Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/23/24

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Harris pitches vision for America and pummels Trump in acceptance speech

As a prosecutor, when I had a case, I charged it not in the name of the victim, but in the name of the people. For a simple reason. In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. And I would often explain this to console survivors of crime, to remind them no one should be made to fight alone. We are all in this together. And every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words.

Kamala Harris for the people. And to be clear, and to be clear, my entire career, I've only had one client, the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth. I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.

Vice President Kamala Harris accepting her party's nomination for president last night at the Democratic National Convention. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Friday, August 23rd. Along with Willie in Chicago at the DNC and Joe and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire. NBC News and MSNBC political analyst, former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al Sharpton, who spoke last night. It was incredible. We'll get to that. Also with us, professor at Princeton University, Eddie Glaude Jr. and Rogers chair in the American presidency at Vanderbilt University,

historian John Meacham. So we begin your thoughts. Let's begin. I thought that she did exactly what she had to do. I thought the convention went better than I've seen it go. I must say that, again, even in that line, that punch line right before you accept your party's nomination, she talked about the greatness of America. She talked about the very things that Republicans used to talk about until they started running down America, saying what a horrible country it was. Donald Trump saying what a failed country it was, what a nation in decline it was. She went there and I thought, Willie, most importantly, the Democratic National Convention went there all week with chants of USA, with flags waving, with one speaker after another going on and on about how great America was and how this could only happen in the United States of America.

Yeah, in what Vice President Harris called in her speech, the greatest country on earth. And you're right, Joe, being in this arena last night, the flags got bigger as the night went along. So everyone had a small flag in their hand to wave the speech. And then they brought out the big flags for Kamala Harris's speech. Chance of USA patriotism fully reclaimed. A focus on the military, on veterans also last night. And her speech was this building has seen a lot. Joe and Mika, Michael Jordan won three championships in here.

They've had some electric nights. But I would hazard to guess that this was right on par with some of those nights in terms of energy in the building, John Lemire. And you and I were watching. We got sort of the full scope from Section 315 up there, looking down at this tableau of a party that has truly been energized and in some ways over the last month or so transformed from its dread and despair that Joe Biden was too old and that they were going to lose to Donald Trump. And how are we going to deal with this guy for another four years to a party now at the end of this week that truly feels not in an overconfident way, truly feels it now has the upper hand.

Yeah, we were up in the chief seats, but it gave us a great view of just the diversity of the crowd, the energy of the crowd, and yes, the patriotism of the crowd. It was on full display. The red, white, and blue flags, later the red, white, and blue balloons. And this was an extraordinarily important moment for Vice President Harris. It was only a month ago that she was not here. Joe Biden was going to top the ticket. And the way she has transformed this party, energized this party. And last night, she set up to introduce herself in a real way to the American people. And she did so. She started with on her biography, spoke very poetically, very movingly about her family, her mother, her community that raised her. Really, as you said,

there was a real focus on national security last night, you know, shoring up that part of her resume, sort of in some ways moving towards the middle, you know, reassuring those voters. She flat out said she wanted to speak to some of the Americans who hadn't decided yet, who are not necessarily in her corner just yet. We heard from former Republicans last night again denouncing Donald Trump. Harris, the former prosecutor, deemed him an unserious man, offered a preview of the scathing attack she'll deliver at the debate in just a few weeks time. And then I found so striking that there was not a word of the historic nature of her candidacy, not a word about her gender or her race. It was simply this is about the country. This is about the people in this country.

Claire, you've been saying for a long time through all the hand wringing about should Joe Biden stay or should he step aside? And part of the concern we all heard from Democrats, and I know you heard it, too, was what comes next? Can Kamala Harris really do the job? Is Donald Trump going to wipe the floor with Kamala Harris? And you've been saying from the beginning, guys, I know her. I've worked with her. I've seen her. She can do it and she will. I think she showed last night that she's ready to be president of the United States. And that was really the goal. The goal was to show the country that she's tough, that she's strong, that she's ready, that she's capable, that she has the experience and the qualifications.

Should I confess now that the thing that I enjoyed the most about this convention, that it was so good at all the stuff that bug Donald Trump. The production values were off the charts. Everything looked great. The timing was seamless. There was no big drama anywhere. There were no tensions. We had more stars than he had. We have better ratings than he had. All the stuff that he thinks are important. They did really well this week. And I confess that kind of gives me a grin. Well, and he desperately after Vice President Harris's speech was desperately calling into TV networks. Sometimes it appeared to be sitting on some of the keys on his phone while

he spoke, called Fox News. They kind of cut him off. They called into Newsmax. Rev, a point of personal privilege here. Lamir and I were watching upstairs and there's no cheering in the press box. But when you came on, we had to. We had to cheer for Rev. Truly a stirring speech. And when you invoke Psalms at the end and talked about the joy and the joy,

the joy that cometh in the morning. This place was filled with joy last night. Well, I think the whole theme of the campaign and the Democratic Party's convention was that we want to get out of the darkness into the joy. So I wanted to have a biblical reference to it. And I think, as Claire said, that is the spirit you felt this week. All of the, I remember as a kid, I might have been 13 or 14, the 68 riots in Chicago, the contrast, you had protests here, but they were peaceful. There were some arrests, but no real violence.

And people were every day saying there was going to be disturbance. There was joy here of all races from all regions. And I think that that's what Kamala Harris has come to represent, which I think is a huge threat to Donald Trump. Because if you can choose between joy and disaster, you'll choose joy every time. And joy and patriotism were combined in the way I heard Bill Bradley say yesterday. Joy and patriotism combined in a way that he has not seen since Ronald Reagan in 1984, mourning in America when he took 49 states. I will say one correction and really quickly here. Here we have the front of The New York Times and also the front of The Wall Street Journal.

Harris makes her case to The Nation. I will say one quick correction to the psalm that are maybe a caveat to the psalm that the Rev said so powerfully yesterday. Joy cometh in the morning unless you are a way too early host that has to wake up in central time zone. After staying up all night watching, then joy has come a little later in the day. When the nap comes. That's when my joy comes. Poor guy. Yeah.

All right. The vice president delivered a nearly 40 minute speech to an energetic crowd. She spent the beginning of her remarks laying out her family's story in the early steps of her career. She then moved on to her own agenda and the threats posed by a second term for Donald Trump. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences, but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol.

His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents, and anyone he sees as the enemy. His explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. And how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States, not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had, himself. Friends, I believe America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives, especially on matters of heart and home.

But tonight, in America, too many women are not able to make those decisions. And let's be clear about how we got here. Donald Trump hand-picked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom. And now he brags about it. In his words, quote, I did it and I'm proud to have done it. Over the past two years, I've traveled across our country, and women have told me their stories. Husbands and fathers have shared theirs.

Stories of women miscarrying in a parking lot, developing sepsis, losing the ability to ever again have children, all because doctors are afraid they may go to jail for caring for their patients. Couples just trying to grow their family, cut off in the middle of IVF treatments. Children who have survived sexual assault, potentially being forced to carry a pregnancy to term. This is what's happening in our country because of Donald Trump. And understand, he is not done. As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control,

ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress. And get this, get this, he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, they are out of their minds. And one must ask, one must ask, why exactly is it that they don't trust women? Well, we trust women. We trust women. We trust women. And let me be clear. After decades in law enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border.

Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The Border Patrol endorsed it. But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign. So he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Well, I refuse to play politics with our security. And here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law. I know, I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system.

We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border. And America, we must also be steadfast in advancing our security and values abroad. As Vice President, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances, and engaged with our brave troops overseas. As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. And I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families. And I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice. Eddie, The Wall Street Journal says Harris makes her case to America. How did she do? She did really well. I mean, she proved very clearly

that she's not the radical San Francisco liberal communist socialist that they're trying to paint her as. I thought she did an extraordinary job introducing her biography. She did an extraordinary job of kind of giving an account of the forces that have shaped her. And I think she did an extraordinary job of assuring the middle of the country that she's not some strange person who will threaten their values. And in so many ways, Joe, we talked about the patriotism that was kind of illustrated or demonstrated over the course of the convention. I would want to say it's a patriotism that is infused with the power of American diversity. It's almost as if she was lifting up Ellis Island.

You know, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, such that her story and her mother's immigration to the United States becomes the American story. So in that sense, I thought it was really powerful. In other senses, I've had some issues, but I think all in all, they achieved what they wanted to achieve last night. And there's you're looking at some some headlines. The Chicago Sun-Times, a new way forward. There you see Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also talking about a new way forward. And I will say even even on issues like immigration, she said last night what democrats may not have said four or eight years ago which is we can we can actually embrace the promise of ellis island

and we can keep our borders secure that's something democrats did not used to be comfortable uh saying um talking about tough border security. That's certainly something they're willing to say now because they came up with a deal that Donald Trump killed. And Donald Trump's going to be hearing about that throughout the campaign. I'm wondering, John Meacham, it's been to say it's been a historic month is a bit of an understatement, a dizzying historic month. She didn't really make reference last night to just how historic the month and her nomination was this week. But I'm curious what your thought has been about the month, about the week in Chicago and about the speech last night. Yeah, I thought the vice president did it very elegantly

by saying it was an unexpected journey and she's not she's not unaccustomed to those. I've been thinking just the last couple of days starting there of what if you were to list off really significant conventions, which is not a huge category, actually. 1940, when the Republicans repudiated isolationism. 1952, when Eisenhower defeats another kind of neo-isolationism. Then you really run to 68, which the Reverend mentioned a moment ago. Then when you think about it in the more modern era, 1980 matters enormously on the Republican side because it sort of set the stage for the next 16 years of Republican politics when George Bush goes on the ticket. 1988, when George Bush comes into the convention way down to Michael Dukakis and gives a remarkable

speech that in many ways elevates him. 1992, when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were third in the race going into Madison Square Garden. And this one, I think, will be seen as a genuine turning point, not least because, as you say, you know, 35 days ago, we didn't think we'd be here. One of the things I thought about watching her last night was in many ways this. And let's all be honest here. I won't ask for a show of hands. But how many conversations, Joe, did we have with people, Peter Millar, Republicans, Wall Street Journal editorial page people who two months ago were saying if only Biden could get her off the ticket. Right. I mean, how many times again and again and again? Well, that's why what you saw last night was why. Right. I mean, how many times again and again and again? Well, that's why what you saw last night was why.

And, you know, let's be careful. Right. Because as Mark Twain said, you know, there was an evangelist who came to town who was so good that even Huck Finn was saved until Tuesday. You know, let's be careful about keeping the enthusiasm. But you saw a first rate political performance last night. I would argue you saw a statesman like performance last night. And the choice is before us. Do you want the rule of law or do you want a liberal authoritarianism? And I think I think this convention stands a good chance to be on that very small list of significant moments in modern American history. I completely agree. It was executed perfectly beginning to end.

You know, I was talking yesterday about how some of the speeches went late and people at DNC were like, well, late. Yes, maybe for you, but not for voters in Nevada, voters in Arizona, voters in Wisconsin. And they said, look at the ratings. Ratings have just been extraordinary. And so they've they've been very pleased beginning to end. And I think what what's so important about this week is it's it's gotten a lot of the fog out of the way. Right. A lot of the excuses out of the way for voting for a person who is is now going to be holding benefits for people who beat the hell out of cops on January the 6th, who continues to embrace January 6th and those riots, who promises to be a dictator on day one.

There's a clear choice and people can take that clear choice without saying, well, the other guy is too old or he's not up to the job. I'm curious what you thought about the speech last night and the convention overall. Yeah, well, especially given the question that John Meacham posed to all of us, echoing that question, I'll tell you, the concerns were erased immediately, not by others, but by Kamala Harris herself. And knowing her and covering her for years now, I thought her speech last night and her other appearances at the convention were elegant, dignified, on point. They balanced a lot of issues, a lot of issues that are facing this election perfectly. And if the goal was to show the contrast between these two candidates, she nailed it completely. And without over, you know, over shooting the runway in any way, it was really a tough thing to do.

And I have to say, having watched that speech last night, but also watching her manage the explosion, the cultural explosion that is this campaign so far, it's pitch perfect. And she, I think of all others, and she has even shared that it's going to be tough. That doesn't mean it's smooth sailing all the way to Election Day. I love that that realism that she and her husband both have. And they hold it right here every day. This is going to be a tough slog. But wow, what an incredible start. Still ahead on Morning Joe, much more from the final night of the DNC, including some of the more emotional moments. The exonerated members of who were once known as the Central Park Five appeared alongside Reverend Al.

What they had to say about former President Trump. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. Hello everybody, my name is Amara. And my name is Leila, her little sister. And what are you here to do? To teach you how to say your auntie's name. Okay, so how do you pronounce it? First you say comma like a comma in a sentence.

Then you say la like la la la la la. Put it together and it's one, two, three. Kamala. All right, so let's practice. Let's practice. Everybody over here say kama. Kama. Everybody over here say la. Together. For president!

See, guys, it's just not that hard. It's Kamala, Vice President Harris's grandnieces with a lesson on how to correctly pronounce their aunt's first name, led there, of course, by Kerry Washington. As we mentioned earlier, Reverend Al delivered a very powerful speech in this building last night. He revisited some of the controversial comments Donald Trump has made over the years about race, contrasting them with Kamala Harris's record. I stand before you as the president of National Action Network.

We do not endorse candidates, but we report where candidates stand on criminal justice, economic empowerment, health equity and other issues. On one side of this race is Donald Trump, a fellow New Yorker I've known for 40 years. Only once, once in that time did he take a position on racial issues. He spent a small fortune on full-page ads calling for the execution of five innocent young teenagers. On the other side is a woman that I've walked with in Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Kamala Harris spoke to me that day about unity and passing bills.

All I ever heard from Donald Trump was how he can get an advantage. I see one candidate who wants to protect the right to vote while the other has tried to cook up 11,000 votes in Georgia. I've worked with Kamala Harris in every job she's had.

She has consistently committed to making government work for those of us who've been disadvantaged. All Donald Trump has been consistent about is making himself richer and sowing division to get that done. This man sat right here in Chicago a few weeks ago, refusing to apologize for claims that migrants were taking black jobs. Well, in November, we're going to show him when blacks do their job. And we are going to join with whites and browns and Asians, and we're going to do a job on those that have done a job on us. Tonight, we are going to realize Shirley Chisholm's dream. 52 years ago I was one of the youth directors in her campaign for president and 52 years after

she was told to sit down I know she's watching us tonight as a black woman stands up to accept the nomination for president of the United States. This November, we will go forward to fulfill the promise of a just and fair nation. And let me say, as we transition, I'm a preacher. And in Psalms it says, weeping may endure for a night,

but joy comes in the morning. We've endured January 6th. We've endured conspiracy theories. We've endured lies and areas of darkness. But if we stay together, black, white, Latina, Asian, Indian American, if we stay together, joy, joy, joy, joy coming in the morning. Rev took him to church last night. I mean, that was obviously Kamala Harris got the biggest ovation, but that the swelling, I'm sure you felt it, felt it up there at the podium was something special. What was it like to give that address last night? What did you really want to drill home to this crowd? Well, I really wanted to drill home the fact that we are in a very serious point in American history and that we should not take lightly that we're dealing with not just an election, but a selection. Are we going to save democracy and the principles of that? And have someone that exemplifies that in Kamala Harris,

a prosecutor on a worked away single mother, and did everything that America celebrates, or someone who is now a convicted felon, who wants to tear the country apart by playing people against each other. And I wanted to bring that clear choice and say there is a joyous outcome to this if we all come together and stay together. But we need to understand the price that you have to pay for that. And I felt the spirit of that. And I really, as it was swelling out of the audience, I went over time. But I felt that it was necessary to put the right perspective on it. And the only thing I didn't do is talk about how

much midnight oil Joe Scarborough spent writing my speech. Your chief speechwriter, Joe Scarborough. As we mentioned earlier, Rev brought up Trump's comments about a group of black and Latino men who were wrongfully convicted infamously of raping and beating a white female jogger in New York City. That was back in 1989, at which point Donald Trump paid for this full page ad to run in several major newspapers, pushing for the death penalty for those men. They are now free and are called the exonerated five. And they shared their story with Rev last night. My name is Corey Wise. Thirty five years ago, my friends and I were in prison for a crime we did not commit. Our youth was stolen from us. Every day as we walked into courtrooms, people screamed at us, threatened us because of Donald Trump. He spent $85,000 on a full page ad in the New York Times calling for our execution. As my friend Corey Wise just

said, 45 wanted us unalive. He wanted us dead. Today we are exonerated because the actual perpetrator confessed and DNA proved it. That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong. He has never changed and he never will. When they see us, America will finally seven long years of wrongful incarceration. Free at last. Free at last.

Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. You know, Eddie, it was so moving and so moving that, again, these men who were jailed, wrongfully jailed, wrongfully incarcerated and had Donald Trump calling for their execution. Even after the DNA evidence came back to prove they were not guilty, even after there was a confession that proved they were not guilty, Donald Trump kept calling for their execution. And yet, remarkable that talking about patriotism, even as they got up wearing their USA hats, and even as we heard the incredible story of one of the speakers going from incarceration, being incarcerated wrongfully, to being a city councilman,

you heard chants of USA, USA erupt throughout the arena, saying only in America, only in America. Joy does come in the morning. Justice does come if it is fought for, if it is pursued. Right. You know, Joe, America is more than an idea. Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian, told me once America is an argument. It's a battle over our better angels and our worst angels. And, you know, in this this example, I mean, I was listening to Corey Wise and I was just my heart went out because he was 16 years old. He was the oldest of the five young men of the five kids, babies, really innocent. And he ended up being sent to an adult prison. And so the wounds, the scars that they carry with them. But to see that moment

last night was a really, really powerful moment of what we can be, of what we could be, of what we are in certain pockets. So they can see it. Exactly. If they can see the possibility. Exactly. Even after everything they've been through. Right. And John Meacham, there was that phrase better angels. And and that's what this is going to be a battle for over over the next several months. Now, we we move past the conventions, we go toward the debate and we move towards voting when it begins. And it is the clearest decision that we have had as voters in my lifetime. You know, yesterday, I must admit, I think I would be cynical enough by now. But when I see an article yesterday saying that Donald Trump and I hope I hope it's a fraud, I hope it's not true. But when I see an article that Donald Trump is going

to be holding an award ceremony for January 6th, rioters, a fundraiser and a fundraiser in open, openly, openly embracing that just as he compared it to Martin Luther King's March on Washington a few weeks ago. And you have a guy who has said he's going to jail journalists. He's going to jail political opponents. He had his lawyers argue that he could even get still Team Six to assassinate his political opponents. And he would still be immune from prosecution unless he was impeached. You hear this and it just keeps coming faster and faster. Donald Trump keeps behaving more and more erratically, and yet this race is still tied. This race is still tied.

It is unbelievable, and it's unbelievable, and forgive me for going on here, it is unbelievable for the people that you and I both know who hear Donald Trump doing these things and still desperately seek to justify voting for a man who started riots, embrace those riots. Now we're comparing those riots to the March on Washington and is even throwing an award ceremony for rioters who helped lead to the death of four police officers. Yeah, I was fascinated by the recurring theme. I would love to know whose idea it was and the intellectual roots to it of the week from the podium,

which is we must listen. We must meet people where they are. Absolutely true. If we don't see each other as neighbors as opposed to rivals, democracy doesn't work. That said, you can listen to people and still believe that they are wrong. And I think you're exactly right. I would argue it's the most important election since not just 1860 and 1864, but 1868. So here, Mika, get ready. This is going to be fun. Yeah, I know.

I know it's going to be exciting. But I was thinking, because this is what I do, because I lead an exciting life. I was thinking the other day, you know, what was an election where it was probably 70-30 in American history, right? Outside of the George Washington stuff. And so I started poking around. And I was thinking, well, American history, right? Outside of the George Washington stuff. And so I started

poking around and I was thinking, well, 1868, right? Andrew Johnson's been impeached. Black folks are largely enfranchised in the South. A lot of former Confederates from my part of the world are still not allowed to vote. Surely when U.S. Grant, the champion of union, the most famous, was called the most famous American in the world. Surely when he ran for president, that was a huge landslide because he ran against a white supremacist governor, former governor of New York named Horatio Seymour. He had not, he did not have Horatio Seymour on your list. I was like, that has to be 70-30. It has to be 80-20. It was a four-point race, right? Where you had the champion of union running against somebody who wanted to take us back,

eradicate the sacrifice of 750,000 casualties. America is always a close-run thing because it is a human enterprise and our appetites and our ambitions and our frailties tend to win out. The remarkable thing is that occasionally the better angels win. wins and the acceptance of the argument made in very compelling terms, I believe, by this convention that, in fact, it is not necessary for someone else to fail for you to succeed. That's what when people say, oh, you talk about democracy is too abstract. The hell it is that that's what this is. It is a chance for all of us to rise as far as we can. And so I think it's vital. I think the stakes have not changed. And I think that in many ways, the former president is going to get worse. And in the event he ever gets better.

Presidential historian John Meacham, thank you for coming on the show this morning. We appreciate it. And coming up, a conversation on the intersection of sports and politics. A video message from NBA superstar Steph Curry was played at the DNC last night, days after his coach gave an impassioned speech there. We'll discuss that and much more with Pablo Torre next on Morning Joe. All right, time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. Parts of Texas are feeling the most intense heat ever recorded there. Abilene hit an all-time high of 113 degrees on Wednesday, and the soaring temperatures are expected again today. So far,

the power grid has kept up with the record demand. You know, this keeps happening in Texas. It keeps happening across the country, keeps happening across America, the world. I'm just wondering, at what point do the climate change deniers actually look at the fact that over the last 20 years, it's killing people like this planet is heated up. It's killing people. It's destroying homes. It's destroying communities. When are they going to admit what we all know? We'll follow what's happening in Texas. The Food and Drug Administration signed off on two new covid vaccines, giving Moderna and Pfizer the green light to roll out the shots. Both are designed to target an offshoot of the Omicron

variant. Doctors say, and everyone listen here, everyone is who is eligible should get the boost, particularly older people who skipped other recent vaccine updates. Okay. And there was a big discovery in Botswana, the second largest diamond ever found. Wow. Come on. It's nearly twenty five hundred carats and carries a value in the tens of millions of dollars. The diamond was unearthed using new X-ray technology. Scientists say most diamonds are at least a billion years old. That's a big one. I wonder if that's from Ratner's. You can get that for me. I don't know. I just think it might be nice. Sorry, Steve. Just carry it around. Yeah, just carry it around. That would be great. Thank you. I'll wear it on a backpack. That would be great. Okay. Turning back to this week's convention

in Chicago, where members of the high school football team, Tim Waltz helped coach do a state title, appeared on stage. And they also they broke a rule. How cute. They actually are the exception to a longstanding rule that Pablo and I both know. And that is if you're not playing on a football team, do not wear football jerseys. Jerseys are a rare exception. Yeah. But here. I are a rare exception here. Yeah, but here, we will let older dudes wear jerseys.

But let me say again, that's how you know it's real, though. That's how you know it's actually their jerseys from 40 years ago. Yeah, they are. But Pablo, are you with me? If you don't play on a football team, don't wear a football jersey. Now, where are you on the baseball glove at a game? Are you OK with somebody wearing that? Like, how much uniform?

Yeah, baseball gloves are fine. And it's kind of different with baseball jerseys where you button down the front. It's a little bit baggier. Just don't wear the football. I kind of wanted them to bring some ice. But those guys can. They can. They're the exception to that fashion.

That would have been fun. And Wednesday night in his speech, the Minnesota governor invoked the gridiron in describing the road ahead. So let me let me finish with this team. It's the fourth quarter. We're down a field goal, but we're on offense and we've got the ball. We're driving down the field. And boy, do we have the right team. Kamala Harris is top. Kamala Harris is experienced and Kamala Harris is ready.

Our job, our job, our job, our job for everyone watching is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling. There you go. All right. I'll tell you what, as a high school football player and former high school football coach, this guy speaking my language and even that line that some people flinch that, but football players know you can sleep when you're dead. Let's go run another couple of, you know,

series. But, but I tell you what, the democratic party, really the sports analogies and everything else really came tumbling out. They, they, they seem to be the party of the NFL.

Now it's the party of football. Yeah. Joe, I don't know if people appreciate it. This is something that I did not think was possible. I didn't see it coming. I come from the world of sports. You do. In my lifetime, I have not ever considered that the Democratic Party would be the party that has the most plausible claim to the largest organism in a culture war, which is football. Again, for people who aren't familiar, Professor, 2023 of the 100 most watched television shows, 93 of them were NFL games. Three more on that list, college football games. Another one was the show that comes after the Super Bowl.

So when it comes to what they're abdicating, the Republican Party, they're abdicating the biggest vector for what actual normal Americans like to engage in. You know, it's so interesting as I talked about being away for the first couple of days of the Olympics. We were traveling. I kind of replug into pop culture and I find out that Republicans hate the Olympics. I was like, oh, okay, wait, wait, wait. You have some weird French dudes doing some weird French stuff and they're not even doing the weird French stuff

that you think they're doing. It could be a lot weirder. Yeah, it can be a lot weirder than that. And you're going to hate on the Olympics for that. And it took me back to 2020 when they were hating on the NFL and they were actually using the NFL as a culture war device to try to get people to vote for Republicans. Yes. And I'm going, dude, you don't come on. This is like standing in front of one of Patton's tank divisions. You don't do it. No, they tried to campaign against the NFL under the premise that the NFL was getting too woke. And it turned out, as per the statistic I just gave you, nobody stopped watching.

In fact, the opposite happened. People watched more than ever. By the way, people kept people kept saying, oh, the NFL ratings are down. And I'd go, oh, yeah, go, go broke. And then you go and realize, oh, wait a minute. They're setting records in a deeply fragmented era of human history. Right. For people gathering. And Joe, just, you know, you're an Alabama guy. Right. There's something real that I think is deeper than just saying coach walls over and over again at a convention. Right.

It's the actual reality that you go to Bryant-Denny Stadium, and what happens? You enter a big tent where right next to you is somebody who does not share any of the political opinions that you have. Right, right. May not listen to the same music, may not do any of the same things otherwise, but you're in that building,

and you actually share a genuine cultural rooting interest. And it doesn't matter what they believe, what, you know, like you said, what music they listen to. You just go like this, Roll Tide. And they look back at you, Roll Tide. And you're connected. I'm a New Yorker, first generation Filipino American, parents immigrated here in the early 80s.

Sports has been my passport to every part of America. I know this personally. I can make conversation with anybody in this country because I know about football specifically and sports generally. And the idea that Donald Trump is on truth social last night saying, I believe what I, I think it's the most embarrassing thing among many embarrassing things that I've heard him say. He said, Waltz is an assistant coach, not a coach. Yes. And what that reveals is that Donald Trump does not know ball at all. And Donald Trump does not know football.

It's embarrassing. It actually it is embarrassing. And Claire, it's embarrassing for so many reasons. But I will say also being an assistant coach is not a step down from being a coach. I mean, being an assistant coach, you go back and you look and often you're far closer to your assistant coach, to your defensive coordinator, to your D backs coach, to your line coach. It's like, man, those linemen on my high school team, they were thick as thieves with the with the line coaches. And they were their own sort of subset there. So again, yeah, Donald Trump doesn't understand football. I think he's a fan. But as far as the coaching and everything else, it's and again, just for Republicans attacking the Olympics,

we must make the Olympics a cultural war. Just like a couple of years ago, we must make the NFL a cultural war. It is exhausting to most Americans. Yeah. First of all, just the math shows how stupid Trump is. There are a lot more assistant coaches than there are head coaches. I mean, by exponential numbers and and, you know, clear eyes, full hearts can't lose. Right. This is great. We have taken back from the Republicans the three big Fs, the flag, freedom, and my favorite, football. And I think it's great that we are celebrating a game that does bring America together, whether it's in an NFL stadium on Sunday or watching your big screen TV on Saturday afternoon,

or going to a high school football game on Friday night. And I think you're going to see Coach Walls use football as a metaphor for a whole lot of things that matter to Americans. And I think it's terrific. I couldn't be happier. And by the way, the last preseason game was last night, and the Chiefs let the Chicago Bears win just as an homage to chicago that was very very generous very generous let me speak also jonathan leary in support of the

assistant coaches as somebody who played high school football that's your guy those are the guys you're doing the drills with the head coach is running the program you're your position coach that's your guy that aside let's talk about that 99 season and the 4-4-3 defense. You've been critical. It's a run-stuffing approach. If you run play action, you bring the safeties up. You can go over the top all day. You've been debating this all week long. 4-4-3.

You simply couldn't do that in the NFL. But in high school, in Minnesota, where the games are won on the ground. It's cold. It's windy. You're going for every yard. So this defense, the 4-4-3, clearly designed to on the ground. It's cold. It's windy. You're going for every yard. So this defense, the 4-4-3, clearly designed to stop the run. Your safety's maybe cheating down. You're right.

Maybe you're vulnerable for something over your head. A little RPO, maybe. If you've got a quarterback, you've got to throw it over your head. But this assistant coach is also now Coach Walls. And the vice president, I've been told, that's one of her favorite things about this. She loves calling him Coach Walls. They know this resonates with people. They know this is an effective argument.

And I'm told, to clarify your point about the power of football, what is Coach Walls going to be doing this fall? What are some states that like football, Willie? Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan. Expect him to be going to some of these games, high school games, college games, talking to voters. They like football in Arizona, Nevada. They like it in North Carolina, too. But particularly those Midwestern states expect him to spend a lot of time there talking to these audiences, trying to win some voters who maybe haven't voted for a Democrat in a long time.

Now, Pablo, we should stipulate the 4-4-3 defense. They struggled early in that 99 season. Started 2-4, but they figured something out mid-season remarkable comeback to win the state championship for a literal old school coach the guy taught social studies as well as coordinated the defense of a state champion in a lab you could not grow a man yeah who meets all of these demographic checkpoints and so what's just remarkable about this joe and you can educate me about this. It wasn't so long ago that you were hearing about Ronald Reagan winning one for the Gipper. Right. Right.

Man, this was a late to mix metaphors. Now, this used to be a layup for the Republican Party. Right. And now what I'm realizing is that their interests are far more in Silicon Valley. Look at J.D. Vance, who can't make small talk at a donut shop. Right. Instead of Main Street, where actual Americans are hanging out watching the game. It's really strange.

They've taken so many things. And we've talked about the NFL, the Olympics. They've turned them into cultural wars. They've taken America and they've turned that into a battle because if their guy is not in the White House, then America is a, quote, stupid nation. If there's guys not in the White House, then America is a, quote, failing nation, a, quote, declining nation. So they take patriotism away. They hand it to the Democrats who are shouting USA, USA. You can go down the list. And and man, it's it's just crazy. All all the symbols, all the things that they used to unite them again, pushed aside.

And you are right. I tell you what, we grew up in a southern, deep south Republican family. And you are right. The NFL was was a very conservative, very tough, very, you know, I mean, you know, meat and potatoes game for Republicans. No more. Yeah. Donald Trump, you mentioned we see him at sporting events, but I've been at sporting events where Donald Trump is there. The guy's not paying attention to the game. He's a fan of the way in which the game can benefit him. He's interested in sports as a mechanism to win a culture war. He can't do what what we just heard John and Willie just do, which is actually chat about anything even vaguely resembling what actual football fans know. Tim Waltz can certainly do that. He lived it. So Kamala Harris represents

or really puts out there the promise of America in her story. And Tim Waltz represents the fabric of America in his story, all from the perspective of the middle class lens, which is powerful. All while running a 4-4-3 defense.

There you go. Whatever that is. Ben, don't break, baby. MSNBC. Read the cards. Thank you, Pablo. Thank you, Pablo. Always good to have you.