Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/20/24

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

'She's stepped into this moment': Joe reacts to Harris' surprise DNC appearance

This is going to be a great week. And I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible President Joe Biden. Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you. Vice President Kamala Harris making a surprise appearance on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, speaking for about two minutes after walking out to thunderous applause from the audience. Throughout the evening, we saw speakers deliver impassioned remarks to a fired up crowd. The lineup included a who's who within the Democratic Party, like Hillary Clinton, Congressman Jim Clyburn, Congressman Jamie Raskin and Governor Andy

Beshear of Kentucky. There were also non-public officials like UAW President Sean Fain, NBA coach Steve Kerr, and several abortion rights activists. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. Boy, it's quite a night, huh? It was quite a night. It went late, though. It went too late. Really a little late. I think the president just stopped speaking a few minutes ago.

A little late. Not his fault. No. He just ran a little late with the program. It went too late, but it was fabulous. It was a good night. They got it taken out. I mean, they started the president's speech literally the same time they start Saturday Night Live.

I'm serious. That's true. I got to see those the next morning on, you know, Hulu or something like that. It was like late. But a great night. It was. Along with Joe, Willie, and me. And it's great for us to be together.

Yeah. Unusual. The host of the podcast on brand with Donny Deutsch. Donny Deutsch. In the house. Look, we got in the house. And I'm not regretting it yet. Political analyst and publisher of the newsletter, The Inc.

Anand Girdharadas. And in Chicago, the host of Way Too Early, White House Peer Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, and the president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al Sharpton. Also with us, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson. Good to have you all on board with us this morning.

Shall we dive in and hear from the president? Those people might have been asleep. President Joe Biden took to the stage to close out night one of the convention. He spoke for nearly an hour, listing off the accomplishments of his administration, criticizing former President Trump, and making the case for Vice President Kamala Harris as the best person to lead the country. Trump continues to lie about crime in America,

like everything else. Guess what? On his watch, their murder rate went up 30%, the biggest increase in history. Meanwhile, we made the largest investment, Kamala and I, in public safety ever. Now, the murder rate is falling faster than any time in history.

Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level of more than 50 years. And crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon. Kamala and Tim will protect your freedom. They'll protect your right to vote. They'll protect your civil rights. And you know Trump will do everything to ban abortion nationwide. Oh, he will. You know, Kamala and Tim will do everything they possibly can. That's why you have to elect a senator in the House to restore Roe v. Wade.

Folks, I've got five months left in my presidency. I've got a lot to do. I intend to get it done. It's been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. I love the job, but I love my country more. You know, Willie, you're right.

He hit all the notes. It was late, but there were people staying up, of course, on the West Coast and Nevada in Arizona, of course, in the central time zone. Not quite so late. And the president delivered. But this was a night, obviously, about Kamala Harris. She came out earlier in the evening. The place just exploded. She's somehow she's she's really stepped into this moment. JFK said so many years ago, when you see daylight, you run to it. He's talking politically why he ran in 1960.

The daylight opened up and I don't I don't know of anybody who expected her to excel in the way she has to just absolutely explode in the national stage the way she has and is positively she has. And you're seeing in the numbers, in the polls, you're seeing in the number of volunteers. It's pretty extraordinary. And last night was the first night of her convention. And boy, what a star turn she took. You know, one of the reasons that people who supported President Biden staying in the race didn't want him to drop out is because they were very worried about what would come next. And likely

that would be Vice President Kamala Harris. We'll talk to them now. Less than a month, believe it or not, since Joe Biden dropped out, he dropped out on July 21st. Today is August 20th. It's been less than a month since all this happened. Talk to those people now. And they say, well, I was wrong. I underestimated Kamala Harris. Shame on me. She's done an incredible job. Her campaign has done a great job. And we've heard about in all this polling, Donnie, the enthusiasm in the Democratic Party. We saw it last night in that hall for President Biden, for Hillary Clinton, for AOC, for all the people who came out, for the leaders of the union, for the victims of draconian abortion laws across the country. There was real living breathing

enthusiasm the manifestation of everything we've seen on paper for the last here's this here's the very sophisticated analytics of it it felt good it just felt really good from start to finish biden i mean his by the way donnie i mean you're joking about it. You can't fake that. No. That's my next point. People either are enjoying themselves, they're happy, or they're not. I will say people always ask, well, how do you do the show? What are the, you know, Willie and Mika and I, we've been, you know, for 17 years. It's 18. What's the formula?

How do you guys do it? What do we do? And we're like, we like each other. Yeah. We have fun. True. And we just, everybody that comes on, we have a good time. I mean, and you look at a convention like that, you can't calculate it. You have in two Republican candidates, two guys who at least publicly in their public persona project misery. They're not happy. They're always looking for retribution. They're looking for people to blame. They're looking for a reason to be upset. They're

looking for a reason, you know, to resent. And you look at the Democratic National Convention, I swear, I never thought I would see this in my lifetime as a Republican. I thought it's just too easy to beat Democrats because they're afraid to have a good time. They're afraid to be joyful. They're afraid to wave the flag. I'll tell you what Republicans feared the most last night was the joy, but also the chance of USA, USA, USA. And why did that ring true? Because the Republican Party has sold itself to a man who lies about America every day and says we're a nation in decline, who lies about America every day

and says we're a nation of losers, who lies about America every day and says that we're just on the verge of collapse. No, not true. The data doesn't bear it out economically, militarily, culturally, socially, in every way. This is a great country. So now the Democratic Party can cheer USA, USA, USA. And it's a hell of a contrast with a presidential candidate on the Republican side

that talks down about America every day on the side. You know what's interesting about that? And I don't know if you guys are finding it as you talk to voters, if you talk to Trump voters, that joy, that jubilation, that kind of feel good is going to the voters. When I talk to people who are voting right now for Kamala, they're excited. You talk to people voting for Trump, they're pissed off. So it's kind of like trickling down to the populace and working its way back. And, you know, I think elections are all run on gut. They're all run on feeling.

They're all run on emotion. And it's all certainly, certainly calling Democrats. Final point on Biden. His one, when he talked about, you know, I was too young to be a senator. I was too old to be president. And I gave it my best. I mean, that's a summation of this man's entire career. That's 50 years summed up.

This goes well to your piece on and for the ink, the rise of the Brad Pack and a new Democratic political style. My daughters gave me a tutorial on being brat. I was like, OK, but it's a thing. It's a thing. It's a thing. You know, obviously, we're talking about the big story here is one candidate replacing another and the kind of triumph of Kamala Harris taking over this party. But I think there's a there's a deeper story beneath the candidate swap, which is a kind of style, a new style that we've actually talked about over the years on this show, where things like storytelling, emotion, speaking to the gut, not just being policy minded, but kind of throwing a better party. That's a great set of words. You know, these things are have

been neglected in recent years by Democrats. There was that we talked at the end of last year on this set about, you know, there was no movement. There was this kind of claim of an existential threat to democracy, but no movement and people weren't acting like it. And I think with the ascension of Kamala Harris and the people she is listening to, which is more important in a way than one individual, there is a new political style in town. And we are seeing with this DNC, a Democratic Party that is not just wonky, but knows how to generate joy, knows how to speak to people in those guttural places, knows how to tell that kind of story. And to your last point

about that kind of joy that spreads, there's a weird word for this in political kind of junky circles called mobisuation. Right. So you got persuasion. Mobisuation is the idea that you don't persuade by watering down your stuff to cater to moderates in diners in western Pennsylvania. You actually persuade by revving up your people so they can't stop talking about their excitement and their uncles over here, their excitement, their neighbors over here, their excitement. And so I think we're seeing a Democratic Party that's not so worried about moderate voters and is actually more worried about making people feel things in ways that create a kind of contagion of of joy and enthusiasm. And Joe mentioned something really important that you get at your piece as well. And that is reclaiming patriotism. This is not by accident. All the signs in the arena said USA on them. They were chanting USA. And this is a party. And our mutual friend, Governor Wes Moore, has talked a lot about this. I'm not ceding patriotism to Donald Trump just

because you call yourself a patriot and you like to say our flags are bigger than yours. Actual patriotism is something totally different. Something that does not look like staging a coup against the United States government, beating up police officers at the Capitol with an American flag. How important is that part of the message? It's so important. It's a double reclaiming. It's reclaiming patriotism and reclaiming freedom. Both of these things were wrongly conceded to the far right. And can I say that why they were wrongly conceded? Because let's not go back and pretend Democrats were afraid. Absolutely. I would be on sets with them in the 90s and the early 2000s. Let's say America is great. They couldn't go. Yes, it is. They could not do it. It was reflexive.

It was weird. It's like, well, but look what we're doing here. Look what we're doing there. They couldn't do it. Democrats learned how to do after Donald Trump started trashing America and say, you know what? America is great. We still have a long way to go to be a more perfect union, but we're doing that together. And that promise makes America even greater. Democrats, I don't know when they figured it out. They figured out a couple of years ago, but they figured it out at the same time. Republicans started nominating a candidate who literally doesn't get America, who literally stomps on America, who literally says that

America is in decline. America's terrible. What is he? What did he say? What was his inaugural speech? I keep forgetting. Talked about American carnage, by the way, by the way, I still I still amazing. Talked about American carnage when crime rates were at a 50 year low and when illegal

border crossings at the southern border were at a 50 year low. He talked about American carnage. That's how wrong he was about America being bad then. That's how wrong he is about America being bad now. Yeah. And I think they he has his story of America. And what was missing was, as you said, because I think a lot of Democrats felt it was cringe to be to be to be patriotic in that way. There was not always a counter patriotism, a more progressive version of patriotism. And I think you're finding it now. It is not a patriotism that erases hard truths about American history. Right. It's not a patriotism that needs to lie or distort history. No, it's a patriotism about perfection and perfecting over time and about the promise and the possibilities that America offers that other countries don't. And that's something that

Donald Trump just, I think, brought out in the Democrats because they realize don't take away our possibilities. Don't take away our promises. Don't take away our rights. Some of the other speakers from last night included former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here's some of what they had to say. We're not just electing a president. We're uplifting our nation. We're opening the promise of America wide enough for everyone. Together, we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling. And tonight, tonight, so close to breaking through once and for all.

And you know what? On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United— My friends, when a barrier falls for one of us, it falls. It falls and clears the way for all of us. I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know I was here at this moment, that we were here, and that we were with Kamala Harris every step of the way. This is our time, America.

This is when we stand up. This is when we break through. The future is here. It's in our grasp. Let's go with it! As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murderers and drug traffickers. She will never rest in defense of our freedom and safety. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial.

And when he woke up, he made his own kind of history, the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions. As Vice President Kamala sat in the Situation Room. Together, we must also elect strong Democratic majorities in the House and in the Senate so that we can deliver on an ambitious agenda for the people. Because if you are a working parent trying to afford rent and child care, Kamala is for you. If you are a senior who had to go back to work because your retirement didn't stretch far enough, Kamala is for you. If you're an immigrant family just starting your American story, Kamala is for you. I see a leader who understands. I see a leader with a real commitment to a better future for working families.

And Chicago, we have to help her win. Because we know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends. And I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed, traveling on our way of life. So Gene Robinson in Chicago, AOC may have gotten the biggest ovation of the night inside that hall last night. Lamar, you can speak to that rev as well. Hillary Clinton got a big ovation. Obviously, President Biden did as well.

But, Eugene, the argument that AOC was making last night was that the Democrats actually are the party of working people, that she was a bartender who, because of the greatness of the country, going back to that idea of reclaiming patriotism, the greatness of the country, a Senate to become a prominent United States congresswoman, making that case. Obviously, there's a lot in there for Hillary Clinton standing back during the lock him up chants as the crowd chanted about Donald Trump. But what were some of your takeaways from last night? Well, AOC made that point about the Democrats being the party of working people. And that's a point the party has been trying to make all along. She made it in a really effective way, again, appealing to the way people feel, not just the way they think, not just not just their analysis. But I thought her speech was a real highlight.

I thought Hillary Clinton. I don't know, frankly, that I've ever heard Hillary Clinton that good. She was powerful. She told stories compellingly. She was fiery. She was and she she was iconic, which was amazing. Senator Warnock. Boy, I'll tell you, the person I felt sorry is for last night was Senator Chris Coons, because he had to follow Raphael Warnock, you know, I think he just he made you

he put it inside of you. He made you feel it from the inside. And those were real highlights for me. Yeah. We should know Senator Warnock will join us on Morning Joe a little bit later here this morning here from Chicago. And guys, we can't stress enough the enthusiasm that was in this room last night. This was a joyful, this was an excited crowd. They were loud throughout. And certainly Joe Biden, President Biden, received a lot of that adulation, chance of thank you, Joe, throughout the evening. Signs handed out, we heart Joe. And some of that, of course, is an appreciation for his decision to step away as much as it is for his time in office. And the president,

certainly, Reverend Al spent a lot of time last night ticking through his list of accomplishments saying, look, this is what the vice president and I have built. Now I'm passing the torch with a hug to her going forward, saying you are now the person to defeat Donald Trump. But there are a number of highlights. There's so many to pick from, including Secretary Clinton, who made herself part of a story. And she acknowledged she couldn't get there. She didn't break that hardest, highest glass ceiling that she speaks about so often and so emotionally. But she said Vice President Harris is the one to do it. But I think that it captured what we're talking about this morning, a sense of hope that we are part of a continuing fight to break down barriers and we can break them down.

I think that what is important about what we're discussing this morning, people that are driven by hope and not despair are the ones that change society. I mean, the civil rights movement was we shall overcome. 88, Jesse Jackson, who we wheeled out last night, keep hope alive. Barack Obama, the audacity of hope. And I think that what we've seen too much among Democrats is the despair. How unfair it is. You've got to give people a glimmer of hope. And I think what I saw last night, more than I've seen in a long time, is hopeful people, people that are joyous and say, we can do this because if you feel you can do it, you can do it.

And every speaker kind of brought that home last night. Hillary Clinton was excellent. AOC was excellent. Raphael Warnock in a league by himself. But I think all of it's saying we can really do this. We're coming out of this darkness that Donald Trump has put us in. He wants us to keep recycling that. And that message of hope, Joe Mika, will certainly be center stage tonight when more President Barack Obama delivers this evening's keynote address here in Chicago. Absolutely. Well, still ahead on Morning Joe, we're going to hear from several of last night's DNC speakers,

including Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, plus Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is also in Chicago for the convention, will be our guest this morning. But first, Donald Trump continues his personal attacks against Kamala Harris, despite growing calls from Republicans for him to pivot to policy. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. She set the standard in California. Think of this. If you steal $950 or less, they're going to leave you alone. They can't be bothered. So you see criminals going into stores with a little computer, adding it up, everything they've stolen. They want to

stay under the $950, but they don't get prosecuted for above that. The only one that gets prosecuted is somebody who would talk about the unfair election. They get prosecuted. We're a nation in decline. We're going down the drain. We bring in lots of tar, loads of it. We dump it in Houston and they refine it. We have pure stuff. We have the best and we have the most right under our feet. It's liquid gold and we're going to use it and we're going to reduce our deficit. We're going to reduce our debt and we're going to reduce your taxes. If you'd like to go from here to, let's say, Washington

to look after we fix the Capitol up and make it safe again, which will take approximately like quickly. What would happen if we had a war? We won't, with me, but you will have World War three, I believe without me, but we won't have but what would happen if we did he said We're weird The JD and I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. Well, smart to go to a critical state. Much more disciplined message needed. I mean, I've been through this twice. And you want to go to these places, and you want to have a simple message that the media has to cover. Instead, he gives them a gigantic smorgasbord. Some of it is written into a speech draft, but apparently some of it is just ad hoc. And they get to pick and choose. And who thinks that the dominant media in this

country is going to pick the thing that is best productive for him in getting votes? They're going to pick out something like he just said, casting aspersions on Kamala Harris or President Biden. So, yes, you want to do this. You want to go to critical states. He's going later this week to Arizona, a critical battleground state, to talk about immigration. But in order to force the media to cover your message, you need to be disciplined, focused, and short. It's not about forcing the, quote, dominant media. I mean, Carl Rovis said it himself. Brett Hume said it himself. Gerard Baker at the Wall Street Journal said it himself. The Wall Street Journal editorial pages said it themselves.

This is not some, you know, I know anti-anti-Trumpers would like to say, well, this is about the mainstream media. No, this is Donald Trump's own people, Donnie, are saying this is a disastrous message. It's a disastrous campaign. They even talk about his acceptance speech. The second half of his acceptance speech was a long, rambling diatribe. He had America there with him and completely let it go. That's their words, not the, quote, dominant media, not the New York Times editorial page. And and that thing yesterday, I don't care who was covering it, that was just weird. What did I say? Insurrectionists, weirdos, and freaks, man.

I don't know where that fit on that scale, but that was just strange. Those people seemed uncomfortable. Well, one was doing the George H.W. Bush, checking my watch. Yeah, exactly. The contrast of what we just sat through. And he looks like a loser. It looks like he's kind of going through the motions. And the other thing, Joe, you and I talked about this last week.

They keep saying pivot to the issues. You don't have crime as an issue anymore. You know, violent crimes are down 24 percent. You don't have the economy. We don't have to tick off every metric of the economy, which has gone great. And even immigration, illegal border crossings were lowest last month since 2019. So they don't have these grand issues to sit behind. So you have both style and substance on the negative side of the equation. But more than anything, I want to go back to that word feelings. He feels like I almost used the bad

F-bomb. Don't do that. Feels like a loser. It feels that way. Well, I mean, you know, the issues, Mika, why doesn't he talk about illegal border crossings? Because they're down because they're down lower now than they were when he left office. Now, when Joe Biden was there and he didn't always respond to everything, he could say it. He knows now. He hears Kamala Harris now talking about how he compares unfavorably on illegal border crossings, how violent crime is lower now than it was when Donald Trump left office. Right now, I just don't know that he has anywhere to go. And by the way, sorry, on the immigration question. Kamala Harris has a

line that President Biden never uses, which is Donald Trump killed legislation to fix the problem. I will sign it. And it's kind of obliterates anything that they wanted to say in the category of there he goes again. Here's another thing Donald Trump said Trump said yesterday at the manufacturing plant in the city of York, Pennsylvania. Take a look. We don't need lectures on the economy from a candidate pushing communist price controls. Kamala has no idea what the hell she's doing. Her father is a Marxist professor, and I believe he taught her well.

You know, he's a Marxist professor. Can you imagine? Does anyone know that? I wonder if they knew that when they did an overthrow or a coup on Joe Biden. I wonder if they knew where she comes from, where she came from, what her ideology is. Kamala is also on a regulatory jihad to shut down power plants all across America. There you go. There you have it, Reverend Al.

Kamala Harris in an administration that has watched the economy explode, go stronger than any other economy in the West. Make history. This so-called communist has presided over the Dow, going over 40,000 points. The stock markets are higher than they were when Donald Trump was president. Oil production, higher than it was when Donald Trump was president. Our economy, stronger than it was, relative to the rest of the world when Donald Trump

was president. And all he does is he throws out insults, attacks her father, says she's not black, says she just figured out that she was black, says that she's not attractive, that he's better looking than she is. This is why the pundits at Fox News and at the Wall Street Journal and other conservative outlets are being as critical of Donald Trump as they are. He's missing the message. He's not only missing the message, he's appearing desperate. He's like a man losing a fight that just is swinging with no strategy, no training. And it makes no sense when you look at the record, which you just

outlined in terms of where the economy is under Biden and Harris. I mean, we're looking at inflation under three percent. And you're talking about a woman who has spent her life prosecuting criminals and fighting for fairness at the same time you make this a communist and you blame her on a father who you claimed uh she was not black her black father so i mean the the message is so convoluted that it becomes nonsensical but it shows the desperation of Donald Trump. He can't figure out how to fight Kamala Harris because he has lost all the fight in him. He knows he's on his way down. And I think that he's just screaming and yelling and kicking while he's on his way out. And what that was, was a sulking, low energy Donald Trump who had said a week or so back,

he thought that his campaign would be down this week. They're going to let the convention go as it may. But now, because they're trailing the polls, he can't. He has a full week of counterprogramming. And it was very clear he didn't want to be there yesterday. And it led to some sort of bizarre scenes. And Gene Robinson, not only did he fall back on inflammatory language and, frankly, racist accusations. He also, I'm told by people close to him, is in a pure panic about the TV ratings that Vice President Harris is going to get Thursday night for her acceptance speech,

thinking it will dwarf what he got in Milwaukee a few weeks ago. And so we're presented with this contrast where you have a sullen, sulking Donald Trump, meanwhile, contrasting to the joy we saw here last night. Exactly. It couldn't have been a bigger contrast. And TV ratings, crowd sizes, you know, the length of ovation, stuff like that, that size matters to Donald Trump in a big way. And he's losing that. And he can't, you know, he loves to direct and control the news cycle. And he, you know, will say something crazy to get out in front of him and get the attention. He can't do that.

He keeps missing the mark. And as the ref said, he's like swinging and punching wilder and wilder. So this is just the beginning of what we're going to see, I think, from Donald Trump in the weeks to come. I think it's going to get worse. It's going to get more nonsensical. It's going to get more offensive and ultimately more pathetic. We also saw on yesterday Donald Trump pushing out knowingly AI generated fake images, one of Taylor Swift saying vote for Trump. Obviously, that was invented. One of Kamala Harris speaking to a communist gathering, obviously a doctored photo there for the guy who put out question whether or not the crowd size is for Kamala Harris's rallies documented on TV and by numerous media outlets were fake.

So he's pushing out disinformation and does, as Rev says, seem to be flailing when trying to figure out how do I go at this new candidate? I mean, go back again a month. They were talking about running up margins in states. They were talking about winning states Republicans hadn't won in generations. Totally flipped on its head now. I mean, you think back to 2016. He you know, he had a movement. Right. There was a movement. It wasn't a good movement. It didn't want good things, but he had a real movement. And if you went out and there was something happening, there was an excitement about the future. There was a sense that he would break up the system and and roll the dice and change things. That energy is gone from his side. And in these intervening years, you and I have talked about the Democrats didn't necessarily have that sense of a movement to counter him.

And now the equation eight years later has completely flipped. The Democrats have a movement. They have policies, they have accomplishments, but they also have a movement. They have a movement that makes people feel things. They have more volunteers than they know what to do with. I think last night, you know, President Biden loves this Irish poem about, you know, when hope and history rhyme. And he made this choice to kind of cement his legacy and kind of recede into history in a sense and cap his his history yesterday. And by doing that, they injected a level of hope into this that turns them into the kind of movement story in this country and elections about the future. If you have a movement that people feel like they're making the future, it's very, very hard to stop that. And that's one half of the story. The second half of this story that's frustrating Donald Trump supporters is. And, you know, Nikki Haley has said this. I think the Wall Street Journal

editorial pages said this. They knew better. The Republican Party knew better and they chose the past. They chose a guy who had lost year after year after year after year. They chose a guy with felony convictions. They chose a guy that they knew had had said terrible things, had done terrible things. But they were going to stay with him because this was all about retribution and it was all about resentment. So that split screen that you see is what you're talking about, the future and a past and not really a successful political past unless you talk about one night when he won in 2016 and then lost every year after that. Who likes a sullen, sulking, race baiting campaign? I'm just I'm not thinking it's going to fly this about 45 percent

of America. I'm on. And thank you very much. Thank you, Reverend Al Sharpton and Eugene Robinson. Thank you both as well. And coming up, Senator John Fetterman is making headlines for skipping this week's DNC in Chicago. But the Pennsylvania lawmaker tells our next guest it has nothing to do with his pro-Israel stance. That conversation is straight ahead on Morning Joe. We've been through dire times in these months of anguished war, and during that time I can say that Israel has had no better friend than Senator John Fetterman. Senator, welcome to Israel. I want to thank you for your courageous statements that show moral clarity and moral courage,

and you just say it the way it is. We appreciate this friendship at all times, but especially at these times. So welcome, friend. Welcome. Well, we stand with Israel through this. And I'm so sorry for what's been done to this nation. But I'm just an honor to be here today. That was Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem earlier this summer. Since the October 7th attack by Hamas, Fetterman has emerged as one of the most pro-Israel voices in Congress and in the process rankled many of the progressives in his party. Joining us now from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, senior editor at the Free Press, Peter Savotnik.

He recently interviewed the senator for a new piece entitled, John Fetterman has no regrets. Peter, thank you so much for being here. Obviously, some of his staff members do have regrets. One of the most fascinating quotes I've seen is his communication director coming out and lecturing the senator on foreign policy and suggests that he has a more simple view of the world than those younger than him. I'm curious, any reaction, any fallout from that? So far, it's been been weirdly quiet i was on a plane most of the

day yesterday getting here so i haven't heard from anyone but uh no i mean there's a there's a strange quiet so uh nothing yet so i don't agree with him about israel and gaza carrie adams fetterman's communications director told me in a phone call after my interview with the senator ended and she went on and and talked about how people his age, you know, I have a sense that the international views are a lot less nuanced than my generation, because when he was growing up, it was might makes right. And for my generation, a younger who, of course, are the ones protesting this, they have a much more nuanced view of that region. Adams added, we'll just leave that hanging in the air there for a variety of reasons. But I will ask you about this transformation of John Fetterman from a progressive hero when he first ran to more of a centrist kind of cut from the cloth of past Pennsylvania centrist Democrats? I don't think actually a lot has changed with John Fetterman. John Fetterman is a quintessential liberal. He's a reminder of what the Democratic Party used to be

with regard to all the hot button issues, including Israel and immigration. He is exactly where Labor was until not that long ago. So I think he casts a spotlight kind of unwittingly or unhelpfully for some Democrats on this disconnect between where the party is now and where it once was. So, Peter, tell me about this strategy from Senator Fetterman. I trust it's in good faith, but it's also was notable when he first came out and sort of broke with the progressive wing of his party and said, I stand with Israel. They suffered a heinous attack on October 7th. They were attacked by a terrorist group. By the way, just this morning, breaking news, the IDF went in and recovered six more bodies of dead hostages and brought them home inside Gaza. So what has this road been like for him since October 7th within the party?

It's been, yeah, it's been lonely. You know, he is a man who is routinely protested and attacked. And he's called Genocide John, and they've protested outside his home. And I think there's a feeling of being under siege. So, yeah, I think he's gone from, as you noted, there's been this metamorphosis, but it really hasn't had anything to do with him as much as Fetterman exposing this disconnect between where he is and where the Democratic Party is, or at least the progressive bases. So let's be clear. It's fairly common for staffers sometimes to even criticize their boss. What's not common is they put their name to it and go on the record and say, I flat out disagree with this. But setting that aside, I think it highlights, though, to your point, how Senator Fetterman is sort of on an island.

So where do you see what is his future here? What is his political future? How does he see the next two years, next term? How does it all play out? So that's a great question. And I don't know how it's going to play out. He doesn't get he's not free election until 2028. And, you know, I don't know that he's actually gained this out. But there clearly is this fissure that's opened up between the young people on the left and sort of this older establishment or older, I should say, more liberal, you know, faction. I don't know if

they're bigger or smaller. And so he's on the ladder and remains to be seen, you know, how that unfolds. And lastly, at this moment of party unity here in Chicago, it is noteworthy, Senator Fetterman not here. Why has he said? Look, he said what all politicians say when they want to bow out or not show up. He wants to be with his family, which may very well be the case and is completely understandable. It's just, you know, it's hard to imagine that if he were, you know, being celebrated by the party, he would be absent from Chicago. All right. Senior editor at the Free Press, Peter Savodnik, thank you very much for your piece and your insights this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. It is really strange about the the the attack against your own member.

I will say, Donnie, that there is there is this belief that every young person in the Democratic Party is against Israel and supports Gaza and this and and and and supports Hamas. I'm sorry. And what Hamas is doing. It's just not the case. And not only is it not the case, you look at polls, poll after poll after poll. And there is not a massive swing of young voters saying that that they're there for God, you know, Hamas getting their way in Gaza or there. They hate the Israelis. That's a crazy fringe on each side. But the reality is, and I've said this before, that the Biden administration has done everything possible you can do for Israel. They just signed a 20 billion dollar package. And Kamala Harris, if you look at her voting record in the Senate, always voted with Israel. So there's this weird kind of misnomer that all of a sudden the Democratic Party is lurching in one direction.

It's not. It supports Israel. It supports them unequivocally. It's OK to say, and we need to be careful about civilians. That doesn't disqualify your support for Israel. And sometimes people mistake that for a which is purely just empathy, where there's a gray area in their support and there isn't. Well, there's the support of Israel, Willie. And at the same time, the Biden Harris administration have been pushing harder than anybody for a ceasefire and a hostage deal. And and there is there is a a very strained relation

relationship right now between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, because Netanyahu stands alone until yesterday, at least opposing this peace deal. Secretary Blinken is there right now. He's in Israel. He met with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, got Netanyahu to agree to sort of some terms, a bridge to a deal, sort of the deal before the deal, which, of course, Hamas immediately came out and condemned. So the question, I guess, for the Biden administration is you're negotiating with a partner in Hamas that is a terrorist death cult. Again, six bodies of hostages who were killed by Hamas recovered just this morning and brought back to Israel. So how do you get to a deal that satisfies both Israel and Hamas, the terrorists on the other side? It's so frustrating. Still ahead, Democratic governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan will join us live from Chicago. Plus,

Politico's Jonathan Martin is with us to discuss his new piece, How Democrats Reversed the Script on the GOP. Morning Joe will be right back. I'm going to say something outrageous. I know more foreign leaders by their first names and know them well than anybody live. Just because I'm so damn old. But I'm not joking. Think of the message he sends around the world when he talks about America being a failing nation. He says we're losing. He's the loser.

He's dead wrong. I never thought I'd stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a president as a liar so many times. No, I'm not trying to be funny. It's sad. Trump continues to lie about the border. Here's what he won't tell you. Trump killed the strongest bipartisan border deal in the history of the United States. That we negotiated

with the Senate Republicans took four months, four weeks. Once it passed and then we acknowledged those expansive border change in American history. He called senators to say don't support the bipartisan bill. He said it would help me politically and hurt him politically. My God. No, I'm serious. Think about it. Not a joke. Ask even the press who don't like me. They'll tell you that's true. Typically, Trump, once again, putting himself first and America last. Then I had to take executive action.

The result of the executive action I took, border encounters have dropped over 50%. In fact, there are fewer border crossings today than when Donald Trump left office. And unlike Trump, we will not demonize immigrants, saying they're the poison of blood of America, poison of blood of our country.

Welcome back to Morning Joe. It is Tuesday, August 20th. Jonathan Lemire and Donnie Deutsch are still with us. And joining the conversation, we have MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle, longtime political strategist Mike Murphy and senior political columnist for Politico, Jonathan Martin. His latest piece is entitled How Democrats Reversed the Script on the GOP. And they really have. They really have. So many ways. They really have. Jonathan, explain the thesis of your piece. Well, thanks for having me. Look, I think historically, it's always guys,

but the Republicans who are seen as the top-down, ruthless, cold-blooded party, you got to fall in line. Don't fall in love. We're here to win general elections. Put a sock in it if you got any problems with that, pal. And that's become the Democratic mantra now. That's how they operate. Look no further than what Nancy Pelosi did over the summer. Democrats, Joe, have adopted the Al Davis strategy. Just win, baby.

And I think that's what we're seeing in this party. And it's entirely because of Donald Trump. He's the best force for organization, for unity, for mobilization, for fundraising. The Democrats have it. I think that's why they're so focused. I think that's why they finally came to terms with Biden being a liability and pushed him off the ticket. And it's also why so many Republicans, Joe, wish they could do what the Democrats did and swap in a stronger nominee of their own? Well, I mean, they had the chance. They were warned time and time again. Nikki Haley

was exactly right. If you nominate this guy, you're headed for trouble. And the primary voters in the Republican Party once again chose a guy that led the party when it lost in 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. And it is it is an enduring mystery because when Mike Murphy and I were Republicans, man, Republicans hated losing. We we somebody somebody lost. Boom. They were gone. That was it.

Nothing personal. Let's let's let's move forward and figure out how to win. And, you know, Mike, I was with you in Denver. We were we were we were sitting next to each other at the end of Barack Obama's speech. And you turned to me. You said, Houston, we have another problem this year. Here is Kamala Harris walking onto the stage last night to say hi to a raucous crowd. This is going to be a great week. And I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible president, Joe Biden. Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you.