Morning Joe - Morning Joe 9/30/24

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Trump ramps up attacks on VP Harris

I am so happy to be campaigning in whatever swing state I'm in, which I will just refer to as Wisconsin-Pennsylvania. Because I am going to protect your Georgia. This election is about moving forward. You see, Donald Trump is stuck in the past. But it's like I say to my husband, Doug, when he leaves his phone at the Chili's. We are not going back. You know, Trump and Vance are weird. All right.

They want the government to control what you do in your bedroom and what books you read. You know, in Minnesota, we have a saying, mind your damn business. We also have another saying in Minnesota, my nuts froze to the park bench. They say that me blaming the Democrats for inciting violence is the pot calling the cattle black but frankly i didn't know the cattle was black until very recently i thought the cattle was indian but then he decided to turn black i miss joe biden oh joe we miss joe biden folks Biden, oh Joe. We missed your Biden, folks. What we wouldn't give to have him stand next to me and be old. We had this in the bag, but then they did a switcheroo and they swapped out Biden with Scalabula.

Hello, hello, it is I, J.D. Vance. How much do we love Donald Trump? You know, just this afternoon he told me, J.D., you're like a son to me because I don't like you and I'm stuck with you. I'm sure you've all heard what the liberal media's been saying about me. I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo.

What the hell am I doing here? I'll tell you what I'm doing here. Getting this crowd hyped! A lot of people forget I'm president, including me. But folks, we still got work'm president, including me. Well, folks, we still got work to do. No joke. I'm being serious right now.

Come on. And guess what? And by the way, the fact of the matter is, the rich don't pay their fair share. They got to pay their fair share. We got to build back better. The build back the better, the pay their fair share. They gotta pay their fair share. We gotta build back better. The build back the better, the better, the better, build back the better. Can't believe it's not butter.

Thank you, Jibiden. Thank you so much. I just want to say, thank you, Jibiden. Thank you for putting country first and for handing over the reins. I didn't want to. Saturday Night Live with an extended cold open to kick off its 50th season. Maya Rudolph reprising her portrayal of Vice President Harris.

Jim Gaffigan. Great. Taking on Governor Tim Walz. So good. Right. James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang playing Bowen Yang, playing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, respectively, and a cameo by Dana Carvey as president. How good. It was fun. Yeah. The whole thing was fun. We have a lot to get to. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Monday, September 30th. With us, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House bureau chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, U.S. special correspondent for BBC News. Katty Kay is with us and NBC News national affairs analyst and a partner and chief political columnist at Puck, John Heilman. So in just a moment, we're going to get to major developments out of the Middle East following Israel's killing of the leader of Hezbollah. Richard Haass and Admiral James Tavridis are standing by with their analysis. But but first, with just about five weeks to go until the November election, five weeks, former President Donald Trump spent the weekend campaigning in

several key battleground states and used extreme and dark rhetoric to attack his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. He really is. Double down, if it's possible. Well, I think it's a meltdown. I don't even think you call it double down when you you I mean, well, I'll let you say what we can play the clips. But again, even Republicans are attacking him.

And as Jonathan Lemire said, you know, quietly, they're getting really worried right now. So he reiterated his pledge to go after people who cheat in the election. He said one violent day of policing will end crime in America and continued to push misinformation about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. In addition to some very odd tangents, I guess more of the weave. Take a look. Kamala is mentally impaired. If a Republican did what she did. If a Republican did what she did, that Republican would be impeached and removed from office, and rightfully so, for high crimes and misdemeanors. Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way.

She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this. There's something wrong with Kamala. And I just don't know what it is, but there is definitely something missing. And you know what? Everybody knows it. She's a stupid person. Stupid person. I don't care. I don't care. If they didn't cheat, I wouldn't even be here today.

You know why? I wouldn't have to campaign. I'm here only because they cheat and they cheat in this state, especially in Philadelphia. And I mentioned a couple of the areas, but for the most part, but Philadelphia is out of control. Detroit is out of control. Atlanta is out of control. Places are out of control, out of control. Because if there was no cheating, if God came down from a high and said, I am going to be your vote tabulator for this election, I would leave this podium right now because I wouldn't have to speak. We wouldn't have any problem. We have to have a landslide because they cheat so damn much. If we win and when we win, we're going to prosecute people that cheat on this election.

And if we can, we'll go back to the last one, too, if we're allowed. But we're going to prosecute people so at least they know that's going to happen. You know, these are smart, smart people. They're not so stupid, but they have to be taught. Now, if you had one really violent day, like a guy like Mike Kelly, put him in charge. Congressman Kelly, put him in charge for one day. Mike, would you say, he's right here.

He's a great congressman. Would you say, Mike, that if you were in charge, you would say, oh, please, don't touch them. Don't touch them. Let them rob your store. All these stores go out of business, right? They don't pay rent. The city doesn't have money.

It's a chain of events that's so bad. One rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out, and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know, it'll end immediately. The majority of the school cannot speak English. In Ohio, Springfield, they can't speak English. They're taking over the schools,

there's nobody that can speak English. And the mayor's looking for interpreters. Isn't that wonderful? How can this happen? Remember there's a hat that's made that sells like crazy. Oh, there's a fly. Oh, I wonder where the fly came from. See?

Two years ago, I wouldn't have had a fly up here. You're changing rapidly, but we can't take it any longer. Two years ago, I would not have had a fly up here. But things are changing rapidly. I mean, this is Republicans obviously are concerned about this for good reason. They're talking about how he's doubling down. And of course, they usually whisper. They usually whisper these things. I mean, I wrote some of these notes down. She's mentally impaired, he says, to the crowd's applause. Nice crowd. She's mentally disabled, he says to crowds applause. Nice crowd. She's a, quote, stupid person.

And this this actually, John, John Heilman, this is actually got Republicans doing something Republicans never do. New York Times shows Republicans are actually being critical of Donald Trump. Yeah. And Republicans fault Trump over insults to his rival from the national section of The New York Times. This is Larry Hogan, who's running for Senate, I think, insulting. That's insulting not only to the vice president, but to people that actually do have mental disabilities. I've said for years that Trump's divisive rhetoric is something that we can do without. Lindsey Graham, also critical of Donald Trump's statements this weekend. Representative Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican who is helping J.D. Vance for the upcoming debate, said I tried to diss himself. He said, I think we should stick to the issues.

And yet here he goes. And John, the question answers itself, I guess. If she were so, quote, stupid, if she were so, quote, mentally impaired, if she were, quote, so mentally disabled, why did she destroy him in a debate for 90 minutes, humiliate him and beat him so badly that he refuses to even debate her on Fox News? That's question number one.

And if she's had this mental condition from birth, then why did he give her thousands of dollars in 2014 for her political campaign when she was running for the United States Senate. Joe, I appreciate that you are interrogating this in this rational way, which is, it deserves to be interrogated in that rational way on some level, but because, of course, we should hold him to account. But there is, I think, part of the dark, he announced that these speeches are going to be dark, right? He literally started a couple of them this weekend, I think, Lemire, where he said, this is going to be a dark speech. And then he proceeds to uncork the series of these speeches. You put them all together, it requires no particularly sophisticated or subtle decoding to see what kind of the common through line in of all these speeches, which is they are just extraordinarily racist.

And they're racist kind of top to bottom. And you just picked out a thing, Joe, that I think fits into that rubric. He says, you know, Joe Biden was mentally, turned mentally impaired. But Kamala Harris was mentally impaired from birth. Well, you know, she also was, you know, the racial makeup that she had since birth. And if you go through, you know, that's kind of the difference between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. One of them happens to be white. One of them happens to be black. And if you go through his comments about where the corruption is, every single place he names where terrible things are happening and racism, things are being stolen. Where's the crime? The worst.

Where's the election being stolen? Where are terrible things happen? But just by happenstance, they happen to be places like Philadelphia and Milwaukee and Cleveland. And every one of them, a major urban center in America that's marked in it, especially his base's mind is being overrun by people of color. Of course, the Haitian immigrant thing has always been racist, but blatantly, outrageously racist. And he continues to hold on to that despite all of the debunking of it and so on. And I raise this all just to say some of us on this show, you, others, Mika, people at this table worried or foresaw that when Kamala Harris became the nominee that we were going to have, we were likely to have given Donald Trump's predilections. We were likely to have one of

the most outrageously nakedly racist campaigns in the history of the country. We've seen some of it so far, but I feel as though we as we head into this last five weeks, the darkness that Trump speaks about in these speeches is also a way of talking about what is about to happen, which is about to be a brutal race-based assault on her supporters, that part of the Democratic Party, the important coalition of the Democratic Party. It has been building over these last few weeks as he has floundered. And his basest, most grotesque kind of impulses are coming to the surface as he sees this thing slipping away. Yeah, he is ramping up the racism. It is clearly going to be part, big part of his closing argument in this campaign. Let's go through a

little more of this. He also suggested that some of these migrants would break into your house and quote, slit your throats, suggesting without evidence that migrants are responsible for crime. In fact, there's fact checking here. He suggested that the 13,000 migrants who have come in, been accused of crimes, are all blamed on the Biden administration. When, of course, stats show that many of them came in while he was in office and also many of them are still in prison. It's not like they're running around committing more crimes. Speaking of crimes, he did suggest that there should be an hour of violence, which sounds like the plot of the movie The Purge, which is deeply dangerous. And again, we know how his words have inspired violence before, including but not limited to January 6th. Certainly his followers are hearing what he's saying.

You see it on the screen here. Monsters, vile animals saying migrants want to rape, pillage and kill. Deeply offensive and dangerous rhetoric there. And of course, as John and Joe just mentioned, signaling out minority majority cities and suggesting that his opponent was mentally impaired. And also, Katty, let's not lose sight of this. Once again, calling for his political opponents to be jailed, suggesting that anyone who opposed him in 2016, 2020, 2024, who might be trying to, quote, rig the election, should be prosecuted. This is an extraordinarily dangerous closing argument and vision for America. Yeah, so the interesting thing, I guess, against all of this is that the polls are as tight as

they are. And Gene Robinson in his column this morning is asking that question. And why is it so tight? And I think whilst Kamala Harris has got the momentum and she is a little bit ahead in most of the polls, if you took an aggregate of them, it's it's a really a neck and neck race if you believe the polling. And we still don't know whether the polling is reflective of all those people that might end up voting for Trump as they did in 2016, but aren't telling pollsters that. But the one area that Kamala Harris seems to have caught up with Donald Trump is on the economy. Now, Trump's advisers wanted him just to focus on the economy, just talk about the economy, just talk about the economy, just talk about the economy. And that they saw as the way for him to get ahead. He hasn't done that.

The area that he's comfortable talking about is immigration and race and migrants. And actually, if you look at some of the polling, that is where he still holds the strongest lead. His lead hasn't eroded on the border and on immigration at all. And if you look at particularly polling around Hispanic voters and Latino voters, they seem to have flipped on the issue of immigration.

And you wonder whether Donald Trump is actually whether he's driving that polling that shows he's still strong on immigration by keeping talking about this, whether he's tapping into something that is new in the electorate, where clearly there is a much more conservative approach in the electorate towards immigration. And he's tapping into that. I don't know if it's even that calculated. It's his comfort zone. And that's what he's talking about. And the kind of, you know, you look across the polling and that is still where he has his strongest hand. So I don't see any reason to think that he's not going to carry on beating this drum for the next few weeks. But, you know, John Heilman, though, it's just a couple of things. First of all, immigration has been an issue since 2016. And it has it's just time and time again. It's been the dog that hasn't barked,

maybe in specific house races, but nationally it just hasn't. And if you look at polling and if you've looked at polling at his specific his specific positions on immigration. They are far more extreme than most Americans. So this is a lot of noise. It's a lot of racism. It is a lot of hatred. Not so sure it's going to translate into a victory. But as you know, if you ask the Biden campaign, the Harris campaign, if you ask the Harris campaign how they're feeling about the election right now, they go, you know,

there's sort of a quiet confidence, but they're like, you know, we're tied. This is this. We're going to have to work hard if we want to win. You talk to the Trump campaign, though, they there's this there's this like arrogance where they'll tell you, oh, we've got it. We've got so many different pathways to 270. We're fine. The fact is, they might want to get that message to their boss, because we all know Donald Trump. Donald Trump doesn't talk that way when he thinks he's ahead.

Donald Trump, the more he sees Harris catching up in the polls, going ahead in the polls, the more he sees data that shows all the trend lines are breaking in his direction, the more hostile he gets, the more racist he gets, the more xenophobic he gets. It's there. That is his tell. Yeah. Yes, it is. I mean, entirely his tell. And I would add, I mean, I don't think Donald Trump has any deep sense of what some of the more interesting underlying demographic shifts going on in the polling are. But it is the case that what we are seeing right now, if you look at all the polling, there's just a ton of it out there now. But underneath the surface level consensus,

which is that the race is incredibly close and we can be headed for maybe the most, one of the tightest elections in modern or any American history at the electoral college level, at least, is this really interesting trend towards racial depolarization in what we're seeing in terms of support of the two candidates, which is to say that Kamala Harris is performing better right now with white voters than Joe Biden's, the final results of Joe Biden's election in 2020 than Joe Biden did with white voters. And she's doing a little bit worse than Joe Biden did with non-white voters, with African-American voters and Latino voters, which is sort of an unexpected, obviously an unexpected turn of

events. Part of that has to do with the fact that Trump has been performing better with Latino voters and young, particularly young African-American men. But one of the reasons, Joe, to your point about the confidence, the quiet confidence of people in the Harris campaign is that because she is overperforming relative to Biden with white voters, that is the reason why she has been steadily cementing this small but persistent lead in states that a month ago people thought she might be weaker in, which is to say those blue wall states where in Pennsylvania, her polling is solidified. Her polling in Michigan and Wisconsin, again, small but persistent leads in those blue wall states. And you win those three plus Nebraska two and you're done. 270, a very narrow victory, but it's 270. And that was always Joe Biden's

easiest path. It now looks like the solidest, safest path for her. That goes to this pattern of racial depolarization. And I don't know, I don't think Trump understands any of the things I just said, but I think he's worried about the fact, I think he knows the headline of that, which is the blue wall is solidifying for her. And that was how he won in 2016. And that was because of white voters. And I think part of this race-based fear rhetoric is that on some instinctive level informed by the top lines of polling is that he thinks white people aren't scared enough in these places in the upper Midwest. And so you talk about Haitians taking over Springfield. And in a lot of these speeches he gave over the weekend, they were in those states where he's

trying to scare the crap out of white voters to try to get them back because he can't believe that Kamala Harris is doing as well with them as she is. And again, saying they're going to come to your kitchen or your house and slit your throat. That's that's where that's where he's got. Can you imagine? First of all, it's hard to project this onto any other country because of the unique place and the unique role that the United States plays in global affairs. But could you imagine us following a campaign in the UK, in France, in any major industrialized country, where somebody who is tied is running around talking about the eating of dogs and cats, talking about people coming to your houses and slitting your throats, talking about a day of celebrating a day of violence, talking about

being a dictator for a day. I mean, we could go down the list. It really is. I think because everybody here is so close to it at times, I just don't think people realize how crazy this has become and how dangerous this has become. And yes, what our Democratic allies, our NATO allies have to be thinking when they say, wait a second, he's tied after he's calling somebody like mentally impaired and stupid and talking about the eating of dogs and cats and talking about, hey, we really need a day of violence in America. And, hey, I'm going to be dictator for a day in America. It's crazy. Talk about destroying the brand. We're going to continue to discuss the stakes and the state of the race. But now to Israel, which has killed the longtime leader of Hezbollah. Israeli officials announced the death of Hassan Nasrallah early Saturday morning overnight. The IDF flattened three apartment buildings in southern Beirut. Officials claim the central headquarters of the militant group was underground.

The IDF says several other senior Hezbollah commanders were also killed in the massive attack. Hezbollah later confirmed Nasrallah's death in a statement and Iran vowed revenge, putting Israel on high alert for any possible retaliation. Current and former U.S. officials tell NBC News the Biden administration was blindsided by the Israeli attack, saying the president was infuriated with the timing of it all. Still, the president called the strike a measure of justice, saying under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah was responsible for killing hundreds of Americans. Let's bring in President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass. He's author of the weekly newsletter Home and Away, available on Substack. And former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, retired four-star Navy Admiral James Stavridis. He is chief international analyst for NBC News.

Admiral, let's talk about the logistics of this. First of all, I mean, you look at everything that's happened to Hezbollah over the past several weeks. It is very obvious that they did not have the the the loyalty of the Lebanon people. I mean, the sources that had to give all of these Hezbollah leaders up. That is remarkable in and of itself. But secondly, you look at the situation and it looks in the short term like a massive, overwhelming Israeli victory in the battle. But let's talk about the broader war.

Is this going to devolve into what we saw in Lebanon and Beirut in the early 1980s? Hey, let's start where you did, which is what does this moment mean to an organization like Hezbollah? I watched the speech last night of the acting leader of Hezbollah, a man named Naim Kassim, And he was effectively the vice president. So picture an evening where Vice President Kamala Harris is broadcasting from an undisclosed location, mourning the death of President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense, head of the CIA, the head of the State Department. It's a shocking moment for Hezbollah. And by the way, when President Biden says blood on his hands, that barely gets at what Nasrallah did to America decade after decade, including, if I may be personal, my first classmate from Annapolis

who was killed in action was a Marine captain who died at the Beirut barracks bombing. So this is a good moment that Nasrallah has been taken off the chessboard. Joe, to the broader question here, I think the Israelis, and I would caution them, need to be careful of a bit of overconfidence here. Hezbollah may feel to them like a paper tiger. You know, they've been dug into Lebanon, your point, for decades. They've held that country like a hostage. The Israelis need to be careful that they don't overreach here. But it's been an incredibly successful couple of weeks. And final thought here, your question is the right one. Will this go wider? Hey, I define

wider as Iran gets into the fight in a big way. Certainly there's going to be more combat up to and probably close to the Latani River, 18 miles north of that southern border. But a wider regional war is Iran getting involved. I think the mullahs in Tehran, hey, they'll fight to the last Lebanese. They'll fight to the last Hamas. They'll fight to the last Houthi. I don't see Iran going big here. So I think it's probably 80 percent chance we don't see a wider war. But look for the Israelis to grind it out, probably move north on the ground. And let's hope they

don't push for more than that. You know, Richard, in social media, there's a running gag about I'm old enough to remember. And then somebody will bring up something that happened like four weeks ago. In this case, I'm old enough to remember. And you are, too. Something that happened over 40 years ago. And that is after a very strong, a very powerful IDF went into Lebanon with overwhelming force. They achieved what they wanted to achieve quickly. They got to the suburbs of Beirut.

And then all hell broke loose and they were stuck in the quagmire to end all quagmires. I'm curious to the Admiral's point about Israelis needing to be cautious as they move forward. Let me just ask you, what evidence do you have that this won't end up looking like the early 1980s if Israel moves in with a ground war into Lebanon? Well, Joe, I think there's a chance the Israelis will add a dimension of ground forces to what they're doing in Lebanon. But I do not think you're going to see anything like an occupation. I think I could see ground forces going in, but also coming out. What they're doing here, it's quite interesting, Joe. What I think we're seeing is the systematic targeting by Israel of Iranian instruments of power. After things wound down to some extent in Gaza, it has freed the Israelis up

to go after Hezbollah in the north. And we're also seeing going after the Houthis in Yemen. And I think the Israelis have decided they can somewhat safely do that because, as the Admiral said, Iran is not particularly anxious to have a direct war with Israel. But it does give Iran a real dilemma. They either have to go in and help their proxies or they're exposed and they don't. And I don't think they will in a big way because actually there's a lot of voices in Israel that are itching to go after Iran. There's a little bit of, you remember Al Haig when he was secretary of the state, wanted at times to go after Cuba to go to the source. And there's a whole school of thought in Israel enough of fighting these proxies. Let's go after Iran.

I'm not sure Iran is going to give them the chance. So I would guess for the foreseeable future, you're going to see Israel go into Lebanon, but not an occupation, not repeat the mistakes of 40 years ago, and try to weaken these instruments of Iranian power. And that will, again, make Iran a little bit more careful, the Israeli thinking goes, because it's been Hezbollah more than anything else that has helped Israel at bay, because so much of Israel is vulnerable to the rockets of Hezbollah know caddy um I cannot help but look at uh just how passive Iran has been over the past year or so and and and not stop and wonder if they're being passive uh in the in the face of of one attack after another against their interests, if they're not being passive because they're afraid of a full blown war that will allow Israel to go in and destroy their nuclear program,

whether they're deciding they will sacrifice Hamas, they will sacrifice Hezbollah, they will sacrifice these terror groups that they funded for for decades because they don't want to rock the boat. They don't want to take their eye off the ball, which right now is all about building their nuclear program and going nuclear before Israel or the United States comes in and destroys their program. Yeah, one of the things that Iranian leadership feels has kept them safe from being attacked by Israel over the last few years is the fact that they have this nuclear program. But as Richard just said, there are people within Israel who are itching to take on Iran, would like to do so. And they

have to balance those two factors at the moment. So that's why they're playing it cautiously. That's why, as you say, they've been passive, surprisingly passive, perhaps, you know, signaling the kinds of missile attacks they were launching, telling the Israelis what was coming in a way that we might not perhaps have anticipated. But, Admiral, where do you think this all of that's happened, the extraordinary events of the last week, where does that leave Gaza? Does that now does Netanyahu, having done what he has done in Lebanon against Hezbollah, now have a certain amount of wiggle room with some of the right on his coalition to perhaps and this is the optimistic scenario to perhaps now focus on some kind of ceasefire deal in Gaza? Or is that being too Pollyanna-ish about the situation. Well, I'd call it being cautiously optimistic. And I agree. I think at some point, to Richard Haass's point,

the Israelis don't want to occupy Gaza, just like they don't want to occupy southern Lebanon. They've seen how that turned out up north. They don't want to occupy Gaza and probably don't want to incur the reconstruction costs, which is going to be quite massive. So I think there is room, particularly as the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, comes back into session here in about two weeks. There might be some room to start talking about a kind of an Arab peacekeeping force.

We're still a ways away from that, Katty, but I think that's the right space to watch over the next few weeks. And Jonathan Lemire, if you could dig into the administration's response to the events of the past 48 hours and where it goes from here. Yes, certainly. We heard from a number of American officials say no tears will be shed for the leader of Hezbollah, Nasrallah's death. He has blood on his hands, American blood on his hands. But there is real concern about what could happen next, whether this does escalate further. And we should note some reporting out of The Wall Street Journal just in the last hour or so that Israeli special forces have started carrying out small targeted raids into southern Lebanon, gathering intel into what they think would be a possible ground incursion that

could come as soon as this week. So maybe not an all out war, but some sort of ground assault, Richard, does appear to be on the horizon. But I want to actually take you where Mika led us, this idea of American response. And last week, we had Secretary of State Blinken on the show, and he was talking about how they thought they had been close to a deal, a ceasefire deal, between Israel and Hezbollah. That, of course, was not the case. And I reported out on Friday and over the weekend, real American anger yet again at Netanyahu, telling them one thing, and then going back and saying, doing something entirely the opposite, perhaps after speaking to some of the far right members of his cabinet. This, we have seen this since October

7th. President Biden and the Americans have given Israel guidance. They've offered Israel advice. And time and again, Israel has ignored them. What power does the United States still have over Benjamin Netanyahu right now? Well, let me say, Jonathan, that the administration had a much stronger case against what the Israelis were doing in Gaza. The difference is Hamas in Gaza is, you may hate it for all sorts of good reasons, but it is something of a national liberation type force. It can pretend to represent Palestinian nationalism. And by going after them the way they are, militarily only, the Israelis can't win that struggle. So the administration, I think, had a case for arguing and does have a case for a ceasefire there. Hezbollah? Hezbollah is not a

national liberation force, doesn't represent Lebanon. Hezbollah is simply an instrument, a tool of Iranian power in the Middle East. And no government, not just this Israeli government, no government in Israel, anyone else could live with what Hezbollah was doing, shelling Israel regularly, making it impossible for 60, 70,000 people to live in their homes. So actually, I think while the administration is right to push at times for a ceasefire in Gaza, one could they could have done and should have done more perhaps to bring it about in the north. I actually question it. There's zero chance the Israelis are going to listen to him. So the administration has to ask themselves, hold it. Do we want to look feckless by asking for

a ceasefire? Overwhelmingly, Israeli support with Bibi Netanyahu is doing in Lebanon. Bibi Netanyahu's favorability ratings are going through the roof. Why? Because what he's doing is widely popular. So I think the administration should cool it on the ceasefire talk in the north. I think Israel has some legitimacy in what it is doing. The United States should never advocate for Paz, I think, that they're questionable on the merits and they're simply not going to come about makes us look weak right and and and uh admiral could you just uh give us the specifics so people understand that when we talk about hezbollah we're not talking about hamas talk about the number of rockets uh that that they have uh in hezbollah they have how how many they fire at Israel on a daily basis, how, why is Israel, as Richard said, Israelis would be like, hell yeah, yeah, go after Hezbollah, because we're,

even though, even a lot of those who said we need a peace deal and to rebuild Gaza and get the hostages home, why these two were so different for Israelis? Yeah, let's start with the missile capability of Hezbollah. Again, as Richard says absolutely correctly, they are merely a creature of Tehran. arsenal of somewhere between 130,000 and 140,000 surface to surface missiles that can range the entire country of Israel. They could massively overwhelm Iron Dome, for example, and they're distributed throughout Lebanon. Many are longer range. You know, we talk about down in Gaza, the tunnel complex was really the center of gravity. Up north, it's that missile force is the center of gravity. And I agree with Richard, the Israelis

ought to continue to pound away and eliminate that threat. And I'd invite listeners to think how we in the United States would feel if in Tijuana, Mexico, there was thousands and thousands of rockets and 100 a day were landing on our soccer fields, killing our children, which happened in Israel about a month ago. So there is every reason to continue up north. I'd encourage the Israelis to focus on that missile force, special forces. Cyber can help here. Go to the sea and come in from the seaborne side. There's a lot the Israelis can do without actually occupying Lebanon. Retired four star Navy Admiral James Tavridis. Thank you so much. His new book, The Restless Wave, a novel of the United States Navy, goes on sale next Tuesday, October 8th. We'll be talking about that.

And Richard Haass, thank you as well very much for your insight this morning. And still ahead on Morning Joe, Vice President Kamala Harris takes her campaign to the southern border in Battleground, Arizona. We'll show you some of what she had to say about immigration as polls show her trailing Donald Trump on the issue, but making up some ground. Plus, a look at the damage and destruction left behind after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida last week. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. You know, Meika, it's just it's really unbelievable. So what usually happens in hurricanes is they pick up a lot of steam over the water, they hit the land, and then they quickly dissipate. And you'll have some tornadoes here, some tornadoes there, a lot of rain, not a whole lot of flooding. But the pain that people

are experiencing right now all across the South, especially in Western Carolina, is so heartbreaking. North Carolina is so heartbreaking also. South Carolina. Ashton. North Carolina is so heartbreaking. Also, South Carolina. North Carolina, my God. South Carolina badly as well. But Asheville completely wiped off the map. And listen, if you want to help those people who were suffering so terribly right now, you can do that by giving to the American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, AmeriCares, GoFundMe, Salvation Army, Save the Children and the United Way. Any way you can help, we ask, please help. Again, the people in the Carolinas right now are really devastated. And of course, all along the Florida coast, all along the Florida West Coast, Cedar Key, a lot of places just completely

decimated. We're getting a clearer look now at the damage inflicted by Tropical Storm Helene after the storm barreled through at least six states, leaving behind major devastation, turning neighborhoods into rivers. This morning, at least 89 people are dead across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. And in western North Carolina alone, at least 30 people were killed in one county due to catastrophic flooding. In some affected areas, power is being restored, but more than two million customers remain without electricity in several states. Right now, search and rescue operations are still ongoing, as many people remain unaccounted for, leaving families desperate to find their loved ones. Later this week, President Biden will travel to areas impacted

by Helene to survey the damage as response efforts continue. At a rally yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris took a moment to discuss the impact of the storm and to thank the first responders. And I know that everyone here sends their thoughts and prayers for the folks who have been so devastated by that hurricane and the ensuing events in Florida, in Georgia, the Carolinas, and other impacted states. And we know that so many have been impacted. Some have died. But I want to thank everyone for doing everything you can to think about them, send them your

thoughts, send them your thoughts, send them your prayers. I want to thank the first responders who have done so much. And we will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild. So Donald Trump, meanwhile, will head to Valdosta, Georgia, to survey the damage there from Tropical Storm Helene. Over the weekend, he criticized the Biden administration's response to the storm. That all comes as he downplayed the threat posed by climate change during a rally in Pennsylvania yesterday. I haven't heard, Mike, I haven't heard. They don't ever talk about the environment anymore. You know why? Mike is saying, don't talk about it now.

No, it's one of the great scams of all time. You know why they don't talk about it? Because people aren't buying it anymore. You know, that's just a lie. It's yet another lie. And not only not only Jonathan O'Meara, are people buying the fact that, you know, maybe 19 of the 20 highest years on record have been the last 19 or so years. But talk to Republicans who run insurance companies that look at the numbers of how much storms are costing. Insurance companies are costing the federal government, are costing Americans. It's getting so devastating that in so many places, some people can't even get property insurance anymore because insurance companies have been so overwhelmed by the radical change in climate over the past 20 years. You know who else believes in climate change?

An overwhelming majority of farmers. According to polls, they've seen the devastation and how their livelihoods have been damaged by the change, the radical change in climate over the past 20, 30 years. Yeah, climate change is real. Polling suggests more Republicans are believing it as well. We should also note, as Trump there claims that no one thinks about it, that it was Donald Trump supported Republican efforts to shut down the federal government just last week. If that government had shut down, think of what the federal response would be to this storm now. People slowing down that much further, people who desperately need help. We should note President Biden is going to speak on the storm later today. White House says he will visit once it's safe for him to do so.

And he doesn't draw away resources that are badly needed elsewhere right now. Vice President Harris cutting a West Coast campaign trip short. She's also back in Washington. Her team, Joe Meek, also says she will visit when the time is right. There you go. All right, coming up, we're going to bring you the highlights from yesterday's NFL games, plus the stunning performance from Alabama's 17-year-old, 17, wide receiver who led the team to victory against Georgia. Paul Feinbaum, Mike Lupica and

Pablo Torre. Join us with their key takeaways next on Morning Joe. We're back in two minutes. young way to from 58 panthers rush for burrow has lots of time and there's jamar chase with the catch breaking tackles chase down the sidelines panthers chasing chase they won't catch him 49ers back out of it brissette giving time over the middle he gets picked off by warner fred warner climbs the ladder to get it and now he the middle and zone. It is caught. Touchdown Trey Palmer. Jaden Daniels scanning, throwing, end zone, touchdown. Washington McLaurin calls it in. Another knockout punch. There's no timeouts left because of that last run a play fake straddle the move

donald nine and twelve blocked by jones to the end zone and caught jefferson there's a touchdown wow the four and oh vikings those were some of the biggest moments of yesterday's action around the National Football League. Let's bring it right now. Best-selling author and veteran sports columnist Mike Lupka and the host of Pablo Torre finds out on Metal Arc Media, MSNBC contributor Pablo Torre. So we've got the 4-0 Vikings, Pablo. But I've got to say, for me, the headline yesterday is Jaden Daniels welcome to the NFL yeah Jaden Daniels for those who fell asleep yesterday has had the greatest start to a four-game career in the NFL at quarterback by completion percentage that we've ever seen

and so what does this mean he's been more accurate than everybody including Peyton Manning in 08 Tom Brady in 07 those two guys won the MVP that year. And so, look, I want to pump the brakes just a tad because I'm throwing a lot of big names at you, Joe. But Jaden Daniels and the way that people in your area are feeling around the DMV, there's this weird exorcism kind of vibe of like, is this for real? Dan Snyder is gone. Is the new regime, is this new kid actually as good as we're seeing? Because these offensive drives just look easy, easy for this kid from LSU, Joe. Yeah, I'm looking at some of the other scores and I've got to say Joe Burrow gets a win.

But also, Mike, Mike Lupica, what has happened to the Philadelphia Eagles? I mean, they started 11-1 last year, completely collapsed, and that collapse continues even now. The defense just absolutely horrible. Yeah, every time you think they turned it around, they haven't turned it around. Jalen Hurts makes big turnovers now, which he wasn't doing when they were on their way to the Super Bowl. Saquon Barkley was supposed to restore order to their offense. He had a pretty decent game yesterday. But at one point, I think the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was down about 9,000 to nothing

yesterday before the Steelers and the Eagles came back. Joe, I want to say this with respect to my friend Pablo. I do think you're able to process complicated names and concepts. That is very kind of you. Let's talk about Pablo. Let's talk about the Jets, the long suffering Jets. The one of my favorite memes was a very bad version of my heart will go On and showing all of these miserable things happening to a person around the house. And it's just it's a life of a Jets fan. When they lined up to beat the hapless Broncos, you knew what was going to happen, didn't you, Pablo?

Yeah, look, Aaron Rodgers, who was seen on the sideline with a towel over his face, whatever the opposite of the Shroud of Turin is in terms of holiness, that was the scene playing out at this building, Joe. And the reality is this is an offense led by Aaron Rodgers that could not score a touchdown, could not do it. And then postgame, it's the perfect thing. And Mike's seen this covering New York sports forever. It's the backbiting. It's the subtweeting of the head coach, Robert Sala,

about is it the offensive line? Is it the cadence? Is it Aaron Rodgers' problem? Is it his linemen? It's just a mess. And this was the day that Aaron Rodgers, they say, you know, this is when Donald Trump became president. This is when Aaron Rodgers became Jets quarterback.

Just a classic formula of misery and incompetence. Yeah, exactly. And, yeah. And of course, there was bickering going on on the sideline last week. It's just again, it just it's really it's a shame. By the way, I want a big hat tip to CD Lamb. And I'm dead serious. After he had a bad week a couple of weeks ago, we went out, press conference, took it.

I thought a man about it said, hey, I screwed up. The loss is on me. I didn't act the way I wanted to act, and I'm going to do better in the future. Words you will never hear from Aaron Rodgers under any circumstances. You know what I was thinking

after the game? Why can't the Jets find a quarterback like Sam Darnold, Joe and Pablo? You know what I was thinking after the game? Why can't the Jets find a quarterback like Sam Darnold, Joe and Pablo? You know what? If they only had. Oh. It's remarkable. Ghosts. It really is.

Finally, we're going to get to the game of the week with Alabama-Georgia, which Mike Lupico correctly says may have been one of the greatest regular season games of all time. But I just I'm curious, Pablo, the Ravens and the Bills, it raises a thousand questions about, you know, what kind of team are the Ravens? They've looked great over the past couple of weeks. And are we going to, Josh Allen, once again, going to be left at the altar this year?

Yeah, look, I think the cautionary sort of aspect here is that styles make fights. It's true in boxing. It's true in the NFL. And the Bills, their secondary, their linebackers and safeties in particular, are just a weakness. And so when you have that weakness meet what you're seeing here, Lamar Jackson running for a zillion yards. Derrick Henry, who is, you know, a Ford F-150 with a Ferrari engine, had the longest untouched touchdown run, 87 yards in Ravens history in this game.

It's just a bad matchup in a league, by the way. And this is a larger theme in a league where everybody can seemingly be horrible on any given Sunday. There is great mediocrity here. The number of two and two teams really is something. Let's turn now to the college game on Saturday that many people are calling one of the greatest college games in quite some time. Let's bring in ESPN commentator Paul Feinbaum. Paul, you and I have been following Alabama for a very long time. I wonder how you can win one of the biggest,

one of the just the most epic college football games of all time, and go away as an Alabama fan feeling like you may have lost. I mean, so many questions raised in the second half of that game. So many stars made in the first half of that game. They are number one. But I kind of guess as a coach, it's a dream scenario. A win is a win is a win. But you get to show two quarters of a miserable play by your team to inspire them for future games. lead over Georgia, which has won two out of the last three national championships.

But Joe, to your point, I don't think Kaelin DeBoer, the new Alabama coach, is going to be overly concerned. And I know with one of my heroes in journalism, Mike Lupico, peering over me, what I'm about to say, but would it be blasphemous for me to say here on Morning Joe that it looks like Kaelin DeBoer is doing a better job coaching than Nick Saban did even a year ago. You cannot say that. Oh, come on. Okay. Come on. I just wanted to try that out. I'm getting scored here from the P-Line Gallery. I mean, come on. He has been flawless since the day he got there, Joe. I'm not kidding. You know that. And to pull this win off with Saban sitting in the chief seat, so to speak,

against Kirby Smart, who just cannot beat Alabama. I mean, this is the best coaching college football right now, and his record is abysmal to Alabama. What is it? One and what is it? One and seven against Alabama, something like that? I think it's one and six now. One and six. They're all big games. These aren't chub games either. What is it, 1-7 against Alabama, something like that? I think it's 1-6 now. 1-6.

They're all big games. These aren't chub games either. No, they're all massive games, and they're all some of the greatest games I've seen. I go back to the SEC championship game five, six, seven years ago where we just barely won. But they're all great games. I've got to say, Mike, yes, the first half, Alabama team, Mike Lupica,

the first half, I haven't seen a team click like that. And I do think Jalen Milrow probably put himself up comfortably in the first three or four picks of the NFL draft next year if he continues to play well. That said, the second half, Alabama was back on its heels. All the things that worked in the first half, the blitzing stopped. All of the offensive

attacks stopped. They got conservative, and they almost lost the game. Joe and I were talking about it after the game, Paul. I couldn't believe that Alabama kept going up and snapping the ball with like 20 seconds still left on the play clock. No clock management.

The greatness of this game to me is you can only compare it to championship games of the past. This was Vince Young against SC. This was Alabama Clemson. And for Jalen Milrow, who I looked it up, had more total yards than Vince Young had that night against SC when they stopped SC. Wow. To come back after he loses the lead and throw the ball down the field to win the game. I said to Joe after the game, if we'd seen that Milrow against Michigan, Alabama would be national defending national champs now. Yeah, no doubt about it.

Now, listen, Mika wants more sports, so you guys stay right there. We're going to keep talking. I want Pablo's take on the Alabama game. But right now, let's bring in Roger Bennett with what he says is real football. NBC Sports Soccer Analyst and founder of Men in Blazers Media Network, Roger Bennett. Roger, quite a weekend for EPL football as well. The Premier League is back, Joe.

Roll Tide, Mika. I know you love the poet Charles Bukowski. He once said, The days run away like wild horses over the hills, but football doesn't stop. Joe, should we start in Londonondon at chelsea a team under dodgers owner todd burley appear to be turning chaos into order like a visit to the container store in the most delirious way they face the seagulls of brighton very menacing gave

them a four-two thumping in a game in which history was made by one man 22 year old cole palmer hotter than adam brody became the first human being ever to score four goals in one half of premier league football he went four loco inside 20 minutes he's got oh the face of a medieval cowherd the football brain of a nobel prize winner for physics. Honestly, it's like watching Eminem in 8 Mile losing himself in the music. To the top of the table, Arsenal Football Club playing Chicago White Sox equivalent Leicester City and were shocked to see a two-goal lead

to this mudeng of a finish by Justin James. Best JJ since what? Oh, my God. Mika, that doesn't make you feel alive. The game went to the death when little Belgian Leandro Trossard said, hold me close, a tiny dancer, and prodded in off the defender.

In the 94th minute, Arsenal, they won 4-2. May the hope not be false hope oh narrator says it will but at the top of the table your Liverpool Joe Boston Red Sox own Liverpool in their first year and the new manager big baby

headed bald Dutch dad Arne Slott there he is they treated bottom of the table Wolves like Major League Baseball treated the Oakland A's fans. First, Ibrahim Kanate with a put-back dunk. Then your beautiful, beautiful Mika's favourite player, Mo Salah, from the spot to extract a 2-1 win. My God, he is so handsome.

They've won five of six, top of the table, but the season is closer than the New York Times Siena College poll, isn't it, Joe? Too close to call. You've got Bama at number one. You've got Liverpool top of the Premier League. Roll Tide, how are you feeling, Joe? Roll Tide. Yeah, nervous.

Always nervous. I don't even understand. I'll learn Liverpool's manager's name maybe mid-season. But Roger Bennett, as always, thank you. Very good to see Chelsea back up there again. Looks like they're turning things around. May the Chicago White Sox rise again, Jake. And may they rise again, Roger.

And courage for wearing that jersey.