Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/26/24

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

The Morning Joe panel discusses the latest in U.S. and world news, politics, sports and culture.

James, how much faith are you putting in polls that show Harris is ahead in key states and nationwide? So let me say this. August is a great Democratic month. We held on wheels come August. OK, remember George Sanders? I said about Dave Winfield, you call him Mr. May. The idea is to be good in November. And I tell Democrats some caution here. First of all, most quants say we have to win by three in the popular vote to win the electoral college. So when you see a poll that says we two up, well, that's actually you're one down if the poll is correct. The other thing is Trump traditionally, when he's on the ballot, chronically under polls. All right. And so they came back late in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2020.

And it showed Biden winning the state seven under polls, meaning Trump's going to do better than the polling shows. I'm saying traditionally he under polls traditionally means he's going to do better in the election because people are too ashamed to tell a pollster. I'm saying I don't know what I'm just saying. Traditionally, with Trump on the ballot, just telling the Democrats, oh, James and Debbie down. What's he talking about? I'm not just telling you, you got to win by three. And I think we can get that debate. So on September 10th is going to be so consequential and it's going to have an audience that we can't believe because what does America love? A train wreck. Democratic strategist James Carver with that word of caution for Democrats on Friday. Meanwhile, J.D. Vance was pressed on the issue of abortion and whether Donald Trump would veto a federal ban if he wins a second term. We'll play for you with a senator had to say about that.

We're also following the former president seeming to be rethinking that September 10th debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. We'll show you what he posted on social media and we'll bring you the latest out of the Middle East after Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes over the weekend. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Monday, August 26th. I'm Jonathan Lemire, alongside U.S. Special Correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kaye. We're in this morning for Joe, Mika, and Willie. And Katty, to James Carville's point there, we saw both in 2016 and 2020,

there were voters who the polls simply didn't pick up who voted for Donald Trump, whether they were ashamed to admit they were going to vote for him. The secret Trump voters. Right. Or whether just voters that have never talked to pollsters before who are off the grid, because the Trump campaign has had success bringing out first time voters, which is about the hardest thing to do in politics. And I think we heard that last week in Chicago, which was, of course, a triumphant event for Democrats that we just don't need to win. We need to win big to outperform the polls, but also put up a margin. So therefore, Donald Trump can't contest it. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting speaking to some even conservative Republicans who have said to me,

whatever the result is this election, I just hope it's super decisive so that we don't end up with a period afterwards where we're all in litigation and the country is in uproar because we don't have a clear result. I've had some strategists say to me, we actually need to win by five to compensate for that low polling factor on the Trump side. I just think with the history of polls in 2016 and the history of polls in 2020, I gave up. I went into kind of poll AA after 2016 and said, that's it. I've sworn off polls forever. Of course, now what do I do? I look at all of the polls. But we all do. And yet we all know that they failed us in 2016 and 2020

for various reasons. So I think we I think, as James Carver is suggesting, we can't come out of that boom high of the Democratic Convention where every where they were all united and excited, thinking, OK, that's it. You know, they've nailed it because it's clearly going to be a very tight race for them. To the president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al Sharp is with us. And Rev, let's get you in on this. This idea of both flaws with the polls and the idea that Democrats, no one's saying they're overconfidence, but certainly came out of last week feeling really, really good. There's a lot of work ahead and they got

to put up some substantial margins considering also the inherent advantages Republicans have in the Electoral College. No doubt about it. I think last week was tremendous in terms of being a flawless convention. Including, of course, the Reverend's own speech. Certainly was. Thank you. But that does not mean that you win 70 some odd days later. And we have to look at the fact that Donald Trump has a very loyal, solid base. We do not know what he intends to do in the next five or six weeks. There's always the October surprise, they say. So I think that it is to his advantage to play underdog. And I think it is

the vice president, Kamala Harris's advantage to say to her people, fine, all of my supporters, we had a great convention. Now, this does not mean we win. She must fight like she's 20 points below because you don't know what this man, this man is not only fighting for an election, he's fighting for his life. He's facing a sentencing September 18th on criminal charges, 34 felonies, and he's facing three other trials. So he feels if he loses, they're going to run the gamut on him illegally, both financially with the New York State Attorney General's case and with criminal cases. So you're facing a presidential race you've never faced in American history. A man that has to win possibly to stay out of jail, at least

be able to settle a lot of his legal problems. And even if that Georgia case is fundamentally perhaps doomed, the two federal cases would come back were Trump to lose this November. And I think you make a good point. I think in virtually every speech the vice president has given since she took the top ticket, she's used the word underdog because she knows it's about motivation and trying to be also the change candidate, the challenger, which is not easy to do when you're part of the White House. And what we don't know about this election is whether it's going to be about trying to win over some persuadables or whether, which was my sense from both the Democratic and the Republican conventions, both sides are really seeing this as a turnout of their base election. That if you can push your base to turn out, that is where you're going to get the numbers. Now, obviously, you'd love to win over some persuadables. There are just so few persuadables to be had left in any of those swing states. Now, the focus has to be on getting your four or five percent, six percent, maybe at most.

And indeed, that enthusiasm surrounding the Harris campaign following the DNC is making Republicans increasingly nervous. The Hill spoke with a Senate Republican who said this. In some of the swing states, people are becoming increasingly concerned that the momentum is moving in the wrong direction. They're beginning to realize this is a wrestling match. There's not going to be any knockout punch and they've got to get the best grip they can find. And it's all state specific. Adding, this is sort of when you have to slap the panic first person in the foxhole and get them to focus again, the senator said. It comes as Donald Trump, meanwhile, is struggling to stay in the foxhole and get them to focus again, the senator said. It comes as Donald Trump, meanwhile, is struggling to stay in the spotlight.

The former president did hold events to counter program the four day convention last week, but his speeches did little to steal coverage away from the vice president and the Democrats. Yeah, I mean, basically he got the coverage and the attention when he was saying the stuff that was not about policy, which is exactly what his campaign had asked him not to do. Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has raised an eye-popping $540 million since the VP took over the top of the ticket. The campaign says it reached the half billion dollar mark just before Vice President Harris's acceptance speech Thursday night. It then raised another 40 million after that speech. NBC News cannot independently verify those numbers until the next round of Federal Election Commission data becomes available to

the public. A third of that cash came from first time donors, including a notable amount of young people and women. Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz are hitting the trail with a bus tour of Georgia beginning on Wednesday. It'll be the duo's first time campaigning together in the state, while the trip will be Harris's seventh visit to Georgia just this year. The vice president will end the tour on Thursday with a solo campaign rally in Savannah that night. The Harris campaign is also organizing multiple fundraisers for the Democratic ticket in the coming weeks. Events are likely in New York, California, Georgia and Florida, according to two sources familiar with the planning. I mean, clearly they've come out

of this and said, right, we're not going to we have to hit the ground running. We have no time to lose. Yeah, it was always a surprise, actually, that she was off the trail for a couple of days. Yeah, I was. Yeah. But some of that is was off the trail for a couple of days after the convention. But some of that is, I'm told, it's debate prep because that debate is just around the horizon. Or maybe it's not. Well, we'll see. We'll get into that in just a moment. So that was the vice president's schedule for the week.

Here's what Trump is doing. He's going to be barnstorming. He and his campaign are barnstorming the Midwest this week. The former president will be in Michigan later today, while Senator J.D. Vance will be in the Great Lakes state on Tuesday. Trump will head back to Michigan on Thursday before heading to Wisconsin that night. The former president will end the week with a trip to Pennsylvania on Friday. But as Katty just hinted, Trump is suggesting that he may back out of next month's debate with the vice president. In a Truth Social post late last night, Trump railed against ABC News, which is the host of the September 10th debate in Philadelphia,

accusing the network of being biased against him. He wrote this. Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network? Adding they've got a lot of questions to answer. Stay tuned. It's the stay tuned, isn't it? It's one of his go to. It's like, you know, the apprentice all over again. Yeah. Building the next week. Next week, we'll see if we debate. So in May, of course, let's remember Trump agreed to two debates with an unspecified Democratic opponent. There's no name listed there. But that was when President Joe Biden, of course, was still the party's presumptive nominee. So let's bring into the conversation here columnist and associate editor for The Washington Post, David Ignatius,

as well as NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitale, who just saw on way too early. So, David, let's get your take to start with this suggestion from the former president that, well, maybe I won't do that debate after all. There's been a lot of chatter in Trump world that he is not eager to square off with the vice president. We know that he has had sometimes has trouble with taking questions from from women, from powerful women. We've seen that throughout his political career. But she's not just a powerful woman. She's a prosecutor. And the idea of a prosecutor versus a convicted felon seems to be one that he's not particularly excited about. So I think what we've seen in the days before the convention and certainly after is that Trump just doesn't know how to deal with Kamala Harris. He doesn't know how to pigeonhole her. His usual

language of belittlement, derision isn't working. There is in the country this sense, I think, of we've been relieved from an election that people were dreading between two candidates who've run before an acrimonious, nasty convention, a sense of the country locked with these two older Americans and suddenly that there was a convention that really was a joyous event and that said we've turned a page and Trump can't figure out how to turn his own page. I think as he plans for the debate he has to appreciate that she is charismatic and charming on television in a way

that he fancies he is. The camera loves Kamala Harris. She's learned in the cadence of her speeches the way she presents herself to be a formidable TV presence. Donald Trump knows TV. He's smart enough to know he's got a problem here. He hasn't figured it out. And we, of course, saw in the Atlanta debate that was sort of the downfall of President Biden's campaign. But, Ali, this will be a different one because it also will highlight the age issue, which now is an advantage to Democrats, as Harris is nearly two decades younger than Trump. But if the polls are right, and we've been expressing a little skepticism here this morning, Harris is winning by a little, but winning.

So therefore, doesn't Trump need this debate to try to change momentum? He does. And candidly, I share Katty's polling PTSD after 2016. I think we're not alone in that. And there's reason to be skeptical. It's also why you saw the vice president get off stage at the DNC. And when she passed some of our colleagues backstage, she immediately said, well, now we have more work to do. And that's my understanding of the mood within her camp right now and the mood within the larger Democratic establishment,

which is they learned the lessons of 2016. They're not going to take positive vibes and a positive attitude for granted. They are still going to get on the ground and make sure that there are people knocking doors, getting out the vote. It's why I'm so interested, yes, in the fundraising numbers, but also in the ways that they have seen on the ground in states like Pennsylvania, in states like Georgia, volunteers who have never volunteered before,

signing up to do shifts, getting on phone banks, doing text messages. That's the actual stuff that's going to be the meat and potatoes of turning this energy into actual tangible votes. But then and John Allen and I were just talking about the stakes of the debate and how much things have changed on way too early. This idea that in the last debate, it was Biden who had so much to prove on his age, on his acuity, trying to assuage those concerns, which we know ultimately were not assuaged to the point where he is now no longer the nominee. Those are now the things that Trump has to work

towards as he waivers on whether or not he's going to get on this debate stage. I think we all knew that he would try to play this will he or won't he game in terms of this September 10th debate. Now that he's facing Kamala Harris, the landscape has completely shifted against him. And he now has to prove against questions of his age, his acuity, his viability, while also not veering into what he often does, which is sexist and racist attacks that don't earn him any new votes. And of course, Katty, Trump is floating. We should do it on NBC or Fox, whatever it is. It's not about ABC. It's just about trying to get out of the debate itself. Yeah. Meanwhile, of course, her campaign, because you said this just a couple of minutes ago,

Jonathan, they've spent the last couple of days, they haven't been out on the campaign trail, having to do debate prep. So there's a downside risk to her too. I mean, she's got to carry on preparing for this debate, which means she can't be out at rallies or fundraisers as much. I mean, it takes time to prepare for a debate, which in the end may not happen. And that's a problem for her campaign as well. Meanwhile, other news this weekend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent campaign for president on Friday and endorsed Donald Trump, despite harshly criticizing the former president earlier on in his campaign. Kennedy blamed the media, the Democratic Party and the electoral establishment for his failed bid.

But his public poll numbers have been dropping and he has not spent as much time on the trail in recent weeks. Throughout his campaign, Kennedy struggled to reconcile his career as an anti-vaccine activist with a need to win over a broad electorate. Hours after his announcement, Kennedy joined Trump on stage in Arizona. For the past 16 months, Bobby has run an extraordinary campaign for president of the United States. I know because he also went after me a couple of times. I didn't like it. And I mean this sincerely. Had he been allowed to enter the Democrat primary, he would have easily beaten Joe Biden, but they wouldn't let him in. NBC News has learned there was no agreement for Kennedy to receive any particular Trump administration role in exchange for that endorsement, though Trump has left open the possibility and Kennedy made no such demands for that role. That's according to one of the sources briefed on the discussion. Meanwhile, Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics,

says RFK Jr.'s endorsement of Trump ultimately won't matter very much. He has been dropping like a rock ever since Kamala Harris got in. When he started, he was in the upper teens. In some polls, he was in the upper teens. In some polls, he was in the low 20s. And now, at best, he's at 5 or 6 percent in some of the states, and those polls are outdated. You know, we've had a Democratic convention. One network poll just a few days ago had him at 2 percent, 1-2. For people who think that because he's endorsing Trump, he can just move that two percent into Trump's column. They don't know much about politics. It doesn't work that way. It's not going to work that way. Some of them will go to Trump. Some of them will vote for Harris. Some of them may choose someone else on the ballot.

There are still plenty of other candidates, depending on which state you're in. I can think of, you know, several hundred things that would have more impact than RFK Jr. dropping out of the campaign and endorsing Trump, kind of. You know, he's in, he's out, he's in here, he's out there. Frankly, it's embarrassing. Kennedy's endorsement was sharply criticized by his own siblings, by other members of his family. It is inconceivable that it lines up to the politics of his father and uncle. Reverend Al Sharpton, those of us who have been in New York for a long time, for a while, was a pretty legitimate figure in the environmental movement. And how someone who actually really cared about climate change could throw his lot in with Donald Trump is just unfathomable. But what do we think here? This is a this is, as Professor Sabato just said,

a campaign that was already cratering even before the revelation that he dumped a dead bear in Central Park. Do we think this is going to matter at all? I do not. I think that it will not matter. And I certainly agree with you. He had some credibility as an environmentalist. We had him in National Action Network and and worked with him. But then he just got more and more bizarre. caused a separation with some people, particularly among black churches, where some of the anti vaccine people were getting on us that were giving vaccines to people in our communities. And then he just went on and on and on from the worm in the brain to the bear in Central Park. I think that the only appeal he had for Donald Trump was he was a Kennedy. And Donald Trump, who's an old man who still, you know, romanticizes the 60s, said, I have a Kennedy like he's collecting art for his penthouse. And not knowing that there is no Kennedy that goes with the Kennedys and maybe few voters.

Yeah, I mean, I've also heard that Trump is very happy to have him and that he may use him as a kind of almost surrogate VP and have him with him quite often when he's out on those rallies, just because it is it's like a trophy. Well, if you know what J.D. Vance, the way he's been performing, he might need an alternative out there with this VP. Right. And certainly there was some concern early in the campaign that the last name Kennedy would be distracting for like low information Democrats who might say, oh, that's I should vote there. That has fallen apart. Kennedy is certainly the more we learn about him, the less people seem to like him. He does hold some appeal, I guess, with sort of the angry young man, the anti-vax group. Those people were largely going with Trump

anyway. So it's hard to know really what he adds to the ticket. But we should note in a race, it's going to be razor thin margins across the across all the battleground states. Even a little bit. Watch to see what Kennedy has got, because he will have done some kind of negotiation. He reached out to the Harris campaign. They didn't take his call. There'll be something that he said, you know, maybe he goes off to farm or something like that. And even the most fringe candidate can make a difference. Let's remember. Yeah. In a tiny, tight race like that. Yeah. Let's move on to events around the world now, because it was a busy weekend in the Middle East. Israel's military says it carried out preemptive strikes in Lebanon

designed to neutralize what it said was an impending attack by Hezbollah. It happened early on Sunday morning. IDF officials said they discovered plans by the Iranian proxy group to launch a large scale attack on northern Israel That would have likely led to extensive casualties. Hezbollah's attack was set to begin at 5 a.m. yesterday morning, according to the IDF, which says it preemptively targeted thousands of the group's rocket launchers in 40 different areas. Lebanon's health ministry says three people were killed in the strikes. Hezbollah, in turn, launched a drone attack targeting a military base near Tel Aviv as retribution for Israel's killing of a senior commander back in July. Israeli Prime

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said all of those drones were intercepted. Hezbollah said the strikes hit their targets. President Biden was briefed yesterday on both of these attacks in the wake of the weekend's strikes. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered two U.S. carrier strike groups to remain in the region. Joining us now from Jerusalem is NBC News international correspondent Danielle Hamunjin. Danielle, what more do we know this morning? It looked yesterday as if this kind of was going to be the end of this round of strikes anyway. Yeah, and by the time most people woke up yesterday, Kadi, it was all really pretty much over. Of course, the region had been bracing for weeks for retaliation by Iran for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month,

which they blamed on Israel. Israel has not confirmed that it was behind it and was waiting for retribution reprisals by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for the assassination by Israel of Fuad Shakur, a high level Hezbollah commander. And so according to the Israelis, they had intelligence reports, as you mentioned, that Hezbollah had rocket launchers pointed at Israel to be launched at 5 a.m. So according to Israeli officials, here's a brief chronology of events. At 4.30 in the morning, Israeli jets were deployed, 80 of them, striking a number of facilities along the southern Lebanese border with Israel. 20 minutes later, another 20 jets were deployed,

hitting a total of 40 sites in southern Lebanon. And they say that those rocket launchers were embedded in civilian areas. Hezbollah has a different version of events. They say that they had and they successfully launched 340 rockets, But they were able to target 11 military bases in northern Israel. That allowed them to distract the Iron Dome and hit and launch drones deeper into Israel. Their target, the Glilot military base, which is near Israel, near Tel Aviv, rather. Why this military base? Well, it is home to or the headquarters of the Unit 8200. This is an intelligence branch, Hezbollah says,

was linked to the assassination of Fouad Shukur. So, comments by Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah yesterday. Essentially, it's, you know, Hezbollah has declared victory. Israel said that they did not succeed in trying to damage the military bases or any of the military bases. And so both have declared victory. But in the words of Hassan Nasrallah, this was, yes, mission complete, but this was only phase one, leaving the door open to possibly a phase two. Okay. NBC News international correspondent, Danielle Hammamjin in a phase two. OK, NBC News international correspondent Danielle Hammamjin in Jerusalem for us. Danielle, thank you very much. So, David,

we know that there are American officials still in the region trying to negotiate up against time really now with President Biden leaving the White House in January. Either way, they're trying to get some kind of a deal on the hostages. How does what happened over the weekend and the prospect of any more tension between Hezbollah and Israel impact those hostage negotiations? So, Katia, I think first the fact that the thing that the United States and everyone in the region has been dreading most, which was a direct uh missile barrage between israel and hezbollah has come and gone the each side was was careful calculated deliberate in the way that it used these weapons wanting to make its its points wanting to reinforce deter, but it never became the kind of all-out conflagration that would have led to a much wider war. Hamas, in the negotiations that are being conducted by the U.S. through

intermediaries, Egypt and Qatar, is said to have hoped that a Hezbollah attack might disrupt the battle space, the negotiation process. They've been waiting, thinking maybe Iran, maybe Hezbollah will come to our rescue. And what we can see from the events of Sunday is that's not going to happen. So I think there is going to be increasing pressure on Hamas leader Yahya Sanwar to accede to what I'm told is greater pressure from his commanders in Gaza, that it's time to do this deal. There's a lot that Hamas gets out of it in terms of evacuation of its wounded. The release of prisoners in Israel, Palestinian prisoners, is extraordinary. There will be probably more than 1,000, many of them people serving life sentences.

So Hamas can boast about this. And then finally, in terms of the Palestinian people themselves, the process of reconstruction, the plans for that are really quite significant. A lot of money, a lot of effort is going to go into Gaza. So I think the pressure is growing. The negotiators are in Cairo today going over meticulous details. For example, Hamas representatives are going over each name of each prisoner that they'd like to see released. Israel has a limited number of vetoes, but as I said earlier, with 500 Palestinians who have death sentences, they can't veto all of them. So some Palestinians, Israelis would really not like to see on the

streets are going to be coming out. They'll go through that list. They'll go through the lists of Israeli hostages. There's a number of Palestinian prisoners assigned to each hostage. If it's an Israeli woman soldier, then Israel agrees to release X number of Palestinian prisoners. If it's an Israeli woman non-soldier, it's a slightly smaller number. So they're down to that kind of specific bargaining. And I think it's that that leads me to think that this deal is close. Nothing's ever there, it's never done in the Middle East until it's actually done. But the fact that everybody stayed at the table through this bombardment across the Lebanese border tells you that there is a momentum for peace that's strong enough to continue even in this really dreadful period. It's also been striking now. We've seen a couple

of moments where Israel and Hezbollah or other Iranian proxies or Iran itself have exchanged missiles and strikes. But then everyone was willing to de-escalate. Everyone involved seemingly did not want this to spiral out of control. We'll see if that continues and we'll see if that deal does get done in the coming days or weeks. The Washington Post's David Ignatius, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it. And still ahead here on Morning Joe, J.D. Vance gets pressed about

whether or not former President Trump would veto a national abortion ban if the legislation reached his desk in a theoretical second term. Plus, Democratic National Committee Chair Jamie Harrison is standing by. He'll join the conversation on the heels of last week's convention in Chicago. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. But can you commit, Senator, sitting right here with me today, that if you and Donald Trump are elected, that you will not impose a federal ban on abortion? I can absolutely commit that, Kristen. Donald Trump has been as clear about that as possible. American women are not stupid and we are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion for

women all across this country. American women are not stupid. The new campaign slogan of 2024. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts warning of a possible federal ban on abortion if Donald Trump is elected, despite his running mate, J.D. Vance, telling NBC's Kristen Welker that's not on the table. Joining us now is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jamie Harrison. Chairman, thank you very much for joining us. Congratulations on a successful convention last week. We want to get into fundraising and those comments on abortion as well. But I want to start by this news over the weekend with Donald Trump floating the idea that he may not have a debate with Vice President Harris at all because he doesn't like ABC News and their politics says that they're biased. How much of a disappointment would that be to the

Harris campaign if the vice president does not get a chance to debate Donald Trump on television before the American people for this election? Well, I think it's a huge disappointment for the American people because they want to see these two folks on the debate stage talking about the issues that are important to the American people. You know, we made clear in our convention that this is about our fundamental freedoms. All those things are on the ballot. We know what Donald Trump's Project 2025 is all about, about really going after those freedoms and the rights and the basic level of infrastructure we have to protect the most vulnerable in our society. It's a full frontal attack coming from the other side.

And so those things need to be discussed. Those things need to be debated. And Donald Trump needs to talk about his actual agenda. It's scared to see that this former president is so scared to get on the debate stage. But I guess if I if I had his positions, I'd be scared to let the American people know what they worry as well. So, Chairman Harrison, there was a bit of a tightrope the Democrats had to walk last week during the convention, saying a fond farewell, if you will, to President Biden at the top of the ticket and then pivoting to making this very clear it's all about Vice President Harris, a success by the numbers, by the ratings, by the fundraising. But talk to us about how you plan to keep that momentum going.

We know the vice president and her running mate are about to embark on a bus tour of Georgia, a state very much back in play. What else will you be doing? Well, you know, we have over the course of the last few weeks or since the vice president has been the nominee, we have seen unprecedented number of volunteers. And this is the great thing about that. You know, volunteers are great if you have the infrastructure in order to utilize them. And for three and a half years, we've been building just that. We have hundreds of campaign offices in our battleground states, thousands of staffers. So we are equipped to

take all of this new energy that's coming into this campaign and utilize it in terms of voter registration efforts, in terms of voter education initiatives, in terms of the voter protection programs. Unlike the Republican Party, we didn't destroy our grassroots and base operations. We built on that. The same battleground states we had in the midterms in which we beat back the red waves are the same states in which we still kept some of those staff and have been building on that for the last few years. And so I feel really, really comfortable. You're going to see a lot of grassroots energy, probably more than we've seen since the Obama

2008 campaign. And you've seen the energy. You saw it there at the convention. You saw where the vice president was able to pack a house in Chicago and to pack the same house that Donald Trump was in for the RNC in Milwaukee. That is the type of energy that we have on the ground. And it's unprecedented. And that's part of the reason why Donald Trump is scared to get on that debate stage with Kamala Harris. Chairman Harrison, as we look at the fact that Donald Trump is now teasing that he may not show up for the debate. One question I have is, do you think the vice president ought to show up anyway and expose that he is afraid to vote her? I mean, to debate her and that she's willing to

show up and stand up. And in many ways, I think he cannot find a way to deal with this prosecutor. He's probably humiliated that the convention did much better in the ratings than his convention did. And he's one of these that is very much into looking at ratings. Her speech got much larger ratings than his did at the Republican convention. And it was a flawless convention. One of the things that I've noted is that you as chairman and Mignon Moore, who helped put it together, have not gotten the credit you should have gotten for a flawless convention. I was there the whole convention. You certainly would have got the blame if the riots and other things that people predicted had happened. Well, on that last note, you know, Mignon and I were just doing our black jobs, you know. We were just getting it done.

But much credit goes to Mignon Moore, to Alex Hornbrook, Stephanie Crutter, and the convention. They did a wonderful job, and I'm really, really pleased by how it went all. You know, when you look at it, you know, Kamala Harris has been getting bigger crowds than Donald Trump. Kamala Harris has been getting more volunteers than Donald Trump. Kamala Harris has been getting better ratings than Donald Trump, raised more money than Donald Trump.

And we are going to win this race. And he's scared about that. He's scared, you know, to be beaten by this woman, this black woman who is so capable and so intelligent and is probably the most equipped person to be president of the United States walking on the face of this earth. And so we're going to continue to press the case. We're going to continue to run as if we're down. We're going to continue to go all around this country, making sure that our message of freedom and joy and hope is resonant, but also that we are committed to making America great for all of America's people. And we know that America's greatness isn't in her past, but it's in her future.

And so, Rev, that's the commitment that you will see from this campaign. We're not going to let up. And I can understand why Donald Trump would be afraid. If you saw those type of numbers and you saw those type of crowds, I'd be afraid, too. But this, you know, the folks in this country are hungry for positivity. They're hungry for hope and joy, not for fear and bigotry and hatred and division. And that's what they're getting from the other side. Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jamie Harrison. Thank you.

We'll speak to you again soon. Thank you all. Good morning. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Democrats are looking to increase support for Vice President Harris, particularly in the rural counties that Trump dominated back in 2020. Over the weekend, rural Democrats gathered for Demstock, a two-day annual event meant to engage with Democrats in areas historically seen as Republican strongholds. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was in attendance and said this

is how you win the swing state. They all understand that the path to the White House comes right through Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania picks the president and they're going to carry that. And they understand that it's going to be in rooms just like this. You're going to be in rooms like this because you have red county Dems and they are doing the hard work and it's not necessarily the sexy kind of job, but they are dedicated. They are true believers. And that's why you can fill a room just like this, because they all believe in the Harris and Wallace ticket. They are not here in this business to turn like a deep red county blue. It's about to jam things up and to blunt the kinds of margins that allow Trump to probably win

here in Pennsylvania. Senator Fetterman there and joining us now, Pennsylvania State Senator and chairman of the Pennsylvania Democrats, Sharif Street. He attended Demstock this weekend. Thank you so much for being here, sir. So talk to us about this plan. We know we saw it in 2016. We saw it again in 2020. Trump really doing well, ran up the score in a lot of those rural counties in Pennsylvania and some other states, allowing him to, at times, offset Democratic gains elsewhere. Talk to us about this renewed focus. And does Governor Walz, Harris's running mate, play a role? Well, one, thank you for having us on there. And you're absolutely right. In Pennsylvania, we recognize that we've got a

we got to reach out to all of our counties in 2016 uh we didn't have enough of it we didn't we didn't go into the red counties enough we weren't present enough we learned from that so when i ran and became vice chair at 18 we started going into red counties when i went into state senate we really had there were 34, Republicans held 34 out of 50 state senators. We're now only three seats down. They had a massive lead of 20 or 30 member lead in the state house. We now control that. Part of that was because we messaged. We found there were people who had voted for Barack Obama twice and then voted for Donald Trump. But then we got a lot of those people back in 2020,

and those people voted for Joe Biden. We've got to hold on to them. Part of why we do that is we've got to remind them, the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, as they say, that hundreds of thousands of people in rural Pennsylvania got health care because of that. We've got to talk to them about that. Now, we're not going to reach all of them,

but we're going to reach some of them. There are still union members out there who are doing well. And this administration has been so supportive of unions. We got to talk to those folks. But part of it is showing up. I was glad to be out there when I got back from the convention, got up early in the morning. First thing I did was drive out to Jefferson County, which is about six hours from Philly. But we still got out there. We talked to him. John Fetterman's been great. And I think Tim Wallace's message as a high school football coach is going to really resonate with folks out there. We talked to them. John Fetterman's been great. I think Tim Walz's message as a high school football coach is going to really resonate with folks out there. I applaud the Vice President and Governor Walz. Coach Walz actually traveled. They were already

out there. They were out there when we first got to the convention, before the convention started. They were out there. They were in Aliquippa. They were in Beaver County. They were in Butler County. They traveled around southwestern PA. And they let people know that Democrats are here. We're here. We're going to compete for your votes. Senator, it's Ali Vitale here in Washington. I wonder if I can ask you in this sea of change that we have seen over the course of the last few weeks from Biden as the nominee now to Kamala Harris as the nominee, as someone who knows Pennsylvania, what are the challenges that she has on the ground there that maybe Biden didn't have? And similarly, what are the things that she brings that Biden couldn't at this moment in 2024? First, you know, there are logistics of just switching campaign over. But I would say,

look, there's been renewed energy in urban centers. Black and brown voters who liked Joe Biden's record but had some concern about his age are totally engaged and fired up. She has energized suburban women in a group that are key, and she's talking to them and not taking them for granted because that's a place where in 16, we underperformed. And look, she's got to reach out and make sure she talks to rural voters, voters who are places where Hillary Clinton lost some votes, that Joe Biden did better, and quite frankly, Barack Obama did better. We've got to make sure that we're engaged. But right now, the energy we're seeing has been pretty strong, and she's been intentional

going to those places. And I don't think that those people were unwilling to vote for Senator Clinton. I just think that as a campaign, we didn't get, we weren't out there out there enough we didn't touch them enough we didn't have enough rallies out there we didn't we weren't sitting in barnyards and uh secret and um vice president harris is going to do that and i think governor wallace uh you know he's going to do it too and his appeal just his every man appeal talking about um what it was like to teach in a classroom and talking about as a high school football coach those things matter pennsylvania state senator and chairman of the pennsylvania democrats sharif street thank you very much for joining us this morning and of course it's not about winning those

counties necessarily but bringing down those margins of defeat that allows them to offset yeah woodstock or demstock which would you prefer for the weekend? I mean, I mean, you know, you know, 50 50. Tough call. Tough call. Coming up here, the battle for honest and accountable government. Our next guest says Inspector Generals are the most important public servants you've never heard of. And they could be key to defending our institutions and our democracy itself. That conversation is coming up next on Morning Joe. We'll be right back. The Little League World Series championship. A thrilling and slightly strange finish, the Little League World Series yesterday in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The kids from Lake Mary, Florida won after executing a perfect bunt in the bottom of the eighth. The pitcher from the Chinese Taipei team fielded the ball well and threw it to first, but there was no one there to cover the base. That is a tough way to lose a

championship after their squad had led for almost the entire game. It's the first title in nine tries for Florida in the Little League World Series. Congratulations to those kids. They will remember this for the rest of their lives. Look at the joy on their faces but this this next highlight brings me no joy whatsoever as we go to the big leagues and catch you up to date on the record home run pace for yankee slugger aaron judge channing mvp high fly ball deep left center doyle back see yaing flight 50 50 home runs Here's Judge Can they go back to back? High fly ball

Right field Cave back He's on the track He's at the wall Back to back He's done it again A two home run day for Judge Home run number 51 And the Yankees lead!

Aaron Judge with a simply monster game yesterday in the Bronx, hitting home runs 50 and 51. He's now on pace for 63 this season, which would break his own American League record of 62, which he set just two years ago. Judge is also now only the fifth player ever to hit 50 home runs in three different seasons. And Ali Vitale, you're a Yankee fan, so that's questioning why we have you on the show this morning. But that aside, even I have to admit, Aaron Judge is just about the best. He and Shohei Otani, I guess, just about the best hitter in baseball. And what he's doing right now is just incredible. You'll have to see it for a man in pinstripes,

honestly. I mean, look, there are days that I host your show and I know the sports segment is coming and I grit my teeth through some of those Red Sox headlines. Today was a good day. It was easy to read this script. I was like, my dad's going to be happy when he watches the show. Certainly my upbringing as an avid New York everything fan felt good. I feel positively about how negatively you feel right now. Fair enough. And Judge has been great. And we can take a quick look at the standings here. They've opened up a game and a half lead. The Yankees have over the Orioles. Meanwhile, the Red Sox are fading away. Their postseason hopes just about dashed, Yeah, I don't understand a lot of that, but I do understand that Allie is enjoying your suffering.

Yeah, she's winning, I'm losing. She's happy and you're sad. And she's happy that you're sad, which is even worse, Allie. No, it's all right. I'm so sorry. It's fine. I would do the same.

Okay, let's get on to something else now. They may be the most important public servants that you have never heard of. Our next guest says that inspectors general are the last line of defense for American institutions and for our democracy. Glenn Fine served as both the inspector general of the Department of Justice and the acting IG of the Department of Defense. In his new book, Watchdogs, Fine explains why all Americans need to know about the crucial role that IGs play.

He also shares several anecdotes about his time as IG, including when he was fired by then President Donald Trump. Glenn Fine joins us now. So, Glenn, just to lay this out for our viewers who may not understand the role of IGs, what is it that an IG does and why are they so important to democracy? IGs are watchdogs of the government. They are nonpartisan, independent, internal investigators located within each federal agency's 74 in total, whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud and abuse in the agency and promote the economy, efficiency and effectiveness and integrity of the agencies. What most people don't know about inspectors general, they provide a critical check and balance on government, and in my view, are an essential pillar of our democracy. They hold government officials accountable for misconduct. They investigate and audit programs of the departments that they work in.

They return billions of dollars in recoveries for the federal treasury. And most important, they make transparent how government operates. Taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent. And inspectors general do that. So I think a good way of explaining this and kind of describing this, illustrating it, is to explain to our viewers why you were fired by former President Trump. So I don't know for sure why I was fired. I was the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense for over four years in both the Obama and the Trump administration. And then the covid pandemic hit and Congress appropriated trillions of dollars in federal relief funds. It also created a committee of

IGs called the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to oversee those funds and try and detect and deter fraud and abuse in those funds. One IG had to be selected to chair the panel. I drew the short straw and I was selected to be the chair of this committee. Within a few days, President Trump, who had said I will be the oversight, replaced me as the acting IG of the Department of Defense. So I therefore could not be on the panel and could not chair the committee. I was not the only IG replaced during this time. There were five of us in total, including the State Department IG and the intelligence community IG who had brought the Ukraine whistleblower matter to the Congress.

And we we provided aggressive and independent oversight. So while I don't know why I was fired, I wasn't wasn't given a reason. I do know that providing independent and aggressive oversight can make high government officials unhappy up to including the president. And that applies in any administration. Glenn, on that note, how are IGs usually put in place? Is it political? Is it you come through the ranks? What makes those of us that are watching and that read your book, The Watchdogs, what makes us comfortable that since, in essence, you are watchdogs, that there's no politics involved in who becomes an IG? Well, IGs, according to the Inspector

General Act of 1978, are selected for their nonpartisan qualifications. They're not tied to any political party, one side or the other. And they're appointed by the president and confirmed by the United States Senate in most of the large agencies, including the Justice Department and the Department of Defense, where I work. Because they are nonpartisan, they normally remain when administrations change. So I was the IG of the Justice Department in three presidential administrations, from President Clinton to President Bush to President Obama. I left the office and worked at a law firm for a little while. But what can I say? I'm I'm a recidivist.

So I came back to the government and worked in the Department of Defense as the acting I.G. for over four years in the Obama and then the Trump administration. I.G.'s are are some of the most important public servants you've never heard of, but they do provide oversight of government and they make transparent how our government operates. And oversight much needed. The new book is titled Watchdogs, Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Governance. It comes on sale tomorrow. Glenn Fine, congratulations. Thank you very much for joining us this morning.