Morning Joe - Morning Joe 10/31/24

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

Trump says he would protect women, whether they like it or not

You can't lead America if you don't love Americans, it's true. The most corrupt, horrible people. These are horrible people. Oops, we should get along with everybody. They're horrible people. He's the worst president in the history of the USA. Obama was a great divider. He was a great, great divider.

Kamala Harris, a very low IQ individual. So this guy, David Muir, you know, pretty boy, he goes, that's stuff. I don't think he's that good looking anymore. Time does that. Time does that. She would get us into a third world war. Look at that general.

He's a real general, not like Milley. Not like Milley. Not like Kelly Lowe. He's a low IQ guy. They're incompetent people. Kamala is a radical left Marxist rated even worse than crazy Bernie Sanders or Pocahontas herself. She doesn't have the intellect, the stamina, or that special quality that real leaders, people like Brett Favre have. They're grossly incompetent people, and they've destroyed our country. Donald Trump wants to put us in jail.

Donald Trump is going to go after some of the scum that you see back there, that you see back there, that you see back there that's so dishonest. And you can't be president if you hate the American people. And there's a lot of hatred. Another game of... Yeah, there is a lot of hatred, Mika. A lot of hatred coming from him. That's Donald Trump. What does John Hyman say? It's either projection or confession. I had to write this down.

Yeah. After saying you can't run America unless you love America, people that oppose him are corrupt, horrible people. Joe Biden, the worst president, by the way, the Wall Street Journal today says whoever is elected president inherits a fantastic economy. Collins-Camila Harris low IQ despite the fact she just completely lapped him in the debate and he couldn't even do 60 minutes. Obama great divider He talks about Milley not being a real general.

General Mark Milley, one of the highest decorated soldiers of this generation. His chief of staff, General Kelly, also says he's low IQ, called his opponent a Marxist, called a Senator Pocahontas, talked about how grossly incompetent people were, and just for good measure ended up calling the press that were there in a hostile environment, scum. So there you go. The hypocrisy meek over a misstatement by Joe Biden,

which he quickly corrected is so laughable because this guy does this every day. And then you turn on Fox News and get, oh, how could anybody do this? I've never seen this before. Despite the fact, one of the people saying that yesterday on Fox News stood by while Donald Trump watched violence erupt on January the 6th

and kept allowing violence to erupt on January the 6th and said the people that were beating the hell out of cops were patriots. So yes, yes, yes. Really, the gaslighting never ends. They really do think that their voters are that stupid. And it makes me sad for those voters that Donald Trump and people on TV, on other channels,

really think Americans are that dumb. Yeah, and let's not forget, Donald Trump has spent the last couple of weeks calling the entire country a garbage can. His words. Yeah. He initiated the garbage talk. And yeah, you're right.

I mean, going through that litany of insults that he offered yesterday, the truth is the audience he's talking to lives in a media ecosystem and a media bubble where that all made sense to them, that it is Kamala Harris and it is Joe Biden who have disdained for the country, who have ruined the country. Donald Trump calls us a third world country to quote, well, to paraphrase Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, please stop s-talking America. Why does he put down America at every opportunity and every turn? Because he has to create a parallel fantasy universe

where America lies in ruins and he can ride in and save the country. But as you said, the economy is at historic highs. I mean, it's just objectively undeniable that things are going extremely well. Inflation still needs to come down more. We know that, but he has to create a fantasy world, Mika, that does not

exist. He's talking about a world in America that does not exist so that he can be the savior. Well, let me read. This is from Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, which has bent over backwards, especially the editorial page, bent over backwards to do everything they can to try to grant a permission structure to voters so they can vote for a guy that is trashing America, that of course tried to overthrow the last presidential election. Good luck there. I hope it works for you guys, whatever you're doing.

This is the headline in the Wall Street Journal today, the next president inherits a remarkable economy. I've never seen a headline like that. I've never seen a headline. And as we've been saying here every day while Donald Trump's been trashing America, talking about how great America's economy is, how strong America's economy is, Donald Trump goes around trashing it.

But I've never seen a headline like that. The next president inherits, quote, a remarkable economy. The envy of the world we've heard time and time again. And so, yeah, that's what Kamala Harris is riding into this election with at her back. A remarkable economy. I also want to get to,

I also want to get to a little bit later on, but we have some business to do first, about the fact that it's so interesting over the past couple of days, I've been hearing on the ground in Pennsylvania things. Who knows? Sounds like they're going pretty well for the Harris campaign.

You won't really hear that from the Harris campaign, but they keep their head down. And right when you start hearing that from reporters, right when you start hearing that from people on the ground, Donald Trump starts talking about Pennsylvania votes being stolen. Is this transparent or what? If he talks about a state

and there's voting problems in that state, you know things are going sideways in that state for him. So, fascinating there. But, Mika, today's Halloween but last night New York City, an event that I know the whole world, even if they weren't watching, were focused on last night. And that was of course at Carnegie Hall, you interviewing Hillary Clinton. Tell us about it. I thought you were gonna say Yankees Dodgers. I'm really impressed here right now.

No, I'm talking about the big event. We'll get to that. But the big event, you talked to Hillary Clinton last night, you know, eight years after the Comey letter. Tell me, tell me what, I know we're going to play clips, but what were the takeaways? We have some great clips coming up that will show this event, but Hillary Clinton was greeted by a packed house at Carnegie Hall that just exploded with support when she walked down the stage.

We talked about Kamala Harris's campaign and how it's going, how she's doing. We're going to show you later, because she was a secretary of state, her thoughts on what happens to America's foreign policy if Trump were to win this election. We also talked about this moment in time looking back eight years ago today. The Comey letter had just broke but the campaign still looked good and what happened in the final hours and a really interesting conversation on her the research that she had done about radicalization, about how somebody becomes a white nationalist. And she actually spent some time in her book telling the story of the time she spent with

a woman who was a white supremacist, had hurt people, had actively taken part in these groups and talked about the immersion process into situations like this and the immersion process out and how slow it is and how it also Joe really parallels with what we're seeing today and I'll I'll end with if you think oh come on what do you mean what we're seeing today? Eight years ago, we would have never imagined the rally at Madison Square Garden, the hate rally that took place. We would have never imagined something like that.

And yet here we are. And it was a real wake up moment. I feel everybody left Carnegie Hall last night wanting to call someone and wake them up. Yeah, I heard nothing but just incredible rave. So we're going to show more clips of that. Now listen, for parents at home and those children also, for those who are aspiring producers, I want to give

you three bits of wisdom this morning. Number one, this is not from the teleprompter. Let me tell you friends, I'm reading this straight from my heart. There are three things you don't want to do. Oh dear. If you have a child, okay, don't let them play with knives. That's a bad thing.

That's good. If you have a teenage boy, and the words of the great P.J. O'Rourke, write this down, Willie, and write it yay on your heart. Do not hand them at the same time a bottle of whiskey and car keys to the family station wagon. Don't do that. Number three, and I think this is the most important thing,

if you ever find yourself in a position where you are a sound engineer or a producer of a morning show, do not let Jonathan Lemire talk after a game like last night. So if we could cut Jonathan Lemire's mic and go straight to Willie. Why just Jonathan? And Willie, I want, Willie, we don't want to hear from,

no, it's not going to be good. We'll let Mike because he's, he's, he's passionate about the game of baseball. Willie, I've got to say, I got to say, even I felt your pain last night. And what has to be remembered, not only in Yankees history, but in World Series history, is just a really, really bizarre fifth inning that actually ended the final.

Well, Aaron Judge drops a ball that any kid in Little League could have caught. And I'm still trying to figure out what he was doing. Here it is. You just don't miss this. You just don't miss this. And I don't remember seeing a player miss something like that. TK Hernandez, obviously, very alert to get into second.

We don't have to show that a thousand times. One time would suffice. I will say, okay, stop it. I saw we've got an executive producer that's... Okay, Simmer. I've got to say, Willie, that was really bad. I've got to say, the one that really just made you think, man, inexplicable, was when Garrett Cole,

who was pitching an incredible game, a no-hitter going into the fifth inning, didn't cover first base. Like's something you teach kids when they're seven eight years old. Yeah I mean this was a slow roller I think he assumed Rizzo was gonna field it and step on first but it had a little spin on it Rizzo stepped back he didn't cover Cole didn't cover but you're right Joe this Yankees had everything going they felt good after the game one win judge hits a home run in the first thing we say okay we got judge back

here we go Cole's pitching great as you said a no hitter through four innings and then an inning the fifth inning that will live in Yankee infamy forever changed it all three errors in the inning including that judge drop what happened was P.K. Hernandez was off the bag kind of went halfway a little bit and not quite halfway and I think Judge thought Mike he could double him off first. So before he squeezed it he looked to his left if he could throw over to first base and that kind of opened the flood gates. The Dodgers scored five runs.

Freddie Freeman. Gosh. Doing it again. Two runs single. He's the World Series MVP. And it all just came unraveled that the Dodgers went on to win the game 7 to 6. I don't want to say they're taking it hard here in New York Joe, but here's here's the back page of the New York Post this morning saying simply end of the world. And we. In fact we have an eyewitness to this tragedy last night. Yeah.

John Meacham is here with us. Yeah. John, it did feel good for four innings, and then suddenly it all left us. It was amazing. It was really kind of a Greek drama, Willie. It was comedy. It was heading toward victory.

It was redemption, and then tragedy struck. Yes it did. And really, I was there with my son who, I like to think, got this from the ambient atmosphere in the Meacham household, begins analogizing it to the Titanic. So my work is done. There's always an analogy. Sure. Yeah. But it was genuine was genuinely gasps when Judge and then the and people thought

there'd been like we'd like gone into a time warp when Cole didn't cover. Bizarre. Yeah, really, it really is so strange and Mike, you know, going into this fifth inning, just to let people know how paranoid Red Sox fans always are about the Yankees, I started looking ahead. I was like, okay, wait a second. They're going to win this game. It's 3-2.

And suddenly, I start thinking, because your boys, the Barnacle boys, have put together this extraordinary documentary. And I really did start thinking in my head, the Yankees are gonna get the final laugh. They're gonna come back while we're all celebrating what happened 20 years ago. But the way they were playing,

and the fact that Aaron Judge at the play was starting to see the baseball. I mean, this is actually, if he had caught that ball, this is actually a series where Judge had actually, you saw him correct himself over last night and the night before. You're like, OK, Judge is here to play. And with Judge and Stanton playing, these Dodgers, they can be, they can have their backs pushed against the wall. I really thought that was going to happen. It looked like it was going to happen. And then just the strangest fifth inning,

strangest inning I think I've seen in World Series history. Well, you know, Joe, I only have so much space in my heart for things like this, but I got to tell you, John, Willie, welcome to the land of if only. That's been my zip code and was my zip code for many, many years until 2004. Last night's game was a tribute to a lot of things. It was a tribute to baseball, first of all, because it was a magnificent season, a magnificent

fall season. But the idea of the Yankees losing that way with one inning, a one-inning collapse was the epitome of baseball. I mean, I almost shut it off when it was 5-zip in the third inning. I almost turned and watched Chicago PD at 10 o'clock. You know? in the third inning. I almost turned and watched Chicago PD at 10 o'clock.

You know? Right here on NBC. Yeah. To get my mind off of it. But I didn't. And while I certainly feel for you, and to a certain level, it brought back a memory of 2003 to me, when you just mentioned your son. I then had a young 10-year-old Tim Barnicle sitting next to me, and his brother Colin

and Nick were next to him. And Aaron Boone hit the home run that crushed a whole bunch of people and certainly ended the Red Sox season. And Colin reached over and tugged on my sleeve and looked me in the eye and said, Dad, we were all standing. He said, Dad, you better take care of Tim. And I looked down and I saw a 10-year-old Timmy Barnacle, tears as big as hubcaps in his eyes.

And the first thing that raced across my mind was, what have I done? I've passed this on to my sons. So I feel for you to a certain extent, but Mookie Betts won the World Series. All right. I'm putting an end to this. Also, we're talking about the Yankees failings,

but let's not take anything away from the Dodgers. The better team won the World Series this year. Incredible lineup. They pitched great early in the series. They deserve to win. So it hurts, but congratulations to the Dodgers. That's nice. That's nice.

Jonathan Lemire's mic off. That's nice, Eddie. I'm going to cut your mic off. Jonathan, what did you think of the series? Why did you? I'm sorry. You can do it, John. You can do it. Oh, his mic is cut.

That's a shame. Meek can take us to news. Okay, so what we're going to do, because you guys have... So the bed here is... We've got a lot to talk about. We'll start talking. No, we're going to take a 90-second break. We're going to cover Donald Trump in Wisconsin also.

Donald Trump says he's the protector of women. He keeps saying this sick trope. And we have an update on what life is like for women in America under Trump's abortion bans. So we'll kind of spell out exactly what he means by protector in 90 seconds. Welcome back. During his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin last night, Donald Trump admitted that his advisors have told him to stop saying that he will protect women. It's probably good advice, given the reality now.

It's a line he's been using frequently on the campaign trail. As polls show, he's trailing Vice President Harris by large margins with women. Last night, he went a step further with his protector comments, while explaining why his advisors don't want him to make those comments. And my people told me about four weeks ago, I would say, no, I want to protect the people.

I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women. Sir, please don't say that. Why? They said, we think it's very inappropriate for you to say so. Why? I'm president. I want to protect the women of our country. They said.

They said, sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say, pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it? I said, well, I'm going to do it, whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them. I'm going to protect them from migrants coming in. I'm going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles and lots of other things. Whether women like it or not, that's great.

Trump says he'll protect women. OK, he's got a long history that suggests otherwise. I gotta use some Tic Tacs just in case they start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. I just kiss them. I don't even wait.

Hey, when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. Grab them by the. I can do anything. whatever you want. Grab them by the I can do anything. And you say, and again, this has become very famous

in this video, I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet, just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the you could do anything. That's what you said, correct?

Well, historically that's true with stars. It's true with stars that they can grab women by the p***, you could do anything. That's what you said, correct? Well, historically, that's true with stars. It's true with stars that they can grab women by the p***? Well, that's what, if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true, not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately. And you consider yourself to be a star? I think you can say that, yeah.

You running for president of the United States will be chief executive of the United States. Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle? The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman? Yeah, there has to be some form. Ten cents, ten years, what? Let me just say, I don't know. That I don't know.

Why not? I don't know. You take don't know. That I don't know. I don't know. You take positions in everything else. Frankly, I do take positions in everything else. It's a very complicated position. For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I'm proud to have done it. They wanted to get it back, right?

You wouldn't have that. There would be no question. Nobody else was going to get that done but me. And we did it. And we did something that was a miracle. When I walked onto the stage today, a gentleman in the back, probably works for Fox, nice guy, said... Well, the abortion bans due to Donald Trump are certainly punishment for women.

I've been bringing the stories here throughout the past two weeks of many women, many women who are just examples of many more women who are having reproductive emergencies or emergencies with their reproductive organs, whether they are pregnant or not, who are not getting the health care that they need. And the stories are gruesome, that they're dreadful. They're a horror that nobody should have to endure. And I have to tell them because it's happening now. It's happening now.

And this is a lot of the reason why women probably will be the beacon this election and turn out in record numbers. I've told the stories of women who have been sterilized, who have died, who have had to prove that they were dying enough. And now we have another story, thanks to the reporting at ProPublica. This woman here, Yoseli Barnica, she was so excited to be having a baby, another baby. And she is now one of two Texas women on record who died after doctors delayed her emergency care and it's important to say exactly how this happened. She was 17 weeks pregnant. She went to the hospital

because a miscarriage was in progress and according to hospital records the fetus was on the verge of coming out. And the moment medical care should have been administered, which was that moment, and the reason why they would need the medical care is that they would need to speed up the delivery and empty her uterus because that would save her life at this point. The baby was completely unviable. It was a miscarriage. And they needed to save her.

And if you take the measures and do the health care that helps empty the uterus, that then prevents her from getting an infection and dying. She told her husband when he rushed to her bedside, they had to wait until there was no heartbeat. And her husband told ProPublica, they told him it would have been a crime to give her the care that she needed. It would have been a crime to save her life.

Donald Trump is the protector of women because his bands just killed another woman. Yoseli suffered for 40 hours in agony while her uterus remained exposed to bacteria. And three days later, this young mother who was so excited about bringing another life into this world was dead. So Joe, that is just yet another story, and there will be many, many, many more of life in America, Trump's life in America for women. So when you look at him as the protector, just keep that in mind. I'm not sure what he's talking about.

It's kind of some sick, distorted fascist way. He's protecting himself. And the only reason why he's saying such a preposterous thing is because he's doing so poorly in the polls with women. He's also seeing that early voting is showing that women in key states are out voting men. He understands this is a problem. He's understood this was going to be a problem for a very long time and that's why he's gone back and forth and back and forth on this issue because he's made the mistake of bragging about terminating Roe v. Wade. He's bragged

about being the person that terminated 50 years of constitutional protections for women's health care. And in this case, where you have this woman dying just in a gruesome way, a woman who is having a miscarriage, dying in a gruesome way. That's what Donald Trump's pro-life America looks like. It really is. And you look at what happened with the other story we heard the other day about the woman who had to deliver a baby that the doctor said would die, would suffer for 90 minutes. The baby had potter's syndrome. The woman had to deliver a baby and then watch the poor baby suffocate for 90 minutes, blue in her arms. That's what Donald

Trump's America looks like. That's what the face of pro-life in 2024 looks like. And these stories are happening everywhere. They're happening because of extreme abortion bans in Texas. They're happening because of extreme abortion bans in Florida. They're happening because of extreme abortion bans in Texas. They're happening because of extreme abortion bans in Florida. They're happening because of extreme abortion bans across America. And you know, every year we hear lies from the Trump right. We, of course, I think the biggest lie this year on an issue has to do with the transgender prison policy where they ran 30,000 ads on NFL games, attacking Kamala Harris for actually supporting what was Donald Trump's policy

to have federal taxpayers pay for transgender surgery. That was preposterous. But also equally preposterous is the fact that Donald Trump is now running around Jonathan O'Meara saying that he is the protector of women. It's just the opposite. He is the protector of himself. He cares about himself. he cares about his electoral viability, he does not care about a mother, a grieving family, and a healthcare emergency, catastrophe. The doctors can't even care for the patients. And I'm just going to say, this does run to the politicians.

I do wonder what doctor stands by and watches a woman die on an emergency room table, because the other lie I was going to get to is this lie that we always hear. Oh, doctors can kill live babies in the ninth month of the board. That's never happened. It's a lie that the right spreads.

But let me tell you what is happening, and it's happening far too often. Young women, women with children, women with families have been left to die on operating tables because of the extreme, extreme abortion policies that Donald Trump made possible. And I want to know, Jonathan, how much does the Trump campaign, for all their bravado and claiming that they're 80 points ahead, when actually they are now panicked and starting

to lie about voting in Pennsylvania, how much do they fear women going out and voting this year? Since the Dobbs decision, abortion rights has been basically undefeated at the ballot, Democrats winning even in some very red places. We know how well they did in the 2022 midterms as well. From the first moments of this campaign, which you'll recall, Trump launched just days after the midterms, November 2022,

against the advice of many Republicans, but he wanted to get out there ahead of the criminal proceedings that were coming. From those first moments of the campaign, Trump advisers were deeply worried how abortion rights would play. And that has remained the case throughout. Trump tried to just distance himself

from the whole subject for a while. He has tweeted nonsensically that women don't care about the issue anymore. That, of course, we know is not true. But he also can't help himself. And he has taken a number of times, taking credit for Roe v. Wade being overturned. He has talked about how it's his Supreme Court justice, his justices, that made that decision. And this is something that has worried his advisers throughout.

They can see the gender gap. Yes, Trump is doing better than Harris among men, but Harris is winning with women and by a bigger margin, particularly in these early voting states. And we've talked, Joe, both on and offline about how it's hard to really read in to the early voting totals because we don't know if simply Republicans are cannibalizing their day of votes by now having them come early because this year for once the GOP really pushed the early voting. But I'm with you.

I've also heard in the last couple of days a quiet and I'll stress quiet confidence coming out of the Harris campaign that they're sort of they feel better about where they are Joe and Mika particularly in those three blue wall states, particularly because they're not seeing low propensity voters turn out for Trump and they are seeing women turn out for Harris. Well, and if I could add to that women narrative that we're following here to see if it plays out in the election, the one thing that has been hopeful in covering all of these stories that have been really just unbearable, unspeakable,

what has happened to women in America due to Donald Trump. But I often have a table of women telling their stories or talking about why they care so much about this election. Often I've also shown these videos, these real life stories, these real life consequences to a table of men here with my brothers on Morning Joe with Willie by my side and Eddie you were here Friday and I've seen you cry, I've seen you cry and I've seen every man at the table flinch when I tell these stories because you love your wives, you love your daughters and you can't believe that this is the reality, the

healthcare reality that they are now existing in. So I do believe, Willie, that this isn't just a women's issue. I think men may be the beacon on this as well. Yeah, and a policy paper or a cross tab in a poll cannot get at the humanity of these stories like the one you just told, like the one that were so determinative and influential two years ago of young teenage girls having been raped, having to deliver the babies. Those are the stories that make it real for a lot of people.

And there's so many now. They've not experienced it themselves. Yeah, so many people. And, Eddie, one of the other things that you hear from the Harris campaign is when you look at this early voting, don't look just at the registrations. In other words, you might see a lot of Republicans have voted. They really believe because of what Mika just gave voice to, because of the stories we're hearing, that many of those may be Republican women not voting for Donald Trump.

They may be a registered Republican, but they may be going out to vote for Kamala Harris because of issues like we're hearing here. I pray that's true. I pray that it's true so that we don't have any more of these stories. My heart goes out to the family, to that baby who won't grow up with her mother, to the husband who no longer has the woman he loves in his life. I pray that's true. Two quick things.

One, it's bad theology. It's really bad theology driving this. And politics, of course. And the last thing is that there's a connection between patriarchy and the call for protection and the denying of women autonomy. So when he says, I'm your protector, it's actually consistent with his attack on Roe

V. Wade, because women aren't agents, self-determining agents. They can't make decisions for themselves. They need protection because they're denied autonomy. So we need to see the relationship between his declaration that he will protect women, and Dove's decision, and the horror we just saw. Right. And Eddie, Eddie, Donald Trump actually says after we play the access Hollywood tape, Donald Trump says last night, I'm going to be their protector.

Something along the lines of I don't care whether they like it or not. Yeah. Wow. That's a threat. That's it, Joe. OK. Coming up, hundreds of American historians are voicing their support for Vice President Kamala Harris. We're going to discuss the significance of that.

Plus, what Kamala Harris told North Carolina voters yesterday about working across the aisle. We'll show you the big campaign moments. And as we go to break, a look at the Harris campaign social media take on Donald Trump's comments yesterday about protecting women. They said, sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say. I said, well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. Whether the women like it or not.

Whether the women like it or not. Whether the women like it or not. Whether the women like it or not. I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. Wow. Beautiful live picture of Lower Manhattan 641 on this Thursday morning. A group of more than 400 historians is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris this morning. Historians for Harris writes in a statement, since 1789, the nation has prospered under a constitution dedicated to securing the general welfare under a national government bound

by the rule of law in which no one, interest, or person holds absolute power. In 1860, an elite interest dedicated to human slavery attempted to shatter the union, rather than accede to the constitutional rule of law by accepting the outcome of the election, plunging the nation into civil war. We believe, based on our study of the past, write the historians, that the nation stands at an unprecedented historical as well as a political crossroads. On the outcome of this election, no less than the election of 1860 hangs the fate of both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. We appeal to our fellow citizens, whether conservative, independent, or liberal, regardless

of party affiliation, to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Joining us now, Professor of History at Princeton University, Sean Willens, and still with us, Eddie Glaude Jr. and John Meacham, all three part of the Historians for Harris. So John, I'll let you kick us off here, making the nonpartisan case a constitutional case for Vice President Harris. Why do you think the stakes are so high? It's supra-partisan. I'm not a Democrat.

I voted for presidential candidates in both parties. But to me, this is a clear application of reason and justice that one candidate represents a journey toward a more perfect union under the rule of law. And the other, if you take him at his word, if you listen to what he says and see what happened after the 2020 election, that candidate is not devoted to the America that can in fact become that more perfect. So, Professor, for you, why are the stakes so high here? Well, the key is the Constitution. I mean, that's what drives it, makes it super partisan, or above partisanship. I mean, look, every election we've had so far in my lifetime, both parties have respected the base

to constitutional rule of law. That has not been the case. It's certainly not the case now. And so the Constitution is deeply important. We've had moments in American history where the crises have happened, the largest being in 1860, where a group of people dedicated to slavery decided rather than to accept the outcome of a presidential election that they were going to dissolve the Union. This is not unlike that. We're at that kind of moment right now. We have one candidate who has already tried to overthrow the outcome of a democratically – constitutionally dictated election, has already tried to do that, and has more or

less said he will try to do it again. That right away should put you – should alarm you. But apart from that, the contempt, the contempt that he and his supporters show for the Constitution and for the rule of law has been throughout his presidency and then his post presidency. And so I think that, as John said, it's a really pretty clear choice we have here between some group of people who would rather dissolve the Constitution, really. He has said so. He would happily abrogate it if he wanted to do so for the sake of his own power and

those of his friends. That can't happen. It's no mistake, Eddie, that he expresses admiration for people like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un and dictators in Eastern Europe as well. As your Princeton colleague points out, we don't have to wonder about this. This is not some theoretical exercise. This is not 2016 where we say, oh, he's just saying these things. He's not going to do them.

We've watched him do them. We watched him try to overturn the outcome of the last election. And he's gone even further in the last couple of years saying exactly what he wants to do if he gets power. Absolutely. I think that the analogy to 1860 is really important for me, that the very background conditions for trying to struggle to make the country live up to its promise, it's being challenged.

What are the conditions under which I can struggle, that we can struggle to make America live up to these ideals, to make it a genuinely multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural democracy? Well, Donald Trump wants to undermine the background conditions for the argument to be made. And it's on that basis, right? It's on that basis that I joined with all of these historians to make the argument that we have to vote, no matter if you're progressive or you're conservative, if you're a Democrat. No, you believe in the background conditions for us to have the struggle to have to have the argument

You got to vote for McCombs Harrison tomorrow, and it is it has nothing to do with partisanship. I'm a conservative You know part of the only Congress that balanced the budget four years in a row in a century Liz Cheney a Conservatives conservative both of us have 95 percent lifetime conservatives, conservative, both of us have 95 percent lifetime ACU ratings. And this isn't even a close call. We want to survive until the next election. And we want leaders that respect the Madisonian democracy, checks and balances, respect NATO leaders and don't throw their respect behind communist tyrants, like Donald Trump does.

You know, John, you and I have been a bit concerned throughout the election that people, they use the justification of voting for Donald Trump this time, they're saying, well, you know, he was president four years before, and he didn't try to jail anybody. He didn't try to jail Hillary Clinton. I mean, we don't need to go back to 1860.

We can look what happened in 2017 and 18. Donald Trump did try to jail Hillary Clinton. Ordered Jeff Sessions to arrest her. He said there was nothing there. Ordered Barr to arrest her. Barr, his next attorney general, said there was nothing there, ordered Barr to arrest her. Barr, his next attorney general, said there's nothing there to arrest her over. Two weeks before the 2020 election, he ordered Barr privately and publicly to arrest Joe Biden and Joe Biden's family. And again, he had pushback then. He will not have that pushback now, will he?

No, he won't. And that brings up a hugely important point here. We've discussed the rule of law. We've discussed the letter and spirit of the Constitution, the spirit of the Constitution, which also goes to the centrality of character in making American democracy work. It's about individual character of the leaders, but also of the lead.

And Mike Pence, after the election, the folks you mentioned, they may not be perfect, no one is, but in an hour of maximum danger, they had the character to say, no, we're going to follow the spirit of the Constitution. I think, Professor, a lot of people are banking on our democracy being so strong because we're America. You speak to the fragility of any democracy, even this one. Every democracy. Look, we're faced with what seems to be a normal election, but it's not a normal election

because the guardrails are already off. They've been off for a long time Democracy depends on trust Democracy depends on honor democracy depends on character as John said That is what is at stake here the Constitution itself as the as the framers of the Constitution said, you know a republic if you can keep it There's no guarantee in our institutions. Our institutions are human institutions. And human institutions, if men were angels, we'd need no government. Well, we're not all angels. And we need a government that can be a strong democracy, but it depends on who we are. It's very hard to get that to be comprehended by people who are busy working,

tapping into this election now, and how could that really affect me? Yes, but actually everybody is affected freedom is not for free and even if you're a Republican and you back Trump Your guarantee of not being a target of his threats will be gone I mean, it's a whole different ballgame will be gone. I mean it's a whole different ball game if he wins. Professor of American history at Princeton University, Sean Wilentz, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it. Presidential historian John Meacham, thank you as well as always. And still ahead on Morning Joe. Imagine election night and it's Steve Kornacki. He's up on he's got his big

magic board and he's looking at North Carolina. And he says, what the hell just happened in Mecklenburg County? But why? I mean, what's new about pumping money into a county that typically already votes Democrat? Yeah, so we vote Democrat. We're a blue county. But for Democrats to win statewide here in North Carolina, they need Mecklenburg to not just be blue, but to be dark blue.

NBC's Morgan Radford brings us new reporting on why Democrats in a key North Carolina county are now devoting more of their resources to getting out the vote just days before the election. Plus, Steve Ratner standing by with his charts that highlight the success of the U of the US economy. Also ahead, Emmy Award-winning actor John Turturro and four-time Emmy Award-winning actor Tony Chalhoux. They'll join us live in studio to talk about their new podcast series that dives into what

could happen if fascism creeps into America. Warning, Joe, we'll be right back. Helped it. Beautiful, beautiful view of the United States Capitol, sound, Chicago, feeling stronger every day. I think it's from like 72 or 73. What am I? I don't know.

CKLW DJ? I don't think so. I'm sure it is. So Willie, as you know, this is the time of the morning, CKLW, Windsor, Canada. But anyway, Willie, this is the time of morning. This is the time of morning, as you know, that young kids all over the fruited plains,

all over America, from coast to coast, they grab their Steve Ratner-themed Cabbage Patch dolls, they run down the stairs. They turn on the TV set. And they sit in front of it because they want to see Uncle Steve, as they call him, Uncle Steve and his charts. And what he's talking about today is at the top, it is on the top banner headline

of the Wall Street Journal. The US economy extends growth streak. The next president inherits, this is the headline, quote, a remarkable economy. Let me just read you the first two paragraphs. Whoever wins the White House next week will take office with no shortage of challenges, but at least one huge asset,

an economy that is putting its peers to shame. With another solid performance in the third quarter, the U.S. has grown 2.7 percent over the past year. It is outrunning every other major developed economy, not to mention its own historical growth rate. And Willie, the Wall Street Journal concludes this is not happening by magic it's not happening because of government intervention it's happening because American people and American businesses are more productive today than ever before. Yeah absolutely it's the front page as you said of the Wall Street Journal U.S. economy extends growth streak growth 2.8% pushing up against that 3 percent

number. We'll get an inflation number today and then that jobs number tomorrow, all just days ahead of the election. And that doesn't even count in, Joe, the mothers and the fathers fighting each other in the halls of Toys R Us trying to get that Steve Ratner cabbage pack. Ugly scenes, frankly, but it's where we are as a nation. They're so cute. I love them. No, no, but it's where we are as a nation. They're so cute. I love them.

They're known. Fist fights in the aisles. Let's go right to Steve Ratner joining us with charts breaking down the surging American economy is former Treasury official, Morning Joe economic analyst and matinee idol Steve Ratner. Steve, good morning. It's great to see you. So let's dive right into your charts.

U.S. economic growth, as we just pointed out, leading the world. We've heard this, by the way, from economist after economist, Republicans even conceding, many of them, that at this moment the American economy is in fact the envy of the world. Well, Willie, first of all, I have to say I've been called a lot of things in my life. Matt May Idle is a new one. I'm going to put that up on my blackboard at home. You're like Leif Garrett. Yes, I'm so flattered. And Cabbage Patch Dolls, those are the ones

that caused the economy of 2.8%. But anyway, let's put this in a historical perspective. And we're going to compare the US to the other major economies of the world. And you go back to 1980, you can see the growth rates weren't all that different. But around the 2000 period, we just took off. And we left them in the dust.

We've continued to leave them in the dust. And in fact, the IMF last week came out with new projections that show that our growth is going to accelerate even more relative to these other countries. And let me also, though, since we are going to have an election next week, do a scorecard here on the last two presidents. Donald Trump thinks this economy is in the toilet. In fact, under Joe Biden, it grew faster than it did under Donald Trump. 3.1% average GDP growth under Biden, 2.8% under Trump.

And this corrects for all the COVID things that these are straight down the middle of the fairway numbers. And then you can see that that growth in fact has turned into a much stronger economic performance for average Americans. GDP per capita is a way to think about standard of living. Not perfect measure, but it's actually right. You can see that we generate $74,000 of GDP per person and that has doubled over this period of time and then you can and no other country has come close to that. 54,000, 54,000, 46,000. And so from 1983 to 2023, we doubled this, and we are again, as you said earlier, the

envy of the world when it comes to the standard of living that Americans have. And Steve, there's something for everything in your charts, including billionaires who really need to take note. For some reason, they think Trump's the answer, which is laughable. But there's also something here in your next chart for hardworking Americans looking for a break because they're dealing with inflation, inflation numbers and unemployment numbers. How are they looking? Yeah, look, we had inflation.

We can't, nobody can escape that fact. But let's put that in perspective as well, because our inflation was in fact less than inflation that occurred in the EU and in the United Kingdom. We didn't go nearly as far up as they did, and we've all come back down now, and our inflation is just around the Fed's 2% target, and also in line with the country's, and so our inflation has become well controlled. But because of our strong growth, we have a much different unemployment picture than

the EU has. We have 3.7 percent, had 3.7 percent average unemployment in 2023, not that far off of the UK, but look at the UK at 6.7 percent. If you're looking for a job, would you rather be looking for a job in the United States? Would you rather be looking for a job in the United States? Would you rather be looking for a job in Europe? And then your last chart, Steve, is looking at what's fueling the U.S. economy. Yeah, a good part of what accounts for all that growth that I showed you a little while ago is the enormous investment that's been coming into the U.S.

The U.S. is considered the most attractive country, major country in the world, to invest in. And you can see, again, that our investment pace kind of tracked the EU well ahead of the UK and Japan, but tracked the EU for a long time. And then we took off and went in our own direction. And again, the projections show that we're going to continue to outstrip Europe and the rest of the world in terms of investment growth. And let's do the scorecard here. Biden, 9.4% average annual investment growth over his term.

Trump, 3.9%. So when Trump says he's the president that brings back investment, brings back jobs, he's wrong. It was the things that were passed in the Biden administration, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and the CHIPS Act, three major pieces of legislation that brought investment back. And that has all made the stock market very happy, as you know. The stock market has roughly up 51% under Biden, up 44% under Trump, and is, again,

way outstripped other countries. And so business may say that they have concerns about Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, but in fact under their administration, they did better as stock market investors than they did under Trump. All right. Morning, Joe, Economic Analyst Steve Ratner. Thank you very much for bringing us the facts. We really appreciate it.