Morning Joe - Morning Joe 10/9/24

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Hurricane Milton strengthens to Category 5

As you all have been reporting on the highways, shoulders being opened, everybody's heading out. And if you're under evacuation orders, you should evacuate now, now, now. You should have already evacuated. It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole. It's a matter of life and death. President Biden urging Floridians in the path of Hurricane Milton to take seriously evacuation orders from local officials. It comes as the storm is gaining strength in the Gulf, expected to make landfall in the next 24 hours. We have the very latest on the hurricane's track and a live report

from Florida straight ahead. Also ahead, a new book by longtime journalist Bob Woodward is putting Donald Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin back into the spotlight. We're going to go through the staggering new revelations. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Wednesday, October 9th. Along with Joe, Willie and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House bureau chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, professor at Princeton University, Eddie Glaude Jr. and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass. He's author of the weekly newsletter Home and Away available on Substack. We have a lot to talk with you, Richard, about, especially with these new revelations about covid tests being sent

to Vladimir Putin. Are you kidding me? We'll get to that in just a moment. Personally, from his friend Donald Trump, I can't. But we, of course, start with the Hurricane Willie. Yeah, this is a historically dangerous hurricane. The latest out of Florida this morning. Hurricane Milton once again now strengthening into a Category 5 storm. Expect to make landfall late tonight or early Thursday

morning with forecasters warning could be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record. Right now, preparations, evacuations underway as residents scramble to flee, triggering massive traffic jams and fuel shortages. Officials say Milton appears to be headed straight for Tampa, where the storm surge could reach up to 15 feet of water, obviously causing major flooding from that rainfall and damaging winds. Joining us now live from Fort Myers, Florida, NBC's Jay Gray. Jay, good morning. What are you seeing there in terms of preparations and people still having time to get out? Yeah, Willie, but that window is closing very quickly here.

We've seen a bit of rain overnight into the early morning here, which is obviously not good for this area. They've seen rain over the last couple of days and getting ready to get a deluge from this storm as it moves closer to the coastline here. What we've seen over the last couple of days is sandbagging. A lot of sandbags moved into place, boarding up of windows, things you traditionally see ahead of a hurricane. But doing that with the knowledge that this could be the most powerful storm many in this area have ever seen, and they've seen plenty. Helene, just a couple of weeks ago, leaving debris that is still piled up in some areas and still a very major concern once that storm moves in, when picking up some of that debris and scattering it again, making it projectiles that could be very dangerous.

But don't forget Ian, two years ago, that really ravaged this entire region. They're still rebuilding from Ian. There are a lot of people who haven't quite finished rebuilding their homes, their businesses as a result of that storm. And now within hours, they're going to see what may be the most powerful of all three. There are mandatory evacuations in place. If there's any good news here, it looks like, and we toured Fort Myers Beach yesterday, it looks like people have listened to those warnings that they've moved to higher ground, moved out of the area. It was really quiet yesterday and into the evening.

And so that's the good news. The tough part now, and I talked to somebody just last night, Willie, about all of this. They were sheltering and they said, look, the tough part now is waiting, watching and then seeing where the storm hits and what it may leave behind. And there's a lot of concern about that right now. Jay, you've seen a lot of these storms in your years. You've covered a lot of them. I'm just curious, just looking at the radar, looking at the path, where this could rank in terms of storms you've seen and what they're preparing for there. And also unique in that Tampa actually hasn't had a direct hit in more than 100 years.

And if it stays on this current trajectory, it looks like it's going to go right at Tampa. No, I think you're absolutely right. You know, Tampa has always managed somehow to be out of the way of these storms. It's closing in on Tampa right now. And really what concerns me in comparing it to other storms is just how quickly this thing ramped up. I mean, it gained 100 miles an hour in strength in less than 24 hours. And it continues to barrel, not only gaining intensity, but also it's getting a bigger footprint. The wind field is getting much larger. And so that's going to be an issue as well.

It's very concerning to see how tightly wound this storm is. When you look at the eye of this storm, it's tiny. It almost looks really like a buzzsaw when you look at those graphics that you're talking about, when you look at the radar. And unfortunately, it looks like that's what this may be as it makes landfall. All right. We hope you stay safe as well, Jay. We appreciate your coverage this morning. Jay Gray live from Fort Myers, Florida. Thanks so much, Mika. We're going to talk to the mayor of Sarasota in a few minutes and get to our meteorologists on exactly when this storm is going to hit.

It's frightening. President Biden has postponed a trip abroad to oversee the response to Hurricane Milton. The president was supposed to travel tomorrow to Germany and then Angola, which would have been his first visit to Africa as president. President Biden yesterday said he's been in contact with Governor Ron DeSantis. Last night, I spoke again with the governor of Florida, DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Castro and I made it clear to them they should reach out, including to me directly, with everything else they may need as they see this storm hits.

I gave them my personal number to contact me here in the White House. The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he's gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said, no, you're doing a great job. It's all being done well. We thank you for it. And I literally gave my personal phone number to call. So I don't know, there was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor from Florida to North Carolina has been fully cooperative and supportive and acknowledged what

this team is doing. And they're doing an incredible job. We've got a lot more to do. And meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and his allies continue to lie about the federal response to Hurricane Milton and Helene. In a post on social media yesterday, Trump called the response to Helene, quote, the worst in U.S. history. In a Wall Street Journal op ed published yesterday, goal is facilitating mass migration into the U.S. None of that is true, although it is something Trump did as president right in the middle of hurricane season back in 2019. And while campaigning on Trump's behalf in Arizona yesterday, the second highest ranking Republican in the House, Majority Leader Steve Scalise also pushed that lie. Take a look at that and the response from Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday to the misinformation being spread by

Trump. FEMA, among a whole bunch of other federal agencies, has been using your tax dollars that are supposed to help you as American citizens if you get some kind of disaster and every community gets them. They use that money helping illegals here that they brought into America, you know, to get hotel rooms that they're destroying, free cell phones, food, shelter, all of those things. And then when an American needs help from their federal government, they say, oh, we're spread too thin and we're out of money. It's profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness.

Yeah. So lives are literally at stake right now. And the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself, but this is so consistent about Donald Trump. He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down. It's to lift people up. Absolutely.

Especially in a time of crisis. on our constitutional republic with the lie about the election or the lies about January 6th, two lies that actually impact people's day-to-day lives and their safety, whether it's about Haitians, legal migrants in Springfield, making their lives miserable, and people in the town, the city of Springfield, now to people in disaster zones who are being fed misinformation and they don't understand and know what is true and what is not true. This, again, is what this election is about, what the choice is about. Yeah, these are lies from Donald Trump and his allies that put people's lives in danger. These are extraordinarily dangerous. We are still seeing from the in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, people who are not trustful of the federal response,

of officials who were there, female representatives encountering some tense situations when they find people in particularly like Western North Carolina, who are still obviously suffering and isolated after what happened there. And now we have local officials really concerned about the impact here in Florida. We heard from President Biden yesterday, kind of go out of his way to strike up bipartisan tones and look, I spoke to Governor DeSantis. We're offering our help. He says governors will also they will say, yes, we spoke to the president. Yes. I mean, we're getting what we need. Right. Governor DeSantis did not take a call from the vice president, but he did take for President Biden. He has said that that has happened. Other governors, including Republican in Georgia,

said, yes, we spoke to the White House. They have been helpful. But it's local officials right now who are deeply concerned. We just interviewed the mayor of Fort Myers, Florida, in the storm's path on way too early, a few minutes ago. And he acknowledged misinformation, disinformation, a real issue. And he urged residents to turn to trusted sources, including the local government's website, and say, look, this is what you need to hear. You need to get out. Listen to us. Everything Trump's saying is just clouding the picture and making it more dangerous. Yeah, you wonder, too, about the editorial standards of The Wall Street Journal page, which we respect and read all the time and talk about on the show, just publishing uncritically what J.D. Vance is saying about the management of this hurricane. But we've been saying it now for, you know, since Helene hit and Donald Trump has been saying these things. What a disgusting moment to go right to

lies and go right to division when people need unity. They need help. That, by the way, as John points out, they're getting the Republican governors of Tennessee and Georgia. And Ron DeSantis is saying as well that FEMA is doing a good job, that they're here, they're on the ground. We talked to Governor Cooper yesterday of North Carolina, who said the same thing. It's a very difficult moment. It's there's destruction everywhere you look, but we are getting the help. But Donald Trump cannot help himself. And J.D. Vance is the number two guy. He's the beta in the relationship. He has to echo the lie, of course. Absolutely. But my gosh, what a what an appalling time to do that. First of all, our hearts and prayers go out to the folks who are in the eye of the storms.

But it seems to me it's not only bereft, it's a reflection of a kind of moral depravity. So that you translate people's sorrows into grievance. These people's lives are on the line. Right. And you're translating people's tragedy into grievance and hatred. It shows you the nature of the political calculus that's informing these folks. It's just morally depraved in my view. Yeah, no. And also it impacts overall. I mean, this is not I don't think a leap, Richard Haass, when you look at what's happening in this country and you have the system breaking down from top to bottom because the former president keeps trying to poke holes in what

is our constitutional republic and our systems of responding to people and federal aid getting to people, doesn't that impact the way that NATO allies and others around the world are looking at us and watching this election ever so closely? Yeah, so many reactions. There's nothing sacred anymore. Nothing. Nothing matters. There's no norms. There are simply no norms. Or there are norms. There's just no acceptance of them or of observation. Yeah, I've just come from Germany this week. And, you know, the rest of the world doesn't get a vote.

But, boy, are they worried. They are affected, obviously, by what happened here fundamentally. And it's not just foreign policy. And that's what connects to what you said, Mika. The impact of the United States on the world is not just what the State Department does or the military does. It's who we are. It's the example we set. And when people see things like this, again, it gets to the core. They don't recognize this United States. And they worry if we're this divided about the most obvious human crisis, how are we going to ever be there for them? And as I've said before, in the middle of the Clinton administration, when things were as heated as we thought they could ever be,

Republicans and Democrats worked together. My first year, we had three hurricanes come ashore in northwest Florida. Bill Clinton was there. I told everybody when the first I said, no, you want the president of the United States there. You want him there. You want everything that comes with the president of the United States there. And that's what every governor, Governor Tennessee, Willie Governor Lee, a very conservative Republican, Governor McMaster in South Carolina, very conservative governor. Of course, Governor Kemp in Georgia, overwhelmingly popular governor. And you have Senator Tom Tillis in North Carolina. All of these officials have been saying that the White House and the administration is doing a great job. And they're very grateful.

Ron DeSantis saying he's gotten everything he's asked for. And this is no standards. You know, one of the things I always tell people when they spread conspiracy theories is go to the Wall Street Journal. I said, it's a Murdoch paper. Go to the Wall Street Journal. I don't tell them always go to the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

But as you point out, the Wall Street Journal is publishing disinformation that might as well be in Epoch Times. And the fact that it's from a vice presidential candidate matters not. This is the same guy who lied about cats and dogs being eaten while the governor of his own state said, stop. This is this is when you say there are no standards. This is a perfect example of it. Willie, there's lies every day. There's people that right here in the Wall Street Journal that I've respected this before. Sure. You know. Yeah. So Donald Trump is lying about eating cats and dogs and Donald Trump's lying about hurricanes and Donald Trump tried to overthrow the 2020 election

results. But you see Kamala Harris's third answer on The View. No, but we laugh. They're dead serious. And we've seen this for four years. We've seen, you know, a very respected U.S. senator who went on to work at a university, told friends, he said, yeah, January 6th. OK, whatever. But did you see what Biden did with student debt relief? And I don't want the Democrats to ever complain about the riots on January. See, again, this flattening out that we talk about in here when people are in such misery and suffering, suffering. You have the Wall Street Journal editorial page running disinformation, running lies that the Republican governor of Georgia, the Republican governor of South Carolina,

the Republican governor of Tennessee, the Republican governor of Virginia, Republican senator of North Carolina. There's Democratic senator of North Carolina also say it. All of the local leaders, all of the state officials, Republican and Democratic alike, are saying this administration is doing everything that we have asked of it. And yet disinformation spreads even in sources that used to be above that. And again, at a time of great suffering, which is to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and the people who follow him, the politicians who follow him. This is a political game. This is a moment to create some division to get support. It is. And, you know, on a lesser scale, the Springfield, Ohio was the same. People were suffering because of the lies they were telling. And they just didn't

care because they thought there was some political benefit to that. And you're right, Joe. I mean, there are people who will say of January 6th, but student loan debt, pick your issue. And they look the other way and they listen to what Donald Trump says over the people who are actually on the ground in this case, the mayors, the governors saying, no, it's a terrible scene, but we're getting the help we need from FEMA and the Biden administration. But if you talk to people we know and friends of ours, they'll go, did you hear they're actually using the money that they should have been using to rebuild Americans' homes to give cell phones to illegal immigrants? You know we're going to hear about this. People we know, why aren't you guys covering it and all that? So the Donald Trump lie blocks out the truth among Republicans, among MAGA Republicans. The corrosive effect has been shocking. I've been shocked by all the people

who have been who have been swept up in it and who are cynically playing along for whatever the reasons. I mean, there's a reason why Dick Cheney, why Liz Cheney, why Ken Adelman, why over 100 Republicans that have worked for the Reagan administration, but also their personal financial interests over what's best for America. For sure. We're going to go back now to the path of Hurricane Milton. Let's go to Sarasota, Florida. Joining us now, the mayor of Sarasota, Liz Alpert. Liz, thank you. Madam Mayor, thank you for joining us. Tell us about the preparations, evacuations and what you're hearing in terms of people who perhaps don't want to leave. Are there any reports of that? I think for the most part, we're as prepared as we can be. We've been working really hard to get things into place in the city itself. We've got every police officer on duty from now until the end of the storm. We've got our public works, our utility workers ready to go as soon as the storm passes.

But this is going to be um a really really bad storm and as as you're showing there the piles of debris that are still around are going to um really act as dangerous uh missiles or battering rams in the uh in the storm surge and And we worked to get up as much as we could, especially on the barrier islands. But operationally, it was just impossible to get to it all. Madam Mayor, I'd love for you, if you could explain to people that are watching that have not been through a hurricane, maybe didn't grow up. I grew up in Florida, so I've been through it so much. I want you to talk about the emotional impact, the emotional toll that one hurricane can have. You know, I would have friends in past hurricanes who would be on their hands and knees digging through sand for days. And they would tell me like four days later, we found a picture from our wedding. We found a picture of our child, his first steps.

And the rest of their lives wiped away. And I see the debris on the side of the road from the last storm. And I just it's hard to explain to people how heartbreaking this is and what not only a physical toll this will be, but an emotional toll on the people of Sarasota. You're absolutely right. I mean, just going and having people's entire life out on the curb basically is what it looks like. Businesses just entirely gutted. And, you know, we already just had that with Hurricane Helene. And now we're going to have even more of it.

You know, it's going to be more widespread. And I think emotionally for people to just have experienced that two weeks ago. And now here we are again. It's really hard on everybody. Mayor Liz Albert of Sarasota, Florida. Thank you for being with us. And please, if you can, stay in touch with us and let us know what we can do to help. Yeah. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, ma'am. They're expecting a maximum storm surge of 10 to 15 feet near Sarasota. That's double Helene. I just want to say really quickly to that point, just again, to let you all know.

And Eddie, you grew up in around hurricanes. I remember we were in Pensacola. We got hit several years ago. Ivan got hit by a massive storm and it just wrecked so much of the economy. And then another hurricane came behind it was supposed to be, I think, a cat four. And everybody basically went down underneath. And when they came out, the storm hadn't had an impact. And I remember grown men going out into the streets and weeping, getting to their knees and thanking God that they were not going to have to pick up again, their lives destroyed by one storm. That's why the toll of this economically, the toll of this emotionally, Eddie, the toll of this spiritually on these people along the southwest coast of Florida. It would be like Hurricane Camille followed up by, you know, Katrina.

Exactly. Joe, I think it was so important that you brought this up. You know, we talk about the threat or the threat or the potential loss of life, but the loss of livelihoods, the loss of memories. I mean, this is really important. I remember growing up as a child and to hear those winds, to see pine straws. I mean, literally the force of winds would take a pine straw and stick it into a tree. Trees falling all over around the house and everything. My dad coming out in the middle of the eye of the storm to get a sense of the danger, how scared you were. You're in a tub. You're trying to find some place to tornadoes are running around. And the fact that when you wake up, you don't have power.

You're trying to figure out how you're going to make ends meet for the next few days. We were happy we weren't going to school. But still, lives are turned upside down and they're not going to get back in order for a while. By the way, their businesses, their family businesses, they've been growing for 100 years, blown away, just blown away. Family albums, their homes, their homes reduced to dust. It's all reports are looking at the potential for catastrophe here. Let's bring in meteorologist Michelle Grossman for the very latest on the path of Hurricane

Milton. Michelle, what is the very latest on the path of Hurricane Milton. Michelle, what is the very latest? The very latest is we're still looking at the potential for a catastrophic storm. I think it's so important how you kind of bundle that up into the emotional part of this storm. You know, as human beings, we say numbers, 160 miles per hour, category five, because we like to put numbers to a thing. But we saw stories yesterday where people were sitting in their houses not knowing if it's going to be the last night in their house. So we have less than 24 hours before this storm makes landfall. So that window is closing for any preps. We're going to see a threat to life,

threat to property, threat to well-being, as you said. So for today, we're going to see it barreling across the Gulf. The Gulf is supercharged. It is at a record-breaking temperature level. So it is fueling this storm. Now it will impact a couple of gradients that could weaken in a bit as it gets closer to land. But we're still talking about a major hurricane as it makes landfall overnight tonight into the early part of Wednesday. 160 miles per hour, that is the latest as a five o'clock advisory. It's moving quicker than it was yesterday to the northeast at 14 miles per hour, strengthened back to that Category 5 storm yesterday evening. And we expect it to stay in this area, if not a Category 4 storm throughout this Wednesday.

Then we get closer to the coast. That's where we think it's going to weaken to either a Category 3. It could stay a Category 4 storm. Either way, it's going to be a strong Category 3 storm. And we are talking about catastrophic storm surge, unsurvivable. That is a wall of saltwater that moves over dry land. That is why you need to heed those warnings. Tropical alerts extending from the Carolinas all the way down to the Keys. And guys, we're going to see rainfall, destructive rainfall up to 18 inches, and also winds gusting over 100 miles per hour. We're going to see power outages, not only days.

We're going to see it for weeks to come if some houses are still surviving in those areas. All right. Michelle Grossman, thank you so much. We'll be following this still ahead on Morning Joe. The biggest revelations from Bob Woodward's new book, including what we've learned about conversations between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. We're back in 90 seconds. Oh, my goodness.

What about TJ? Just dialing this stuff up. Wait, hold on, hold on. Sometimes you just let it breathe, as TJ said. Let's let it breathe. Hold on. OK. Let it breathe. No, said. Let's let it breathe. Hold on. Okay. Let it breathe.

No, that means you don't say anything. All right, so hold on. Go Mets. Hold on, hold on. Let's let it breathe. Go Mets. Oh, my God. You would not want Mika, like, talking while Nicholas is standing over the pipe on the 18th grade like in 1986.

So, you know, this is Nicholas standing over the green. I will tell you, have you noticed the flowers behind him blooming early this year at Augusta? Augusta National has never lit up like, oh, you hit the pipe. Yeah, it's very real. OK, let's go Mets. Yeah. Okay. All right. Go Mets. So it was a beautiful shot, but we have more news to get to. And this next part of our show is pretty staggering.

A new book by longtime journalist Bob Woodward reveals former President Donald Trump has maintained close contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office. That's perfectly normal. contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office. The upcoming book entitled War cites an unnamed Trump aide claiming the former president and Putin have spoken as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021. The book alleges that as those conversations were happening between Trump and Putin, Trump was also pressuring Republicans in Congress to block military aid to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia's invasion. Additionally, the book reveals that back in 2020, Trump secretly sent Putin covid tests for his personal use at a time when many Americans couldn't get them. Woodward, the renowned journalist who uncovered Watergate, concludes that Trump as president was, quote, worse than Richard Nixon. The forthcoming book goes on sale next Tuesday. We'll be talking to Bob next week about this.

A Trump campaign spokesperson issued a response to the new book, stating in part, quote, None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented. Oh, interesting use of words and deranged. Oh, interesting use of words. Man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump derangement. That's fascinating because Donald Trump talked to him nonstop, said, hey, could you record me on your tape recorder with me admitting that I'm going to lie about COVID? Yeah, he's got he got all that on tapes. You know, why get them all freaked out? Literally what he told Bob Woodward. And you can watch Trump yourself if you have friends who go to rallies or are Trump supporters.

Urge them to really listen to what he says, because these things add up. And Richard Haass, this is distorting, manipulating and turning around our foreign policy completely, making friends with an adversary and sending him secret covid tests. Well, forget the secret covid tests talking to him while he while a former president is pushing Republicans to not provide aid to a country that Vladimir Putin and Russia invaded. You talk about nothing mattering anymore. You know, no Republicans will speak out about this. Nothing matters to them. There are no boundaries, not even the safety of the United States or its allies. It's also at a time when the president said that Putin, the former president said that Putin could do, quote unquote, whatever the hell he wants in terms of invading a NATO country.

Called Putin brilliant right after the invasion. So this doesn't take place in a vacuum. Obviously takes place against four years of, shall we say, a rather permissive relationship with Russia, to say the least. Also, let me say, when former presidents or former secretaries of state go about talking to foreign leaders and meeting foreign leaders, that in and of itself is not unheard of. What is unheard of is it would be done without full coordination with the government of the day, that you would tell the White House or you'd call the secretary of state and say, I'm going here or I'm going there. I'm going to or I'm going to talk to this person. Would you please brief me on things here? Would you say anything you particularly want me to say or not say? After the call, you then give a full readout. The idea that you would have a half dozen calls between a former president of the United States and the man who is leading its enemy, or your own intel services more?

And he said, Vladimir Putin. I mean, a man who there's so many questions about Russia and Donald Trump, and it's all dismissed as, quote, Russia hoax. And it perpetuates what's been a fundamental question of American politics, I don't know, for 10 years now. What is this about? What possibly motivates this kind of supportive, tolerant, fanboy approach between a former president of the United States and Vladimir Putin? It continues to reinforce that there's something we don't know. And that's the thing. It didn't happen in a vacuum. It was years of a pattern of his flattery of Vladimir Putin, his saying, if I'm elected, I'll have a deal to end the war in 24 hours, which, if that's true, would be a deal that would benefit Vladimir Putin. Of course, J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate, dismissive when

asked yesterday about Bob Woodward's new reporting. I honestly didn't know that Bob Woodward was still alive until you just asked me that question. That little I know about Bob Woodward is that he is, I'm going to use a word here, he is a hack. The guy's a hack. So have I talked to Donald Trump about his calls with Vladimir Putin? No. I've never had that conversation with Donald Trump in my life. But if Donald Trump, even if it's true, look, is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy? Yeah. Your own personal diplomacy. We have something called the Logan Act. Individual private Americans are not allowed to carry out their own foreign policies.

Thank you. Well, I mean, you again, you you you look at J.D. Vance here. Wow. And you just ask what what happened to this guy? A guy who, of course, you know, again, everything they say, just dishonest. He knows Bob Woodward's alive. He was, you know, had a lot of the concerns Bob Woodward had. Carl Quintanilla yesterday sent out an eight year old tweet by J.D. Vance. And it is still shocking how on he was eight years ago about the dangers that Donald Trump presented and also said that God expects better from us than to support Donald Trump. And now he's doing this. Power is. Yeah, it's something I can tell you. I, you know, many failings. You can ask anybody who served for me, who served with me in Congress.

Not one of them will ever say, oh, that Joe, he would always measure his words because he wanted to make friends with the leadership. That's not how you get things done in Washington. Eight years ago, Carl Kintania says eighth anniversary of this tweet. J.D. Vance, Trump makes people I care about afraid immigrants, Muslims, et cetera. Because of this, I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us. J.D. Vance wrote that. Yeah. Wow. Eight years ago yesterday, Carl Keaton, yeah. Yeah. This has been a for people who have followed and known J.D. Vance for a long time, this evolution, if we want to call that this change over time has been stunning. But it's not it's not a surprise. He knows the way to Donald Trump's heart is outright flattery.

Every moment of every day. Echo the lies. Amplify the lies. Say what what your boss wants to hear and get what you want. And he knows that he is the heir, he believes now to the MAGA crown, that if Donald Trump loses this time around, that he's still there. And he perhaps as he tried to present in that debate, a more palatable version of Donald Trump in the future going forward. So, yeah. Do you remember what Donald Trump said about John Kerry? Did he want him locked up? Yeah, I think so. Alex, do we have that?

This is where Donald Trump says John Kerry should be prosecuted for talking to leaders. I'm so confused. Of Iran. Take a look at this. What I'd like to see with Iran, I'd like to see them call me. You know, John Kerry speaks to him a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call. That's a violation of the Logan Act. And frankly, he should be prosecuted on that. But my people don't want to do anything. That's only the Democrats do that kind of stuff. You know, if it were the opposite way, they'd prosecute him under the Logan Act. But John Kerry violated the Logan Act. He's talking to Iran and has been, has many meetings and many phone calls, and he's telling them what to do. That is a total

violation of the Logan Act. Wow. 2019. So he knows. Speaking, by the way, for for better. Yeah. Coherently, riskily. Understanding the law. Yeah. And quoting the Logan Act, which Richard just reminded us of let's bring in the columnist for the daily beast david rothkop he's author of need to know substack host of the deep state radio podcast his new piece is titled trump having putin on speed dial isn't funny it's terrifying david good morning uh expand a little bit on why you believe it's terrifying that he is back channeling to Vladimir Putin. Well, look, it's a pattern of behavior we've seen, as Richard said, for many years now,

and it has affected the way that he has governed the country. It's not just, oh, he's canoodling with Vladimir Putin or he's saying nice things about Vladimir Putin. He also said he wanted to pull U.S. troops out of NATO. He also has said, you know, as recently as the debate, he wouldn't say that he wanted Ukraine to win the debate. And here he was in Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by stolen national secrets on the phone to Vladimir Putin shortly after Trump had tried to commit a coup, I think we sometimes devalue what happened that day. He said, I don't care about the voters. I don't care about the will of the people. I don't care about where power really resides in our society. I'm going to steal it and hold on to the presidency. And then subsequent to that, he started resuming a relationship with Putin that today has Putin having his intelligence service pumping disinformation into the debate about this campaign, trying to get Trump to win so that Putin can win in Ukraine. It's an incredible

threat to our national security. And then to compound all of that, of course, we have the story of Trump when Americans were dying and a million Americans died of covid under Trump saying, you know, they can't those Americans, they can't get covid tests. But I'm going to send a little care package to my pal vlad uh because he needs it uh even putin had the sense to say back to trump don't tell anybody about this right they're going to react badly yeah and you know i want to underline something that david said after the he um he's calling vladimir putin regularly while he is sitting on a pile yes of illegally taken classified classified highly classified documents everybody asked so why did he want him what was he doing with him why in the world would he would he seize all of those documents and improperly take them down to Mar-a-Lago?

So we don't know. And by the way, Woodward reports that, you know, Trump would tell people they had they had to get out of the room because he was having one on one conversations with Vladimir Putin. So he's sitting in Mar-a-Lago on illegally seized documents and having one on one phone calls with Vladimir Putin. So he's sitting in Mar-a-Lago on illegally seized documents and having one-on-one phone calls with Vladimir Putin. Yeah, one of his closest aides, according to the book, was in the room with Trump at one point, and Trump dismissed that aide and said, look, I have to talk to Vladimir Putin now. But of course, this case was more or less dismissed by a judge appointed by Donald Trump there in Florida. But David, you certainly make a good point there. So you started to talk about this. Let's expand upon a little further. This is not just a violation of the Logan Act. It's not just Donald Trump continuing to be subservient to Vladimir Putin. It is a

sneak preview of what Trump's foreign policy would be like were he to take office again in November. Talk to us a little more about what that means, not just for Ukraine, but beyond. Well, Trump doesn't care about what the people want. Trump cares about Trump. And he is also not trustworthy. And I think one of the other things we need to take away from this is how are our allies going to react? How are allies going to react when they know during his presidency, Trump passed sensitive

secrets and in one case garnered from the Israelis over to the Russians. And now they know that he has this private back channel to Putin and he's advancing Putin's agenda. Are they going to trust us with the intelligence that they have trust us with? You know, David, David, the question answers itself. And I'm glad you brought that up, because do you think the Israelis would ever trust Donald Trump again? He passes on sensitive intel garnered from the Israelis to the Russians in one of his first White House meetings. And here he sees his documents from the White House, from all of our closest allies, takes them to Mar-a-Lago. And he's having private one on one calls with Vladimir Putin. You know, people can say, oh, this is Trump right now. It's not Trump derangement syndrome.

This is not a Russia hoax. in Donald Trump's behavior towards Vladimir Putin that undermines America's really America's integrity across the globe. And if he's president again, you are right. Intel sharing across countries is going to be severely challenged. Yeah. And I mean, one of the things that we saw and, you know, it's hard. There's so much stuff to remember back. But how did all the Trump Russia cases, how did the George Papadopoulos case start? It started because the Australians saw some of this interaction and they were worried about it. I'm sure that when Richard was in Europe last week, this is what he was hearing. When I was in Europe the last time, it's what I was hearing. You can't do this again.

The threat is too great. It's like, you know, it's, you know, you've been talking about the hurricane. It's like we are getting a weather report. There is a super storm called Trump bearing down on our national security. Are we going to take the steps to prepare for that? Are we going to let it flood over us again? And time is running out. All right. The Daily Beast, David Rothkopf, thank you so much for your insights this morning. We appreciate it. Richard, talk about the consequences of this. Again, he's sitting on on documents seized from the White House, highly classified documents. He's he's lobbying Republicans to vote against aid for Ukraine, and he's carrying on a personal relationship with Vladimir Putin. It's all that there's the anti-ally bias of his

of his foreign policy that he often values relationships with authoritarian friends over Democratic allies. There's a strong isolationist tendency. Now, what's at stake in this election, let's be honest, is whether the contours of a foreign policy, of an approach to the world that has served us well for three quarters of a century, whether that's going to be largely continued or whether it's going to be disrupted.

And quite honestly, if Donald Trump wins, it's not just, by the way, in Europe, what he said recently about Taiwan, essentially said Taiwan is on its own. If the Chinese move against it, it's so much closer to China. What are we essentially doing looking out for Taiwan? The things that we take for granted, both at home and abroad, are up for grabs this time. Normally, Joe, elections, to use a football analogy, if I may, now that the Giants have finally won a game, normally elections take place between the a football analogy, if I may, now that the Giants have finally won a game, normally elections take place between the 40-yard lines.

And yes, there's consequences if one or the other candidate wins, but the consequences are muted. What's so interesting about this election, which makes this so different from virtually any other election in the post-World War II period, other than probably the first time Donald Trump ran and won, is that the consequences of the outcome are fundamental. This is not within the 40-yard line. This is between a 40-yard line and the other end zone. So no one should underestimate what is at stake here. All right. Eddie? You know, Joe, I've been thinking as we've been talking, will it all matter? Does this revelation, does this story, I mean, it's a big story. Will it move the needle in any way? Does it help us? Will it move undecideds?

Will it have any impact? Let me ask you, did the January 6th riots ultimately matter to Republicans? Look at the numbers. They don't. They don't. Does anything he do, does anything matter that he does to Republicans? I mean, which again, why? What is it about being a Republican today that gives Donald Trump a free pass to do anything he wants?

Again, you know, I've been talking a lot about conservative icons this past week for a reason. For a reason. There has to be some conservatives out there that understand Donald Trump is not only a threat to this country, not only a threat to the Republican Party, but a threat to everything conservatives have believed, supported their entire lives. And Charles Krauthammer, in his column, when he's talking about man of the century, Winston Churchill, he said Churchill basically, he shaped not, he saved the 20th century from itself. And he defined what America was about. And as Charles was was was moving towards passing away, he was writing columns talking about how we won. Like Churchill helped define the world that we live in now, the world where totalitarianism is dead. Democracy defeated totalitarianism that started in Western Europe, that started in England in 1940. And that's the world we live in. And as I read that earlier this week, I thought, and now we have a Republican

whose heroes are Kim Jong-un, President Xi, Vladimir Putin, and every other dictator. And as Donald, as Richard said about Donald Trump and his his basically his rivals, his enemies are those who are elected in the West in Democratic elections. I mean, it's does that matter? Should that matter? Should it matter? I mean, times such as these, those of us who are might not be so enthused by Charles Krauthammer, but who are Burkeans in certain ways who will go and read Edmund Burke, will find resources in the conservative tradition. But what I do know and what I worry about, there are millions of Americans who, with this information about Donald Trump and Putin, won't give a damn, will still vote for Donald Trump.

And it does not vote well for the country. And, you know, Willie, speaking of Edmund Burke, he said, again, one of his famous quotes is that institutions that were built up over centuries by compromise, by consensus, by prudence can be torn down in a day by tyrants. In a day, in a day. And what does Donald Trump say about his first day in office dictator on day one dictator on day one richard haas and eddie claude thank you both very much

for coming on this morning thank you guys and coming up city field was rocking last night as the new york mets continue their incredible run now one win away from advancing to the National League Championship Series. The amazing Mets. The Mets. All right. Mike Marnicle and Pablo Torres back in the studio to talk about the MLB playoffs and the surprise firing of an NFL coach. Morning Joe is coming right back.

I love the measured disdain of Pablo as the camera gives him. He's not disdainful. It's like, am I here really? Come on. No, he's here. He's here for it. More team. The player.

On an 0-2 pitch, a missile. Fernando Tatis Jr., electric. Boy, he liked that one, didn't he? Fernando Tatis capping a six-run second inning for the Padres, a towering two-run home run in the left field seats. Padres win game three of their NL Division Series 6-5, pushing the Dodgers to the brink of elimination. Sandio gets a chance to do it at home tonight in game four.

Meanwhile, in Queens, the building was rocking as the New York Mets move one win from the NLCS. Pete Alonzo doing it again, putting the Mets on the board early with a home run off Philly starter Aaron Nola. This is a solo shot in the second inning. Lefty Sean Minaya took a two-hit shutout into the eighth. He was great last night. Mets earn a 2-1 lead in their NLDS with a 7-2 victory over the Phillies.

Game four is tonight at Citi Field. Let's bring in the MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle and the host of Pablo Torre Finds Out on Metal Arc Media, MSNBC contributor Pablo Torre. He's here for it. He's here. He's excited. He's here for it. He's here. He's excited. He feels the electricity.

So many grunts. The meds are awesome. They're a wooden roller coaster. What? Go up. What do I mean by this? Pablo! I'm so glad you asked yourself.

A wooden roller coaster? It feels almost like this thing should derail. It feels almost illicitly dangerous. Laws should have been passed to prevent this kind of cardiac episode. But they get there. The Mets are on a run that is historical in terms of its drama. That's in the last week. And last night actually was a relief insofar as this was just the strongest this team has looked since the playoffs

began so yes scary you know what they reminded me of though mike um a wooden roller coaster the great the great american screen machine six flags over georgia 1976 it works, but it works. Hey, the Mets looked exhausted going in to the final game. 16 days on the road. You know, they were running on fumes. And yet they have been touched by an angel here, a baseball angel. I mean, whoever it is, Seaver, whoever it is, these guys keep winning in the most dramatic of ways, don't they? One of the best things about playoff baseball is that there's a thing called momentum.

Big Mo. You can be not the best team. Philadelphia has the best roster. Taking notes. Yeah. A complete roster. Right. The Mets don't have the complete roster that the Phillies have, but the Mets have momentum.

And they've proved it over and over and over again in these short series. You were there last night. It's an incredible team to watch, the incredible gift of just accidental greatness. And, you know, you expect it in the Mets. You just do. And I'm cheering for the Mets. That's one of the first World Series I remember, the 69 amazing Mets.

I've always loved the Mets and the Jets for that reason. We'll get to the Jets in a minute. Please. But cheering for the Mets in the playoffs, going into the seventh inning, if they're down, you go, they're going to lose. I don't even want to watch this. And that's happened time and time again, and yet they're winning. They've reversed the curse for today.

Yeah. At least. If not touched by an angel, touched by Grimace. I think that's the answer there. I watched it. I was at the game last night with multiple Grimaces. People are just dressed up. And you can look around the stands and people are lots of purple.

Yeah, Grimace, there was a promotion earlier this season, the McDonald's promotion at Citi Field. Grimace threw out the first pitch. And that started a winning streak that turned the season around. Everything changed after Grimace. Grimace is the answer. The Mets actually had the best record in baseball in the second half. So this has been coming for a

while, and you could feel this was their first playoff home game last night. The crowd mattered. And this game was tight for a while. The Phillies ran into some bad luck. They hit balls hard right at people that led to double plays. The opposite field home run from Alonzo we showed a second ago was absolutely a bomb. That's

Jesse Winker there. But also, Sean Minaya, a pretty unheralded starter. And the Mets have had, you know, the guy comes out of nowhere. Lost his spot in the rotation during the season. Goes into the eighth with a shutout. Thanks to Chris Sale. That's right. He adopted Chris Sale's motion. Very rarely. Hopefully Chris Sale's motion. Very rarely.

Hopefully not his bike motion. I have to say, even as a Yankee fan, I'm not one of these Yankee fans who doesn't like the Mets. I root for the Mets if they're not playing in a subway series. It is so fun to see the Mets doing well, to see that stadium rocking. We were saying, there's something about like a day playoff game that reminds you of being a kid. The sun's still out. As the drama sets in, it's going down. It is just this city is a lot more fun, Pablo, when the Mets and the Yankees are playing well.

Mainly the Mets. Yeah. But what the Mets are, they're an actual underdog. You know, we don't need to gild the lily. This is a miserable. Mika is just glaring when I use these adjectives. There is misery in the...

So much therapy Mets fans have needed. And even this. Momentum. So I respect the momentum. I respect the fact also, right? So we've never seen in the baseball postseason

four straight games where the team has the lead in the eighth inning, loses. Right. So when I say it's a roller coaster, yes, it is peaks and valleys. And right now, we're at a peak. And Grimace is riding the seven train.

And it's incredible. And it feels like an acid trip for a lot of people in Queens. And that's amazing. It's the Cyclone and Coney Island. So it's like wooden roller coaster rides and acid trips. That's what you're saying. The national pastime. I guess so.

By the way, we're going to get to the Jets in a second. We have to talk about the Padres. Yeah. Go. Yeah, look, baseball, right? The baseball postseason is a sprint that follows an ultra marathon. And so I'm inclined to comfort the Dodgers by saying,

you can be the best team in the regular season, but then lose as you do so often. But the Padres, even in the regular season, have had the Dodgers number. They were eight and five. The Padres were against the Dodgers. And this was one of those games where you say to yourself, we have the best run franchise in LA.

We have Shohei Otani, who is the greatest player in history. And yet, these Padres. And Mike, they've got a payroll. I mean, just spent billions of dollars. It's ridiculous. The Dodgers and they keep getting knocked out in divisional series may not happen here, but they they just aren't taking it deep. The Padres also have a stupendous payroll. I mean, they've paid a lot

of money for guys like Xander Bogarts, but the guy that we just saw hit that home run, Fernando Tatis, is one of the two or three best players in Major League Baseball, and he alone could carry the Padres past the Dodgers. It's his playoffs right now, honestly. He's got four home runs already. He's had injuries,

he's had a suspension, America hasn't seen him in a spotlight like this before, and he has responded. And the Dodgers have no pitching, and they could go out tonight. He's stepping into it. I've got a question for you. First of all, they treat this man like a criminal as he leaves. But I've got a question for you. Was his fate sealed when he tried to hug Aaron Rodgers a couple of weeks ago,

and Rodgers pushed him away? Is this how it works hug Aaron Rodgers a couple of weeks ago and Rodgers pushed him away like this is is this how it works with Aaron Rodgers you throw three interceptions you suck you cause your team to have a horrible start okay and then you go and you say fire the coach I just sat in the dark for the weekend fire the coach oh my gosh yeah. I'm dead serious, by the way. By the way, a coach who is a defensive guy who has had one of the best defenses in the league. Yeah. And yes, the body language psychology here, sometimes it's exactly what you think it is. Your eyes are not lying to you.

And Aaron Rodgers is now, I believe, the only quarterback in NFL history to also be the shadow general manager of his football team. And so when Woody Johnson says, Robert Sala, you're fired, Robert Sala, by the way, who are going to escort out of the building by security. It's unbelievable. It's just a it's a crazy thing for the former ambassador to the UK under Donald Trump, Woody Johnson, to do after he watches his Jets get curb stopped by the Vikings in London. And by the way, how how fascinating that the New York Jets are a really good team top to bottom, except for their quarterback. Yeah. And their quarterback is now the general manager and their defense.

And tell him, oh, there were great. This is one of the best Jets team minus their quarterback. They need to trade for Mac Jones. Our roads lead to Mac Jones, baby. Rodgers and Woody Johnson spoke the night before the firing. Johnson says, well, no, Rodgers has nothing to do with it. I think we can fact check the town. Woody, we love you, but come on, man.

The host of Pablo Torre finds out on Metal Arc Media, Pablo Torre. Thank you. Let's go on a wooden roller coaster together. The Cyclone. I am very afraid. Yeah, I don't like the Cyclone. Where's that? Coney Island.

Coney Island? Yeah. What about in Hershey, Pennsylvania? Just the feeling of imminent death. Let's do it. But Mika, all right. If Mika's in, I'll go. I'll put you through it.

I'll bring my vomit bag. Okay. Do you carry that around a lot? I do. Back pocket. Okay. That and metaphors, yeah. Really?

Okay. Pablo, thank you. It is two minutes past the top of the hour, and we have a lot of news to get to this hour. Vomit bags. Okay. Metaphors. I'm trying to do a transition. Dropping acid and wooden roller coaster rides.

Wow. It's been a good day. Pablo, can you come back tomorrow? Grimace. Anytime. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.