Morning Joe - Morning Joe 9/10/24

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

The Morning Joe panel discusses the latest polling ahead of tonight's first debate between VP Kamala Harris and former President Trump.

Ray, when the bank opens in the morning, they'll foreclose. People will come, Ray. You're broke, Ray. You sell now or you lose everything. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard,

rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. and it could be again. Oh. People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come. Oh, my goodness. One of the many iconic moments

from James Earl Jones's legendary career. The actor died yesterday at the age of 93 and we'll be taking a look at that legacy. But right now, around this set and around homes across America, men are weeping and women next to them are going, I don't get it. He's walking out of cornfields. But I will tell you, Willie, guys, long after we are all gone,

they will, they will. People will be looking at that scene. And as long as baseball is played, the same reaction, the same reaction. What an incredible actor. What an incredible moment. What an incredible life. Yeah, I watched that monologue again, actually, early this morning. And just from start to finish, the tension in that scene when Costner is being told he needs to sell the farm. And then James Earl Jones stands up with the way he's always commanded a screen or a stage or wherever he's been with his face or his voice even and says, no, they will come, Ray.

They will come and convinces him to hang on. And the dream continues there. But my gosh, we'll get into a little deeper. But Darth Vader, of course, he was the voice of Darth Vader, Mufasa in The Lion King coming to America. He was so great. But he also had there was a block from here. There's a theater named after James Earl Jones. He had an incredible stage career, won three Tonys, I think, going back to the 1950s, a groundbreaking actor. So he did all the big flashy stuff we know about like Darth Vader, but also just one of the most highly respected actors on the stage and the screen who's ever lived. Just incredible. And you brought the Lion King. Another one of those moments. Simba, you are more than you have become.

It just loops in my mind every day. Come on, Joe. Be better. But anyway, Nika, just in case you didn't understand that scene from Lion King, it all makes sense. A few minutes later, when a young ballplayer walks off the field, turns into Burt Lancaster and saves a little girl's life. So anyway, we'll have to watch that this weekend. Thank you. Meanwhile, it's a really big day politically with the first and possibly only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump tonight in Philadelphia. We're going to preview that showdown and go through the latest polling from states which could decide November's election. Also ahead, we're going to explain the false claims about migrants and pets that are being amplified. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on a second.

The Trump family is amplifying this. Yeah. Yeah. This is I mean, I don't even know where to begin. You know, it used to be, I think, in twenty eighteen, twenty twenty. the lie about about immigrants and illegal immigrants, Caddy, was they were bringing leprosy to America, which, of course, they were not. Now it is that they are eating your dogs. They are coming to America and eating your cats. Don't live in Ohio with a cat because it might get eaten, eaten obviously by little mittens is going to be i mean it's sweeping the country it's it's a terrible terrible thing this is absolutely ridiculous and scraping the bottom of the barrel and jd vance has been you know amplifying this and it's being amplified apparently this has gone crazy on the kind of right-wing social media sites um

and it's the allegation. This comes with a very public health warning. Immigrants are not eating your cats. Yes. But the story is that Haitian immigrants are eating cats. And this is how things have changed, Sam. I mean, there have always been crazy social media. This is American politics. The craziness of it is the Internet, but also that you have people on the presidential ticket actually spreading these lies. Now you have J.D. Vance running around going, they are eating your cats.

What's this guy's obsession about cats? First he hates them, then he likes them, he's trying to save them, but then they're like, I don't get it. I think inflation. Maybe too many women like cats rather than J.D. Vance. Maybe he saw some polling and he needs to regain some trust among the cat fans.

Now he's the great protector of cats. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it that way. To your point, yeah, they all have, they all have microphones. They all have huge platforms of their own, right? Used to be that they'd have to call a press conference or do some sit-down interviews, spread some lie. In this case this case quite literally in succession there was like 10 official accounts or unofficial accounts associated with trump campaign that just amplified this completely manufactured sorry a complete lie and also another complete lie jonathan lamere that the season is over for boston red Sox. We continue to fail up.

We continue to lose. And we continue to gain on the Minnesota Twins, the only team in baseball worse than the Red Sox right now. Yeah, the Red Sox have done their best to fall out of this playoff race. We're trying. We are really getting it all. And the Twins, and to a lesser degree, Royals just won't let us. We're still in it somehow.

You can see here we're three games back. Now we are tied with the Tigers and Mariners. So it's a three-way tie there. But three back against the Twins and Royals. And, you know, we did the Yankees, sadly, Willie, a favorite last night. We did, thank you. By beating the Orioles, which allowed them to extend their lead at least. But somehow the Dream will not die yet, if any way.

Yeah, the Yankees have been very middling over the last month or so. But they got a little help from the Red Sox last night. Yankees up a game and a half now. But the Red Sox, three games out, every time you guys say they're dead, they watch Morning Joe, they hear, they put it up on the bulletin board, and they call it out. It's their motivation. And they win again.

The quotes. The quotes. The quotes. Also with us, we have the president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al Sharpton. So ahead of tonight's debate, a slew of new polls finds a tight race for the right across the number of battleground states. According to the latest Morning Consult survey, Donald Trump is up two points in both Arizona and Florida. The former president and Kamala Harris are tied in Georgia,

while the vice president is up three points in Michigan. The pair are tied in both Nevada and North Carolina, while Harris is up three points in both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All of these polls fall within the margin of error. And of course, polls are polls, Joe. They're kind of a snapshot. But wow, quite a tight race. Snapshot.

Again, we thank the New York Times-Siena poll for providing Democrats their monthly freakout. Psychiatrists up and down Fifth Avenue actually had to double down on meds this last couple of days. And they're going to be having an active business. So they thank them for that. But here we have polls that actually now, I mean, Katty, you look at these polls and none of it is good news for Donald Trump. I mean, OK, he's up to an Arizona state that they thought they'd put away only down to in Florida. Now, listen, this is this could be an outlier. Yeah, it could be an outlier, except for the fact that we keep seeing polls that show Harris only down four points.

I've seen three points, four points, now two points in Florida. Florida is a competitive race. You know, Democrats got a false positive a couple of years ago when the Democratic Party just did not compete in the governor's race against DeSantis. So we'll see. Biden only lost it by three and a half points. This is a little bit closer. But, you know, you look tight in Georgia. That's a race that Trump people said they put away months ago. You know, Mika, I can hear you whispering when I'm talking at the table. OK, sweetie. I was just whispering nothings into your ear.

Well, they are nothings because all they do is distract me. I want to know what really happened in that baseball movie. They still don't get it. Okay, so here we go. I'm going to try this again, Patty. So Florida, he's only, Trump's only up two. He's tied in Georgia. He's tied in North Carolina. States that they thought were put away. And then you go up to the industrial Midwest states. Again, all ties all within the margin of error, but they certainly, the ties certainly tilting towards Harris, who's up, what is up, three in the three big states. So the up in Pennsylvania is interesting for Harris because she hasn't been up in many of the polls. I think that's the one that's worth watching to see whether that is and how much that reflects what's actually happening in Pennsylvania.

But the big pattern from this is Florida. I don't know. We have heard that Donald Trump is spending money in the West Palm Beach area. I thought that was perhaps because he wanted to see the ads from Mar-a-Lago, wanted his friends to see the ads from Mar-a-Lago. But maybe actually now I'm wondering, actually, are they thinking, well, we do actually need to spend money in Florida? But all of this, I mean, it points to the fact that, yes, it's tight. And the Trump campaign now has to spend in some of those states that it has that it thought it would put away. Kamala Harris at the moment has the benefit of resources. She can afford to spend in all of these states and is doing so and has expanded the ground game that she's inherited from Joe Biden. So the money helps her there. And Trump is going to have to spread his resources a little thinner.

Yeah. And Reverend Al, he's going to have to spread them across seven states because, in effect, these seven states are tied. If Kamala Harris is competitive in Nevada and Arizona and Florida and Georgia and North Carolina, that is money that's going to be spread out across four, five, six states and money that's not going into Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the three states that really, at the end of the day, make the biggest difference. And those states are the states that he probably needed more than any other time to spend money on. But now he has to spread that money around. And his biggest problem is he has no real infrastructure in those states. What a lot of

people are not looking at is that Kamala Harris and the DNC seems to have built infrastructure in all these states, which you need to get out early voting, which you need to get out voting. Donald Trump is all about Donald Trump. It's a driven by the candidate kind of race in terms of their strategy with no real infrastructure and organization on the ground, particularly in areas that they're not already strong. So not having the money to build and fund an infrastructure in those states is also going to come back to haunt them, I believe, on Election Day. Well, and and, you know, Willie, the the I almost said the Biden team, the Harris team, as well as the Trump team, have basically admitted tie goes to Harris. Because if these states are truly tied going in to the election, when the voting starts all the way through Election Day, Donald Trump does not have the ground game. He just doesn't. He is actually he's subbed it out to third parties in many cases.

And Harris has been spending the hundreds of millions of dollars, not only that she's raised, but also that Joe Biden raised before her on building up that ground game that that shapes elections and close races. Yeah. And the Biden campaign before he stepped aside had already built that ground game with campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon. And then the Harris campaign now has been able to plug into that all while raising half a billion dollars on top of it. So you're right. They have that infrastructure. And let's remember, yes, these are all within the margin of error. But where this race was before Kamala Harris came on board, which is to say, and we all talked to many of the same people around the campaign who privately conceded that North Carolina, probably Nevada, Arizona and maybe even Georgia, they were going to let those go effectively. They're going to fight for them, but they were not counting on them that they just had to win those go effectively. They were going to fight for them, but they were not counting on them.

They just had to win those three blue wall states. Well, now those are in play. And, John, we should also point out that a place like Arizona, on those tickets, there's still the residue of Donald Trump in a candidate for Senate in Kerry Lake, who is not doing well, connected to Donald Trump, helping Ruben Gallego take a lead in that race, potentially helping Kamala Harris there as well. The gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina is what's the polite way of saying it? Controversial. Controversial. Crazy. I was going to go one step further, but we'll leave it with those two. Weird. Weird. OK, that obviously

could help Kamala Harris as well in North Carolina. Yeah, no question. Also in a few of these states, abortion rights on the ballot, which has been certainly such a winner for Democrats since the Dobbs decision of two years ago. And there's some variance in these polls. We had one that we talked about earlier today where Harris is up a couple in Georgia, but down a couple in North Carolina or vice versa. That doesn't matter.

The particulars are not important. What matters is these races are close, but momentum and trend lines largely favoring Harris. And she does have a significant advantage in ground game. In fact, talking to Republicans in the last 24 hours or so, a growing narrative of concern about how, as Joe said, the Trump campaign has farmed out a lot of the blocking and tackling here. They've farmed out the ground game turnout operation. Instead, they've used that money, first of all, for a while, it was Trump legal bills. And then secondly, about these efforts to combat voter fraud, non-existent voter fraud, for the most part, including these claims that it's non-citizens who are voting.

We know that's not the case. There's never been any data to support that. And that just adds to the huge advantage Democrats have. Harris also has so much money on hand. She can spend less time fundraising and more time in those battleground states. Yeah. Ruben Gallego, by the way, I mentioned the Democrat in that Senate race in Arizona in this very morning consult poll now up eight points over Carrie Lake. So with all that as a backdrop, we're just hours away from tonight's presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris. The high stakes

showdown will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center. This time, this will be the first time the two have faced off on a debate stage against each other. It's also actually the first time they've ever met in person. There will again be no audience in the room. Both sides agreed to the rules ahead of time. Those include microphones only being on for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and then muted when the time belongs to the other candidate. Only the moderators will be allowed to ask questions. Trump won a virtual coin toss and will give the final closing statement. Closing statements will be two minutes per candidate. There will be no opening statements. They'll dive right in for a 90-minute

debate. Each candidate will be given two minutes to answer each question with a two-minute rebuttal and an additional minute for a follow-up clarification or response. Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate, no props or pre-written notes allowed on stage. Each, though, will be given a pen, a pad, paper and a bottle of water. Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks. Ahead of that face off, Vice President Harris gave a radio interview yesterday saying she expects Trump is going to lie tonight. He plays from this really old and tired playbook, right? Where he, there's no floor for him in terms of how low he will go.

And we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth. And we should be prepared for the fact that he is probably going to speak a lot of untruth. He has a playbook that he has used in the past, be it, you know, his attacks on President Obama or Hillary Clinton. So we should expect that some of that might come out. So that's kind of obvious, but I wonder, looking at these rules that you put out there, Willie, how far apart the candidates will be, because one of the issues is if you cut the mic, but if the candidates can still hear each other, that can be incredibly distracting. And I think Trump often uses that to his benefit. He can just bellow at the candidate and distract them.

Yeah, remember, these were the rules originally set. Then the Harris campaign wanted to change it so that Donald Trump's mic would be on. They thought that would work to their advantage. But ultimately, it went back to the original rules. They can hear each other. It doesn't really. Yeah. I don't know the exact distance.

It's totally distracting. Well, I can tell you, I'm a thousand miles away from Mika right now. And she's whispering and she's distracting me. So it can be distracting. I hope there's a long enough distance between the two. It is funny. Yeah, it is funny.

There's so many. No, no, no. All right. So, Katty, we're going to keep it in Washington right now.

So Mika can whisper about the Lion King. And so, so. Hunt for Red October. I think the, oh my God, was that not great? One of the best movies ever and his role in that. Sorry. Keep going. We're going to be doing this all day and just work at CNN.

Little moments. I mean, come on. So anyway, so for Harris tonight, I think the first thing I would do if I were is like, Donald, thank you so much for your contribution, political contribution to me. 2014, I greatly appreciate it. I wouldn't be here without it. But but also we know what Donald Trump's going to say. And people inside the campaign have already said, have told others that in the campaign prep, his line, his go to line is going to be you and Joe Biden wrecked the border and you wrecked the economy. You wrecked the border and you wrecked the economy. No matter what she talks about,

he's going to pivot back to those two things. So what's the Harris strategy? So what they would like to do is get him to behave like he did in that dumpster fire of a debate in 2020, where he went off the rails with Joe Biden. The Roids debate. Yeah, where he had COVID. Pre-COVID. He had COVID and he couldn't stop himself and he interrupted. It was the very worst Trumpian version of himself. That is where they want to try and get to.

Donald Trump can be disciplined for 90 minutes if he needs to be disciplined for 90 minutes. And so they're going to have to try and break that down. The word old, I wouldn't be surprised if that comes up quite a lot. Old story, old ideas, implication, small, you know, small ideas, small person that could come up quite a lot. I'm hearing so So little words that might trigger him, direct attacks on him to try and get under his skin. They have to get him to be Trump. I mean, that's because if it ends up being a debate purely on him being

able to say, you wrecked the economy and you wrecked the border, that is not a win for her. It has to be about him behaving badly. As much as it is about her. Of course she's got to be on top of the poll. I agree with the old versus new thing, which they've been going for. But if you've noticed a lot of the messaging that they're

putting out there, the Harris campaign, it's about you care for yourself. You're selfish. All you care about is yourself. You want to cut a tax cut for rich people like yourself. We need to go forward with a middle class out agenda. And I think actually in this case, the campaign is going to try to keep it very

substantive and look and position her as more of the populist here and take away some of that, some of what he tries to present to the public. And that could rattle him, I suppose. But I think that's what they want to go is the The contrast of, we're looking forward. We realize costs still need to get under control. Actually, our plan will do it. Your plan will not. Your plan is to reward corporate interests and wealthy donors and make that the main sort of dynamic.

Being cut has made it harder for them to be able to rely on him to be the bad version of himself. Exactly. And so then you try to play into the strategy. Yeah. But, Miki, there also obviously would be a lot of pivots towards freedom and what Donald Trump is trying to take away from you. He wants to take away your right women's rights to make a decision. He wants to take away your health care. He's promised to do that. He wants to take away your money. He wants to give it to billionaires. The greatest income redistribution continues under Donald Trump. But with us, we focus on the working class,

middle class, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and we have a tax plan that does that. I mean, there's a lot of good contrasts here. Yeah. And Jonathan, let me another contrast is he's a felon and a lot of people who worked in his administration are convicted of crimes. I mean, it's just just a side. And she, of course, a prosecutor. So, I mean, I think that will be front and center tonight for at least part of it on the mic. Someone in the Harris camp is telling me yesterday one thing they've considered. If Trump does indeed start talking and trying to distract her, she will turn to the audience and say, well, you might not be able to hear him, but Donald Trump is saying X, Y, Z, thinking that that also might prompt ABC to turn on his microphone.

Yeah. Whose idea was turn the mics on? Those are the original ground rules from the Biden-Trump negotiations heading into June. And Harris's team tried to change that. Trump then said, no, let's keep it. And ABC said, well, we should stick with the rules that were established. So that's why that's happening tonight. But there may be ways around it. But I do think this also, Rev, there'll be a moment here for the vice president to reintroduce herself to the American people. We saw some polls over the weekend that Americans who even like her say, look, we just don't know much about her yet. We're still learning her policies. We're learning her. This is an opportunity to fill in those gaps. And also, it just should be said now the contrast of these two candidates on stage when now Donald Trump is the, quote, old guy in the match. He's the old guy. But I think she also must show a different contrast.

She must show what many of us that have gotten to know her down through the years. And I've known her 20, 25 years. I've known him 40. The contrast is, in my opinion, she's got to show that she can handle Donald Trump so she can show she can handle Putin and those that she would have to handle on an international level as president.

But at the same time, show she understands the average American. She's called me sometime during FaceTime while she was preparing dinner. And she says, I know the price of groceries. I cook for my family, even when I was vice president. When's the last time you've been to a grocery store, Mr. Trump? When's the last time you've helped prepare a meal? And I think that she needs to be able to show the broad width of her experience that I can handle global dictators because I'm looking at one would be dictator. And I can also understand what it means to stand on line at a grocery

store and the prices are going up, which is why we've tried to fight to bring inflation down. If she can show that which he cannot show either. He has love letters with dictators and he wouldn't know a grocery store if they put one in Trump Towers. Yeah, I'm laughing at the idea of Donald Trump pushing a cart through a stop and shop or a Kroger. Yeah, I bet that's never happened. To John's point, just a snapshot of how much things have changed since the June debate with Joe Biden above Above the fold, New York Times, is Donald Trump too old? The focus now is on Trump, especially given his recent ramblings when he was talking about using tariffs, which would make things cost much more for consumers in the United States

to pay for child care. That clip that obviously went viral. Tables have turned there. So coming up ahead of tonight's debate, former President Trump is still suggesting Democrats could change the top of the ticket, floating the idea that President Biden could reenter the race. OK. Also this morning, the latest from overseas as Ukraine launches a massive drone assault across Russia and the princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, has completed chemotherapy treatment. We'll take a look at what she is saying about her health.

You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family. Life as you know it can change in an instant. And we've had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown. The Princess of Wales, Kate Milton, says she has completed chemotherapy treatment. And in that video message that was posted on social media, Kate revealed she will undertake a light schedule of engagements for the remainder of the year. She went on to describe her cancer journey as complex, scary and unpredictable and stated she's now focused on staying cancer free. Prince has also thanked her supporters for the well wishes she and her family have received. And she certainly certainly has not only across Britain, but across the world, Katie.

Yeah. And also, I think what she's done by speaking out, which is so unusual, I mean, this video, obviously very unusual for the royal family too. The fact that she has spoken out about her cancer, the fact that the king spoke out about his prostate cancer has been a public service announcement for Brits. And you hear it there in that video where, I mean, you know, it's kind of sort of Hollywood-ish mini movie video, which is a bit strange for Brits.

We don't do that thing very often, especially out of the royal family. Stiff upper lip and all that stuff. Yeah, it's not that. She talks to other cancer survivors. And I think the fact that she has done that openly has been really helpful, has been seen as being very helpful in the UK. I think, Willie, that'll be very moving. I mean, for a lot of people that are struggling with cancer and the fact that she's said she understands

what they're going through and she's going to stay with them and keep fighting. Yeah, someone that high profile and that well-known giving a voice to something that has touched all of our families in one way or another, very important. And as Katty said, in the UK being so outspoken, she's an incredible woman, incredibly strong and so glad to hear she's doing well. Yeah, hopefully this is good news for her. So it's time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning for the first time in years. U.S. and Chinese military commanders spoke directly last night over the phone. It comes as both countries look to rebuild military ties in an effort to avoid conflict. The White House called the conversation constructive and respectful, placing a heavy focus on Beijing's increasingly brazen claims to a huge portion of the South China Sea. Justice Elena Kagan is doubling down on her push for an

ethics code on the U.S. Supreme Court. It follows a series of reports about undisclosed gifts to some of her colleagues and private efforts to influence the justices. Those calling for reforms have been advocating for an external enforcement mechanism that could be overseen by retired or experienced judges. Apple's new iPhone comes with built-in artificial intelligence. The company's latest device unveiled yesterday will be able to sort messages, offer writing suggestions and use a more capable virtual assistant. Apple's business has sputtered in recent years as iPhone users have held on to their phones for longer. The new models will be available starting on September 20th. And just a short time ago, four private astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a five-day mission aboard

a SpaceX rocket. The crew is scheduled to take part in the first spacewalk conducted by non-professional astronauts and will travel further from Earth than anyone since NASA's moon landing more than 50 years ago. We'll be watching that, Willie. Amazing civilian spacewalk there over the next five days. By the way, a little look behind the curtain of TV production. Our executive producer, Alex Gorshin, just said in my ear, Willie will do the eating pets story next. Oh, good.

Which is a very strange thing. That's what the slug says. A very strange thing for one person to say to another. But here goes. Some Republicans in recent days have been amplifying false claims about migrants eating pets and wildlife. Disinformation began spreading on social media over the weekend, fueled by a fourth hand story that appeared to come from a Facebook group in Springfield, Ohio. What's wrong with these people?

A fourth hand story on Facebook. A random person in this local group posted their neighbor's daughter's friend had lost her cat, claiming Haitians use the pet for food. A screenshot of the Facebook post was shared on X Sunday by a conservative pundit racking up three million views in 24 hours. The false claim then spread by other prominent supporters of Donald Trump, including Elon Musk. This is why it was trending yesterday. Elon Musk amplifies your news as he stated. As a matter of fact, also Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio. This is congressional leadership amplifying this. And then Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, posted yesterday about Haitian immigrants calling them illegal

and echoing the false claims about pets being abducted and eaten. I'm not making this up. Springfield, Ohio, police said in a statement, there are no credible reports of Haitian immigrants harming pets. The city then posted a statement saying the Haitians are in the United States legally under a humanitarian program. And members of the Trump family were tweeting this, like, look, look what's happening. You have to vote for Donald Trump. Word of God. Rev, to Joe's point earlier, this is the kind of stuff that not that long ago would sort of pop up in these dark, strange corners of the Internet and be snuffed out. And just so that the mouth breathers could talk about it among themselves.

But now you've got Elon Musk and it's risen to the top of the presidential ticket. And J.D. Vance amplifying something clearly made up. The Washington Post has a long piece debunking this, too. The photograph that they're using isn't even from Springfield. The person is not Haitian on and on. Well, and I think the danger of this is to allow us to continue to mainstream stuff that used to just be looked at as some craziness on on the outside of any serious consideration of what's going on. And don't miss the racial angle here. Haitian. Yes, illegal. And J.D. Vance particularly zeroing on Haitian immigrants. And I think that this goes to,

you know, blacks are cannibals and we eat each other. I mean, it plays into all of that history of racism, which is part of what Donald Trump has appealed to since Charlottesville, since birtherism. When you hear Kamala Harris saying that's the old playbook, that's part of the old playbook of race. They not just immigrants, it's Haitian immigrants eating your pets, eating your animals because, you know, they're cannibals and we can't miss that. Yeah. I mean, the ref can't miss that yeah i mean the ref can't be more right about this it's about it's about race it's about other it's about immigration it's about all these scare tactics and we've seen it in other trump campaign you

know propaganda they put out there where they suggested like this do you want this america or this america and they show a city and you know ravaged by crime and all the faces in there are non-white versus like the perfect idyllic suburban setting with white people. That is what the Trump campaign is leaning heavily on as he, of course, faces a non-white opponent. And Joe, there used to be a floor or a barrier where certain people would not amplify something that was demonstrably untrue. Right. It used to be that, you know, the world's richest or second or third richest man who's an important figure in our culture and our world wouldn't amplify this. And certainly a presidential ticket would not amplify it. But those days apparently are gone.

Long gone. And, you know, Sam, again, as we've said, this happens every two years. Right. Just preposterous claims. Again, caravans always coming at election time. Donald Trump sending troops down to the border in like 2018 thinking it was going to help him politically. It didn't. It just kept people

in the military away from their families and away from their bases through Thanksgiving. Before it was leprosy. Now they're talking about, you know, eating pets. And I mean, it's just all a lie. They're not these people, as the town said, they're not illegal immigrants. Right.

They're here legally. So here's a few good important facts here. One is Springfield, Ohio. It's a town where we've seen an influx of Haitian migrants coming largely from the south because jobs are coming back to Springfield, Ohio. The industrial midrest actually is prospering under Biden. And so all these people are coming into the small town. It's been disrupted to some social services. For instance, government officials are trying to figure out what to do with the school and policing.

Second thing is there was one cat eating instance. It happened in Canton, Ohio, which is 130 miles away, not involving a Haitian immigrant. Now, the third thing, and this is the most pernicious thing, is anyone who spent time in Haiti, I have, anyone who spent time with Haitian Americans knows that this is a constant thing that shadows them. It's a racist trope about Haitians, which is they're witch doctors, they're primitives, they eat animals, they're dangerous. And the difference here, Joe, between past warnings about caravans, for instance, is that in that case, the people were not here already. In this case, the Haitian migrants are here. And so what J.D. Vance,

Trump's campaign and others are doing is they're putting a spotlight on a community, a fairly vulnerable community in Ohio, and they're telling their supporters, look at these people. They're here and they're taking not only taking your jobs, they're taking your pets and they're eating them. And that it's not very hard to see a few steps down the road that leads to something pretty bad. Yeah. The remarkable thing about America compared to Europe has always been the way that immigrants do get integrated into communities. What this incident makes me think of is a situation at the moment in France and Italy, where you have migrants living in kind of almost ghetto type situations where they have no contact with the community at all, where they are deliberately otherized and pushed out. And yet economic study

after economic study shows us that the reason that the United States has done so well compared to other European countries since covid is because of the influx of migrants into the country. It's it's those Haitian immigrants who have helped the rejuvenation of Springfield, Ohio, by boosting the economic output of that area. And this is again, it's just a follow up on more anti immigration nonsense that has been coming from the Trump right. We talked about it yesterday. You know, they're talking about how bad foreign-born workers are for America. We went down the list of the top industries, not only in Silicon Valley,

but across America that have foreign-born CEOs. You look at the tech revolution that, you know, started in the 1980s and through the 90s through now. You know, an overwhelming number of those people, whether you're talking about Google or Yahoo or Uber, you can go down the list. They are their founders all came from other countries to form these companies. And I've been saying this for 20, 30 years when people are freaking out about immigrants coming to America and and even even immigrants that are getting, you know, degrees.

Would you rather them go back to New Delhi? Right. And start a business there? Or would you rather them start it in North Carolina? Because that's the choice we have. It's why Tom Friedman always said you get a Ph.D. and it's somebody that's that's an immigrant staple a green card to the back of that diploma and say, please stay here, work, start businesses, build our economy.

That's what's happened. And the person who knows this the most, the guy who has this singular obsession with cats, first talking about childless cat ladies, now talking about the eating of cats, J.D. Vance knows better than anybody else the contributions immigrants have made to this country, the immeasurable contributions, because he worked with them for years in Silicon Valley

and got rich doing it. And so he knows he's lying. He knows this is nonsense. He knows he's playing to the lowest common denominator. And he doesn't have to go back and look at Ronald Reagan farewell speeches to understand what makes America strong economically. He saw it for years in Silicon Valley. They all know. Most of them know, Joe. Republican leaders, Trump family, Instagram influencers, members of the they know what they're saying and they know that they are misleading people. Coming up, our next guest is taking a look at what qualities make a good leader and most importantly, a president.

A former deputy assistant to President Carter joins us straight ahead on Morning Show. According to a new report, Elon Musk is on pace to become the world's first trillionaire by 2027. People are worried that once he becomes a trillionaire, he might get weird. Tomorrow is the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump. Today, President Biden called Harris to offer his support, and he was very reassuring. Biden told her, listen, the worst that can happen is all the Democrats unite and kick you off the ticket. Actually, the White House said that Biden's looking forward to watching the debate,

which is exactly what he did last time. But I saw that Trump's team doesn't call his practice debate prep. They call it policy time. Then after policy time, it's tummy time and then a nap. That's the way it works. That was Jimmy Fallon last night ahead of this evening's debate. Now just a few hours away, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are gearing up for their first and perhaps only showdown as new polls show the race remains tight. NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander has the latest from Philadelphia. Vice President Harris touching down in Philadelphia, her face to face with former

President Trump just hours away. How are you doing? Campaign sources tell NBC News Harris and her team are focusing on ways to needle Trump, to provoke him, and that she's studied past Trump debate clips. It's time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It's time to bring our country together. But a key challenge for Harris trying to present herself as the change candidate when she's also the incumbent VP. A new poll shows more than 60 percent of likely voters want a major change from President Biden. More than half of those voters say Trump will bring that change, but only 25 percent say Harris will.

Meanwhile, the former president at Mar-a-Lago doing what sources describe as informal debate prep among those advising him, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. We're run by stupid people. And we found that out at the debate with Joe. How did that work out? And we're going to find it out again on Tuesday night. A crucial challenge for Trump winning back more women voters. But this warning from Trump rival turned supporter Nikki Haley. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance need to change the way they speak about women. You don't need to go in and talk about intelligence or looks or anything else. Just focus on the policies.

I guess so. She's saying put the misogyny aside for a moment and just focus on the policy. Try not to be a complete misogynist, sexist pig, you know, that kind of stuff. That was NBC's Peter Alexander with that report. Joining the conversation, we have MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle and NBC News and MSNBC political analyst, former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, Jonathan Lemire, Katty Kay and Sam Stein are still with us as well. So high stakes night tonight, Joe. Yep. High stakes tonight. It's it's Kamala Harris's night to define herself.

You look at the polls that we showed earlier. I don't know, Alex, if we can get those polls up. But you look at the polls that we showed earlier, and it shows a very tight race. And you look at states like Florida, the map has expanded dramatically. And I'm not just saying that because of these morning consult polls that just came out. You can look at Florida. It's been within five points in a lot of different polls. Nevada tied, North Carolina tied, Georgia or Georgia tied. And Pennsylvania, Harris ahead, Wisconsin, Harris ahead. So you go through all these states, Sam, and and in Joe Biden's final few weeks, everybody kept saying the same thing in both campaigns. He had one pathway to 270, and that was through Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.

You look at these polls, you look at the CBS polls this weekend where we're looking at individual states. They're all up for grabs. They're all tied. And in most polls over the past couple weeks, except for the New York Times-CNN poll, which, again, the psychiatrists up and down Fifth Avenue of New York City are very grateful because every time it comes out, their business goes way up in Manhattan. But every other poll that's come out, most of the state polls show it's a tie with advantage leaning towards Harris. I got to be honest, the New York Times-Siena poll, I did not understand the collective freak out among Democrats. It was a one point race. It's a tie. It's every poll we see is a tie. Right. What's interesting about these polls is that the tie also extends to the swing states. And that was not always the case. Now, you might

not these polls. Who knows? Right. Like the methodology might change, whatever. But if there are ties collectively across six or seven swing states, to your point, it opens up a lot of different pathways that simply were not there for Joe Biden. Does it mean that she can win? No. I mean, you have to see where the race breaks. I will say there is some data that is not in these polls that I think is worth noting, which is we have access at the board to all these focus groups. And this is supplemented in the polls about undecided voters. And mostly to a person, these undecided voters are saying two things about the candidates. One is they largely are kind of sick of Trump. They just don't want to do it again. They know who he is. He's a known quantity. They don't want

to vote for him, but they are staying undecided because they have not heard enough from her, which is ironic because she's a sitting vice president. She's been on the scene for about five years now, but they just don't know enough from her. To me, that suggests there's a real opportunity for her tonight in this debate to reach that audience and that her ceiling is ultimately higher than Trump's ceiling. We know where Trump's going to be. Forty eight percent is probably his ceiling. She can get beyond that. It's just a question of can she communicate tonight and can she follow through in the post-debate strategy? Well, and that is the key. I mean, again, Donald Trump could go above his 47, 47 and a half, 48 percent ceiling.

He hasn't done it since 2016. Maybe he'll do it this year, but usually past his prologue in politics. So right now, Kamala Harris just has to convince the other two percent, three percent that she's a safe bet, that she is the change. They don't have to go with this guy that Americans are exhausted by. They can move in a new direction. So how does she do that tonight? Well, I guess part of the reason for the extra Xanax prescriptions is that August has been such an extraordinary month. Right. And she moved so quickly from being Joe Biden significantly behind in the polls, including the swing state polls to now playing even. And it looks like she's we're sort of stuck at the moment on even. And a bunch of polls have suggested that over the last week or so. And that's why Democrats have started to get nervous because they were used to the momentum and the momentum may have stalled. But I think tonight is a very important moment. And then it's a question of for the next however many weeks, what do we have,

six more weeks, seven more weeks of nonstop appearances? She's got to keep on making that stale and getting out there as much as possible, whether that's rallies, whether that's more interviews, whatever it is, whether it's more town halls, things that get attention and give her the opportunity to tell the story in the way that she wants to. Because there's some indication some of these polls. I mean, it's interesting this this change poll number that came out in The New York Times-Siena poll. That was it's different from the Fox poll a week ago, which suggested she is seen as change. That poll was different from every other poll. It just real. and it always is.

It always is. That might be somewhere where she does, she has to make a decision now, how far does she distance herself from Joe Biden and the policies of the Biden administration and stake herself out as somebody new. If this is an environment in which people are looking for somebody new,

how can she cast herself as that new person? Yeah, Willie. So Claire, you're on your way to Philadelphia, short time from outside of the debate tonight. Nine o'clock, 90 minutes. This is an important moment for both of these candidates. It goes without saying, but particularly for Vice President Harris, who's done one joint interview since all the hoopla and the energy we all saw at the DNC in Chicago. This will be the first time she ever meets Donald Trump. Obviously, first time they're on a stage together. What will you be looking for? Well, she's got a hard job and I'm a little nervous that the

expectations for her are so high and the expectations for him are so low. Typically, these things don't come out really lopsided, although the last one kind of did. And so I think all of us are nervous because of that. Maybe listen, she's got to do really three important things. She's got to be strong. She's got to show real strength so we can vanquish this idea that she's not tough enough to stand up to Trump's boyfriends, Putin and Xi and all the ones that he's so in love with. Second, she's got to be nice and give people a sense of lightness and joy and hope and optimism and feeling really good about the United States of America. The third thing she's got to do, and this is the hardest, is she's got to be the new kid on the block. She's got to figure out a way.

And by the way, she's got an advantage here, Willie, because people understand fundamentally that vice presidents don't make policy. The reason America doesn't know her is because she was a vice president. It's a diminishing role. Everybody understands you're not in charge. You are a supporting character when you're a vice president. She's got to be the leading character tonight. And she's got to not distance herself from a man that we all respect and know has done an amazing job. But she's got to not distance herself from a man that we all respect and know has done an amazing job. But she's got to establish herself as the new kid on the block, that she is the change, that all of these disengaged voters, these swing voters that will decide this election, that they then see her as the change they're looking for. And that is, Mike, we heard it in

the campaign and coming, excuse me, at the convention and coming out of it. That is the message that she is a turning of the page. She says, we're not going back. Remember what it was like under Donald Trump. Let's move forward. That's her message. And I think what Democrats are expecting tonight is that those hanging curveballs from the last debate on immigration, on democracy and all those other things that that Joe Biden let go past, that she will smack those out of the park. Well, we'll find out tonight. But Claire is exactly right. I mean, this nation and thank you to Sam Stein for pointing out we're going to calm down about these polls, the closest of these polls. Don't praise Sam. Don't do that.

I want to. I very rarely do it, but I want to. About time. Thank you. But it's extraordinarily close. It's going to remain close for a while. Tonight is her introduction to the country, I would think. Kamala Harris. She has to prove that she can be commander in chief. She has to be nice, as you pointed out. But she also has to do something that Donald Trump is incapable of ever doing. Prove that she knows how people live. Prove that she knows how people shop

at grocery stores. Prove that she knows that people's lives are up and down. And prove that she knows what a lot of people know. They're exhausted by Donald Trump and really don't want to vote for him. She's got to provide that alternative. Tonight is a good start to do it. So certainly, as the polls do suggest, Americans, Claire, do want to learn more about her. And that's going to be key tonight, filling in those gaps. But how does she go on the attack? How does she press the offensive against Trump?

Something that President Biden in recent months and particularly at that Atlanta debate stage wasn't able to do. What would be your counsel for her when she's the prosecutor? Well, she needs to stay focused on what those three things are and not I mean, if she needles him and if he gets, you know, Trumpy, obviously way Trumpy, that's like a whipped cream and cherry on the Sunday. But the ice cream, the ice cream is really the three things I talked about. And if she gets distracted by trying to needle him, I think she might lose that thread. And he's going to get rattled just because she's going to be good. I mean, she's going to be able. And I think she'll be very dismissive of him. I mean, she should just, you know, I mean, even if she did that, you know, come on, stop. Is there a danger in her being a woman and going, you know, too aggressively after

him? Well, I think that's why dismissive is better. And yes, unfairly, I think. And I would agree that there is when you are strong and aggressive as a woman, you drift dangerously close to the B word for many people, which is totally unfair because you expect men who are running for president to be totally aggressive and out there. So, but she's been doing this a long time. She's very elegant. I mean, I don't think she'll fall into the trap of not being nice. Joe, I think tossing it to you here, the the problem a lot of moderators as well as people who have debated Donald Trump fall into is that Trump does the weave. But the weave is not what he says is the weave, which is getting back to some brilliant point. He just goes in five different

directions, mostly lies or crazy things or weird stories, and then finally gets somewhere and leaves the person who's either asking him questions or the person who's debating him stuck with a huge list of options to go for. Ultimately, sometimes it can be stumping. Yeah, I mean, and it shouldn't be stumping. They should have a question and they should stay on it. Was Joe Biden elected president of the United States? You know what he's going to say. He's going to lie. OK, but wait, there are 63 federal judges that said you're lying.

That's a moderator thing, right? That's what I'm saying. That's a moderator thing. I've never seen that. And then he goes on and then he goes. But wait a second. You've got the United States Supreme Court that agreed. And so you're right. He does the weave and their hand, their eyes follow his hands around. He doesn't answer and they let him get away with it. And I've got to tell you, it is so frustrating watching. Watching. And one moderator after another, one interviewer after another, does not drill down. You've just got to drill down.

So I hope the moderators will do that tonight and not get distracted like everybody else has gotten distracted and pretend that he is Bob Dole in 1996 and this is any other normal election, because it's not. It's not. It's just not. I mean, we started the show talking about charges of eating dogs. This is a different campaign than other campaigns. Cats.

Cats. Cats, dogs. Cats, dogs and cats living together. But, you know, Claire, when I first got into politics, one of the best pieces of advice I got and I get a lot of great advice, but one was it's all about contrasts. Joe, you're running against an older guy. It's all about contrast. Everything's about a contrast. You don't drill down to it. He said, he said, he's older, he's slower.

You've got to be younger, energetic. You've got to be everywhere. You've got to be aggressive. You could be polite, but show your energy. In this, in this case, tonight, it seems to me that what Kamala Harris wants is rage versus joy, and she wants exhaustion versus energy. It's negative versus positive, and that's an easy thing to do. If, as you say, she doesn't take the bait on Twitter with people saying, oh, you need to stick him with this. And, oh, you need to stick him with that. No, she needs to be joyful.

She needs to be energetic. She needs to be, you know, because this is this is showbiz. This is not a policy debate. It is all showbiz. You go back to 1980, one of the most influential debates ever. And people, what do they remember? Ronald Reagan's line. There you go again. And it did. We were watching. It did change the debate where you go, oh, wait a second.

Reagan's not a warmonger. In fact, he's laughing at the charge. Reagan's not going to cut Social Security. In fact, this genie, genial old granddad is saying, oh, come on. What do you? An American said, OK, I'm good with him. Yeah, she listen. It's going to be quite a contrast.

It's just the visual is going to be acute. And I got to tell you, I it's a little bit like fingernails on a blackboard when we repeat Donald Trump's lie about the weave. There's no weave. There's no weave. There's no weave. It's like, why are we acting like this guy has a plan on when he does all this stuff? Oh, we're not. No, I know. A lot of people are not mocking the weave.

They're actually buying into it. I'm from Missouri, guys. Where? People are buying. Not mocking the weave. Oh, I'm telling you, people are not mocking the weave. Oh, I'm telling you, people are not mocking the weave. You run into people down the lake of the Ozarks. I'll tell you, they'll tell you he knows exactly what he's doing. He is doing that. I mean, they completely

buy into that. His doddering idiocy is somehow planned and an oratorical triumph. And if he does that tonight, I do think the very few voters that are undecided, if they're watching, they'll notice that he can't keep a thread and he will go off the topic because he always does when he gets uncomfortable and he will be uncomfortable tonight. And I think people will see that. I don't think he's going to handle well. He didn't really handle Hillary that well. And, and, you know, he, he did stupid stuff on the debate stage that made him seem more aggressive, but he, he didn't do people forget how well she did against him in those debates. I guarantee he hasn't forgotten. All right. Still ahead on Morning Joe, as former President Trump steps up his threats to imprison anyone who cheats in the election. Our next guest is taking a look at the fight

to protect voting rights. New York Times bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson joins us with his new book. That's next on Morning Joe. Thanks to Bob Woodward, we learned that they knew about it. And then when that was exposed, the vice president said when asked, well, why didn't you all tell anybody? He said because the president wanted people to remain calm. Well, let's go. But Susan, this is important. And I want to add, Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.

I'm speaking.