Morning Joe - Morning Joe 10/29/24

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Trump rally comedian workshopped racist Puerto Rico line at NYC comedy club

We're close to World War II because we have people in the White House that... World War III... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I had World War II... I had World War II veterans. I didn't realize're veterans after all. Thank you very much.

All right. A little bit confused there. Donald Trump needing help from his own audience in Atlanta yesterday, once again, forgetting the U.S. has already fought World War II. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. I'm sorry. Hold on, though. Hold on, though.

Guys. In his defense, in his defense, nobody really wrote about that war. It's kind of like when Meetsam starts talking about the French-Indian War. Really it's not as if that historical event is the most written about and read about event of the 20th century and it's not, you know, I mean, so it's easy for him to forget it. It has happened two, three times, just like he's accidentally called Joe Biden, Barack,

he keeps singing, you know, Barack Obama's in the White House. It happens, I guess. We know he's not a reader, and that's okay. To Grandpa Simpson. But there have been some movies about World War II, about that day on. Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah. On June the 6th, 1944, when those great men stormed the beach. I want to see some of these. So Spielberg did one. I think it, what year was that? 1998 or something like that? 1999. Round there.

Yeah, you're also going to watch a series called Band of Brothers. You're going to love that. Band. Berian lighting. Oh, oh, oh. And it beatles. And as we've said, this is not the first time

he has made this mistake, having to be reminded, as Mika said by his own audience, that it's not World War II. These are small problems in the context of what we've been seeing recently from Donald Trump, but something not quite there. Synapse is not firing. I mean, it's just.

Lost a couple, maybe 20 miles off his fastball meagre. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I mean, I've got to say, I'm really... I'm struck by the fact that the October surprise this year thus far has been Donald Trump and the mistakes that the campaign has made. The Madison Square Garden mistake with a guy that trashes Puerto Rico and nobody can act shocked about it.

Donald Trump, well, he stayed on stage and talked for a couple of hours, I guess. Never once said, oh, we don't like that joke and how dare he bring that up tonight. The reason why is because there were three NBC producers that saw him the night before his routine, knowing he was going to be on that night. Workshop him. And he did the same Puerto Rican joke. I mean, that's part of his act.

And he told people, I'm gonna say this tomorrow night. And the Trump people knew it. And they had him on, and it took them three hours. And the crazy thing is, there were fights inside the Trump campaign on whether they should correct it or not. And JD Vance yesterday doing what only JD Vance can do, making a really bad situation, a whole lot

worse for your campaign, goes, I don't know what the big deal is. So Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, JD Vance doesn't know what the big deal is with the joke. And there was a fight on the campaign about them actually apologizing for a joke that Donald Trump refused to apologize for while he was on stage. Yeah. And JD Vance said, Mika, he's sick and tired of people being offended by everything, told people to get over it. Yeah, let's just joke.

Can't we just joke? Actually, initially said, I haven't heard the joke, of course he's heard the joke. Right. This is his slippery way of dealing with things. This was a joke early in that rally at Madison Square Garden that has taken hold among Democrats in this campaign. We've heard it amplified by the Harris campaign because there are so many Puerto Rican Americans across the country, but especially in states like Pennsylvania, that she needs to win.

And if I could finish that sentence, so many Puerto Rican Americans who were deeply, deeply hurt by it. And they were, they are still talking about it. We are still talking about it because people were so hurt, so denigrated. And yet, this is how JD Vance responded to it. I haven't seen the joke. You know, maybe it's a stupid racist joke, as you said. Maybe it's not.

I haven't seen it. I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke. But I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just, I'm so going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just, I'm so over it. Okay, so that's JD Vance's way of dealing with what was, I think, very damaging to the campaign, perhaps, Joe? Well, he's seen the joke.

He's not telling the truth. Well, we know that. Everybody was sending the joke around,'s not telling the truth. Well, we know that. Everybody was sending the joke around. And this is what they do. Yeah. They go, oh, I don't know. It's like when he was spreading a lie about his own constituents in Springfield.

It was like, oh, wait, I don't know. People are just saying. This is again how they spread lies, how they spread insults, how they spread hate, and then they deny it. But, Mike, again, I want to... I understand they don't care about Puerto Ricans and how Puerto Ricans feel, how Americans feel of Puerto Rican descent,

how people in Springfield feel. Even when Republican governors are saying, please stop, you're making things worse here. Our Republican mayors in Aurora, Colorado, please stop lying about Venezuelan gangs. It's just not the case. Here though, let's just, again, it's hard for us to put ourselves in the position of a

parent with children who are Americans who are Puerto Ricans and having to explain to the children when they go to school why some people may be making fun of them and calling them garbage and then understanding it was because Donald Trump's rally and because nobody spoke out strongly against it at the rally. So that's what they're going to school with, and maybe that doesn't matter to JD Vance, but I bet it would matter to JD Vance if it were his children that were being abused at school.

Right. You know, it's just another indictment of the way the campaign is being run, not by the people who run the campaign, but the people who symbolize the campaign, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. And on this one, the idea that they have taken something that was on a prompter, that was vetted prior to

delivery, that one really scurrilous obscene slur to describe the vice president of the United States, also running for president, was extracted from the content of the supposed Comedians Act, it's incredible to disbelieve how bad this thing was. And Mika, you just had, and I indicated you should take a look at it. The front page of the New York Times today, back to Springfield, Ohio, has a story about the parents of Aiden Clark, an 11-year-old child who

died in a school bus accident when his school bus was hit by a Haitian immigrant who was here legally. And both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance have decided to call it a murder. And they call this young boy's life and death a murder. And the torture that his parents have endured and been put through since the incident occurred several months ago is horrendous. It has changed and altered and damaged the lives of the living. This is them sitting with their little boy's blanket, Joe. And I hold that up, Mika. I can't imagine the pain those parents are going through.

And then to watch their son, their child used as a political prop to be lied about, making the pain worse. And hold that, keep that up, because this is not personal to me, but this is personal to people I know. When Donald Trump decided to attack me because he didn't like my COVID coverage, and he lied about a woman who worked in my office and claimed that we were involved

and that I had her killed. And her husband, the widowed husband, begged him to stop lying because of the excruciating pain that it put her parents through and put him through the fact that he had not been able to move on for 20 years, 25 years, because the lies that were they could not, they could not find rest or peace. And Donald Trump didn't care. He just kept doing it, because he didn't care.

Right. With the family thought. He didn't care with the husband thought. He didn't care with the people whose grief he was only making worse. And here we have in Ohio, Mika, we have a family enduring that pain because their son's being lied about for political purposes and they have been put on notice. The father spoke before the city council, I believe a month or two ago,

saying, please stop lying about my son. You know nothing about him, and if you did, you would know this is the opposite of what he would be saying right now, based on the wonderful short life that he lived. But they don't care. I cannot imagine these men. I cannot imagine people that, when parents are begging them,

please stop lying about our dead children. Please stop. Let us bury them in peace and move on. They won't do it, Mika. They are without shame. They are with, they know better. I know, and the pain that they are inflicting. And yet they continue to exploit the death of a young child in Springfield and others

and lie about it because they want to gain power. This is stark. And if you think this is normal, well, you haven't been around politics long enough, because I can tell you, if it happened while I was in Congress, if it happened while Claire was in the Senate, and somebody did this, they would be excommunicated. Nobody would talk to them. They would be scorned. Their leadership would say,

you apologize to the parents, you take back the lie, or you will be stripped of your committees tomorrow. You straighten up. But there are no guardrails, Mika. No guardrails on the truth. No guardrails on the truth. No guardrails on decency. No guardrails on the very things that keep us bound together,

even in the most difficult of political times. And let me say, that happens. Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan could not stand each other's political philosophies, but they worked together. Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich could not stand each other's political philosophies, and it got ugly. They still worked together for the betterment of America, but balancing the budget four years in a row for the first time in a century. Here, no guardrails, no ties that bind, no decency.

And I think decency is on the ballot as much as democracy. They are inflicting pain on people purposely. And Willie, you saw JD Vance and the very slippery, dishonest, callous response to the way Puerto Rican Americans are feeling about that joke that hurt them so deeply. The Harris campaign had a bit of a different take on it. Yeah, I mean that very day Vice President Harris announced a plan to help Puerto Rico, talked about how the federal government was going to invest in Puerto Rico.

She won the endorsement of Bad Bunny, arguably the most famous person from Puerto Rico right now, J. Lo, a bunch of other ones. But to your point about this, the father of Aiden Clark did make a plea, a teary plea in front of the city council last month saying, please, please keep my son's name out of your mouth. Republican politicians who are using this, he said, my son was stolen from me. I could not protect him that day when he died in an automobile accident. And now I can't even protect his memory.

That is a father pleading with his senator, JD Vance is his senator, asking at least for an apology and not even getting that. But I guess it's what we've come to expect from this group, which has flirted with the kind of people and conspiracy theorists who've done this to the Sandy Hook families and on and on and on, inflicting pain on people already experiencing unthinkable pain. So Vice President Harris condemned the racist jokes about Puerto Rico and criticized the former president for his rally's message to Americans, the one at Madison Square Garden, while former president Barack Obama responded to those comments about Puerto Rico last night while campaigning for Harris in Philadelphia.

I think last night Donald Trump's event in Madison Square Garden really highlighted a point that I've been making throughout this campaign. He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country. This is not new about him, by the way. What he did last night is not a discovery. It is just more of the same and maybe more vivid than usual. Donald Trump spends full time trying to have Americans point their finger at each other.

Fans the fuel of hate and division. And that's why people are exhausted with him. That's why people who formerly have supported Donald Trump, have voted for him, are supporting me, voting for me. These are fellow citizens he's talking about. Here in Philadelphia, they are your neighbors. They are your friends. They are your co-workers.

Their kids go to school with your kids. These are Americans. They're people. And that is the reason why this election should not be closed. It should be clear. Here's a good rule. If somebody does not respect you, if somebody does not see you as fellow citizens with equal claims to opportunity

to the pursuit of happiness to the American dream, you should not vote for them. Claire McCaskill, we can talk about the electoral implications of the comment that was at the Madison Square Garden rally in terms of how many Puerto Rican Americans there are in a state like Pennsylvania where President Obama was speaking there. But also setting up in this last week, we are one week from election day, this contrast of indecency and cruelty and do you want an insult comic at the top of the government, somebody who cares nothing about who he hurts on his way trying to get back into the White indecency and cruelty and do you want an insult comic at the top of the government, somebody who cares nothing about who he hurts on his way trying to get back into the White House, the Harris campaign clearly happy to set up that contrast.

Yeah, and Willie, one thing that's really interesting to me, it wasn't just the comic, it was the entire six hours. I mean, she was called the Antichrist. Another speaker talked about her pimp. There was, and then there was Stephen Miller. In July, on the exact date of Friday, July, excuse me, June 14th in 1940, on page three of the Post Dispatch, Adolf Hitler was interviewed. And I'm quoting from his article where he was interviewed.

He said, therefore I say America is for Americans. Stephen Miller took the stage on Sunday evening and he said America is for Americans and only Americans. Now, ironically, as President Obama pointed out, Puerto Ricans, even those living in Puerto Rico are Americans, they're American citizens. But here's the hypocrisy of Stephen Miller.

He is the genius behind the mass deportations. And his great grandfather escaped Jewish persecution in Europe, came to Ellis Island and couldn't speak English. Came into this country as a foreigner with no English skills whatsoever. And of course, his family worked hard through the generations and through the decades and became very successful and Stephen was raised in a wealthy family. And now he is parroting the exact words of Adolf Hitler at a rally for somebody who's running for president of the United States.

Somebody ought to really think about the level of hypocrisy and hate that this campaign is focused on. I mean, my God, I mean, look at Donald Trump and his own family. And I don't say this negatively. I mean, he's married to an immigrant. His first wife was an immigrant. His children, I think four of his five children, are children of immigrants.

His mother was an immigrant with, I believe, many, many siblings. I mean, this is the American dream. The American dream is Ronald Reagan said, and I know Ronald Reagan, I guess, is out of vogue. The very people that worked for him, a lot of them are endorsing Donald Trump, but others just tried to turn a blind eye to the fact that

Ronald Reagan chose, just as Ike chose to warn America against the growing military-industrial complex, Ronald Reagan used his farewell speech to warn about what would happen if we closed the doors of this great country to immigrants? He said we would grow old, we would grow weary, we would lose our competitive advantage. Immigrants keep us forever young. Ronald Reagan's words, not mine. Ronald Reagan's words, not mine. And, you know, Gene, to tell you how callous things have become, we talked about the fire hose of falsehoods. Well, let's just talk about the fire hose of bigotry.

We have been talking about the Trump rally calling Puerto Ricans garbage and how insulting that's been. But there were so many insults, we haven't even gotten to the part where the speaker saw a black man in the audience and made a watermelon joke. And that's, that, we usually in the oral times, that would stop the rally.

People would go out and say, you need to get off the stage. They would apologize a hundred times over. Just don't. Just don't. And then they pretend they didn't hear the joke when you know they did. Yeah, they get deaf, don't they? You know, they get selectively deaf and they didn't hear what was said for six hours at that rally.

It was – what an amazing and frightening and awful spectacle that was. And of course, the comic was terrible, but as Claire said, the whole thing – the vice president of the United States was called the Antichrist. Another speaker said that Democrats needed to be slaughtered. It was absolutely beyond the pale, yet that's where we are now. And so it is not only justified, but necessary and inevitable to compare that rally to the Nazi rally that was held there before World War II. And that should never be appropriate or necessary in American politics. And yet is it is this is where

Donald Trump and the and the MAGA movement have have brought us they brought us to this this this terrible place Where and and now are seeking license to take us even further into this this dark realm for four more years, it's frightening. It should be frightening to anyone who loves this country and the essence and idea of this country. Yeah, for, of course, that rally comes just a week or so out from the election. And there are implications right now. Democrats trying to take advantage of what was said at MSG.

We heard from Vice President Harris. We heard from former President Obama. Democrats telling me yesterday that those remarks have electrified Puerto Ricans across the country, including many of whom who live in battleground states, namely Pennsylvania, groups that by the Democrats' old admission had been less engaged perhaps perhaps, with the Harris campaign and now are there. They're motivated to turn out and vote. And, again, of course, we know the Trump team

has tried to court some of the Latino vote. That, certainly, on Sunday, didn't help. But there's the tactical politics of this next week, but also just the statement of who we are and a statement of what the next four years of Donald Trump's presidency would look like were he to win. That was a hate rally. And it was to underscore his divisive message where it's all about creating the other.

He's creating the other, he's saying people who don't look like him are the other. People who don't think like him are the other. People perhaps who immigrated from like him are the other. People, perhaps, who immigrated from other countries are the other, and certainly Democrats are the other. And taking in tandem with his threats to use the military to go after his political opponents and the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents paints a very scary vision for the next four years.

By the way, if you're sitting at home going, there's much to do about nothing. This is Democrats taking victory laps. Let me tell you, it is not. And it's not by judging. Again, I said you should really just listen to what Donald Trump says the final weeks of the campaign. You should.

In this case, if you wanna know whether this is a big deal or not, do not listen to Democrats. Listen to Republicans in the state of Florida and listen to them panicking. The same Republicans that stayed quiet and supported Donald Trump when he tried to undermine democracy on January the 6th, the same Republicans that tried to undermine the rule of law after he was convicted and they chose to attack jury systems and to attack the jury.

These same people are panicking and have been panicking over the past two days in the state of Florida, talking about how horrible that joke was and how racist it was and how bad it was. So, yeah, this is bad. It's bad. It's a very bad look. Donald Trump knew about it, sat there, and said nothing while speaking for hours and hours.

And speaking of that, make it some video we saw that's coming out. Pretty surprising. We're going to show another half of the break. Kamala Harris's crowds versus what happened with Donald Trump in Georgia. Right. And it's Trump himself who talks about crowd size as being an indicator. And so it's worth looking at that. Still ahead on Morning Joe, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to deliver her campaign's

closing arguments today in a speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. Harris campaign chair, Geno Malley-Dillon, will join us with a preview of that, plus the fallout for The Washington Post after billionaire owner Jeff Bezos blocks an endorsement for Vice President Harris. We'll talk to the Post's former executive editor Marty Barron about that decision and the fallout. And as we go to break, the response from the Harris campaign to Trump's racist rally in New York City.

We're back in 90 seconds. A floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it's called Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. I will never forget what Donald Trump did. He abandoned the island and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults. Puerto Ricans deserve better. As president, I will always fight for you and your families

and together we can chart a new way forward. I'm Kamala Harris and I approve this message. It was a tale of two crowds last night at the campaign trail. Donald Trump, of course, always brags about the size of his crowds as a metric of his support nationally. It's not, of course.

Take a look at the rally last night for Vice President Kamala Harris in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her campaign says as many as 21,000 people were there. This comes a day after she drew 30,000 people, actually Friday night, in Houston. Now, here's a look at some video from the Atlanta Journal of Constitution's excellent political reporter, Greg Blustein. He says this was about an hour into Trump's speech last night at Georgia. You can see many, many empty seats.

Those speeches go on and on and on, so some people who may have been there begin to stream out at some point. And Jonathan Lemire, another big speech dialed up tonight for Vice President Harris at the ellipse where they're expecting at least they got a permit for 20,000 more people. Yes, certainly we know for a decade now how much Donald

Trump prizes the size of his crowds and perhaps no moment in his one debate with Vice President Harris got under his skin more when the vice president noted exactly what we just saw there that during Trump's rallies, people eventually get out and they walk out and they leave. And we have seen this time and time again. He is look, he has a lighter campaign schedule this time around than in previous election cycles.

The crowds are not as big. You know, many people have seen him before. He uses crowd size as a measure of enthusiasm. Well, if so, that's a worry. Vice President Harris, when she took over the ticket in July, had a bunch of mega rallies. She backed off those for a while, but they are back. And then certainly tonight at the ellipse, she's trying to use that setting as the backdrop for her closing argument.

And I saw it yesterday, the stage is being built there. It's the same sought spot where Trump held his stop the steel rally on January 6th moments before the Capitol insurrection is going to look very different tonight is a huge blue banner up that says freedom which of course is Harris's sort of campaign slogan they are expecting about 20,000 people to be chilly here in Washington this evening but expect 2 things I'm told by Harris say

it's one of course that contrast some it implicit, about the different visions about Donald Trump taking us back to the world of January 6th, Vice President Harris looking to move forward, warning about Trump and the dangers he would present if he has another four years talking about his political enemies list, while Vice President Harris, in what has become her sort of go-to closing argument, talking about her to-do list, while Vice President Harris, and what has become her sort of go-to closing argument talking about her to-do list, painting Trump for himself, her for the American people. Gene, off of Jonathan's just assessment of the rally this evening in Washington, I'm wondering, you've been around a while, I've been around a while, we've seen a lot of campaigns, a lot of different candidates.

But I can't even come close to imagining another candidacy or another campaign in the past that's so focused on cruelty and division heading into the election day. And I'm wondering if, like me, you think the ultimate question that might be answered a week from today, next Tuesday, election day, is not really who won and who lost, but who are we as a nation? Right, yeah, this is a test. This is like a giant litmus test for the American people,

it seems to me. I mean, you cannot imagine to starker visions of America's past president future and you can't imagine to starker starkly different visions of who we are and and Donald Trump believes we are That we are America first and only that we hate immigrants that we that we are racist, and that we are

misogynistic and that and that that's I mean, that's this is the tenor of his campaign. and he hopes to win with that. He thinks that's who we are. Vice President Harris has a very different, more optimistic, and I hope more accurate vision of who we are, of this great nation of immigrants, this nation of optimism, this nation of the future rather than the past. And I dearly hope she's right. But you're right, Mike.

This is a test. It really is, Claire. And again, I guess something that I still, I just can't really figure out, and maybe you can help me out here. I can't figure out why a candidate who's traditionally has a 47 ceiling, 48 ceiling, I just don't understand why they don't play to bring more people in. Why for them, it's a game of subtraction instead of a game of addition.

We saw this with Kerry Lake, who was supposed to win two years ago. Everybody said she was going to win. She was gonna be Arizona's next governor. She started insulting McCain, Republicans, said, we don't want you here, started insulting other people. We see it with Donald Trump all the time, constantly talking about the others,

constantly attacking the others. That's what we saw last night. And and again, I don't I don't know how he gets from here to there. Maybe he does. Maybe he wins. But it's constantly attacking other people instead of bringing them in to grow your campaign. Yeah, and there's a problem with his theory, and he's always been this way, Joe. And frankly, it worked for him in 16. I watched it work in my state, where he assumed that there were a bunch of voters out there that wanted to give the middle finger to America, that were so angry that where they found themselves in the world,

that they thought the others, whether it was Mexicans or Muslims or Black people or gay people, that they were the problem. Nothing in their life was a problem. The others were the problem. This is what Donald Trump has always marketed to. This has been his method and he has always marketed to. This has been his method. And he has always done this. Now, a political scientist will tell you, you've got to animate your base and get them enthusiastic

about who you are and your vision. But you also have to bring out other people to your side. You have to reach out. You have to include others. And addition, not subtraction. That's not what Donald Trump does. Donald Trump wants to go deep, deep into the hate, deep into the grievance. He wants to go further and further down this ugly slope to the least common denominator of humanity, which is unfortunately hate. Yeah. And that's where, that's where

he's hanging out. And that's where, that's where he's hanging out. And that's where he's going to stay now. Will it work this time? I don't know. We've got an awful lot of Republicans more so than I've never in history of this many cabinet members, the vice president, people who were close to him, very close to him in the first term, but never in history have this many people said, no, he can't be the guy. You can't vote for him. So we'll see if his, if his subtraction works.

I think you have to have addition, but it's very sad to me that this is the way he thinks you want to be president of the United States. We've been looking at the destruction he will do if he wins and the hate, now to the destruction that has been done by Donald Trump. Coming up, an emotional and extremely difficult conversation about Trump abortion bans and the dire consequences they are having on women's health. Yesterday, I sat down with a group of women who have had traumatic experiences caused by those bans. One of them was Deborah Dorbert, who shared her harrowing and painful story about being

forced to carry her baby, who had Potter's Syndrome, to term, knowing that he would die, which he did, 94 minutes after she gave birth to him. Tell me specifically what it was like for your body and mind to go through this. I fell into deep depression and was starting to have suicidal indication. I endured physical pain that was worse than labor itself. And I fell into a deep dark place,

both physically and mentally, trying to understand, like prepare myself for delivery, because I met life and death all in the same day. Your husband and little Kayden, can you describe what they went through? I mean, for Kayden. Can you describe what they went through? I mean for Kayden, I mean now I'm trying to get comfortable with the uncomfortable

and allowing that space for him to share his grief. He is asking questions. What is an angel? Where did his brother go? What is heaven? Does he have toys? And questions, I'm telling him, I don't know. What do you think? Because he lost his brother, and that's all he knows. He hasn't grieved about what happened to us.

We'll have the entire conversation for you ahead on Morning Joe. We'll be right back. It is a fastball. It's ripped down the line. It is gone. A fifth consecutive World Series game with a Freddie Freeman home run. Freddie Freeman, yeah, his third home run in a three-game series on fire including that walk off grand slam in game one gives the Dodgers an early lead on the way to a 4-2

victor of the Yankees last night. Freeman making his case for series MVP starter Walker Buehler of Vanderbilt University and six relievers combined in a five hitter for Los Angeles put the Dodgers on the cusp of their second championship in five years. Eight in franchise history just dominating the Yankees the Dodgers can complete the sweep of the Yanks with another road win tonight in game four no

team has ever overcome a three nothing series deficit to win the World Series although I heard it one team did win a series 20 years ago maybe even against the Yankees after being down 3-0. Join us now. 16 year MLB veteran and MLB network analyst, our good buddy Mark DeRosa. Mark, good to see you man. How are you doing? Well, I'm a Yankee fan, so not great.

I am too. I know. I'm biased now since I'm in the industry. I'm biased, of course. Are you surprised by how good the pitching has been for the Dodgers combined with how terrible the hitting has been for the Yankees? I Don't want to say surprised because at the end of the day

I do think the Dodgers had some starting pitching injuries But the three guys that they've run out there are pretty darn good. I am surprised that the Yankees bats have gone so cold It's been a couple game It's almost like Freddie Freeman's Grand Slam in one. Just completely shut this offense down and took their soul. I mean you look at Aaron Judge who had one of the greatest single regular seasons in Major League history. He's going to be the MVP in a runaway. How do you as a former Major League Baseball player who's been hot, who's been in slumps, how do you explain what he's going through right now? This is a classic mental slump. This isn't a physical

move. This isn't something he's doing different at the plate. He's not getting pitched differently. He used to take these pitches get into 102 count and then get his pitch to drive and not miss it. He looks rushed at the plate. He's trying to do too much. He's got the city on his back. He understands that I think lost his swing. Yeah. But I think I think for me he's covered up a lot of flaws on this roster for a while. And when he doesn't go they don't they don't really have a chance. I mean Juan Soto at the end of the day has has played well and John Carlos Stanton has

certainly hit well. But this is 99 team.. Yeah, yeah, it feels that way. So you know, Joe, the Yankees have three guys hitting. You got nine guys in a lineup. You can't win that way. And let's not take anything away from the Dodgers pitcher. Walker Bueller was great last night. Yamamoto was beyond great in game two. This is a combination of two things where the Dodgers just look like a vastly superior

team. Well, I mean, that's the crazy thing about baseball. I mean, we've we've we say it all the time. It's it's who's hitting. It's who's pitching. It's the timing of October. I always go back to that Cardinals team that I think won like 83 games got hot in October and won the World Series. But but Mark, let's let's talk about specifically the Dodgers, because we've been making fun of the Dodgers for years here saying, oh, you know, win 110 games and then your pitchers are terrible in the playoffs and you get swept.

Nobody saw Yamamoto. Everybody knows Yamamoto is great. Nobody saw, though, his performance the other night. Again, timing is everything. Bueller, a great pitcher who's had a rough, rough string of injuries. Nobody saw last night's game coming. This is what baseball in October is all about. It's timing and when you get hot. And who in the world would have seen Yamamoto and Bueller's performances,

like even two weeks ago looking anything like this. Joe you're right. I mean I am surprised by the depth like the fact that they've been able to go deep in the game starting with Jack Flaherty in game one. I think that's the biggest thing for me but they've been able to spin the ball in the strike zone. They've been able to get ahead. I mean last night the Yankees hitters took 24 fast they swung and missed at 24 fastballs in the zone. That's just not who they are Hopefully tonight. It's a bullpen game. The yanks find a way to push this to game five I want garrett cole back on the mound and see if they could make a series out of it

But right now you have to tip your cap to the dodgers Yeah, you know mike, I think um at alabama. Alabama, I think they have a saying that says, this is where legends are made as you go into the weight room, and then we go and lose to Vandy. But that's another story. But the World Series, by the way, how in the world do you drop Vandy out of the top 25 when they lose to Texas by three points?

Yeah, thank you, Joe. We'll talk about that later. That is insanity. Vendi is a really good solid team and they can beat about 10 teams in the top 25 including Alabama they already have been Mike. This is where legends are made so world series, it's the fall classic we remember 5040 40, almost 50 years later, Reggie Jackson, game six, 1977.

He lifts the Yankees with three home runs to beat the Dodgers. Freddie Freeman now, kids 30 years from now, we'll remember if they go on and win, what Freddie Freeman has meant, in October, when it mattered the most he's lifted this team on his shoulders. Oh Joe October tales are epic.

I mean from Pudge Fisk in 1975. I mean every October there's a surprise. The big surprise I think for a lot of real baseball fans this year is the length of the Dodgers lineup. I mean it begins with Jack

Flaherty. You expect he's going to get a good game. He had a tough game coming into it but he's going to have a good game because he's Jack Flaherty. He gave him a good game. The big surprise is Willie just

noted and Mark mentioned is Yamamoto gives him six and a third and he's coming out of the box. Followed up by Walker Buehler a potential Cy Young Award winner who has had two of Tommy John surgeries and has had a tough summer coming back and

he gives him an epic game last night. But the length of the Dodgers lineup compared to the Yankee lineup Mark is staggering. Given the payrolls of both teams. It's funny Tommy Edmond hit

fifth hit ninth in game one. He won the NLCS MVP. The thing for me Freddie Freeman has just been an unbelievable story. I've known this guy since he was 18 years old, a farm ham with the Atlanta Braves. The process is right, slow heartbeat. He got going, he's healthy, the ankle feels good.

He's gone deep in five straight World Series games. Talk about the magic and the gift that Freddie Freeman gave baseball, gave Americans when he hit the. What did he do? I was I went back to my hotel room in the seventh inning because I wanted to watch it you know really lock in and watch it and lay down and kind of manage it along with it and when he went deep for him to run over to his father it's it kind of brought tears to your eyes. I hate to be so sappy but It's what it's why I played I want to honor my father play catch what I'm in backyard have moments for him

I swear I think I got every hit in my career for my dad and to watch Freddie His story he lost his mom the skins skin cancer at a very young age. That's why he wears sleeves I've watched this guy grow up. Like I said in the Atlanta Braves organization. Truth be told I think he wanted to stay there. He was a little jaded when he went over to the

Dodgers and I think that game won that swing. He became a Dodger. It was unbelievable. Yeah. He let he let the Atlanta fans know later he wanted to stay in Atlanta. But yeah going over to his dad and hugging him and later saying, this was my dad. This was all about my dad pitching to me, throwing to me,

batting practice every day. My gosh, what an incredible story. Now, Jonathan O'Meara, that is a happy uplifting story. And we're going to try something. We're gonna throw you in the pool, okay? The Yankees are down, three-oh. And we're gonna see if you can paddle and be polite to two Yankee fans

and not do what you did when you ran into a bar room and screamed, Jeter Seter sock at a very inappropriate time. In your youth, I want you to show class right now and act like you've been there before and ask a polite question of our 2 Yankee fans. Well that that moment with Jeter I mean that could have been any day not just from. But I will also say this say this. This has been a showcase series for Major League Baseball. The stars involved, the cities involved, the teams involved.

The stars, Shohei Otani hasn't actually done all that much for the Dodgers yet. We're glad he's playing. Mookie Betts had a nice moment last night. But Mark, let's talk the path. It was invoked 20 years ago. We know what happened in that 3-0 back. Look how classy I'm being. I'm not talking about which teams are involved.

But if you were to do the same for the Yankees, if you were to do the same for the Yankees, it does start right. Full pen game. It's cold tomorrow. Yeah. I get the rest of the way there. They got to start hitting judges has to have a moment for this stadium and these fans. He really does. It can't be the expectation at the bottom of the lineup is going to get this done.

They don't play fundamentally sound baseball. For me they don't run their bases as good as the Dodgers. They don't do anything as good as the Dodgers except the ability to drive the ball out of the park.

And I just won ninety nine and not go into the offseason carrying this burden. Yeah. By the way the Dodgers defense has been great really good. You like the throw last night the catch couple catches by Mookie and they're just this burden. Yeah, by the way, the Dodgers defense has been great. Really good. You like the throw last night, the catch, couple catches by Mookie.

I mean, they're just, it's just a great game. One game at a time. One game at a time. One game at a time. Ridgewood High School. Well, we had some tough ones against you at Bergen Catholic, my friend. I want to point out our guest, Mark DeRosa, career postseason batting average, 358 in the postseason.

Whoa. It's a guy, a guy who delivered in big moments. Mr. Octorno. Far from it. Game four of the World Series tonight in the Bronx. Let's see if we can get one, Mark. MLB Networks coverage from Yankee Stadium starts at noon with Mark co-hosting MLB Central and we'll be watching.

Mark DeRosa, always great to have you here. Thanks for having me. Good seeing you. Come back soon. You too.