Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/21/24

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

'Boy did Michelle bring it': Mika reacts to former first lady's fiery DNC speech

Delegates and alternates, let us commence with the roll, with a call of the roll of the states. Delegates, are you ready? Let me hear you! Iowa, 40 delegates. Georgia 59 delegates. 5, they're loud, another round of shots. VHC, turn out for what? Turn out for what? Hey, turn out for what? West Virginia, 32 votes.

President Donald J. Trump. Party people, come on! DNC party people, come on! Go, go, party people, come on! DNC party people, come on! Thank you, delegates. It's time for us to do the right thing, and that is to elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States of America. A tale of two roll calls. The Democratic National Convention turned into what is usually a lifeless event into a. As delegates pledged support for Vice President

Harris, a DJ played chart-topping tracks to represent each state and territory. When Georgia was called, Atlanta's own award-winning rapper Lil Jon performed his hit songs. And when Harris's home state of California cast the final votes for her, it was timed perfectly with Harris walking on stage in Milwaukee at a rally with about 15,000 people there. And the vice president then addressed the two packed arenas at the same time. Good evening, Milwaukee. And hello to everyone joining us from exciting Chicago. The delegates at the Democratic National Convention, well, they just completed their roll call. And they have nominated Coach Walz and me

to be the next Vice President and President of the United States of America. And I thank everyone there and here for believing in what we can do together. We are so honored to be your nominees. This is a people-powered campaign. And together, we will chart a new way forward. Wow.

That was just the beginning. Just, just, just, well, Willie. I mean, you talk about a show of force, a show of power. That was that was impressive. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. I mean, 15000 in Milwaukee just packed. And then, you know, in Chicago also at the convention. Wow. That was crazy. Yeah. Twenty thousand in Chicago, fifteen thousand in Milwaukee. Perfect stagecraft as well. By the way, when Lil Jon is doing your roll call for the state of Georgia, you're doing something right. And let's not forget Lil Jon, a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice season 11 who has turned his back on Donald Trump. I'm sure that had nothing to do

with Little John being selected. I will say, though, if you're looking at the contrast between the Republican convention and the Democratic convention and the roll call, what you're looking at now is when Willie and Eddie get together and have a party

on the weekend that's true mine's more like the rnc the guy spinning the records dj cassidy everybody in the country now wants that playlist i was partial to new jersey he went with springs i liked it of course and governor phil murphy said we're representing the great state of New Jersey and you're not. Exactly. He brought it along with Joe, Willie and me. We have professor at Princeton University, Eddie Vaughn, Jr., NBC News, national affairs analyst and a partner and chief political columnist at Puck, John Heilman, the host of way too early White House bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire.

Let me say on Central Time Zone, the name of the show brings with it an extra sting. It's pain. Way too early. Welcome to pain. All right. And the president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation. Reverend Al Sharpton is with us as well. Do you remember Denver when we, that was two hours earlier. So you were getting up maybe at 1 a.m. to get ready for way too early. I did way too early once from the Vancouver

Olympics. It was on at 2.30 a.m. for a month. Chris Licht and I waking up to you were the true founder. OK, but last but obviously that was the roll call was fun and the energy was real and the arena was packed. But then that was just the opening act for the headliners, Michelle and Barack Obama. And boy, did Michelle bring it. One of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, former First Lady Michelle Obama, gave a powerful 21-minute speech taking on Donald Trump on issues of race and gender. In her remarks, she touched on her family's history and the importance of this election. Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn't it? Yeah. You know, we're feeling it here in this arena, but it's spreading all across this country. We love a familiar feeling that's

been buried too deep for far too long. You know what I'm talking about. It's the contagious power of hope. The anticipation, the energy, the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day. The chance to vanquish the demons of fear, division, and hate that have consumed us and continue pursuing the unfinished promise of this great nation. The dream that our parents and grandparents fought and died and sacrificed for. America, hope is making a comeback. My girl, Kamala Harris, is more than ready for this moment.

She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency. And she is one of the most dignified. A tribute to her mother, to my mother, and to your mother, too. The embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It's my story. It's the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to build a better life. She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business, if we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third, or fourth chance.

If things don't go our way, we don't have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don't get to change the rules, so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don't expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. Now, unfortunately, we know what comes next. We know folks are going to do everything they can to distort her truth. My husband and I sadly know a little something about this. For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be black.

I want to know, who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs. It's up to us to remember what Kamala's mother told her. Don't just sit around and complain. Do something. So if they lie about her and they will, we've got to do something. If we see a bad poll, and we will, we got to put down that phone and do something. If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we got to pick ourselves up, throw water on our face, and what? Do something. Consider this to be your official ask.

Michelle Obama is asking you, no, I'm telling y'all to do something. Because. And Michelle Obama, Eddie Glaude, rocked the night. But she was speaking to not just the young people across the nation. I think it's people across the nation who are just feeling like very, very brought down by the past, I don't know, four to eight years. The Trump years, COVID, the impact that it's had on our kids. She really brought people up and said, come on, it's on us. Let's go. Absolutely. The line, hope is making a comeback. And she did it with her arms out, that sleeveless outfit. And I think it was important for her, who's always

reluctant, the reluctant warrior to step on the stage, to come out and offer that account, that vision, that defense. And then we don't benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. What a great line. And so I thought she understood, you know, we don't you know, when they go when they go low, we go high. No, when they go low, we fight back. And she fought back last night. So, Rev, you were in the room last night. You watched the speech from First Lady Obama and President Obama as well. To Mika's point, we'll play some of it.

President Biden, excuse me, President Obama made that same speech, effectively that same message and point when he said, we don't want to live in this country that Donald Trump has been showing us, the picture he's been painting for the last decade. We don't want to be divided. In fact, we're not.

It's something we say on the show all the time when you coach Little League or go to church. We're not the way Donald Trump says we are. So let's not be that way. Let's have hope make that comeback. I think that the electricity you saw here last night and it and my opinion, electrified people around the country is that we're not dealing with grievance and we're not even dealing with the fact that some of us are in unfair situations as we consider it. But they reignited in us hope that we're better than this and we can do better than this and we can strive to make this country better. And we have done so in the past. And I couldn't help but think about how 20 years ago in 2004,

when President Obama, then Senate candidate Obama, brought that center stage. I was in that convention. I had ran that year. And then 20 years later, they're bringing us back to the same place of saying, we will not surrender to despair and turning on each other that we can, through hope, unite this country and go to the next chapter. I thought it was awesome. Yeah, I was on the floor last night, about halfway back during the Obama speeches. And first of all, we can't underscore enough the reception they received here in their hometown of Chicago. Democrats just so happy to see them again and how powerful each were, in part because we don't hear from that often.

Michelle Obama, as Reverend Sharpton noted, famously dislikes politics. We hear from her at a convention every four years, and that's about it. Barack Obama fancies himself as the closer. He'll be on the road in October, but his aides say they keep his appearances sparing as well. So when he does talk, his words will carry more weight. And I think, John Howman, there were two things of note here that really struck me. One is, as we sort of gotten to already, the idea of hope, the idea of a positive message, the idea that it's not the voters that Vice President Harris needs to reach. It's not enough just to scare them into not voting for Donald Trump. You need to inspire them to vote for Kamala Harris.

And Barack Obama in particular tried to connect his movement in 2008 with what Harris is trying to put together now. But also, both Obamas last night spoke to momentum. They said, look, Democrats feel good right now, but they warned that very hard days are ahead. The other side will do whatever it takes. They need to win and they'll need Democrats need to run up the score in order to get through this. Former president. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think Jonathan, I think that's that's right. And I'll tell you, I think there was a tonal difference between the two of them. They were working in tandem, but there was a tonal difference and an important one. communication. I'm not sure. I can't think that I've seen anyone do it better than I saw her do it last night. And she's in the upper echelon of any convention speech that's ever been given. But I think it's really important, this notion of the reluctant warrior, her credibility.

People say she's one of the most popular political figures in the Democratic Party or political figures in the country. She is popular, and her power comes from the fact that she's not a political figure. She is beyond politics. Her credibility comes with the fact that people rightly, correctly believe that she takes the stage reluctantly because she does not see politics as a game. She doesn't see it as something she wants to partake in. She only comes out because she thinks the stakes are so high. And the fact that she speaks, Michelle Robinson from working class Chicago speaks in a kind of vernacular that is different

than her husband's different than almost anybody else's. And the directness of her message to a lot of people in the democratic coalition which was there's no time for fooling around here none of this goldilocks stuff where you have to we have to have the perfect candidate you don't need to have you don't get precious about whether anybody's asked you enough times to go out and do what you have to do here i'm telling you that the stakes are really high i need you to we you need to work now. We have to stop screwing around. Her directness, very powerful, I thought. And then the second thing with Barack Obama, to your point and to Reb's point,

the echoes of the 2004 speech were really clear. And I think one of the things that both Obamas, even though they took some very well-calibrated shots at Donald Trump, there was an effort to go beyond that and try to have a conversation about the many, many, many, many people in the middle who don't, weren't for Trump, who have, but are tired of Trump

and they're tired of everything about our polarized politics from the past 20 years. And you heard Barack Obama basically saying, you know, we don't want to be part of a divided country. And that actually his attacks on Trump were a couple of places acute, but they were restrained. And he was very much, I think, trying to move the convention almost in a direction away from it. People enjoy in this setting beating up Donald Trump and there's no reason why they shouldn't. And they rightly do. But I think Barack Obama was trying to say, just trying to get back

to an earlier kind of Obama politics, which was about the politics of disagreeing without being disagreeable. And I think that is an important message for the part of the electorate that she is going to need, that Kamala Harris is going to need to reach in order to win. Well, last night was a special night, Mika, because as just mentioned, the Obamas don't get out as much as Democrats would love for them to get out. In fact, there's an enduring frustration. Why don't you do more? Why aren't you out more? And the fact that they do hold their political fire as much as they do make evenings like last night so special. So when you see Michelle Obama come out, you see Barack Obama come out. It has such an impact in a way that, as John said, very few others have. And Michelle Obama last night lit it up in a way, again, that very few people at conventions have lit it up.

You certainly put it up there with Barack Obama's 2004 speech or with Reagan's 1980 speech, with Ted Kennedy's speech in, I believe, 1980 also at the Democratic National Convention. It was an extraordinary speech and Barack Obama's as well. And I love the message, too, the message that we're going to have bad polls ahead. Everybody's so excited right now and everybody's so joyful right now. Bad polls are ahead. Bad news is ahead. This is going to be a tough battle to the very end. It's an incredibly important message because I have found, not being a Democrat, being an independent, I have found, and back when I was a Republican, the Democrats get easily deflated. Like, oh, we don't deserve good things. I was always impressed

by the stories of Barack Obama in Iowa in 2008. He would go to the back of the bus, ask, what are you guys doing? And they'd be fretting over a new poll and be like, ah, you know what? Just basically just shut up and work. Like he didn't tell them to shut up, but he's like, I don't want to hear it. I'm going back to the front of the bus and let's control what we can control. They have the perfect mindset, especially as Democrats. And I would say, Mika, that may be one reason why Barack Obama with Michelle Obama were the only Democratic candidates, the only Democratic president to get elected two times with the majority of the vote going back, I think, to FDR. Well, and look at the people who you compared her speech with. And this is a woman who doesn't even like politics, as you pointed out, Eddie.

Man, she has got some skills for sure. So here now is some of the keynote address from former President Barack Obama. Chicago! It's good to be home! It is good to be home, and I don't know about you, but I'm feeling fired up. I am feeling ready to go, even if I am the only because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible. Now, the torch has been passed. Now, it is up to all of us to fight for the America we believe in. And make no mistake, it will be a fight. For all the incredible energy we've been able to generate over the last few weeks, for all the rallies and the memes,

this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country. And as we gather here tonight, the people who will decide this election are asking a very simple question. Who will fight for me? Who's thinking about my future, about my children's future, about our future together? One thing is for certain, Donald Trump is not losing sleep over that question. Here's a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that's actually been getting worse now that he's afraid of losing the common law. There's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession

with crowd sizes. The other day I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbor who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day. Now, from a neighbor, that's exhausting. From a president, it's just dangerous. The truth is, Donald Trump sees power as nothing more than it means to his ends. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his rich friends. He doesn't seem to care if more women lose their reproductive freedom, since it won't affect his life. And most of all, Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them, between the real Americans, who of course support him, and the outsiders who don't.

And he wants you to think that you'll be richer and safer if you will just give him the power to put those other people back in their place. It is one of the oldest tricks in politics. From a guy who has, let's face it, gotten pretty stale. We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse. Kamala Harris won't be focused on her problems. She'll be focused on yours.

As president, she won't just cater to her own supporters and punish those who refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee. She'll work on behalf of every American. That's who Kamala is. So, Mika, few people better go at Donald Trump with humor than does former President Barack Obama, including just a little glance down at his hands when he was talking about the crowd size there. But also the subtext of what he was saying was effectively that Kamala Harris inherits his mantle, that, as you said, we've been in this decade of Donald Trump and covid and just despair and heaviness. And that Kamala Harris is ready, as former President Obama did 16 years ago, to lift us up and to take us to a different

place. I think that line about the sequel is always worse is actually very ominous, because when you look at what already has been done as a result of the Trump administration to women's lives and to women's health, it's frightening, actually, when you think about it. So two incredible speeches. We're also going to hear from Doug Emhoff. Oh, he was great last night. So we have that still ahead. Also still ahead on Morning Joe, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper will be our guests. previously been on Kamala Harris's VP shortlist, but are fully backing the Harris-Walls ticket. But first, we'll get to former President Trump's rally in Michigan last night and his dour message to supporters in that state. Also ahead, the DNC is featuring several Republican speakers. We'll show you some of their remarks as well. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. It is half past the hour. The DNC is featuring a number of Republicans this week in an effort to sway swing voters.

Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan, former Congressman Adam Kinzinger and former Trump administration official Olivia Troy will be speaking either today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles spoke yesterday, slamming former President Trump. Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers. On a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him. He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth. He used to tell me,

It doesn't matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough and people will believe you. But it does matter. What you says matter. And what you don't say matters. When I was press secretary, I got skewered for never holding a White House briefing. It's because unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at that podium and lie. Now here I am, behind a podium, advocating for a Democrat.

And that's because I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people, And she has my vote. I have a confession to make. I'm a lifelong Republican. So I feel a little out of place tonight. But I feel more at home here than in today's Republican Party. The grand old party has been kidnapped by extremists and devolved into a cult, the cult of Donald Trump. I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political middle. John McCain's Republican Party is gone and we don't owe a damn thing to what's been left behind. So you're hearing from Republicans there, including that was Stephanie Grisham, who was the chief of staff to Melania Trump, White House press secretary as

well, but saying that on January 6th, 2021, she texted and produced the text, put it up on the screen, said we need to say peaceful protests are fine, but no violence. We should put out a statement. She was asking Melania to do that. And Melania replied simply, no. Wow. So there you have it. So meanwhile, while Democrats were spreading that optimistic message about America yesterday and last night, former President Donald Trump delivering a dour speech, to put it mildly, about the state of the country as he sees it. At a sheriff's office in Howell, Michigan, Trump spent nearly an hour vilifying migrants and making false claims about crime under the Biden-Harris administration. Just about every law enforcement group in the country has endorsed us, as you probably have

heard. And there's a reason for that, because I believe in law enforcement. The other group doesn't. But you can't walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot. You get mugged. You get raped. We will stop the plunder, rape, slaughter, and destruction of our American suburbs. I keep the suburbs safe. I stopped low-income towers from rising right alongside of their house. And I'm keeping the illegal aliens away from the suburb. In 2019, they had zero. Now you have thousands of terrorists coming into our country. Thousands of terrorists. These are the people that blew up the World Trade Center.

Bad things will happen. They don't arrest people anymore. And they shouldn't arrest people for saying the election was rigged, but they like that. They go they go after guys like me, but they don't go after people that kill people. Donald Trump, of course, describing the plot of Fort Apache, the Bronx. It's a great movie. It is a great, great movie. Great reference to. But it bears absolutely no resemblance to what's happening right now, because he says you get shot if you walk across the street or raped or raped. If you want to be some bread crime. I know that these facts, as Ronald Reagan would say, they're such stubborn things.

And I know it irritates people who support Donald Trump. But if crime keeps going on the trajectory that it's going right now, it's going to be lower than it was violent crime in 1950. Crime is going in an extraordinarily positive direction right now. We've seen inflation continuing to go down. And again, I just don't know how many times I can say this, but it needs to be repeated because Republicans lie so much about immigration. Illegal border crossings were at a 50 year low when Barack Obama left office and Donald Trump became president of the United States. It skyrocketed after Barack Obama left office. Remember, he was called deporter in chief. Remember that? There's a reason because illegal border crossings under Obama, Biden were at a 50 than they were when Donald Trump left office.

So I understand that facts don't matter for so many people who support Donald Trump, because how could they if you're still supporting Donald Trump? And we could go down the long, long list of things he said and things he's done. I've got to say that Stephanie Grisham email to Melania Trump, the text saying, should corrosive that administration was and the people around Donald Trump. It's inexplicable. It's inexplicable that anybody, any president, any first lady, anybody associated with the White House would not call for peaceful protests. And yet there you have it. At least the president, the first lady.

No, no. Well, I will say everybody else around Donald Trump, including his children, were desperately trying to get through to him, saying, tell them to stop. Fox News hosts who would go on that night and defend Donald Trump after the riots, after the four dead cops, they would defend Donald Trump. But while it was happening, they were desperately asking him for it to stop. His lawyers begging him to tell him to stop. They wouldn't do it. So, yeah, it's, I guess facts really just don't matter, unfortunately, to so many.

But, you know, John Heilman, you look at what happened last night and you look at Donald Trump's event yesterday and then the day before the strange, they were strange, very dour, very rambling events. And lost in time. You look at all of the shots from the convention, the Democratic convention. And, you know, Republicans are saying this. You see joy. You see smiles. You see optimism, that sort of sunny optimism that Ronald Reagan showed in 1980 and 1984. And that sort of sunny optimism was in marked contrast to Democrats at that time. Talk about the tale of these two campaigns right now in August as we move toward Labor Day and beyond when the real campaign starts. Well, I think there's two pieces of that, Joe. And one piece is, you know, this is a topic we've come back to again and again, but you can't say it enough times.

The flip side of what the Obamas were saying and what we pointed out this morning, what you pointed out is that, you know, it's going to be a close race, etc. Is that it's going to be a close race in the other direction also and and and then that means that you know all of these people who are around donald trump uh trying desperately over the course of the last uh the last five weeks now uh since kamala harris became the presumptive democratic nominee to sort of say but to say to trump you must be disciplined we must be focused we must have a message you need to get it together man um And it's now five solid weeks where he's not able to be disciplined. He's not able to be focused. He's not able to be energetic. And, you know, my puck column this last week, I just raised this question, which is, is it not clear now that Donald Trump's cognitive decline,

his mental acuity, the failing mental acuity, age-related diminishment, the lack of energy, all the things that whether you like Trump or not, that back in 2016, there were times when he could be a feral beast as a political athlete. He's not there anymore. And I think, you know, it bodes ill for the Republican campaign, not on many of the moral and ethical grounds that we often rightly raise, but just on the level of can this candidate who's so central to this campaign. There is no campaign without Donald Trump. If he's not performing at some level of basic discipline, rigor, focus, there's no way that that that the Republican candidate, given all the momentum on the Democratic side, there's no way that the Republican candidate, given all the momentum on the Democratic side, there's no way Donald Trump can win. What you see on the Democratic side right now is focus, energy and discipline. And the second thing is, and I know we're going to talk

about Doug Emhoff in a second, but I thought it was very vivid yesterday. It is that the Democratic convention and Doug Emhoff's speech with his blended family, who his son said, you know, we don't look like every other family that's ever been in the White House, but we can represent all American families. That's right. That is what American families look like now. And they feel like today. That feels that the picture of the Democratic convention is a picture that looks like what America looks like in 2024 and what it's going to look like going forward. And a lot of what you see on the Republican side is very much yesterday's news. And I think that that's a powerful thing. If you for the Democratic campaign that's trying to align itself with the future, you've got to start with a party

and a campaign and a candidate and a family that looks like today. And that's what the Harris family looks like. That's what the Democratic Convention looked like. And that's the opposite of what you see in this kind of old, dilapidated, tired, sagging Republican campaign on Donald Trump's side. It looks like it's boring and it looks like yesterday. Some news about tomorrow, we can say, Reverend Al Sharpton. You'll be delivering remarks from the convention stage here the DNC has announced. So we'll certainly be looking forward to that tomorrow night.

But let's get you on Trump for a moment, someone you've obviously known for a very long time. This was a very low wattage, low energy speech two days in a row. Now, he is, for him, trying to be more on message. His advisors have put together a counter-programming week to the DNC. He's supposed to hit a different topic each day. These aren't rallies. These are smaller events. Seems like, though, to me, and talking to people around him, Trump is sort of sulking. He's going through the motions. That's not what he wants. And we know when Trump feels like he's being put in a box by advisors, he usually breaks out of that box soon enough with something incendiary. So I'm sure it's just a

matter of time before that happens. But to John's point, it's still a flailing campaign right now. And you contrast that image of Trump there, not just low energy, but doom and gloom compared to the scenes behind us, the rousing, diverse crowd and the adulation and joy. That's a pretty compelling picture for America. Very compelling. And let us remember that Trump started his political career, so to speak, on birtherism by us against them. They are not like us. Barack Obama is not even really an American. Us against them, it was always about pitting people against each other. But that's always countered out when you have people that represent the best in us, hope we can do this together, the progress we can make,

the progress that women have made in this country, the progress that blacks and others have made. And when you contrast that with somebody that's trying to play on our divisions, they're going to lose every time. It may take longer, but it's going to last longer. And I think that people went through this Trump four years and not only was beat down with the pandemic, beat down with a divisive, hateful kind of atmosphere, and they're welcoming now. We can begin to try and strive again to face our difficulties. But we can win because we have won. And I think that's what last night with the Obamas reminded people of. I think that's what Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff remind people of as a family.

Yeah, no doubt about it. By the way, Eddie, I was looking at you all. John Heilman was talking and you were mouthing the words he repeated. They're very descriptive. Donald Trump, a feral beast as a political animal in 2016. And the funny thing is, he meant that as a compliment. And now talking about the sagging campaign. But, you know, something about Doug Emhoff's family that we're talking about right now, a blended family. You look at the Republicans and it is it's it's sort of a 1950s family. It's a 1960s family. It looks like my family looked, you know, in the 1960s and 1970s growing up. You look, though, at Kamala Harris and Doug Imhoff's family, and it is a

blended family and a family that looks a lot like families I see in evangelical churches I go to. And you see, that's the thing. That's a miscalculation I think Republicans always make, that Donald Trump always makes, that every evangelical church is all white and that there aren't blended families, that there aren't families that look like America. There are, even in areas that are supposed to be bedrock Republican constituencies. And there's just simply no effort, certainly in Donald Trump's Republican Party, to acknowledge that America is a very diverse place, even in supposedly white evangelical churches. You know, Joe, at the level of culture, America's diversity is in full bloom. You see people of color singing country music. You see these blended bloom. You see people of color sing in country music.

You see these blended families. You see all of us participating in what is great about this country in so many ways. It's this diversity. But, you know, there are two powerful political forces always at work in Western politics. That's hope. And there's fear. And, you know, you can trace fear back all the way to Machiavelli, all the way to Hobbes and the like. Right. So what is and we always know that the Obamas represented fear for a lot of folk. You know, remember the fist bump? What was that? Was that the activation of a conspiracy? Right. Remember the idea that the Obamas ascending to the White House activated all these grievances. Remember the idea of those racially ambiguous children on Cheerios commercials. Oh, my God, what has happened to the country?

And so there's this sense in which this is what's making what makes it close. Right. For the Obamas to show back. I was just thinking about this just as we were talking about for them to turn up on the stage again. in so many ways reminds us of what was in some ways the impetus for a lot of the hatred and grievance and fuel that led to Donald Trump's ascendance. So as we talk about this moment, as we talk about the diversity of America on the ground, we have to be mindful of the fear that has motivated our politics over the last decade or so and be mindful of how powerful it is. So let me say, though, really, in 2024, that fear is dated. I mean, it feels like 2024 is not 2007, 2008 leading up to Barack Obama.

I remember in 2008, I'll just say it. There are a bunch of older white guys that would be on TV. Oh, that is incredible. We have overcome. And I sat there thinking. There's not a big I went to law school with that guy, you know, like this is not unusual. We grew up with that guy. It was not like, oh, my God, I can understand for guys in their 60s and 70s then that this was like, wow. But I remember having a conversation with Tom Brokaw and he said, you know, I talked to my daughters and they're like in their mid to

late 40s and they're like, dad, stop making such a big deal out of it. Like this is like this is America now. That was in 2008. And I agree. Everything you say, there was a resentment, there was a pushback. But man, in 2024, you know, there's sometimes you see commercials and you're like, oh, don't force it. Why are you forcing it? You know, you're talking about your racially ambiguous this or that, you know, and there've been comedians that have talked about how they try to hit every demographic. But in 2024, it's kind of like that's America. Nobody's sitting there thinking, oh, my God, what what race is the child eating the Cheerios? They're just like, I wonder if my family will like those Cheerios. I'm just saying, yeah. And what a beautiful child.

Things have changed so much from 2008. Donald Trump's view of america has not and i think that will cost them politically i forgot about the terrorist fist jab wow what a callback that was what about the tan suit the tan suit all of it yeah no you're you're absolutely right and everything donald trump has ever said about let's go back to barack obama with birtherism that was he's not one of us he's from some other place you know what i mean talking to his audience well That was, he's not one of us. He's from some other place. You know what I mean? Talking to his audience. Well, that's what he's saying about Kamala. And now he's doing it again. When he messes up her name, when he writes whatever he writes, how he spells it, she's different. She's not one of us. She just decided to be black recently. Where is she really from? Remember, he used the term a couple of days ago. Her policies are like a jihad. This is all code.

It's not really code it's pretty explicit actually she's not one of us to which the country now as you say in 2024 says yes she is no she's yes she is she's my neighbor i work with her i go to school with her i went to her you know they it is it's a dated way of thinking that he's trying to lay over some old thinking onto modern times yeah and the optics of the blended family and what, you know, compared to Donald Trump's Republican Party, it's backed up by policy because there are Republican women in Donald Trump's Republican Party who will need health care. Dare I say abortion health care if they have a problem in some way, shape or form. So

the policy is backing up the optics that we're talking about, which I think will be extremely legitimizing and add credibility to the Democratic ticket. John Hellman, thank you very much. And coming up on Morning Joe during last night's convention, a group of black male voters met to discuss this year's election, what's at stake and how they feel about both candidates. NBC's Tremaine Lee will show us some of that conversation when he joins us live from Chicago. And we have Doug. Oh, I can't wait to play Doug's speech. It's incredible.

We'll be right back. 56 past the hour. Look at that beautiful shot. Beautiful shot. And Willie, I think without a doubt, playing ELO's best song. And they've got some great songs. But come on. How do you beat Mr. Blue Sky, especially on a day like today? As the sun rises over New York City on a beautiful August day. Perfect. Let's just let Jeff Lynn's masterpiece breathe for some of the other stories making headlines this morning. A Wall Street Journal exclusive explains how a general's blunder left Russia's border vulnerable to a Ukrainian attack.

Faced with a critical shortage of men, the military appointee dismantled a key council tasked with protecting the Kursk border district. Russia's defenses crumbled this month when Ukrainian troops executed a lightning offensive. They now occupy more than 400 square miles of Russian territory. That's a kind of a scene out of Hunt for Red October. There you go. You've lost another submarine. More news now. Back in March, President Biden approved a highly classified strategic plan that for the first time focuses America's nuclear deterrence strategy on China.

According to The New York Times, the shift comes as the Pentagon believes Beijing's nuclear arsenal will rival the size and diversity of the United States and Russia's over the next decade. And one more from The Wall Street Journal. Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is now the worst buyout for the bank banks since the financial crisis. The seven banks that lent money to the billionaire's holding company have been unable to offload the debt without incurring major losses. That's largely because of X's weak financial performance. The value of the loans quickly soured after the $44 billion acquisition was completed. You know, Willie, when Elon Musk started looking at Twitter for $44 billion, we said on this show at the time, without any malice toward Elon Musk, what a terrible business deal that was. And we'd have people who were experts in Silicon Valley

going, it's Elon. Elon does what he's a genius. This is going to be great. He's going to turn this into, and we're like, no, that's a bad idea. He needs to focus on being a genius on rocket ships to Mars, on cars, on all the things that he's able to do. And I can understand. I mean, if you got that much money, I guess, if you want to burn through $44 billion, and he's like one of the two people in the world, probably they can burn through that. OK, but what I don't understand is why the banks would line up behind such an obviously bad deal, because let me tell you, if I can tell you it is a bad deal sitting here. Morning, Joe, the guy that took, you know, Econ 101, the University of Alabama.

I think got to see minus because I sat in the back reading Sports Illustrated. But if I can tell you all these years later, that's a bad deal. That's a bad deal. And I'm really shocked that the banks went along for this ride again. Elon Musk, he made the money. He can spend it any way he wants to. Right. He just can. But I don't understand why the banks lined up to support just a such an obviously bad business. Yeah. Most people think he paid at least twice what Twitter was worth and maybe more. And I think it goes to what you said, the blind trust in Elon Musk, that he is some genius who sees over the horizon and

understands that this is going to be a good business. It's not a good business, but really what he got it for is to have a daily platform. And let's be honest, turned it into a cesspool if it wasn't already. And to use it to amplify certain points of view, to host Donald Trump, to push his support for Donald Trump. He's now in total lockstep with Donald Trump. It's not even a it's not even innuendo anymore. He's there to support to support Donald Trump. And he's got this big platform that we all rely on for news gathering. We're still there, but it's become something much different than it was even before he owned it.