Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/12/22

Episode Date: August 12, 2022

FBI searched Trump’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say: Washington Post

Let me address recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors. I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked. The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants. Attorney General Merrick Garland defending the FBI amid attacks from the far right that has made the FBI face a lot of threats of violence. How conspiracy theories and disinformation likely fueled a deadly standoff involving the FBI in Ohio. By the way, there's something we were warning about yesterday and the day before. And what former President Trump said late last night about the unsealing of the search warrant amid new reporting that nuclear documents were among the materials the FBI sought while searching his home. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe.

It is Friday, August 12th. What a week. With us, we have Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson with us and columnist and associate editor for The Washington Post, David Ignatius will join us in just a moment. Joe, just a reminder of why the Justice Department might be a little bit concerned about nuclear secrets knocking around Mar-a-Lago. There was the time that Trump spilled highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister, or when he tweeted a highly classified satellite photo of an Iranian space facility, or when he sided with the Kremlin over America's own intelligence agencies. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to

me and some others. They said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be. Yeah. So with that in mind, we begin with new information on the FBI search of Donald Trump's home in Florida. People familiar with the investigation tell The Washington Post that classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items agents were searching for on Monday. The sources did not disclose any additional details about the type of documents or if any were recovered. Here's reaction from the Trump attorney who was at Mar-a-Lago during the search. Is it your understanding that there were not documents related to our nuclear capabilities or nuclear issues that had national security implications in the president's possession when the agents showed up at Mar-a-Lago? That's correct. I don't believe they were. And if they thought, you know, for a fact, do you know for a fact?

Have you spoken to the president about it? I have not specifically spoken to the president about what nuclear materials may or may not have been in there. I do not believe there were any in there. Sweet Jesus. Oh, my God. I haven't talked to my client about whether he'd illegally removed nuclear secrets from the White House and taken them down to his country club illegally in Florida? You didn't ask the president that question. I mean, listen, this is a guy who has had contempt for classified information. Of course, he attacked Hillary Clinton for her emails. And all those people. But as we saw time and again, he showed that he had contempt for classified information. And, you know, The Washington Post this morning is saying that Garland called Trump's bluff yesterday. But I think it's more than that. He called out

with with his just the facts, ma'am approach, he called out Donald Trump's bluster. He called out Donald Trump's blessed bluster and his lies, his B.S. And you just get the sense that from the start of this, Trump has known that he's a corrupt politician who's been cornered. And so what has he done? He's refused to release the documents. He could have released the documents at any time. And instead, he's been whipping up a frenzy against the FBI and against law enforcement officers. And we saw the consequences of that yesterday, most likely, if the reporting is

correct. Then sure enough, just as I've been warning on this show every day, the irresponsible voices on the Trump right are ginning up hatred against our FBI, against law enforcement agents, against the very people that they once claimed to support. And while they're whipping them into this frenzy, they're putting the lives, they're putting targets on the back of FBI agents. And they know who they are. And they were still doing it last night on TV, even after somebody tried to break in to the FBI Bureau in Ohio and cause harm to agents. And the person is deceased now. Yeah, the person's deceased now because he was whipped into a frenzy by these conspiracy theories. Just like January the 6th. So you look at all of this and and and David Ignatius, you look at the possibility that

nuclear secrets may be involved here. And the fact that Trump's own lawyer says, oh, I don't know, maybe nuclear secrets were were were stolen from the White House and taken down to Moralago illegally. But whatever it is, we understand from the DOJ that it was obviously so critical that they felt like they had to move immediately. Joe, we still don't know, obviously, the details. We're hoping that the search warrant is revealed. But we do know from Trump's own lawyer that the issue here involved classified materials. And I'm told by a very senior justice official that this search warrant would not have been

authorized unless there was a feeling that the documents in question posed a real danger if they were disclosed. And second, that there'd been some effort to conceal or withhold those documents. There was a very specific reason that they moved in the way that they did. And they moved only after the more informal process of seeking a subpoena, having discussions. We now know through the Wall Street Journal about conversations that took place some weeks before this search. So, David, you your source, your highly placed source at the Department of Justice said they had made an effort, had had had tried to conceal the information from the FBI and the DOJ. Joe, I want to be clear about the nature of my sourcing. I don't mean to imply that this is a source who is currently at the top level of the Justice Department, but is involved in justice activities and is deeply familiar with these issues. And this source made those two points, that

this action would not have been taken unless there was a fear that grave danger would result from disclosure of the documents. And second, this action would not have been taken in the way that it was unless there was a concern that some material that had been requested was being withheld. Those two points, I don't mean to say this is from Justice Department senior officials themselves, but from sources close to them. So we may actually learn what was taken from the property as early as this afternoon, as well as any suspected violations. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced yesterday

that the Justice Department is moving to unseal the warrant used in Monday's search. The judge ruled the DOJ's motion to unseal must be presented to Trump's lawyers, who have until 3 p.m. today to agree with or oppose the motion to unseal the warrant. The department is seeking to unseal only the warrant and an inventory of items seized by the FBI during the search of Mar-a-Lago and not the affidavit of probable cause, which would detail how authorities believe a crime was likely committed and why there would be evidence of that crime at Trump's Florida home. Late last night, the former president took to his social media company to respond, writing in part, not only will I not oppose the release of

documents, I'm going a step further by encouraging the immediate release of those documents. I'm confused. OK, so we're going to see. I'm confused. I'm confused. Gene Robinson. Let's see it. Gene Robinson, I'm so confused. Me too. Great. Because Donald Trump says, I'm going a step further by encouraging the immediate release. That's like me saying I am encouraging the Department of Justice to announce to the world what cereal is contained in my kitchen. I know what cereal is contained in my kitchen. I know what cereal is contained in my kitchen. I've got that information. I could let America know right now. Donald Trump has had this warrant

for days while he's been demagoguing, while he's been spreading hatred, while he's been putting targets on the backs of FBI agents by letting his people go around and spread hatred and lies about the FBI. He's had the warrant. And Harold Ford Jr. yesterday on Fox said that he had been lying to his friends and people close to him and his supporters saying that he didn't have a warrant. There's this lie that I guess they're spreading on Fox. I don't know. I only saw the clip of Harold that they just held up a document 12 feet away and then put it down.

He's had it all along. And as Harold said, why in the world would he be lying about something like that? Well, there's only one reason. You're trying to spread hatred towards FBI agents and anger and anger and rage that led to what happened yesterday instead of just releasing the documents. I say, why? If that happened to you or me and we were innocent, we'd release the documents immediately. Absolutely. Hold a press conference and say they're looking for this. I don't I don't have that. They're looking for this. I don't I don't have that. They're looking for that. He didn't do that. And even last night, the charade continues.

I just ask how stupid, how stupid are some of his followers to actually continue to buy into this Jim and Tammy Faye Baker PTL club goes to Moralago routine that he's putting on because he's had it. He's been able to release it anytime he's wanted. But instead, he's decided to stir up hatred against law enforcement personnel. Right. He had this on Monday. Right. When the search was conducted, they leave the way they present the warrant.

They present the inventory when they leave of what they took. He's had it since Monday. He could have released it on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday. He could have released it last night when he issued that statement. He could have said, you know what? Absolutely right. Let's release it.

In fact, I'm releasing it right now. Here it is. And we'd all be able to be talking about it right now, this morning. But he wanted to use it to, yes, to gin up this anger and this hatred and this energy in his base, which is what fuels him politically. And I guess he believes that it protects him somehow. Hey, Gene. Yeah.

Hey, Gene, two words for you, my friend. Two words. Nuclear secrets. Yeah, exactly. Nuclear secret. And he is asked last night by Laura Ingram. Did Donald Trump have nuclear secrets? And oh, I don't know. I haven't. Oh,

I don't know. Why would I talk? Why would I talk to my client about whether he illegally absconded from the White House with top secret classified information about nuclear secrets? While you're there on the subject of people on television, I just you ask how stupid his followers are in terms of those people. They're not stupid. No, they're lying. What they're doing. They're lying. They know the election was stolen. They know January 6th was an assault on our Capitol and they are not stupid. There's something else. And that's something they're going to have to reckon with in some way, shape or form. Begging them to stop the sake of our country, have done that before. But this will at some point come back. That's all I'll say. They're not by the way.

They know what they're doing. Other American people who follow Trump are vulnerable Americans who have been misled by a cult leader. And, you know, this is the sad reality of our country. But these these people continue to be misled by those with the megaphone on major cable networks who refuse to face the truth, even when it's staring them in the face. By the way, it's 613 on the East Coast. We wake up very early to do this show. It's Friday. So Mika meant to say that the election was not stolen. So you get your little clips. They know the election. Oh, God. Here go the clips on Twitter. Yeah. No, the election was not stolen. They know that it's not stolen. Wall Street Journal editorial page has been writing about it nonstop. And yeah, they're not, Gene, they're not stupid. They know exactly what they're doing. And even

last night, just fueling, throwing fuel on the fire of hatred of FBI agents, of Department of Justice personnel. I just seriously, I just, I look at some of the things these people say and I say, who's running these companies? Where are the lawyers to talk to people on the board going this? This really is exposing us to some serious legal jeopardy. Absolutely. This it's it's crazy. It's like it's it's like people won't like this metaphor. It's like they're like crackheads. They can't help themselves. You know, they can't stay away from this stuff when they know, this deluded, apparently man now deceased who thought he was he was doing right by trying to break into the FBI and kill FBI agents because his dear leader told him to, basically. I mean, it is just insane, and it is crazy. This has really ginned up the sort of violent part of the base in a way that, I can't say it's unprecedented, because we had an insurrection at the Capitol, but certainly not since then have we seen this sort of fervor and passion over over what was a totally legitimate action by the Justice Department after they tried to get these documents back. But, you know, he's been out of office for more than a year and a half, and he won't give

back these documents that, as The Washington Post reported and Nuclear Secrets and New York Times reports, some of the most sensitive kinds of information, they didn't use the word nuclear, they said some of the most sensitive kinds of information that our government has. And it's knocking around Mar-a-Lago, which is famously insecure, let alone what nefarious purposes this information could potentially be put to. And, you know, the Justice Department had been working with them. The FBI had been working with them, Mika. And they've been cooperating with him. They'd been trying to get it back in the least truce of way possible. And it became evident to them that that man was lying to them. Yeah. There's somebody on the inside that was telling them that he had more highly classified information inside of Mar-a-Lago

that he was not revealing to the FBI. What it all shows as documents are revealed when they're revealed. Let's bring in former U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuaid and congressional reporter for The Guardian, Hugo Lowell joins us. Thank you both very much. Barbara, I'll ask you the same question I asked you earlier this week. From what we know so far, what legal exposure is Donald Trump facing, given Merrick Garland's words yesterday? Well, we don't know yet, but I think we might find out today. The fact that Donald Trump is not opposing the unsealing of this search warrant means that I think sometime today this judge is going to unseal it. And what we'll find there is the

statutory citation that gave them the authority to conduct this search. And I think that'll be very revealing if it includes what is really the most serious charge when it comes to handling classified documents. The Espionage Act. I think that could be some confirmation that, yes, these indeed are national defense documents. That would be revelatory. It may be that they use a lesser statutory citation because they don't have to use the biggest hammer just to get in the door. But I think that'll be interesting. The other thing that we'll find out is this inventory of items that were seized, as well as a list of the items they were looking for. That could be revealing. Now, they're not going to say right in there the content of the document, because that could defeat the whole purpose of having classified documents. But I think it will describe the nature of the documents,

and that could be very revealing. So I think we're about to find out just how much trouble he's in. OK, so just how much is what you just said? I'm just curious. What are the chances there's nothing? I'd be surprised there's nothing in light of the strong message that Merrick Garland gave yesterday. I think if there's nothing, he would have been a little more defensive. Instead, he came out very strong, very bold. I guess it's always a possibility, Mika,

and we'll find out more today. But what's really going to be interesting is what's in that affidavit. That's not going to be revealed today, but that will chronicle this history where it sounds from reporting that they did try an interim step of a subpoena in June and that nonetheless, Trump still withheld some documents. And so that goes to his willfulness. I think it erases any defense he might have that this was some inadvertent mistake, that somehow these documents got mixed in with his, you know, letters from Ivanka, love letters from Ivanka and photos of his of his family.

The fact that he was asked and refused, I think, goes a long way toward proving that willfulness. Well, David Ignatius, just knowing Merrick Garland through your reporting, I'll follow up with Mika's question about what's the likelihood that this is much ado about nothing, given the fact I think most Americans are are conditioned to both on the left and the right. They hear about the legal problems that Donald Trump's facing, whether it was with Mueller or whether it was with the Manhattan D.A. And for one reason or another, he always seems to move beyond it, moves beyond doing other things that would have certainly put members of Congress in jail. We've talked about that before in great detail on this show.

But what's the likelihood that Merrick Garland would have taken this extraordinary step unless he he he had really good information that he had no other choice but to do this? Joe, the likelihood is close to zero. the Justice Department, its activities are certain that Merrick Garland would not have taken this step unless he was convinced, first, that the materials, whether they involve nuclear secrets or other secrets, other special compartmented information, were so dangerous, their disclosure would be so risky that something had to be done immediately. And then second, unless they were convinced that there'd been some effort to withhold materials along the way. I'm struck as I look at this, Joe, by the pattern of Trump's sloppy,

sometimes willful disregard for rules involving classified information from the moment that he got into the White House. It's just been a consistent theme, whether it was his handling of Mike Flynn as national security advisor, whether it was his initial response to the briefing about Russian interference through covert action in our elections in 2016, whether it was his behavior in the summit with Vladimir Putin. You can go through a series of a dozen different instances in which the same pattern exists. Donald Trump does not take classified material as seriously as he should. And he also has contempt, which he often expresses for the people

at the FBI and the CIA who are responsible for protecting it. And so I think there is a kind of clear, straight line here. People who think this isn't really a big deal should remember that two former CIA directors, John Deutch and Dave Petraeus, were convicted for violating rules for handling classified information. A former national security advisor, Sandy Berger, was convicted for inappropriately dealing with materials. He tried to try to secret them in his on his person materials taken from from the National Archives, the very institution that's responsible for overseeing these documents. It's not as if these things have not been taken seriously and prosecuted in the past. Trump should know that he's a He's a senior official of government. A final point.

I agree with what you were saying earlier. Trump's behavior initially really does bring comparison to January 6th. He was inciting people to take action. I'm glad that last night he said, the Wall Street Journal quoted him, that he would agree to reveal the search warrant and make that public. That seemed to be standing down from the position he'd taken earlier. It's appropriate. I'm glad there's not going to be a legal fight over disclosure of that search warrant. But so much of this was unnecessary. As Gene said initially, he could have disclosed this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But I'm glad that he's decided not

to fight over this, because that means that the incitement, the tone of this dispute maybe will be reduced over the next 24 hours. So speaking of January 6th, there are new developments in the missing Secret Service text messages connected to the January 6th insurrection. The Guardian reports that top career officials inside the DHS inspector general's office put together a memo to alert Congress in April. Here's to show how Secret Service agents had essentially stonewalled investigators and then months later finally admitted the messages had been erased. But the Trump appointed inspector general did not include it in his June oversight report to Congress, which might have violated federal law. Hugo Lowell, tell us more about your reporting on this and why these text messages are so important. Yeah, I mean, it's really extraordinary. I mean, the career officials, the investigators in the DHS inspector general's office wanted to alert Congress to the fact that the Secret Service text messages from January 6th had disappeared, as well as other obstruction from

the Secret Service more widely. And they put together this memo, and then they sent it to the chief of staff, to Joseph Khafari, the inspector general at DHS. And once that happened, that was where that memo died, and it was never seen again, and never made it, as you say, into that semi-annual report to Congress. And all of this is a potential crime, because the Inspector General Act 1978 is very clear that if there is an instance of obstruction or resistance or a significant delay in turning over materials to an inspector general, the inspector general has to alert that and they have to basically inform Congress that it is not able to do its job. And in this case, Kafari appears not to have done that, which is a real problem. And of course, these text messages are so significant because the

Secret Service was so intimately involved in the events of January 6th. I mean, the Secret Service knew ahead of time what Trump wanted to do, that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol. And they, of course, stopped him from going to the Capitol. And there was also a Secret Service detail with Mike Pence at the Capitol. And Pence, of course, had to flee from the crowd. And so I think the January 6th committee is very interested in trying to get some sort of message reconstruction together. And they're now liaising with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. My goodness. Hugo Lowell, thank you very much.

Barbara McQuaid, thank you as well. We want to turn now to some of the other stories making headlines this morning. The CDC is recommending that students enter the new school year with lighter COVID restrictions. This includes allowing students to remain in the classroom if they've been exposed to COVID simply wearing a mask for 10 days if they remain asymptomatic. The recommendation is part of a bigger plan to loosen safety measures around the United States. After months of negotiations, the House today is expected to vote on the Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation would invest more than $300 billion to tackle climate reform, marking the largest climate investment in U.S. history.

It would also make major changes to health policy and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time. In addition, the bill would add a new 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations. So, Mika, I want to go to I want to go to our two senior statesmen on Morning Joe that will be old enough to remember a cultural reference I'm about to make. So I'm looking at you, too, Gene and David. First of all, you've been around Washington long enough to add some perspective to all of this, what I'm about to ask you. And secondly, you remember the primetime soap opera Dallas. So with that as my sort of preamble, I'll just say myself, I won't talk about you all. I've been looking at Democrats

blowing an opportunity, running out, fighting each other in front of cameras, this contingent yelling at that contingent, people attacking Nancy Pelosi to Joe Manchin. Democrats just in disarray. And it reminded me of that Casey Stengel quote when he first took over the Mets. Can't anybody here play this game? Right. And then suddenly you look at this bill that's about to be signed and you look at all of the missteps the Republicans have made over the past six months being outplayed by Democrats. I never thought I would say that being politically outplayed by Democrats, refusing to cooperate on the January 6th committee, just turning the microphone over to the Democrats. Go here. We don't we don't want to talk about

January 6th. Here you go. You guys take this all all of those mistakes, Gene, it reminds me of the season in Dallas where J.R. went from being the bad guy to the good guy. It was all too much. I couldn't quite figure it out. And now it seems that Democrats are the incompetent operators from Dr. Oz to Butters in Ohio to the crazy people in Arizona to Herschel Walker, who I don't think the guy knows what time zone he's in. It's just it's it's an amazing shift in Washington over the past month or two. It McCarthy is something else. He's not. He's not the master of the House. I mean, he is, you know, it was a colossal blunder recognized, I think, by everybody, except maybe Kevin McCarthy, not to participate in the January 6th committee, giving the floor to the Democrats in prime time. It's it has been amazing. And and they are are blowing what should be a really strong position going into the midterms. They sure are doing their best to undercut themselves at every turn in every way. And we'll see we'll see

how it works out. I mean, they still have sort of history on their side, at least in terms of taking control of the House. But but if it's possible to blow even that, say nothing of the Senate, which they may have already blown, if it's possible to blow taking over the House, it looks like they're going to do it. So we'll so we will see. But it is it is crazy. It is. And of course, a long time until the election, anything can happen. Republicans can still have the massive landslide that history would suggest they would have. David Ignatius, though, I can't remember a time, though, where two political parties seemed to switch places as quickly as the Republicans and the Democrats did. Three months ago, it was Democrats who seemed to be the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

Now it's the Republicans that keep stumbling over themselves. Joe Biden and his team finally deliver on what I think they got elected to do, which is to make the process of government, the normal order of Washington, work better again. They were able finally to move legislation forward, to move this CHIPS bill, which had been stuck in an endless House-Senate conference. I began to wonder about the Democrats. At that point, they were able to move that through. They were able to find a version of climate change, trim down, build back better legislation that they could get Manchin to sign on to that could get passed. A whole series of bipartisan efforts that make the Congress work again, pass legislation that the country cares about. That's why he got elected. His inability to do that has been driving a lot of people like

me crazy. And it is good in this period right before the midterms that he finally is showing that the machinery of government can, in fact, do the people's business. We'll see what the public mood is. I'm not quite as hopeful as Gene that that the Democrats will roar back into control of the House, but we'll see. They certainly have a better chance, better chance now than they did. And that's because Biden figured out how to be Biden. We'll ask Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about this straight ahead. He's going to be joining us live on Morning Joe. We're going to go live to Cincinnati for the latest on the deadly shooting outside an FBI field office. As we mentioned, the person at the center of the incident, a Trump supporter, seemed to be heavily influenced by the rhetoric pushed by Republicans after the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago. Republicans and people in the media.

Plus, more former top Trump administration officials are giving testimony to the January 6th committee. We'll have an update on that investigation. We'll be right back. So 38 past the hour, U.S. officials say Russia's staggering high rate of losses in Ukraine means the Kremlin will not be able to achieve one of its key war objectives, seizing the entire eastern Donbass region this year. The New York Times reports, according to the latest American intelligence, around 500 Russian troops are killed or wounded every day, decelerating Russia's war effort to a grinding slog. And David, you have a new some new reporting on the Ukraine's southern defense. And we're going to get to that in a minute.

But but but first, let's talk about the will to win. How important that is. I remember reading that at the height of the Battle of Britain, when Nazis were pulverizing London every night and the country seemed on the brink of collapse, only 3 percent of Britons believed it was possible that they could lose the war. And Applebaum this morning is going to be here talking about many things, including a public opinion survey that shows 98 percent of Ukrainians say they're going to win the war. Ninety one percent of Ukrainians support President Zelensky and approve of his leadership. This is a country. This seems to be a bit of an understatement that has been rife with domestic political squabbles and struggles in the past. They're extraordinarily united and they have the will to win, just like Britain did in 1940 and 41.

You got it exactly right. I'm familiar with a poll that Anne's going to discuss. It's from the International Republican Institute. It does show about 98 percent of Ukrainians in June saying they think they're going to win the war. And Joe, that's up from the month before when there were only 96 percent who thought they were going to win the war. So, you know, you ask Ukrainians, they think that the future is going to be promising, rather promising or not. And again, an overwhelming percentage above 90 percent say it's going to be promising. Contrast that with the Russian troops who've been brought from all over the Russian Federation. Often these are people from poorer areas.

They arrive, they're confused. This mission is not what they expected. They've suffered extraordinary casualties. The numbers range between 60,000 casualties and 80,000 in U.S. estimates, at least 15,000 Russian dead. I mean, just for comparison, this is far greater loss of life than the U.S. experienced in Iraq or Afghanistan. It's just a terrible butcher's bill that the Russian army is paying. I'm told by my sources that there's evidence of real frustration among Russian generals. They're not able to do much about it, but they feel that this instrument of the Russian army is being misused and badly damaged. The use of the HIMARS long-range rocket systems, which have incredible pinpoint accuracy, they can just land on a fuel depot, a command and control center, have really bothered the Russians

and made it harder for them to organize their offenses. So we are entering now, Joe, I think over the next several months, an important new phase in which the Iranians are really going to, Ukrainians, forgive me, are really going to try to push the Russians back and show not just they can defend their territory, but they can take new territory from the Russians. If they can do that, if the Russians really buckle, then I think you're going to see some reaction inside Russia to those failures. And of course, there's been the eastern offensive has sort of come to a grinding halt. And you have reporting on a new southern offensive by the Ukrainians,

sort of a counteroffensive pushing south. Tell us about it. So, Joe, the Ukrainians basically feel that they've held the Russians to only minimal gains in the east, in the region called Donbass. Their lifeline is the Black Sea coast. They need to be able to export their grain. They need to be able to have those ships move out of port. And to do that, they've really got to push hard against the south in the region of Kherson, which is close to the Black Sea, a little bit east, a big city called Zaporizhia. So Ukrainian forces have been moving to that area, moving away from the east to prepare for this counteroffensive. We saw an early sign of just how devastating it could be when the Ukrainians on Tuesday attacked a Russian air base in Crimea, which the Russians seized eight years ago when they first went into this area caused significant damage.

The estimates from the overhead commercial photographs are that they destroyed nine Russian planes on the ground. As many as 60 apartment buildings in the region were rattled. So that's a sign, boom, that here come the Ukrainians and we'll see how they follow that up. All right, David Ignatius, thank you so much for being on today for all the top headlines analysis. Thank you. Coming up, the latest following a deadly standoff in Ohio. What investigators say might have motivated an armed suspect to try to breach an FBI office in Cincinnati. Plus, House Democrats are poised to deliver another big win for the Biden White House. Congressman Tim Ryan joins us ahead of today's vote on the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act. Morning Joe will be right back. I braved treacherous streets and kids strung out on homemade speed.

And we shared a bed in which I could not sleep. It all worked out. Forty eight past the hour, we're going to turn now to the fallout from a standoff at an FBI field office in Ohio that appeared to have been in response to the right wing rhetoric after the FBI's search at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. After failing to negotiate with him, officers fatally shot a man armed with an AR-15 style rifle who had earlier fired a nail gun into the Cincinnati field office. Two officials familiar with the matter identified the suspect as Ricky Walter Schiffer. He was at the January 6th Capitol riot.

And this photo verified by NBC News appears to show him on that day there. Schiffer appeared to post to social media multiple times in the days after the FBI searched Trump's residence in Florida about wanting to engage in violence. What more do you need, guys? Joining us now, NBC News correspondent Shaquille Brewster, who is live in Cincinnati. Also with us, senior reporter for NBC News, Ben Collins. We're going to be talking about the rhetoric he's seeing online. But first, Shaq, what's the very latest there? Well, the FBI says they are now investigating what they're calling an agent involved shooting that began right here in Cincinnati at their field office.

It's really a bizarre set of events that we learned yesterday that started about 9.15 a.m. yesterday. They say a man walked up to this visitor screening center. Think of it essentially as a checkpoint outside of this field office and fired a nail gun. That set off an alarm. While no personnel was injured, it set off that alarm. And that's when they say this suspect started waving around an AR-15 style weapon. He then fled from this office

and was found about 20 minutes later by state troopers leading to a pursuit. That pursuit went on for about 16 minutes and then he got out the car, took cover, and that's when some gunfire was exchanged with him and state troopers there. There was then a six hour long standoff. I spoke to an eyewitness who said it was a large law enforcement presence. There was a lockdown in the area for about a mile radius from where that took place. And then one of the law enforcement agencies fired on the suspect

after they say he started to raise that AR-15 style rifle at officers. So this is something that went on for an extensive part of the day and involved not only the FBI, but involves state law enforcement and county law enforcement. And as of now, the suspect is dead and the FBI is saying they're investigating exactly what happened and what led to this shooting. So, Ben, what can you tell us about the man who was killed yesterday, his social media presence and what he did, what police believe he did, law enforcement believe he did in the days following the search of Donald Trump's residence. Sure. So Ricky Schiffer was at the Capitol on January 6th, but in the last few days, his rhetoric really ratcheted up and mostly it was on Truth Social. In fact, there was a person on Truth Social who said that they were going to report them to the FBI because Schiffer had posted to kill FBI agents on site. This was after the Mar-a-Lago search a few days ago. He said, we must not tolerate this one. So then after that Truth Social poster, that person replied saying they were going to report to the FBI, he said, bring them on.

That's how you kind of knew this guy was not joking around. They did not find him in time, even though his name on Truth Social was his actual name with his middle name in there. They did not find him in time. By the way, he thought that the nail gun that he brought to that bulletproof glass was going to do it. And he posted this on Truth Social after he tried to fire the nail gun through the FBI building. He said, well, I thought I had a way through bulletproof glass and I did. And then he said, you know, at the end of the day here, I might be killed by the police. And that's exactly what happened. So, Ben, we've been talking the last couple of days. I know you've been reporting on it about the extraordinarily reckless language that's been used online by Trump supporters, on cable

news channels by Trump supporters, and predicted that something like this might just happen. I'm curious how over the last 24 to 48 hours has the rhetoric remained as intense as it was in those first few days when you said that you hadn't seen anything like this since the days leading up to January the 6th? Yeah, it's remained a fever pitch. And by the way, the people that he thought he was fighting for, he thought he was kicking off the Civil War. They called that a false flag yesterday. Of course, they don't take responsibility for this because it would interfere with their persecution complex so uh they have to pretend all these violent attacks that might come from this that may come from all this rhetoric uh are not real and not part of their whole system but i will say this guy wasn't

you know joe i'm in the neo-nazi forums i I'm in the really the far, far, far right forums. This guy is not a creature of that. He is a creature of pro-Trump forums. That's where he is. And, you know, back in May, for example, he responded to Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter. He said, Congresswoman Greene, they got away with fixing elections in plain sight. It's over. The next step is the one we used in 1775. So that's the sort of rhetoric that was permeating even before, even before this raid on Mar-a-Lago. And now they view that search in Mar-a-Lago, they view that to be a rallying cry. That's what it's been like in the last few days here.

They have not in any way stepped back from that rhetoric. You know, Ben, I'm reminded of of Pizzagate and I'm reminded of the guy that drove down because he believed the lies that were being spread about Hillary Clinton running a pedophile ring inside a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. Him firing off shots going inside and then coming out and understanding that he had been duped, that it was all a lie. And you you know, when I see this guy who believes this, it's it's again, I keep going back to my grandma watching Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and the PTL Club and people using her Christianity and her love of Jesus to get her Social Security check. Here you've got a lot of people, like you said, like this guy who wasn't on neo-Nazi boards, but everywhere he turned, the people that he listened to and respected were telling them, telling him and millions of others, they've stolen America from you. They stole the election from you.

America is under siege. And this is the those lies, those conspiracy theories. They for this for this young man, it ends in a cornfield with him trying to shoot FBI agents and him him dying. Yeah, Joe, I just want to remind you that today is the five-year anniversary of Charlottesville. And that's how far that rhetoric has come, has taken over mainstream parts of this party. This guy, over the last few years, since January 6th, was convinced he was at the Capitol on January 6th. And he was convinced Antifa had something to do with it until the day he died. He was there at the Capitol on January 6th, and he was convinced Antifa had something to do with it until the day he died. He was there at the Capitol.

That does not happen by itself. This guy does not come to that conclusion by himself. It's because every day he woke up and turned on the media and it overrode the stuff that he saw with his own eyes. They were giving him enough of a reason to keep waking up and reverse that reality yeah and and live in an alternate reality filled with lies with tragic results uh shaka what what uh what are we expecting to hear today uh in the investigation there it's not exactly clear we heard an update last night and that's when we had state and county officials lay out that timeline that we just gave you. We saw the statement from the FBI late last night saying that they were going to investigate this agent involved shooting.

There's nothing scheduled by way of press conference or statements to be released today, especially because we got pretty much exactly what happened. We know that fact pattern. We do know that no law enforcement personnel were injured in this. No bystanders were injured in this. And where that standoff occurred was a pretty remote and rural area. It was essentially on a farm where that standoff occurred. So we know they'll still go through. There's that car that he was driving that they'll go through and process. We know that they were processing the scene here late into the day yesterday. So we'll see if there's any updates to the investigation, but nothing scheduled at this point, Joe. Oh, my God. NBC's Shaquille Brewster and NBC's Ben Collins. Thank you both for your reporting this morning. We appreciate it. We have so much more to get to on the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago. We'll have the latest

statements by the former president and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Plus, we now know someone tipped off the feds about more classified documents inside Mar-a-Lago. We'll talk about that when Morning Joe returns.