Morning Joe - Morning Joe 11/4/22

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

With just four days until the midterm elections, the Morning Joe panel discusses the latest polling and looks ahead to November 8.

There's too much political violence. There's too much intimidation. There are more than 300 election deniers on the Republican tickets this year for state, federal, and local government. No, no, I mean, this is really serious stuff. If a Republican nominee for governor in the state of Wisconsin wins, here's what he said. He said, if I win, my party will never lose another election in Wisconsin. He's either a prophet or he plans on doing something about election law. That was President Joe Biden in California last night, the latest stop in his jam packed

campaign schedule in the final days before the midterms. Meanwhile, big-name Democrats are out on the trail in traditionally blue areas and concerns that GOP messaging on crime could flip what were thought to be safe seats. Plus, one of Donald Trump's most loyal supporters calls him out over a huge stash of campaign cash. Those comments from a well-known Republican senator straight ahead. And in the nation's capital, the founder of a far-right group heavily involved in the Capitol attack is expected to take the stand in his own defense today. We'll get you caught up on the sedition trial for the Oath Keepers. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Friday, November 4th.

Good to have you all with us along with Joe, Willie and me. We have Pulitzer Prize winning columnist at The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson, former White House communications director under President Obama, Jennifer Palmieri. She is co-host of Showtime's The Circus and national political correspondent for Axios, Jonathan Swan. Jonathan Swan, have you got anybody to say anything lately they shouldn't say out loud? I know, I'm wondering. Because that's why we love you, man. Nothing incredulous.

If you can help my booking team get people to agree to interviews with me, I'd be most grateful. They're getting nervous. They're getting nervous. team get people to agree to interviews with me, I'd be most grateful. I would guess it's a little more difficult. They're getting nervous. Speaking of a little more difficult, the Phillies last night. I got to say, this is a fall classic. It is. It's just a fall classic. You've got David versus Goliath. And last night, score one for Goliath, but another really good game.

Tight game. Justin Verlander, the Astros ace, getting his first World Series. He's been pitching in the World Series since 2006. First victory. He'd been 0-6 or 0-7 over the course of his career. Got the win last night. That was an amazing play in the ninth inning with the Astros holding on to a 3-1 lead. Diving catch by McCormick against the wall.

So now, with a 3-2 victory, Astros are up three games to two with the series heading back home to Houston. They've got two shots to win the World Series. Let's focus on the positive. Those uniforms by the Phillies, the powder blue, Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, takes you back. Just fantastic uniforms. And Dusty Baker, who's been managing for 25 years

and is just a good guy and a great manager, is now one win away from his first World Series. I'm going to say also, though, if you just look at history for Phillies fans, you don't have to go back for a reason to hope. Yeah. Go back to 2019, and you actually had the Washington Nationals going to Houston down 3-2, and the Nationals took the last two games going to Houston down three to two. And the Nationals took the last two games in Houston and won the World Series.

Speaking of hope, hope against hope, game six is tomorrow. OK. How are the Democrats? Now, listen, I understand. That's a stretch. So, you know, Republicans, you know, when I was a Republican, we never went around and we didn't wring our hands.

We were just like, OK, let's burn everything to the ground, salt the earth and declare victory. But Democrats, they wring their hands in the best of times. But I'm hearing. And by the way, everybody,

we're going to show you polls. We're going to show you happy polls. What? We're going to go through this part. Are they really, though? They came out last night, Marist polls, things that you're going to enjoy. Mark Halperin said in his newsletter this morning,

he said, especially if you shop at Zabars or a CAA agent or go to the University of Wisconsin. You're going to love these polls. OK. Or watch Morning Joe. But that as it may be, the early voting numbers in Nevada look horrible for Democrats. In Florida, they look horrible for Democrats if you just compare them to 18 and 20. And I got to say, also in Florida, I'm hearing so many complaints that the Democratic Party, the state Democratic Party just isn't there.

There's no get out of it. So so things are spotty at best right now. You you're you're going around to New York. I've got to say every day, the New York Post every day. I mean, there's there's there's horrible, horrible crime stories every day on the front page of The New York Post. And people are talking about it. So I spent the day yesterday with Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York. So this is a state that Joe Biden won by 23 points. This is a state where Governor Andrew Cuomo won reelection four years ago with Kathy Hochul on the ticket by 30 points. And she is in like a real fight. Like maybe she's five points

up. Maybe she's tied. They're not quite sure. And this is New York. And this is an election denying Republican Lee Zeldin, election denying, very pro-life, cheered the day that Hobbs was, that Dobbs, the Dobbs decision came out. And it's like a real race. And so I think there is no Democrat right now that feels safe. You just you just don't know what's going on. And I was in I was with Alyssa Slotkin in Michigan on Tuesday night when she did that event with Liz Cheney. And, you know, what I you know, it's what occurred to me in comparing what I saw in Michigan versus New York is I feel like these these red state Democrats, battleground Democrats,

they're more prepared for this moment than the blue state Democrats. You know, I could see if there is this wave coming. And, you know, we don't know. It may be Kathy Ockel wins by five, six points. That's the most likely thing that is to happen. But it is if you haven't been making a really good argument that weaves together the economy and democracy and abortion in a way that relates to voters, you like are in, you know, the way that I think Slotkin has done. You're in a real

dangerous position. And for people who say, oh, it just can't be done. You can't talk about preserving democracy, inflation and crime at the same time. I would say pull a tape of Josh Shapiro because that guy, man, that that guy willie we had him yesterday he's doing he's doing everything uh at the same time um but but there there are there are issues that don't seem to be breaking democrats ways right now but i just again you never know and i'm not saying that to make anybody feel good i'm, in 1998, you'll remember this. Every Democrat was going, Bill Clinton has let us down. And people are writing op eds going, we get what we deserve. Democrats are going to be slaughtered. And everybody was doing the postmortem before

the race. And then Republicans did extraordinarily well. Our Democrats did extraordinarily well. Historically, Newt Gingrich is right out of town. Pollsters are wrong in 16. They were wrong in 20. The only reason I say this is I don't want to hear everybody going the day after. Oh, everybody got this wrong. It's tight. Every race is tight. If there's a margin of error that breaks two points, as we always have,

the Republicans way, it's going to be a massive landslide for Republicans. If there's margin of error that breaks two ways in the Democrats way, there's going to be it's going to be a huge night for Democrats. We're that close in every race. So I just don't want to hear people bitching and whining the day after the election that everybody got it wrong, because we're saying either side could win big right now. Vegas has their money on the Republicans. That's usually smart money. And you talk to people in the field. They have their money on Republicans. But you don't know who's going to go out and vote. You just don't know yet. No, you don't know. And I will say to your point about Josh Shapiro, he was on our show yesterday, as you said, and I think so

much attention has been paid to Fetterman and Oz and rightly so in that race. People haven't really seen a lot of Josh Shapiro. And I heard from a lot of people you probably both did, too. So, wow, he's impressive. He did exactly what Jen said, weaving abortion, democracy, the economy in, which with what looks like to be a winning message. But you're right. It's going to be different state by state. What works in Pennsylvania may not work in Georgia. The money is on the House. Jen knows this privately. Democrats say the House is gone. Maybe they won't say it on TV all the time. It's just a question of the margin. Right. But they're holding out hopes that Fetterman and Warnock and others can hold on Mark Kelly and keep at least the Senate so Republicans can't run roughshod through the through the Congress.

Well, we talk it. We talk about Josh Shapiro. He is what Pat Buchanan would call a great political athlete. Right. You look at Democrats. They have some Republicans have horrible candidates that because of Donald Trump, there'd be five, 10 points ahead, but for Donald Trump. But Democrats have a couple of people like Kathy Hochul. She's never run statewide before at this level as governor. And so she's not going, she's not going to be able to respond most likely as effectively on the trail. You look at Katie Hobbs out in Arizona. It's still one of the most confounding things to me that she ceded the entire state to Carrie Lake. She has ceded the entire state to Carrie Lake. Say your state. I'm afraid of the microphone.

I'm afraid of lights. I'm afraid to hear my own voice. I'm afraid to talk to reporters. You're kind of wondering if Arizona voters might say we're afraid for her to be our governor. In the end, the quality of the candidate matters. It does. And by the way, Oprah got supported. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. We just heard that over the past 24 hours. Here are those new polls that Joe mentioned from Marist in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Democrat John Fetterman is a six-point lead over Republican Mehmet Oz.

In Georgia, Raphael Warnock is up four points on Hershel Walker. In the Arizona Senate race, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly is up four points on Blake Masters. In that state's closely watched governor's race, Democrat Katie Hobbs has a slight lead over Republican Carrie Lake. Katie Hobbs, has a slight lead over Republican Carrie Lake.

And Katie Hobbs cannot be reached for comment. She's really I mean, does she actually go out on the campaign trail and speak publicly? If she doesn't think she's going to see people, she does. Yeah, I was there for a week. There were no events. You know, sometimes that happens. But we were there for a week. It doesn't happen two weeks out. This was three. What's the deal? She did a press conference on abortion the last day that she did press conference on abortion the last day that we were there. What's the deal? I've never seen anything like this before.

She's not, you know, she was secretary of state. She did a lot of, I mean, you all talked to her a bunch, I bet, during the recount. And also she did a lot of press then. But I there is a real fear of engaging with Carrie Lake. And, you know, she's very Carrie Lake is very skilled. Katie Hobbs doesn't want to go to the wrong down the rabbit hole with Carrie Lake. But that's like what the entire election is about. I think she did an interview with Von Hilliard yesterday. I did see I did. Yes. I did see that. But not that strong of a not that strong of a candidate.

You know, and the people who are doing well are the ones that have tough race, that have always been in tough districts, always been in tough states, have always had to make a really tough argument. And they're the ones that are like, you know, it's ironic about that, Joe, though. She did fight the fight in 2020. She's the secretary of state by Arizona. She is one of the people who stood in the breach and, you know, in some ways saved the democracy. So for her to say now she doesn't want to go out and have that fight, it's just odd. She's already had the fight. She can clearly make the case against Carrie Lake about at least the democracy pieces. And you you can explain to people firsthand. And we'll get to these polls, by the way, for our friends about getting ready to get a Zabar. Sorry. Yeah, but we're going to talk about the polls.

We're going to wallow around in them for a little bit. That's exactly. Then get a Zabar. But explain, if you will, because you've seen this. Right. Explain, if you will, because you've seen this, right? For those of us that follow politics all the time, it's hard to imagine that people aren't as focused and read in as we are. person knock on the door i was like 23 24 you know had my reagan bush 84 hat on i'm sure they knocked on the door uh and i had a reagan bush 84 sticker in my classic okay you had it for a different reason like you had it as sort of a irony right i wasn't no i was that's how i was back then yeah okay well anyway so they knock on the door. She knocks on the door. And I'm like, oh, it's so-and-so.

I won't say her name. She's so liberal. She said, how are you doing? She handed me a flyer. She said, is there any issue that you care about? No. And I'm sure when she left, she thought, well, this guy wasn't polite. I voted for her.

I voted for her. You know why? She showed up. And that's the lesson I took into my campaign. I knocked on 10,000 doors. I planted yard signs. By the time the election came along, people knew me. They saw me.

They knew I wanted it. I had so many people saying, you know, you may be crazy. I hope you're not crazy, but I know you're going to try. And I appreciate you coming knocking on my door. So a lot of people don't understand how candidates like Carrie Lake, she shows up. People see her five, six, seven times. They go, yeah, we know she's sounding crazy right now. This woman's going to fight for us. And please, I don't need lectures. I'm just trying to explain to you how this works. Voters think that way. If you show up, if you act like you care, then it makes a difference. And they remember that

when they go into the voting booth. Katie Hobbs has not shown up. And the people who don't believe what you just said are Democratic campaign consultants. They're the ones that think that, you know, don't worry about it. The polling's fine. Look, you're still up a point, you know, for Katie Hobbs. And abortion is still resonating with people. And if you, you know, if you say something that gets in the way of that, that's a problem. And if you put yourself in a situation where you might get challenged, that's a problem. But that's what, you know, when I was in Arizona, I saw Carrie Lake showed up everywhere. And even though, you know, and she's, first of all, she's got a way of weaving conspiracy theories into a cogent argument that doesn't sound crazy. But also she's just there and she's and she's good. And, you know, on the Democratic side, Fetterman is that person.

Right. He goes to, you know, every county, every vote. That's their that's their motto. Great motto. Right. Because Josh Shapiro also goes to every you goes to every county. He goes to all the rest parts of Pennsylvania. And when I was in Pennsylvania last week, you know, great. I was in Pittsburgh. It's Democratic leaning, but it's not you know, it's not Manhattan. It's not Zabar's. Right. And people just love John Fetterman. You know, they just do it. They just like, you know, one guy was like, you know, guy, white guy, 60s, retired. I figured to be an odd supporter. He's like, I just feel like John's for the people. Well, and you know, the thing is, let's say he has a halting performance in

the debate. Yeah. But he's traveled all over the state before that. And he's traveled after that. And he's shown up. People are like, oh, really? This. OK, wait a second. So he's had a stroke. He's obviously struggling communicating, but he's showing up and Oz isn't showing up. Oz does not. That actually plays in Fetterman's advantage even better. So listen, we want to bring Gene Robinson and Jonathan Swan into the conversation. And we have Senate candidate Tim Ryan coming up in just a few minutes. But we we need to jump to another story because there are some new concerns about rising tensions in the Korean Peninsula

right now. South Korea's military says it detected about 180 North Korean warplanes flying north of the military border overnight. Let's bring in NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez live from Seoul. Raf, what more do we know? Mika, over the last two days, it was missiles. And today it is military aircraft, a fresh escalation from the north. South Korea says it scrambled 80 fighter aircraft of its own, including fifth generation F-35 stealth fighters. In response to what it said was 180 North Korean aircraft flying north of the military border. Now, Mika, there are also about 100 American Air Force pilots currently taking part in these very large scale military drills with the South Koreans.

Those pilots were put on alert in case this did lead to an actual shooting event. They were not scrambled. There was no shooting in the end. But Mika, this is a time of extremely high tensions. Kim Jong-un has fired a record 29 missiles this week so far, the most worrying of which is an intercontinental ballistic missile fired yesterday. A South Korean government official telling NBC News they believe it was a Hwasong-17. Now, this is a very long-range missile.

It has a range of 9,000 miles. Guys, it, in theory, could hit anywhere in the United States. The missile that they fired yesterday appears to have failed. It looked like it fell into the Sea of Japan. But they have successfully tested that kind of long-range missile in the past. The big question here is whether the North Koreans, in this sudden flurry of missile tests, are gearing up for yet another nuclear test. If they do, it would be their first nuclear test in five years, since 2017.

Kim Jong-un halted his nuclear tests ahead of those infamous meetings with Donald Trump in 2018. But guys, now there is basically no diplomacy at this point between the Biden administration and North Korea, only brinksmanship. And so we are seeing just escalation after escalation from North Korea with the possibility of a nuclear test at some point to come. OK. NBC's Raf Sanchez reporting live from Seoul. Thank you very much for that report. Yeah, I mean, you know, North Korea's tried to supply the Russians with some military equipment. It's hard not to not to look at this and go.

They're trying to distract from the fact that Russia is just getting slaughtered on the battlefield. They're in full retreat. So and I'm wondering if they really do. Do the North Korean Air Force really want to scramble with like F-35s and U.S. pilots? Let's see. No, they don't. So we'll see how much more they do to try to distract the world's attention. But Gene Robinson, our attention, not distracted from this political campaign. Unless, of course, there is a nuclear test and then we may have to break it again. But we look at these polls right now, the mayor's polls that came out last night, all of them breaking in the Democrats direction.

We'll have to see how the polls go this weekend. If they continue in this direction, that will be good late-breaking news for Democrats. Things often break the final weekend. But yesterday, there were four polls out in the Georgia Senate race. Two showed Warnock looking good. Two showed Walker looking good. This is a toss-up, isn't it? Yeah, that race looks like a toss-up, and it looks like it's going to go to a runoff.

And so we're not done with Georgia, I fear. I think it looks unlikely that either is going to clear the 50% threshold, but we'll see. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I thought this was a really unpredictable cycle, one that, yes, could really break one way or the other as we get to the end. You do kind of look what, you know, watch what they do, not what they say. And you saw yesterday, you saw, you know, Democrats defending Democrats who theoretically ought to have big leads, defending them in a state like New York, defending Hochul. I think Hillary Clinton was out and Vice President Harris is out. And so that's sort of one data point. The other data point, though, is, you know, early voting totals look

bad for Democrats in some states and great for Democrats in other states. And so this is this is, again, a tough cycle. I do advise Democrats to, you know, to get off the ledge. You know, it's it's this is the time when when the sort of Democratic national sport is is worry and fretting. And rather than worrying and fretting, get out the vote. I mean, this is this is a midterm election and midterm elections are decided by who who gets their voters out, period. It's not a presidential year. You don't have that drag pulling people to the polls. And so if you've got the right get out the vote operation and you put it in motion, you know, if you're doing souls to the polls and you're doing all the all the other things that you ought to be doing,

then then you don't need to be on the ledge, even though the election is going to be close. Yeah. Gene Robinson's message to Democrats in America. Stop bedwetting. Start voting. Wait, I don't think he said that. But I get out. Get out. Yes. Let's get out there. Paraphrasing Barack Obama. Don't boo vote. Just go out and vote. Jonathan Swan, what's the sense in Washington about where all this is heading? We can talk about all these polls. We can talk about what may or may not happen. But there is an assumption that the House is going to Republicans. Republicans have already promised on day one some of them anyway.

They will start impeachment hearings. What could Washington look like for the next two to four years? Well, the margin matters for a start. So people are watching very closely, assuming and again, I take Joe's point very seriously, don't assume anything. But if you take the House going Republicans, it matters whether Kevin McCarthy has a really tight majority or a big one. If he's got a very small, thin majority from just a functioning of government standpoint, that's the worst possible outcome. It means he's basically going to be dragged around by the far right of his conference. And any time I'm not talking about forget any type of compromise.

I mean, that's no matter what the majority is, it's total gridlock. But I'm just talking basic passing government funding bills, the debt ceiling. They are going to be making unrealistic demands of Kevin McCarthy. And each time one of these things come up, using that to damage him and weaken him. So that's one thing everyone's watching. I think there could be a lot of volatility there. And the other thing that I think people are going to see if the Republicans take a majority is it'll cast into really bright light the new Republican Party. And what I mean by that is not

all the obvious things that people have seen with Donald Trump, you know, protectionist on trade, inching towards isolationism on foreign policy. I'm talking about the attitude towards corporate America. There's been a really fundamental shift in the party. It's not secret. Kevin McCarthy has told me on the record that if he's the speaker, he will not take a meeting with the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Just like think about that for a second.

This is the leading representative the the lobby group for corporate america cannot get a meeting we'll not be able to get a meeting with kevin mccarthy we broke a story the other night saying he's requesting that they replace their entire leadership team and the view of house republicans is basically again this is not my point of view i'm trying to channel to you what i hear when I talk to them every day is we protected you guys for years in corporate America. We cut your taxes. We lightened your regulation. We fought the trial lawyers and you turned around. And on every issue of cultural salience, you sided with Democrats, whether it be the environment, voting rights, you know, go down the list, immigration, whatever.

And so their view is, you know, middle finger, basically. Not only are we not going to protect you anymore, we're going to actively look for opportunities to harm you. And the Ron DeSantis playbook in Florida with Disney, that's not some aberration. That is a beacon, a bright beacon for Republicans of what they want to do on the Hill. And to be clear, there's not much they can do substantively. Biden's in the White House. But the oversight is just going to be a star chamber. I mean, you're going to have people like Larry Fink from BlackRock hauled in, hand on the Bible, you know, ripping him to pieces over his support for ESG. I mean, you're just going to see really aggressive and antagonistic and hostile oversight towards the business community. So those are some

of the things I'm watching. But, you know, there's a lot more to. Well, it is such a critical insight, Jonathan, because, first of all, when Republicans had a majority of 30 or so when I was there, things, you know, regular order ran pretty smoothly. When it went down to 10 or 11 crazy people like me, suddenly they had to go every spending bill they had with their there were 11 of us. Every spending bill had to they had to like new and the the the guys on the appropriations committee and the women would have to come to us and explain we can balance the budget in seven years and you freshmen are you okay with this it was horrifying to them and then after 98 when it went down to four that's when we we just drove Gingrich out of town. So this is this

is the irony, actually, for for Democrats, the larger the majority for the Republicans in the House, at least the more rational it will be. But if you have a majority of three, four, five, six, that's where you're going to have the four or five or six most radical people literally controlling everything that happens. And so that's a nightmare. And and as far as Willie, as far as like this, you know, they're not going to talk to the Chamber of Commerce. These are the most triggered snowflakes I've ever seen in my life. They don't they they care more about these social issues that will get them, you know, 300 likes on Twitter and Facebook. They care more about that than legislation that would help small business owners and entrepreneurs back in their district. You know, Ron DeSantis, for instance, deciding that he's going to take away a million dollar

package to help the Rays and the city of Tampa because they tweeted something out where they were thinking about the kids who got slaughtered in Uvalde gun violence. And so he goes after he goes after the baseball team in Florida, the favorite baseball team in Florida goes after Mickey Mouse in Florida, goes after cruises. And yeah, this plays well to your the sliver of snowflakes who were easily triggered by these these just phony issues and they are most of them for the most part are phony issues compared to what working class americans and middle class americans need to get their jobs right but this is where the this where the national party's but this this does not end well for them. The Party of Business won't take a meeting with the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

What would the Reagan Bush hat think in 84 about that? Correct me if I'm wrong, Jonathan Swan, but it was because that the Chamber of Commerce endorsed a couple of Democratic candidates last go around. Is that the reason he won't take a meeting? Now, 23 Democrats. That was the that was it and you know the Republican Study Committee which as Joe knows biggest caucus of House Conservatives they basically had a meeting which I reported

on a couple months ago where it was just one member after the other teeing off on the US Chamber of Commerce ranting about how they've gone woke you know and all it was astonishing truly astonishing okay on that note so therefore free markets right until a ceo decides like his laugh and the board decides we're gonna make this move because we think it's best for our company we think it's best for our business

and this is just like, again, talking about Ron DeSantis, like this guy's not a conservative. He's an authoritarian wannabe when he starts telling cruise lines, no, you can't do that because you think that will keep your customers safer and allow you to keep the cruise ships going so you can make money or tell small business owners what they can't do in their own stores. I mean, it's it's crazy, but that's what this Republican Party is now. These businesses are responding to what their consumers want, right? Right. You know, the consumers may want them to, you know, in the case of Tampa Bay Rays,

to speak out about a school shooting is probably something that Tampa Bay fans are happy with. The thing that I worry about with, you know, the other, the thing that I worry about with business, because they are worried about, they don't want to get dragged into a lot of cultural fights. They don't know what to do about Disney and all, but we're going to need them when elections are denied. We're going to need them to speak out when, you know, when, when, when, when facts are not adhered to by you know either by republican candidates or by the republican house caucus and they're gonna you know they're gonna be right back in the middle of this like political fight that i know this doesn't want to

be but like they need truth to matter in order to operate in the world we have a lot ahead on that wait till you hear what senator ron johnson said oh boy. It's and Jonathan Swan. I like your crazy laugh. It's literally crazy. It's actually genetic. No, it's really embarrassing. It's high pitched. No, it's like when I really I love it. It's crazy. All right. We've got to stay where you are, please, everybody. We have a packed show this morning. We'll be joined by two Democratic Senate candidates, Tim Ryan of Ohio and Val Demings of Florida, ahead of next week's midterm elections. What did Ron Johnson say? You just wait.

It's excruciating. It's like a guy that has locks in his hat. No, it's excruciating. Plus, former President Trump gets called out by a member of his own party for not spending more money to help some of the candidates he endorsed this election cycle. Also this morning, President Biden's message to voters in New Mexico and California last night. We'll take a look at those new remarks. And Oath Keepers founder Stuart Rhodes expected to take the stand today in the seditious conspiracy trial against him and four other members of the far right. You hear what he said about Nancy Pelosi?

We'll have a preview of that. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. 37 past the hour, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin appears to be already casting doubt on the legitimacy of next week's midterm election in his state. week amid allegations she fraudulently requested military ballots and sent them to a Republican lawmaker known for amplifying false claims about the 2020 election. Johnson brought up those allegations yesterday when asked whether he would accept the results of Tuesday's vote. Take a look. Do you commit to accepting the results of Tuesday's election? I sure hope I can, but I can't predict what the Democrats might have planned. It sure seems like there's an awful lot of, in the past, a lot of attempt on the part of Democrats to make it easier to cheat. We want to make it easy to vote, but very hard to cheat.

That essentially, it depends on what you see? It has to. I mean, let's see how this plays out. I'm pretty shocked that a Democrat election official was sending out military ballots fraudulently. That's a little shocking. So here we are. Mike Barnicle, welcome to the table. So here we are. I think we just have to you know, our hair can't be on fire. We just have to identify people for what they are. Ron Johnson is anti-democratic. Ron Johnson, he's an illiberal. And just like Orban, right, he'll accept elections if he wins those elections. He won't accept elections

if the people vote against him. So listen again, no need to scream and yell. Let's just put Ron Johnson down. Let's just write it down. He doesn't have faith in American democracy. He will undermine Madisonian democracy if it gets in his way of accumulating more power. This is all black and white. So we need to start. We need to just keep that list on hand and understand Ron Johnson considers American democracy, considers Madisonian democracy, considers a constitution of the United States an irritant that gets in his path to power if he doesn't win. And consider the cultural difficulty involved in this, because this is like a contagion. Ron Johnson is not going to accept the results of the election. Right. So there's no need for some kids in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to accept the results

of the soccer match this weekend or the league baseball. you lost yeah but they cheated they cheated we went i'm it's out there there's a contagion of virus and infection in the political system that begins at the top it will definitely circulate right down to the lives of ordinary people every day it also has to be said that it bends the mind to listen to a united states center who participated in the attempted coup against the government in 2020, trying to grab the high ground on election integrity. He's the one who's going to be watching out for the vote. And if it doesn't go his way, well, they cheated. He's already laid down that marker. And to Mike's point, every time they come out and say that, you can feel it eroding things just a little bit more. When you say it again and

again and again, it starts to seep into people's minds yeah and it prepares seeds the ground for if i lose it was because the other side cheated and jonathan swan we we we have republican candidates all across me you know i love the what about ism well what about said there's no what about ism here like listen people still bring up hillary clinton hillary clinton, she didn't accept that. Yes, she did. Yes, she conceded. Hillary Clinton conceded like the morning after. It wasn't easy for her, but she conceded. But there is no whataboutism here. You have an entire party from Wisconsin to Arizona saying we're not going to accept the results if we don't win. I remember very vividly the summer of 2020 interviewing Donald

Trump. And I said to him on camera, you have not committed to accepting the results of the election. What does that look like? And the first thing out of his mouth, he says, well, Hillary Clinton. And I said, I said, I said, she conceded on election night. What are you going on about? Oh, well, you know, she complained about Russia. OK, she complained about she conceded on election night. What are you going on about? And they said, oh, well, you know, she complained about Russia. OK, she complained about it. She conceded on election night. And so, you know, what's different is this time around, like I broke a story this morning, which has lots of new internal emails that we've obtained between Trump lawyers, between the dates of

December 30, 2020 and January the 7th. And even on the night of January 6th, when the Capitol had been ransacked, the police are trying to secure the Capitol, Congress is trying to get back and vote. Trump himself was on the phone to his key lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, talking about the Georgia lawsuits that they were trying to pursue to overturn the election in Georgia. So they're committed to this. It failed in 2020, really because they were caught flat footed and sort of ended up being a debacle of incompetence. But what's happened since then is resources, effort, energy, intensity and planning has gone into this. And now they're dead serious about it and they're organized and

they're training. Cleta Mitchell, the person I just mentioned on these emails, she spent the past 18 months training Republican conservative activists to be election monitors. They're going to be at polling stations and various other places in the midterms. So this is this is ongoing, but it's intensifying. It's intensifying. And by the way, the documents are out there. They're all out there. The texts are out there. We it was a conspiracy, a conspiracy that that's very well documented. They were trying to steal an American presidential election and were figuring out, asking each other, how do we steal this election? How do we and it everybody around Trump tried to stop him from doing it. So he went outside,

tried to steal the election, and they've been using the last two years to do it more effectively in 2024 when Donald Trump loses again if he runs, because that's what Donald Trump does. He loses. He really does. I mean, the stakes were, oh no, the stake, no, he went bust with the stakes. He went, everything, everything's gone bust. Stakes weren't his. Everything's gone bankrupt with Donald Trump. He lost, but everything, everything's gone. Everything's gone bankrupt with Donald Trump. He lost the popular vote both times. He squeaked in. He won one time, but he lost the House. He lost the Senate. He lost the presidency in 2020. He's going to lose again. And he knows he knows that he's just a loser. He loses all the time. So if you're a loser and you just

don't know how to win elections and you're Donald Trump, then you try to figure out how to steal elections. And then you find people that have rocks in their head that happen to be senators from Wisconsin who will do the same thing, who will parrot you. And you get Barack Obama supporters from Arizona who were on TV for a very long time, but who are so desperate, so desperate to stay in the spotlight. They'll do it, too. And so it's spreading across the country. And again, no need to pull our hair out. We need to write it down. We need to understand what they're doing. And we, we being people who actually love this country and respect Madisonian democracy and wake up every morning and thank God that we're a part of the American experiment. We Republicans, independents and

Democrats who love this country more than we love our political parties, we have to push back against it. And we will. Let's bring in a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Congressman Tim Ryan. Hey, Tim. Yeah, nice sweatshirt, by the way. I'm glad you dressed up for us. This guy knows how to run. I heard beforehand he was walking out and he had on a Michigan sweatshirt and his staff said, why don't you know? So a congressman, let me ask you a question. I don't know. Just straightforward. If you lose this election, will you accept the results? Oh, of course I will. But that's not what's going to happen. But to your point, you got to do what you got to do. Got to keep the country together.

Yeah. All right. So your race, I got to say, it is so strange. I look at polls. It's close. You look at your campaign. You've run a great campaign. I think most people think you've run people I talk to think you've run one of the best campaigns in America this year, if not the best, along with Josh Shapiro for a Democrat. Of course, it's not saying a whole lot. My Democrats have been running this year, but you've run a great campaign. And yet the National Party, I just I just don't

ever hear about you. It's always an afterthought. Oh, yeah, we're worried about Georgia and Pennsylvania. But I don't get it. Are some people going to be shocked on Wednesday morning? It's going to be the beauty of the win. You know, you had the National Democrats who have long have a longstanding record of not having a great strategy, not making the investments needed to ignore this race. And we win and we're going to win because we have a lot of support from organized labor that understands what's going on on the ground here in Ohio. We've got donations from all 88 counties. We have 425,000 donors from across the country who understand we have a real chance to win this thing.

And I'm telling you on the ground, and Joe, you've done this yourself, there's the polls. And then there's what you hear on the ground. You go to rural Ohio where Donald Trump would have had a sign every 50 feet. There's a J.D. Vance sign every 10 miles. We're in these counties. We have Republican crossover support. We have the building and construction trades. Their rank and file folks are coming our way in droves. Like,

this is going to be a shocker only to those people who live in the echo chamber in Washington, D.C. Congressman, you know I'm a Michigan guy. I'll excuse the sweatshirt as long as the game turns out the right way this year. But what are your conversations like with the DNC, with national Democrats, when you point out that, look, I'm beating this guy. I could use a little money. And you haven't gotten the funds and support that really would definitively put you over the top. What are those conversations like? I haven't had one of these conversations in the last few months. I'm not going to sit here and beg somebody to be able to see what's happening here on the ground. I'm just not going to do it. We have our supporters. Like I said, organized labor has been huge here. We've

got our low dollar donors and anybody that wants to come and chip in, timforoh.com, if they want to be a part of shock in the world, like we have our team. We show up in Portsmouth, Ohio on a Tuesday at noon and there are 60, 70, 80 people there. If you'd have done that five or 10 years ago in Portsmouth, Ohio, right down along the Ohio River, you could have had the meeting in a phone booth. And we are bringing back the old school Democrats who like the fact that I'm focused on the economic issues, that we're not focused on the culture wars, that we're talking about manufacturing and building things again and trade and the economic instability in these regions, that we want to reinvest back into those communities.

And we've been doing it for 18 months. These people look at my our dog, our family dog has been in Lima, Ohio, more times than J.D. Vance has. OK, that's how hard we've been campaigning over the last 18 months. It's our oldest son's German shepherd. And he's honest, honest to God. This is like he's been in Lima, Ohio, more than J.D. Vance. OK, dog's name. That's probably bad when you're running for the United States.

Zoe. So, Congressman, I won't make you answer this, but I'll just point out the state of the Vance campaign. He accused you on Fox. This is a quote last night of the following that you're planning on flooding America with illegal aliens, then using American tax dollars to fund gender reassignment surgeries for those aliens. That's a quote. How stupid does he think people are? As many people have pointed out, that's almost a direct ripoff from a parody that was on

Succession when they were mocking that kind of rhetoric. But we'll put that to the side. You did go in this week, Congressman, and do a town hall on Fox News. You talked about the economy, but you also talked about the state of the democracy. You got some booze for some of the things you said, but you stood your ground and and said you can watch the tape. We know what happened on that day as cops were beaten up. Let's talk about some of those voters you went on Fox News to speak to. Some of those Republicans who may have voted for Donald Trump twice,

but don't want to go along for the ride with J.D. Vance any further here. Do you think you can capture a bunch of them? Yeah, no, no doubt. Needless to say, we had a lot of people telling us, don't go do the Fox News town hall. You shouldn't go there. It's not going to be on the level, which, of course, we knew that. But it was an opportunity. And I'm I'm half Irish, too, Willie. So there's the old Irish saying, is this a private fight or can anyone get into it? So so we were we were down with going in there. And the reality is you have that group of people that that, you know, they're election deniers.

They're continuing to boo at people who say January 6th really happened. All of the insanity, the book banning, the national abortion ban, like that segment. But there are a lot of good people who may have voted for Trump for other reasons, but aren't into all that other stuff. And I want to make sure that we get a chance for them to, they get a chance to hear my message. I am not trying to further bring more hate into this country, more anger, more fear. We need more love. We need more compassion. We need more concern for each other. And those people are looking for a place to go. And your previous segment where you were talking about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, look, I have tremendous support from workers, but there's no way you can't

work with the business community. You can be hostile to greed. You can be hostile to concentration of wealth, right? You can be hostile to income inequality. You can't be hostile to business. How are we going to develop the technologies to reverse climate change? How are we going to build the industries of the future if we're not working with the business community? And I want those people to know that maybe we agree five out of 10 times, but my door is going to be open whether you vote for me or not. And you have to go there. And we've got more commentary about just having the guts to go into that place, you know, going into the lion's den. You score points with people because you got guts and you stand your ground. So it was a character test

more than it was about any particular issue. And we came out of there, you know, pretty strong. And J.D. Vance, I mean, the questions they were asking him, they were like, J.D., we've got a tough one for you. How do you spell J.D.? And that was like, oh, my God, I'm watching him go. It's like it's insane. So Congressman, it's Jen Palmieri. Good to see you. I think I'm coming out to see you on Monday. If you win, this means Republicans are voting for you. And, you know, I was out there a couple weeks ago with you and I saw you know, I talked to some Republicans who are going to do that. Is it about I mean, is it is it a gut level thing with them that like this guy is Ohio?

This guy is for me. Or are there issues that they feel like the Republicans are not answering? But what is it people say when they Republicans say that they're going to they're willing to support you? What's it about? They're they're good people. You know, they're good people. And they watch J.D. Vance and he's running around with Marjorie Taylor Greene. He brought in Ted Cruz. He brought in Ted Cruz. He brought in Lindsey Graham. You know, he's running around with Donald Trump Jr. And we know what Donald Trump Jr. was posting after Mr. Pelosi had that tragedy happen to him. And I think average Ohioans who may be a moderate Republican are looking at this guy and they're saying, no

way, no way are you going to spend the next six years in the United States Senate representing Ohio running around with Donald Trump Jr., who has zero class, zero grace, right, zero compassion, torching the joint. And they're just not going to do it. And I'm telling you, like, it could be a moderate Republican in suburban Columbus who's also concerned about choice and gun safety and the environment, these other things. But it's also it's also working class folks down the Ohio River who may have voted for Trump a couple of times, maybe Republican. They're not into the whole culture war thing. They like me. And they're like this. This guy's not our people. He's not Ohio. We need an ass kicker, not an ass kisser. And they know the whole thing with Donald Trump.

And those people watched what happened to him in Youngstown when Trump emasculated the guy, you know, on the stage in Youngstown. And J.D. Vance, 10 minutes later, gets back up on the stage, goes right to the microphone and says, aren't we having a great time here tonight? Like, that's not Ohio. Mike, it's fascinating that it's people like J.D. Vance are always talking about the war on masculinity. And the very people who talk about that the most are the ones that Donald Trump emasculates. Yeah. Like the war on their own masculinity comes from Donald Trump. And again, it's fascinating. these ivy league boys that are so concerned about their masculinity i don't know if just a southern state school thing

it's projecting i don't i don't know there's a war on masculinity i don't know this i mean is it really i guess if you're an ivy league boy and you're going around and you're letting this failed reality TV show host emasculate you in front of your wife and family and your community and your entire state and the nation. And then you go, thank you, sir. Please emasculate me again like J.D. does. I guess you probably do question your masculinity and think about a war on masculinity. Well, the only... That's for Willie and me. I'm not bringing you into this, but we don't go to bed at night wondering

about our masculinity. I feel good about it. I'm pretty good about it, unlike J.D. and all the other Ivy League boys. Go ahead. Well, the interesting thing about the Trump ass-kissing thing with J.D. Vance... Oh, my God. It's unbelievable. He did... Thank you, sir. This is fun. You emasculated me in front my God. He did. Thank you, sir. This is fine.

You emasculated me in front of my wife and family. Thank you, sir. It made you wonder, Joe, to the point that you just raised with the voice mimicking J.D. Vance. It made you wonder how many times someone has gone up to him in a schoolyard and said, give me your lunch, kid. He ended over right now. Every day.

And he's giving it over. But Tim Ryan of Ohio. Oh, my God. Let's get back to Lima and Portsmouth. You were talking about those two towns a few moments ago. And Zoe. Yeah. You've been on the ballot many times in Ohio.

All of it successful. So this time around, as you go around the state of Ohio, can you compare the sense of community that existed when you first ran for Congress to a sense of the community that you belong to. Is it still as strong? Is it weakened? And if it has, what do you think is going on? I still think, you know, when you go to these small towns, you know, it's it's it's high school football. It's still the VFWs. It's still it's still a strong community. These are still strong communities. They've had so many challenges with with opiates and then the heroin and now fentanyl. And they see a guy like J.D. Vance, who started a fake opiate charity, and they certainly don't want him to help come help

rebuild the community. But there's a there's an exhaustion, Mike. There's an exhaustion there. And I had a guy grab me at the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns tailgate the other night. And he just came up to me and Mayor Bibb, who's the mayor of Cleveland. And he said, please win. I don't want to have to hate my neighbor anymore. And I just think that's where people are. And that's why, like, this is where the country wants to move. And I think J.D. Vance and Ron Johnson, they didn't get the memo. They just didn't get the memo. Like people are exhausted. And that's why, you know, I keep talking about bringing this exhausted majority together, Democrats, Republicans and independents.

And you can feel it in these smaller communities. They want to come together. They want to have Thanksgiving dinner together. They don't want to have to talk about politics all the time. They want to talk about sports and their They don't want to have to talk about politics all the time. They want to talk about sports and their kids and their families and what they can do in their community. This is the message we're giving to people. So we need help in this final stretch. Timforoh.com.

Please come in, chip us, chip in a few bucks for us. We are going to absolutely shock the world on this one. I'm sorry, my earpiece went out. What's that again? What address is that again? That's Timforoh dot com, Joe. And, you know, you can chip in a few bucks to help us fuel this campaign in the final hours. Yeah, no, I don't want to buy him a suit. You're so right, Congressman. You know, I and I don't say this jokingly. You talk about football and Friday nights and everything like that.

You know, people like some new Civil War poll came out. Eighty eight percent of Americans think we're going to have this. I said, really? Really? No. I'll tell you what. Eighty percent of Americans are thinking about. They think about the kids thinking about like, you know, how their grades are doing. They're hoping the midterm grades are doing okay uh they love they want to go to a football game high school football game on friday night uh they want to cook out on saturday watching college football uh of course talking about people like

you and me i mean i know there's awfully sports related but in in ohio and northwest florida you know and on sunday they're going to go to church. They're going to they're going to watch football. They're there. They want to spend time with their kids. They don't want to hang out with people. They don't want to hang out with like Stuart Rhodes and these freaks saying the world's coming to an end. And I'm like, go on, let's start a civil war. No, no, that's not where Republicans and Democrats and independents. That's not where they are.

I mean, it's just this. It's just radical. They don't they they want to live their lives. And you're right, they're exhausted. People want community. You know, you can go to those high school football games. You know, you go to a concert, you go to a college football game. Right. People want community. They want to come together. And they're exhausted that they they can't just let all this stuff go because it keeps getting stoked by the J.D. Vance's of the world and the Donald Trump juniors of the world and the Donald Trump's of the world. And people are just tired of it. They want to come together. They want to care about each other. They want a common purpose, a common mission. And that's what we're doing, getting back to being Americans and Ohioans and then members of their family, members of their church,

members of their community, and then break into your Democrat, Republican positions on things. Candidate for U.S. Senate, Tim Ryan, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. We'll see where Zoe's going next. All right.