Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/30/22

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

A majority of Trump voters consider a civil war somewhat likely within a decade, according to new polling.

And good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is just about six o'clock on the East Coast on this Tuesday, August 30th. We have a lot to get to this morning domestically and also around the world. at it again, launching into a crazy, unhinged online rant targeting the FBI, demanding he be immediately installed as president while trying to rally support from his supporters over the false claim of, quote, criminal election interference. This comes as a new poll shows a majority of his supporters believe the U.S. is headed toward a civil war. President Biden, meanwhile, is expected to address the threat of political violence head on as he hits the road today. The White House says the president will call out the far right for its dangerous rhetoric and challenge the Republican claim that it is the party of law and order. We're also following major developments out of Ukraine

where officials in Kyiv say Russian forces are in retreat as Ukraine launches a counteroffensive in the south. President Zelensky says, quote, we will chase them to the border. Major news out of Ukraine. And we'll get to that in just a moment. It really is something. And you look at the poll numbers. First of all, fascinating that as Joe Biden's poll numbers go up, Willie, as Democrats seem to be doing far better in the midterm elections than expected, The same group of people, Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, those type of people, who challenged the 2020 election with Lindsey, went back and forth, back and forth. They're now talking about violence in the streets if Donald Trump is held to the same legal standard

as everybody else. I mean, fact is, for a very long time, he's been held to a lower legal standard. He's being held to a lower legal standard right now. If Lindsey Graham did half of what Donald Trump did with these government documents, he would already be in jail. Any member of Congress would be in jail if they'd already done this. So actually, we're already holding Donald Trump to a lower standard than we hold members of Congress, other elected officials to former directors of the CIA, former national security advisers. We're already doing that. But now that things don't seem like they're breaking a trumpist's way now we actually have a majority of trumpists believing a civil war is coming because what they don't like student loan relief they they're afraid of jewish space lasers they're really stupid enough to believe that the italian guy rigged the election uh they think there's bamboo in ballots. Really, what is the reason they want to go to civil war?

They own the Supreme Court, right? They live in their own news cycle. They've got permissive laws on guns. They've got the most restrictive laws on abortion they've had in 50 years. They have got the most expansive laws that they've they've had on religious freedoms in over 50 years. It is hard to imagine what cultural war they say. You know, they're not winning. Yeah. I mean, and it's the stakes have been raised with rhetoric. And that's what this is. You talked about that media bubble, that media ecosystem

after the FBI executed a lawful search warrant on Mar-a-Lago a few weeks ago, that night on TV, on the most watched programs, on the most listened to podcasts and radio shows, there was talk of war. This is war. This is what we've been warning you about all along. The deep state is coming for you. The FBI is against us. The Justice Department is against us. Biden is unleashing everything we thought to be true is happening. Of course, as I said, they were executing a lawful search warrant on a president and an administration that took a bunch of classified documents casually to a country club in Florida. But that's why you hear talk of civil war, because people are using that language. They're saying these are the stakes. This is war. We've got to fight back. And you mentioned Lindsey Graham. He tried a little bit yesterday to

clarify those remarks from Sunday when he predicted there'd be riots if Trump were to be prosecuted for mishandling those documents. Here's a reminder of what Senator Graham said, followed by the way he tried to temper them a bit yesterday. Most Republicans, including me, believes when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It's all about getting him. If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, they literally will be riots in the street. I worry about our country. If there's a prosecution against President Trump based on mishandling classified information,

after what happened with Hillary Clinton, there will be frustration and I fear violence. I reject violence. I'm not calling for violence. I violence is not the answer. Too late, right? It's out in the atmosphere. He's already said it. And he's not and he's not alone, Joe. And again, is Lindsey Graham or others, are they OK? It's a question that should be asked. We can't get them to come on are they OK? It's a question that should be asked. We can't get them to come on this show, but it's a question that should be asked. Are you OK with any president of any party taking 15 boxes of classified documents with him or her from the White House to their home, to their private residence?

Are you OK with that? Because that's what you're arguing for here, that he shouldn't be prosecuted for this. And it's a warning, of course, to Merrick Garland and the Justice Department. Hey, don't forget about January 6th. If you prosecute this president, if you indict him, there will be violence. Well, you know, Willie, the thing is, this is this is so important for everybody listening this morning. Understand we show polls about half of the, you know, over half Trump supporters supporting civil war. You hear Lindsey Graham talking about riots in the streets, that the Republicans, that Donald Trump supporters,

will riot in the streets if he is held to the same legal standards as Lindsey Graham and everybody else. First of all, it's fascinating because what do they tell us? Oh, no, Republicans don't riot. Donald Trump supporters don't riot. That's Antifa. Now we've got Lindsey actually saying we're coming for you. We're going to riot. Republicans will riot. Trump supporters will riot if he's held to to to the same legal standard that Lindsey Graham or any other member of Congress would be held to. So he tried to temper his remarks a little bit like you said too late he says i reject violence but there will be violence right there will be violence right if a guy that took

boxes of top secret material confidential material uh secret material out of the white house is held to account like any other american uh it is fascinating. I will say, Willie, and again, perspective, perspective. Let's have perspective. You look at the numbers out there and you see that a majority of Americans believe the investigation should move forward. Fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven percent of Americans believe that Donald Trump should be investigated for this. That was after the FBI search for all of those documents. One other thing, though, that's fascinating. There is a growing awareness inside the Republican Party.

There is a growing awareness on the right that Donald Trump is the same president that sneaked into the White House in 2016, 10 days after the Comey letter. Even Donald Trump said it wouldn't have happened on any other day. It happened on this one day. We could have had elections 10 days in a row. I would have lost nine days. This was the day I could win. Then Republicans lost in 2017 in local races.

They lost in 2018. They lost in 2018. They lost in 2019. They lost in 2020. He's the only president since Herbert Hoover, as we've said, that lost the House, the Senate and the White House in one term. And now he's anointed candidates that are going to lose Pennsylvania, that are going to lose Arizona, that are backing away from him also right now, fascinatingly enough, and that's actually making Ohio a really competitive race. And that's what you're starting to hear. Yesterday, I thought, an interesting day, Willie, you had Ben Shapiro, one of the most obviously powerful voices on the right, telling Republicans they needed to wake up, that Donald Trump was not,

he was not the magic man that was going to win elections. In fact, he motivates Democrats to vote. He motivates independents to vote. There's a reason Democrats are eager to keep Trump at the center of the conversation, Ben Shapiro says to his conservative listeners and followers, half of independents say Trump is a major factor in their vote. And they are breaking four to one for the Democrats. Republicans shouldn't play that game. If they do, they're cruising for a bruising.

That's exactly what happened. And Willie later, Brent Hume came out and basically said the same thing. You know, you lose with Trump. If you're the Republican Party, you probably went without him. And yet you have this ever shrinking base that seems to be more focused on violence, this ever shrinking base supporting Donald Trump, even within the Republican Party, which, of course, puts the rest of the Republican Party just in a losing position. Yeah. And this is something what Ben Shapiro said and Brit Hume and others are saying now, something that Mitch McConnell has been saying privately for a very long time. And we've seen

it kind of spill out into the public in the last couple of weeks where it's saying we got bad candidates. And the subtext of that is we have bad candidates because of the ones handpicked by Donald Trump. But also having Donald Trump at the center of the conversation talking about an election that happened two years ago is not helpful to a party that believes it has a weak president on the ropes with low approval ratings. So those are coming up and his support is increasing for Joe Biden. But they believe like this is fertile territory. And as you've said many times, Joe, Republicans should win in a wipeout just based on historical precedents, the president's approval ratings and everything else they have going for them.

And yet they find themselves in a position where they may lose the Senate. They think they have it in their grasp and where the margin in the House is going to be much tighter potentially than they thought it would be. Yeah, I'll tell you one other thing, Mika, that that plays along with that. And Willie's right. This should be a massive, massive year for Republicans. You look historically, you look at inflation, you look at a lot of the you look at what people are saying about the economy right now. This should be a massive, historic landslide year for the Republican Party, much like 2010, 1994, 1980. This should be historic. It's not working out that way. And it's not working out that way for the most part because of Donald Trump. He's at the center of attention, just where he wants to be. As long as he's at the center of attention, he can raise money, Republicans. He can raise money off of your backs. He can raise money while you're losing elections. That's what it's all about for him. He wants the money. What's it

about? And the attention. What's it about for you? Well, you're going to decide over the next several months. But, you know, Mika, it's something that the Republican Party should have figured out a long time ago. They didn't figure it out. One other thing, too, and Ben Shapiro talked about this as well, talking to conservatives again, talking to conservatives. He said the Dobbs decision is having a much bigger impact than than anyone expected. I've got to say it's having a much bigger impact than I expected, because it's usually pro-life voters that are one one single issue voters. Pro-choice voters are concerned about the environment.

They're concerned about other issues. They aren't a single issue voters. That's changing this year. And it's all you have to do is look at the results in Kansas to see that actually Republicans have two problems now. One of them is, of course, that a fundamental right for women has been taken away after a half century. We don't handle that well in America. No, that's that's that's the first thing we just don't. You don't take fundamental rights for women making decisions about their bodies, about pregnancies. You don't have people running for governor in Michigan

talking about forced pregnancies for 14-year-old girls who were raped by their uncles and have people in Michigan go, yeah, that's cool. No, they're not going to do that. Voters in Ohio aren't going to be cool about a 10-year-old girl who got raped, who had to flee the state because the state was going to force her to have the rapist's baby. Not cool about things like that. So you have that right going against Democrats. You have some extreme positions following Uvalde going against going against Republicans. And then, of course, you have Donald Trump, who's the biggest problem now, because, you know, if they'd gotten the right candidates, they could have finessed some of these issues a little bit better. I know that'll offend

people out there, but that's what good politicians do. Good politicians know how to finesse issues. They don't just run straight into political fire, which it seems all the people that Donald Trump has anointed in these states are doing right now. And Republicans are paying for it. Well, at this moment in American history, President Biden is on the right side of these issues in terms of where Americans are. And we're going to be talking in a few minutes about exactly how he plans to frame that he's going on the road and also about the issue of Democrats running for reelection, whether or not they want to be seen with him. Often they don't want to be

seen with an incumbent with low approval ratings and whether or not they have the ability to prognosticate and see the president's wins of the past month and perhaps do some math and see that those approval ratings may change and get on the right side of it instead of being shallow like they are changing. They're 45 percent now. And by the way, you can check this on your Google machine. This is not a pro Biden statement. It's just a statement of fact that you go back 50 years, only two presidents have had higher approval ratings at this point in the Gallup poll than Joe Biden. And those were the two Bushes following following two wars. So let's bring in U.S. special correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kaye

and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist at The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson. Good to have you both with us this morning. And I will say, just backing up on the problem for Republicans, Joe, Donald Trump, if we don't get ahead of this, nobody needs to get ahead of this. Of course, there are huge questions of national security perhaps being put at risk by whatever these documents are that were in mar-a-lago they certainly were labeled in a way that seems that national security could have been put at risk but having them at all donald trump does not deny yep he has them and i've had trump uh was working with the national archives and trying to give some back, but maybe some others and maybe stuffed 184 random pages in 15 different boxes, maybe to muddle it. Maybe they were just there.

Maybe he didn't know about it. Doubt it. He had them. And if you stay right there, you have to ask the question. And I think Lindsey Graham and other Republicans who are sitting there still shilling for Trump know in the back of their minds. This former president took documents with him to his club in Florida. And those documents were in argument with the National Archives, with the U.S. government. And Donald Trump did not claim executive privilege months ago when they were arguing over this.

He didn't claim that he needed a special master months ago. Now, the tactics that the former president is using appear to be just to delay, delay, delay the obvious. He should not have had these documents. Is there any scenario on earth that tells you he could have had these documents and there was some legal reason to take these? No, none. And he's not. Everyone knows this. He's not saying it. Lindsey Graham's not saying it. None of Donald Trump's defenders have come up with a good reason why. So they jumped to violence. Why he took these documents out of the White House, these government documents. Trump's defenders in Congress certainly know, because we're all given the briefing when we are given given intel briefings, regardless of what committee we're on. We know the consequences of of even even getting one document that is classified, taking it, taking it home.

Nobody just people don't do that, Gaddy. And this guy's taking box after box after box. Lindsey Graham knows that. Every member of Congress knows that. And not one of them have come up with a good excuse on why this president did what appears to be, well, why he broke the law. Yeah, I mean, really, the only excuse you hear from Republicans is the excuse that you hear constantly on the campaign trail. And it's not an excuse. It's a kind of rationale for why they're kicking back against the FBI is that the deep state, the FBI, is out to get their guy. And so none of the normal laws of justice apply because everybody knows that the Justice Department will do whatever it wants in order to attack Donald Trump. I mean, that's that's in brief what you're hearing repeatedly, not just from people who support Donald Trump, but also from people who are in positions of authority who should know better. But that is all that they can come up with because you have not heard a single senior Republican say,

oh, actually, it was OK for him to have the documents or maybe he didn't have classified documents. Or they haven't really come to any sort of defense other than, well, the FBI is always trying to attack Donald Trump. And that, you know, that just doesn't watch. As you said, Joe, you know, if you'd taken classified documents, we would have heard about it. Sandy Berger tried to perhaps take classified documents. We heard about it.

Hillary Clinton had a server that she shouldn't have had. We heard about it. We all talked about it. We all reported about it for a very long time. So it's not, you also hear this from the right, which is that, well, we would have been speaking about it if it had been Hillary Clinton. Why wasn't the press speaking about it? We spoke about it. We reported about it. Months after month, we reported about that email server.

So it's disingenuous to say, oh, well, people are already making a fuss about it when it's Donald Trump. These are classified documents. And there is real concern among some of America's allies that there are things in those documents that could compromise allies own security operations and agents. I mean, that's a real concern. You know, what is it in that document that's about Emmanuel Macron? The French would very much like to know. Yeah, well, and Willie, they all know, again, members ofie um they all know again members of congress they all know that that if if lindsey taken two or three he would have gotten in trouble like uh former directors of the cia two former directors of the cia got in trouble uh a a former director of national security advisor to President Clinton got in trouble. You just don't do it. And they certainly didn't do anything on this scale.

It appears of what what Donald Trump has done. But, you know, what are people saying out there defending him? I mean, Franklin Graham, I saw a clip of Franklin Franklin Graham yesterday saying, well, he would never take anything he wasn't supposed to take. And if he did, all they would have of Franklin Graham yesterday saying, well, he would never take anything he wasn't supposed to take. And if he did, all they would have to do is ask him to give it back and he would give it back. I don't know. Perhaps that's Franklin Graham's way of sort of, you know, bluffing Donald Trump and and preparing his followers for the bad news. It actually fact is what we already know, that Donald Trump wasn't supposed to take those documents. They kept asking him for the documents back.

They kept pleading with him for the documents back. He kept haggling them and and he didn't return all the documents, which is, of course, why the FBI said they needed to search his premises to get the rest of the documents. Yeah, the National Archives asked and they asked and they asked and they asked going on a year, a year and a half. And ultimately, they had to threaten that they were going to go to Congress with this before they got some back. And then even then, they didn't get them all back. They had to go in and execute a search warrant through the FBI. And Gene, when you listen to Lindsey Graham, who as usual knows better, throw around casual language about violence and riots and this loose talk of

civil war, given a country that's coming out of January 6th and still grappling with that, given a country where we've had threats and attempted violence against the FBI, the IRS, school board officials, public health officials. Irresponsible is an understatement, especially from someone like Senator Graham, who knows the consequences of talking that way to an audience who is prepared for violence and some of whom have shown that they will carry out violence on behalf of Donald Trump. You know, I used to think the same thing, Willie, that Lindsey Graham knows better. I'm starting to wonder if he actually does know better, because he keeps doing this sort of thing and saying this sort of thing.

And you have to have to wonder about, you know, is he still compass menace? I mean, Lindsey Graham is not making a lot of sense these days, but he certainly did threaten violence. And in his cleanup, he threatened violence again, which is just astounding. It's, you know, it's for Trump. Certainly, it's all about stoking the grievance of his base, of his hardcore base. That's the way he raises his money. He feels that protects him somehow from the consequences of his actions. In this case, his actions in stealing property from the United States government. None of those documents, set aside the classified documents, none of those presidential records belong to Donald Trump.

None of them should have been taken to Mar-a-Lago. They all belong to the American people. Even the famous weather map that he drew on with his Sharpie, that's a presidential record. That belongs to you and me and the American people. It does not belong to Donald Trump. He stole stuff. And there are consequences when you steal stuff. And there are especially consequences when you steal highly top classified documents that could get our agents killed or our sources killed that could reveal our methods of gathering intelligence. It is outrageous that Lindsey Graham, who does know that or who did know that,

would take Trump's side in all this and just say, well, yeah, maybe he did it, but, you know, we're going to we're going to riot if if you hold them to account for it. It's it's insane. It's dangerous. But that's where we are right now. Lindsey Graham with Donald Trump stoking the base. Well, you know, Gene, it used to be, I mean, pre January 6th, you know, there would be times where people say, well, you know, this is what this means. War this, you know, like Bugs Bunny. Of course know this is war this means war this but you know like bugs buddy of course you know this means war yeah there was you know 20 20 years ago you didn't have to explain of course i'm talking about political war because we're against you people would just you know there would be these rhetorical flourishes and they would Now, as Willie said, now, post January 6th, with half of Donald Trump supporters saying they want civil war or they expect civil war. This is these aren't just heated rhetorical political flourishes. These words have very direct consequences, as we learned from January the 6th.

Yeah, they do in a heavily armed nation with some of the most heavily armed people in this nation being Trump supporters. It's incredibly dangerous. It only takes it only takes a spark. And so Trump is down there in Mar-a-Lago, you know, ranting and raving on his little on his little itty bitty social media network about about being reinstalled as president, I guess, by the grand high installer. I don't know who that is these days, but just ridiculous stuff that is, again, meant to stoke this feeling of of grievance that we're being persecuted by everybody else. Trump is being persecuted by everybody else and we have to fight back. And it's, you know, just a spark.

It's all it takes. Donald Trump does things out in the open. And, you know, at this point, he's not denying it. He hasn't denied that this has happened, that he took those documents. And this is as serious as it gets. But as we close the block, I'll just say there are reports that he might have some information or might have some papers with information on the French president. And just knowing and studying Donald Trump and having known him in the past, that is exactly who he would be obsessed with. Just on a personal level, you can just tell that that's something he would be very interested in because that's the kind of person he would be completely obsessed with. Having said that, this is far more serious than gathering gossip. And Republicans know it. Yeah. Up next, President Biden. Real quickly,

as you said, the problem with that is, of course, we look like we're not reliable allies to the French. Just like Angela Merkel found out that that her phone was being tapped, just like countries that helped us in the war against terror had their their their support of the United States, again, outed. And it's it's again, we we don't look like reliable partners if our allies are looking and saying, well, will the next president just take whatever the hell he wants to take? Because what happens is then you can't when you're having the conversation with the current president, you're like, wait a second, is is everything that I'm saying now going going to be shouted from the mountaintops four years from now? So so, again, there's so many ways this is bad for us. It's bad for our allies. It's bad. It's why there has to be consequences. So we can say no. Up next, President Biden today will argue the Democrats that are the true the true party of law and order. NBC's Mike Memoli joins us with reporting on that. Also ahead, the latest on the

fallout from the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department says the review of seized documents is already done, meaning Trump's request for a special master could have come just a little bit too late. Plus, Ukraine's military has started its long-awaited counter-inventive to retake the first major city that fell into Russia's hands. We'll get a live report from the war-torn country also ahead. Tennis legend Serena Williams isn't ready to retire just yet. We'll have all the highlights from her first round match at the U.S. Open. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. Thirty four past the hour, President Biden will be in Pennsylvania today. He'll be just outside of Scranton this afternoon where he's expected to argue that Democrats, not Republicans, are the real law and order party, highlighting the recent violent rhetoric surrounding federal law enforcement from some members of the Republican Party. He will also tout his administration's, quote, Safer America plan,

which calls for increased funding and training for 100000 new police officers. He is also expected to talk about money from the American rescue plan that local governments have used for law enforcement, as well as the bipartisan gun safety law. Then on Thursday, President Biden will hold a primetime address on, quote, the soul of the nation. The president will speak at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where he's expected to lay out his argument that America's freedoms and democracy are at stake, something he argued when he first announced his presidential run. We are in a battle for the soul of the nation. Everything that's made America, America is at stake. Limited to four years, history will treat this as an aberration. But if there's eight years

of this administration, I think it will forever and fundamentally change the character and the trajectory of this nation. A White House official tells NBC News, quote, he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms and fighting for our democracy. Joining us now, NBC News White House correspondent Mike Memoli. He's in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, ahead of Biden's address there today. And Mike, give us a sense of how the president is really framing his accomplishments and putting them in perspective with what this country has been through over the past four to six years. Well, Mika, obviously, we've been talking about these midterm elections for months, but this is a White House that understands that when students return back to the classroom with Labor Day approaching, that most Americans are really for the first time tuning into this question that's before them in November about who's going to controligning with every Democrat across the country. You're really seeing him now ramp up his efforts to frame the debate, frame the discussion for the country as the midterms approach. And as a top Biden political advisor laid out to me, there's

really a two-track strategy here for the president. The first, he understands that kitchen table issues, the economy, concerns about inflation are going to be one of the top issues this fall. And he's going to talk about promises made and promises kept, talk about the American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure law, the CHIPS Act, some of these recent real string of wins that really Democrats feel gives them a real story to tell this fall. But then you have a second track, which is the concern about the fact that Americans' rights and freedoms are at stake, are at risk here, have been taken away here. And the reemergence, or maybe it's better to say the persistent presence of Donald Trump has really, in the view of the president's advisors, given Democrats a real gift here. Politics 101 is that if you're the party in power, if you control,

as Democrats do, the White House, the House, the Senate, you want to make the midterm elections a choice between two parties, not a referendum on what they've done here. And the looming shadow of Donald Trump, the way he's shaped the candidates who are on the ballot this fall, has allowed President Biden really to do a rerun of his 2020 campaign strategy, to talk about the fact that this is, as he so often put it, a continued battle for the soul of America. So you'll see him do that today, just outside Scranton, talking, trying to flip the script here on this law and order message, talk about the fact that Democrats have boosted funding for law enforcement, that they are, you'll hear him say a version of what he has also said recently, that you can't be pro-insurrection and pro-cops.

And then, of course, outside of the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, returning to the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Talk about that founding principles that are at stake in this election, talking about the soul of America. And as the president has so often said, our standing in the world, our democracy is at stake. And as you said, he'll lay out who's fighting for those freedoms and who's on the other side of this fight. All right, Mike Memoli, thank you so much. Greatly appreciated. Soul of America, of course, trademarked by John Meacham. Any use of that term without the express written consent of John Meacham is strictly prohibited. Or maybe not. Maybe it's OK if a president uses it.

Katie Kaye, you know, it's fascinating. We would say here, and I think most political analysts would say, if you just speak generally about democracy, saving democracy, saving freedom, that's the sort of thing that doesn't reach voters the way pocketbook issues reach voters, talking about inflation, the cost of groceries, the cost of gas, the cost of education. But obviously, things have changed so dramatically. And let's go back to Dobbs, where a right to privacy, a right for a woman to make a decision over her health, over her body, over her future has been taken away after 50 years. Suddenly there's a real concern because of what Thomas

wrote in a concurring opinion that that could extend to one right to privacy after another right to privacy. Nothing guaranteed. And suddenly the White House sees the political upside of giving this sort of speech. I guess it really shows you how dramatically things have changed in the last three or four months. Yeah. And it's no surprise that he's giving it in Pennsylvania, where you currently have a Democratic governor. But if the Republican Doug Mastriano wins in November, then Pennsylvania potentially loses the right to have an abortion. It would become one of those states where abortion is banned. And so it's really ground zero in some ways of this battle over a woman's right is that state, which is why he's speaking there. The issue of abortion and whether Democrats can now make this the single voting issue, the energetic voting issue, that it has been on the right of

American politics for decades, will be tested in this election season. And it looks like it's working for Democrats to drive people to the polls. It looks like it's galvanizing their supporters. The economy has been such a huge issue. It's the drag on the administration. And if gas prices pick up again, were to pick up again between now and November, I think you would see those kitchen table issues and particularly gas prices reemerge as a major campaign issue. But at the moment, this is the elito election. This looks like it's going to be the abortion election and women and independents. And you look at the polls, the NBC poll showing that independents are breaking for Democrats at the moment. They're breaking over this issue. This is what is driving them to the polls. It's motivating

Democrats in the same way that 2020 is motivating Trump's hardcore base. This is motivating Democrats, but it's also motivating numbers. I mean, independents and the numbers are just bigger on that side than they are on the Trump base side. Absolutely. And we have much more ahead about President Biden's plans to hit the campaign trail ahead of the midterms while some Democrats aren't ready to share the stage with him. We'll dig into the political wisdom of that choice. Plus, a man who nearly came face to face with Senator Chuck Schumer during the attack on the Capitol is headed to prison. We'll tell you what he had to say about the big lie right before he was sentenced.

And up next, we're going live to Ukraine for an update on a major military campaign to push Russian forces out of a key part of the country. Morning Joe is back be a man. His mother takes him by his hand. He stops to think, he starts to cry. Why? Run away, run away, run away, run away. I will follow. Run away, run away, run away.

47 past the hour. After months of preparation, the Ukrainian military says it has launched a counteroffensive to retake Russian occupied Kherson in the south of the country. Ukrainian officials yesterday said fighting has sharply escalated in the region and their military has, quote, breached the occup's first line of defense. Officials also said Ukrainian forces destroyed a large Russian military base, a claim NBC News has not been able to independently verify. Joining us now, NBC News correspondent Josh Letterman, live from central Ukraine. Josh, what can you tell us? Well, Mika, there was a lot of skepticism that this long-promised counteroffensive by Ukraine might have been a head fake because the Ukrainians have been talking about it for weeks, and it didn't seem to materialize. But now, according to Ukraine's military,

that offensive has begun. And Ukrainian military officials saying this morning that over the last 24 hours, they were able to damage about 30 Russian military assets in the area of Kherson, including an S-300 anti-aircraft system. Now, Russia has not confirmed whether that's the case. And in fact, Russia's military has said that they, as they were trying to repel the Ukrainian counteroffensive, were able to kill several hundred Ukrainian troops, another claim that can't be verified. But there have clearly been multiple explosions in the area of Kherson over the last 24 hours, signaling that this fight is really moving to the south as Ukraine tries to start to

wrest back some of that territory from Russia that Moscow had claimed early on in this war. But the other big focus here in Ukraine today is, of course, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, with those IAEA inspectors now on their way to central Ukraine, where I am at right now, to be able to inspect the nuclear plant. Those inspectors arrived in Kyiv in the last 24 hours. They're going to be making their way to spend several days on site at the power plant, not only inspecting the damage that has already been done to parts of the power plant earlier in this war, but hopefully getting a sense of whether the safety systems and backup mechanisms like off-site power are still intact to run this nuclear plant safely.

They're also hoping to get a read on the Ukrainian nuclear workers who have been working under duress there, under Russian occupation for months now. But there's a lot they're not going to be able to do, frankly, like stop the shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant or force Russia to hand the site back over to Ukraine, something that the United States has been calling for,

the White House also calling yesterday for there to be a complete shutdown of the nuclear plant for safety reasons. Russia has rejected those ideas. But the hope is that having independent eyes and ears on the ground at Zaporizhia will bring some sense of stability to this situation that has been really escalating in the last several days with local officials in the Zaporizhia region now doling out iodine tablets to people who live within about 30 miles of the power plant just in case there's a radiation spread. Wow. NBC's Josh Letterman, thank you so much for your reporting this morning. We appreciate it. And still ahead, after recent comments about candidate quality, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is making a new effort to boost some Republican candidates in key battleground states.

We'll play for you what he's saying now. Plus, we'll run through the new signs. We might not see a red wave in November. Morning Joe is coming right back. five minutes before the top of the hour and serena williams is not done yet the 23-time major champion winning the first match of what is expected to be the last u.s open and final tournament of her professional tennis career the straight set victory marks her 102nd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the most by any player since it opened in 1997 and extended her record for Grand Slam wins by a woman to 366. Williams will face number two seed Annette Kontovit in tomorrow's second round. Meanwhile, it was a memorable first WTA tour for Ukrainian Daria Snigir, who upset seventh-seeded Simona Halep, then struggled through tears

to explain what the victory meant to her family and war-torn country. I want to say thanks to all fans who watched our match today. Thank you. Of course, this match for Ukraine, for my family, for all fans who supported me, for thanks. I want to say thank you all.

Thank you. Slava Ukraini! Beautiful. And Jean Robinson, your thoughts on Serena's at least the last phase of one part of her what will be very long career. It will just change. It'll just change. Right. But Serena Williams is going to be, I hope, a prominent person. And I hope we hear her voice and it'll be fascinating to see what she does after tennis. Meanwhile, she's still got some tennis to play. I watched that match yesterday.

She was pretty good. So I think I would, you know, I know she's playing a high seed in her next match, but don't chalk that one up just yet to go according to form. Serena may be on a mission. All right. Coming up, new reporting on the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago and what it means for Donald Trump's bid to keep them from the FBI, plus an update on yesterday's scrubbed lunar mission, what NASA officials are saying about the next available launch window. We'll be right back.