Morning Joe - Morning Joe 9/16/24

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Trump safe after suspect in apparent assassination attempt is arrested

Well, you've got to understand the golf course is surrounded by shrubbery. So when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they're pretty much out of sight. All right. And at this level that he is at right now, he's not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course around it. Well, because he's not, the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service de Deeb's possible. The sheriff in Palm Beach County, Florida, yesterday describing the security situation at Donald Trump's golf course after an apparent assassination attempt on the former president. This morning, there are still a lot of questions about the suspect, his past, and whether the Secret Service is doing enough to protect Donald Trump. We're

going to go through all of that. For now, the former president has not made any changes to his campaign schedule. Meanwhile, his running mate made the rounds on the Sunday shows, defending his and Trump's false claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio. We'll play for you those new comments, including J.D. Vann seeming to admit the stories are made up. Also ahead, new polling shows the former president's lead is shrinking significantly in a state he's easily won in 2016 and 2020. It comes as more Republicans are pledging their support for Vice President Kamala Harris this fall. We'll read for you from what a

group of former staffers to President Ronald Reagan are saying. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Monday, September 16th. A man is in custody this morning after shots were fired in what the FBI is calling an apparent attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida yesterday. The shots were fired by all reports from the Secret Service toward the man. The former president posted on social media last night that he was rushed to safety during the incident, stating, quote, It was certainly an interesting day. He also thanked Secret Service and law enforcement, writing in all capital letters, quote, the job was done absolutely outstanding.

Officials say Trump was playing a round of golf near his Mar-a-Lago home and around 2 p.m. when Secret Service agents spotted a rifle with a scope in the bushes outside the course. And they spotted it. What happens is that the golf course, for those who know the area, the golf course is on two very active streets. There's a huge perimeter. And so what the Secret Service do, not only now, but when Donald Trump was president, they would advance the holes and they would go a couple of holes ahead of the president to make sure that the coast was clear. And as you'll hear here, even though some of the press conference wasn't as clear as it should have been, left some questions open. What happened was the Secret Service went

a couple of holes ahead of the president, former president. And they they saw a rifle sticking out. They fired shots and then the man ran away and he got caught soon after. But the Secret Service, though, did as horrible of a job as they did in Butler. As Lindsey Graham said, they're overworked. They're exhausted. They don't have a life of their own. They need more resources. And yes, they do need more resources. In this case, though, as Donald Trump said, they did an outstanding job, something I haven't said of the Secret Service, certainly after Butler in a very long time. Take a listen. Fortunately, we were able to locate a witness that came to us and said,

hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes. He jumped into a black Nissan, and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tank, which was great. In the bushes where this guy was is an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, two backpacks which were hung on the fence that had ceramic tile in them, and a GoPro, which he was going to take pictures of. So the tip from that witness helped lead to an arrest. The man was taken into custody and was identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Ruth, according to three senior law enforcement officials. His identity was not released during yesterday's news conference. Trump left the golf course in his motorcade a couple of hours later and headed back to his

Mar-a-Lago resort. That's according to a source familiar with the matter. A source tells NBC News it will not affect Trump's campaign schedule this week, which includes the planned stops in Michigan, North Carolina, New York and Washington, D.C. Vice President Kamala Harris released a statement that she was, quote, deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today, adding that she is thankful that Trump is safe. Yesterday's incident occurred two months after an attempt on the former president's life in July at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. So let's bring in NBC News national law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter. Also with us, host of Way Too Early, White House bureau chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, and president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation,

Reverend Al Sharpton. So, Tom, thanks so much for being with us. A couple of questions, just to make sure everybody that's tuning in this morning has it clear. The Secret Service going a couple of holes ahead of the president, as they do. They keep a protective bubble around him. And the Secret Service this point actually kept that protective bubble around, saw a gun sticking out of the bushes. The guy was on the other side of the perimeter. He was not on the golf course. Is that correct? He was outside the fence.

Right. And before he fired any shots, I guess he may have been getting set up. That's when the Secret Service fired shots at him, right? That's exactly right, Joe. So it's still a little unclear whether or not he was able to get off a shot or not. We don't have any indication of that at this point, but there were some initial reports of that. Either way, it would have been directed towards the Secret Service and not against the former president, Republican nominee. To your point, yes, it does seem like the plan here worked. He is not Donald Trump, is not the president of the United States.

If he was the president of the United States, that street would have been blocked off. There would have been additional agents ahead of of of where the president was, again, if Trump was, in fact, the president at the time, or if it was Joe Biden golfing on that golf course, for instance, in that street where this individual appears to have set up. To your point exactly, Joe, there are a number of busy streets that flank this course, and that person, or at least that street, would have been blocked off, and that person would have had a really hard time getting to that location. The suspect's been identified as Ryan Wesley Ralph. He was born in February of 1966.

Not clear what the potential motive may have been here. You're looking at a photo of him. I believe this was taken in Ukraine, where he traveled to in 2022. This individual espoused a number of strong pro-Ukrainian views and tried to implore Americans to travel there to help the Ukrainians after they were attacked and invaded, unprovoked by Russia. So that's something that that is out there as far as a political belief. His criminal history is extensive, and that's perhaps an understatement. Over 100 charges have lodged against him over the years. And so this morning, while there's no initial indication or any sort of evidence that this individual may have had an accomplice or somebody with them at the golf course yesterday, I think there is a big question in law enforcement circles as to how he was able to purchase this weapon, because it would at least appear or some indications that it would have been prohibited by federal law and by state law for buying this weapon. And if, in fact, somebody bought it for him because he knew that he couldn't buy one or somebody sold it to him illegally, well, that's a potential additional charge for

somebody else. We do expect him to be charged federally. I know somebody who regularly appears on this program, State's Attorney Dave Aronberg, yesterday said that, in fact, the feds are going to take this over and they are going to move forward with charges. I just checked as we were starting the program, the federal court docket in Florida, nothing has been unsealed or filed yet that at least we can see publicly. But it'll be the U.S. attorney's office out of Miami that will likely bring this case. Yeah, with a guy with a rap sheet this long, it would be very distressing if he were able to buy an AR-15 style weapon. And so perhaps he did get some help there,

or maybe he did what so many other people do, buy their guns illegally. So Jonathan O'Meara, a long rap sheet from this guy. He actually, in 2016, he supported Donald Trump, but then was disillusioned with Donald Trump well before the Ukrainian war, the Russian-Ukraine war, the Russian invasion. And saw some possible support for other Republican candidates in 2024. What do you know? Yeah, you're right. On his social media account, he had suggested that he had backed Trump in 2016 and then soured on him.

There was also some tweets suggesting some support for Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, you know, and the like. His politics, though, fairly unclear at this point. And certainly we should give credit to the Secret Service, as you did, Joe, that that this is, you know, as much as Butler County went wrong, that incident in Pennsylvania two months ago, it seems like yesterday they did everything exactly right. And these are the sort of incidents that do happen from time to time, perhaps not as close to the principle like this one was where a man actually had a gun and was preparing to strike. But there are incidents all the time where Secret Service disrupts these sort of incidents where they'll arrest someone who posed some sort of threat to the sitting president. And Jonathan, part of the confusion leading into the press conference yesterday was that there was just some bad misinformation that came out very early. People came out

with statements very early. It started with shots fired in the vicinity of Donald Trump, suggesting at Donald Trump, others. There was stories for a couple of hours that Secret Service saw the direction in which the shots were fired from. And then we find out later, though it was jumbled at the press conference, we find out later that it appears the only shots fired were from the Secret Service toward the man to get him to do exactly what he did. Right. And no shots fired at Trump, who at that point was still several holes away, but then was rushed to safety by the Secret Service. So, Tom, what more do we know about this individual? And is there investment?

He's the expected Raymond today. We should learn, I would think, more then. But sources telling you anything about motivation as to why he would have, would have done this. And just also speak to us a little bit more about just the danger that these sort of lone wolf kind of would be assassins pose. Sure. So as far as this individual, we're not told he's made any sort of statement. Apparently he was very calm at the time of arrest. He's got experience being arrested, but he was apparently very calm at the time that he was arrested. So there were no statements that were made there, according to the folks that we've

spoken with. And Dave Ehrenberg again said that on this network's air last night. So there's no indication he's made any statements towards motive. As Joe pointed out, as you pointed out, we've been talking about here this morning about the political beliefs and the things he's put on Twitter in the past now, X, things that he's put on his Facebook account, both of which have been taken down at this stage. There's all sorts of different ideologies or things that he wished happened politically. But does that necessarily mean a motive as it pertains to yesterday and yesterday afternoon? Not necessarily. So obviously, investigators are going to have to be able to put that together.

You know, you talk about the lone wolf, the person who isn't on anybody's radar. It's just taking a step back in the overall picture of security. We are less than a mile away here where we're sitting this morning from the United Nations. And a week from today, a week from this morning, over 100 foreign dignitaries, leaders, world leaders, world leaders that are tied up with their countries in war, talking about, you know, Ukraine and Russia, what's going on in the Middle East with Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran. So you put it all together. This is an enormous security challenge for the Secret Service. That is always a huge security challenge for the Secret Service. Now you've got this backdrop and they can't wait for Congress to start appropriating money, you know, this week or next week.

They can't wait for somebody to come up with a new plan. I think there are going to be some very serious discussions. And I'm told they started last night. How does the rest of this presidential campaign work with these candidates crisscrossing the country? We are told that the threats to Donald Trump are being quite obviously here from what we've seen over the past two months are very high. But his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, the threats to her are very high as well. You've got family members, you've got running mates for both of those candidates. You still have a president of the White House who has the nuclear codes and all the things that come with being the commander in chief who deserves and is required by

law to have the protection that Joe Biden has. And so putting it all together, what is going to happen here going forward and how much of a lien will the Secret Service have to put on local law enforcement? How much of a lien will the Department of Homeland Security have to put on its other agencies to say these guys need some help? They just need bodies out there. It's very different than normal law enforcement work. So it's not something where you can just say, OK, one day I'm investigating a crime. I can switch over to protecting somebody. No, it's very different. It's a special skill set and special training, but they definitely need additional help. It appears based on the people that I'm talking to. And I think, you know, you start talking about family members, you talk

about family members that are very much out in the open that have protection. I think that that's something that's going to take a hard look. And what does that mean for our country? But these individuals that are out there that have sought now twice in the last two months to attempt to assassinate or actually get close to with respect to Butler, Pennsylvania, within an inch or two of perhaps an assassination, I think raises serious concerns for us as a country moving forward. If people think they can solve their political issues and their problems by showing up outside of a golf course with a with a semi-automatic rifle, if that's what's going to continue going forward, then I think that changes things in a very negative way. Well, and, you know, again, this is as as Jonathan O'Meara said,

this has happened throughout our history. Unfortunately, Gerald Ford had three attempts on his life in the mid 70s. Bill Clinton had one incident after another incident after another incident, which actually ultimately ended up in the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. These things happen. As Tom said, Mika, we got 50 days threats. Threat level is high against Donald Trump. Threat level is high against Kamala Harris. The threat level is high. And right now, you know, again, as badly as they did in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service did their job commendably yesterday. Everybody from Donald Trump to the sheriff of Palm Beach County,

everybody involved is saying the same thing. They just need more resources. Lindsey Graham quoted the New York Times today saying that they work around the clock. They need more resources. There need to be more people. They've got to figure out a way over the next 50 days to to to to team up with other law enforcement agencies, with local law enforcement agencies and protect these presidential candidates. And then Congress does need to step up and do their job. And they need to find the Secret Service adequately. NBC News national law enforcement and intelligent

correspondent Tom Winter, thank you very much for being on this morning and still ahead on Morning Joe. J.D. Vance continues to push lies about migrants in Ohio despite days of bomb threats in the city of Springfield. Weirdly, he kind of admitted it yesterday, that they just make the stories up. They create them themselves. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is defending a far-right conspiracy theorist who had been traveling with his campaign last week. It comes as new polling shows Trump losing support in a state he won in his previous runs for president. We'll go through all of that when we come back in 90 seconds. A national poll showing a pretty big lead, too.

What a beautiful shot in New York City. You are now looking at Nika's penthouse apartment. All right. Atop the Comcast Tower. and you can see she has positioned her satellite dish. Went outside, and she's pointing it to Fox and Friends. No, okay. Don't watch that.

What? Republican Vice... You're on this show. I know, but I did take a look, and it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's the things they look and it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's the things they omit that's the most fascinating. Well, I'm a Fox fan. We're talking about other people.

We love, you know, Steve's a great guy. Yeah. So Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance continues to push false claims. These lies about Haitian migrants who are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Let's just say this. Now, he is lying, but he's admitting that he's lying. Well, that's true. Do you get extra credit for that?

I thought you were going to make a joke. And I have to say. I don't know. I'm not making jokes. You're not making jokes when people's lives are in danger. That's your damn right. Yeah. So, yeah.

So he's lying, but he's That's your damn right. Yeah. So, so yeah. So he's lying, but he's admitting that he's lying. Right. He's like, look, he's transparent. Look, I'm distracting you here, but it's really the balls over here. He believes in transparency. Yeah, here it is. The Senator from Ohio claimed yesterday in a series of interviews that constituents in Springfield have brought the concerns to him when pressed that there is no evidence of people eating pets. Vance appeared to confess that he knows the claims are not true. Not true. Yeah, but let's say that when when we say that that officials say there aren't any claims, Only officials that are claiming these claims aren't true

are all the officials that would know whether they were true or not. The mayor has come out and said, not true. City manager, I believe it's what they're called in Springfield, says not true. People begging for this to stop. And the Republican governor saying these claims are not true. Now, religious leaders saying, please stop lying. You are putting people's lives at danger. Where do they come from? I don't know. Let's see. American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to, if I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention

to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast. So, Reverend Al, J.D. Vance says, this is special. J.D. Vance says the American media wouldn't cover this story. I have. So they had to make up the story. If I have to. We're supposed to cover a story that's not true. American media wouldn't cover this story.

So he said, what did he say, I had to create this story? If I have to create stories. So he had to create this cat meme story that would be all cute if it was just Donald Trump saying that people are eating dogs and cats. There he is with cats again. And they're doing remixes. He's obsessed with cats. So, but unfortunately, and you hear religious leaders talking about this, you hear local officials in Springfield talking about this.

There is now the threat of violence, the fear of violence, bomb threats, bomb threats against people in Springfield. They have literally had to close the schools and cancel town hall meetings because of these threats. And when you look at the fact that he is now admitting they made up a story, as you say, quoting him, that the media wouldn't cover, maybe the media didn't cover it because there was no story. It didn't exist. But again, this is consistent with Trump's campaign. Let's not forget Donald Trump as president called Haiti and several African countries as whole countries. You also have to put into the factor in that if you are someone that is anti Haitians in Springfield or coming in to think you're defending the people of Springfield whose pets are being eaten up.

Any black walking around Springfield looks Haitian. I mean, it is racist. It is a clear threat to people. And just like I denounce whoever is trying to assassinate Donald Trump for whatever reasons,

they should denounce the fact that they are inciting nuts to feel that they can go into Springfield and save pets. That's what those kinds of jaded thinking is what leads to killings. I did the funerals in Buffalo, New York of a mass killer that felt he had the right to target blacks. I've been to others and did eulogies. This is dangerous. This is a threat to people. And the same time we denounce what apparently has happened as a threat to Donald Trump, we should denounce what is apparently a threat to blacks and particularly hate Haitians in Springfield, in Springfield. Well, I mean, Donald Trump, Donald Trump's doubled down on this lie. He got he

humiliated himself and just really his own campaign staff horrified and supporters horrified that he fell for this third rate Internet meme. Eric Erickson, conservative, very conservative radio host, was just enraged that people around Donald Trump did not keep. I think he was worried at the time Laura Loomer was spreading these lies to Donald Trump. But he got past the debate. He went on the campaign trail and he continued the lies, even though he knew they were lies that would put immigrants and refugees in danger. Black, let's be clear, not immigrants from Norway, immigrants from Haiti in danger.

And Republican governor, Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, yesterday did what you've been seeing of small business owners and factory workers do, and that is praise the migrant community. In fact, you actually had people running businesses, running small businesses in Springfield saying this migrant community is the hardest working community we have. These Haitians work harder than people here. They stay at their stations. They work hard. They don't leave early. Everybody is praising how hard these migrants work. And this is the Republican, let me say it again,

the Republican governor of Ohio praising them for their contributions and dismissing these continued Vance Trump lies against them. The Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in. These Haitians came in to work for these companies. What the companies tell us is that they are very good workers. They're very happy to have them there. And frankly, that's helped the economy.

Look, there's a lot of garbage on the Internet. And, you know, this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There's no evidence of this at all. And the fact that J.D. Vance would continue this on live television, just like we said, transparently, but with with no sense of the damage that they are causing to people's lives and somebody is going to get hurt. Like it's going to be on them for saying these things over and over again when they're not true. Let's bring in NBC News national affairs analyst and a partner and chief political columnist at Puck, John Heilman,

and MSNBC political analyst, Elise Jordan. She's a former aide to the George W. Bush White House and State Department. Good to have you, Bo. So, John Heilman, as the Republican governor said, these people, these immigrants are here legally and they're receiving high praise for hard work. And it shows you just how desperate Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are making up these stories. And cruel. Well, and how cruel. And the danger that they put people who are in Springfield legally, how cruel they are.

Yeah. Joe, I mean, to give J.D. Vance, to credit his argument here, it's sort of like saying that hunger is a problem in America. And in order to get the press to focus on the problem of hunger, the real problem of hunger in America, America. I'm going to say that there's, you know, there's been an invasion of zombies or body snatchers who all have been to make it racist. Also African body snatchers, zombies who have come in are eating all the food. I mean, he's he's trying to say there is a real problem, you know, that there's a stress on the community because there's been this influx of immigrants. Mike DeWine says there have been some. Yeah, we have 15000 immigrants here. There's been some strains on the social safety net. And Jay Vance has used that as a

justification for for just continuing to blatantly go around the Sunday shows yesterday and say, I'm going to keep lying. I'm just going to do it. And this is my justification. It's outrageous, obviously. Now, the reality here is the Trump campaign is saying to anyone who will listen, we would rather take the hits for lying about this than as long as we're talking about an issue that we think favors us, which is immigration, rather than talking about other issues which do not favor us, such as women, rather than talking about other issues which do not favor us, such as women's reproductive health and abortion and other things. They're just trying to keep their view is they don't care about the human impact on the ground in Springfield. They don't care about whether somebody gets hurt. Mika, I think it's it's cruel. And and more than that, it's just totally detached from any kind of responsibility.

Their attitude is that they see this through the very cynical prism of politics. I would say that it's their problem with this is that this you you hit you has said the words that are the problem here. Laura Loomer is the problem here. And I mean that not merely in the fact that Laura Loomer is a crazed hate speech. Can you explain who she is? Well, she's a she's she's a one of the most toxic, most poisonous people on the far right. She has espoused if there's a conspiracy theory or a form of hate speech that has ever been uttered by anybody ever in the magosphere, she has propounded it. She has been banned from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

And she travels with the president. She's been banned from delivery food apps, Mika. They won't let her get DoorDash because of her hate speech on delivery food applications. And she has suddenly become Donald Trump's constant companion. She is everywhere with Donald Trump. There are there. The Drudge Report was up for most of the weekend with photographs of the two of them, Donald Trump and Laura Luber, being very handsy with each other and suggesting in very straightforward

terms what is on fire on the Internet and on Bill Maher's show and other places, which are suggestions that the two of them have a relationship. That is the running conversation. No, no, no evidence of that. What is she doing on the campaign? Is she on the campaign? Just to say to Joe, I agree there's no evidence of it other than the fact that she is someone who people on the Trump campaign do not want to be traveling with him. In Donald Trump's orbit, you do not want to have traveling with him. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tom Tillis,

everyone thinks that this woman is bad news for Donald Trump, and yet he continues to take her around with him everywhere, which raises questions as to why. And that is why it's fueling the speculation about what's going on here, because there's no good political reason to have someone who is this person. Right, but that's not a reason to deduce. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not a reason to deduce an inappropriate... I think it deduces that he is making terrible decisions as to how to run his campaign.

Yes. Because if you say there's a conspiracy theory that she, like there's not a conspiracy theory she would avoid, that she embraces them and that she pushes them. It seems like this turn has taken as her name has come up. Well, I think the real problems began. Of course, there were concerns that a conspiracy theorist was at the debate in Donald Trump's group,

but also, of course, Elise, the real concern on September 11th, which is basically an American day of remembrance, one of the most sacred that 9-11 truther would be in Donald Trump's entourage with him at the events there. I want to circle back, though, again, though, to J.D. Vance and J.D. Vance saying something about Springfield that the mayor saying is not true. The city manager saying is not true. And the governor of Ohio is saying not true. The city manager is saying is not true. And the governor of Ohio is saying not true. And in fact, the Republican governor of Ohio praising these immigrants legal, they're legal, which again, shows you just how stupid this whole thing is. They're trying to make some claim against illegal immigration, which of course I oppose illegal immigration. I'm sure you do, too. These people that they're attacking are there legally and they're working harder than a lot

of other people in Springfield, according to those people that are running the small businesses where they work. Now, Joe, the Haitians in that community who are hardworking legal immigrants are being used as political fodder for political purposes by this campaign. It's pretty cut and dry, and they're trying to incite the strong feelings around the country about immigration and about the state of the economy. And so when I was thinking this weekend, going a little bit past just how insane it was for a presidential candidate to bring up a completely unfounded racist rumor in a presidential debate, a move that I think was a pretty bad one for him and has been reflected in subsequent polling because he just looks unhinged and not in control. I thought, what similarities, though, are we seeing with Brexit? What are we seeing when 90 percent of British voters, when they voted for Brexit, it was about immigration. And what's the anger over immigration in this small town? And

what are the implications writ large for the broader political ecosystem and what is not being heard from that area. I'm not saying let's hear out the inherent racism of what's been trotted around, but what really are the issues happening there and what does it say about how people are going to vote this fall? Yeah, this is clearly a fight the Trump campaign wants to have, even though they're doing so with lies, dangerous lies. And certainly the Donald Trump's campaign's most headline grabbing decision yesterday morning was Trump's move in

all caps to tweet, I hate Taylor Swift with an exclamation point. And certainly that could have some blowback, particularly with some young voters. But J.D. Vance doubling and tripling down guys on multiple Sunday morning shows to sort of spout this lie, to sort of at one moment even acknowledge that they're lying. They're exaggerating what's happening here. But they think this is something they want to do, even though, as the Rev said earlier, there have been schools that have had to close there. City Hall has had to be evacuated twice because of bomb threats.

Local colleges there this week announced they're going to have classes remotely because they don't feel like they can keep these places safe. And when Donald Trump was asked on Friday at his news conference in Los Angeles, he was asked if he would denounce the bomb threats that were starting to roll in on Springfield, Ohio. He simply didn't. He chose not to. He wouldn't talk about it. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Jonathan, are you saying that Donald Trump would not denounce the bomb threats in Springfield? He did not. He would not say those words. He simply moved on to focus again on what he claimed was the problem. These migrants being there and he touted his deportation plan instead, saying we would get them out of there and said we'd send them back to Venezuela. When, of course, there are no these earlier in the week talking about Haitian immigrants.

It's all it's all been racist. The rhetoric is there. And as further evidence as to how they're not backing down from this campaign, sources tell me and others that Trump is actually weighing a visit to Springfield in the next week or two. OK, we will be following that. Let's show you some new national polling that shows no movement in the presidential race following last week's debate. In the latest ABC News Ipsos poll, Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump by six points, 52 to 46 percent among likely voters. And that is the same as the final survey conducted before the debate. There are other polls that have also shown there is movement, actually. They've shown there is movement and national polls, which usually don't matter.

But those national polls, I think it was an Ipsos poll, showed a six point spread as well. But the most fascinating poll we saw this weekend came from Iowa, where one of the most respected polls and one of the most respected pollsters showed that Iowa, which has been a blowout in years past, is actually getting close. Des Moines Register MediaCom poll shows that Vice President Kamala Harris is cutting in to former President Trump's lead in Iowa. The poll finds Trump leading Harris by four points among likely voters in the state, 47 percent to 43 percent. It is within the margin of error. In a June poll, Trump held an 18 point lead over President Joe Biden before he exited the race.

A Democrat has not won Iowa since Barack Obama back in 2012. Joining us now, the conductor of the Des Moines Register-Mediacom poll, as well as president of the polling firm Selzer & Company, J.N. Selzer. Good to have you on the show this morning. Good morning. So dig deeper into the polls that we were just telling our viewers about, if you could. Well, I think that national polls are still holding still. It's good to keep that in mind. It's not how we elect presidents. The action is going to happen state by state. And we surely saw a lot of action in this last poll. This is one of those that makes your jaw start to drop a little bit. A remarkable change from June. You remember June? Things were so different then. So this is a time when I think

polling can really help and reflect back what is going on in the conversations people are having, the thinking that they're doing, the decisions that they're starting to make. Yeah. And John Heilman, as I've always said, with polls, even when I was running, I didn't you know, I never took any bottom line as gospel, but I surely looked at the trend lines. And if you look at the trend lines in Texas, within five and a lot of polls in Florida, within five in a lot of polls, things have been 15 points forward. And now in Iowa, which I never imagined I would see in this race, Iowa within the margin of error, that really is, that is a trend line that draws a huge headline. Yeah. And as someone I've spent a lot of time with over the years and I'm very familiar with your with your work and methodology,

you know, you look 2016, 10 point victory for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, nine points, I think, in 2020, eight points for for Donald Trump over Joe Biden. Your last poll, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, an 18 point spread between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I mean, that's a trend line also. We're talking about a trend line over a couple of cycles. This has been tighter than we've seen since 2012. Talk about what's changing. What's what what are the dynamics that are driving that change? And what do you think is going to be the, what are some of the dynamics that could make this even tighter and potentially put this state in play? Well, the single most important factor that I found digging through the data with the question why, just ringing in my ears, is there are more people now saying that they will definitely vote. That's our definition of a likely voter. If you say you will definitely vote, if you say you'll probably vote, no, that's not strong enough for us. So we saw an uptick in the proportion of our

total all-Iowa adult sample who said they were definitely going to vote. And that's not consistent across the subgroups. So you saw a stronger increase, a bigger jump among women, among college educated, and among people under 45. And those are groups that are tilting toward Pamela Harris. So it is the method that kind of captured the malaise in June and a giant spread for Donald Trump. Part of that spread was due to a lot of people saying, I'm going to sit this out. I know, maybe I'll probably vote. I might vote. They're not going to show up as a likely voter in our poll. And now we're capturing an exuberance, an interest in voting, an enthusiasm for candidates.

And so that has ended up dropping the margin between the two candidates. I credit my method for being able to pick up what's happening in the mood of our electorate. J.N. Selzer, thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you for your analysis. And that's exactly what Ant's polls always do. They pick up a lot of trend lines, a mood in the electorate. And I guess if you have to pull the process as crazy as an Iowa caucus over a couple of decades, you have to keep your ear to the ground. That's for sure. Coming up, the big moments from yesterday's action across the NFL. Pablo Torre joins us to break down the storylines from week two. Morning Joe is coming right back.

On first down, Mayfield looking down the sideline. He's got Godwin again inside the 10 and he'll walk it in for a Tampa touchdown. Normally, Rodgers in complete command in those situations. Rodgers looking. Head zone. Touchdown. Reese Hall. He needed every inch of that reach. First and 10. Down the field he goes.

Russ C. Rice for the touchdown. Hurry on the rollout. Looking deep for Harrison. Marvin Harrison Jr. to the end zone. Dobbins trying to get to the edge. He's got a blocker. He's got more than a blocker. Inside the 25-20.

Did the sprints help? Oh, boy. He somersets into the end zone. Touchdown, Chargers. Suck sucking down at five smith sets fires down field wide open betcalf touchdown different game jamal williams in the game back back car pressure lets it fly going deep shaheen he's got it touchdown Touchdown, New Orleans. Second down nine. Darnold getting messy, going deep. And he's got Jefferson. He's got Jefferson. It's a foot race downfield with Brown shifting gears, getting a block.

That's six. Jefferson. Magic. Those are some of the biggest touchdowns yesterday from across the NFL. Let's go to Houston and the Texans hosting the Chicago Bears on Sunday night football last night. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for 260 yards and a touchdown. Danico Collins early in the second quarter that helped Houston to a six point lead going into halftime. The Texans managed only one field goal after the break, but their defense carried them the rest of the way with heavy pressure on Chicago rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, the number one overall draft pick, sacked seven times in the game and picked off back-to-back possessions in the second half as the Texans held on to beat the Bears, the 0-2 Bears, 19-13.

Let's bring you right now the host of Pablo Tor finds out. On Metal Arc Media, MSNBC contributor Pablo Torre. Pablo, a lot to talk about. My God, the Saints, the big headline of the day. And Baker. But let's talk about the game last night. Here you have Caleb Williams. Again, somebody I could be wrong. I just don't

think he has what it takes to be an NFL quarterback. It is early. It doesn't help when you're sacked seven times. But, you know, the Bears ran Justin Fields out of town. They added a lot of supporting cast. The Bears are now 0-2. Justin Fields, 2-0 in Pittsburgh. And not looking great in Chicago right now.

I had a feeling you'd start there, Joe. You were ahead of this. You were ahead of this. You were ahead of this. I bought some Caleb Williams stock. I'm contemplating selling my Caleb Williams stock through two weeks just because the price isn't in my favor. And look, Caleb Williams right now is the embodiment of the difference between college and the NFL.

You watch him do stuff, and he runs around back back there and it's so potentially hypothetically exciting. And then he gets sacked seven times. The guy has dropped back in the last game. He dropped back 37 times, I believe. He was pressured on 36 of them. And so some of that is his fault, of course. I bring that up because not great for Caleb Williams. It's also the offensive line's fault.

The offensive line being offensive, offensively terrible. And so the guy is in jeopardy perpetually. And the biggest case that you have for Justin Fields, as you alluded to, is Justin Fields handled all of this with actually less talent at the edges, at receiver. And he was actually, again, a relative veteran to Caleb. First two games, he was better. And so right now it's really, really bad. It's about as I would say it's even this bad. We've been making fun of Bryce Young quite a bit on this program. And rightfully so, he is terrible. Bryce Young had a better start to his NFL career than Caleb Williams has had

through two games, which is not the problem. And you pointed it out is Justin Fields, as we were saying every Sunday at the end of last year, was having a good year. The Bears made a colossal mistake. I thought we said it in real time, getting rid of Fields and not taking Harrison Jr. as their first their first pick. That would have been a revolution for the Bears. They didn't go that way. I want to talk about, not that I do this. You know I don't do this. I'm not the type of guy that says, oh, I told Alabama they had to get an exception. I wouldn't do that. You know that. I will say, though, another guy, and I bring this up for a good point. There are

second acts in America and Baker Mayfield is one of those second acts that I also believe a second string quarterback at Jacksonville, mark it down, may prove himself to be. But, but, but maker Baker Mayfield, man, I mean, I didn't even see yesterday's performance coming. I'm going to stop you from the Mac Jones heat check to celebrate Baker Mayfield. Because Baker Mayfield, Joe, this is where you're totally right. Sometimes, and this is the Baker Mayfield story, sometimes it's actually them and not you.

So Baker Mayfield gets drafted number one overall by the Browns. The Browns, of course, are famously terrible. And they end up getting Deshaun Watson, who is also now infamously terrible, morally compromised and bad at football. Baker Mayfield goes where? He goes to the Panthers. The Panthers then are like, eh, we don't need this guy. So he winds up with the Rams.

He proves himself with, like, no practice time to be a competent quarterback for a competent team. And now in Tampa Bay, he has taken down the team that is the most popular Super Bowl pick coming out of the NFC. And Baker Mayfield, through two weeks, this is a lot of two-week analysis here, but he is the MVP of the league through two weeks. It is really hard to deny. Hey, Pablo, do you see this game live?

Were you watching this game at the end? Yes, yes. I could not believe, let's just dig deep here, the terrible play calling, not only on the last drive where Jared Goff is throwing underneath like six yards when they have 12 seconds left, but also the final drive when they had to get to the four yard line, they're on like the 11 or the 12, and he's throwing underneath. He's not giving himself a chance to get the first down and win the game. And you're sitting there going, wait a second.

What in the world is this guy doing? And then they get the ball back. No timeouts. He's still dumping the ball underneath when they had to get 60 yards. It was insanity. Yeah. Spoken like one of three people on camera right now, who I believe picked the Lions to make the Super Bowl.

So frustrating. Maybe they will. They won't with that call. But, Baker, I want to just point out, when that is happening, on one side of your screen, on the other side is Baker Mayfield using his legs, juking the defenders to the floor. I mean, it's just unthinkable unthinkable how all around good Baker Mayfield is. He has been resuscitated, resurrected, and he is sending everybody back to their tombs

at this point. Yeah, I want to finish this discussion. We can talk about the 49ers just being incapable of beating Minnesota in Minnesota. But let's go to what I think really is the headline here today. And I say this as a guy that grew up in northwest Florida, so all we could see before NFL ticket was the lowly New Orleans Saints, the Aints. Man, they put on a show yesterday, and Dak, the 200 million million plus man sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter. Joe, the Saints put paper bags on the heads of everybody in that stadium in Dallas.

Yeah, that's that's where we are now. The Saints were a bottom 10 team in the league. The Cowboys, of course, have paid, as you said, record amounts of money. Now to Dak Prescott, they had, I believe, a 16-game home-winning streak in the regular season. And the Saints come in, and the second week in a row, after week one, you say, OK, they blew out the Panthers. They're the Panthers. Week two now, they blow out the Cowboys. Alvin Kamara, the SEC's own former Tennessee running back, has four touchdowns. Derek Carr, another guy relegated to the dustbin of history,

has a great game himself, a quarterback. And now you wonder, OK, are the Saints for real or are the Cowboys a lot like the Panthers? I'm going to lean towards the Saints being so much better than we realize this offense, man. It's really hard for 40 points twice in a row in the NFL against anybody. But it's the shame. Look, the Cowboys, the last thing I'll say about the Cowboys, as I've said many, many times, they make me want to do things involving upchuck into various mugs. They are valued at $11 billion,

the most valuable sports franchise in America. And a team known for its fans having to wear paper bags because they're humiliated by how historically terrible they are come into your house in week two and say, you're the problem, not us. OK, really, really quickly. We got to go. But I just I have to bring up another another just wow performance. Just quick responses. The Raiders second half against the Ravens. Incredible performance by that offense.

Look, the Ravens, man, they were a contender. They lose to the Chiefs in week one. They lose in this game to the Raiders in week two. And again, the Raiders are one of those teams where it's like they might be in this when it's week 15. And you're like, how are they in the room with us? How are they in the room getting votes? And you think back to games like this where it's just, OK, they can do it for a half like that. Maybe they can do it for a whole season. Hold on. I just have to correct something. Alex told me the bears are not 0-2. They're 1-1.

So I just got to say, they feel like they're 0-2. Spiritually, they are 0-2. Psychologically, Chicago agrees with you. Thank you, Pablo. Pablo agrees with me spiritually. Thank you. Bye. Let me just say, there will be a second act for Mac Jones. All right. He's a very good quarterback who was not treated well.

And I'm hoping Bryce Young and his family and agent will force a trade from Carolina so Bryce can play on a good football team. Turning now to the other football. Let's bring in NBC Sports and Soccer analyst and founder of the Men in Blazers media network, Roger. Roger, Roger, Roger, what happened? What happened to Liverpool, Roger? What happened?

Oh, Joe, it's a long season. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we're all going to get runners' nipple, and the Bears are going to win the Super Bowl, and Caleb Williams is our new king. I'm here to talk about the premier league with you baby you can breathe again mika because i know how much you love the big game this weekend the north london derby 111 year old blood feud between tottenham and. Two teams separated by just three and a half miles of capital city, Flotsam and Jetsam, at the top of the capital.

You can see before the game, an eight-year-old Arsenal mascot, single-handedly steaming into seven Spurs counterparts. A baby enforcer, that is the energy of this game. And his team channeled it with the only goal, decisive 64th minute Gabriel, best Gabriel since Peter, hitting Spurs

with his own little sledgehammer thunderous head, a bit like Vince Carter over Frederick Weiss, Le Dunc de la Moore and that was it, Arsenal win 1-0 a win, catalyzing so much relief as much as joy but you want to know about Liverpool.

Oh, we're your Boston Red Sox own team, Joe. They've been perfect, let me remind you, under the manager of new giant baby-headed Dutchman Arnie Slott. Nottingham Forest were meant to be tender meat to be devoured, but they scored the only goal of the game, a death watercolour painting of a cross and Callum Hudson-Odoi cut inside and unleashed from Caitlin Clarke range.

Forrest's first win at Anfield in 55 years. Joe, I think the answer is, you're Liverpool still at the components of a planned stage. We'll finish with Quintuple seeking defending champion Manchester City, who hosted Modest

Brentford and Brentford scored of in 22 seconds. City yet to wake up a calamity of errors, and a man called Johan Wieser, possibly the only time we'll say his name on Morning Joe, kept his head when all about them losing theirs. This is like Northern Illinois University proportion shock, but Manchester City, like the Empire, strike back through Erling Haaland, a man who looks a bit like Dolph Lundgren in a funhouse mirror,

scored twice in 13 minutes. He's like Alvin Kamara, but from Norway. Artificial intelligence in cleats. Manchester City win, remain perfect. They actually today start a trial for 115 charges of financial misdemeanor, which possibly, only possibly, will find out and propel them to four straight title wins. It may be their greatest challenge this season. They host Arsenal next season, next week, Mika.

It's going to be worth it. Okay, right on time. Roger Bennett, thank you very much. It's good to see you. Go Bears!