Morning Joe - Morning Joe 9/24/24

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Trump blames U.S. for war in Ukraine

he's not very funny can you that guy those three guys they're being blown away by gutfeld you know gutfeld totally dumb those three guys you remember that guy when i first ran i was like 2015 thinking about running i was gonna run i went on his show right and he goes to tonight's show which is dying they They're all dying. Where's Johnny Carson? Bring back Johnny. It made you appreciate, right, Uncle Seth? It made you appreciate the greatness of Johnny Carson and these guys.

These three guys, they're so bad, all three of them. All right, where's Johnny Carson? Bring back Johnny. Well, I will tell you, I'm a big fan of Johnny. That was Donald. It was very good. At a rally yesterday, Donald Trump yesterday. In Pennsylvania.

Wondering why, Willie, they won't bring back Johnny Carson. It's always a terrible thing when you meet somebody and say, your parents must be proud of you. And then you go, yeah, they passed away 15 years ago. Johnny Carson, a great man, a great comedian. I'm telling you, and I knew it in real time. I was like, we get to see this guy every night? He's just the greatest. Sadly, he's no longer with us.

Could you pass that along to Moralago, Willie? Yeah, I read that as a where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, a longing for the past, perhaps, maybe not literal. But I mean, the three guys at the center of late night right now would tell you the same thing, that Johnny Carson was the greatest. Yes, absolutely. So you take that more of a where have you gone? Joe DiMaggio. Yeah, that's definitely. Ice turns its only ice for you. Along with Joe, Willie, and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Peer Chief

at Politico, Jonathan Lemire. Where have you gone, Jonathan Lemire? Well, it's a prize-winning columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson, and staff writer at The Atlantic, Tom Nichols. Good to have you all. I don't really want to give false hope, Jonathan O'Meara, to the good people. Let's not do it. Please don't.

New England, but... No, don't. No. You're ruining it. Here come the Red Sox. You're ruining it. Here come the Red Sox. Are we 500 yet?

We are one game over 500, Joe. Dream the impossible dream. To dream the impossible dream. It's all very exciting. The Red Sox have won a few in a row now. They've won a few in a row. They managed to win yesterday. They have taken the moment when they're on the brink

of mathematical elimination to play their best ball. There it is. Good time. That's what you do. They are still three and a half out of the wild card with only five to play, an uphill climb to say the least. Well, wasn't it Samuel Johnson said, nothing focuses the mind more than a wild card elimination at dawn, Willie? Yes, that's exactly it.

By the way, Phillies clinched their division last night. Yankees' magic number for the division is one. I know you're all very excited about that. We're really excited about that. Huge Mets-Braves series starting tonight. Let's go Mets. By the way, this is going to be an exciting series. The Mets.

No, I'm serious. Let's go Mets. The Mets and the Braves a couple of years ago. You know, the Braves sweep the Mets near the end of the season. Break, you know, Phil Griffin and the rest of Mets Nation's hearts. But we're going to see what happens now. Here's the standings, and you get the Mets and the Braves battling starting a three-game series. Nobody knows what's going to happen,

and nobody knows what's going to happen in football, Willie, because it's just been crazy, man. Like, I still can't wrap my arms around the fact that Joe Burrow is 0-3. And last night, by the way, Mac Jones, 5-8, came in with cleanup duty. You always find the most important angle to the story. By the way, in the game that Joe Burrow lost, a coming out party for another LSU superstar, Heisman Trophy winner, Jaden Daniels. He's amazing.

The rookie in the third game of his career. He was awesome last night. And, John, dare Commanders fans in Washington and Virginia and Maryland have hope because this team looks like they played really well, and he was great last night. He throws such a pretty deep ball. Yeah, I mean, the Washington football franchise and their fans have not had much to cheer about for decades now,

as I'm sure Eugene Robinson can chime in in a moment. You know, but they may have the future. I have a lot of Commanders fans in my life who are nervous because Robert Griffin III also was this supernova for a season, and then he got hurt, and it never came back. Dales has a similar slight build. But, man, he's off to a spectacular start. Bengals 0-3.

The Jaguars got blown out. They're 0-3. But there's hope now in Asians' capital. There certainly is. Gene Robinson, we took note last week, or maybe a couple weeks ago now. They all blur together. But when Jaden Daniels walked on the field, the first play, we took note how different he was from the Bears rookie quarterback

and other rookie quarterbacks like Caleb Williams. When Jaden Daniels walked onto the field first play, he looked like he owned the place. That's what you want to see in a young quarterback. Absolutely. And last night, he was just spectacular. I mean, the final score was 38-33. The game was not that close. The commanders just killed a team that thought it was going to the Super Bowl,

that has Burrow and a ton of talent, and the commanders just outplayed them in every phase of the game. And Daniels was spectacular. You could see during the first quarter, there was a point at which he's like, oh, I figured this out. I figured out pro football like I figured out college football. And then it was like, I can run, I can throw, I can do whatever I want to do. It was amazing.

I hope he bulks up a little bit. He's kind of skinny. We're a little worried about that. But, boy, this is exciting. Yeah, no, he can run and he can throw. And if you're a Washington fan, you want him to throw and not run. And if you run, get to the sidelines faster than everybody else. By the way, Mika, next hour, we are going to actually pick apart the five completions that Mac Jones

threw last night in cleanup duty in the Bills game against Jacksonville. And, yes, they're bumper stickers, not only across Jacksonville, but up and down the eastern seaboard that say just that. Mac is back. Here comes Mac Jones. Watch out, kids. You have been allotted more than enough time to waste time. And now we're going to get to the news.

Really? Thank you. Let's go, Mets. All right. On yesterday's show, we picked apart the false narrative emerging from several prominent voices that Donald Trump might be unfit for office, but they can't yet vote for Vice President Harris because she hasn't given enough details about her policies. Well, I mean, you listen to Donald Trump on the policies.

And, you know, you should. And you're like going, is this Lincoln? Right. Like, is this like a philosopher king? A bit of Aristotle in there? I'm sure that was helpful to you. Yeah. So keep that in mind when listening to some of what Trump had to say in his rally last night in Pennsylvania.

And Vladimir wanted it badly. That was the apple of his eye. Ukraine was the apple of his eye. But I said, don't do it. He would have never gone in, would have never happened. All this all these things would have never happened. But Ukraine now I see Zelensky is here. I think Zelensky is the greatest salesman in history. Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion. Billion! Walks in with $60 billion. He wants them to win this election so badly.

As president-elect, if I win this election, the first thing I'm going to do is call up Zelensky and call up President Putin, and I'm going to say, you got to make a deal. This is crazy. What a horrible thing has happened just because, and it's our fault because it's a war that should have never been allowed to happen. We didn't have one terror attack during my administration with all the terror attacks all over the world. We didn't have countries fighting each other. They wouldn't have done it without my permission. They would call me up to ask whether or not they could go to war

with some other country. And I said, you can't do that. And if you do that, I'm going to put big, big taxes all over your country. OK, we won't do't do it and then call me up the next day we've decided not to go to the we had no wars these guys actually want these people in our country it's not even believable working with left-wing non-profits to inundate Pennsylvania communities changing the character of small towns and villages all over our country and changing them forever. They will never be the same. They will never be. Do you think Springfield will ever be the same?

I don't think. The fact is, and I'll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I'm sorry. You have to get them out. Can't have it. Can't have it. They've destroyed it. It's terrible. It's terrible to say, and it's a tough thing to do. What the damage that Sleepy Joe, you know, I'm tending to call him Sleepy Joe lately because I call him Crooked Joe. But now he's not like, is he? Who's our president? We don't even have.

Do we have a president? Why doesn't he leave? Why doesn't he leave? No, think of it. Think of it. I call him Crooked Joe. That was very effective. It got him out of the race. I mean, guess what? No, we had a debate, and he didn't do too well in that debate. And they came to him, and they said, you're down 21 points, and you're going to lose.

This can only happen to me. So I end up with somebody new. But here's the thing. All I have to do is expose her for what she is. She's a communist, okay? She's a communist. And this country is not ready for a communist and hopefully never will be

because that doesn't work. And remember this, and I just say this. If you look at Ukraine and Russia, but you know they say Russia. I stopped the Russian pipeline. It's called Nord Stream 2. Nobody had heard of it until I came along. I stopped the biggest economic development job,

the biggest job they've ever done. I stopped it cold. When Biden came in, he let them build, but he killed our Keystone pipeline, which we in, he let them build, but he killed our Keystone Pipeline, which we needed. He killed Keystone, so he killed everything. And remember this about Russia. Under Bush, they took a lot. Under Biden and Barack Hussein Obama, has anyone ever heard of him? Barack Hussein. A lot of people say he's actually running the country right now.

I don't think so. I don't think so. But some people say he's running our country. But under, I don't think it's Biden. Under Barack Hussein Obama, they took a lot, right? Under Biden, they're taking everything. They're taking everything. Okay, in that, I guess what he would call the weave. There were so many disgusting,

hateful things in there. It's hard to keep up. I know we're focused on foreign policy, but if I could just say his comments about Springfield. Yeah, Springfield has never been the same since Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and their violent rhetoric has wreaked chaos, Springfield and speaking up for the legal Haitian immigrants who live in Springfield, who add to the economy, who add to the society, who are good people. And it was very, very clear what is going on in Springfield is at the hands of Donald Trump and J.D. Vent and that violent rhetoric. And by the way, speaking of violent and lies, rhetoric, I mean, she's a communist. We can never have a communist running this country. The communist that is proposing $50,000 tax breaks for first time small business owners, the communist that's proposing

twenty five thousand dollar tax cuts, tax incentives for first time homebuyers, the communist who is putting together tax incentives, private incentives to help spur three million new homes for construction over the next four years. Doesn't sound like a communist to me. You know why? Because it's not a communist. But it's interesting. Wall Street Journal editorial page. I talked about a column or two that I read over the weekend. And you did, too. Very disturbing columns. But Wall Street Journal editorial page, again, been very responsible on Donald Trump's lies. The big lie. Been very responsible talking about the lunacy that has taken over the Republican Party many times.

It really has. And this morning, Ryan Ruth's political motives at the end said, we'll learn more as the case proceeds. But Ruth sounds like the type of person that could be triggered into murder by our ugly political debates. It's another reason for the country's leaders to avoid inflammatory end-of-days rhetoric against political opponents and about the consequences of losing a presidential election. Of course, Donald Trump said

it's all the Democrats' fault. Dan Henninger said it's all the Democrats' fault. And then immediately thereafter, Donald Trump started talking about because this was, this is when he was attacking Democratic rhetoric in the same Truth Social post. He says because of this communist left rhetoric, the bullets are flying and it will only get worse. And he always accuses the left. He always accuses Kamala Harris, who now is being attacked for actually being in the center of being communist.

But but really, really quickly, we were going over the false equivalency of people saying, oh, well, you know, Donald Trump, he's he may be bad, but at least we know where he stands on policy. We don't know where Kamala stands. So how can we vote for? We do know where she stands on a hell of a lot of policies. But here's where Donald Trump stands on policies of people that said, yeah, but we know where he stands. And so we're going to vote for him. Zelensky for Donald Trump, we just heard there is a bad guy. Putin, a victim. Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine. Who does Donald Trump say is at fault? The United States of America. He blames the city brightly shining on the hill for all the world to see. The city that has pushed back Russian aggression now since 1945. The country that has liberated much of Eastern Europe and is now trying to help liberate Ukraine. But Donald Trump blames America. He doesn't blame Vladimir Putin. He never has.

And so for all these people that want to vote for him, are desperately seeking permission, structure to vote for him, you will be voting for a man who says America is at blame for Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine. We made him do it. You go down. By the way, that sounds a lot like a certain historian who has been in the news lately and promoted who said that in World War Two, Hitler wasn't the villain. Churchill was the bad guy and Hitler in the Holocaust. Well, this person says it was just poor logistics and they ended up deciding it was actually more humane to kill six million Jews than to let them slowly starve. Donald Trump talks about mass deportation. The villages that have been changed. It's like you think Shrek has come to the villages of Pennsylvania.

Mass deportations. The crowd chanting, send them back. The antithesis. If there are any conservatives left out there who actually remember Ronald Reagan, Reagan in his farewell speech talked about what small business owners in Springfield are talking about, how immigrants revive economies, how immigrants make America forever young. Ronald Reagan said it, his farewell speech. But Donald Trump in this speech is talking and the crowd's chanting, I think, send them back, send them back. And then he's talking about massive tariffs. He's

going to end wars by slapping massive tariffs on products that will destroy America's economy. If not destroy America's economy, let me restate that. It will crush working class Americans and middle class Americans. And then he brings up the debate against Joe Biden, but for some reason doesn't bring up the debate against Kamala Harris, doesn't bring up the fact that he dodged yet again her request, her demand for a second debate. He keeps dodging it, Willie. Why?

Because he's horrible on the issues. And yet there's this flattening. Donald Trump will say that. And then you'll have people and we'll get to Tom Nichols on this. Then we'll have people going, yeah, but what does Kamala Harris really think about quantitative easing? She's going to talk about $50,000 tax breaks for first time small business owners and entrepreneurs and family businesses and and and people starting businesses on Main Street USA. But what are the long term tax ramifications about that? Well, Donald Trump just goes on stage and grunts and says nonsensical things. Yeah. And on the policy about some of the people you're talking about, wealthy Republicans, wealthy independents, a lot of those guys we've seen out in Silicon Valley

who've come out and said, well, I've got to go with Donald Trump here. You just laid it out. Are you for tariffs? Are you for record breaking debt? Is the Dow closing a little too high? The Dow and the S&P closed at record highs again, this big September rally that's happening because of the Fed rate cut, all the things that are happening with this economy. So there's some policy for you on the other side, too, if you actually want to look at it. Perhaps they're using those as cover for something else. For some other reason, they don't want to vote for Kamala Harris. Tom Nichols, you wrote a recent part in The Atlantic titled Policy Isn't Going to Win This Election.

And you write one of the great myths of American politics is that detailed policy positions are crucial to winning elections. Yes, policy matters in broad strokes. Candidates take general positions on issues such as taxes, abortion, and foreign policy. Rather than study white papers or ponder reports from think tanks, however,

most voters count on parties and candidates to signal broad directions and then work out the details later. In the 2024 election, policy details matter even less than they usually do. Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, seem to have figured this out. Policy proposals are supposed to differentiate the candidates, but drawing policy distinctions with Trump is hard when he presents almost nothing beyond I will fix it. And that is all he says. Tom Nichols is this stuff never would have happened if I had been there. I'm going to fix everything when I get there. I alone can fix

it, he famously said. There are legitimate questions that we've asked many, many times on this show about Kamala Harris's current positions versus where she was in 2019 and 2020. And she has attempted to answer some of those, including at the debate. But I'm reminded of our conversation last week with Hillary Clinton when we asked her for advice for Kamala Harris. And she said, if people want to know in the weeds policy details, go to the website. Your job as a candidate, a lesson she says she learned in 2016, is to tell a story about where you want to take the country. Right. And two things to remember. One is that for Trump's own people, for the Republican Party

and for the Trump faithful, Trump can say anything he wants. It doesn't matter. He's not held to any kind of account about policy. I mean, those clips that we just watched, Trump could stand there and say, you know, Lake Michigan is actually full of asparagus. A lot of people don't know that. And, you know, you have all these people behind him nodding, going, yeah, that's a great point. You know, it doesn't matter whether it's true or false or completely insane. So his side, his people, his base and the GOP, they're never going to hold him to any specifics. We know that, you know, too often when he's reported on, you know, there's kind of a collective shrug of saying, well, Donald Trump had another crazy rally last night and he said a lot of bonkers things. Meanwhile, you know, they turn to the Democratic nominee and say, as as Brett Stevens did.

Well, I need to know exactly what administrative regulations are going to be rolled back as part of housing policy. First of all, nobody wins elections on that. And and we've had examples of that in history. I mean, Mike Dukakis, you know, was the candidate that people should have realized after that, you know, when he stood there and he's, you know, talking about every detail and how he, you know, gone through every line of the budget. You don't win elections on that. You win elections on ideas. You win elections on empathy. You win elections on big directions. And I think some of this is just laying a trap, especially from people who really don't just they just want a permission structure not to vote for Kamala Harris because they still see themselves as part of, you know, the tribe and they're thinking about what happens after the election. And, you know, I think that's remarkable, given that if if she's good enough for Dick Cheney, she should probably be good enough for most conservatives. But there is this really kind of calorically intensive effort to say I would vote for her. But boy, that infrastructure, you know, the thing she said about infrastructure three months ago really got under my skin. So I'm not sure if it's her

or the guy who thinks that legal immigrants should be deported. Right. Of course, for that, so many of that permission structure is because they don't want to have to acknowledge, they don't want to vote for her because she's a woman or a person of color. So Eugene Robinson, I mean, this couldn't be more spot on. We've heard complaints that the vice president needs to say more about her policy and maybe in a few spaces she does. But that's not what this election is really about. It's this contrasting sort of vision, this dystopian view of America put forth by Donald Trump and his nonsensical efforts to say he'll fix it versus more of a happy, optimistic view put forth by the vice president. So, if you were counseling her, you know, and knowing this phenomenon, which Tom and Joe just laid out so

well, how should she approach this? I would tell her to keep doing what she's doing. I mean, let's step back for a second. She's only been the candidate for what, maybe a couple of months. I mean, it's it's it's extraordinary how well she has done, how she has expanded the electoral map. She's raised more money than King Midas. You know, she's just got she she has done quite spectacularly well as as a candidate from zero to 100 in virtually no time. So I think she must be doing something right. And if I were counseling her, I would say, no, don't try to give speeches to your rally crowds or to Brett Stevens or to anybody about the details and the weeds of your housing policy. Continue to talk about hope and joy and your vision for the future. Continue to talk about turning the page and give the outlines of how you're going to do that.

And, you know, I think I look, I think she's doing well. You know, Tom Nichols, I would up and they're all supporting Kamala Harris. You keep going down the list, especially of the Republicans that worked for Donald Trump, who will be supporting Kamala Harris. This is not really that hard for those that are desperately seeking permission structure to vote for Kamala Harris. They're not going to really get it. They're they're they're they're whistling past a graveyard when they are trying to claim the conservative vote is for the man that exploded the deficit and the debt more than anybody else before him in American history over four years. There's not a close second as far as deficit and debt growth under Donald Trump. Pushing tariffs, a massive tax on working class and middle class Americans.

Tariffs is his answer to everything. These people say, oh, we want to hear the details of Kamala Harris's policy and where she stands on quantitative easing, you know, after this, that or the other. I mean, and to Brett Stevens, you know nothing about Kamala. No, that's not not true. Todd Purdom, I could go down the list. People I know very much, I like very much, I respect very much. And yet they're claiming that Kamala Harris is an empty suit and somehow that gives them license to vote for Donald Trump. Let me just say tariffs again, massive tariffs, the most anti Reagan immigration policy of any major candidate since Reagan gave his farewell speech in January of 1989. And then let's look at Ukraine. Donald Trump will not blame Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine. He called it brilliant at the time. He called it brilliant.

And now he's blaming the United States of America for making Putin do it. Where in the world do these people think they're going to ever come up with an excuse, a thread that they can pull that will lead to conservatism? It's not there, is it, Tom? Especially when you start with foreign policy. I mean, we can argue about, you know, tariffs. Republicans, there have always been differences among Republicans about trade and tariffs and protectionism. But to start from, I will basically destroy NATO. I will tell Vladimir Putin, do whatever the hell you want.

These are his foreign policy positions alone should have been enough to alienate him from any conservative, any Republican. And those same people who say, but I don't know what Kamala Harris is going to do. Kamala Harris has made it very clear she's in it to keep NATO together and to help Ukraine win this war and to survive this Russian aggression. I'm pretty clear on what a Kamala Harris administration is going to look like. Unfortunately, I'm also pretty clear on what another Trump administration is going to look like. And I think a lot of these folks, I think they're stuck in the belief that this is a normal election and that down the line, they still have to maintain some sort of position as kind of balanced and nuanced

center-right wise men who don't fall into these partisan pitfalls, when in fact, you know, bears repeating again, we are facing, the United States is facing an existential threat to its constitutional system, to its alliances, to world order. This is not a normal election. Donald Trump is not a normal candidate. He is deeply mentally unstable. And the idea that somehow this is a difficult problem to reason out because you think Kamala Harris might be too...

One other interesting thing, Joe, people say, I have no idea what Kamala Harris is going to do, but I know it's going to be too far to the left and I can't vote for her. Well, you know, pick a lane. Either you have no idea what she's going to do or you know what she's going to do and it's unacceptable. And what they're really saying is, I know it's shameful to vote for Donald Trump and I need to have some way to get out from under the moral, excuse me, the moral stigma of voting for Trump, which is what I was going to do anyway. Yeah, well, what they've always they're always going to do. And Willie, again, picking up what Tom just said, isn't it funny? There's constant contradictions in these people looking for their permission structure where they'll go.

I don't know where Kamala Harris stands. She's flip flopped too much. She's moved to the center too much. She's going to be too left. She's going to be too center. She's going to be too left. Again, they are so desperate. But just following up on what we are talking about, we talked about some of our policies on helping small business owners, on helping first-time homebuyers, on these things that are very specific. And why do I repeat them?

I repeat them because if I were running for office in 2024 or in 2020 or in 2010 or in 2000, it's what I would do. It's what real conservatives would do. They would stop being they'd stop worrying about the billionaires and the multinational corporations and pushing all the tax cuts to them and start worrying about small business owners, people on Main Street, USA, family restaurants, small hardware store owners, all of these people that are fighting against huge national, international chains. And that's exactly what she's doing. So there you've got the policy, not only to sound

moderate, sounds pretty conservative to me. Her position on immigration far closer to Ronald Reagan's than Donald Trump. Her position on tariffs far closer to conservative Republicans of the Wall Street Journal editorial page than Donald Trump's. And then finally, Willie, you said it. Let's just talk about what she says she's going to do. Let's talk about what's been happening and what's happening right now. As you say, the stock market keeps breaking records every day, it seems. The Dow breaks records every day. The S&P breaks records every day. You compare America's economy to the rest of the world, especially across the West. We are lapping everybody, lapping them. China,

please, not even close. Four years ago, people were saying China's going to overtake us. Now it's just the opposite. You look at inflation way down. You look at gas prices way down. You look at interest rates down. You look at crime down, continuing to go down, jobs up, living wages up. Again, we could go on all day. And yet there will be somebody again desperately seeking permission and approval for voting for Donald Trump, a man who again tried to overthrow and throw out a presidential election on January the 6th. Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth at the end of all that, at the end of all that data. Let us not forget what he did around the 2020 election. And by the way, he's laying the groundwork for to do again, already calling it into question.

Illegal immigrants are going to vote. Don't trust mail in voting, putting all these questions because he's deeply concerned about what's going to happen in six weeks. And let's also not forget, by the way, when he says the Barack Hussein Obama thing when he goes back, that's the same reason he says Kamala instead of Kamala. It's the same reason he talks about Haitian immigrants here legally eating pets and dogs. It's all of those people. They're not us. They're not like us. They're from somewhere else. Kamala Harris is somebody else. She's not one of us. So put all that in the stew. And that's where you have this chin stroking from the list of people that you talked about. and I just had to laugh listening to the discussion, the idea that we're talking about Dick Cheney, Dick Cheney as some kind of a rhino or something,

when in fact the opposite is true. Dick Cheney is who he's always been, who was Darth Vader, the villain to Democrats now coming out to support Kamala Harris. And you have actually Republicans, Trump supporters saying, well, Dick Cheney is a rhino. It bends the mind. It sure does. Staff writer at The Atlantic, Tom Nichols. Thank you very much for coming on this morning. And still ahead of morning, Joe, the suspect in the second apparent assassination plot against former President Trump appeared in court yesterday. We'll get into what we're learning about the new evidence presented in the case. Plus, a key Republican in Nebraska breaks with former President Trump, saying he opposes changing how the state awards electoral votes.

We'll talk about why it matters ahead of November. You're watching Morning Jail. We're back in 90 seconds. Welcome back to Morning Joe. Nebraska will not change the way it awards its electoral votes. Some allies of Donald Trump in the Nebraska state legislature recently indicated at his insistence they would force a special legislative session to switch to a winner take all system. But a lone Republican is tabling that move. In a letter obtained by NBC News, state Senator Mike McDonald, Republican, writes, quote, After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day is not the moment to make this change. Trump responded on social media, writing, Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican state senator named Mike

McDonald decided for no reason whatsoever to get in the way of a great Republican common sense victory. Just another grandstander, writes Donald Trump. Let's bring in former litigator, MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin. MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle joins the table as well. Good morning to you both. So Lisa, let's take a step back here about what Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party were trying to do in Nebraska. People will remember there is that electoral vote in the Omaha area. Joe Biden won it in 2020. It's one vote. Donald Trump's argument and some Republicans was the state vote should just be a winner take all. And whoever wins the state wins all the votes. Correct. And one of the

reasons that they're so focused on Nebraska is because that one electoral vote could make the difference in this election. I want to point out something, Willie, to you and our viewers, which is that last week when Lindsey Graham went as an emissary of the Trump campaign to Nebraska, his visit coincided with the 90th day before the Electoral College meets. And that's significant because the state of Maine said if Nebraska were to make a change, it, as the other non-winner takes all state, would make the same change to sort of counteract or counterbalance that. But Lindsey Graham waited until a day on which Maine could no longer have that option because Maine law requires that any change be made in their law 90 days before it takes effect. In other words, he visited on a Wednesday. By Thursday, we were at the 89-day mark.

Maine is now in a place to make no such change. And that could have been a motivating factor for Mike McDonald, as well as concern for his own constituents in Omaha. You know, making a decision as Mike McDonald made this close to an election, it's amazing that we're living in a political culture where Mike McDonald is now thought of as perhaps getting the Profiles in Courage award. A common sense decision, Profiles in Courage. Well, and it's not just a common sense decision, Mike. I'm usually not the cynic at this table, but let me be one for a second. Mike McDonald

is rumored to want to be the mayor of Omaha. And so what looks like Profiles in Courage could also be a profile in tactical decision making for a would-be candidate. But you're right to say decisions this close in time to an election should be common sense for anyone. And yet there are no legal barriers to making these sorts of decisions. At this point, there is no Supreme Court precedent that would say a state cannot do this. And that's why we need the Mike McDonald's of the world to stand up and say, no, I'm not going to support this. But let me just say, Jonathan Lemire,

that Mike McDonald actually is a profile in courage. If anybody that has been the red hot focus of Donald Trump and his supporters, understands what Mike McDonald is going to be going through, not only over the next 43 days, but for a very long time to come from enraged supporters. And he did the right thing. He really did. But nothing easy about it at all. Now, let's remember what happened to some of the state election officials who stood up to Donald Trump in 2020. Rusty Bowers, for one, in Arizona, who was drummed out of office, received threats around the clock for weeks, eventually testified on Capitol Hill about it. Others in the secretary of state in Georgia,

Brad Raffensperger. The list goes on and on. People who really had their lives turned upside down because they did defy Donald Trump. And it's also worth underscoring, really, why this one electoral vote is so important, because the simplest path for a Democrat, frankly, was the only path available to President Biden, still there for Vice President Harris, to get to 270 electoral votes. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania. If those are the only three battleground states you win, that's 269. You need one more. That Omaha vote, it would be the one. Yeah.

And it underlines how close Donald Trump believes this election is going to be, that he's grasping for every vote he can get. Let's talk about Georgia as well, Lisa. Yesterday, the state election board there unanimously approved a new rule that would make pictures, photographs of ballots available to the public within three days after an election. It would give candidates and voters the ability to check the vote count and identify concerns more quickly. Unclear if the new rule will be finalized in time for November's election. Also, Georgia's Board of Elections opened an investigation into eight county election boards and how they handled thousands of challenges to voter registration.

So help us sort through what both of those stories mean. Let's start with the first one about making the ballot images transparent. You noted, Willie, that all five members of Georgia Election Board voted for that. And I think it's because it represents something different to each side. Remember, this is not happening in a vacuum. The Georgia Election Board has been considering change after change to its rules. We have a trial coming up on October 1st about two of the most controversial of those rules. One that allows county election board members to conduct a reasonable inquiry after an election and before certification, and the other that allows them to demand any and all election related documentation. You can see then why how the two non MAGA board members might favor a system where you get to see the transparent images of ballots because that will

allow people to be their own check on counties that say, oh, wait, I couldn't possibly certify these election results because there's irregularity X or alleged fraud Y. By making those images available to everyone, perhaps they're hoping that that will serve as a check. On the other hand, for the three MAGA board members, this is also an opportunity to give the voting public and all sorts of citizen activists, the kinds of people maybe trained by Cleta Mitchell, the opportunity to sow that doubt themselves and distrust in the results. And remember, they did to their credit, the governor, secretary of state, they counted, they counted again in 2020. They counted a third time by hand to make sure they get it right. So trying to protect the election again this time. MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin. Lisa, thanks as always. Mika. Thank you, guys. All right. The man

accused in the apparent assassination plot against Donald Trump at his Florida golf course earlier this month may face a more serious charge. Federal prosecutors submitted new evidence in a court filing yesterday seeking to prove that suspect Ryan Ruth was at Trump's golf club with the sole intention of killing the former president. Ruth is currently being held on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. After authorities said he was seen with a long gun lying in wait on September 15th outside Trump International Golf Club, where Trump was golfing. Yesterday's filing also revealed a note written by Ruth declaring, quote, This was an assassination attempt. Ruth's lawyer characterized the events as a publicity stunt.

At the same time, former President Trump criticized the initial charges against Ruth yesterday, accusing the Department of Justice and the FBI of mishandling and downplaying the case while giving the suspect a, quote, slap on the wrist. Trump made the comments in a campaign press release suggesting without any evidence that the investigation is biased. Additionally, he called for Florida officials to handle the case. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump's remarks. Let's bring in right now state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, Dave Ehrenberg. Dave, I remember the day this happening, you saying that they're going to start probably with initial charges and then gather the evidence before they bring stronger charges. But the first thing they needed to do was put some charges out there that they had him on dead to right, Keep him in jail while they build the bigger case. Yes. Good morning, Joe and Mika. Yes. And this handwritten letter will help federal prosecutors

in at least three ways. First, it does provide some proof of intent. Now it's easier to charge for attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and attempted assassination of a former president that can get Ruth up to life in prison. So those are the more serious charges that Trump and DeSantis want the feds to charge. The feds are just following the evidence and doing the right thing here. Also, that letter shows that Ruth is a danger to the community, and that was used in yesterday's hearing to keep him detained pre-trial. So he's not going anywhere. He's not getting out of jail before trial and perhaps never again. Also, that letter undermines his future insanity defense. Now, the letter didn't say that the Martians were out to get him.

This was a guy who knew what he was doing and took great planning to try to accomplish it. He had the understanding to know that he would likely not succeed and would probably end up dead. So that's why it sounded like a suicide note. So this guy may indeed have a screw loose, Joe, but the letter and his attempts to flee afterwards cuts the legs out from under any future insanity defense. Well, and it's one thing that the Wall Street Journal editorial page talked about this morning where they talked about his political motives. So there are two types of shooters there. There are the the sort of the crazy for they they they wrote it far better than I just said it. But there are those that have the, quote, screw loose. And then there's are those like John Wilkes Booth who have a specific political purpose in mind. And yes, while this guy may have that, quote, screw loose for prosecutors, for the sake of prosecution, that letter and other things give them what they

need to put him into this second. And again, as The Wall Street Journal editorial page says, more dangerous category of actually being politically motivated. And may I say, this is just something we usually don't see in many, many assassination attempts or many mass shootings. There are people that there are people that you see that are being sent for shooting up schools or shooting up churches or shooting up other places. And you look at them and you understand there probably is no motivation we will ever understand because mental illness is involved. But again, in this case,

it seems like especially his letter moves us past that so the feds can actually prosecute him for knowing exactly what he was trying to do. Yes, you know, it's scary when you don't know the motivation. In Las Vegas, the largest mass shooting in our country's history, we still don't know the motivation behind that guy's successful shooting and killing of so many people. You know, it was not just a note that was found, but also there was a map found on his phone to drive from West Palm Beach to Mexico.

That's a long drive. And that shows you he's trying to flee and that he's a flight risk. Yeah. So that keeps him in prison pretrial because he's a flight risk. But also it shows that he knew the difference between right and wrong. See, the standard for an insanity defense is that you have an established medical condition and you didn't know the difference between right and wrong. Well, when you're trying to flee, that means you knew what you were doing was wrong. Plus, if you're going to charge for attempted assassination here, you've got to show not just intent, but that the defendant took a substantial step towards accomplishing his goal and mere preparation and planning is not enough. So what they found was that he had 11 rounds and one in the chamber pointed in Trump's direction.

So that shows you, I think, that he took a substantial step. And I think you'll see an indictment forthcoming where he is charged with those much more serious crimes. All right. State attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, Dave Ehrenberg. Great to have you on this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you. And coming up, President Biden is set to deliver a speech today at the United Nations General Assembly, marking what will likely be his last major appearance on the world stage. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will join us at the top of the hour. Morning, Joe. We'll be right back. Hey, Gene, your latest opinion piece for The Washington Post is titled The GOP Can't Resist the Allure of a Trump Friendly Black Conservative.

Of course, I would take great, great exception to this man ever being called a conservative. But yes, he is a self-described conservative. And your point, well taken, regardless of that. But talk about that and the cost that it comes to North Carolina Republicans and possibly to the top of the ticket. Right. Mark Robinson. We all know about the CNN story that broke last week. And, you know, his campaign manager and the rest of his staff has left. The Republican governors are no longer giving money to his campaign. It's basically seen as a lost cause. He was behind before. Now he's further behind. And he could potentially drag

down the Republican ticket in this crucial swing state that Donald Trump thought he had wrapped up. And why did they do this? Well, here's a guy who's like a MAGA African-American. And the Republican Party, today's Republican Party, can't resist that no matter how inexperienced or inappropriate or just plain wacko the person is. And I'm thinking Herschel Walker. Remember, Herschel Walker actually cost them, helped cost Republicans the United States Senate. Because, again, Trump cynically thought, oh, he's black. Oh, he likes me. oh, he's black.

Oh, he likes me. Oh, he's a star. And what does he do? He's a terrible political candidate and he costs Republicans majority of the Senate. Yeah, right. So Raphael Warnock could have been knocked off in that election two years ago, but he won because Hershel Walker talked about werewolves and vampires. Remember that? He said he'd rather be a werewolf than a vampire. You know, but that's better. That's better than Mark Robinson in North Carolina. And we can't

repeat on television most of what he said that's totally inappropriate, except he did say that he was a black Nazi. And he also said that slavery was great. You know, he wished he owned a few. Terrific. OK, still ahead. I wonder how that works. I wonder how that works in the cross tabs when you look in the polling and they're still ahead.