Morning Joe - Morning Joe 7/5/23

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Bidens host July 4 celebration at WH, Trump spends day on social media

Fifteen thousand generations of humanity, yet we have evolved not at all. Bound like animals to the laws of physics. Shamed before the universe. And in all of history, only one man has stood to say that he will dictate what is and is not possible in this world. The Nathan's Famous 4th of July Champion of the World, Joey Chestnut! How was that for an introduction of the all-time greatest, Joey Jaws Chestnut, getting it done again yesterday on Coney Island,

winning the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, but putting down, ready for this, 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. He's gross, and he's a champion, Jonathan Lemire. John, there was a rain delay yesterday. You always wonder, how's the rain delay going to affect a pitcher? Yeah. How does a rain delay affect a team? And boy, he seemed to really ride it out, keep that game face on,

and just, again, achieve disgusting, disgusting heights again yesterday with 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. His 16th Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship. One of the greats. The greatest. He's the GOAT. And Willie, I should note that as we're having this conversation, I refuse to watch the footage of Joey Chestnut eating these hot dogs. My eyes are closed as

I'm talking to you right now. I will also say that that right there, that introduction that Joey Chestnut just received, Mike Barnicle has sent word he would like that same treatment at 7 a.m. Word for word. The man who makes things the impossible possible. That's Mike Barnicle. But hey, congrats to Joey Chestnut. He weathered the elements and the competition. And my God, let's stop watching this now. Yeah, it's a six o'clock in the morning. I think we're safe to take this down. Safe to say the title is Joey's until he gives it up. There were some worthy challengers yesterday. This guy is just a beast. And with that, we will spare you the footage for

the rest of this hour. Good morning to you this day after the 4th of July. With us this morning, Jonathan Lemire, as you see there. Also, U.S. special correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kaye, and former U.S. senator, now an NBC News and MSNBC political analyst, Claire McCaskill. Claire, I will not ask for your analysis of the Hot Dog Eating Championship unless you want to provide it, but how was your 4th of July? I hope you spent it on the lake. I did, Willie. Always thinking of your dad. And he and I have a shared history of working as very young people at the lake. And we had a great, huge family gathering.

It was loving chaos all weekend long with grandchildren everywhere. Sounds perfect. Exactly the way it ought to be down at the Lake of the Ozarks. Katty, how about you? How does the 4th of July look? Serious question from the other side of the pond. Yeah, I'm not sure how focused they were on the hot dogs. If they had been, they might have had a little bit more despair as they looked across the Atlantic. Look, you know, I remember saying to Lamir on Monday as we left, I wished everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July. I wish it had been a safer Fourth of July. You know, that's the news that travels across the pond. Again, a spate of mass shootings around the country. Fourth of July now, the most dangerous day in the American calendar for mass shootings.

And what a crazy way and terrible way that the country celebrates. I wish it had been, you know, I wish it was not thus, but such as America and gun control at the moment. But otherwise, Baltimore, yeah, everywhere. I mean, Chicago, Texas, all around the country, a spate of mass shootings. Otherwise, it was pouring with rain here in London, not much of a 4th of July. And I did not eat one single hot dog. Good for you. So not even one. Forget 62.

Not even one. Good for you, Katty. Yes, we're going to actually talk about those shootings here in just a moment. Another one overnight. But for the White House, it was a celebration yesterday of America's independence. They had the barbecue, the concert, the fireworks, the whole thing. Returning from a weekend at Camp David, President Joe Biden addressed military members in the crowd we called the protectors of democracy.

You are the sinew, the backbone, the reality of why we're who we are. Unbreaking, unbending throughout our history remind us that democracy is never, never, never guaranteed. Every generation must fight to maintain it, must always cherish it, defend it, and strengthen it. In the evening, the president switched into the role of MC to introduce tonight's musical act, where he was met with some enthusiasm for his reelection campaign Welcome to your house the White House We're just renting think how music can change moods and music can make us feel better

It's just incredible and I thought we had some great, great entertainment here tonight. Yeah. Biden 2024! Well, now you're making music to my ears. Biden 2024, someone yelled there from the crowd at the White House yesterday after President Biden's leading Republican challenger, Donald Trump. Well, he didn't hit the campaign trail on the 4th. The former president spent the holiday on social Biden, which we've blurred out here. Trump called for special counsel Jack Smith to be, quote, defunded.

He also said Smith should be, quote, put out to rest before Democrats steal another election. Donald Trump was one of the only Republican candidates actually not out campaigning yesterday. Ron DeSantis, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, Will Hurd all made competing appearances at the same Independence Day parade in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Former President Mike Pence went to Iowa, where he took part in a parade in Urbandale, where he pitched himself as a better option to Donald Trump. The people of Iowa, the people of America are ready for a change. I think different times call for different leadership in the Republican Party and in America.

And we're just absolutely determined to offer our brand of leadership, common sense, conservative values, with an emphasis on civility and respect for the people of this state. So, Claire, pretty conventional Fourth of July campaigning for most of the Republican candidates. Donald Trump posting on social media, making himself into George Washington. The obvious distinction there, one of many, is that George Washington was a soldier. Donald Trump chose not to be one. But what does it say to you about the state of this Republican primary that Donald Trump thinks, I can just stay

home, I can sit at my golf club and post on social media, and that works for me. I don't even have to go out and do an event. I don't even have to go out and press the flesh and do the things that other people feel like they need to do to get elected in Iowa and New Hampshire. Well, in my opinion, one of the saddest things that's happened in modern politics is the fact that so many candidates don't think it's important to go out and do what we call in politics retail, which is shaking hands, looking people in the eye, talking to them, answering their questions. That's going away. for Donald Trump, he is much more comfortable at his very luxurious golf club with his thumbs on a device tweeting obscenities about the sitting president. You know, it's interesting to me when I look at the four pictures that are on the screen right now, you know, I guarantee you that most of

America that is looking at this screen right now goes, well, who are those other two guys? And that's the other thing that's interesting about this. We have a bunch of candidates that really have absolutely no name recognition, and they're not going to get name recognition by marching in a small Fourth of July parade in New Hampshire. That's not going to do it. They're going to have to raise big money in order for anybody to go, well, who is that? Other than say, who is that? So I right now, Donald Trump's in a commanding position. And think about that Republican Party. You've got a guy who says F Biden on the 4th of July and he's your man. It is unbelievable. So many of those second tier Republican candidates have issues whether or not they'll even qualify for the first debate, which is just a month or so away. There's certain

thresholds they've got to hit. It's unclear even like right now, even Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, though likely will get it. It's not a sure thing. Chris Christie as well. So, Cady, let's talk about the Trump strategy here. There's been our friends at Axios did some reporting actually noting just how few events he's actually had since becoming a declared candidate, despite his bluster about his energy and his robust schedule. That's actually not the case. But the Trump team has made a calculation. I mean, some of this might be Trump's laziness. But beyond that, they've made a calculation.

Well, we don't need to do this. We don't need to be out there. We can parachute in, have a big event, have a big rally. We'll dominate the headlines for days. He can sit on Truth Social wishing a happy Fourth of July to the haters and the losers out there. He might not even participate in that first debate because he's got such a big lead and he doesn't want to elevate the rest. Do you see that strategy backfiring or is that actually the right way to do it for someone like him? At the moment, there's no evidence that it's backfiring, right? In poll after poll, his

lead is increasing, not decreasing. So the strategy of doing the occasional big rally and getting a ton of media attention, because whatever he does, whether it's being indicted, whether it's tweeting what he tweets or sending out social media posts on the 4th of July, we talk about it. And he gets an enormous amount of attention just through doing that. So if I was his campaign, I'd be saying, carry on doing what you're doing. I mean, I guess the only thing to remember is that in December of 2007, Barack Obama was 20 points behind Hillary Clinton. And there is still time potentially for one of these candidates to break through. One assumes it would have to be Rhonda Sanders because he's the only one who has the money and some polling and has been consistently second in the polls.

So I suppose there is still time for him to break through. But I don't see any reason that the Trump campaign would trade strategies, given that what they're doing is working so well for them at the moment. So, Claire, let's look at this from the other side. We saw President Biden last night at the White House responding to the cheers of 2024. He is in it. He is running a year from now. Yes, a full year from now, he'll be getting ready for the Democratic Convention and the home stretch to try to win reelection. Unless something dramatic happens, it's Donald Trump's to lose at this point. Despite everything coming down the pike in Georgia, more investigations from Jack Smith, a return to New York for Donald Trump. There's a lot of legal trouble ahead. But if you are Joe Biden at that event last night, waking up this morning on July 5th, how are you feeling with a year and change to go to Election Day?

I think you're feeling pretty good. The big question mark that is looming over the election next year is, in what state will the economy be this time next year? If these infrastructure projects all kick off across the country, Joe Biden will have a great opportunity to remind everyone that he didn't have 14,000 infrastructure weeks with no results. He actually is fixing bridges and saving lives with highway improvements and water projects and grid projects and more Internet in rural areas. He's going to have a lot to talk about. And if those are kicking off, it's going to help the economy stay stable through the election. I think the only thing that Joe Biden has to worry about really is if there is a blip in the economy and gas prices go up or there is another inflationary spike, then no matter what he does, he's in trouble.

So, Jonathan, we know that this is going to be a close election just because national elections are close in this country. Even if people have strong feelings about Donald Trump, there are a lot of people who still love him, are going to be there with him or maybe think Joe Biden is too old. We will see how this plays out. But we know one thing. It will be very close and that Donald Trump is going to play the way we saw him playing yesterday. Oh, yeah. Donald Trump is who he is and his his campaign tactics have not changed at all from 2016 to 2020 to now. You make a great point. 2016 and 2020 deceptive in terms of electoral count, in terms of also the popular vote. But in the states that matter, those handful

of battlegrounds that actually decide elections, they were all they were close. 2020 as well, if not quite as close as 16. But this is everybody I talked to in both sides. I knows this is a 50 50 country and this is going to be a pretty tight race in terms of the president, their strategy right now. They're doing two things for the remainder of this year. First and foremost, just be president. They feel like just simply being the commander in chief. He's focusing on foreign policy next week. He's heading overseas, but getting the job done is to clear's point, rolling out infrastructure projects. That provides a clear contrast to the mess they're seeing on the Republican side. The other half of it, raising money. This is the next few months

the president has ramped up his fundraising. There's been some concerns that it's been a little bit sluggish so far. They had a little trouble, particularly with those low dollar donors that point to enthusiasm. Those have not rolled in the way the White House would like, at least so far. And I think that is a concern as well, is that this idea of whether it's voters of color or young voters who might be a little less enthusiastic about the president this time around. Maybe it's because of concerns of his age. Maybe it's because of things that haven't been able to get across the finish line, like the student debt relief program knocked down by the Supreme Court last week, things on climate change or the like. That's the concern. But Democrats will say, look, at the end of the day, particularly

if Donald Trump is the Republican on the other side, Willie, voters will turn out and they'll turn out to vote against Trump as much as perhaps voting for Biden. And Joe Biden had those setbacks, of course, at the Supreme Court last week, now going to use those, we believe, as a political cudgel to move forward and try to win back some votes and say Republicans and the people they appoint to the Supreme Court are taking away your rights. Katty mentioned the president yesterday also dealing with this spate of shootings in the United States of America. Police continue now to investigate this morning motive behind the deadly mass shooting first in Philadelphia on Monday night. Officials say the gunman fired seemingly at random, spanning several blocks. Five people were killed, ranging in age from 15 to 59. Two children were injured, both boys age 2 and 13. They remained stable at a hospital. Police say the gunman is a 40-year-old man who is wearing body armor,

armed with a semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle and a handgun. Also, he had a police scanner. In addition, he had multiple magazines of ammunition. Officers arrived on the scene, managed to take the suspect into custody. In that case, he is yet to be identified publicly and has not been formally charged. Philadelphia's mayor urged lawmakers to pass stronger gun safety legislation during a news conference yesterday. A person walking down the city street with an AR-style rifle and shooting randomly at people while wearing a bulletproof vest with multiple magazines is a disgraceful but all too common situation in America. And I was today at the Independence Hall where they wrote that Constitution and the Second Amendment was never intended to protect this. Authorities say another man who was taken into custody on suspicion of picking up a firearm

and returning fire at the suspect has been released without charge because he likely acted in self-defense. Meanwhile, three people were killed, at least eight others wounded in a mass shooting in Texas that happened just minutes before the start of the independence holiday. Police say the shooting occurred in the Fort Worth neighborhood of Como at around 11.47 p.m. on Monday. According to investigators, it appears several men fired indiscriminately into a crowd of hundreds of people striking adults and children. No arrests have been made yet in that case. A manhunt still underway in Baltimore for the suspect or suspects behind a deadly shooting there over the holiday weekend.

The gunfire broke out following a block party on Sunday night. Two people were killed, including a 20-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman identified as Ayala Gonzalez. Her family spoke to reporters yesterday. She was amazing, but she was going to be so big. And her star is so bright. She was the best sister I could ever ask for. And I miss her so bad. In addition to Aaliyah Gonzalez, 28 other people were injured in the shooting, including 15 minors, the youngest 13 years old. Authorities asking for the public's help to provide any information after sharing social media videos taken moments before the shooting started. In addition to tracking down those responsible, police also

said they're concerned about preparing for possible retaliation in this case. So, Katty K, you raised it. It seems to happen in the summertime. It seems to happen on the 4th of July, unfortunately. But the truth is, it happens all the time in this country. And you have to sit here the day after the 4th of July and just read a litany of mass shootings of gun violence in this country, some of them with handguns. We don't know the motive in all of them. One of them, at least, with an AR-15 style weapon, with a man who was wearing body armor. This is a story we've seen way too many times and just loaded down with ammunition, only stopped because the police intervened. Yeah, I mean, listen to that little boy who's just lost his big sister.

And it kind of it's still every single time it makes you tear up when you hear these stories, because it's so unnecessary. It is a choice that America is making. It is America's exceptional problem, right? It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world to the same degree. And and we have regulated other things. America has regulated seatbelts in cars, which mean that the number of children being killed in car accidents now is way down below the number of people being killed in gun accidents. So the American public

is on the side of doing something about this once more gun control. But the organs of American government are failing public opinion. They are failing the American people. They are not representing what democracy wants. People want something to be done about this. But there is inaction in government and more people are getting killed in a way that just doesn't happen anywhere else and doesn't need to be happening. This is fixable. Other countries have fixed this. Yeah, without question. We've got reports from the ground. We get an update on some of these shootings, including from Baltimore, where, again, 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez, that was her family that you heard speaking there.

We'll get to that just a little bit later. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is in contact now with Russia to discuss potential prisoner swaps. That's according to a Kremlin spokesman yesterday coming just one day after the U.S. ambassador to Russia visited detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The journal reports, quote, a State Department spokesperson declined on Tuesday to go into detail on the negotiation process, setting the continuing work to secure the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. He, of course, is another American considered wrongfully detained in Russia. Gershkovich was detained in Russia in March while on a reporting trip. He was accused of spying, which he and the U.S. government and The Wall Street Journal adamantly deny.

Whelan has been held in Russia since 2018. Let's bring in former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, retired four-star Navy Admiral James DeVritas. He's chief international analyst for NBC News. Admiral, it's great to see you. So take us inside, if you can, what may be happening, back channels, behind the scenes, direct diplomacy between the United States and Russia to try to secure the release of these two Americans and others, by the way. I think of the memoir by my good friend, the current director of the CIA, Bill Burns. He called it the back channel. And it makes a point, which is that a lot of diplomacy is actually done best away from the glare of publicity. And certainly hostage exchanges fall into that category. So point one, this correctly

ought to be done without an enormous amount of media speculation about it. Point two is I think there's a real chance here. Russia has a number of goals in the form of individuals in prisons, both in the United States, and this is key, Willie, and in the prisons of some of our allies, because we have given away some of their high value prisoners to them like Victor Boot. So we may have to broaden the quid pro quo to convince an ally to let somebody go in this case. And then third and finally, it shows we can at least have a conversation with the Russian Federation that is not part of the war in Ukraine. And it's important that we do so, not only for prisoner exchanges like this, but for example, on nuclear arms control and other things that are in the interest of both countries.

The Ukrainian grain deal is another example of putting things off of the U.S.-Russia-Ukraine track. So I'm hopeful. Let's keep it quiet and let's be creative in what we end up negotiating with the Russian Federation here. Yeah, Admiral, to your point, the White House certainly staying quiet on this, although aides saying that they do want to proceed with caution, that this is no sure thing to getting a deal done here.

And that previously they had some trouble convincing allies, Germany among them, to provide a prisoner to Russia that they were interested in. So, but put this in context for us as this is happening, this word of maybe these talks going on comes at a precarious moment, perhaps, for Putin, or at least a dynamic one. We're coming just two weeks now off of the Wagner aborted mutiny. Talk to us about how you see him navigating this. The prisoner swap, yes, but also trying to figure out what to do with Wagner,

trying to decide if Prokosian should be able to remain in Belarus. Real warnings from the Ukrainians in recent days that the Russians might be trying something at that Zaparitsa nuclear power plant. Just give us your 30,000 foot view of just where things are right now. Yeah, Putin is in the middle of a course called Dictator 101. And Dictator 101 is a course where you learn that you can be weakened by those often the closest to you. You can be stabbed in the back. He's right when he categorizes it in that way. That's good news for the West.

And if he were a stock, I'd say Putin has lost about 30 percent of his value, Jonathan. He's not broke. He's not broke. He's not a penny stock. He's not being given away. But he is weak. And so what does he do? He rounds up the usual suspects, if you will, uses this opportunity to take out anybody who he sees as a threat. He strengthens the physical protections around Moscow.

The brigades protecting Moscow are taking resources away from the war in Ukraine. That's a good thing. But he will do everything he can to strengthen his position. To the hostage discussion, he will look at that as a way to demonstrate to the world that he still has WASTA. He still has power. He gave a speech to the Shanghai that he still has WASTA. He still has power. He gave a speech to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, his group of allies, partners and friends over the weekend in which he

tried to convince them that he remains on top of his game. He'll do everything he can to try and do that, not only for the Russian population, but I think more importantly for him with the larger world that's still kind of swinging between the West and Russia. And by the way, a Russian investigative journalist, human rights lawyer, were beaten as they went into court yesterday in Chechnya, perhaps a signal being sent there as well. To your point, Admiral, stay with us. Want to get your take on the latest from the Middle East amid renewed violence between Israel and the Palestinians there. Plus, with Iran building drones for Russia, China having a spy base in Cuba,

our next guest asked the question, are America's foes joining forces? We'll have that conversation with Peter Beinert. That's a conversation he's writing about in The New York Times today. He joins us next on Morning Joe. Israel says it has intercepted five rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. This just hours after Israel wrapped up a two day large scale military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. The latest attack in Gaza is raising fears of an escalation of tit-for-tat violence. Let's bring in NBC News foreign correspondent Matt Bradley. He is live in Jenin in the West Bank.

Matt, what are you seeing there today? Yeah, Willie, well, what we're seeing here today is a lot different from what we were seeing last night. In this very square, we saw intense and focused violence right here for hours on end. And today, it's kind of back to normal to, you know, whatever that is. And there's no such thing as normality here a day after what we saw last night. You can see it yourselves in our report that layered on Nightly News last night. Here it is. For Palestinian militants, this was payback. This security video shows a 20-year-old Palestinian ramming pedestrians with his car.

He then gets out and tries to stab several people before an armed civilian shoots him dead. The Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed and praised this rare attack in Tel Aviv that injured nine people, calling it an initial response to an Israeli attack on the West Bank city of Jenin, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in the West Bank in two decades, killing at least 12 people and pushing thousands more to flee. But Palestinian youth are fighting back with rocks, Molotov cocktails and small arms. He says the Israelis are firing missiles, using armored cars and live ammunition, throwing everything they have. During our interview, Israeli forces unexpectedly pushed toward our position to clear the area.

The Israelis are coming in with their armored vehicles and in front of them, an armored bulldozer to take out Palestinians. And they're exchanging fire with Palestinian youth. The city now shrouded in smoke from burning fires and plumes of tear gas fired by the Israelis. Israel's operation here is aimed at clearing one part of the city, a Palestinian refugee camp, from what Israeli officials here say is a persistent military threat. But as far as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned, this massive two-day raid has been a success.

We are completing the mission, Israel's prime minister said, but this is not a one-time operation. We will continue to uproot terrorism. So as you can see, Willie, all of that took place right here just several hours ago last night. And now folks here, they're picking up the pieces, they're cleaning the streets, they're repairing their windows. But given the weight of the tension in this community and in this broader country and among Palestinians and Israelis, that tension, that violence could return at any time. Willie. Extraordinary report, Matt Bradley. Please be safe there. That's NBC News foreign correspondent Matt Bradley. Matt, thanks so much. James Tavridis is still with us for this conversation. And joining us as well is Peter Beiner, professor of journalism, political science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Peter, good morning to you. I'll start with you.

What do you make of what you've seen lately, this latest in, you know, generations of escalating violence here? The fundamental problem is that Palestinians lack the most basic rights. This is a country, Israel, now that has been called an apartheid state by its own leading human rights organizations and by the leading human rights organizations in the world. Human rights watch and amnesty because it holds millions of people without the most basic rights, the right to be a citizen in the country in which they live, the right to vote for the government that controls their lives. And when people are desperate like that, they will take desperate measures, immoral, violent measures, but desperate measures because they see no hope. And unless there is hope that people can have the basic rights that we take for granted,

this violence will continue. Yeah, and Admiral, every time there is some kind of violence like this, of course, you have a whole load of young people watching it and you don't know the long term impact of watching this kind of violence on them. We've seen an expansion of settlements in the West Bank over the course of the last year. We've seen Netanyahu facing political problems, legal problems of his own. How much does that play into what is happening at the moment, has been happening this week in Jenin? And what can the United States do? What kind of leverage does the Biden administration still have? To your first point, the accidental terrorist, the accidental gorilla, this is a well-known theory of how these uprisings perpetuate. And

you're absolutely right, Katty, to put a finger on it. It is a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. In terms of what happened here at this moment, because this is the largest set of incursions by the Israelis in 20 years. When I was a NATO commander, I was also in charge of U.S.-Israeli military engagement and spent a lot of time studying this. And the Israelis often use low-level kinds of incursions. This was not that. This is a very significant sweep into a highly sensitive part of the West Bank. And to your point, again, I agree. Part of this is Netanyahu and his domestic problems. He knows these kind of actions play very well with the right side of his coalition, which he needs to stay in power.

So I don't think you're going to see a sudden pullback from this. This is not mowing the lawn, an expression the Israelis use about repetitive incursions. This was a very significant operation. Last point, the U.S. does not have a lot of cards to play here of real significance. We're very close to Israel, obviously, but the Israelis, fiercely independent minded in dealing with this issue, they will go their own way here. Sorry. Peter, can you speak a little bit about what is going on in the larger context of the Middle East and the Arab nations vis-à-vis what Netanyahu is doing in these Palestinian refugee camps. We've seen some efforts by Saudi and by UAE to try to really knit together

what is as close to a peace as we've seen in the Middle East. It seems that this would really set this back. What is what do you sense the reaction is going to be in the rest of the Arab world to Netanyahu doing this for his own political purposes? Yes. And if I could just respectfully disagree with the idea that the U.S. has no cards to play, we fund this. We give the Israelis $3.8 billion in essentially unconditional military aid a year. We protect Israel at the United Nations from any meaningful condemnation. We protect

Israel from international, from prosecution at the International Criminal Court. And so the U.S. has a tremendous amount of leverage here. It's just the Biden administration has chosen not to do it to protect Palestinian rights. I do think that this will slow the momentum towards normalization with Saudi Arabia. But in the longer term, even if Israel does get what it wants, which is normalization with Saudi Arabia, Israel's problem is not with the Saudis. It's with its own Palestinians that it controls and denies basic human rights. And as Martin Luther King told Americans again and again and again, when you hold people under a system of unjust, oppressive violence, they will respond with violence and everyone will suffer.

So, Peter, you've also got a new piece in The New York Times suggesting that America's foes are joining forces. You highlight a few examples that Iran is manufacturing drones for Russia for their war effort. Cuba's operating a spy base. China's operating a spy base in Cuba. And even over the weekend, we had this virtual summit between Putin, Xi and Modi, in which neither Modi or Xi endorsed Putin's war or bid for power, but they didn't exactly condemn him either. And it was still a lot of warm words, as we're used to hearing from them towards him. So how do we get here? And where do we think this happens? Is this simply a global rejection from a significant portion of the globe,

ejection of American influence and values? My point is actually that, ironically, America made this happen, that this growing alliance, this alliance between China and Cuba, with China now having a spy base in Cuba, and with Russia and Iran, with Iran building drones for Russia,

didn't come about by accident. It partly came about because the U.S. spurned the efforts by Cuba and Iran to have better relations with us. They wanted better relations with us. When Obama opened to Cuba, Cuba was very strongly wanting closer economic ties to the United States and to Europe. And Trump came in in 2019, imposed the toughest sanctions the U.S. had ever put on Cuba, threw that economy into chaos and made them desperate for Chinese money for which they traded this spy base. The Iranians within the Iranian nuclear deal also wanted better relations with the U.S., not because they love us, not because they want to become a democracy, but because they wanted Western investment. Trump came in, scrapped the deal,

imposed even tougher sanctions, and the U.S. lost any leverage it might have had over the Iranian-Russia relationship. Admiral, what's your sense of this China, Cuba, Iran? You could add a few other countries to that matrix of threats and adversaries of the United States and the way they may be working together and joining forces, as Peter puts it? I think it's real, certainly. It's real in different ways in different capitals. And I think one way to think of this from the Chinese perspective is they look north at Russia, which is failing as a state in so many different ways. It's got a huge, vast land area, Russia to the east of the Ural Mountains.

It's the size of the continental United States. It's basically empty. Maybe 25 million people live there. But what is there? Oil, gas, timber, fresh water, arable land, gold, diamonds, rare earths? It looks really good. It looks to the Chinese the way a ribeye steak looks to my dog. Yes, China will try and make Russia a very junior partner in this organization of nations,

if you will, that we saw represented at the Shanghai Cooperative Organization. I think Peter is correct to focus on we need to be self-aware. And in particular, India is where, in my view, we've still got some trade space. I think it's unlikely we're going to convince China to change course. Unlikely we're going to convince Russia to change course. Certainly Iran, maybe over time. But the main ball here diplomatically for the United States is India. We can still work with India, I think, in positive ways, again, if we are self-aware of how we operate in the larger world. Last thought, we shouldn't understate the immense power of America's

alliances around the world. Yes, we've highlighted a few who stand against us. Look at NATO, 32 nations, just about. Sweden will join shortly. 55% of the world's GDP throw in Japan, South Korea, Australia. We have a glittering array of alliances. I want our hand of cards here. You can read Peter's new piece in The New York Times. Peter, thanks so much. Retired four star Navy Admiral James DeVritas, thank you. And around the Fourth of July, good time to thank you again for all you've given the country, sir.

Good to see you still ahead this morning. Governor Ron DeSantis trailing Donald Trump by a lot. And now his own supporters are sounding the alarm about his campaign. Politico's Meredith McGraw has new reporting on the Republican race for president. She joins us straight ahead on Morning Joe. Live picture of the White House, 646 on a Wednesday morning, the day after the 4th of July. The Secret Service is now investigating how a small bag of suspected cocaine was found in the White House. On Sunday night, employees were briefly evacuated after a white powdery substance was discovered in a small dime-sized bag. That's according to a Secret Service official. President Biden was not at the White House at the time. The D.C. Fire Department subsequently was called in to evaluate the substance, which was

determined to be non-hazardous. A source familiar with the investigation said the Secret Service is now reviewing camera footage and entrance logs to see who had access to the space where the suspected drugs were found. However, the source notes the investigation could be difficult because no one knows how long that bag actually was there. And so many people walk through the area every day. The White House so far has declined to comment. John, this was a headline that I think grabbed a lot of people's attention yesterday. Do we know anything else about it? Well, we know the New York Post is handling it with its usual subtlety, Snow White House. And you can certainly imagine who they're insinuating it belongs to.

We don't know much. This didn't puzzle some folks that I talked to over the weekend about it. It is an area, it's sort of a waiting room in the West Wing. It's not open to the public, but people can come and go. If you have an appointment to see anybody in the West Wing, not just the president, you'd come there and probably wait in the waiting room in the West Wing. It's not open to the public, but people can come and go. If you have an appointment to see anybody in the West Wing, not just the president, you'd come there and probably wait in the waiting room. And it's not clear how long the bag with the suspected client has been there. Certainly no idea who it belongs to. They are going to investigate.

They certainly grabbed the Secret Service's attention. Anything that requires a slight evacuation, even a brief evacuation, is a big deal. But the answer is we simply don't know yet. And it may be, as you just noted, it may be some time before we do learn who it belonged to. We may not at all. The president was at Camp David over the weekend when this happened, so he was not impacted. But certainly, as we learn more, we'll keep you posted. Secret Service looking into it as we speak. Coming up next, 30 million Americans are at risk of severe storms today.

That means big delays at the airports, I'm afraid to say. We'll have more on that when Morning Joe comes right back. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome United States Senator Lindsey Graham. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all for coming. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. Thank you. You know, you can make mistakes on occasion.

Even Lindsey down here, Senator Lindsey Graham. We love Senator Graham. We're going to love him. We're going to love him. I know, it's half and half, but when I need some of those liberal votes, he's always there to help me get them. OK, we got some pretty liberal people, but he's good. He's he's he's there. He's there when you need him. I'm going to get him straightened up.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham in his home state booed mercilessly over the weekend by a crowd of Republicans, with Donald Trump there doing very little to defend him and said goading his supporters into booing Senator Graham even more. Claire, it's almost hard to watch at this point to a man who just subjects himself again and again and again to this humiliation and to defend Donald Trump. And that's what he gets in return for. Remember, he went out for a brief moment on January 6th and said, I'm done with Donald Trump, bumps into some people at the airport in Washington who call him traitors, and he immediately flips. He's been on TV in the last few months, literally weeping for people to give money to Donald Trump's campaign. And this is what he gets in return.

It's, you know, the man you worked alongside him. It's humiliation is seems like an understatement. Yeah, I don't think humiliation is a strong enough word and everybody needs to keep the context here i mean this is his hometown he lives and this is a small town he lives 15 miles away and and this is not these are supposed to be his people now one thing it does show is i do believe there are probably a lot of people and i've met these people who travel around the country just to see Donald Trump. It's a little bit like the Grateful Dead for people who are weird. They go on the road to see Donald Trump. So I would, in Lindsay's defense, there's probably a good chunk of this audience that's not South Carolina. But the humiliation here is not what the crowd did. It's what Donald Trump

did. He treated him like he was a piece of dirt under his shoe. And I've got a real shot to Lindsay. Lindsay, it's not working. You cannot put aside your convictions and your character to support this man, it will not work. He knows this guy is trouble for the United States of America. And another place he split with Trump is over Ukraine. So, Lindsay, find yourself in this moment. Use this as a teaching moment. You need to be Lindsay, not some embarrassing sycophant that has attached yourself like a leech to the side of this man. I would say to the backside of this man. And it is just beyond sad and depressing. And if it wasn't Lindsay's fault, it's his fault. So I can't feel sorry for him. But he doesn't appear ready or willing or

capable of correcting this problem. It's hard to imagine him leaving Donald Trump at this point. But as you say, that was in Pickens, South Carolina, not far from Lindsey Graham's hometown in his home state. As Claire says, that should be his crowd. And going on TV and literally weeping for Donald Trump is not even enough there. So why do you sell your soul? It remains one of the great mysteries of our modern politics. Claire, thanks so much.