Morning Joe - Morning Joe 9/26/24

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

NYC Mayor Eric Adams expected to face federal charges

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It's Thursday, September 26th. Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were in swing states yesterday, delivering dueling visions for the economy. We're going to play their remarks. Plus, hours from now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with President Biden at the White House while Donald Trump snubbed a meeting with the Ukrainian leader. We'll tell you why.

Also ahead, we're tracking Hurricane Helene, which is set to intensify and cause catastrophic damage across the state of Florida. A lot to cover this morning, along with Joe, Willie and me. We have the host of way too early White House bureau chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, U.S. national editor at the Financial Times. Ed Luce is with us, columnist and associate editor for The Washington Post. David Ignatius is here and congressional investigations reporter for The Washington Post, Jackie Alimany. So, Willie, we have major news to get to out of New York City. Why don't we start there?

Yeah, we sure do, Mika. This front page, of course, of all the newspapers here in New York City, New York Post, Eric Adams saying, I am a target. And then Daily News simply writing, indicted. The news here in New York is that Mayor Eric Adams is expected to face federal charges from prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York as early as today, according to a couple of sources familiar with the matter. The indictment remains sealed as of last night,

but CNBC reports the indictment in part accuses Adams of criminal conduct related to donations to his 2021 mayoral campaign. The mayor released a statement last night in response, denying wrongdoing while vowing to stay in office. He then released a video addressing his fellow New Yorkers. It is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so, these charges will be entirely false based on lies. But they would not be surprising.

I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target. And a target I became. Enough. I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit. If I'm charged, I know I am innocent. I will request an immediate trial so the New Yorkers can hear the truth. Let's bring in NBC News national law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter and former litigator and MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin. Good morning to you both. So, Tom, we expect probably later today to get some detail

about what's inside this indictment and what the mayor of New York City is accused of. A lot of this centers around Turkey and donations to the campaign in 2021. And for people who have been following this, don't live in New York City. This comes sort of at the end of a long domino effect of people who've fallen. The police commissioner stepping aside, the health commissioner stepping aside, schools commissioner as well, fire officials, fire safety division officials being charged in bribery schemes. So what do we know about what the mayor is being charged with here? So to your point, this investigation really kicked off in earnest almost a year ago on November 2nd, when Brianna Scuggs, who was the head of his campaign, was searched. The mayor was in Washington,

D.C. at that moment. And we had heard all across town that there was some sort of law activity going on and that there was some sort of something that was afoot. But when it was the mayor, when he canceled abruptly his plans and decided to immediately come home to New York, that we first got an indication of something pretty serious is going on. And initially, we didn't know that it was a search tied to his campaign. People were even wondering if there was some sort of a terrorist type of attack. Obviously, that was less than a month after October 7th. And then the investigation really took the next level on November 6th of last year, when the mayor, surrounded by his police detail, out and about in the course of his business is approached by multiple FBI agents, and they ask and demand for his phone and his iPad.

And then more recently, in September this year, just after Labor Day, Phil Banks, the deputy mayor of public safety, oversees the NYPD and FDNY. Phone taken. David Banks, who you just referenced before, the school's chancellor. Phone taken. Sheena Wright, key advisor, first deputy mayor, one of the most loyal and one of the most important advisors to Mayor Eric Adams. Her phone is taken. She's the wife of David Banks. And then on Saturday night, two Saturdays ago, we get out of the blue a letter from their attorney, Lisa Zornberg, saying, you know, I've decided to move on effectively. So

this has been developing and building. Specific to your question, Willie, we don't know the exact types of charges. You referenced the Turkish donations and whether or not the Turkish consulate here in New York, that their safety approvals were fast-tracked in exchange for some sort of donation or for benefits or gifts. That certainly could be a component of it. I don't think the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York only charges based on that one specific incident. So there's a number of things that we're hearing, a number of things that we're continuing to report out. But I wouldn't be surprised if this is a large indictment with significant charges on it, because I think that's the type of level that you would get to go after the mayor of the city of New York. Yeah, Lisa, coming out of the Southern District, this is going to be major. The fact that federal

prosecutors are looking into this and have been for a long time. It's been almost as Tom just laid out really well, almost a year, about 10 months of this, this slow roll of, as Tom mentioned, the mayor being approached as he walked out of an event down in the village by federal officials. Give us your phones, give us your devices. So what do you expect to hear today if and when this is unsealed? I expect, as Tom does, that there could be multiple charges against the mayor. What we don't know is who else could be charged here. And there are, based on what we know just about the investigative steps that the Southern District has taken, any number of people, both who worked in an official capacity and an unofficial capacity on the 2021 campaign, who could be charged.

One of the things I'm really looking for today is who is not named as a defendant in this, whether or not there are unnamed co-conspirators, for example, in this indictment, or there are people who don't appear at all who you would have expected to appear. New York Times reported several months ago that one of the mayor's aides, a woman named Rana Abasova, is said to have been cooperating with federal investigators here. Whether she appears in this indictment, either by name or by reference, is something I'm particularly focused on. Jonathan O'Meara, you can put on your daily news alum cap right now for for the next couple of questions.

Going back even to the beginning of his campaign, there were always ethic. There are always whispers about Mayor Adams ethics, ethical questions swirling around him for some time. But you'd ask somebody who was specifically and you'd never get any specifics. But that was something that everybody said, followed him around, that you would talk to that knew New York politics. So first, speak to that. And secondly, if you will, speak to the number of politicians, including Andrew Cuomo, who are now going to begin posturing themselves to run in the special election to be New York's next mayor. Yeah, sort of Eric Adams, a meteoric rise. He was a police officer, formed a group there of 100 blacks in law enforcement who care, then moved into transitioned into politics. He was Brooklyn Borough president and from there launched his mayoral campaign. But during that rise, as you know correctly, Joe, there were always whispers, you know, in New York political circles,

in law enforcement circles, that something was not quite right. It became a campaign issue. He was investigated previously, but never charged. And then, you know, he won it in 2021, you know, with a pretty resounding number and a popular at first coming out of the pandemic. But what we have seen here is these questions have dogged him throughout. As Tom just laid out, this has been something that's been going on for a while. And this, we're still gonna learn more later today when this indictment is unsealed, but there are four different federal probes right now ongoing into Adams and his inner circle.

So this may not be the only case that comes to fruition with charges in the weeks and months ahead. New York, Eric Adams, as we played last night, he's vowing to fight this. He's vowing to continue. He is now the first mayor in New York, Eric Adams, as we played last night, he's vowing to fight this. He's vowing to continue. He is now the first mayor in New York City's history to be charged with a crime while in office. A sort of stunning statistic. And yes, they're already, because his poll numbers

were so low, there are already a number of Democrats, city officials, former comptroller, public advocate, councilmen who have announced that they will challenge him in the democratic primary next year there's no real republican opposition the democratic primary normally in new york is the gateway to city hall and yes one name who has not jumped in officially yet but strongly rumored to be weighing a bid is former new york governor andrew como and scott stringer the former comptroller here who's going to run obviously for mayor again this time has called for mayor adams to resign aoc time has called for Mayor Adams to resign. AOC also has called for Mayor Adams to resign.

That list is growing. Just to underscore here, Tom Winter, we saw in the space of just a few days, the police commissioner resigned on September 12th. Mayor Adams, chief counsel, three days later, resigned the next day to fire department division. Safety chiefs were arrested. And then the school's chancellor a few days ago stepped aside as well. And that's just a few of them, by the way. So I know we don't know specifically what's going to be in this indictment, but we use sort of Turkey as shorthand for shady connections, allegedly.

What exactly are we talking about here? What have we heard from reporting that may have happened here with the mayor? Yeah, I think you're looking at a situation where you may have pay for play. And that's that's essentially what is being hinted at, what is being reported at with respect to the Turkey component of it. And the question is, are there going to be other countries that are going to be involved in it? I think that's a big concern. I think, you know, Jonathan mentioned the four investigations, true, involving City Hall. But we've got additional investigations, including one involving Winnie Greco, who's the liaison to the Asian community as assigned by the mayor's office. She's under federal investigation.

She had her home search. We believe that that is in part separate from some of the things that we're talking about here today. And so that is a name that I'm going to be looking for over the next couple of hours, if not the next couple of months. So I think that's something to keep an eye on. I think when we look at this as far as additional charges, referencing the four investigations involving City Hall, you've got two other investigations that are going on right now. There's a new, freshly opened investigation to the sheriff of the city of New York, allegations that he was skimming off of money that was taken from

illegal marijuana shops in New York City. That seems to be its own separate silo. And then you've got the ongoing investigation involving the New York City Police Department. You referenced the resignation of Edward Caban, the police commissioner. A number of other top police commanders had their phones taken. That appears to be a separate investigation involving pay to play accusations there again. Phones being taken left and right if you're in charge here in New York City. Lisa, just quickly, it's worth stopping and pointing out for all the charges of weaponization of the Justice Department by Republicans, long hearings that they've been held. It's a narrative. There are an awful lot of prominent Democrats now that are being investigated. It Turns out if you're alleged to have done something wrong, Democrat or Republican,

you might be brought up on charges. Yes. And despite that, one of the things I thought was notable about Eric Adams's response last night is it seemed particularly Trumpy, right? That because I made particular pledges to clean up this city, I am now a target because of my views on the migrant situation. That's not what's going on here at all. The Biden's Justice Department is not seeking out people based on their political belief and prosecuting them. Rather, what they're doing is following the facts without fear or favor. We see that happening to both Republicans and Democrats alike now. Eric Adams puts an end to the Trump call of weaponization, and yet he is also drawing from former President Trump's own defense in his public statements now. MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin, NBC News national law enforcement and intelligence

correspondent Tom Winter. Thank you both. We appreciate it. Much more to come on this, I'm sure. And Mika, by the way, all of this coming during U.N. General Assembly week here in New York City. I know major breaking news will be following this as it develops the other big story of the morning. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with President Biden at the White House today, where he is expected to present his so-called victory plan for the war in Ukraine. President Biden is expected to formally announce a $375 million aid package for Ukraine, the largest since the summer, and the 66th aid package the U.S. has provided the country since August of 2021. Meanwhile, a meeting between former President Trump and President

Zelensky will not be happening today. The two leaders were expected to meet at Trump Tower when asked why the meeting was canceled. A source familiar with the matter pointed to Zelensky's interview with The New Yorker this week, in which the Ukrainian president called Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, too radical, adding, quote, his message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice. At his rally in North Carolina yesterday, former President Trump continued to criticize Zelensky. Look at the war in Ukraine. And I think it's something we have to have a quick discussion about because the president of Ukraine is in our country, and he's making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me. It would have never happened if I were president to start off with,

and there didn't even have to be a settlement. It wouldn't have happened, period. Russia wouldn't have gone in. I spoke to Putin about it a lot. I got along very well with Putin. I spoke to him a lot. I watched this poor guy yesterday at the United Nations. He didn't know what he was saying. They just don't know what to do. They're locked into a situation. It's sad. They just don't know what to do because Ukraine is gone. It's not Ukraine anymore. You can never replace those cities and towns and you can never replace the dead people, so many dead people. Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have right now. If they made a bad deal,

it would have been much better. They would have given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built. Thank you so much for your insights, Neville Chamberlain. Peace at all costs. Peace in our times. You know, David Ignatius, I'm just, I've got to say, it's really kind of hard to be shocked by Donald Trump's Republican Party in 2024. And yet we have over the past several days seen his crowds cheering for Vladimir Putin,

seemingly booing Vladimir Zelensky, Donald Trump talking about how, saying one positive thing after another positive thing about Vladimir Putin every time he speaks of Putin and constantly criticizing Zelensky, constantly criticizing Ukraine, constantly suggesting if he's president, he's going to end the war at once. They've incited a Vanderbilt poll that was taken last year. They asked self-identified MAGA voters, who do you think is a better president? Russia's autocrat, Vladimir Putin, or Joe Biden, America's democratically elected president? 52 percent said Putin was the better president. Only 18 percent of these Republicans said the American president was the better president, only 18 percent of these Republicans said the American president was a better president. Talk about not only how surprising that is, but I've just got to

say how how how challenging that is for our country, that you have a large chunk of Americans that have been moving towards an autocrat because their leader is so supportive of an autocrat. Joe, it's not just surprising. It's shocking. Trump really is waving the white flag here. A quote from the little slip we just saw. Ukraine is gone.

What? He's ready to declare this war over and he's ready to to install a peace plan that would essentially be a russian victory he says he says ukraine's gone he also says so many dead on the ukrainian side he doesn't mention of course the one million russian casualties well you know it's true that ukraine and russia both are uh just punching themselves into the ground. I just was in Ukraine. I wrote after that visit that Ukraine is bleeding out. There's a generation that's dying on the battlefield.

It is a horrific war. But the idea that the answer to that, this terrible, terrible sacrifice, is to essentially concede to Russia and to Putin his demands. As I said at the beginning, it's shocking. So the question for me is, when are Republicans, who widely disagree with this on Capitol Hill, going to say something? Going to say, this is unacceptable to us, that our candidate speaks in effect on behalf of the adversary of our ally, Ukraine. And as president, he will act. He will support Vladimir Putin.

So so but but but it is true that the war in Ukraine is nearing a crisis point. Ukraine cannot continue indefinitely. And it either needs more weapons or it needs a new jolt of American-led diplomacy. But this current status quo, as long as it takes, the idea that we've had, let's just keep fighting a war of attrition and someday the Russians will give up, that's really not a sensible strategy. It's not a sensible strategy for the Ukrainians. It's not a sensible strategy for the Russians either, because like you said, they're pounding each other into the ground. Russian casualties are significantly worse than Ukrainian.

There's some new figures that are coming out. I mean, it's shocking the way that, you know, as people say, the butcher's bill that's been paid by Russia in this war is just horrifying. Jackie, you know, it was fascinating during Donald Trump's first term. You would have him, of course, humiliating himself in Helsinki with Jonathan Lemire asking questions that he walked right into traps in Helsinki, but humiliating himself time and time again, kowtowing to Vladimir Putin. And yet not only did Republicans on the Hill hold the line, but Mike Pence at the same time as vice president would go to I think it was Munich and he would deliver speeches about Russia that Ronald Reagan could have delivered himself. So there's always been this divide in the Republican Party. I'm curious right now from your sense, are there still a majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill that that support pushing back on Vladimir Putin? It's it's a dwindling majority. It's a cohort that is losing their courage and losing members. I mean, Mitt Romney is out of office in January. He's retiring. He's been one of the biggest

and really one of the lone outspoken proponents of continuing aid. Earlier this year, we saw 22 Republicans who ultimately defied Donald Trump's wishes not to support new aid that was going to Ukraine. But again, it's very unlikely. I mean, there's obviously a huge unknown here about who's going to win the presidential election and in Congress, too, whether or not, you know, there might be a trifecta potentially or if House Republicans are going to hold the majority in the lower chamber and whether Democrats are going to be able to hold their very narrow majority in the Senate. But that is seeming increasingly unlikely.

Jon Tester obviously has been defying political gravity for decades now in his career. So he may be feeling gravity's pull. Yeah. As REM said, the small amount of leverage that that Republicans have in terms of being, you know, pro Ukraine and in favor of America having a robust role in global affairs that is dwindling. So, Ed Luce, Vladimir Zelensky was presenting a peace plan to the UN yesterday, obviously, in these meetings as well. Is there any potential for both sides to see what we're talking about here and say maybe there's an imperfect solution to this to end the fighting? I wish I could say yes, but I don't think that's possible right right now. Remember yesterday, Vladimir Putin did something else that has had surprisingly little attention, which is he revised Russia's nuclear doctrine. He revised it downwards. He lowered the bar to say that countries that are supplying conventional weapons that are then targeted on Russia would qualify as crossing Russia's nuclear threshold.

So what essentially he's saying is America, if you listen to Zelensky, if you listen to his request that you use attack arms or storm shadows or whatever the artillery is to strike inside Russia, you won't know whether we're going to nuke you or not. You are crossing our threshold. So those are not the signals of a man who's prepared to sit down and talk. But even if he were prepared to sit down and talk, it would be on Putin-Trump kind of terms. It would be, how are you going to surrender? The details of what the surrender would look like and how long it would take it. This is not a position in which Ukraine wishes to end this war. And I want to ask you

about your reporting, David, Jackie, that you're reporting on this question of how far Vladimir Putin would go, because I will say I am very frustrated with Trumpists saying abandon Ukraine. But there is another side of this that the Biden administration fills the poll every day. And they're from friends of mine, fellow conservatives, fellow former Cold Warriors who basically want Ukraine to sing marching design writing on American missiles straight into Moscow. And any time you suggest there is a possibility that Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons like, oh, come on, please. He hasn't yet. I let me just speak for myself. I I've spoken to foreign leaders who know Vladimir Putin, who have told me back him into a corner and he will use nuclear

weapons. And if you don't believe he will, you're a fool. Yeah. I mean, you can't you can't sort of take this lightly. I would sort of get somewhere in between. And yet there are so many people that take this lightly and say, oh, Biden should give him this. Oh, Biden. And they did from the very beginning. They did. I mean, I think we've discovered him this. Oh, Biden should. And they did from the very beginning. They did. I mean, I think we've discovered as this war has gone on that his nuclear red lines are not quite as close as we thought, very understandably, early on in the war. Exactly. But that does not mean he doesn't have nuclear red lines.

And this is the mistake. This, if you want to call it the neoconservative, the aging cold warrior wing, that's that's what we'll call it. But they act as if there is no red line. There's a reason why Keir Starmer, the prime minister of Britain, there's a reason why the Polish government, there's a reason why other governments are now saying, look, they're agreeing with Zelensky. Look, let's give him the ability to target sites in Russia that are firing at us. We cannot fight we cannot get anywhere near the position where we'd like to negotiate a settlement unless we can strike back on even time somebody used the analogy the other day i mean david would know this better it's like you there's all these

arrows coming in um and you can shoot some of them down but you're not allowed to target the archer that is not a fair fight. Right. And and, you know, Biden has said all along with two goals here. One is to give Ukraine the means to defend itself and to not to start World War Three. And it's it's a difficult furrow to plow in between those two goals, because some of the tools Ukraine needs to defend itself might cross Putin's nuclear red line. You're right. David. So, Joe, I think there has been an effort by Zelensky to shame the United States into providing significantly greater support in the face of these threats. I've certainly heard that in Kiev a couple of weeks ago.

It bothers me when I hear our president attacked as being weak-willed when he has, as Ed said, been pretty consistent that he views his job as supporting Ukraine, resisting this invasion as strongly as he can, but also avoiding a direct U.S.-Russian war. Any U.S. president who didn't take that seriously as a responsibility shouldn't be in the job. There's one other point that's, I think, significant. U.S. military officials that I talked to cautioned that shooting attackums 300 kilometers into Russia, when Russia has already moved back all the good targets, they are now out of range. The things you'd want to hit, the airplanes, the missile sites, they pulled them back. But you won't get a tactical benefit that's

commensurate with the risk. A much better use of the limited ATACOMs. Alas, we know ATACOMs just kind of flowing out our Christmas tree. A better use is to use them on Russian-occupied Crimea, where Russia is having a terrible time maintaining its forces. That's the vulnerability, I think. And so the argument from American officials is, both in terms of risk and in terms of benefit to Ukraine, a wiser course is to focus on Crimea in the south. But we're going to see today with Zelensky's visit a real effort to pressure Biden into doing something that he's obviously reluctant to do. And we'll just we'll watch and see what this is. Biden's last big play. Let's watch it. visited Pennsylvania this week and is getting a lot of attacks from Republican lawmakers for meddling in politics. What exactly happened? Zelensky did a visit with Democratic lawmakers.

He also made a jab at J.D. Vance that upset Donald Trump. And I think this sort of was a permission slip for Republicans to vacate town and not even be here today in order to meet with him or greet him or placate or humor him in any way. But I think it's reflective, again, of what we were talking about. The ideological fabric of the Republican Party, especially in Congress over the past eight years, has dramatically changed. You do have some people like Mike Johnson who occasionally sort of concede to reading in on the information, being convinced by the White House that in these past packages that Republicans should ultimately coalesce around them, despite some of his rhetoric. But I also forgot to mention one of the other leading proponents

of continuing support for Ukraine, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is also on his way out, at least of leadership. These are people who are losing power and are being continually diminished by the president, especially as Trump continues to make this a rallying cry. And we get closer and closer to November. There's there's just going to be more more tension here. Yeah. You know, Willie, there have been Republican leaders from Mitch McConnell to Mike Johnson belatedly, obviously, Chairman McCaul, others who have supported the support of Ukraine. There are a lot of Republican leaders in the defense and intel areas that have done that may not have been a bad idea for the Ukrainian ambassador or the White House to invite one of them to Scranton, Pennsylvania. So that looked a little less partisan. Yeah, perhaps in hindsight, the someone official, the United States Army, talked to the AP yesterday off the record or on background and said, effectively, we invite the state senator. Bob Casey was there and the congressperson who

represents the district there in Scranton, who happens to be a Democrat. Perhaps they should have broadened that a little bit, though. So, John, this is a little bit more snowflakery from Donald Trump, which is I'm going to cancel my meeting with President Zelensky because he said something that I perceive as a criticism of me and J.D. Vance, saying J.D. Vance is too radical on the question of Ukraine in an interview this week. So not meeting with him and again, taking great pains in that speech we watched yesterday to lavish praise on Vladimir Putin. I'm very close to him. I have his ear. Again, the former KGB agent Vladimir Putin just could not imagine an easier mark than Donald Trump. Flatter him,

get what you want. He has done Putin's bidding throughout his full career to this point and is giving up the game here pretty early. They know that if Donald Trump were to win in November, USA to Ukraine would likely halt. And Speaker Johnson's gone ahead and called for Zelensky to fire the Ukrainian ambassador because of the setup of that meeting yesterday in Pennsylvania. But a few things to note about ahead of today's meeting at the White House. I mean, to this point, Willie, it's sort of been a truism that Zelensky pushes the White House to get more arms or more military. Biden hesitates and eventually does get there. But I'm told right now there's certainly not, at least yet, an agreement, a willingness to give them permission to use these missiles deep into

Russia, in part because the U.S. supply, as David mentioned, is running very low. But secondly, there is a trust issue. Will Ukraine adhere to an approved list of targets? Will they perhaps freelance and strike deeper into Russia than they should? This is, of course, Ukraine. You know, at least initially, there was a government blessing for the operation to damage the Nord Stream pipeline. Eventually, Zelensky walked away from it, but the mission went ahead anyway. So that is a concern. There is a fear that this could finally be a red line that would cause Putin to escalate in some way, which, of course, President Biden does not want.

And the victory plan that Zelensky is supposed to present to Biden today, if U.S. officials have seen pieces of it, including some officials who have been to Kiev, they say that to Joe and Mika that it's not it's not particularly robust. It's a lot of it hinges on the permission to get these weapons, to be able to use them deep into Russia. Other things are sort of recycled ideas from the past. They're hoping a little more meat to the bones. And it's perhaps Zelensky will provide that today. But at least at this point, there is sort of a pessimism in the administration. This is going to be a game changer and a real worry that the U.S. is going to have a hard time presenting further aid to Ukraine, even if Vice President Harris wins, as long as Republicans are able to control one house of Congress.

I just have to say that following up what David had said and what Jonathan just said there, but what David said about these lines not moving and it can't be a war of attrition for the next two or three years. Mark Milley told me in February of 23, he said, you see those lines? They're talking about a spring offensive. Those lines will still be there in the fall. Those lines aren't moving. And he said it basically at the time. He said, I can't say this publicly, but the Ukrainians aren't going to get every Russian out of Ukraine.

And the Russians are not going to get to Kiev. So World War One, World War One style attrition. And David, briefly before we go to break, that's where we are. Do you see any reason? So we are in a in a bloody war of attrition with very limited gains on the ground. A difference. This is not World War I. It's got drones constantly at the front. There is a swarm of drones. I'm told you cannot move except at dawn and dusk because otherwise you're dead the minute you move. This is a war unlike any we've

seen. The casualties on both sides are horrific. I was in a hospital in Kiev looking at the people whose limbs had been blown away by drones. Every single wounded soldier I saw had been hit by drones. So, you know, this cannot go on indefinitely. The question is, are we going to escalate radically with weapons that, you know, take the war much deeper into Russia? That's what Zelensky wants. Get me out of this by escalating. Or is there some alternative diplomatic approach? And I hope there's discussion of both.

My own view is that we ought to not announce what we're going to do with these weapons. Let Putin guess. If he threatens Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, if he does more of the barbaric bombing he's done, we'll let him find out just what the range of these missiles is. But, you know, we are at a moment that is an inflection point. We often use that phrase. This is one. In the middle of a presidential campaign, which is down to the wire. Still ahead on Morning Joe, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will be our guest. We'll talk to him about Ukraine, as well as new calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Plus, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump spotlight their economic proposals on the campaign trail.

We'll take a look at that. And Stephanie Ruhl's exclusive exclusive sit down with the Democratic nominee. Also ahead, the very latest on the path of Hurricane Helene. Forecasters say the storm could be devastating and historic when it makes landfall along Florida's coast later tonight. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. Hurricane Helene is set to make landfall along Florida's Gulf Coast today, and forecasters say the impact could be catastrophic. Let's go straight to meteorologist Angie Lastman for the latest on the path.

Angie, good morning. What does it look like? Morning, Willie. It doesn't look good. We, as you said, have the catastrophic impacts for a lot of folks here as we go through at least the next 24 hours. We already saw what it did to Mexico. Parts of Cancun dealing with that heavy rain and the strong winds. It's only getting worse. We've already seen it become a Category 1 hurricane. We're starting to see kind of the eye form.

We haven't had rapid intensification overnight, but the winds are at 90 miles per hour right now. And we are expecting this system to continue working its way to the north over those really warm waters. When it comes to the tropical alerts, this tells you everything you need to know about how expansive this system is. These tropical storm warnings going well into the Carolinas, covering the entire state of Georgia. We've got hurricane warnings from the coast all the way up into portions of central Georgia. That's because this is a very large storm, a very strong storm, and it's only expected to get stronger, becoming a category three over the next probably 12 hours. It'll still be intensifying upwards of six hours ahead of when it makes landfall. That landfall time, about 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., you see the area that we're expecting the worst of it, the center of it to come on shore. That's the Big Bend area. But the wind field is just truly expansive. I mean, 450 miles across. So that means a couple

of things. It means we're going to be dealing with this up into portions of the southeast here for the extensive period into the day tomorrow. That means that we've got a couple of impacts. The first, those winds, 90 to 120 miles per hour near the center, but even down towards Sarasota, we're talking about hurricane force wind gusts. This goes well into Georgia as well, and we'll see likely Tallahassee dealing with some of the worst wind damage that they've seen in history, guys. We've also got 10 to 20 feet of storm surge. That is, of course, unsurvivable. And on top of that, the inland flooding, Willie, that's going to be impressive, too. This extends all the way up into the Appalachians. Upwards of 15 to 18 inches will be possible.

Yeah, take this one seriously. Listen to your local officials there. Angie Lassman, thanks so much. We'll keep a close eye on this. We appreciate it. Among the many impacts of Hurricane Helene, even Major League Baseball has taken note. The NL wildcard race that was headed for the final day of the regular season may now require an extra day because of Helene after the final two games

of that series between the Mets and Braves were postponed yesterday because of heavy rain in Georgia. The regular season was set to end Sunday. The Mets now scheduled to return to Atlanta on Monday for a doubleheader that could determine who goes to the playoffs. Meanwhile, in other baseball, Diamondbacks ace Zach Gallin struck out a season-high 11 to help Arizona stop a three-game skid. 8-2 win over the Giants. D-backs now tied with the Mets for the second NL wildcard spot. One game lead over those Braves. In Los Angeles last night, Shohei Otani continues to do his thing,

singling in the go-ahead run for the Dodgers and then stole his 56th base of the season. In the sixth inning, Dodgers beat the Padres 4-3. L.A. can clinch the NL West title for the 11th time in 12 seasons with a win in tonight's season finale. And with the Brewers' loss to the Pirates, the Dodgers have secured a top-two seed and a first-round buy in the playoffs should they win the division. In Philadelphia, after claiming their first NLEs title in 13 years on Monday night,

the Phillies have clinched a first-round buy in the playoffs with last night's 9-6 win over the Cubs. Coupled with the Brewers' loss, Philadelphia has secured the buy and home field advantage in the nl division series they can clinch home field through the nl championship series by finishing the season tied with or ahead the dodgers in the american league the orioles remain hot in the bronx beaten up on the yankees last night badly nine to seven the help of a misplay that's not good by rookie outfielder Jason Dominguez,

the Martian, overrunning the fly ball that fell in the left field corner. Gunnar Henderson had three of Baltimore's 12 hits in the first four innings. O's again prevent the Yankees from clinching the AL East. They move within four games of the division lead with four left to play. Yankees still, though, likely to clinch. Meanwhile, Tigers, Royals, Twins, and Mariners all won yesterday, leaving the AL wildcard standings unchanged. A lot in there, John.

So I think what's fascinating is that now the Mets will come back to Atlanta and likely, when you look at the schedules, will determine who goes to the playoffs. Yeah, it's hard to imagine that that series won't matter. I mean, if somehow everything is wrapped up between now and Sunday, maybe Major League Baseball advises the schedule differently, but it's going to matter. I mean, right now, the Diamondbacks, the Padres are already in as a wild card.

Diamondbacks are on the verge of, and it could be Braves versus Mets, which is a game separating the two, playing those last two games for a playoff spot. I know a lot of Mets fans, It's been a magical run the second half. They're deeply nervous about games in Atlanta. We also, you know, the pace of your highlights there show just how frantic and fun this final week of the regular season is going to be. The AL wildcard race also up for grabs. But, Joe, we should note. Let's go Mets.

Blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what? I hate today. I don't want to talk about baseball. Why are you wasting our time? Let's go Mets. Our viewers tune into this show. Yeah.

To hear about news. Let's go Mets. Politics. And they want it hard. They want it delivered straight to them. We don't care about baseball anymore because the season ended. Last night. Last night.

We were officially eliminated. Yes. Red Sox officially eliminated. I think we're going to be a 500 team this year. And that's all that matters. Now on to football. Okay. Kind of a limited focus here, Joe.

Roll tide. Roll tide. Yeah, roll tide. Hey, Willie. Okay, so there you go. But I will say our viewers do want to talk about two things. One, Vanderbilt. No one approved. You guys should have won last week. One, Vanderbilt. No one approved.

You guys should have won last week. Yes, we should have. And two, Alabama and Georgia this weekend. That's going to be fantastic. I mean, that feels like a national championship game. The nice thing about this expanded playoff is you can lose one game if you're Alabama or Georgia, and you better be in the playoffs. If you're a one-loss team, Georgia should have been in it last year.

We don't have to go back and talk about that. But you can't get a bigger game. The two best teams of the SEC. Well, Texas might actually be the best team in the SEC. But there are so many. I think six of the top eight are SEC teams in the rankings. That is just a titanic showdown between the Tide and the Dogs. Can't wait for Saturday night.

Okay, coming up, we are going to go back to politics. We have new polling from three key battleground states, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. We'll show you the new numbers straight ahead on Morning Joe. 49 past the hour, a live look at Washington here in D.C. With over 50 countries around the world heading to the polls in 2024, there are growing concerns about a rise in far-right ideology. In the European Union, far-right politicians racked up gains across many of the union's 27 countries in their June elections.

In the first round of the French elections over the summer, the country's far-right party secured over 30 percent of the vote, a 10 point increase from two years earlier. And while the United Kingdom's Labor Party won a landslide victory in July, the country experienced massive far right anti-immigration protests after a stabbing attack claimed the lives of three young girls. The protests were likely connected to a false rumor circulated online that the suspect was a migrant. Joining us now, we have with us the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with us. Good to have you on the show this morning. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much. Let's talk about that. Obviously, Keir Starmer and Labour given a remarkable mandate, but obviously rough going early on with violence and unfortunately, disinformation and a violent reaction. Well, this is a good example, actually, of how a tragedy can be hijacked by the far right. A lie is spread, and the medium of social media

can amplify that lie and spread it across the country. Those lies, that misinformation, that disinformation reaches people who then turn up and protest to the point, Mika and Joe, where you have these far right, you know, violent people trying to burn down mosques, trying to burn down hostels, housing asylum seekers, were stopping cars to see if the people inside were white or people of colour. And it was a lie. Incidentally, the person responsible for this tragedy was born in Cardiff in Wales

and is not an asylum seeker, is not a Muslim as a side issue. But it shows a number of issues. It shows the rise of the far right. It shows of nativist populist movements. It shows how an unregulated social media can spread lies, misinformation, disinformation. And it's happening, I'm afraid, across the globe. Yours was a horrific tragedy with those young girls. We have a version, although thank goodness no one has been hurt seriously yet, in Springfield, Ohio, which is completely based on a lie. And this one, in fact, being pushed from the top of a presidential ticket that has put people at risk, locked down schools, put migrants in harm's way. What, in your view, is the way to approach that? How do you put your finger in the dam that has sprung all these

leaks of disinformation? I think what we've seen over the last 10 years is issues on the periphery now being mainstream issues because you've got mainstream politicians using the language of the far right. Manufacturing lies against one group, making them the enemy. Pitting communities against each other. People do have genuine concerns, by the way. People are concerned in the UK and the USA about the lack of decent health care, the lack of decent housing, the lack of decent schools. And it's always triggering the book to blame the other. And this fear and suspicion people have against the other is made worse by mainstream politicians spreading lies.

And the word prejudice comes from two words, pre-judging. And people tend to pre-judge whether it's Haitians, whether it's asylum seekers, whether it's Muslims, because, in inverted commas, credible people are amplifying hatred and lies. And in the past, there'd be checks and balances in the mainstream media. And social media doesn't have those checks and balances. That's why it's really important. Unless they sort themselves out, there's regulation to make sure there's proper responsibilities on these social media companies. So, Mr. Mayor, as the globe comes out of the pandemic, there's a discussion

about the health and vitality of big cities. You know, certainly there are issues presented by migrants, issues by the homeless, certainly there are issues presented by migrants, presented issues by the homeless, certainly affordability, the ability to someone to have an apartment or a home in a city. How are you responding to those challenges? How healthy is London right now? Well, we're buzzing. We're back. With respect to my dear friends here in New York, London is still the greatest city in the world. But here's an amazing stat, which is roughly speaking, half of the world's population at the moment lives in cities. By 2050, it's going to be 70%. People are moving to cities. Growth per se isn't a problem. You've got to plan for that growth. You've got to build affordable homes. You've got to build more schools. You've got to invest in decent healthcare. That's the responsibility of politicians to address those concerns, to turn a concern, a challenge into an opportunity.

It's not the fault of the other. It's not the fault of asylum seekers, refugees, Haitians. It's the fault of politicians not investing in these issues. And by the way, these are issues common across the Western globe, France, Germany, the UK, Italy, the USA, Argentina. And one of the things that worries me is, you know, these issues that should be responded to and addressed are being played on by politicians to win elections. I hope people try to win elections using hope rather than fear. Mr. Mayor, Financial Times, Ed Luce has a question for you. Ed. Good to see you, Ed. Mayor Khan, good to see you. You mentioned, I think, very diplomatically the role of social

media without mentioning the name Elon Musk, whose role in these racist riots that Britain was engulfed in during July, whose role of disseminating far you know, far right people who he restored back to X, like Tommy Robinson in Britain, Alex Jones over here, those types, who some of whom directing rioters to these hostels that you mentioned with refugee with asylum seekers in them. What my question to you is what within the existing legal, without, you know, infringing on speech rights, what can be done to stop this egging on, this incitement of racial violence? Well, actually, we all believe in freedom of speech, right? But there are restrictions on freedom of speech for a good reason.

Copyright, defamation, incitement laws and so forth. Social media is like the Wild West. There is no regulation. The owner of a social media company, a respectable man, the richest man in the world, amplified and propagated this lie. And the way the algorithms work, Ed, is clickbait means that if you do a negative message, a lie, it goes much faster than a positive one. You monetize hatred. I think the point to make to whether it's X, whether it's Facebook, whether it's YouTube, whether it's TikTok, is unless you sort yourselves out, regulation is coming. It will have to be regulation that's multilateral for obvious reasons. What happens, Ed, is when you know, when you write an article for

the FT or, you know, Joe and Mika reported on this program, there are rules of the game. There are no rules of the game in social media. You and I both read Mark Twain, you know, a lie is half around the world before truth put its socks up. That was in the print era. In the social media era, I'm afraid my profession hasn't responded fast enough. And that's what should make us suspicious, is the owner of one of the social media companies wants a certain candidate to win 40 days time. And we can all guess why. Mr. Mayor, a lot of many of us in this country, many people have said that this presidential election is the most important of our lifetime. I was interested to hear you say it actually is the most important of your lifetime as well.

Why do you say it actually is the most important of your lifetime as well. Why do you say that? Well, I stood for re-election this May, and so I would have argued that my election is the most important election in the globe, right? It wasn't. We had a general election in the UK in July. After 14 years, my party finally won an election. I would have said before that that's the most important election in my lifetime. It wasn't. The US election matters. You set the tone for what happens across the globe. The phrase I used, I'm a very poor piano player, is it's a metronome. You set the tone. You can send the ripples of hope or the ripples of fear. Depending on who wins, you can give credibility and credence to people in the periphery who are, you know, hate merchants.

Or you can send a message of hope by saying, actually, the role of the USA is very important. Just think about this week, Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan. You are this one superpower that can influence these things. Or you can be isolationist and give hope to the hate merchants, those who want to divide communities. It really does matter. Of course, look, all politics is local. But actually, you've got to recognize the impact on the rest of the globe, whether it's London, whether it's Sudan, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's Australia, whether it's the Middle East. Before we let you go, Mr. Mayor, it's a small club of mayors of the world's most important cities. Ours here in New York was indicted yesterday. I'm wondering if you have the mayor of the great city like New York is

indicted. Clearly, we're going to let due process take its course. The rule of law does matter. And I'm sure that they'll be responding shortly. Mr. Mayor, let's move on to important business now. Liverpool yesterday, 5-1 winners over West Ham. Their new manager. Not doing too badly. Winning four out of five matches right now. What's your thought? Are we going to thrive in the post-Klopp era? Joe, forget about the Red Sox.

Focus on Liverpool FC. Well, I've got no choice now. I was at Anfield on Saturday, and the boys played really well. 60,000 fans cheering on the Reds. Arnest Lott, early days. He hasn't got the charisma, let's be frank, of Jurgen Klopp, that passion that Jurgen Klopp had, but he's made a great,

great start, and we've got to trust the manager. Okay, London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. Thanks so much. We greatly appreciate it. You know, at the beginning, I wanted toq Khan, thank you very much for coming on the show. Thanks so much. We greatly appreciate it. You know, at the beginning, I wanted I wanted to ask you, David, at the beginning, there was a picture, as we talked about, right wing extremism spreading. There was actually a picture of the Italian prime minister, Prime Minister Maloney, who many people feared was going to be hard right, close to Russia. She has come out, of course, in support of Ukraine. She received an award of the Atlantic Council the other night. I just want

to read a little bit of this to you. And let's talk really quickly about this balancing act. She says the West is more than a physical space. The West is a system of values in which the person is central. Men and women are equal and free, and therefore the systems are democratic. Life is sacred. The state is secular and based on the rule of law. It's as if she lifted that straight from the Declaration of Independence. I will say that I know there are an equal number of things that people could say that that that concern uh that concerned them i will say though she remains a fascinating figure and and has been a strong supporter of ukraine and traditional uh traditional views of what western civilization is supposed to be

i i couldn't agree more that the fear about her was that she was part of this catastrophe sweeping Europe, moving right, the suggestions that she had links to traditional Italian fascism. Mussolini's party. And she has been, and I would say most European leaders have been, I think, committed. They understand that Vladimir Putin threatens the future of their continent, of their European Union, which they prize. And they have really begun to stand together. You know, if some catastrophe should happen and U.S. aid is diminished under a future president, I have growing confidence that Europe itself would take up the slack. Poland is now increasing pressure on Germany to arm itself more. Britain

has been an incredible leader in standing by Ukraine. And Italy is a wonderful surprise. People thought, as you suggest, that Maloney might pull back. She's done the opposite. So that's, you know, in this world where so many bad things are going on, I'm impressed that Europe is standing a little taller and understanding its values. And Ed, also at the voting booth, you look at right wing extremism in Britain, thoroughly rejected with this last election. I'm still I'm still shocked that the Law and Justice Party that manipulated every lever of power lost to the most Eurocentric leader Poland could offer in Tusk. You look at what happened with

Germany this past weekend, where a center left party actually shockingly did better in local elections than anybody would have expected. France, I will say, Macron, I mean, he is loathed by many people in France, but I will say historians are going to have a great time looking at the Masha nations. What he has done in France over the past six months is nothing short of remarkable. Europe has found the center time and time again. We don't know what's going to happen in 2025. But isn't Maloney a perfect example of how Europe has, as David said, managed to dissenter themselves? Yeah, I mean, I think she's a great example because there's always a debate.

Do you exclude people from power, you know, from coalition governments if they're far right? Do you say you're unhygienic and we're not going to touch you? Or do you bring them in and basically tame them? And there's a debate that will never be resolved, but Maloney is an example

of somebody who's been tamed by office. I love your choice of words. Tame, yeah, well, I mean, so... Many people, by the way, Ed, she loves it because many people believe that Mika has tamed me. No, I was talking about saying you're unhygienic. Unhygienic.

And the same, yes. She's taken care of that as well. She's made you hygienic. Exactly. I wash my hair now. Oh, that's nice. It's amazing. You put on clothes. I wash my hair now. Oh, that's nice. It's amazing. You put on clothes.

But anyway, your point. But I would just make the caveat that Italian friends of mine say, look, if you're gay in Italy, if you want an abortion, if you're an asylum seeker, she's not quite the fairy godmother. This doesn't mean to say

she's a full-blown fascist, but she's not the sort of person of their dreams. she's a full blown fascist, but she's not she's not the sort of person of their dreams. She's a right. She is a center right. Tough domestically on the international stage. She has been far more nuanced than we expected.