Morning Joe - Morning Joe 4/3/24

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Trump sues Truth Social co-founders, says they're not entitled to stock shares

Trump has been going after the judge's daughter, which is just nuts. So the judge ordered him to stop and he declined this morning. He did it again. He wrote a whole diatribe on Truth Social. And guess what happened to him? Nothing. Nothing happened again. Are laws real? Because I've been stupidly following them my whole life now. Donald Trump continues to test the limits of the gag order in his hush money case. Meanwhile, his legal team is trying to once again get the judge removed. This attempt comes less than two weeks before the trial is supposed to start. The former president is also suing the co-founders of Truth Social.

Wait a second. So is this not, Willie, is this not the Trumpiest story of all time? So so this guy starts a company, goes public, everything Trump does. You know, he loses billions of dollars, it seems. And then he sues his co-founders. This is literally everything he does his whole life. He gets a painter to paint his office. They paint it. He'll sue him and say, I'll give you 50 percent. And like he's just 50 percent. It is so sleazy. But it's how it's how you and I and Nick and everybody else that have been around him for decades. They all say this is how he works. Everybody that goes into business with this guy regrets it

because he's a terrible businessman and he sues you. It's a reflex. If you hang a chandelier in one of his terrible Atlantic City casinos, somehow you're going to be to blame the electrician. You're going to get sued for it. And in this case, this is a tough story to follow. So the company goes public. It gets boosted by his supporters. It has a value, an obscene evaluation, absurd evaluation because it doesn't really have any revenue. In fact, it's lost money.

So things seem to be going well. Then it comes back down to earth. So now he's suing his co-founders of Truth Social because somehow it's their fault that it's not going well. It's very it's a difficult soap opera to follow and frankly, not a very compelling one either. Not pretty. Also, we're going to show you the moment Donald Trump dodged a question about abortion yesterday on the campaign trail. He did his whole we're going to have an answer in two weeks. But he has. This was one week. He has it. Like the Biden administration said, we don't have to wait. This is like, you know how he'd always lie about, oh, transportation week and never came.

We'll have it in two weeks. Oh, we're going to have the answer on health care in two weeks. And he'd never give you the answer. We've got this answer. Yeah. Clip after clip, tape after tape, time after time. The campaign is capitalizing on it. Donald Trump has said he was the one who, quote, terminated Roe v. Wade. So we don't have

to wait two weeks, Donald. We've heard what you've said and what you've bragged about for the past year now. Along with Joe, Willie and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Bear Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, former aide to the George W. Bush White House and State Department, Elise Jordan, and President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass is here. He's the author of the weekney newsletter, Home and Away, available on Substack. And so, again, Jonathan Lemire, I mean, I know the Yankees are doing okay, but how about those Boston Red Sox?

Won again last night against the fierce Oakland A's. Yeah, I mean, the Oakland A's, of course, the creme de la creme of Major League Baseball. Exactly. As good as it gets. They played in front of about 17 people in the opening to Alameda Coliseum last night. But the Sox did win extra innings. They've won three straight. They're now four and two.

They're a pretty successful West Coast trip. A couple more stops to make. Last time, Joe, you might recall, the Sox opened up on the West Coast. It was 2019, and we were trying to defend our World Series title, and we went 2-8, and the season was already over. So at least now, a little bit of hope. And we should note, Willie,

the Yankees knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten. The dream of 162-0 has been dashed, but 161-1 still has a pretty nice ring to it. So they look pretty good, Richard. Two areas of concern. Nasty Nester has been very shaky in both starts. Not since last night. Aaron Judge struggling a little bit out of the gate.

Six games in and he'll be fine. But if you're looking for areas of concern and otherwise, excellent start. There you have it. Excellent start. Just got to get through the next two months. Cole comes back and then Yankee prospects look good. 161 and one. Well, I mean, here's the thing, though. The way we look at it, Willie, Yankees lose. Knicks losing. Perfect time to perfect time to get Richard on the show.

Oh, Joe. Golf rained out. It was just Easter the other day, Joe. Show some love. Be positive. Okay, that came from Alex Gorson. All right, the real reason we actually have Richard on the show this morning is our top story. Thousands of protesters gathered outside of Israel's parliament in Jerusalem for a third day, calling for early elections and a deal to release the hostages. Sunday will mark six months since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel,

and public demonstrations in the country have intensified in recent days. Israeli police say a protest last night outside of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's home, turned into a riot. Hundreds tried to break through barriers near Netanyahu's home, but were blocked. Meanwhile, President Biden says he was outraged and heartbroken by an Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza. In a statement, Biden wrote, this conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza

has been so difficult because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. He added incidents like yesterday simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. Strong words. The strike killed seven humanitarian workers on Monday, including a dual U.S. citizen. More than 200 aid workers have been killed in the war so far, according to the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu posted on social media on Tuesday that Israel deeply regrets the tragic incident and that we will do everything in our power to ensure that such tragedies do not occur in the future. I got to tell you, I'm glad the

president spoke out strongly, but this has got to stop. What really does. And Richard, it's it's it just continues. And there there's a very op-ed dropped in The New York Times last night by Chef Jose Andres talking about how they had coordinated their movements with IDF. They had taken all precautions that needed to be taken. And let me just read you some of his words. They're very powerful, strong words. He said, Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israeli defense forces. The Israeli government needs to open more land routes for food and medicine today. It needs to stop killing civilians and aid workers today.

It needs to start the long journey to peace today. Richard, Israel and the supporters of Israel, which I am, have been, always will be, will be fooling themselves if they don't think that the overwhelming number of Americans agree with Jose Andres that this is just enough and they need to focus on a permanent ceasefire. They need to focus on getting the hostages home and they need to focus on getting the hostages home. And they need to focus on creating a world moving forward without Hamas. And, of course, in Israel, it will be without Benjamin Netanyahu. And maybe, just maybe then, we can take the first step of a thousand steps toward a two-state solution.

Look, Joe, exactly right. There's so many fault lines which have emerged in the last 24 hours. Let's begin with the World Central Kitchen incident. Look, this didn't come out of the blue. As you heard from the White House, you've had roughly 200 aid workers have been killed. Also, 20,000 civilians in Gaza, put aside the Hamas fighters. Let's say approximately 20,000 civilians have been killed. What this says to me is that Israel's approach to the war simply doesn't place enough emphasis on avoiding either aid workers or civilians. And then you obviously

have a question of competence here. Why is it that an identified vehicle that had been whose movements have been coordinated was still targeted? What's going on here? Could you have that degree of incompetence? So either it's cavalier or it's incompetent. Neither one is reassuring. And for the first time, the Israeli government reacted. They understood what a PR disaster this was and is. But that doesn't change the basics. This was not an exception. This was just high profile.

Richard, can I can I can I stop you there? Because that is such a good point. It's not an exception. It shows that there has been, as Joe Biden has been worried about and warning about, indiscriminate bombing. These are the stories we know about. We know about these seven aid workers, but we haven't talked about because it hasn't made the front pages. The other aid workers that have died because of this bombing and indiscriminate bombing in this very tight, condensed area. It's just like the hostages that broke free from their captors,

shirtless, arms in the air, doing everything they're supposed to do, and they get shot by the IDF. How many times do you think that's happened when it's not been Israeli hostages? Sorry to speak the truth. It's just the truth. How many times? I mean, you know, I'm crazy me. I'm actually worried about the future of Israel. I'm actually worried about Americans loving Israel as much as I love Israel.

I'm worried about what Benjamin Netanyahu with this offensive is doing. And and we're seeing it. We're seeing it. We're seeing it. The more the protests rise against Benjamin Netanyahu and the more pressure he feels, the more petrol, so to speak, he throws on the flames. It's just going to happen because he knows he can't leave power. He gets sent to jail. So he will he will intensify this war. He will hurt Israel standing in the world even more. He will get us even further away from getting the hostages home, all because he's got to make himself seem like the indispensable man by creating even even higher stakes in this war. Yeah, look, whatever the motives, the prospects or the odds of a wider, longer war went up in the last 24 hours. You had, in addition to this question of what Israel does in Gaza and how it waits going after Hamas versus getting the hostages back. And you began with the

protests in Israel about that, the attack on the Iranian compound in Syria, we can argue that separately, the wisdom of that. And I think there was some case for doing it, but it does increase the odds that now this war will grow wider. I think the chances of something with Hezbollah in the north and Lebanon and Israel go up. So what we're seeing, Joe, quite honestly, it's tragic, is none of the preconditions and none of the prerequisites of a calming, either in the Gaza front or more broadly with Lebanon, with Iran in the Red Sea. The Middle East is like an earthquake zone with multiple fault lines. And at the moment, several of them are going off at once and they reinforce one another. So every once in a while you hope that

out of bad news, there could be a glimmer of good news. I don't see it this morning. I'm sorry to say. So, John, this is obviously drawn widespread condemnation from the Middle East, from the West, the UK, the United States. We've seen it everywhere. Those vehicles couldn't be marked more clearly. We're looking at them in this video. Those were aid workers. You have other aid organizations now pausing their efforts, saying we don't know that it's safe for our aid workers to go into Gaza, given what happened with World Central Kitchen. So what is the spot now that President Biden has been in for a long time, but that was made much worse by what happened? We can talk about domestic politics. We saw a little bit in some of those primaries last night. But on the

international stage, what is the spot he's in right now? Yeah, to your point, those vehicles couldn't have been better marked. In fact, it looks like from the footage of the destroyed van, one of the missiles went right through the logo of the World Central Kitchen. Right there. Right through the logo. And just killed everyone inside. And it should be noted, to Richard's point earlier, you know, this mistake hit comes a day after the precision strike that killed the Iranian general in Syria. It's hard to reconcile those two things. Yes, there's real political pressure. We'll get into it a little later. But there was, again, a substantial

uncommitted vote last night in Wisconsin. That's a protest vote about Gaza. You know, it's the primaries. There's a belief a lot of those voters will eventually come home to President Biden. They're not all going to. There's some real anger there, and that's not going to dissipate. And now, at least, we have a moment where the president, and this has been bubbling up from behind the scenes for a while, President Biden, frankly, is furious at Prime Minister Netanyahu. But yet, still, his administration has not conditioned sales, weapons sales, conditioned aid. They haven't done it yet. Now, maybe this is the moment that comes. This also happens just, we think, a week or two perhaps before this Rafa offensive, which really could be a flashpoint. Okay, I'm so sick of hearing how upset President Biden is. The buck stops with him. If he wants to

stop arms sales, if he wants to stop the bombs that are indiscriminately killing civilians, he can. He has the power. We don't need him going and his aides going to reporters and talking on background about how upset they are. What happened yesterday is still going to happen. At Mika's conference, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent spoke, and she was incredibly moving. This was in Abu Dhabi. And she spoke about the difficulty of aid getting in the country, period, from the north or south. And she described a process that was kind of like the TSA changing the rules every single day, going through airport security. Until those checkpoints are working and aid is going through,

we don't need to be giving any more arms sales or money. It needs to stop. It needs to be conditional. It's ridiculous that it's going on unchecked and unfettered. And we're sitting around and talking how upset we are while we hemorrhage billions of dollars. It's the worst of all worlds right now for the president. The criticism looks increasingly empty. It's six months. We're reaching the six month milestone of this of this war. That's that's you know, that's one fact to begin with. And two things have happened in the last few days. One is these attacks are continuing, and yet so are U.S. arms transfers to Israel without

conditions. They've been going on for six months. Why does Israel need 2,000-pound bombs to be used in high-density populated areas? Then, 10 days ago, what does Israel do? It expropriates 2,000 acres of land in the West Bank for settlement construction. Where is the White House reaction to that? That is how you undo even the possibility, Joe was talking about it, of one day getting to a two-state solution. If you're going to have a Palestinian state, the last I checked, states are built on territory. If the territory isn't there to build it on, you can talk about two states till the cows come home. You don't have it. Where's the administration reaction to that? So at some point, the words become empty. And the Biden administration is very close to having reached a point where their criticism of Israel

is too much for the same people who criticize Chuck Schumer. But it's not nearly enough to affect the course of what is going on. That is the worst of all possible. It looks weak and impotent. You were in the H.W. administration at the State Department. At the White House. At the White House. What would James Baker have done? Seriously, that's what we should be asking ourselves, because that was a moment when we were a diplomatic superpower. So we confronted Israel. If you remember at the time, Israel was subsidizing people leaving the Soviet Union, and they were going into the occupied territories. We basically said to

Israel, we'll help these people to get out of the Soviet Union, but we're not going to subsidize their going into the West Bank. That forecloses options down the road. We understand you may not have a Palestinian partner today, but we want to work. We want to preserve the option for the day when we might be. And the administration basically said to the Israelis, you have a choice. They made their choices that economic consequences. This administration has got to have some teeth in it. So, Richard, let me put it bluntly to you. Does Benjamin Netanyahu give a damn that Joe Biden is upset, frustrated and outraged by what he's seeing? And if not, what would make him give it? No, he doesn't. And indeed, increasingly, he's trying to position himself as someone in front

of the Israeli body politic saying, you may not like me. You may think I made a mistake on October 7th, but I'm all that stands between you and American pressure. So he doesn't care. What would he care about? He would care about damaging the relationship with Israel's most important benefactor. And that would mean the United States. I'm sorry to say I'm sorry it's come to this, Willie, that we have to basically have some sanctioning of what Israel did. Not just the stuff in the UN, it's got to be conditioning arms deliveries, and it's got to be, I would think, some trade sanctions, for example, against goods coming out of West Bank settlements. Why should they be able to come here, for example, you know, without certain tariffs or other economic penalties. We've got to basically, we can't have a policy based on persuading Israel. We have to increasingly have an

independent policy that reflects our interests and values. Yeah. And right now, that policy, obviously Netanyahu's policy obviously does not do that. It's not the response this point six months in to the terrorist attacks, to the horrors of October the 7th. Hamas will never rule in Gaza again. We all know that. Hamas will never rule in Gaza again. It's not going to happen. So people saying we have to keep killing civilians to make sure that Hamas never rules in Gaza. They're not going to happen. So people saying we have to keep killing civilians to make sure that Hamas never rules in Gaza. They're not going to. At this point, there's the killing of civilians and aid workers, and it's damaging Israel's reputation across the world in a way that will have far reaching consequences for years to come.

Those human tragedies, the human horrors, as much as we hear about it now when it happens to Western aid workers, it's happening every night. It's happening every day to Palestinians. It is. And here is the rub, so to speak, for the Biden administration. They desperately want Benjamin Netanyahu out in Israel because he is bad for the Israeli people. He is bad for the region. He's bad for the world. The more confrontational Joe Biden is with Benjamin Netanyahu. The more Netanyahu uses that to stay in power.

They see now I'm even standing up to the big bad Americans who claim to be our friends, but they have now abandoned us after the Hamas attacks. So so that's the balance right now. And at some point, again, at some point, as Elise said, very soon, words need to turn into actions and actions need to turn into consequences. If if the killing of relief workers and the cutting off of aid continues, we'll return to this. Richard Haass, thank you very much for coming on this morning. Still ahead on Morning Joe in one minute, we're going to dig into new polling that shows Donald Trump and Joe Biden neck and neck in several swing states. What the numbers could mean for both campaigns. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in one minute. Due to Trump's low cash and limited resources, the Biden campaign said that they think Florida is winnable. I mean, technically, Powerball is winnable. But it doesn't make it a good bet. You know, a lot of Florida voters have doubts about Biden.

They're like, I don't know. He's just so young. All right. Technically, Power's get to that new polling, which finds Joe Biden and Donald Trump neck and neck in every swing state. According to the new numbers from The Wall Street Journal, Trump leads Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania by figures that are all within the polls margin of error. In Wisconsin, the survey shows the two candidates tied at 46 percent each. The poll also finds negative perceptions about the economy remain a problem for Biden. Sixty three percent of swing state voters say the U.S. economy overall is not so good or poor condition, while 36 percent say it's an excellent or good condition. But when asked to rate the economic conditions in their own states, the majority of voters

in five of those seven swing states say it's in excellent or good shape. Joining us now, CEO of the Messina Group, Jim Messina. He served as White House deputy chief of staff to President Obama and ran his 2012 reelection campaign. Jim, as we say, these are snapshots. Two things that I'm looking at right now, obviously, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, so critical. They're all very close. I'm surprised by, again, I would never guess this five years ago, that Joe Biden continues to perform best in Wisconsin, that Wisconsin of all states seems to be a state. Older white guys actually aren't thrilled with what what what's happening with Donald Trump. Georgia tighter in this poll than I've seen in other polls. So I think I think it shows, again,

a good trend in Biden's direction, even though Trump's ahead a little bit. But but this is what I want you. This is what I want. Some some one or two people in the Biden White House may watch this show. And this is I want you to talk to them right now on this conundrum. You go to and all the polls have shown this. You got individuals. How are you doing economic? I'm doing great. I'm doing I'm doing really well. And then this poll goes, how's your state doing? Oh, it's doing great. It's doing really well. How's the overall economy? Oh, it sucks. I mean, this discordant sort of thinking has been out there for about six months now where 75% of Americans say they're doing really well economically. In this poll, they're saying their states are doing really well.

But you turn it to a general how's America's economy going, and I don't know, do they just run to the ideological corners? What's going on there, and what does Biden do to fix that over the next six months? Well, Joe, you're exactly right. A couple things that I think are incredibly important. In the end, voters are going to vote in their own best interest. They always do. And it's why I've always been more optimistic than the polls, because voters think their own lives, their own economy, their own state economies are better than they were four years ago. And they're getting better every single day. And that's why I agree with you. In 12 polls out in the last two weeks, Joe Biden continues to have momentum

since the State of the Union. You highlighted the state that I care the most about, Wisconsin. Wisconsin is the tipping point state in over two-thirds of the simulations we do every night. Wisconsin decides the presidency. And once again, Joe Biden is strongest in that state for a variety of reasons that you just looked at, especially the economic reasons. Seventy five percent of people in that state say their personal economic situation is getting better on the national question. I do think there's several things holding over it. One of them is immigration. I think we need to address the issue of immigration and talk about it because it is something that worries voters and has them concerned. And after you get past those issues, we can go back to saying, is your life better off

and how do we make your life better off? And that's a sweet spot. That's where Joe Biden, Joe, has always been the best candidate we have seen in talking to these voters about their personal economic situations. So to your point, former President Trump was in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday talking almost exclusively about immigration, about migrant crime, as he put it, telling stories that weren't true, talking about phone calls he had with victims, families that he didn't have. We can go down the list of those things. But you're right about the economy, which is the unemployment is at historic lows. Stock market seems to break a new record every week. You don't have to take our word for it. Consumer spending is up. People are spending

money in this economy. So is it that question that Joe was just asking you about the overall health of the economy? Is that kind of a stand in for how people are feeling about the state of the country or our politics or the ugliness of it? Like, how do you how do you solve that riddle? Yes. And I think it's a little bit of the stand in for voters. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, 71 percent of Americans didn't think it was going to be Trump versus Biden. And they're now starting to say, OK, it is Trump versus Biden. And that's the stand in for that as well, because that might not be their dream scenario, their dream matchup, but it's the matchup that we're going to have. And so they're starting to grapple with this. And as time goes on,

my theory of the case has always been time needs to go on. People need to continue to feel better. The economic numbers are pitching up. People's personal consumer numbers are pitching up. Those are important touchstones for how they're going to vote in November. So, Jim, it is never too early to talk about 270, the magic number. And there's some development. Let's talk about the map. Yeah, let's talk about the map for a second, because there's a buzzing about certain about Nebraska right now.

The governor there has thrown his support behind an effort that would no longer allocate the electoral votes by congressional district, because right now it's five votes there. Technically, Republicans get four and President Biden, Democrats the one from Omaha. If that changes, and we don't know that it will, the state legislature is going to look at it. But if that changes, that takes away Biden's best path to win. Because if you get, if he wins Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, but loses the other swing states and no longer picks up the one in Nebraska, 269. That leads playbook this morning, the alarm among Democrats that this is possible. What do you think? I think this is what the modern Republican Party has become. They're now changing the rules in the middle, trying to benefit themselves. This is the hell that

Donald Trump hath wrought. In the middle of this, changing the rules 200 days before the election is ridiculous. I think you're right. I think there are real simulation problems. When you look at the map, that one electoral vote really matters in the combination of other things. Then you need another state. And so the easiest pathway to victory has always been the Midwestern three states combined with Nebraska. Something tells me they're not going to get away with it this easy, and there will be a national outcry if they're trying to change the rules here. But it looks like they're going to look at it.

All right. So everyone stick around. We'll be right back. We're going to continue with Jim. Hey, Jim, can I ask Jim real quickly? Did Maine give the one electoral vote to Trump in 2020? Yes, sir, they did. So Trump did get that one say. All right, so if Nebraska goes all or nothing, Maine should just go all or nothing, and it balances each other out, right? Well, there you go.

Look, see, Joe, you're fixing it right here on national TV. That's how a Republican thinks. See, you're going, right here on national TV. That's how a Republican thinks. See, you're going, oh, as a Democrat, oh, you can't change rules in the middle of the day. I'm the Republican that goes, former Republican, but still campaigns like one that goes, you know what? We'll just change. You change in Nebraska. We'll change in Maine.

And then let's go get a Big Mac. We're going to take a break. After the break, we're going to talk about the swing states and how abortion could. When's the last time you've had a Big Mac? Maybe 30 years. We're going to change that today. No, no, we are not. That is not happening. Blah.

No. Blah? We'll be right back. Two old beef patties. That is not happening. Blah. No. Blah? We'll be right back. Until I'll be fatty. The House Republicans just introduced a bill to rename Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport after former President Trump. It's a great idea for anyone who wants to see an airport go bankrupt. I've got to say. Look at Reagan National Airport right now. Why not tie the worst airport in America

with the worst president ever? Oh, you're going to Miami? No, Dulles. It's a tight fit. I mean, Willie, when we're talking worst airports in America, I don't know if you've spent much time in Miami. It is a horrific airport. Mika's documented that, yes. Yeah. She has documented that. I have videos. She has documented that.

And it's on video. And I just, I won't even. I spoke to some workers. I used some of my local news skills. Interviewing workers about the horrible quality of the Miami airport. Yeah, but. I just have, I have some insight. Okay.

So anyway, but Dulles is uniquely bad. I mean, that is just a uniquely horrific airport. Can you think of it worse airports, Willie, than Dulles? No. And I have to say, we have to give credit where it's due. LaGuardia is nice now. No one's ever spoken credit where it's due la guardia is nice now no one's ever spoken those words before la guardia is nice we complained about the construction for years and we whined about that and really it's hard to get to the gate i know what you're going

to say it's a long way you get your steps in but inside we're running shoes. You go in there, Lemire, and I swear to God, well, when you land, I've said it before, you look outside and they're taking the bags off and it's Amish people. And you're like, what are Amish people doing in Queens? It stretches all the way to Lancaster.

But we're not in Queens. We're in Lancaster County. You have to walk so far. I always stop by Harrisburg. I just go to Littitz. You go to the Shirt Factory. Shirt Factory. I stop by Harrisburg. I get a hot dog in Harrisburg. I keep walking and I finally get to my taxi. But I mean, LaGuardia, come on. I knew I would trigger you. Try doing it with a toddler when you forget a stroller. That's a lot of fun.

Well, you basically just described every time Mika has to get me to a gate on time and it just doesn't work well. Lamere, what's your worst airport in America? Yeah, I mean, Dulles is right up there. I'm with Willie. I think LaGuardia is improved.

Dulles is really, really bad. I mean, Miami's tough. I mean, there are parts of LAX that I hate. LAX really is overburdened as well. But I think that's the short list here. I don't think there's, Elise, you're welcome to chime in. I think Dulles is pretty uniquely terrible.

Just because getting there is a pain. D.C. traffic. Then you get out there. Conversely, you have that tram situation. I hate a tram situation. Like, just go to the gate. I hate the tram. What's with all these trams?

Conversely, National Airport, Jim, is terrific. I hate the tram. Great airport, and it's great. It's well located. It's perfect. Although we're very in the lead. BWI's the worst airport in the world. BWI's pretty bad. It's terrible. Willie, Newark. Can lead. BWI's the worst airport in America. Oh, BWI's pretty bad.

It's terrible. Willie, Newark. Can we get you to weigh in on Newark? I'm a Jersey guy. So Newark, again, we're working on improving things. Newark's okay. They don't have a tram. I like Newark.

The bad tram situation. No tram. Sometimes you need a tram. Atlanta, you need a tram. It's a huge airport. Yeah. You know. Good airport.

Minneapolis is good. Minneapolis is good. You are right, though, Willie. Dallas is good. Yeah. You are right, though, Willie. LaGuardia is, you know, it's cleaner. And JFK, from the time I started this show,

when every time I would fly in on Sunday nights and they would lose my bag every single time, it just was a third world airport. JFK's really improved over the past 15 years. For sure. And Newark is really improving, too. I just wish we still had the Marine Terminal because I judge all airports by how quickly I get off the plane and get into the cab. Right. The one problem with JFK is you've got to budget three and a half hours on the van wick. No matter the hour of day that you land, even if you land at one in the morning, bumper to bumper traffic back

into the city. You know what is the best airports in America that I do want to give a shout out because I landed there and I didn't know. I thought I was in the wrong place because the overhaul was so dramatic. Memphis airport is super easy now. Memphis did a great job there. Very nice. All right. Can I ask Jim a great job there. Very nice. Plan a trip? All right. Can I ask Jim Messina something? No. Because he's the smart political guy here.

I'm thinking we want to talk politics with Jim Messina. Jim, could you tell me this? Oh, hair, quick. Why is it in America? I think other countries, I mean, obviously Japan, but it is so extraordinarily inefficient for people that fly into New York internationally, that fly in for business to land at JFK and then sit in their car three hours getting into the city. from the airport, doesn't stop in Queens, goes from the airport to Midtown to the center of the business world in about 15 minutes. Why can't America do that?

We can, and we're starting to do that. They're about to work on Vegas to L.A. in under half an hour on the Hyperloop. That's coming in the next 10 years, they say. So we're starting to tackle the big challenges. But after I spent an hour and 40 minutes on the Van Wick yesterday, really, an hour and 40 minutes on JFK downtown, it was ridiculous. Van Wick's been on construction since 1776. Jesus. Okay. I hope you all feel better. This is good that we talked this out. Part of that, part of these problems is acceptance. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. You never accept. You never accept.

You change. You move forward. You make it. Take a sad Van Wick and make it better. Okay. Thank you. We're going to move on now to politics and what we were talking about before the break. Like most policy issues, Donald Trump has been all over the map on abortion.

He once said women should be punished for having the procedure only to backtrack days later. He boasted about terminating Roe, which he did, and then called Florida's restrictions, quote, terrible and a big mistake. Lately, he's been promising to make both sides happy. Now the former president says he wants to clarify his stance on abortion sometime next week. Here is his response to NBC's Gabe Gutierrez at a campaign rally in Michigan yesterday. Mr. President, do you support the six week abortion ban that the Florida Supreme Court just upheld? Wait, I'm curious, why would idiots boo a question like that like how stupid do you have to be to just willie i don't get it why would you boo a question on whether he supports something that the florida supreme court just upheld unless they understand how devastating it is to his

political future their dear leader exactly yeah. Yeah, for dear leader. Exactly. Well, that's their job, is to shout down, to boo, to drown out anything that might challenge Donald Trump, because there is no good answer. How many times, guys, did we hear when Donald Trump was president, when there was something tough, I'm going to have a plan for you in a couple of weeks. We're going to be putting out a statement. We're going to be fixing all of this.

And it went on forever. And of course, it never came. He doesn't know what to say, Mika, on this issue, because he has bragged on tape again and again. I am the one who took down Roe. I am the president who appointed the three Supreme Court justices who delivered the holy grail for many of you to get rid of Roe. And now he's seen the political outcome of that in race after race and the midterms and beyond. And he knows it's a problem. So we'll just keep hearing. We're going to be putting out a statement sometime soon. And, you know, he and he's been bragging. He said, you know, it took 50 years, 50 years. People said they were going to do it. I finally did it. He said I terminated Roe. And yeah, he's going to live with it. So now he says he has

something to say within a week. President Biden responded on social media with a quote from Trump about bragging about overturning Roe. And he captioned this with, you already made your statement, Donald. And I was able to kill Roe v. Wade. So, Jim Messina, you never, I know you especially as a guy that runs campaigns, you never want your side to think they've got an ace in their pocket. But Roe is an ace. It really is. Absolutely. I mean, time and time again, Democrats have outperformed pro-choice movements, have outperformed time and time again. This is this is a real political killer for Republicans because they keep getting more extreme.

It started with Roe. They're now at IVF. They that most Republicans don't even have the guts to say come out and pass a law protecting IVF in the Senate. Joe, and they keep thinking they can spin their way out of this. This is what Young can try to do in Virginia. Got stomped for trying to do this. Nine point nine percent. Democrats are doing nine point nine percent better in elections than the polls show they will because of this issue. The Biden campaign just went on with the best ad of the cycle, which is a 30 second ad with Trump's exact statement proudly saying he got rid of Roe v. Wade. And then at the end of the ad, they have Biden looking at the camera saying Donald Trump doesn't trust women. And I do. Of all the ads that we've tested in this entire campaign cycle is the top testing ad. And it's what the Biden team has on the air in the

Midwestern states right now, wailing away on this, because to Joe's point, this is the ace in the in the hole that the Democrats have. And the Biden campaign is smartly doubling down on it. I think it's highly unlikely that this vaulted statement is going to be released in a week. Why does he have zero chance? Why does he have any incentive to do it? First of all, the guy doesn't give prepared statements. Has he suddenly turned a new leaf and he's going to stay on message? And second, it would just be to his benefit to keep distracting and throwing more spaghetti at the wall. And talking about immigration is his issue. He wants to stay away from abortion because that's the Dems winning issue. His previous efforts to tap dance on abortion have been clumsy, to say the least. I mean,

this obviously comes, Jim, from Florida. You know, the governor DeSantis's policy there, it's going to go into law at least for a while and voters will have a say in November. There's been a lot of Democratic energy in the last 48 hours saying, hey, this puts Florida in play. This puts it on the map. At minimum, it's going to get the Republicans to spend resources there. What's your take as to where things stand with the Sun sign state? Well, look, it's a state that Barack Obama carried twice, proudly, to say that. I think it's a difficult state. I think this puts it in play maybe a little. The question is, what's Michael Bloomberg going to do? Because you remember that he spent $75

million for Joe Biden in the state of Florida in 2020. Does he want to make this another cause he wants to go after? It'll be super interesting to see if he thinks the state is in play. It's still a little bit much for me. I'd rather spend my time and money in the great state of North Carolina if you want to expand the map. A state I sadly didn't win, Willie, the second time, and I'm still bitter about it. But it's in play, and the Republicans have the worst governor candidate in America in North Carolina. So, Jonathan, I'd rather play in North Carolina than Florida. What about Georgia? How are you feeling about Georgia? Look, I think Georgia's tough. I think we ought to just sit back and wait to see what the court case does

and see if Donald Trump is convicted in the state of Georgia. Then I think that state's absolutely in play. And look, it's a state where the Democrats are going to definitely get 47, 48. The question is, can you get to 50? And we absolutely ought to play there and play as hard as we can.

I know there's some bedwetting right now about that state. Let's just take a deep breath and see where we are in the summer. Joe Biden won it last time. Absolutely. By the way, as we go to break, an air traveler survey ranked these five as the best airports in the United States. I'm going to go backwards to build the drama. Number five, Atlanta Hartsfield. Number four, Phoenix Sky Harbor. Number three, Detroit Metropolitan, Wayne County. Detroit's got a good airport. Number four, Phoenix Sky Harbor. Number three, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County. Detroit's a good airport. Although a tram has a tram. Number two, SeaTac, Seattle, Tacoma. And number one, according to travelers, Minneapolis, St. Paul. Minneapolis is really good.

Good food for it there. All right. And with that, we say goodbye to you, Jim Messina. Thank you for sitting on the Van Wick for two hours to get to us. We appreciate it. Have a nice flight. Coming up next, the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg joins us with his new piece titled A Study in Senate Cowardice on Republicans Who Could Have Ended Donald Trump's Political Career But Chose Not To. Jeffrey joins us next. another gloomy day here in new york city 652 in the morning sun's up over new york city as you look south from the top of rockefeller center jfk willie well evergreen statement uh so we talked yesterday about iowa's big win over lsu a thrilling game c Kaitlyn Clark, Angel Reese, just a great game in the Elite Eight. Turns out it was the most watched women's college basketball game of all time.

It averaged 12.3 million viewers on Monday night. According to Nielsen data, that's more than all but one NBA finals game last season. Every MLB game last year. And compared to college football last year, the game rivaled only by the SEC championship game and the college football playoff matchup between Michigan and Ohio State. Only one men's NCAA tournament game this year had bigger viewership. NC State's win Sunday night over Duke. Iowa now faces UConn this Friday in the final four. Joe, that game delivered on every front. Great teams, great talent on the floor,

and it turns out the country was glued. I mean, unbelievable. You, again, you look at the quality of basketball that was played. It was so exciting. And, of course, she's just phenomenal. She is. You know, there's a reason she passed Pete Maravich, who is one of the greatest of all time and total points scored. But but but Willie, this was such a great matchup in so many ways. There's so many plot lines. It's so great for women's basketball, which has been the butt of jokes. Some family guy and so many men, sports writers in the past.

I say no more. This is extraordinary athleticism. And I just can't believe that there aren't a lot of younger girls that saw this the other night and said, I'm going to be the next Caitlin Clark. And I just think we're going to see see women's basketball continue to get better. My gosh, it's just amazing. I know. These are not the same shot, by the way. This is just all different. Three.

No, she's amazing. She you're right, Joe. I watched it with my daughter, but I also watched it with my son. And I watched it with my wife, who's a very casual sports fan, but is locked in, not just to Caitlin Clark, but what's really happening, not just in women's basketball, but in women's sports. These arenas are packed. The ratings are through the roof. And Caitlin Clark and all of these players who are stars now have done such a good job of speaking to the past of the people who came up, you know, the early days of UConn women's basketball and Rebecca Lobo and all of them who built the foundation of what we're seeing right now.

And weren't necessarily well at UConn, they were, but other places not playing to sold out crowds and huge arenas and huge ratings and everything else. Yeah, there has been a long build to get to this moment. And now the talent on all of these teams, by the way, they're going to play. I was going to play UConn next. Paige Beckers is an incredible superstar for UConn. And it's just so fun to watch. And I think you're right. This is a seminal moment in American sports.

And we just hope these arenas stay full and these superstars keep playing for us because it is so fun to watch. They will. All right.