing that white Americans without college degrees are actually about minus six, minus seven, minus eight, breaking away from Donald Trump. It's still in the mid to high 20s. It's still a lot. But again, so so we have right now we've got so many different groups shifting in so many different directions that, as Richard said, this race is not too close to call.

These shifts are too opaque to see for a basic poll that calls maybe 500 people. Yeah. A senior Democrat yesterday told me the phrase this person used was we're flying blind because pollsters have gotten it so wrong in recent years, as you just noted, undercounting the Trump support in 16 and 20, undercounted Democratic support in 2022, that each pollster is weighing things differently. And there's a sense here that some of them may be overweighted, oversampled. And by the way, it wasn't just the 2022 midterms where everybody on the Republican side was laughing and mocking of Joe Biden for talking about abortion and democracy. And the red wave was coming. Look at the Kansas referendum. We were reporting here. Every poll showed it was like a 50 50 split where you actually had the pro life side winning like 51 to 49.

It ended up the pro-choice side winning 60-40. Like that's how opaque it is right now. And coming out of the 22 midterms, the exit polls were talking about how important abortion and democracy were. What's Kamala Harris closing on right now? Abortion and democracy. She's reviving those issues here for her for her finish. Now, this will also be look, Trump's name's on the ballot again. It wasn't in 2022.

Right. The pollsters are taking that into account as well. But by their own admission, there's been some pretty honest confessions about this. Pollsters aren't sure. And neither are the campaigns where votes have started to come in. We'll know that. Yeah. And by the way, people trying to figure out

who's ahead in the early voting in Nevada right now. John Rawlson says right now, it's looking pretty good for Republicans. But then again, Republicans are voting earlier right now. So he said, I can't really tell because they may be, like you said yesterday, cannibalizing their day of voting. If these are new Republicans,

it's great news for Donald Trump. But again, because they're shifting to early voting, people should be very careful even looking at the early vote because we were flying blind there as well, because Republicans said of Donald Trump saying, don't vote early. Don't mail in your vote. It's rigged. They've been really pushing hard. And it's really the same thing with Pennsylvania. Democrats have a big advantage right now in terms of voting. I think it's around 60, 60, 40. But you don't know. You don't know where it ends up. We're all flying blind. Speaking of still ahead on Morning Joe, more than one million voters in Battleground, Pennsylvania, have already cast their 2024 ballot.

We'll take a look at what the data says about which party is getting out the vote. Plus, Democratic Congressman Colin Allred joins us to weigh in on the state of this highly watched race against Republican Senator Ted Cruz. This as Vice President Harris heads to Texas tonight. But first, our next guest is taking a look at the RNC's attempts to purge ineligible voters from state rolls and how the GOP's litigation strategy is largely failing. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. We've got two weeks to go, and I'm very much grounded in the present in terms of the task at hand. And we will deal with election night and the days after as they come. And we have the resources and the expertise and the focus on that as well. So you have teams ready to go? Is that what you're saying? Are you thinking about that as a possibility? Of course.

This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to undo a free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people, who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol, and 140 law enforcement officers were attacked. Some were killed. This is a serious matter.

The American people are at this point, two weeks out, being presented with a very, very serious decision about what will be the future of our country. Vice President Kamala Harris speaking earlier this week with NBC's Hallie Jackson about the possibility of former President Trump declaring victory on election night before all the votes come in. That comes amid multiple attempts by Republican National Committee to purge registered voters in at least two swing states. Joining us now, former litigator and MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin. Lisa, you have been tracking some of the ways Republicans are attempting to swing the election in their favor. What have you learned and how effective could they be?

Well, Michael, what I've really been looking at is their affirmative litigation strategy. Where are they bringing suits? Because we know right now when we're looking at pre-election litigation, the vast majority of suits have been brought by Republicans or Republican affiliated entities as opposed to Democrats. And one of the things that they're trying to do is just reduce the population of people who are eligible to vote in ways that might surprise us. So, for example, some of the suits that they're filing are against Democratic secretaries of state that they say are not complying with federal law that requires them to sort of go through their voter registration list and take off ineligible voters. The only problem is they can't identify who those ineligible voters are to begin with. All they say, for example, is, well, if you look at this county or that county, the rate of people registered relative to the adult population is impossibly high.

And that courts have told them so far in Nevada and Michigan that doesn't cut the mustard. The other thing that they're doing, and this is really even more deeply offensive, is to try and attack those who are spouses or adult children of overseas military members, whether current or former. And what they've said is, for example, if Rev is my dad and I was born outside the country, we live outside the country. And the last place, for example, that Rev voted was North Carolina. They say I shouldn't be eligible to vote in North Carolina because I was never a North Carolina resident. Not only is that contrary to North Carolina law, but I'd also ask you, where is someone like that person supposed to vote? If your parents' last place of residence within the United States is a particular state that's

already made provisions for you to vote there, they're trying to deprive you not just of the right to vote in that swing state, but really leave you stateless without the right to vote anywhere. And again, courts have rejected those attempts so far to Mika. Lisa, are they trying to also set up a scenario that they go in certain states, certain regions, targeting certain types of people by their nationality or their race or their gender so that they have an argument after the fact if they claim that something was not properly done in terms of voting to try and prolong a final count. So even though they may appear to lose at this point, they appeal later, which can prolong. We can end up like 2000 where we don't know for days who won because you have

states going back and forth with the premise that they're trying to establish now. I'm really glad that you mentioned that because the object of some of these cases isn't really to win. It's to sow doubt about who's eligible to vote and almost preserve an argument for after the election, particularly if we find ourselves in a situation where there is a red mirage. You know that Donald Trump complained bitterly in 2020 that states where he appeared to be leaving on election night, ultimately when absentee ballots were counted, particularly late absentee ballots that come in from people living overseas. You see that what looks like, for example, a lead for him in Pennsylvania ultimately

became an 80,000 vote deficit. They are certainly trying to do both. And some might describe this as sort of like litigation by press release. Again, not an attempt to succeed really for the sake of succeeding, but to be part of a larger strategy to sow doubt and confusion and even just slow things down to build momentum and time to create a narrative about cheating where no cheating exists. Rev, what's the biggest challenge for Democrats as far as you see it coming from Donald Trump's attempts to disenfranchise voters? That's such a good question. I think we don't know what the biggest challenge is. The biggest challenge is we don't know what that challenge is now, where they're going. Correct.

And every election cycle, we're introduced to new language, so to speak, about a different attempt to sway an election. Right. In 2000, it was hanging chads earlier. Even in this cycle, we were talking about attempts to delay certification in Georgia that, thanks to the Georgia Supreme Court, have now been put to rest. I think we haven't yet seen the trend that will ultimately be the thing that is most contested in post-election litigation. When you ask folks, and certainly we have seen a memo that's been reported that was distributed by Dana Remus and others within the Harris-Wells campaign, what they keep telling folks internally and externally is they are prepared for every eventuality. They've got almost like a Marvel Comics movie full of Democratic super lawyers that are with them to staff litigation in various states and partner

with local lawyers who are expert in election codes in all of these swing states so that they are not caught flat footed. But if you were to ask them that question, what's the problem that keeps you up at night? I don't think anyone can identify what that problem is just now. And that itself is the thing that keeps me up at night. Yeah. All right. MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin. Thank you very much. A lot of moving parts and coming up up, Hillary Clinton says Kamala Harris has one key thing going for her to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2016. We'll tell you what that is. Plus, Pablo Torre is here with his World Series prediction. Morning, Joe, is back in a month.

Do we have to really sit through this? Pablo, I'm keeping this to time. Thank you. If you were not a pitcher, what would you be? Well, I thought the first thing that comes to mind is underwater basket weaving. And hear me out because play on words, I was definitely a water kid. Then, you know, ear trouble, some tubes, I had to get out of that. So now I think I would love to be a golfer, but realistically, I would like to combine some type of drawing slash, I don't know.

There you have it. There you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, your New York Yankees. Pablo. I didn't feel entirely necessary. Pablo, what are you doing here? We played. Willie.

Willie. It undermines the legend, right? But anyway, Willie. Mika's staring at me, and I feel uncomfortable. She's asking me why I'm here, and I just want to say, maybe Willie can help me justify the fact that the Yankees, in fact, are in the World Series, guys. And that dude, Willie, Luke Weaver,

thankfully he's not professionally answering questions. He's professionally trying to close games is what I would lead with. A little bit all over the place. That's the Yankees closer. Luke Weaver, bizarre answer yesterday. World Series media, I don't even quite understand what he said there. But let's focus on the real thing. The Fall Classic opens tonight in Los Angeles with the Dodgers hosting the Yankees in game one.

Join us now, as you saw there, the host of Pablo Torre finds out on Meadowlark Media, MSNBC contributor, our good buddy, Pablo Torre. All right, Pablo, it feels like it's been a month, by the way, since the league championship series ended. Finally, the World Series is here on Friday night in Los Angeles. You got Cole, you got Flaherty going tonight. How are you looking at this series? Yeah, this is the dream.

For anybody who cares about baseball, not just any of these teams, but baseball specifically, this is the dream. anybody who cares about baseball, not just any of these teams, but baseball specifically. This is the dream. It's a World Series for casuals. These are the two biggest brands in a fragmented media economy. I always talk about the monoculture. Somehow, when I'm with you guys, if you're drinking at home with the monoculture, you know, bingo game, sorry. Look, this has not happened in 40 years. And the reality is. Ay caramba. Was that 40 years ago?

1981. 81. And when you think about that. It was a great series. Yes. And the preemptive sense of history is palpable, actually. And I say that as a fan of the game this reminds me with the potential of uh 2016 2016 chicago cubs 2004 red sox like the stuff that breaks through yeah because it's the yankees and the dodgers

that's the potential here and yeah if i can give a spoiler alert the yankees are in fact the better team but i i will say i will say that they yeah this, even in the 70s and the 80s, in the 50s, like the Dodgers and the Yankees always broke through, whether it's the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Yankees, whether it's L.A. Dodgers and the Yankees. But, again, this is a dream, obviously, for the media, for whatever company is carrying this. Who is carrying this? Fox. Fox, okay. It is, for whatever, you know, company is carrying this. Who is carrying this?

Fox. Fox, okay. It is, in fact, Fox. Yeah, just money, as we say about the NFL all the time, money just streaming through the vents. Doesn't usually happen with baseball. But, you know, Pablo, I'm on the streets, you know, with the kids, you know, like not my kids specifically, but the kids. They love morning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The kids broadly, the royal kids. The royal. And so when I'm walking down the street with the kids, they're, like not my kids specifically, but the kids, they love morning. Yeah. The kids broadly, the royal, the royal. And so so when I'm walking down the street with the kids, they're not asking me about, hey, who's going to win the election? They're saying next time you see the guy in the chocolate corduroy jacket. Oh, you know, to ask him to do something to win the World Series. It is a deep, deep, deepest. I asked for the deepest chocolate at the store. Not like the 70s power band Deep Purple. That is deep chocolate.

No chocolate. Yeah, that's kind of. Still a little smoke on the water. Yeah, a little smoke. But anyway, deep chocolate corduroy, man. Tell me, who's going to win the series and how many games? If you go by star power, I'm going Yankees in six. Really?

Yes, and look, I want to acknowledge my fellow New York homer. Richard is right next to me. Look, if I'm talking about who I want to be in the documentary of this period in baseball, I do want to be the person that says Shohei Otani is the greatest thing we have ever seen. Right. All caveats included. He was hurt, couldn't pitch this season, responded with an unprecedented offensive year. Right? That's the reality of him. But when you look at the Yankees lineup, I mean, John. I'm just hard to agree. It's Juan

Soto, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton. And then who else? Who else do you need? Who else do you need? Go through the first five batters. You actually need nine players. I mean, the Dodgers can match that with Shohei Otani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, who I think the days off help.

The Dodgers' one through nine lineup, I think, is more consistent. They're more tougher outs at the bottom of the lineup than the Dodgers and the Yankees have. For sure. I mean, also, Aaron Judge is still not really hitting the playoffs, so the other two certainly are. The Yankees have the edge in starting pitching. And that's not close. Not close. Dodgers have the edge in the bullpen. Dodgers have home field.

I think it is. But you know what's fun, though, on the pitching staff stuff? It's fun when you look at the projected rotations and the Yankees are, they'll throw out Garrett Cole, you know? Cool. Jack's clarity for the Dodgers. OK, that's tonight. The Dodgers rotation, it says bullpen for two of those games. And I just don't like the bullpen era,

not just because I think it is not fun to watch. Let's remember who the Yankees have as their closer now. We just saw that clip. Okay. Hey, so let's – hey, Willie, I want to open this up to you and Pablo. So let's talk about the weaknesses. And I think the weakness for the Dodgers is obvious. It's pitching.

You as a Yankees fan, a diehard Yankees fan, know this. The weakness for the Yankees at times, they just go cold. They tighten up in playoffs. They choke. I know the Dodgers have been doing that in divisional series as well. But there is an up andand-down quality to it. Talk about that with the Yankees. Do you see anything in this playoff run that suggests they're past that?

And then the Dodgers' weak pitching. Well, you know, John's right that Aaron Judge has not really hit in these playoffs. He had a huge home run in Cleveland. They ended up actually losing that game. But other than that, not much memorable from him throughout the playoffs. Now, their lineup is so powerful that Stanton steps up all of a sudden. Glaber Torres, who we haven't mentioned, has been great in the second half of the season and the playoffs. So they have enough firepower to cover for that.

But they do need in this series against L.A. They need something out of Judge. And the bullpen has been shaky at times. Luke Weaver has kind of come on strong here late, but they've been through it with Clay Holmes, who was an all-star, but then got terrible. Now he's moved to a different area of the bullpen. So I think, Pablo, sometimes that bullpen at the back end scares me a little bit. And the bottom of the lineup isn't strong, but as you said, the top of it is so strong so i like the yankees in seven i mean

they're playing on the road that's not great not easy um but i'm staying with my pick yankees in seven yes can i just sound a note of optimism here for the dodgers look no why would i do that why would i you're such a homer you cannot you cannot you can't separate yourself from the story. Sometimes bias does have a tinge of homerism. This is objectivity. This is actual objectivity. Go ahead. Be objective about the Yankees guy. Look, when it comes to the teams that have most recently been disappointing,

I think we are underrating the ways in which the Dodgers have not shown that they actually have the stuff to win. Right. I believe that the Dodgers have become used to rolling out this payroll. The family man paper bag approved by Don Cheadle. We're going to hand that to you. I want you to relax. We've got, I've been told we have to go, which means we have one minute.

I want you to take me through. No, it doesn't. It means we have to go. I want you to take me through the Rams-Vikings games, the Vikings losing their second in a row, a good team. But you say one of the worst calls you've ever seen. Yeah, absolutely. So the Vikings are trying to come back, two minutes left, down eight.

It's a one-score game. They can technically do it with a two-point conversion, and this happens. And so what you'll see here is what the referees did not, which is a brutal face mask right in front of them. I see that. And I'm not somebody who wants to come on any national program like this one and just complain about the officials. But this is egregious. How do you not? It's egregious. And the thing about this, if I can just make a campaign stump speech, this should be reviewable. We live in an arcane sort of system of rules where you

can't review a non-face mask. And you should, because this was wildly disappointing to everybody and not merely Mika, who has to hear me talk about the NFL for an extra minute or two or three or four, depending on how long it can filibuster until she cuts me off. All right. Really question. Have you ever seen Family Man? Oh, God. Nicolas Cage, T.L. Leone. I was born. I was born in 1985. Should I have seen Family Man? I tell you what, there is such a blind spot culturally about this. We need to we we we're going to just I've seen National Treasure screening. I've seen Con Air. I did. People stop when I bring up Nicolas Cage and say, stop bringing up constitutional documents. There's a treasure map on the back

of the Declaration of Independence. Host of Pablo Torrey finds out. I can't even help you help yourself. Family Man came out in 2000. Pablo Torrey finds out on Metal Arc Media. Pablo Torrey, thank you so much. You're unhelpful. Just as a public service announcement, Fat Man now showing on Netflix. Mika, what's next?