Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/8/24

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Harris and Walz hold two rallies in Midwest

So this is a fight to make real the promise of America for every person in our nation. And also, I'll tell you and I promise you, our campaign is going to reach out to everyone from red states, from blue states, from the heartland to the coast. We are running a campaign on behalf of all Americans. And when elected, we will govern on behalf of all Americans. And when elected, we will govern on behalf of all Americans. Because Coach Walz and I know, and we're clear about this, unlike the other side, we work for you. We work for you, the American people, and we will always fight for you, for your family, for your freedoms and for your future. Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at yet another packed rally. Thousands of people stepped up to watch her.

One of two stops on the campaign trail yesterday in key battleground states. It comes as Donald Trump has been relatively quiet on the trail, hunkered down at Mar-a-Lago and complaining about the vice president's surge in the polls. We'll go through all of that in just a moment. And we will fact check the Trump campaign's attack of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz regarding his military service. Also ahead, what was supposed to be an eight day mission for two astronauts could now extend into the next year. We'll explain while they're stuck on the International Space Station. That's a long time. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Thursday, August 8th. Joe is traveling this morning. Willie will join us later with an update at the Olympics in Paris. With us, we have the

host of way too early, White House Spear Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, MSNBC contributor and author of the book, How the Right Lost Its Mind, Charlie Sykes, Congressional Investigations Reporter for The Washington Post, Jackie Alimany, is with us this morning. And White House correspondent for Politico and co-author of the playbook, Eugene Daniels, is with us as well. Good to have all of you with us this morning. So Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, spent their first full day together on the campaign trail with two stops in the Midwest. The pair visited Eau Claire, Wisconsin yesterday, looking to build more momentum for the new Democratic ticket. There was plenty of enthusiasm for Harris and Walz.

Look at this line. This says everything you need to know. Standing in the sun, waiting for a chance to get to a Kamala Harris, Tim Walz rally. Twelve thousand people packed the outdoor rally despite warm temperatures, which Governor Walz acknowledged when he spoke to the crowd. Meanwhile, the vice president again drew a clear contrast between their campaign and the Republican ticket. And a real special thank you to everybody here looking out across here. Look, you're busy people. You got things to do. It's a summer day. You had to walk two miles. I had nothing to do with that, by the way, nothing. So, but you came here for one beautiful, simple reason.

You love this country and this democracy. And understand in this fight, as Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors. Joyful warriors. because we know that while fighting for a brighter future may be hard work hard work is good work hard work is good work and so we will continue to fight for affordable housing for affordable health care affordable child care and paid leave. We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America's families so that they have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead. So then it was on to Michigan after that event in Wisconsin, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz spoke to a fired up crowd in Detroit, Michigan last night. The campaign says it was

forced to change venues to an airport hangar after receiving 47,000 ticket requests to the event. According to the campaign, 15,000 attended, making it one of their largest rallies yet. Unlike Donald Trump, I will always put the middle class and working families first. Because Coach Walls and I know the middle class built this great country of ours. And when the middle class is strong, America is strong. The man has openly vowed, if reelect he said that he will even quote terminate the constitution of the united states

because let us be very clear someone who suggests we should terminate the constitution of the united states should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States. Never again. I don't know if we can find some video of the crowds there, but Charlie Sykes, I'd like to go to you because yesterday on the show you said, I think it'll be interesting to see what happens in Michigan and Wisconsin. So what do you think about what is happening in Michigan and Wisconsin, especially at rallies like this, where you have people showing up in the heat, showing up because they just met Tim Walz and they want to get more. And they are just meeting Kamala Harris as a candidate, but they're showing up for her in droves. And I'll just say personal anecdote.

I know some Republican women who worked in government for Republican candidates and politicians who are showing up at one of these rallies. We're going to travel across the country to be there for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. What do you make of it? Is it a sugar high or is something happening here? Well, it may be a sugar high, but something's definitely happening here. You know, you know, you always try to sift out the wishful thinking and the speculation from what's actually happening. And that's actually happening. Look, OK, OK, Wisconsin is a I would

say, you know, fifty to fifty three percent, you know, Biden area surrounded by a sea of red. That's a big crowd turnout in Wisconsin. But you're seeing this around the country. And I think it's an indication of the fact that here's a party that hasn't had these kinds of big rallies, hasn't had this kind of enthusiasm. And it is really it is generating a lot of activism that you don't see. I was talking to some Democrats yesterday here in Wisconsin, and they're seeing this up and down the ballot. I mean, it's not just the presidential race. These people are being activated. And again, you know, just remember three where we were three weeks ago. The mood of the Democratic Party compared to this is really extraordinary.

But that turnout in Wisconsin is important because, of course, this is the theory of the case. Right. For for Tim Walz, that is that he will have this kind of appeal, not just in Minnesota, but in rural areas like Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in Michigan. And at least that's playing out in the short term. And the contrast, the contrast between what you're seeing there on the screen and the fact that where is Donald Trump? Donald Trump is not on the campaign trail. And you have J.D. Vance doing this sort of pathetic, weird stalking thing. So this is rather extraordinary split screen, the non-Trump campaign versus these kinds of enthusiastic rallies. Right. We're going to get to the awkward stalking the plane moment in just a minute. But I'm just

curious, Jonathan Lemire, because, of course, of course, Joe doesn't like it when I do this, but I do watch a lot of the right, whether it's Fox News or Newsmax or podcasts, and I want to hear what the reaction is on the right. And what I found interesting is that it's extremely mixed and extremely vitriolic and extremely loud, but not all the same stories. Almost as if there's a grasping going on. I could be overstating it, but it's everything from talking about his walk, talking about his appearance, trying to spread disinformation about his story, but very loud, very, there's almost like a manic reaction to scramble to figure out what's wrong with this guy. And then you like cut to a picture of Tim Walz and he's on the shotgun with his

daughter at the Minnesota State Fair or, you know, surrounded by kids. I mean, he doesn't have, I don't know. I mean, does this look like a cruel, mean guy? Does this look like the boogeyman? Because last time I checked, he's a pretty popular guy who is now garnering crowds of 10, 12, 14,000 along with Kamala Harris. So which is it, Jonathan Lemire? Yeah, I mean, certainly right now, Republicans are straining for any sort of coherent attack lines on the new Democratic ticket, on Vice President Harris, on Governor Walz. I mean, they're debuting a few more, which we'll see if they have traction or not, including calling into question some of parts of Governor Walz's military service. But right now, this is a remarkable rollout for the Democrats, in sharp contrast to the very shaky rollout that J.D. Vance has had so far since he was added to the ticket. We should note the Cook Political Report, which has a pretty good read on polling and handling of things,

just moved three states, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia. All three had been leaning Republican. Now in the toss-up category, which shows Harris has moved anywhere between two and five points in those states, showing just how tight this race has become. And Eugene Daniels, we saw there in Wisconsin, the appeal of this ticket, sort of out in more suburban rural areas. That's where Tim Wall certainly is going to spend a lot of time. But the vice president and her running mate were also in Detroit last night. You're in Detroit. You're at the rally. And she drew a big crowd there as well. And that's also so key here. There were so many Democrats in months,

the last few months, where President Biden was atop the ticket who were worried that he couldn't turn out cities, he couldn't turn out young voters, he couldn't turn out voters of color. You need to run up margins in the big cities in order to win those battleground states. At least for one night,

Harris proved quite the draw. Give us your read as to your takeaways from what you saw. Yeah, 50,000 people in kind of an airport hangar is not how I typically think of Vice President Harris. And I've been covering her for this entire time. And during 2019, it is people looking for, and I talked to folks yesterday who were hot and people were kind of falling out,

needing water, who stayed there for hours waiting to kind of just get a glimpse. It's something that we've never seen because they see her as a solution to a problem they had. For a long time, Democrats felt like they had no chance in a lot of these states, including Michigan, that they were losing their grip on the possibility of winning later in November, that they were losing the ability to beat Donald Trump. And so what you're hearing and seeing from folks is this excitement that, like, we're back on the board, right? That is how Democrats are feeling right now.

And they see Vice President Harris and now Tim Walz as a new beginning to something. And they have not a lot of time. I will say Vice President Harris herself has been very clear with her team, have not a lot of time. I will say Vice President Harris herself has been very clear with her team, talked to a bunch of staff in the hotel, as you can see here in Detroit. And the thing that they keep saying is that she has brought up over and over and over again to remind her team to not get obsessed with the sugar high. We reported this in Politico a couple of weeks back. She's continued to say that she said in all of these and this speech that, you know, we're the underdog because she is very cognizant of 2016 when Democrats felt like they had it in the bag and then folks didn't get used to this sugar high. You have to get out and do the work. We are the underdogs because she can see how excited a candidate could get with all of these rallies. And then at the end of the day, maybe it doesn't turn itself into an actual win in November.

It is, you know, I've, like I said, I've been covering her this entire time. And the idea that Vice President Harris would have 15,000 people in an airport hangar in Michigan is just like it is kind of head spinning for those of us who've been paying a lot of attention. And also same thing for President Biden. Right. President Biden's biggest biggest events were 2000, 3000 people. Those pale and serious comparison, including the folks in Wisconsin who walked for miles, literally two miles, including our colleague Elena Schneider, who was there covering it, had to get out of her car and walk two miles so she could actually get to the event. And people have been doing that here, there, and we're going to Arizona later today for her event tomorrow. And it seems like the campaign says there's a lot, there's thousands and thousands of people ready to do the same thing.

So this is the swing and this rollout of Tim Walz and this ticket. It hasn't has gone really well for Vice President Harris and her team right now. I don't I completely agree. Kamala Harris, of all people, would know you never, especially as a woman, we know never to get confident and to keep the work going. But if you look at that crowd, if I could just point out some contrasts here, Donald Trump says people in the crowd should get punched. Reporters should get punched, you know, screams things about people who need to get dragged out. We will have Kamala Harris's response to protesters in just a moment. And by the way,

Jackie Alimany, let's see, people like getting so overheated at rallies or in audiences and needing water. You know where that happens? At Adele concerts, at Taylor Swift concerts. That's like you get them on Instagram. You see those moments where Adele is like, stop, stop, please. Let's get this person some water. And Tim Waltz literally did that yesterday because somebody needed water. And it was trending as this incredible moment. I don't know what's going on, but people are very excited about this ticket. And this ticket knows it needs to keep working. The Harris campaign is booked and busy, visiting swing states this weekend. And there's another contrast. Former

President Trump's schedule seems kind of empty. He spent the past couple of days in dark Mar-a-Lago posting pictures with a podcaster. Today, the vice president will hold another campaign event in Michigan before traveling to Phoenix for a rally there tomorrow. Harris then heads to Las Vegas for a campaign event on Saturday. Meanwhile, Trump's campaign, the website lists one event for his support. I feel like I need a sad trombone. A rally tomorrow in Bozeman, Montana, not really a swing state, but the former president is not happy with the state of his campaign. Reportedly, multiple sources tell The Washington Post Trump has grown increasingly upset about Harris's surging poll numbers and media coverage since replacing Biden on the ticket, complaining relentlessly and asking friends about how his

campaign is performing. It's unfair, he is a victim, that I beat him and now I have to beat her too, Trump told an ally in a phone call last weekend. According to the paper, Trump's campaign has found itself publicly struggling to manage the daily news cycle as excitement around Harris has swelled along with her campaign activity. It has left people close to the campaign wondering why Trump and his team seemed ill-prepared, given that they had privately speculated for weeks after Biden's disastrous June 27th debate performance that Harris was going to be the nominee. The Post also reports that outside allies are now telling Trump that he does not have a significant ground game in key battleground states and to spend more on digital advertising, saying he's being pummeled online.

For its part, the campaign remains confident that he will win decisively in November. So, Jackie, the schedules say everything you need to know about Donald Trump and J.D. Vance versus Kamala and Tim. Yeah, again, the contrast really could not be more dramatic and jarring right now. And it's some incredible reporting you just read from my colleagues, Josh Dossier and Michael Scherer, about the dark hole that Donald Trump finds himself in weeks after a convention where a lot of Republicans thought they had locked this up and that there was really no world in which Joe Biden would would do the hard thing and pass the torch to Kamala Harris and that there wouldn't have been such a seamless transition that we've seen now. I mean, even with some of the disappointments that Republicans were trying to set up this week, trying to make this leap that, you know, Kamala

Harris picking Tim Walz over someone like Josh Shapiro, who Republicans claimed they were far more terrified of having him as her running mate. Even that attack has fallen flat. As you've seen, we've all seen the Tim Walz helping Kamala Harris put together these Adele S. concerts. Again, very stark contrast to these grievance fests that we've seen so far along. You have J.D. Vance with a boss who has not even been able to give him really anything more than milquetoast statements of endorsements, you know, saying on the NABJ stage last week, after saying a slew of pretty inflammatory and offensive comments about Harris, that it didn't matter that J.D. Vance was his VP pick at the end of the day because the VP pick doesn't matter.

So this is a campaign that is clearly struggling. You have his allies speaking on the record, Lindsey Graham, saying that the president really needs to sort of get his act, the former president needs to get his act together here. And meanwhile, you see Walz and Harris forging ahead and running this, what everyone is calling and what is clearly apparent, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, that this joy, this this campaign of infectious and dynamic joy that we're seeing. All right. Coming up on Morning Joe, the Trump campaign and allies of the former president are attacking Tim Walz for his military record.

We'll have a fact check of that ahead. Also this morning, outgoing Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan joins us after speaking at the packed rally for Kamala Harris in Detroit last night. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. Oh, can we get somebody to help? Somebody's hot. Somebody's hot. Can we get somebody to help? You okay? Drink some water, folks. It is hot out. Get somebody up. Thank you. We get water. Thank you all for helping. Grateful. Thank you all. Take care of one another on this. This is why we gather. Look, it's hot. It is hot. I'll come again. They've got folks here. We'll make sure we're okay. But I have to tell you all again, in all seriousness, to come and gather like this, to talk about our freedoms, the ability to talk about what could be good. And I have to say, this idea of caring for our neighbor and kindness and a hand up when

somebody needs it, or just the sense of that people go through things and to be able to be there when they need it, that's who we are. It's not about mocking. It's not name callings. You see it amongst them. People criticize me being a little too serious, including bogus questions from the media, man. I mean, look, I think if you watch a full speech that I give, I actually am having a good time out here and I'm enjoying this. But look, sometimes you got to take the good with the bad. And right now I am angry about what Kamala Harris

has done to this country and done to the American Southern border. And I think that most people in our country, they can be happy-go-lucky sometimes, they can enjoy things sometimes, and they can turn on the news and recognize that what's going on in this country is a disgrace. President Trump in particular has the best sense of humor of anybody I've ever seen in American politics. He loves to joke. He loves to tell, he loves to make fun of everybody that's out there. And I think you gotta do that from time to time.

But he's also a guy who's very frustrated with what Kamala Harris has done to this country. Both of those things can be true. And I think most Americans can joke around but also be pissed off about the direction of this country. Both of those things can be true. And I think most Americans can joke around, but also be pissed off about the direction of this country. J.D. Vance says Donald Trump's sense of humor is evident because, quote, he loves to make fun of everybody that's out there. Seems mean, doesn't it? Senator Vance, meanwhile, attempted to confront Vice President Kamala Harris after the two landed on the same Wisconsin airport tarmac at the same time. Cameras captured Vance walking toward Harris's plane.

When asked afterwards what he was doing, he told reporters that he wanted to speak to Harris, adding that hopefully Air Force Two would be his soon. I just wanted to check out my future plane, but I also wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask her why Kamala Harris refuses. Why does she refuse to answer questions from the media? And I also thought that the press gaggle following her might get a little lonely. I at least have enough respect for you all and for the American people you report to, to come and talk to you and to answer some questions. And so I thought her reporters might actually benefit from that as well. Charlie, I'm I. Yeah, it just seems so rookie. I'm thinking, you know, I mean, I don't like the name calling thing. I think it's mean when Trump does that with people. He's always like little Marco or whatever. But I got to tell you, J.V. Vance

kind of fits right here. Your thoughts. Who thought this was a good idea? I mean, really, to put the vice presidential candidate on this weird stalking routine and that and that gimmick was I mean, it was lame with hair on it. It was just it was just embarrassing. It was it was it was cringe. Yeah, it was. It was awkward, in part because, as we were talking about before, I mean, the split screen between this enthusiastic, happy warrior campaign. Then there's J.D. Vance, who who bungles easy questions about what makes you smile. And he couldn't even come up with something that made him sound like an authentic human being. And later he was asked by a Wisconsin reporter, you know, why would a Wisconsin I want to have beer with you? And he bungled that. It's like he can't even bring himself to say something,

just say something normal about all of this. Now, I know you're going to do a fact check, but I also think, look, I mean, I have been critical of J.D. Vance in the past, and I have a list of words that I'm not going to use on the air to describe some of the things that he is doing, including his decision to attack Tim Walz on his military experience. J.D. Vance has shown himself willing to do things that would be beneath the dignity of most politicians in America on both the right and the left. He is willing to say things to engage in the kinds of below the belt, unfair, dishonest, puerile attacks that I think that most politicians, I think, would would say, you know what, let somebody else do that. Or that's really not where we want to go in this campaign. But with Donald Trump, you know, sitting in splendid isolation down in Mar-a-Lago, what have they got?

They have J.D. Vance and they have decided to go as dark and ugly as possible. And of course, with the added dollop of cringe that J.D. Vance always brings to these things. Well, and that's the thing. And I think it probably bothers Donald Trump that he's willing to say these things. That's good. But he doesn't say them.

He doesn't execute. And it comes out very cringy, very kind of awkward, unfortunately for him. But when he's lying or when he's willing to to push concepts that are, you know, Trump ask, I think it must be hard, must be hard for somebody who wrote hillbilly elegy to find himself at this point in his life. Here's Senator Vance accusing Governor Waltz of retiring from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005 in order to avoid being deployed to Iraq. Take a look at this. You know what really bothers me about Tim Waltz as a Marine who served his country in uniform? When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it.

I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably, and I'm very proud of that service. When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. So in a moment of fact check, but first, here's MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Waltz's record and why he left the guard. Among the tiny fraction of Americans who enlist, a much smaller share make a career of it, serving 20 years or more with multiple, multiple deployments. Only a tiny fraction of those fought to stay in the service after being disabled on the job.

And one of them is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, an enlisted soldier in the National Guard for nearly a quarter of a century. A journey that began on a Nebraska farm as soon as he was eligible to join. My father served during Korean War, and the day after I turned 17, he took me down to an Army National Guard recruiter, and I raised my hand and signed up. That was in 1981. Ronald Reagan was president. Now, Walz continued to serve for the next 24 years under four commanders in chief. He spent most of that time as an artillery soldier, and it took a toll on his hearing. In fact, in 2002, after he'd already done 20 years, he qualified for retirement. A medical board considered discharging him because of his hearing impairment.

Instead, he convinced them to let him complete his final enlistment, which began after 9-11. Walls achieved the highest enlisted rank in the Army, Command Sergeant Major. But rather than stay in and complete the schooling for that rank, Walls retired in 2005 at the rank of Master Sergeant. Part, he says, because he wanted at that point to speak freely about political injustice, specifically the Iraq War. The following year, he was one of more than 60 anti-war veterans running for Congress as the Fighting Dems, a group that included Jim Webb, Patrick Murphy, and Tammy Duckworth. I spent 24 years in the Army National Guard. I spent the better part of two decades as a public school teacher. I'm a small business owner. I'm a father

and I'm a husband. I intend to come here to Washington to provide authentic leadership and to truly represent the people of my district and the people of the United States. Wall's experience in the armed forces is an atypical one for most Americans, particularly for politicians at the national level. I mean, there really is literally no one like him. And now Walls is running with Kamala Harris against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. And perhaps not that surprisingly, Republicans are trying to swift vote Walls, denigrating his service the way they did with Vietnam vet John Kerry 20 years ago, saying he stole valor and left the army to avoid going to Iraq. It's a playbook Republicans also used against Walls

when he ran for governor of Minnesota, and it failed them because they're lies. It turns out when voters hear about the quarter-century wall spent as a citizen-soldier, the time he spent since then fighting for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to get the benefits they deserve, they don't see what Republicans do. They see a rare kind of veteran in politics who can cut through the self-serving BS rather than adding to it. So here are the facts. According to Minnesota Public Radio, a medical board considered dismissing Waltz in 2002 due to hearing problems he developed while working with high powered weapons during his more than two decades in the National Guard. At that point, a guardsman who served under Waltz says he was already openly discussing retiring in order to run for Congress.

Records show that in January of 2005, he did indeed take that step and filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. in a campaign statement that there were talks about units potentially being deployed, but wrote, quote, I do not yet know if my artillery unit will be part of this mobilization. In May of that year, documents show he officially retired from the military, meaning he likely had to inform the National Guard of his plans many months earlier. In July of 2005, six months after Waltz declared his intent to run for Congress, his former battalion received a mobilization alert and then the following month, the order to deploy. Vance also accused Waltz yesterday of lying about his rank of command sergeant major. But in a new statement, the National Guard says the governor did indeed reach that level, though he, quote, retired as a master sergeant for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army sergeant's major academy.

Jonathan Lemire, again, different people do different types of service. And J.D. Vance is going after Tim Waltz and lining it with untruths. But also, I feel like a service member denigrating another service member for his service is just I don't know. I'm not sure how that's going to play. That may go in the J.V. Vance category as well. We'll see. You hear more from the Harris campaign, clearing up a few little discrepancies. But the overall argument, as you just laid out in that fact check and as our colleague Chris Hayes did last night, it simply doesn't hold water. This idea of stolen valor, this idea that he bailed on his unit to avoid combat deployment. These are attacks that don't seem particularly honest, and it's unclear whether they will resonate. And Charlie Sykes, I think it's a couple other things need to be noted here.

First of all, this just shows how the Trump team has really struggled to come up with any sort of effective attack lines against Vice President Harris, and now in these early days, her running mate. So they're seizing upon this. We should say, perhaps it's not too surprising, Chris LaCivita, who is one of the top Trump aides,

he was the architect of the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry back in 2004. So this is a familiar playbook with him. Those also, many of them factually inaccurate. And then we should leave no conversation about political candidates, military services without noting that Donald Trump repeatedly dodged military service because he claimed he had bone spurs. And then later, when asked what foot they were in, couldn't remember. No, exactly. Yeah, the two words that I was going to use were bone spurs here. Look, I've spent a lot of time around veterans. I'm not a veteran myself,

but one of the things I did in the before times was, you know, to raise money to send World War II veterans to their memorial in Washington, D.C. And one of the points that we often made with the veterans was that all of their service was honorable, wherever they were, whether they were, you know, radar operators or whether they were, you know, in supplies. And this is what I think is so beneath J.D. Vance here, to go after someone like Tim Walz, who served for 24 years and was disabled in his service. Well, J.D. Vance, and again, we should thank him for his service, but he was not in combat either. But he has made a kind of a penchant for attacking other members of the service, denigrating them. A while back, he was attacking General Barry McCaffrey. It seems to be kind of a thing for J.D. Vance.

But it is the dishonesty of all of this, reaching back into the Swift Boat playbook to go after someone like Tim Walz, who spent, as you point out, 24 years, more than two decades serving his country. And the timeline that you lay out is very clear. You know, when he retired, people retire all the time from the military. This is not that radical. People in the military understand this, particularly when you have made a career of it. So I just think the attacks, the attacks are potentially potent, but they are so fundamentally dishonest. I do hope, and I was listening to your discussion with Brendan Buck in the last hour, the Harris campaign has to take

this seriously because, you know, things like soul and valor can resonate. This is one of the things that the conservative media is very effective at getting out there to push out. And I think that they do need to engage. They do need to push back. But I also think that they need to go on the offensive about this, that a presidential ticket headed by Donald Trump, who used bone spurs to avoid service in Vietnam, the fact that a Donald Trump led ticket would once again attack a member of the military who had served. You know, I couldn't help but think about his attacks on John McCain. I couldn't help but think about the reports in The Atlantic about the way that he had denigrated service members when he was president of the United States. This is not something that they should take lightly. And I don't think that

they should be overly defensive about it. As you point out, you know, if there are discrepancies, you know, clear those discrepancies up. But this is this is an honorable service. And there is just something particularly loathsome about J.D. Vance's decision to go after Tim Walz on this particular issue. Well, I mean, it just it's it's part of a bigger picture of a campaign and a former presidency of Donald Trump that feasts on dishonesty and disinformation. And they do that to deflect from a record where the cruelty, the violence, the anti-democratic values, the disrespect for our Constitution is the entire point. That's who they are. And that's what they want to distract from by trying to tear these two very positive, joyful, energetic people down. So to an extent, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are riding a high right now. And probably the strategy is just to Eugene Daniels, just keep moving forward in that way

and make sure they deflect the disinformation, what comes their way, but embrace the joy, which you see them doing. And it's not just, I mean, look at these crowds. It's like there's just something happening. You can't deny it when you have to move to an airport hangar and then that's not even big enough. You are on to something here, not just with your VP pick, but with your entire campaign. There has been a burst of energy and enthusiasm. You have people waiting out in the hot sun. That anecdotal evidence, Donald Trump himself depends on for his own sense of value. His very first event, inaugural event when he was elected president, he had to lie about his crowd size. Crowd size is very important to Donald Trump.

So crowd size is going to be very scary to the Trump campaign moving forward. And it doesn't look like these crowds are getting smaller. The other thing that's growing, Eugene Daniels, is fundraising. I mean, Kamala Harris in her first day on the trail broke records, and it seems like the numbers keep coming in. Yeah. The kind of joyful aspect of this and even how they may respond or not to the accusations about Tim Walz's military record, it is in line with the joyful aspect of how they're running this campaign, which is to not get bogged down in the attacks that are coming on them. You can even think about when on the NABJ stage,

Donald Trump said that wrongly that Kamala Harris all of a sudden became black, which is not a thing. I've been black my whole life. You can't just pop up and be black. That was something that when you ask the campaign, all she said, all her team said was, you know, that's what we expect from him. And they moved on, right? They're trying not to get bogged down and kind of the back and forth on things that for them, they feel like are silly or are more of the same that they've seen on this money. That's coming in, $36 million, more than $36 million in the first 24 hours of announcing

Tim Walz. That's wild amounts of money, right? You think of the hundreds of millions of dollars that have piled into their coffers since Vice President Harris, not even after she became the official nominee, but before when she was just at the top of the ticket. That number for them gives them the capability of playing in states that maybe Democrats didn't think they could play in. Right.

We're going to Arizona. She's going to Nevada. That what they're saying to people is, oh, no, the map for them is open, much more open than they thought before. But now they can take all of this excitement, all of these crowds, and more importantly, take this money and pay people to knock on doors, do ads over and over on television in some of these rural areas that Democrats have struggled in, do online advertising in different ways. That's how this campaign is thinking about using all this money. They don't want to get too excited about how much money it is. But the ability to go out and make their message known to more people than they probably

thought that they're going to be able to is really fascinating. You know, if you talk to folks behind the scenes about what they thought they were going to be able to do when it was President Biden at the ticket, they didn't think this amount of money wasn't coming in. The big money donors and the small money donors have kind of stopped since June 27th when they had that disastrous debate giving money. That's changed. That is also a huge dynamic that the Trump campaign is going to have to figure out how to deal with a campaign that has a lot of excitement and big crowds and, more importantly, a lot of money. Eugene Daniels, thank you very much. And Charlie Sykes, thank you as well. Great

to have you both on this morning and coming up on Morning Joe, we'll have the highlights from another golden day for Team USA at the Summer Olympics. Plus, Willie Geist joins us live from Paris. Morning Joe, we'll be right back. There's an old saying in politics that what can swing undecided voters in a place like Wisconsin is whether you seem like somebody they would like to have a beer with. Yeah. Why would people in Wisconsin want to have a beer with you? Well, I guess I guess they they'd like they'd want to have a beer with me because I actually do like to drink beer. let's now bring in willie geist live from paris willie i thought i was hoping to see you participate in the artistic swimming competition maybe maybe in Los Angeles four years from now. But it is sad that the Olympics are, frankly, sad.

The Olympics are starting to wind down, but still a lot of great storylines. Yeah, just barely didn't make weight or talent for artistic swimming this time around. But high hopes, as you say, for 2028. It is winding down. This is the last time I'll see you from this position in France right here in Paris with the Arc de Triomphe behind me, the Eiffel Tower over there. Headed home back to you guys a short time from now. A little bit more on some of those highlights John just ran through. The United States women's basketball team is an absolute juggernaut. We saw it again last night.

Aja Wilson, the best player in the world, the WNBA MVP, another double-double for her. As John said, a 59th consecutive victory. The last time U.S. women's basketball lost in the Olympics was in the semifinals of the 1992 Barcelona Games against a unified Soviet team. Meanwhile, on the track, that run by Quincy Hall, 400 meters, an incredible comeback for the gold medal there. Weaving through traffic, first on the outside, improbable, then turned to the inside, found a lane to win gold. A great win for him in the 400 meters. He thanked his community college back in California after the race for teaching him the grit he needed to get that win. Artistic swimming, John mentioned it.

It's the talk of the games this morning because the American team did what they called an underwater moonwalk to a little Michael Jackson music. The women winning the silver medal, their first medal in 20 years. If you haven't seen the video, check it out online. They're inverted underwater and moonwalking with their feet across the top. There's a still picture of it. It's kind of incredible. And by the way, this is not your

mother or father's synchronized swimming. There are gymnastic throws out of the water. It's really a fun event. And the women of the United States took home silver last night. No medal for the first time ever in beach volleyball for the United States. That's because the final men's pairing lost last night in the quarterfinals. Both women's teams also have been knocked out. The other men's team knocked out. So there will be, for the first time in Olympic history, no men's beach volleyball or women's beach volleyball medal for the United States. Looking ahead today, it is all about two things.

First, the track. Noah Lyles going for gold in the 200 meter. Remember, he won the 100 meter by five thousandths of a second. And the great Sydney McLaughlin, New Jersey native, defending her gold medal in the 400 meter hurdle. She's also the world record holder. Also tonight in primetime on the court, the men's basketball team in the semifinals playing to get into the gold medal game. But first, they got to get through a friendly face. That is Nikola Jokic, the Joker,

the three-time NBA MVP of Serbia that the United States beat about a week ago, Serbia in the pool round by 26 points. But they're not letting their guard down. Jokic is that good. And final note to you, Joe, or to John and to Mika, is that today is the 32nd anniversary of the original Dream Team, the 1992 Dream Team, winning that gold medal in Barcelona that changed, of course, the Olympic

basketball, that changed international basketball, brought the game to the world. They beat Croatia by 32 points to win gold. They won their games by an average of 43 points. And notably, Mika, they never called a timeout during the tournament. There just wasn't much to discuss. Back to you, Mika. Wow. Willie Geist reporting from Paris. It's always great to see you, Willie. Thank you so much for your coverage. And still ahead, American gymnast Jordan Childs will be live in studio following her epic performance at the Paris Olympics. We'll show you the routine where she earned her first individual medal. Also ahead, Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan will join us with her take on Governor Tim Walz and how he will play out with Midwest voters.

Morning Joe, we'll be right back. Just before the top of the hour, a live look at the White House, a rainy, dreary day in Washington. So the test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft was supposed to be a short mission. But now, more than 60 days later, the two veteran NASA astronauts who piloted it are still stuck in space. NBC News senior aviation correspondent Tom Costello has the latest on when they could return to Earth. Now on day 63 of what was supposed to be a 10-day mission, NASA said astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams may remain in space until February. Butch and Sonny would remain on station and become part of that increment

and return home with them on Crew 9. Crew 9 is a SpaceX mission to the station set to launch in late September, returning next year. For months, NASA has insisted Wilmore and Williams are not stuck in space. Years behind schedule, Boeing's troubled Starliner launched on a test flight in early June. But Starliner has remained docked to the space station, with mission managers divided over whether it's safe to bring Wilmore and Williams home. Ground teams are still trying to troubleshoot Starliner's helium leaks and engine thruster problems. Starliner needs those thrusters for a safe return. Now NASA could bring Starliner home autonomously without a crew. Williams and Wilmore, both NASA veterans, recently insisted they're not worried.

I have a real good feeling in my heart that this spacecraft will bring us home, no problem. In a statement, Boeing says it still believes in Starliner's capability and its flight rationale. If NASA decides to change the mission, it'll take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return. That mantra you've heard, failure is not an option. That's why we are staying here now. A 10-day mission that could turn into eight months. Eight months. NBC's Tom Costello with that report. We will be following that. We'll turn back to politics now at the top of the hour. The Harris-Walls campaign is making a key play in Michigan and Wisconsin, part of the so-called blue wall. The campaign yesterday

revealed it now has 50 field offices in Michigan and 48 in Wisconsin. Yesterday's campaign stops in two states marked Harris's fifth trip to Michigan this year and her sixth visit to Wisconsin. Trump narrowly won both states in 2016, while President Biden flipped the pair in 2020. Trump last visited Michigan in late July after the Republican National Convention. Joining us now, the national co-chair for the Harris-Waltz campaign, Mitch Landrieu. Mitch, there's a lot of joy, a lot of optimism out of the box and a lot of attacks coming from the Trump side. What's the campaign strategy strategy to stay on track? And geographically, what's the plan?

Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me this morning. As you know, you saw the vice president and Tim Walz in Pennsylvania. You saw them in Michigan. You saw them in Wisconsin, which you also saw with thousands and thousands of people coming to see them. So what has changed in the last 19 days is a lot of energy. Obviously, the fundraising numbers are through the roof, over $300 million. And of course, a huge number of volunteers. And so nothing really beats organization and hard work. As you noted, the number of times that she's been to Wisconsin and to Michigan and, of course, to Pennsylvania. We also have been for a year organizing for this very moment because we know and we still believe this is a very, very, very close race. But you know what hasn't changed? Donald Trump. Donald Trump's still a convicted felon.

He's still a sexual abuser. He's still unfit for the presidency. And he is really grabbing for straws right now and trying to find a way to make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz look bad. But they're having a hard time doing it. So on the fronts of criminality, of being liable for sexual abuse, liable for fraud, convicted in the New York case, I guess a convicted felon. Um, how, how much of a line does the Harris-Walls team want to draw on that on stage? I noticed the crowd usually starts chanting, lock him up, and then the candidates say, whoa, whoa, slow down. So how do you define what is true about Donald Trump without then engaging in kind of drumming up behavior that perhaps we don't want to see on the campaign trail?

Well, I think the vice president did that yesterday. You know, she told the crowd that's fine, but that's what the courts are for, because we're the party you see that actually believes in law and order and the separation of powers and courts doing what they're supposed to do and making sure that nobody is above the law. However, the only jury that really matters right now, the only people that are going to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office are the folks that are out there today and they have to go vote. This is going to be a very close election. Make no mistake about it. We're thrilled with the energy. We're thrilled with the money. We're thrilled with the volunteers because this is a fight for the future of America. And the vice president has spoken to this eloquently with great joy, great enthusiasm. And so this race was about anarchy versus democracy. But now it's about young or old. It's about the future versus the past.

It's about whether you want to live in a way that lifts other people up, which is our side, or push other people down. And the fact of the matter is Donald Trump's character is right where it needs to be. And people can never forget matter is Donald Trump's character is right where it needs to be. And people can never forget of all the things that have happened to him and whether or not he's fit for office. He also has a vice presidential candidate that's not right. He's not ready and he's and he's not real. And so I put Tim Walz and Kamala Harris against those two guys any day of the week.