Morning Joe - Morning Joe 11/7/22

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

Democrats catch up to GOP on enthusiasm in final NBC News poll before midterms

When democracy withers, it's hard to restore. You can't take it for granted. You have to work for it. You have to nurture it. You have to fight for it. Now the good news is, you get to make a difference difference as long as you turn out to vote. Former President Barack Obama Saturday. He's good, isn't he?

He's he's better than I've seen him in a long time. He's having a good time here. Isn't he kind of fired up, ready to go? I tell you what, it's like it's it's like Hank Aaron playing on the 1962 Mets. You're going to stand out, right? He's he's having fun. And I think you could see there was interesting that the arc of the rallies he was really animated earlier in the tour. This sober analysis. Interesting. Yeah. Well, it's a sober time. That was former President Obama in Pennsylvania helping Democrats with their closing message ahead of tomorrow's crucial midterm elections. This is it. Meanwhile, new polling shows Democrats have closed the enthusiasm gap with Republicans.

But will that be enough to keep the party in control of Congress. We're going to have the latest numbers for you. Plus, new reporting on when Donald Trump might announce a reelection bid as he takes a swipe at potential rival Ron DeSantis. We'll play those remarks. He also made a unbelievably inappropriate and layering comment about Nancy Pelosi, which really sums up where Republicans and Trump Republicans are and have always been. Only if you think that sort of fascist comments are inappropriate. If you care. Only if you think if you think that go, hey, how's Nancy? How's she doing right now? Right. And if it's not fascism, it's like i just pure mob violence i don't know we'll play

that clip for you but i really want my evangelical friends to watch that clip and and tell me compare that to the woman you've been vilifying for for 40 years nancy pelosi after steve scalise's shooting and just see if there's any comparison. Yeah. There's anything that goes against what you believe, your core values? Yeah. I don't know. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Monday, November 7th. With us, we have, as you saw, former White House press secretary under President Obama,

Robert Gibbs, joins us this morning. Member of the New York Times editorial board, Mara Gay, is with us. U.S. special correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kay, joins us. And presidential historian, John Meacham, is with us as well. It's good to have you all this hour. We've got a lot of new polls to show you. I mean, this is go time.

So we'll get some context at the very last minute and then we see what happens. I got to say, usually for, and I'm sure Robert will likely agree with this really generic ballot tests really are worthless in many respects. I will say the one thing about this NBC generic ballot test is it shows that Democrats have reengaged. And that's obviously that is that is the top line doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter because, you know, now you just don't know what's going to happen.

It's the individual races. It is interesting that that nationwide, though, this new NBC poll shows that Democrats have reengaged and they're excited about getting out and voting gives them more of a chance to keep it close. Right. So let's take a look at that. The new polling from NBC News shows Americans are split over which party they want in control of Congress. Forty seven percent of registered voters say they prefer Democrats in control, while 47 percent say they prefer Republicans. It's virtually unchanged from last month when Democrats held a one point lead, though the results, of course, within the margin of error. Meanwhile, Democrats have closed the gap on Republicans when it comes to enthusiasm. Seventy three percent of voters from both major parties say they have a high interest in voting tomorrow.

That number for Democrats is up four points since last month, while Republican enthusiasm has slipped five points in the same time frame. A less promising number for the party in power. Seventy two percent of voters say the country is on the wrong track. That is significantly higher than any election in recent years. As far as what matters most to voters right now, 23 percent say threats to democracy is the top issue the country faces. But if you combine the results of the second and third place answers, the economy is clearly top of mind for voters. And of course, everybody looks at threats to democracy and they think, oh, wow, well, the American people are where I am. If you dig deeper in a lot of these polls, you'll see that Republicans and Democrats both are pointing to threats and democracy is a real problem.

Mara, I want to ask you about the enthusiasm, because there have been a lot of us. And when I say us, I mean me going, wait a second. Democrats can't be enthusiastic about this election. I just I'm just absolutely stunned by it. But we see here a big reversal over the past month. Republicans held a nine point lead. Now it's it's. Well, it's interesting because I think over the past several years, we've understandably spent so much time inside the mind of the Republican voter and that psyche and just some of the emotional reaction to some of the extraordinary events that

we've been living through. So people who don't want to mask up, even though they know that there are vulnerable people around, et cetera, there's a deadly pandemic, you know, that does track with this Republican vote and emotional reaction. But the reality is that Democratic voters are also living through extraordinary events. They are exhausted. They are angry. They are just as demoralized by what's happening, even if what they want to see done about it is very different than the Republican voter. And I think that sense of malaise and frustration is very real. And I think it's only in the past couple of weeks, and you can feel it even here in New York, where there's an extraordinarily competitive race for governor, only in the past couple of weeks have Democrats, especially even prime voters,

started to say, okay, I got to get my courage up. I'm going to go to the polls. We're going to show up. And so the question really for Democrats is, is it just prime voters? Is it going to be beyond that? Can they really motivate people to get to the polls? And that's why Bill Clinton was here in New York this weekend, which is an extraordinary turn of events. Think about that. You know, the Democratic Party in New York requiring one of its heavy hitters to come and turn voters to the polls. All Americans are exhausted. Yeah. So. So, Robert, you've you've been around this more closely than any of us. There are always the stories in Iowa where you all would be looking in the bus at the latest polls and Obama would come back.

What are you doing? just i don't want to hear about like he was just like that's that's nonsense as as we see all of these polls it occurs to me republicans have a massive night they could have a massive night they should have a massive night if you look at history if you look at right track wrong track democrats i don't think anybody would be surprised if Democrats didn't win both seats in Pennsylvania. If they didn't if if they didn't win Senate and the governorship, if they didn't do well in and a lot of other Senate races held the Senate. It's it's really hard, hard to tell where this electorate's going. What do you take out of that NBC poll and all of the other polls that have been coming out?

Like you said, I think the most important number in the poll, everybody has kind of their favorite questions. Somebody will say right track, wrong track. Somebody will say congressional ballot. To me, the most important finding in the poll is Democratic enthusiasm equal to Republican enthusiasm. That's essentially what you need in an election to be competitive. A nine point gap, as we saw earlier, would have been deadly. That's a wipe out year. To your point, I do think we're a bit in the fog of war, though, right? You've got I say to people, if you're depressed, you can Google some poll and be excited. If you're excited, you can Google some poll and be depressed. Yeah,'re excited, you can Google some poll and be depressed.

Yeah, there's just a lot of different data. But to me, again, if the energy of voters is matched on each side, starts to give you some indication of maybe the early vote is good for Democrats. Maybe, you know, so I think that's a real big and important thing. And to your point about former President Obama, this is the point in which he would literally kick us to the other end of the bus. You guys go, you guys go sit there, you know, be on your devices. I'm just, I want to be back here. And, and, and I think for candidates too, they're making their last pitch, right? Today's going to be their last pitch. This is their focus. This is their argument. So former presidents, Donald Trump and Barack Obama were in Battleground, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, as I said, campaigning for Senate candidates locked in one of the country's most closely watched races. Much of Trump's speech was focused on himself. And what a surprise, which, by the way, the Wall Street Journal opinion page wrote about that. Once again, he comes at the end of a campaign and makes it all about himself.

Yeah. On himself and also pushing debunked, untrue conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Whereas this was former President Obama's closing message. The kind of slash and burn politics that we're seeing right now that doesn't have to be who we are we can be better and and and it has nothing to do by the way with political correctness or being too woke it's about fundamental values that my grandparents from Kansas taught me. Values I grew up with, values you grew up with, values we try to teach our kids, values we learn in churches and mosques and synagogues and temples. Honesty, fairness, opportunity, hard work, values that Josh Shapiro and John Spetterman stand for, values that Joe Biden stands for, values that were enshrined in our founding documents a few miles from here,

a clarion call for freedom and equality that Philly's own Liberty Bell represents. That's what America stands for. That's who we are. And all the people said, yeah, amen. Amen. That is who we are. Amen. John Meacham, I'm a big believer in gravity. The small C conservative in me, I believe in gravity. I believe that if you, for years, torture parents whose children were slaughtered in a schoolhouse in Connecticut, eventually the laws of gravity will catch up with you and you will be chased by creditors for the rest of your life. I believe if you lie about stolen elections and you say that a certain voting machine and company worked with Hugo Chavez, I believe that the laws of gravity will catch up with you. I believe that too politically, that we are a people who

before 2015, we are a people who always looked for the optimistic leader, that looked forward, that told us we were better, we could be better, we could move toward a more perfect union. And I just we're watching President Obama there. And I know a lot of people like me were stirred by that optimism. But think back. Bill Clinton, I still believe in a place called hope. Let's build a bridge to the 21st century. You look at him. He was positive. You look at other leaders that that that were positive in campaigns. Reagan, of course, was one of Reagan was was one of the great examples. I still believe that America's greatest days truly do lie ahead.

And you can go back. And Americans, even in divisive times, have wanted to believe that we are moving forward. We have in Donald Trump and in Trumpists, people, well, with Trump, we have somebody that basically threw out a mob threat yesterday when talking about Nancy Pelosi. Yeah. How's she doing? Right. Talking about shooting people on Fifth Avenue, talking about violence. And I just I don't know. It may not happen tomorrow, but I do believe that Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, I believe those optimistic campaigners, they eventually win the day again. This starts with Thomas Jefferson, who talked america as the world's best hope

uh lincoln adjusted the phrase slightly to call us the last best hope president reagan uh 50 years ago 60 years ago uh in this season said that we were the last best hope of man on earth. And Reagan did something that not many people can do, and that's improve on Jesus. When he called it called America a shining city on a hill. I've actually heard ministers from pulpit say, as Jesus said, America shall be as a shining city upon a hill. How that sounded in the original Aramaic, I'm not sure. But that's how powerful Ronald Reagan's capacities were. Democracies, like human beings, are a battle between hope and fear.

Edmund Burke, who also believed in the rule of gravity, the law of gravity, said there's no more unreasoning emotion than fear. And if you think about it, fear is the loss, the anxiety created by the loss, the prospect of the loss of something you love, right? The anxiety created by the prospect of losing something you love. And what Donald Trump has been a master at is convincing people that everything they love is about to slip away and that he stands between them and that loss. And so the counter argument is a difficult one to make because it does require people to look ahead as opposed to just around them right now. And I think that's what President Biden, the argument he's made, President Obama, everybody you've listened. This is not a partisan point, by the way. The fact that it sounds

partisan is part of the trouble we're in. And one of the fascinating things to me about this, because I don't have a partisan brain, is that I really believe that the election of 2020, the election of 2022, and the election of 2024 is going to be about more than a marginal tax rate or immigration or any of the policies that we debate when we have democracy as a mediation of differences. I just think this is more fundamental than that. And I want people who will treat American politics as what I think it was from 1933 to 2017, which is this figurative conversation between FDR and Reagan. And that's the conversation that I think is coherent and can deliver for us. If you see it as total war, if you see it as total war, then it's going to be total war. And you know, Mika, what, let me use the word,

fascists, what fascists have always done is they try to link their movement to a mythic past, a glorious past that they, they are trying to take away from us. So that justifies violence, that justifies hate, that justifies throwing everything away that you were ever taught in church. But I want you to listen, focus on what Barack Obama just did. He competed with that lie. Yeah. By saying, saying we are better than this. And he talked about we're just a couple of miles away from where they made the Constitution. an imperfect Constitution, a Constitution that recognized slavery as part

of the compromise to found this republic, which, of course, led eventually to a civil war. But Barack Obama wasn't afraid to look to our past with clear eyes and say, look how far we've come. We need to keep moving toward that more perfect union. That is who we are as a people. And he gave hope. Yeah. And his vision of America's past, while glorious, was clear eyed. And and I believe it competes quite well with the lie that Donald Trump and so many Trumpists are trying to push. And yet a lot of people actually believe the lie as fact, which is just so disappointing at this time. Katty Kay, you spent the weekend in a state that could be yet again a bellwether, the state of Virginia, watching the candidates there.

What did you see? What did you hear? Yeah, I went to Virginia's 7th District, which is this race between Abigail Spanberger, who was part of that big blue wave that brought this group of centrist Democrats in while President Trump was still in office, people like Alyssa Slotkin, people like Abigail Spanberger with her CIA background, really a kind of ideal Democratic candidate for that district, runs in the middle, distances herself from certain of her party's policies, has taken on the left of her party in a famously leaked audio tape, and yet is in trouble. She's running in a very tight race. I went there because I think on election night, Virginia 7 will give us a pretty good indication of whether it's going to be a good night for Democrats

or a very good night for Republicans. And the thing that really struck me, I went to the two rallies that these two women were giving, Vegas rally, a little mini Trump rally, a couple of hundred people, loud rock music. She had Glenn Young in there. Spanberger's event, there were, what, a dozen people? And that might be an optimistic counting of how many people were there outside of the

press. Much more low key. She says it's just because she wants to do one on one meetings post-COVID with her constituents. But if you had to judge energy, there was definitely more energy at the Vega rally. Interestingly, Vega, the Republican candidate Trump endorsed, did not mention Donald Trump either. So Spanberger not mentioning Biden trying to run local, Vega not mentioning Trump trying to run local as well. And we'll have Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger on the show a little later on this morning. And still ahead on Morning Joe,

Steve Kornacki will join us from the big board with a look at where the top races stand this morning. Plus, former mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, joins us to discuss what she's seeing in Georgia ahead of tomorrow's midterm elections. Also ahead, former President Trump hits the campaign trail in Florida and tests out a new nickname for Governor Ron DeSantis. And Elon Musk raises questions about freedom of speech after banning impersonators from

Twitter. And by the way, the Houston Astros won the World Series. Yeah, nothing to see here. Move along. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. So good to me. Monday morning.

It was all I hoped it would be. But Monday morning, Monday morning couldn't guarantee. That Monday evening you were still. To China, because I actually until the China virus came in, I had a great relationship with President Xi. He's now president for life. I call him king. He says, no, no, no, I am not king. I am president. I said, no, you're president for life. Therefore, you're the king as far as I'm concerned.

But I had a great relationship with him. What an idiot. Projecting. What an idiot. You're the king as far as I'm concerned. Wow. Anyway. Former President Trump had a campaign rally on Saturday with that comment about Chinese leader Xi Jinping. And joining us now, the host of Way Too Early, White House Peer Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire. And look at him, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass. I like it. I can't tell which I like better. Oh, I like the Sean Connery. Yeah. Yeah. I think he looks great today. So, Richard, let's just let's just talk about that for one moment, because it bears repeating that Donald Trump loves autocrats. He loves she he he's been talking about this president for life thing for a while now. He greatly admired how she was setting that up.

He loves Kim Jong-un, talks about the love letters. He, of course, has a warm place in his heart for Vladimir Putin, called him a genius for invading Ukraine. And what historians will see as perhaps the greatest military misstep since let's maybe the Germans declaring war on America in 41 when they didn't have to. But at the same time, this guy hates democratically elected leaders. He hated Britain's prime ministers. He hated Macron. He hates people that get elected in democratic systems. I'm just curious what you're taking. This guy was president of the United States, and I'm so glad that he's coming out talking again and reminding people what a thug he is, what a fascist he is, what a what a what an authoritarian he is. And if somebody out there

on the Internet does not believe those three things, please submit your essays. I look forward to reading them, grading them. What's so interesting, you take the three you mentioned, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. What does he have to show for it? North Korea, busy shooting missiles, developing nuclear weapons, has far more missiles and nuclear weapons than it had before he became president. Let's stop right there. Barack Obama, who we've talked about today. Obama said your number one priority, your number one problem is going to be North Korea moving toward the development of nuclear weapons that they can launch towards America.

Donald Trump has been an abject. When I hear people going, oh, you know what? He he was a blowhard, but he got a lot of good. No, he didn't. He his his grade on North Korea is an F. Everything that's happening right now is is is owed in large part to Donald Trump. We got played on North Korea, China. Xi Jinping's now starting his third term. What has he done during his first two terms? He's consolidated power, repressed people, violated his international obligations on Hong Kong, misled the world on COVID. Chinese economy went from double digit growth to now 3 percent growth. We could go on and on. He's you know, we've got that. And then and then Vladimir Putin obviously has committed

the biggest violation of international law that we've seen. So it'd be one thing if outreach to authoritarians got you something. But we got us not just nothing. We're actually we're soft in our relations with all three of those authoritarians. All three of them have behaved in a way that's far worse. And let's go ahead and and talk about Saudi Arabia as well. Let's let's throw them into the lot. He absolutely loves MBS. And has his behavior gotten better or worse since Donald Trump became president? Obviously, you know, you had Yemen, you had the Khashoggi murder and so forth. No, again,

it's OK to have a foreign policy that doesn't focus on the domestic nature of other countries. That's what realism is all about. But then you've got to focus on the foreign policy of other countries and begin to change it. And that's where essentially, you know, we missed the ball there. Also, as you say, we had terrible relations with Democrats, with Merkel, with the British, with the French and so forth, with some of the people in Asia, with the exception probably of Japan. But we're threatening to pull our forces out of South Korea. I was just in South Korea this week. The biggest question there, 60 percent of the people now in South Korea, Joe, what do they favor? Having their own nuclear weapons. Why? Because they face a growing threat from the North and they no longer feel they can count on the

United States. And why is that? Because Donald Trump, we had we had Bob Woodward in on Friday. And what's he doing? He's, you know, bloviating about how the South Koreans owe their very existence to us and they're going to have to pay us more money or else he's going to pull the support. Right. Basically, when the United States becomes unpredictable and undependable, every other government in the world, the national security advisors take out the file and they call hedge against the United States doesn't have our back. And what that means is one of two options. They either defer or appease a powerful neighbor in Iran or China or Russia, or they become strategically autonomous. And ultimately, that means less American influence. And they start thinking about things like nuclear weapons. This is not the world we want to see. You know, John Meacham, the way that Joe Biden and I guess this probably isn't in vogue to say. So, boy, I'm afraid to say it.

Gee, should I say it or not? I get the feeling. I guess I'll say it. Try to try to try to speak. Speak what's on your mind, Joe. I think it's time for you to break out of your shell. I need a shot of courage. OK, but I know.

OK, let me try this. OK, I'll say it. Joe Biden has done an extraordinary job on Ukraine. It is historic. Yeah, I know. We've talked a good bit, you and I, about Harry Truman. We we've had an event or two talking about how Truman moved through the challenges in 45, 46, 47. People are going to look back.

Historians, I suspect, are going to look, has done a pretty extraordinary job on Ukraine. It won't matter on Tuesday, though, will it? It just it's it's just something that that Biden had to do and Biden will continue doing. But I wonder, is he is he getting any credit out there politically for this? I don't think so. I think you're right. And, you know, the usual disclosure here, he's my friend. I help him when I can. And so take this for what it's worth. But I think President Biden has done a remarkable job confronting this autocratic appetite that's taking on a weaker country and which or at least what she thought was weaker let's be clear but you know Richard was to borrow a phrase from Dean Acheson he was sort of present at the creation of a not dissimilar administration from 1989 to 1993

when George H.W. Bush did a remarkable job managing the end of the Cold War and had a very difficult time getting domestic political credit, which was also true of President Truman in the first year or two of his presidency. Truman, I think, Joe, didn't he lose 55 seats in the House and I think 12, I think 12 Senate seats in 1946. And now anybody would want any American president would love Truman's legacy. Right. So it's politics and statecraft and substance move on two different timelines. Right. There's headlines now, chyrons, and there's history and substance. And the great presidents, the great congresses actually managed to have those two intersect in real time. And that's what we're waiting to see is whether they do intersect in real time. I remember President

Bush said, President Bush senior, moods come and go, but greatness endures. And you have to govern for the greatness and just see what happens with the passions of the moment. Well, you know, the thing that that Biden has had in common with Truman is both faced a very hostile Republican Congress. And in both instances, there was bipartisan agreement on on the major foreign policy issues of the day with Truman. He he he dealt with isolationist Republicans and was even able was even moved taft over, an isolationist, Mr. Republican. And you obviously have Mitch McConnell, Jonathan Lemire, who has kept Senate Republicans together. So they walk shoulder to shoulder with the president on this issue.

The big question is, though, what happens in the House if Republicans win big tomorrow night? Does the White House expect House Republicans to break against Ukraine to support Vladimir Putin? Let me say that again. Does does the White House expect Republicans, if they take control of the House, to turn their backs on Zelensky and the Ukrainians and do Vladimir Putin's bidding? First of all, since the day that Russia launched its invasion, the White House has known there would not be a single midterm vote cast in support of what the president is doing. It's simply the right thing to do for the state of the world and history, he has told people close to him. This is part of Trump's legacy here, too. We know how skeptical and hostile he was to Ukraine. We

know how adversarial he was to Ukraine, how supportive he was to Russia. We also know he tended to drift isolationist when it came to his foreign policy. And though it's Trump supporters who are about to be emboldened if the GOP takes control of Congress. So there's deep concern in the White House. The aides that I've talked to in recent days don't believe, and this is in part because of Mitch McConnell, they don't believe funding will be cut off completely, but they do believe it will shrink. It will slow down, become more difficult to achieve, and less will go to Kiev, and it will go more slowly. There will also be a lot more oversight of that money. It's going to slow down the whole process, and we know that will be in stark contrast with what President Zelensky wants. He's always looking for more right now, as he is as

remarkably successful as Ukraine has been. They still know they're outgunned and outmanned in many ways on that front. So this is something that dramatically does worry the White House in the days ahead. And I feel like the results tomorrow will impact the war effort. President Obama, did he ever assume for a second that anything he did on the foreign policy field was going to have an impact on domestic politics? No, I think what Richard and John have both said, I mean, they move on a different plane. And it is very easy. I mean, you'll remember this even from running for Congress. You could get a crowd pretty excited by talking about cutting foreign aid as if somehow that was going to balance the budget.

Right. Right. So it's just not something I think that plays a large part in people's lives. And I think Ukraine has begun to because fuel, you know, Putin and even in President Biden talking about the fears of of of a nuclear exchange. It becomes more important. But I think in an election, certainly right now where there's so much going on domestically, it's it's really hard for foreign policy to break. All right. John Meacham, thank you very much for being on this morning. And coming up on Morning Joe, we'll be joined by the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, Sherry Beasley, who is locked in a close race there. And a little later, we're headed down to Georgia, where voters have turned out in record numbers ahead of Election Day. How that could be impacting two closely watched campaigns there. Morning Joe will be right back.

Wilson is back for Miami, battling wind. Oh, it's packed! It was blocked on the play! Phillips got it! Picked up down, Ginkgo got it for the touchdown! Burrow on the roll. Burrow looking. Burrow to the end zone.

Nixon juggling catch for the touchdown! A big third and six. Smith to the end zone. It is caught for the touchdown. big third and six smith to the end zone it is caught for the touchdown it's tyler lockett and only not seven first downs today pass over the middle picked off tip and picked off by jonathan jones to the end zone for the touchdown barrios in motion wilson looking underneath pass it robinson the catch the run touchdown jets you've got jefferson down here a lot of choices floating one for the end zone and jefferson reaches up pulls it in and hangs on for a touchdown vikings here's the snap to brady fakes to port at he throws it caught. It's in for the touchdown.

Those are some of the biggest touchdowns scored by winning teams across the NFL yesterday. And, you know, Jonathan, I think what we need to do, because we always talk about in baseball, we talk about the AL East. That's what we talk about. I think we're going to have to start talking about the AFC East. The Dolphins beat the Bills. The Bills. Jets beat the Bills. I mean, Jets. I The Dolphins beat the Bills. The Bills are... Jets beat the Bills. I mean, Jets.

I mean, Jets beat the Bills, one of the two best teams. Yeah. And now the Jets are 6-3. The Dolphins are 6-3. Tua, what's Tua's record when he's there? What is he, like 6-1? I think he's just lost one game, yeah. The entire division's over 500.

The entire division's over 500. They look great. You would think the Bills are sort of the class of the group, but still. That speed of yesterday, what a great game, too. Again, no superstars on the Jets. They just figure out a way to win. They have a terrific defense. They're very fast in athletic defense.

Some questions about the quarterback, but he played pretty well yesterday. But there are no easy games in that division. The Patriots, you know, their defense has also been good. Mack Jones has been up and down this year, but they got an easy win yesterday. It's been a tough year for Alabama. It has been. Yeah, condolences, condolences on.

We haven't got to that yet. Glory to God. But, you know, the Dolphins have an explosive offense. Tyreek Hill's on pace to set, like, every wide receiver record. It's unbelievable. Yeah, he's so fast to set every wide receiver record. It's unbelievable. Yeah, he's so fast. And the Bills, I agree. They're still the best team, but it goes to show.

It's in an any-given-Sunday phase right now because the rest of the division is also competitive. Yeah, and the Vikings also, out of nowhere, great. Philadelphia, great. Undefeated. Undefeated, unbelievable. And, Robert, since I brought it up, you can gloat. Alabama now has lost on the last play two weeks in a row. Stunning.

On the last play? I will say, LSU is a much – I saw them play a month ago at Auburn. Yeah. And the difference in how their quarterback played Saturday night and how he played at Auburn, stunning. Yeah. Stunning. Shocking.

Yeah. And I've got to say, also Georgia, I never saw that coming. I think somebody told me Georgia was like an 11-point favorite, I said, against Tennessee, because Tennessee looked extraordinary. But, man, Georgia just mowed them down. What a defense. Yeah. By the way, a lot of highlights you saw there.

A lot of teams playing. One team, though, that didn't play were the Pittsburgh Steelers. They had a bye. But listen, don't tell Jersey resident Dr. Oz that fact. Tomorrow morning, when you awaken, I want you to contact 10 people. Do it at church. Do it before the Steelers game. Just find the time. And here's the question you're going to ask them. Are you happy with the way America's going? John Fetterman responded on Twitter, quote,

the Steelers have a bye. Come on. Nobody's staffing this guy. Seems like not. I mean, if your campaign is already riddled with questions about your true allegiance and residency in a state, that's the most basic thing for the resident of the state of Pennsylvania. When did the Eagles play? When did the Steelers play? You got to know those things. President Biden also had some thoughts on Dr. Oz's, quote, Pennsylvania roots. And Oz and Pennsylvania? Look, I've lived in Pennsylvania longer than Oz has lived in Pennsylvania. And I moved away when I was 10 years old.

Oh, my God. It's funny because it's true. Yeah. I mean, this is not funny. This guy is is is a transplant. He is cold, is culturally disconnected from this state as anybody I've ever seen running for the United States Senate. I mean, you only have to take a look at him to know that. But also just that footage of Donald Trump behind Oz, it's like it just looks like a hostage situation. And so you have to

wonder if you're a voter, like even if you're a Republican, I mean, does that inspire confidence? Like, who who is this guy going to be standing for once he gets into office? It's not the voters. Right. So it's the guy behind him looming over his shoulder menacingly. Well, and Katie Kay, that's exactly what Donald Trump wants everybody to know. You look how he emasculated little Butters in Ohio. J.D. Vance saying he would like what did he say? He quote, kiss my ass or something like that. He'll do whatever I tell him to do. And in essence, yeah. And then Butters gets up to the microphone and goes, aren't we having fun? And so Donald Trump actually wants the people of these states to know that they're going to have Republican senators who have been politically emasculated and are going to be loyal to Donald Trump first. I'm not sure how that works at the voting booth, because most voters I know, most voters I've dealt with, like their politicians independent.

Well, unless they like Donald Trump more, unless actually what they want is somebody who is, as J.D. Vance was called, going to suck up to Donald Trump. And that's what they want because they are diehard Trump fans. The trouble is, we know there are only 30 percent of the electorate that actually feels that. And that leaves you an awful lot of people you've got to persuade beyond that. I mean, it's interesting the whole relationship with Ron DeSantis. Why is Trump so mad at Ron DeSantis? Why doesn't he turn up at a rally with him? And it's purely because he feels he made Ron DeSantis and then Ron DeSantis wasn't grateful

enough. And it was interesting. I spent some time this weekend with Glenn Youngkin down in Virginia, who has a very different relationship with Donald Trump because he doesn't owe Donald Trump anything. He doesn't owe Donald Trump his victory in Virginia. And in the kind of weird sort of power dynamic of testosterone that fuels Donald Trump's relationships with most people, that kind of gives Glenn Youngkin a certain amount of stature and independence from him. It actually, I think, makes him a more formidable opponent potentially one day to Donald Trump than Ron DeSantis could be. Well, and Robert, look at Georgia.

I think there's a reason why Brian Kemp is doing so much better against Stacey Abrams than people thought he would six months ago. He stood up to Donald Trump and and beat him. And not only did he beat him, he wiped out his opponent just like Brad Raffensperger did. And voters just like that. Donald Trump's lost more elections in Georgia than anybody that's ever run in in in any set of offices. He's lost more in Georgia than like Atlanta Braves managers in the 1970s. Let's not bring that up. It's ugly. No, but it's interesting. There was a poll a couple of weeks ago out of Pennsylvania. And we've heard a lot about, and you hear about the history of the

current president and the drag on Democrats. In that poll out of Pennsylvania, more people were concerned that Oz was too close to Trump than Biden and Fetterman were too close to each other. So I think that there's an interesting dynamic. I'm not sure. Oz has spent a lot of time, particularly in the suburbs, trying to cleave away from Donald Trump. Interesting to spend the last weekend and have people open up that paper and turn on the TV, the very last pitch of the campaign, as you said, and see Oz, besides misstating the football schedule, but standing there with literally with Donald Trump looming over his shoulder. Trump, yeah, just glowering at him.

So states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are getting a lot of attention for their Senate races. But down in North Carolina, Democratic candidate for Senate, Sherry Beasley is locked in a tight race and she's getting help from former President Obama. I don't need to tell you these are challenging times. That's why we need strong leaders to step forward. Leaders who will do what's right instead of what's easy. Leaders who will fight for you. That's why I'm supporting Sherry Beasley for U.S. Senate. And the Democratic Senate nominee from North Carolina joins us now. It's good to have you on the show this morning.

Thank you. So how are you feeling? What, 24 hours until all the votes get in? But early voting so far, what indications are you getting out there? And what's your final message to voters? You know, we're feeling really great. There is a lot of energy all across North Carolina. We have 100 counties.

We've been there. We've been talking with voters. We're seeing really great positive indicators in the early voting. We're really excited. And the final message really is there is a clear choice in this race. I really want to move us forward. He wants to move us backwards. I really want to fight hard to lower costs. And he wants to make corporate profits. I really want to fight hard to protect our democracy. And he wants to undermine it. I want to fight for folks here in North Carolina,

and he wants to fight for corporations and for himself. The choice is clear in this race. Yeah, Ms. Beasley Maragay here from The New York Times. Just wondering, when you talk to voters in the final days, what are motivating your voters to the polls right now? Well, you know, folks really do want to know that if elected, I will work hard to lower costs. People are feeling everything from pain at the pump to the cost of prescription drugs

and everything in between. And in the greatest country in the world, folks shouldn't have to worry about buying groceries or school supplies or medical medicine. I mean, we need to make sure that we fight hard to lower prescription drug costs. My opponent has done the opposite. Congressman Ted Butt has voted against lowering prescription drug costs while taking thousands of dollars of PAC money from Big Pharma. He's voted against lowering the cost of gas while taking thousands of dollars from Big Oil. It's been very clear. He's had six years in Congress. He's never stood up for North Carolina.

It's time for a change. I'm really excited about this race. We have 24 hours. The polls here open at 630 in the morning and they open and they're open until 730 in the evening. So we want people to stay in line if they're lines and vote and vote their conscious, vote our values here in North Carolina for our families and for our communities. Justice Beasley, good morning. President Biden frequently says that democracy itself is on the ballot this time around. When you speak to voters, is that something they're concerned about? We know, we talk every day about the economic issues, the kitchen table issues that seem to be the driving forces this particular cycle. But how do you break through to voters? Are they talking about the fact that their very democracy is at risk? Well, people really are. I mean, we have seen what's happened here in this country. And my opponent, Congressman Ted Butt, on January the 6th, called the mob that stormed the Capitol where hundreds of law enforcement officers were injured and some of whom were

beaten with the American flag. He said they were just patriots standing up. Those are not the values of folks here in North Carolina. We need a senator who's going to stand up for us. And even after all of that violence, he failed to certify the election. I mean, we need someone who's going to stand up for us, who believes in safety, who believes in our values here in the state and in this country. Congressman Butt is at every opportunity to show us here in North Carolina that he stands

for us. And he's done the opposite. And when people show you who they are, it's in time to believe them. I hope that your viewers will go to sherrybeasley.com for more information about my candidacy and about the race and about the importance of this race to North Carolina and this country. What was that website again? Was it sherrybeasley.com? Yes, it was.

sherrybeasley.com. Do you spell that S-H-E-R-I-B-E-A-S-L? It is C-H-E-R-I-B-E-A-S-L-E-Y.com. The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Sherry Beasley, thank you very much for being on. So glad to get that correct. Yes, I know you wanted to clarify four times. Still ahead on Morning Joe, the Reverend Al Sharpton joins us on the heels of his one-on-one interview with President Biden

as the administration delivers its closing message ahead of tomorrow's midterm elections. Plus, Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger will join the conversation after receiving an endorsement from Republican colleague Liz Cheney in her tight race for reelection in Virginia. Morning Joe will be right back.