Morning Joe - Morning Joe 6/26/24

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Republican warns Biden will be jacked up on Mountain Dew to get through debate

Yeah, I think that, you know, any patient that truly, you know, elderly individual or someone that has dementia, they can find some moments of clarity, right? They can find moments throughout the day that they have energy. And I think that Trump's team should not underestimate Joe Biden and his team's ability to, you know, whether they're going to jack him up on Mountain Dew or whatever it is that look, the State of the Union this year, he had a lot of energy for about an hour or an hour and a half. But it doesn't mean, you know, what we're seeing is obviously throughout the day that he can't carry that level of energy. OK, so what's so amazing about that, Willie,

is that that jacked up a Mountain Dew theory did not come from some guy they picked up off the street. Right? That was like rolling dice against the side of a wall or something.

I'm sitting there halfway through going, who is this guy? He is an elected member of Congress who is on the House Oversight Committee. And he is talking about people being jacked up on Mountain Dew and they better be careful because, you know,

even old elderly people can be good every once in a while and hop up out of the coffin for can they can just they can just hop up and suddenly turn around and suddenly you have the largest NATO alliance in world history and you have the best jobs numbers in 50 years. And they can just they can take a swig of Mountain Dew one moment, the next moment, the dollar could be at a 50-year high. Yeah. And on and on and on.

And pass more legislation than any other president in modern history. Maybe they accidentally snort some of that Mountain Dew up because they're so old it's coming out of the nose. And that gives them the inspiration. And they say to themselves, hey, I may be completely out of it, but that gives them the inspiration and they say to themselves hey i may be completely out of it but i'm going to do something that none of the preceding five

presidents of the united states did i'm going to put together more bipartisan legislation than the president since lbj that's what i'm going to do and lower the cost of diabetes medicine why not i just woke up and did that willie, I mean, this is desperation. And like you say, like, you know, this shows how nervous they are. This is not how somebody who's confident acts. I never heard Larry Bird talking about it. You know, Magic Johnson's probably going to be jacked up on Mountain Dew. I'm not we're not going to be able to beat the Lakers because, no. Like, Trump is, I can't believe I'm saying this. Trump is scared out of his mind.

He's whining and whimpering because Joe Biden may just beat him really badly. I mean, I don't know. You tell me. Why are they running so scared from Joe Biden, a guy who they've spent the last eight years saying is out of his mind? First of all, I love a Mountain Dew have for a very long time. It's a safe and legal way to keep yourself jacked up if you're studying for a test in college or something like that. It's fantastic. I mean, it really is remarkable that this is the entire argument. We saw it. We're going to play more of it again. You heard a little of it from Speaker Johnson sort of dabbling in it yesterday as well, saying we're expecting Joe Biden to do well,

is what they're saying to the public. And we need a reason why he did well, whether it's Mountain Dew or much worse, as President Trump and others have suggested, some kind of a drug that he might be on. They watched the State of the Union address. They were frankly surprised by how good he was, how energetic he was, how strong he was. And they needed some way to explain it away. So now here we are ahead of the debate. You have just again, we talk about split screens a lot. You have the president of the United States at Camp David preparing for this debate, how to handle Donald Trump, how to talk through the issues and his accomplishments. And on the other side of it, Jonathan Lemire, you have a camp that is talking almost exclusively about cocaine, about Mountain Dew and about how the debate moderators are on the side of the president

of the United States. Again, that doesn't feel like a winning hand going into this. First of all, I'm rethinking my morning beverage choice. If this was Mountain Dew, think about what I could do this morning. We'll switch that for tomorrow. We'll switch that for tomorrow. You're right. We haven't seen President Biden in several days. We know he's been at Camp David with a couple of dozen aides holding full on mock debate rehearsals.

Bob Bauer, his attorney, stepping in, playing the role of Donald Trump, hammering through the issues. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is floating conspiracy theories. Last night, appearing on Newsmax with being interviewed by his former campaign manager. And his team says, well, that's how Trump's preparing. He's doing these hostile interviews, including on Newsmax with his former campaign manager, who opened the interview by saying, I'm honored to say I'm going to be with Donald Trump in Atlanta at the debate tomorrow night. So there's that. And we should note Newsmax had to run a disclaimer saying they accept the results of the 2020 election, even though Donald Trump wouldn't say that because they don't want to get further sued. Billion dollar lawsuits have a way of doing that.

Well, billion dollar lawsuits have a way of changing the chyron on the bottom of your screen. What you're seeing there, of course, is Corey Lewandowski saying how proud he is he's going to be with Donald Trump in Atlanta tomorrow. But this is what we see, is that Trump is saying he's not preparing. We know he's talked to some aides, but he's not doing full-on rehearsals. But there does seem to be a real lack of confidence being put out here in the last minute by these Republicans who now are acknowledging, hey, Joe Biden's going to be really good at this. Clearly, because he's hopped up on some sort of substance, even if it's just an overly caffeinated beverage. And they're trying to lower expectations.

And it seems like they're anticipating Trump to go out there tomorrow and repeat what he did in 2020, which is to get badly beaten by Joe Biden. So, guys, I mentioned House Speaker Mike Johnson talking about all of this yesterday. He sort of pushed aside the drugs, the harder stuff, but he stayed on the narrative. Look, there's a lot of things that are said in jest. Of course, no one expects that Joe Biden will be on cocaine, but they they do ask questions. And I think they're they're objectively I mean, I think it makes sense why people are asking, will he be on some sort of energy drinks or something? OK, look, his energy levels, you can see vary depending on what format he's in and what forum. And, you know, we expect that he'll do what he did at the State of the Union. He had a lot of energy that night.

So that's the Joe Biden I expect to see. The question is, can he stay for 90 minutes on that stage and go toe-to-toe with President Trump, who, as you know, goes to rallies and talks for two hours on end without any break and any notes? So it'll be a very interesting thing to see. He dies and he wanders wildly about and he says he's afraid World War Two is going to start. And he says that Barack Obama is president of the United States.

And he talks about sharks. And he talks about if I'm in a boat that has an electric motor. And by the way, we've been in one. You're OK, Donnie. Yeah. Trip. Trip. Trip, showers, lather.

Washing machines. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. He does stay there for about 90 minutes longer than he should. It doesn't go well. But Mike Johnson right there said, well, maybe not cocaine, but maybe some B.C. powders and some R.C. cola. I mean, I mean, come on.

What's wrong with that? Look, obviously, they kind of, you know, overshot the runway on this old age thing, and it could end up biting them. Who knows what will happen? Anything can happen on the debate stage. But we now know Donald Trump. We have seen Donald Trump in all sorts of different challenging positions, including at press conferences, on the world stage where he left a mess. Let's just put it there. And in terms of debates or one-on-one interviews, town halls, he also tries to game the system. He tries to get into the heads of

the moderators and those with less experience, he actually succeeds. They're going out. Yeah. He runs right over them and basically takes an hour for himself to talk to America about batteries or whatever else he wants to. So there is that. And I think going after the moderators in this case, which is another collective effort by the Trump campaign and Trump himself, is to try and set up the moderators to feel like they have to overcorrect on fairness. I don't think that will happen with these. I think they know what they're dealing with. But good luck. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck. It is it is pretty crazy. Also with us, deputy managing editor for politics at Politico, Sam Stein and senior columnist for The Daily Beast, Matt Lewis. Great to have you all on board. I wanted to we're going to get into

we're going to keep talking about this debate. But just really quickly off the top, we ought to we ought to bring up Sam Stein. What happened in New York last night? We're going to talk about it down the road. But a big upset or I guess it wasn't so much of of an upset of him for the squad losing. But man, I was surprised John Avalon going up against somebody that piled in over, what, a million dollars of their own money and just won going away, a landslide. Landslide John. Sure did. We have the results from a few notable primaries held yesterday to tell you about. Progressive Democratic Congressman Jamal Bowman lost his primary in New York's 16th district last night. Moderate Westchester

County Executive George Latimer defeated Bowman by more than 16 points with 84 percent of the vote in. The race, which was the most expensive House primary in history history grew contentious with Democratic divisions over the Israel-Hamas war on full display. Bowman has been an outspoken critic of Israel, while Latimer has refused to critique Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Latimer was also backed by a $15 million ad buy from a super PAC linked to a pro-Israel group. The Westchester County executive is likely to cruise to election in. Well, Sam, let's talk about this one. First of all, it's kind of hard to attack your opponent for being part of a Zionist conspiracy when you represent a large number of Jews in your own district. I mean, it's one of the things I was

surprised to read in the closing days of this campaign is that he's got a lot of Jewish New York Jewish voters in his district. And this is a guy who after October 7th didn't visit a synagogue that, you know, it seemed like he was playing for the national progressive stage, which will work very well in some districts, will work very well in Vermont. But in his own district, probably not going to work, as we saw here, because he's got a lot of Jewish voters in his district. Yeah, it's sort of an odd district, right? There's parts of the Bronx, but there's parts of Westchester County with lots of Jewish voters in his district. Yeah, it's sort of an odd district, right? There's parts of the Bronx, but there's parts of Westchester County with lots of Jewish populations. And frankly, Jamal Bowman was an odd fit for the district. It worked to nationalize the race to a degree when he won. But you saw problems in 2022. You saw problems even prior to October 7th,

slippage in his support in his district. And then, of course, as you know, being that outwardly critical of Israel in that district, it was difficult. I think actually the real issue he ran into was not just that. He had obviously a well-known opponent, tons and tons of money spent against him. This is the most expensive House primary in history. I think the real issue ended up being that he was perceived, for his own fault, I guess, in this case, as not being supportive enough of Joe Biden. He voted against the Infrastructure Act. He voted against the debt ceiling bill. And when you're running in a Democratic primary, even with Joe Biden's difficulties with the base, as has been well documented. It is toxic to be perceived as being opposed to your own party president. And Jabal Bowman was hampered greatly by that more than

anything else in his race. And the Times also said he did some kind of strange things. I mean, he pulled the fire alarm at a certain time. He swore an awful lot. And again, you know, as we're going to find out in a second, if you're a Republican and you're running in a contested primary, you can go see Beetlejuice and do whatever you want to do and you're going to win big. Democrats apparently still have guardrails. In another New York City suburb, former news anchor and political analyst John Avalon won the Democratic primary in the first congressional district, soaring to victory by over 40 points with roughly 90 percent of the vote in. Avalon will face first term Republican Congressman Nick LaLotta in the general election this November. The seat has been held by a Republican for a decade. But Democrats believe the party has a good chance to reclaim the eastern Long Island district this cycle. That's a big win.

I mean, it was a big win for John. And, you know, Willie, he he he outraised his opponent. But but she piled in a ton of money near the end. And so there was equity there. She had been again. She was a well-known name in the district. But it looks like it looks like John just worked really hard, got a lot of support from a lot of people out there and ended up winning overwhelmingly 70 percent to 30 percent. Now, this is a district that Cook and a lot of other people had said leans Republican, not quite safe Republican, but but but certainly leans leans Republican. I think Democrats are going to take a second look at this race now and think that somebody like John Avalon, who's able to raise money from across the country, is able to take it to a MAGA member of

Congress. I mean, a MAGA member of Congress who represents the Hamptons. There's a little rub there. We'll see how it goes. Yeah, this is a sprawling district. New York's first. It does go all the way out to the east end of Long Island to the Hamptons, but then it comes all the way back in to some of the suburban towns in the north shore of Long Island. And John Avalon, if you talk to people who've been following this race closely, talk to voters out there, they said he's just a good candidate. He's really good with people. He understands the issues really well. He's been on this show a couple of times, including yesterday. I think the viewers could see it and the voters clearly felt it.

His opponent, yes, had a lot of money, poured some cash into it. So it was pretty even that way. And now he moves on to face Nick Lolota, who's the incumbent first term Republican in a race. Now, as you say, Joe, that for sure, Democrats believe that they can flip and swing back in their category. Thanks to, again, a good candidate in the race who won by 40 points, John Avalon, last night. Meanwhile, you mentioned Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert won her primary in a new district last night. Boebert emerged to a crowded field with 43 percent support, winning very easily, actually, with 99 percent of the vote in this morning. The congresswoman switched districts last year to get what she called a fresh start after she said she had a difficult year personally. Boebert is favored heavily to win the seat in the general election in November. And in Utah, very interesting here. Congressman John Curtis is claiming victory in the Republican primary for Mitt Romney's Senate seat in a four way race.

Curtis beat Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who former President Trump endorsed over the weekend. So Trump's candidate losing here for Mitt Romney's seat. The state's voters also rejected the Trump back candidate in the gubernatorial primary, selecting Governor Spencer Cox over Trump loyalist and state representative Phil Lyman. Both men defeated candidates who'd beaten them at the state party convention earlier this year. So very interesting to watch Utah here, Joe. Yeah, certainly is. I mean, Utah having Donald Trump's backing doesn't mean obviously what it means in Colorado and some other states. Right. For sure. Back to tomorrow's presidential debate.

Matt Lewis, your latest article for The Daily Beast is entitled Trump's debate prep is whining and making stuff up. And I'll add to that. And it's just attacking people all around for being for victimizing him. It's the same thing all over again. Such a snowflake. Yeah. So I think there's a pattern here, right? Whether it's an election like the 2020 election, whether it's a trial like the New York hush money trial or whether it's the debate, Donald Trump doesn't wait until he loses to start complaining and arguing that the thing is rigged. He is pre-spinning. And I think part of it is what we were talking about earlier in this segment, which is the expectations

game, right? After saying that Joe Biden can't string two sentences together, they're finally getting a little worried. They're finally trying to change that expectations game and say, well, he'll be hopped up on caffeine. But look, I think part of it is simply Donald Trump's M.O. He complains. He claims it's rigged. The only way I could lose this election, he says, is if it's rigged. Same thing with the debate. The only way he could lose the debate is if it's rigged. Same thing with the debate. The only way he could lose the debate is if it's rigged. And I think it has really it's a two pronged approach. There are two components to it. Part of it is he gets to work the refs, you know, in advance. He gets to make them think twice and maybe go a little easy on him.

And then the second is if Donald Trump, in fact, loses the debate, then he has already laid the groundwork for saying, well, it was rigged. It was always rigged. It was rigged the whole time. Here's the problem. It kind of is rigged. You know, Joe Biden outmaneuvered Donald Trump. The timing of this debate, the rules of this debate, those were all set by Joe Biden because Donald Trump allowed it to happen. Joe Biden's team, I think, really outsmarted and outmaneuvered Donald Trump. And if he goes on to lose, there will be one person to blame, Donald Trump. And I think Republicans, rather than blaming the moderators or or Mountain Dew, should blame Donald Trump for that. So, Sam Stein, we know that tomorrow night is a moment for President Biden to reassure Americans that he's still up for the job.

As we've discussed, he did so at the State of the Union. He has another opportunity to do that tomorrow. But it's also a chance for him to really go on the attack. I'm curious to get your analysis here. But what buttons he should push? What what lines should he pursue in going after Trump? And it could be January 6th. It could be democracy, certainly abortion rights. How do you anticipate it going? Well, I guess it really depends.

Does he go with Mountain Dew Baja Blast or Mountain Dew Code Red? Right. I mean, that's that. I thought that would land. I thought that would land a little better, honestly. I think I was a little too removed from the opening of the show. I think, in honest, the honest answer to your question is they want to create a contrast, right?

I mean, this is a classic sort of referendum versus contrast conundrum that they have. They don't want this race to be a referendum on its record as much as they think his record is great. They want it to be a contrast on the agendas that each candidate is putting forward. And so in this case, they're going to use the debate to say, look, we've done some work on the economy. We're getting there, but we know we have more to do. And Donald Trump would send us back, frankly, that his

policies are inflationary, right? They're going to say our foreign policy. We've made tough decisions. We've stood up the NATO alliance against Russia. Donald Trump would send us back on women's rights. We have more to do. Donald Trump would send us back. I expect that to be the sort of fundamental theme is forward, not backwards. And frankly, that's probably the best one to play for Biden because they need the electorate to be focused not on Biden so much, but on Trump. And finally, I'll just say this, you know, Biden's debate partner, I think Dan Pfeiffer wrote about this, but I think it's true. He's debating not just Donald Trump. Obviously, it's Joe Biden versus Donald Trump. He's debating the caricature that they've set of Joe Biden. And so a lot of this and so much of this is just expectation setting. And he has to clear a very low bar, frankly, which is get up there, be attentive, be assertive

for 90 minutes and bypass this bizarre characterization that they've created of you as someone who's got to be hopped up a Mountain Dew or whatever other drug that they suggest you have to take and let, again, the focus be on Trump. So it's interesting. There's also we're going to be talking more about the veep stakes, Donald Trump talking about he's going to pick his vice presidential running mate maybe soon. You know, these are the kinds of things that he could do during the debate just to deflect and to have something to talk about that he can talk about confidently. And it certainly would not be foreign policy or policy or legislation or politics. But, you know, picking someone like little Marco or something like that could

you think he'd call him that? I think he'll probably change. That's what he used to call him. And there there, Marco will be watching the debate, you know, with bated breath, hoping that he's going to be Donald Trump's vice president in terms of the running mate. But that's the kind of thing he'll do to distract, to try and buy time just to get through it. Yeah. You know, the thing is, though, what I suspect Matt Lewis is if you if you're sort of reading the tea leaves this week, it sounds like they're suggesting the vice president pick may come this week. And if so, that's one more way they're hedging against a really bad debate law.

So what you do is if you get really bad headlines coming out of the debate on Friday morning, you make sure that throughout the weekend they're not talking about the debate. Instead, they're talking about your vice presidential pick. So, again, even the leaking of that as a possibility shows they're scared. I mean, they're talking about your vice presidential pick. So, again, even the leaking of that as a possibility shows they're scared. I mean, they're really scared Donald Trump is going to blow this thing. Yeah, I think, you know, bracket it with if it is that actually might just be a contingency plan. If the debate goes well, we hold the announcement. If it goes poorly, we bracket it with the vice presidential announcement

quickly following. And I have to say, Donald Trump, he is really good at controlling the message. There's no doubt about that and changing the subject. And it used to be that something like a debate would be talked about for weeks on end, that it would dominate multiple news cycles. That may not be the case. It may be that he says or does something either important or just crazy. And that's what we're talking about a couple of days from now. He is really good at that, bad at a lot of other things, good at driving the agenda and our attention. All right. Senior columnist for The Daily Beast, Matt Lewis, thank you so much. It's great to have

you on. And still ahead on Morning Jail, we're going to dig in the decision to partially lift the gag order against Donald Trump in his criminal hush money case and what this could mean for the former president as he awaits sentencing. Plus, it's been three weeks since President Biden signed an executive action aimed at curbing illegal migrant crossings at the southern border. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will join us with an update on that. You're watching Morning Joe, reminding everyone to do to do. Give me the sunshine and give me a do. Give me something simple and true.

All I need is sunshine and some refreshing mountain dew. Give me a river, give me a dew. Give me my good friends and give me a dew. Give me the sunshine, give me a do. Give me the sunshine. Give me a do. Oh, pretty day in New York City at 26 past the hour. Thanks, Chopper. Four federal prosecutors and Donald Trump's classified documents case released new photos yesterday showing what they called the haphazard manner in which Trump stored boxes of documents that federal agents later seized from Mar-a-Lago back in 2022. God, the filing came in response to Trump's most recent motion to dismiss the case, arguing that FBI agents destroyed exculpatory evidence by failing to keep the documents in

the same order in which they found them. Like that? That's how they want them to be, really. That seems interesting. Prosecutors defended the FBI agents, writing that they performed the Mar-a-Lago search, quote, professionally, thoroughly and carefully under challenging circumstances, particularly given the cluttered state of the boxes and the substantial volume of highly classified documents Trump had retained. The former FBI confidential source who was charged with lying to the FBI and peddling false anti-Biden information has been denied bail once again. Alexander Smirnoff, now seen here after his arrest in Las Vegas back in February, was rearrested days later and brought to California, where the federal charges originated. A California judge ordered Smirnoff be held indefinitely after prosecutors argued he is a significant flight risk. Recently, his attorneys

argued that due to a medical procedure he needs on his eyes, Smirnoff should be freed from custody pending his trial later this year and placed under the supervision of a private security firm. But the judge denied that request, noting that the security firm was not under the court's jurisdiction. Smirnoff and his false allegations were at the heart of the push by House Republicans to impeach President Biden. And Willie, let me just say, I mean, we need to underline this fact that people who claim to be serious journalists are saying we need to see both sides of this. Why won't you people investigate Joe Biden and his criminal misdeeds as seriously as you all investigated Donald Trump's

over the past several years? They would always point to this this convicts testimony. They would always point Comer would point to this international fugitive who who legally smuggled Iranian oil to the communist Chinese. We could go on and on and on. But there are these cast of characters, these boneheads, these convicts, these international fugitives that they used as the basis of their story. So, like, I had one guy after January the 6th saying, why don't you ever, we're always talking about Donald Trump. Why don't you talk about the testimony against the Biden crime family? And I, you know, how do you how do you even respond to that? It's it's a story that's based on so many lies that even Republicans told Comer to stand down.

Yeah. The star witnesses are either in jail or on the run. I think the guy you're talking about is still somewhere on the lam. And Hunter Biden was prosecuted and convicted and he has more charges in front of him. So that happened. Joe Biden has not been tied to any of the stuff that they've thrown out there. James Comer famously said, we've got a lot of smoke here, no fire yet, but we've got a lot of smoke. They just haven't found the fire. And this guy, there's this five alleged five million dollar bribe that Joe Biden accepted, which was the centerpiece of the argument that you could hear on certain news networks and certain shows almost every night fell apart when it turned out this guy, the star witness, was lying about it and

is now facing charges for it. Some other news this morning. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pled guilty today to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, ending a years long legal battle with the United States government. He since has returned home to Australia for the first time since 2012, arriving there a short time ago. The arrangement is part of a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice in which Assange has been sentenced to time served. He spent the past five years in a British prison. NBC News reports Assange and his website are responsible for leaking documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as publishing around 250,000 confidential messages from the State Department. The Department of Justice says

Assange and WikiLeaks seriously endangered the lives of those who have helped the United States around the world. The trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich begins today in a Russian court. Evan is considered wrongfully detained by the United States, was taken into Russian custody in March of 2003 on espionage charges. In an interview with the Associated Press, the general counsel for Dow Jones, which owns the Wall Street Journal, called Evan's trial a sham with bogus trumped up charges. The AP reports Gershkovich's conviction is almost a certainty with Russian courts convicting more than 99 percent of defendants who come before them. If he is convicted, Evan Gershkovich faces

up to 20 years in prison. So kind of a striking visual there of Evan Gershkovich in court today, Jonathan LeMire with his head shaved. And now the trial begins, which, as I said, could lead to up to 20 years in prison. Yeah, head newly shaved there, remaining stoic in court, as he has every other time we've caught in a glimpse. And he's even tried to reassure people who are their witnesses watching him trying to smile at them or not. But certainly this is and the U.S. has deemed this a sham trial. They do not anticipate that he will get a fair shake there. And of course, in a Russian court, President Biden, his team continue to say publicly and work privately towards securing his release, but have been candid about how challenging it is to negotiate with Russian

officials right now. Some sort of prisoner swap could be done. They're still trying. And we should take this moment to again highlight Donald Trump's rhetoric about this case, where he is suggesting that Vladimir Putin would allow Gershkovich to be released as soon as Trump were to be elected, sort of sending out almost a dangerous signal there to say, hey, only I can do this. This current administration cannot. Vladimir Putin's my guy. I can get Evan Gershkovich out of prison. That's effectively what Donald Trump is saying. We'll, of course, keep a very close eye on that trial, which began just a couple of hours ago. Coming up here, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has declared gun violence a national public health crisis.

He joins us to talk about this first of its kind advisory next on Morning Joe. 38 past the hour, a beautiful shot out of Washington, D.C., live look at the Capitol. An historic announcement yesterday from the U.S. Surgeon General declaring for the first time in American history that firearm violence is a public health crisis. The announcement was accompanied by a 40-page report detailing the severity of the issue and the policies that could be enacted to save lives. Those recommendations include banning automatic rifles, implemented universal background checks, restricting gun use in public spaces, and penalizing those who fail to safely store

their firearms. And U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy joins us now. Thank you very much for coming on this morning for this announcement. So we would agree there is an epidemic. There's a mass shooting several times a week in America. How does putting the official label of public health crisis on this issue bring us closer to these goals, actually? Well, Mika, for a long time, this issue has been politicized and polarized. But I think it's time for us to change how we look at it instead of looking at it as a political issue, to recognize it for what it is, which is a public health issue. And the power of doing that is several fold. First, when our office historically has identified an issue as a public health issue that has typically made it a more urgent priority for the country,

but it's also opened up the door for us to take a public health approach to that issue. This is what we did with smoking more than half a century ago. When my predecessor, Luther Terry, identified smoking as a important public health issue and a threat to the health of America, that helped mobilize a series of initiatives in communities, in schools, among parents, among lawmakers. It ultimately brought smoking rates down from 42 percent in 1964 to less than 12 percent where they are today. So that's the approach we have to take here. And what's really important, Amika, for people to understand also is that gun violence is not an issue that just affects a small number of people. The ripple effects of gun violence have impacted millions of people across America.

There are nearly 50,000 lives we lose each year to gun violence. There are millions more in terms of people who are shot and injured and who survive, people who witness these incidents, family members who lose loved ones, and many more who watch and hear about gun violence every day, including our kids. That has led to six out of 10 Americans now fearing that they'll lose a loved one to violence and more than half of our kids worrying about shootings in their schools. So you brought up the smoking parallel, which is so interesting because as you're right, you are correct. It mobilized initiatives and a lot of outreach in schools and understanding about the dangers. It also mobilized massive lawsuits.

And the legal realm was really ignited by sort of a sense of just how dangerous cigarettes were. Will that happen in this case? Is that your hope? Or what gets us to banning automatic rifles? What gets us to your goals here in this announcement, universal background checks? Yeah, so there are a series of strategies we lay out in the report, Mika. You identified some of them, which are focused around firearm risk reduction strategies. Those include strengthening universal background checks, and they also include measures that would seek to put time and space between firearms and individuals who would seek to harm themselves or others. But what they also include are community-based violence intervention strategies, safe storage

education programs and laws, advances and expansions in our research funding, as well as expanded access to mental health services. These are all multiple strategies that we've offered for Congress to consider, for the country to consider, and they're actionable. You know, one of the things that gives me some hope here is that if you look at the last few years, we've seen some progress. Five, six years ago, Congress actually, for the first time in decades, put forward funding for gun violence. It was a modest amount of funding. A lot more has to happen there. But they also, for two years ago, passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,

which is the first federal legislation to address gun violence in 30 years. There is more that we can do here. And these should not be the last steps we take. There are more actions we'll need as a country. But if we build on the strategies I've laid out, if we come at this issue understanding that what I'm understanding, talking to people across America, which is that everyone, regardless of their background, their age, what part of the country they live in, want to live in a world where their kids can go to school without worrying about gun violence, where they can go to church or go for a walk in the street without worrying about being shot. And right now, this fear of gun violence has pervaded the psyche of America. It's affecting day-to-day decisions. Mika, I have to just tell you about a grandmother I spoke to not long ago who told me that her grandchild is scared to wear light-up shoes, you know, the shoes that flash when you take a step, because he doesn't want to be a target for a shooter if there's an

active shooting incident in his school. Another mother I spoke to the other day who was tragically in a mass shooting incident and had to run from a shooter, she now doesn't wear flip-flops when she goes outside because on that day she happened to be in flip-flops and found it was hard to run and she doesn't want to be in that situation again. You start to see how this is affecting day-to-day decisions. And it doesn't have to be this way. If we understand this as a country, come at this as an issue that affects all of us as a public health concern, I really do believe that we can make progress in saving lives and reducing the mental health toll of gun violence.

Dr. Murthy, good morning. It is true that young people now think about things you and I never had to think about growing up in terms of safety at school, in public places. It crosses their minds. They go through those drills. This announcement is drawing applause from gun safety advocates,

from the American Medical Association. No one could argue that we have a crisis in front of us. It's right there in the data. I think what some people are saying is this is nice, but without the policy side of it, it's kind of symbolic. So how do you take this from where it is right now and push it forward so that there's real change in this country, not to control guns, but to protect people's lives? Yeah. And here I fundamentally believe that we can respect people's rights and also protect people, create a safer world for them. And that's what we've got to do here in America.

What my hope is, is that this advisory will serve as a foundation for a series of changes that we can make. There are a number of policy changes here for Congress to consider. But think about what happened again with the 1964 tobacco report. That was a foundation for policy change, as well as for a series of other programmatic and educational changes that we made across this country. And if we come together as a nation to say, you know what, this is time for us to make this a priority because it's now become a kids' issue, then I think we can make progress. And let me just underscore the kids' issue. Gun violence has become the leading cause of death among children and teens in America. That was not true a decade ago, was not true two decades ago.

It is true today. And one thing I have seen, you know, in the past as a country is that we have been able to come together and do hard things in the past. And if there's ever a time where we should come together to take on an issue, it should be this one because it is affecting our children and what could be more important than their well-being. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, thank you very much for what you're doing. And thank you for being on the show this morning. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. All right. And still ahead, we're going to dig into the NBC News exclusive reporting detailing how the DHS is now searching for 50 migrants here in the U.S. who have been linked to ISIS. We'll ask Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about that and get an update on where things stand after President Biden's executive order to curb crossings at the southern border. Plus, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Republican Congressman Mike Turner will be our guest as he demands the White House declassify intel on Russia's nuclear anti-satellite program.

Morning Joe, we'll be right back. He's going to catch it. He's spinning some stories here. That ball deep in the left field. Bientos will watch it fly. A rough outing for Yankees ace Garrett Cole still coming back from from that injury. Got roughed up last night. His second start of the season against the Crosstown Mets over at Citi Field in Queens. The reigning Cy Young winner. No strikeouts. That's incredibly rare for him. Giving up four home runs as well, including a pair by Mark Vientos that left the Yankees

trailing 6-0 after four innings. The Yankees would rally to within two runs of the Mets thanks to this grand slam by Aaron Judge. A league-leading 29th home run of the season. 75 RBIs here at exactly the halfway point. The Mets, though, did hold on. 9-7. 11th victory in 14

games for the Mets. Yankees try to split the two-game subway series tonight back at Citi Field. John? The Grimace era. The Grimace era continues. It's amazing. They've won 11 of 14. There are people at the game last night in full-on Grimace costumes, as you can see there.

The players have embraced it. Everybody's kind of putting on purple and such. So for people who weren't watching yesterday, he threw out the first pitch a couple weeks ago. We should revisit this storyline. Let's reset. The storyline for those just tuning in. Yeah, Grimace, as part of some long-planned McDonald's promotion, threw out the first pitch two weeks ago. But that day started a seven-game winning streak for the Mets.

It took over Mets social media. The team and the players have gotten into it now. McDonald's has changed a lot of its advertising to be about Grimace and the Mets right now, at least in the tri-state area. And they continue to win. And they're sort of pushing their way into the playoff race a little bit. Luckily, we have one of the nation's foremost ad gurus, Donnie Deutsch, joining the table now. There you go. McDonald's couldn't dream of this kind of marketing.

I drove by, I still call it Shea Stadium. I drove by Citi Field last night, and there was a huge promotion for McDonald's and the Grimace. And, you know, this is the kind of stuff you look for as an advertiser. It's amazing. Let's stay in New York. A little NBA news. A major offseason trade adds another Villanova alum to the New York Knicks roster. Mikael Bridges reportedly being traded by the Brooklyn Nets to the New York Knicks,

reuniting him with Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Dante DiVincendo, players who helped Villanova win a pair of NCAA championships. Those guys, of course, the core of a Knicks team that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals this season. The Knicks, though, pay big to get him with ESPN reporting the deal includes five first round draft picks with the NBA draft starting tonight. Lord Stanley's Cup is touring its new home with the panthers in florida where the championship celebration continued yesterday the first stop for the iconic trophy was at the home of matthew kachuk where the team held an after party then the cup moved on to a

fort lauderdale bar pouring a drink down oh my gosh i don't know if that was a drink though just a splash down onto the fan. Later, the team, with the cup and a few hundred fans, headed to the beach for a dip in the ocean. The Panthers beat the Oilers in Game 7 on Monday night to win their first NHL title in franchise history. That official championship parade is set for this Sunday. Always fun, John, to watch with these guys.

Hockey players are a special breed of partier. I know a few of them. They always have a good time with the cup. Yeah, and there are no oceans in Edmonton had the Oilers won. But that's right. I mean, there's legendary stories about where the cup goes because every player gets it for a day. Right. And it has come back dented and damaged and sort of beaten up. But it's the best trophy in sports. It means so much to these guys. It was a great, great series. And look's the best trophy in sports. It means so much to these guys. It was a great, great series. And look, the Panthers were in the finals last year and lost. They win it this year.

They've been good for a while. Before we leave sports, Mikel Bridges, big pickup for the Knicks. I know you're enjoying your moment right now. We're coming at you next year. That's what I'm talking about. Okay. This is me not being concerned about this at all. The Celtics are primed to be good next year, too.

Look, it's a steep price for Bridges, but these are picks that will be in their 20s, the first-round picks. Like, this is the guy they've wanted for a long time. Yeah, and the Knicks are going for it, and that's to their credit. Yeah, you're coming for the Celtics now. Okay, you guys settle. This is careful what you wish for, Nika. Exactly. We'll let them settle that. Meanwhile, a new one of its kind live event

will give you a chance to join the conversation on this presidential election. Over a dozen MSNBC anchors will gather together for what's being called MSNBC Live Democracy 2024 happening on September 7th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. You can scan the QR code on your screen for tickets or visit MSNBC.com backslash democracy 2024. And joining us now, the host and creative director of MSNBC Live, Luke Russert. And Luke, this is cool. You have a lot of us going there. And the in-person aspect of it, I think, is so valuable at this time where everybody's so spread out for so many different reasons. What do you hope to accomplish at this first event?

Well, good morning, Mika, and thanks so much for having me. And this is something you know very well through your Know Your Worth series, the value of the hosts and contributors of MSNBC getting out into the field and interacting with our incredible viewers and audience. We're so blessed at this network to have an engaged and loyal following that likes to communicate their feelings, likes to stay engaged, stay involved. And we thought, hey, why not go out there, put everybody under one roof and have a celebration of not only MSNBC and everything that we do, but celebrate the most important component of our family. And that is the viewers. So we're doing that September 7th in Brooklyn at the

Brooklyn Academy of Music. We got two sessions. We have a dinner option. We're also going to show a very special film. But if you want to come see Steve Kornacki do his big board in person and learn about all the bells and whistles of that, you can do it. You can see Rachel Maddow. You can see Lawrence O'Donnell. You can see Joy Reid. I mean, you can see so many people. A lot of other contributors are going to be there. We have a lot of surprises.

But I think more so than anything, we want to foster connection with our incredible viewers. And we really want to have these organic conversations and interactions that you can't necessarily do through a TV segment or you can't necessarily do through a TV screen. So that's the goal. I think we'll definitely achieve it. And it's going to be wonderful. And it's cool to be in a place like MSNBC that wants to get into this space and start it out. It's a unique space and we're excited to be trailblazers in it. It's a great space. And also you get a sense when you're meeting with people in real time, what their questions are, what their concerns are. These are not like anonymous comments coming across Twitter. These are real conversations.

What are some of the topics, especially given the gravity of this election? And some would say that democracy is at stake. What are some of the topics you're hoping to dig into? Well, democracy is obviously this large scale topic and it's a large umbrella with so many things fit underneath it. But when you bring up democracy, we think, OK, here's September 7th. We're roughly two months out from the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. That's always said this time. It's very true. We want to take the expertise that we have underneath our own umbrella at MSNBC and really dive into the issues that are most meaningful.

So on the polling front, that's where someone like Steve Kornacki can come up with the latest numbers. And people like Alex Wagner and Andrea Mitchell and Katie Turkin break those down and give you in-depth analysis, the crosstabs. Where are the votes for President Biden? Where are the votes for former President Trump? How is that looking? Then in the evening session, I think it's really a sort of pulse of the country where we are as a citizenry. What are the issues that are proving to be most meaningful and how are the campaigns going to speak to them during the last two months of the election? And really, what is the pulse of the country? So I think we'll have a ton of experts in that space. One of the great things about MSNBC is that we have a diversity of opinions and they will be there and a diversity of ideology and background and they will all be there and they

will be heard and it will be exciting night. So come on down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 7th. You don't want to miss it. Host and creative director of MSNBC Live, Luke Russert. Thank you very much. It's great to have you on the show as always. And this is going to be amazing. We look forward to it. Thank you very much.