Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/7/24

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Harris-Walz ticket debuts with packed rally

And Pennsylvania, I know you know this, but my God, what a treasure you have in Josh Shapiro. Holy hell, can this guy bring the fire? He can bring the fire. This is a visionary leader. Also, I have to tell you, everybody in America knows when you need a bridge fixed, call that guy. And I think sometimes we forget and you see people a little one dimensional. But seeing a guy who cares so deeply about his family, a man with compassion, vision, and I'll have to tell you this, I know this from experience, there is no one you would rather go to a Springsteen concert in Jersey with than him, than that guy. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz praising the guy he beat out to become the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris.

We'll have much more from that raucous rally in Philadelphia. And we'll dig into reporting on why Governor Shapiro was not picked for VP. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Wednesday, August 7th. Good to be with you. With us, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Peer Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle, professor at Princeton University, Eddie Glaude Jr., special correspondent at Vanity Fair and host of the Fast Politics podcast, Molly Jung Fast, co-host of MSNBC's The Weekend,

and former senior advisor and chief spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris, Simone Sanders Townsend. Also with us, MSNBC contributor and author of the book, How the Right Lost Its Mind, Charlie Sykes. Good to have you all with us. So just hours after Kamala Harris announced Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, the pair held their first joint rally before a packed crowd at Temple University in Philadelphia last night. Thousands of supporters stood in the rain, wrapped around blocks, hoping to get into the 10,000 seat venue. According to the Harris campaign, there were 14,000 attendees in the arena and overflow area. On Truth Social, the Harris campaign mocked Donald Trump

with a photo comparing last night's crowd with a rally Trump held at the same venue in June. There you go. Difference in crowd size, which I guess is important to Donald Trump. In her remarks last night, Vice President Harris praised Walls and explained why she chose him to join the ticket. Governor Walls then spoke about his own experience and background, and they both explained what they see is at stake this November. To those who know him best, to those who know him best, Tim is more than a governor. To his wife, Gwen, he is a husband. To his kids, Hope and Gus, he is a dad.

To his fellow veterans, he is Sergeant Major Walz. To the people, to the people of southern Minnesota, for 12 years he was congressman. To his former high school students, he was Mr. Waltz. And to his former high school football players, he was coach. Coach. Coach. And in 91 days... The nation will know Coach Waltz by another name, Vice President of the United States. Donald Trump sees the world a little differently than us.

First of all, he doesn't know the first thing about service. He doesn't have time for it because he's too busy serving himself. Again and again and again, Trump weakens our economy to strengthen his own hand. He mocks our laws. He sows chaos and division. And that's to say nothing of his record as president. He froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground and make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump.

That's not even counting the crimes he committed. And so now we got some work to do. We need to move to the general election and win that. And to all the friends, listen, we also need to level set. We are the underdogs in this race. But we have the momentum, and I know exactly what we are up against. When we look at folks, we see in our fellow Americans neighbors, not enemies.

Not enemies. And so my promise to you is this. Our campaign will reach out to everyone. From red states to blue states. From the heartland to the coast. In rural, urban, suburban and tribal communities. We are running a campaign on behalf of all Americans. And when elected, we will govern on behalf of all Americans. So according to the campaign, as of 6.30 last night, more than $20 million has been raised

in the hours after announcing Governor Walz as Harris's running mate. It was quite an event. So what do you think? I think it was a really great, strong start. There was a real contrast from the get go. You could really see joy and exuberance versus grievance and retribution, which would be the Trump campaign. Love versus hate, if I can. A lot of people on Twitter. Ted Lasso was was trending as it's the Ted Lasso campaign. And it's interesting because I think we both have expressed that Josh Shapiro is supremely talented and was an incredible choice as well.

And at the same time, I can see the strategy because he will stay in Pennsylvania for the next three months and he will campaign his heart out across that state. And Tim Walz, I think, proved himself to be pretty talented as well on the main stage and had an authentic touch that really could break through. What did you think? A very formidable politician. There are a lot of people who just shrink on the big stage. He did not. He did not. He remained a big presence there. They both did. I've got to say Kamala Harris is just in these events, one event after another, after another, that that she has she has exceeded just about everybody's expectations. At least at least in American politics and in the media.

She did it again last night. The way she carries herself, the confidence that she shows. There's just a lot of people that that did not. If you look what they were saying about Kamala Harris the day before Joe Biden dropped out, most Democrats were fretting that she couldn't carry it. She couldn't handle it on the big stage. I'll tell you what, she has transformed herself in a way that even Republicans that will be voting for Donald Trump

have admitted she has. So, and he did very well. It was, again, very folksy address. Mike Barnicle. Real digs in there. Yeah. Yeah. Real folksy address.

It has a great biography, one that that I've long wondered why Democrats didn't get out front more often. A guy that was born on a farm in Nebraska, a guy that was raised in a town of 400. We're talking about understanding community, served in the military just like his dad, got his college degree with a GI Bill. All this very, very positive. And you actually have a contrast in two campaigns here. It does remind me, 1980, Reagan in large part, people looked past Reagan's ideology when he was seen as being more conservative than where America was at that time. Ronald Reagan was a dramatic break from the FDR coalition that had ruled America since 1933. But it was optimism, sunniness, hope.

Ronald Reagan always talking about how we truly believed America's greatest days were ahead of them. And there was on the other side, Jimmy Carter and Malay. So ideology didn't count for that much that year. I think it's the same thing here. Tim Walz, the governor, not the House member, but the governor, has some issues that I think Republicans are going to try to exploit. And we'll get to those in a little bit. But first,, evident hope, optimism, joy. And on the other side, with the volume turned down, you see anger, chaos, and of course, the promise of retribution. In campaigns like this, it's always surprised people like me that

sometimes ideology just doesn't matter. I mean, Americans in 2008 did not care that Barack Obama was the second or the third most liberal senator in the United States Senate. They cared about hope and change, and they carried him across the finish line in dramatic fashion. You know, Joe, that's a very interesting observation that you just pointed out. The Reagan campaign of 1980, watching the coach, and I'm going to call him the coach from now until election day, watching the coach yesterday and watching the vice president yesterday, it was mesmerizing in the sense that it's been a while since I've seen a rally like that, either on TV or in person.

And watching it, you could just sense the power in the hall. And it was the power of joy, the power of laughter, the power of hope for the future, but especially the power of those who were in the hall and those who were thinking or considering voting for this ticket, the vice president and the coach, for those considering voting for the ticket, giving them the power to think that they're participating in something that will put a smile on your face. It's been a long time since any aspect of American politics has put a smile on anyone's face. And these two people yesterday managed to put a smile on the nation's face. Yeah, the contrast was so evident and front and

center and walls. This is what they build him as. He's got that folksy Midwestern charm. I think it's right to spend time on his biography. It is very impressive. Mike is right. The moment where the vice president referred to him as coach and I kept repeating it, coach, coach, that's that's right to spend time on his biography. It is very impressive. Mike is right. The moment where the vice president referred to him as coach and they kept repeating it, coach, coach, that's going to be a thing. I think that's clear. And the campaign recognizes that. Walls talking about how the Republicans have tried to take away abortion rights. And he talked about how in Minnesota, even if you don't agree on the same thing, you respect each other's privacy. He said something along the lines of mind your own damn business when it comes to whether or not the government has the ability to oversee a woman's body. That line also going to be a thing. Mind

your own damn business. And we saw there. Now, look, we'll get into it as the show goes on about the choice to not select Governor Shapiro. We have reporting from inside the room over the weekend. Walz really impressed Harris when he sat down and said, look, I have no further ambitions. I'm not eyeing any other job. I just want to be here. I want to serve you as your running mate and your vice president. I'll do whatever you need to do.

I'll say what you want me to say. I'll go wherever you want and not go wherever you want. And that really impressed Harris. The two, we're told, immediately clicked. And we certainly see, Simone, that Walls is someone who is going to play in the Midwest. This is going to be Michigan. This is going to be Wisconsin. It'll be Western Pennsylvania, to be sure. He's also, because of his voting record, similar to Harris's, they think that he is more beloved, will be better accepted

by some of the more progressives, the more liberals, the young voters who might have, fair or not, resisted the Shapiro pick. Give us your analysis as to why Vice President Harris, someone for whom you used to work, went with Walls and what you saw last night. So I'll start with what I saw last night and the energy in the room was electric, but I also saw and I was texting with folks as it was happening. I said, this is a long speech. And many folks in the vice president's orbit, they text back and said she had a lot she wanted to say tonight about Governor Walz. And we saw that there was a lot of bio and I thought it was important, frankly, that it was the vice president that was delivering that bio, talking about her running mate, her pick in her own words, describing, pulling out pieces of his story, whether it's when he when he was a gay-straight alliance. And Governor Walz, Coach Walz at the time,

knew how important it would be and what a signal it would send if, in fact, he got engaged and involved, and he signed up to be the faculty advisor, right? Like, that's a story that resonates with the vice president because of her background while she was district attorney and whatnot in AG, making, ensuring that when marriages happened, LGBTQ marriages happened in California, that is something that is key to her story, key to Coach Walz's story, and also, I think, important for Americans across the country.

So she went through and she picked out things in the bio for her to deliver that she thought was important, that aligned with her vision, but also that I think that she and her team thought would speak to a wide variety of folks across the country. I think when it comes to picking or selecting Governor Walz as her running mate, it was the chemistry between them is my understanding, but also that they had similar planes in terms of the role of the vice president. And the vice presidency, it can look different depending on who the president is, right, and what a president is looking for. I think that the role that Vice President Harris

plays for and feels for now President Biden is similar to that in many regards to the role that Vice President Biden feels for President Obama. It's different, I believe, than from what Mike Pence and Donald Trump had. And so Governor Walz had a similar vision for the vice presidency. When you were the vice president, I've said this before, your name is on the door, but it's number two on the door.

And you need to be comfortable with your name being number two on the door. When you were the vice president, you are often, the president asks you to do tasks sometimes that you want, sometimes that you don't want. But, you know, if the president asks you to do it, you serve at the pleasure of the president and you do so. That is your governing partner. So I just think that Governor Walz, the vice president, felt like he made sense for her. He was someone she wanted to work with. And this is the first presidential level big decision that one makes

as a presidential candidate. And I think with this pick, she was clear that she is in the driver's seat. Charlie Sykes, you are in the state that that Walls has to deliver in Wisconsin and Michigan and in western Pennsylvania and deliver with more moderate voters. Now, there's sort of a three for people that have followed his career. There are three waltzes. There is, of course, the bio waltz. It plays very well in those states. There is House member waltz, Congressman waltz that has had very moderate record, played very well in that state. And then there's governor waltz. And here's my question to you. Republicans have already started in on his response

to the 2020 riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Republicans have already started in on where he is on cultural issues, on being a trans, being a state that would be sort of a sanctuary state for younger people who are transitioning, who may have had court orders ruled against them in other states,

and also his 2020 covid response. I'm curious. And I know that's what Republicans are going to be running against. And as I say on the show all the time, people like me think ideology rules, you know, all of these these undecideds. And so so many times just doesn't. I'm curious what you think about how this pick is going to play in the states that matter most in your community, in your state. Well, you know, I mean, initially, I admit that I was I was surprised and disappointed by this choice.

I thought that Josh Shapiro was the more obvious choice. Walls is much more TBD. Sometimes governors have a hard time scaling up. And I think it's very, very important for this ticket to appeal and reach out to the center and to moderate voters. I thought they would have done that with Shapiro. I think it's more of a question mark with Walls. But I think you're asking exactly the right question here. You know, how how does this play? And and it's funny,

I wrote my Substack newsletter late last night, you know, that maybe we're thinking about this all wrong. And I came down exactly where you are on all of this, that we're so used to thinking of this in ideological terms, when maybe it will be something else. Maybe it will be not decided on policy, but decided on personality and perception. His biography, the vibe that he gives out, he may have a very progressive governing record, but he reads moderate and he talks like a regular person rather than a politician, which will play well in rural areas. Look, there are three big constituencies here in Wisconsin, three crucial constituency. Number one is the Democratic base in Milwaukee and Madison. Can they generate enough

enthusiasm to turn out big numbers? I think the indicators are right now they're certainly headed in the right direction. Number two is the white rural vote that Democrats have been shedding. And Tim Walz can come in and he will speak their language. He may not have the politics policies that might align, but he will speak their language. And then the third major constituency is the area I live in here around Milwaukee, which is the moderate, skeptical Republicans who have been drifting away from Donald Trump. And that's the big question, Mark. Will the Republicans be able to identify this ticket as a far left ticket? You may not like Trump, but this is way outside the norm. Or will this be? And I think your analogy is really powerful.

Like 1980, like 2008, where people were saying, I'm not voting on going down this menu of ideological issues. I just like these guys. I am tired of the status quo. I want something else, and I'm excited. And just one last point about that rally which was truly extraordinary I mean first of all as I said before governors often don't scale up he looked ready for the moment but that was the kind of energy you usually see in late October not early August and I am wondering what kinds of crowds he's going to turn out here in Michigan and Pennsylvania because um this enthusiasm is not speculative it's real it's there and I'm going to be out here in Michigan and Pennsylvania, because this enthusiasm is not speculative. It's real.

It's there. And I'm going to be very interesting to see how it plays here. Yeah, and it's interesting. I mean, given some of his concepts on policies right now, I think the contrast is potentially perfect, Joe. When women across America have lost 50 years of freedoms, 50 years of rights, their health care is in jeopardy. He will make a very good argument. And hearing it from him, the way he talks, I think will be very impactful.

I think it was one of the stronger parts of the speech last night. He had many strong parts of the speech. But when he started talking about the challenges he and his wife had having having their children, it's certainly something that related not just to women, but also to men, to family members. So. So, yeah, we shall see how it goes again. The again, the Trump campaign came out yesterday. Very relieved it wasn't Josh Shapiro. Said it all day. And they been saying leading into it, the only person they feared was Josh Shapiro. And Josh Shapiro, I would say, is a candidate to fear. This is him speaking last night before the new Democratic

ticket took to the stage. Let's play Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. I want to talk about Tim Walz because, Philly, in a minute he's going to come out here and I want you to give him a whole lot of love. Tim Walz is a great man. Tim Walz is an outstanding governor. Tim Walz is a teacher. Tim Walz is a guardsman. Tim Walz is a great patriot. He is. And I'll tell you what else. I'll tell you what else I'll tell you what else

Tim Walls is a dear friend I lean on my family and I lean on my faith which calls me to serve and I am proud of my faith. Now, now hear me. I'm not here to preach it y'all, but I want to tell you what my faith teaches me. My faith teaches me that no one, no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it. How good is Josh Shapiro?

So good. He's so good that he can be a Jewish guy in a big arena. Being asked to preach. Getting ready to talk about the Old Testament and having people shouting, preach, preach. That does not happen all the time for Jewish politicians in that setting. So Eddie, he is great. You know, a lot of times people say, oh, this party, that party has a deep bench. And then you actually look at the bench. You can't even find a guy that can shag fly balls for you. Well, hitting him in the head, knocking him out. But in this case, they do.

I want to just talk more about the joyousness of the occasion. And that's a term that you don't really affix to political rallies, certainly not in this age. But starting with Josh Shapiro, then going to Kamala Harris, then going to Tim Walz. And this is by this review by none other than David Brody, Christian Broadcasting Network, who is not has not been a fan of Democratic tickets for a very long time. And he wrote this. Trump supporters may not want to hear this, but Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were very good tonight in Philadelphia. She came across as measured, confident, fully in control. It was an optimistic speech full of hope and change. Q 2008. Meanwhile, Waltz showed off his folksy and feisty Midwestern persona. It looked natural.

It felt organic. The crowd was large and energetic. We'll see if it holds. But this race feels different. And polling suggests it is different. The Trump campaign has lots of work to do ahead, to be sure. And I'll be honest with you. There are times I was looking last night and it seemed to me that this, Eddie, was different in a way that no presidential campaign has been different in my lifetime, say for Reagan when I was very young and Obama in 2008. There was a movement. It seemed to be

a change election. And with both of those earlier campaigns for the base and for a lot of people in the middle of America, it just was joyful. It was exuberant. It seemed to transcend politics. Yeah, Joe, I think that's absolutely right. First, we want to we want to acknowledge the magnanimity of Josh Shapiro framing what we saw, what we experienced. Right. And that's something we haven't seen. Usually we seem we see bitterness. We see a kind of selfishness in the political space. At least that's what we've seen over the last eight to 10 years. And so he framed that. But what I think is really important for us to understand, this isn't 2008. This isn't 1980, although I can understand the analogies. What's different? The difference is that we've experienced Donald Trump over these

last years. We've experienced the vitriol and the hatred of our politics. And you know what, Joe? What else we've experienced? We've experienced mass death. We can't forget the impact of the pandemic on us. Over a million of our folks are dead. People we loved. Folks who are not sitting at the dinner table. Folks we can't say, we can't go by the house and have Sunday dinner with. These folk are gone. And we've been trying to move on as if that hasn't touched us in are gone. And we've been trying to move on as if that hasn't touched us in our hearts. And you combine that with the ugliness of our politics. We're not OK. We're not OK. And so the fact that we saw that exuberance last night, that joy underneath it is exasperation, right, is a kind of exhaustion, right, A fragility. And so we're clinging to this. So it enters into this

political, this existential space, right? That, that it's actually a sense of hopefulness tied to what we've been through. Now that means that it's fragile, it's vulnerable, but it's going to be intense. And so that's what I think we saw last night. And I think we need to understand it for what it actually is. Great. And I will say, yeah, really great point. I will say also Republicans, I talked about the attacks. Republicans already coming out on the governor's COVID, the COVID response in 2020 on the 2020 riots, as well as trans issues, just you go down those. And the first two, at least, Donald Trump just does not check off well. I was really glad that Tim Walz brought up COVID. Yeah, well, so if they really believe that they're going to be able to go use COVID as an issue,

make COVID an issue in this race, then you're going to go back to bleach, you know, injecting bleach that the lie at repeat, not telling the American people about it, lies about it's only one person coming in from China. It's only three people coming in. It's going to be gone by springtime. You can go down all of those lies. You can go down governors, conservative governors like Ron DeSantis criticizing Donald Trump during the campaign for what he did. His reaction that brings in all the anti-vaxxers who vote for Donald Trump mad at the vaccine. I mean, it's just a lot of cross currents. So I would say that's going to be neutral, neutralized. Also, the 2020 riots.

He doesn't want to talk about 2020 and the riots. He doesn't want to talk about crime because crime did go up under. So, again, that's another one that will most likely they can put it out there. You're just going to have a he said, she said on those two issues. And again, the joy and exuberance, Malai Jong Fast, that you saw yesterday in that crowded auditorium, 12,000 to 14,000 people in Philadelphia. They made it very clear that they want to take the country in a very different direction. And they have a lot to work with on the Trump side. And what they showed last night, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, is that they came to play. I mean, there were some digs in there that we won't

we won't talk about, but they are very clear that they are going to go after Trump on everything. And I love the fact that Tim Walz brought up covid and brought up all the not only mistakes that were made, but willful decisions to mislead the American people. So I have interviewed Tim Walz before, so I knew what he could do. And I feel like he was and Democratic governors knew what he could do because he was the head of the Democratic Governors Association. So when I saw that he was in contention and I actually he called me and said he was in contention. And I said and I thought to myself, you know, this guy is really a good orator. And what I thought was that it was a reach out to rural voters because here's a guy he you know, he ice fishes. He's a hunter. He does butter carving, which, again, is not such a popular thing in urban areas.

I mean, he's a really a sort of, you know, he he is a rural person. And, you know, he went to college on the GI Bill. He was the highest ranking enlisted man. You know, this is a person who is really part of this rural America. And and he really makes the case for how government programs can help people. You know, his father died when he was young and he enlisted in the army to pay for college. And I think that that is a really important, you know, we don't necessarily hear that message so much in politics today. And so I really do think I sort of thought in my head, you know, this guy, he really is kind of a rural American success story. And remember, he was born in Kansas. So he has really part of rural America.

Yeah. And just one correction there. There is butter carving in urban areas. Mike Barnacle and I have engaged in butter carving. We've attempted to for years. The problem is we get halfway down the sculpture and I start eating the butter and then Barnacle joins in. So we started, but it always ends very badly. One other thing, Mike, you're the only one old enough to remember this along with me. Did you notice this guy, and it makes sense because he's a Midwest guy, kind of picks up the Jack Benny moves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You remember Jack Benny?

Right when he's about to deliver a line. You know, Benny would like do this, and he would like, here, then he'd kind of grab. Yeah. Yeah. He's got that. And by the way, that is a compliment. I mean, everybody loved Jack Benny, but it's an old comedian who's long, long past. But it is funny. His movements look like borrowed from Jack Benny.

Some of the shrugs from Johnny Carson. So there you go. You know, he has a sense of almost perfect comedic timing as well. The line that he dropped about Donald Trump in his remarks yesterday, and that's not even counting the crimes that he committed, referring to Trump's presidency. But he's also got something else. When you look at him, he's not going to make anyone afraid of him. He's the most openly friendly candidate we've seen in quite a while. There's a bit of Reagan-esque openness and friendliness toward him. And the most important aspect of Coach Waltz, I would think, is this. He knows, as does the running mate, the vice president who's at the top of the ticket,

they both know that elections are about tomorrow. Elections are about the future, not yesterday. The other two guys running on the Republican ticket, they constantly refer to things that happened four years ago. They can't give it up. They can't stop talking about it. America wants to know where we're going to be four years from now. We know what happened four years ago. A friend texted me during the speech and goes, he's the Ted Lasso candidate. You have to believe. And in a way, you can see him talking in that stadium or in a gymnasium full of kids going nuts after a football game or during a rally. He's the same guy.

You get a really authentic quality from him. Yep. It was a good start. There's no question. You can see a scene from Ted Lasso. Yeah. Where Ted Lasso would say to the team in the locker room, and fellas, reminds me of the golden rule.

And he goes, mind your own damn business. Exactly. What is that? One of his lines last night, Simone Sanders Townsend. Thank you very much for coming on this morning. We appreciate it. And still ahead on Morning Joe, we'll be joined by David Plouffe, who's now a senior advisor to the Harris campaign. But first, we'll be joined by a reporter who's covered the Trump era from the very beginning and is out with a new in-depth look at Trump's life as ex-president. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. Live shot of the Capitol at 638 Eastern Time. Time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. Ukraine has reportedly launched an incursion into Russian

territory, one of its largest cross-border assaults of the war. The Russian Defense Ministry said as many as 300 Ukrainian troops supported by tanks and combat vehicles attacked the Kremlin's positions north of Kharkiv. Ukraine regularly strikes at targets inside Russian territory, but infantry raids are rare. So four historically black medical schools are getting a big boost courtesy of Michael Bloomberg's initiative. The billionaires organization is donating six hundred million dollars to support the training of future doctors. The donations are aimed at addressing systemic inequity in health care and underinvestment at HBCUs. And fans of Saturday Night Live have a new role in mind for actor Steve Martin. They want him to play the Democrats vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in the upcoming season.

It's already confirmed that Maya Rudolph is returning this fall to portray Kamala Harris. Oh, my God. She won an Emmy for the role back in 2020. Too good. She's so great. I do think that could work. Oh, he'd be fantastic. Kind of perfect, right?

Oh my gosh. All right. Generally, we don't bother to read the former President Donald Trump's deranged posts on social media. But this one is so unstable and so unhinged, it's important that Americans

maybe know just how imbalanced the Republican nominee is. So here goes. Trump writes in full, quote, This is the most radical left duo in American history. There has never been anything like it and there never will be again. Crazy Kamabla is indeed crazy. I hear there is a big movement to bring back Crooked Joe. What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the U.S., whose presidency was unconstitutionally stolen from him by come blah, blah, Barack Hussein Obama, crazy Nancy Pelosi, shifty Adam Schiff, crying Chuck Schumer and others on the lunatic left crashes the Democratic National Convention and tries to take back the nomination, beginning with challenging me to another debate.

He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. presidency, a coup to the people in the world he most hates. And he wants it back now. So., so Charlie, campaigns are about contrasts. And that's exactly what I was saying before. There, there, there are issues to go after Tim Walz on if you're a conservative. And yet Donald Trump is a Wall Street Journal editorial page, always says never provides that space because he's always, always doing things like that. But but what a split screen if you are a suburban voter and outside of Milwaukee, outside of Detroit, outside of Philly, outside of Atlanta, if you're in the northern suburbs

of Atlanta and you didn't vote for Trump in 2020, but you think you might in 2024, there's your split screen. Look at look at him smiling on stage. Look at the fun. Look at the screaming crowds. It looks like winners. And I will say as a Republican and you were a former Republican, I was a former Republican. I'm not used to Democrats looking like winners. They're usually in a crouched position. They're usually scared of their own shadow, the exception being Barack Obama. But again, the visuals yesterday was striking. And compare that with Donald Trump's lonely rants on on Truth Social. That is a striking contrast, is it not, for suburban swing voters? It is a striking contrast and it's also important context. I want to go back to something that Mike

Barnicle said. You know, you look at Tim Walz and he's not a scary guy. You know, I was thinking about what it was about him that that was sort of hitting me and was like, I know this guy. A lot of people, you know, in a place like Wisconsin know that guy. They had that guy as their coach. They know that guy from down the street. He talks like them. And I think that's going to be very, very powerful. You know, you may disagree with him on policy, but he's going to explain it in terms that you understand. But I'm so glad that you brought up this post by Donald Trump, this gibbering nonsense. I mean, can we just say it? This man is not well. So while we're talking about, you know, the policies of the Democratic ticket, now take a deep breath and recognize that the former president of the United States is having

this cognitive mental breakdown in real time, in plain view. I mean, what is that paranoiac, you know, you know, you know, maundering that he's going on about and this new nickname, which is not a what is not a typo, the Kamabala. I mean, I'm sorry, Joe and Mika. What the hell is that? What does he think he's doing? I mean, this is a guy who, you know, once was kind of like the master, right? I never bought it, but, you know, would come up with nicknames. He doesn't have that touch anymore, right? It feels like the old guy is just, you know, reaching back, throwing spaghetti and ketchup against the wall. But I'm guessing that most people are looking at that tweet and going, you know, are they going to get this guy help?

Is there something going on with him? Because this certainly does not sound like somebody who is who is doing well or is feeling confident. So whatever concerns you might have about the Democratic ticket, this is important to sort of take a deep breath and say, meanwhile, over here, the former president of the United States is losing his freaking mind. Yeah. Joining us now, the national political correspondent at Politico, Meredith McGraw. Her new book out now is entitled Trump in Exile. And in it, she chronicles the former president's political comeback from being a pariah after the January 6th insurrection and his second impeachment to becoming the GOP presidential nominee once again. Thank you for coming on the show.

Congratulations on the book. And given sort of how Charlie just framed it in his last post, how the president, former president, is behaving. What more can you tell us about his post presidency? Well, I really think this book is so essential to understanding how we got here and this moment in history and, you know, where where Trump is. I spent time after Trump left the White House covering him for Politico. But for this book, I talk to former aides, advisors, lawmakers about his time out of office and everything from the team around him and how they crafted his political endorsements and fundraisers to how they prepared for this next run for the White House. And, you know, as you see him post on Truth Social,

as you saw about this new Harris-Walls ticket, I think there's a lot in here that sort of underscores his mindset as we go into this 2024 election. So, Meredith, you've obviously spent a lot of time thinking about and writing about dwelling on Donald J. Trump. With regard to the truth social that Joe read, I'm wondering, Trump is in a sense, because he's a former president, isolated a lot from ordinary people, grocery shopping, things like that, ordinary people. Is the isolation in Donald Trump part of what prevents him from talking about the future and restricts him to talking about the past, which is filled with grievance, hatred, unrest, internal unrest in Trump himself? Is that part of what's going on here? You know, I think that's an interesting observation. You know, when he left the

White House, his isolation helped him in some ways. I think Mar-a-Lago and I think the people who surrounded him, I think that formed a kind of cocoon around him and that I think fueled his political comeback, if you will, in some ways. But, you know, in this moment, I think he is hyper aware of the political risks involved at this moment. And you see how tight things are in the polls. You saw how the Harris-Walls campaign is getting on Truth Social, is talking about crowd sizes. And, you know, he I think there really is an understanding of the the risks for him going into the election. How much do his legal problems, and there are many, factor into his decision making?

I think it definitely played a role in his running in 2024. He had already made up his mind that he was going to run in 2024 before the raid in Mar-a-Lago, for example. But I definitely think it emboldens him in a lot of ways. But at this moment for him, it is about proving that he can win again. I think more than anything, that motivates him. The new book, Trump in Exile, is on sale now. Author and national political correspondent for Politico, Meredith McGraw. Thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. We appreciate it.

And still ahead on Morning Joe, it was another banner day for Team USA at the Summer Olympics. We'll show you all the golden finishes. Plus, Willie Geist joins us live from Paris. Morning Joe is coming right back. It's ticking down. Just a couple more days before I return home to you. I can't wait, guys. It's going to be amazing. Yeah. Last night I went to beach volleyball.

Incredible venue under the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, our team of Hughes and Chang lost in the quarterfinals, which means women's volleyball will not medal at the Olympics because the other team got knocked out as well for the first time since 2000. The men are still alive there, though. A couple notes on some of the highlights John just gave us. The U.S. women's national team, the soccer team, again, needing extra time to win 1-0 in that 95th minute on the goal by Sophia Smith.

Remember, in the quarterfinals, they won 1-0 in extra time against Japan. So by the skin of their teeth and with some incredible defense and goalkeeping, the goalkeeper Alyssa Nair there. So they were looking for our fifth gold medal in women's soccer, but have not won since London 2012. So it's been a little bit of a drought looking now to beat Brazil on Saturday and bring back that gold medal. On the men's hoop side, as John mentioned, a blowout win last night against Brazil. Now on to the semifinals for

the dream team. They play Serbia, and that means Nikola Jokic, the three-time NBA MVP, waits for them. This team has beaten Serbia a couple times already, pretty handily in the last couple weeks. So hoping for some gold there. Kevin Durant, by the way, last night became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the American Olympic teams, passing Lisa Leslie, the great women's player. He tweeted out a photo last night posting his respect to Lisa Leslie, said records are meant to be broken. And just a cool shot of maybe like the world's greatest AAU team just chilling with their backpacks waiting for the

bus there's Durant and the dream team on the track Gabby Thomas winning the 200 meters pretty handily she's amazing Gabby Thomas graduated a few years ago from Harvard with a degree in neurobiology then went on and got her master's in public health at the University of Texas. And in her free time, found time to be perhaps maybe the fastest woman on earth. Great story there, too, in that 1500 meter with Cole Hawker, a complete stunner there. This was billed as a showdown between the two leaders in that event, a guy from Norway and a runner from Great Britain. And Cole Hawker comes from the inside, finds a little space on the rail and sneaks by to win and sets an Olympic record three minutes, 27 seconds. That's only a hundred meters short of

a mile. I don't know what your mile time is, Mika, but Cole Hawker's mile time is 348 is his record. Think about that. Three, three 48 is his record for the mile. It's ridiculous. So huge when university of Oregon graduate from Indianapolis, he's amazing. A stat that blew me away yesterday, women's skateboarding, the park competition.

Here are the ages of the gold, silver and bronze medalists, 14, 15 and 16, a 14 year old. She just turned 14 in May a couple of months ago. Her name is Arisa True from Australia. She is your gold medalist. No one over the age of 16 in that picture on the podium and some high hopes for some of the Americans men in that event here later today. One other note, I've got a piece I've been working on for NBC Sports that will air tonight on the Olympic Zone on NBC. Incredible story about the IOC

refugee team. This is 37 athletes representing 11 countries, and they are refugees. And that is Masoma Alizada. She's an Afghan cyclist. She is the captain of the team. She competed in Tokyo. Now she leads this team here in Paris. She fled the Taliban. Her crime was being a young woman who liked to ride her bikes and she would have stones thrown at her, fled Afghanistan, came to France, where she now lives and has been able to train and become an Olympic level athlete. That refugee team is incredible. And we've got a story about them coming up tonight on NBC, guys. So another busy day here ahead in Paris. I love it. Willie Geist reporting from Paris. Thank you very much. We look forward to your piece tonight. And at exactly the top of the hour, we turn back to last night's

packed rally in Philadelphia, where Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Governor Tim Walz, kicked off their 2024 election campaign. Here now are some of the highlights. Since the day that I announced my candidacy, I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future. A leader who will help unite our nation and move us forward. A fighter for the middle class. A patriot who believes, as I do, in the extraordinary promise of America.

A promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice, not just for some, but for all. So Pennsylvania, I'm here today because I found such a leader. Governor Tim Walz of the great state of Minnesota. Some of us are old enough to remember when it was Republicans who were talking about freedom. It turns out now what they meant was the government should be free to invade your doctor's office. In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves, there's a golden rule. Mind your own damn business. When my wife and I decided to have children, we spent years going through infertility treatments. And I remember praying every night for a call for good news.

The pit in my stomach when the phone rang and the agony when we heard that the treatments hadn't worked. So it wasn't by chance that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope. When Vice President and I talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make your own healthcare decisions. You know, the promise of America is what makes it possible for two middle class kids, one a daughter of Oakland, California, who was raised by a working mother, the other, a son of the Nebraska Plains who grew up working on a farm. It's the promise of America, because only in America, only in America, is it possible for them together

to make it all the way to the White House. Only in America. Only in America. Only in America. Only in America. You know, conservatives even have been talking about last night how well those two did just as far as the vibrancy of it all. I quoted David Brody earlier, but others have been talking about it too. You have hope, optimism and joy versus the promise of retribution, anger, bitterness, division. There's also if you look at the schedules of these candidates, there's also action versus the active versus the inert. You have Kamala Harris's schedule today. If you look at it, she's flying out of Washington this morning. She's she's going to Wisconsin. She's doing events there.

Then we'll be leaving Wisconsin, be going to Detroit. She'll be doing events there. Then we'll be leaving Wisconsin, be going to Detroit. She'll be doing events there. And her schedule is is busy morning, noon and night. And then here's what Donald Trump's schedule is. I will be interviewed tomorrow on about and enjoy. And I'm not joking. You know, when he goes out, he damages his campaign. And his campaign's been very straightforward and honest. They want to hide him. They want to keep him from going out and talking because we see what happens when he went to Georgia. And he basically created a political civil war inside the Georgia Republican Party. And devastating comments not only about the governor, but the governor's wife, which, again, is the last thing he needed to do.

So there is there are going to be this is going to be a campaign of contrast. Republicans are going to be this is going to be a campaign of contrast. Republicans are going to make it ideological. I suspect there's probably going to be too many other issues that are too distracting. And the distractions are going to come from Donald Trump and J.D. Vance themselves to make this a strictly ideological election. Former President Trump is going to a swing state on Friday, Montana. On Friday? Yeah. OK. Just kidding. Not a swing state. But. Montana. On Friday? Yeah. Okay. Just kidding. Not a swing state,

but he's going to Montana. He has an event there. Okay. So there you go. But there's a lot of time in between and just, he goes to places where he's comfortable. And I have to say, you mentioned he's going on Fox and Friends. I was flipping around yesterday as Josh Shapiro was speaking and then obviously Kamala Harris. And literally one channel was on the right, I'll put it that way, was screaming at the top of their lungs about Josh Shapiro, angry. And then you flip to anybody else and they were just covering the event, which was very happy. I mean, there's how do you how do you find something wrong in the event that they had yesterday in Philadelphia? Well, you can have issues with their positions, but it was a joyful, lovely event. It was very joyful. And Josh and Paris seem to be just fine.

Let's spring into the conversation now. Host of the podcast on brand with Donnie Deutsch. Donnie Deutsch, NBC News and MSNBC political analyst, former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, former MSNBC host and contributor to Washington Monthly, Chris Matthews, and senior political columnist for Politico, Jonathan Martin. Jonathan O'Meara, Mike Barnicle, and Eddie Glaude Jr. are with us still. Chris Matthews, you've been through a few of these. What were your thoughts about the rally last night?

Well, one was the strength of Kamala Harris. I mean, she came off as a leader. She could control. She owned that whole room. Her confidence level was through the roof. I said after Barack Obama spoke in Boston back in 2004, we saw the first black president. I think anything is possible in this campaign now. And she proved it last night. Picking waltz was her point, her decision, and she made it. This election may be short enough to beat history that we can have a woman of color as our next president because of the length of this campaign. They've got to get out there and keep the excitement going. But last night, I'll tell you, you talked about Jack Benny this morning in the first hour. It was the timing of waltz and her incredible confidence to speak to that room

as if she owned it. She was the emcee of that room. Powerful writing to great writing like his line, which is this man, Trump doesn't know a thing about service. That's enough right there. You got enough on Trump right there. He's not here to serve this country, serve you or I. He is not there for us. He's there for him. And that's who he is and what he is. It's all transaction. But the message of hope about naming his kid Hope after after having difficulty having his wife having that baby, it was so American, so perfect. And I think she last night, I will go back to it again.

I don't know where it came from and where it's been four weeks ago even, but we saw leadership last night.