Morning Joe - New movie focuses on 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

August 21, 2026: 8am — New movie focuses on 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Just want to start by asking you what the Department of Agriculture is doing to bring beef prices down for Americans. Well, first of all, Jackie, is so great to be on with you again. Thank you so much for having me. Listen, what we are facing in America today is the direct result of a war on cattle by the previous administration, frankly, a war on agriculture and a war on farming in general. When you've got a prior administration that is basically blaming cattle for their crazy climate, agenda. With the midterms approaching, how do you see this playing out? Is food affordability really becoming a test of whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promises? Under Joe Biden, the cost of food went up almost 25%. I mean, this is what we're battling against right now.

And remember, we did not get here at a day that we were left with a mess. Even though the debt is too high, even though we inherited this debt bomb for the Biden administration, we actually do have a plan to get the economy growing faster than the debt. And that's the most important thing. The issue that we've had under the Biden administration and what we're still kind of dealing with is that the debt was growing faster than American GDP. That's the problem. That's something that we're certainly fixing every single day in the Trump administration. But, you know, even though the media doesn't cover this, I'm glad you're asking this question, because Scott Besant is very much on top of it. He knows it's a problem, and he's got the

president's empowerment to do something about it. Everything he just said is wrong. Again, these people keep borrowing from like Star Wars 8th. Everything he's saying is wrong, Willie. I mean, we're 19 months into the second Trump administration, and they're still blaming Joe Biden. And I just, first of all, war on cows, really? You're going to blame a war on cows for the fact that tariff policies and all

the other horrific policies that are being put in place, continue to cost groceries, make grocery spike, continue to make renters. Like, Willie, just on the last issue about debt and on deficits, I actually do know something about this. I don't know if I told you. I was in Congress. We balanced a budget four years in a row. The only Congress that have done that in 100 years.

Let me just tell you, Donald Trump, in his first term, before, you, you, before, you, you, Joe Biden was president before Joe Biden stepped into the Oval Office, he oversaw deficit spiking a record number, 317%. Deficence went up from the beginning of his term to the end of his term, 317%. That increase from Obama. In the second term, already in his first year, CBO is projecting it's going to at least be a 20% increase so far this year. During Biden's final year, deficits were actually going down. Now, once again, they're going up. So there are three things they cannot deny, Willie.

Number one, under Donald Trump, term one and term two, we've had the largest deficits in the history of America. In fact, Donald Trump has accounted for one out of every $3 in our federal that. Think about that. He's president 45 and 47. Well, yeah, he has been responsible for one third of our federal debt. The other 44 presidents will take the two-thirds. Secondly, we have the highest deficits ever. That's based on his choices. His choices for tax cuts for the rich, His choices for making the Pentagon spending go up to record levels, his choice to start an unnecessary war that is costing us billions and billions of dollars.

And his choice to actually put out the biggest, those pork barrel budget of all time. This is on him, not cows. It's on him. And the numbers show it clearly. and I think the American people are smart enough, Willie, to understand that. But, yeah, they can count. They know it's been almost two years since Joe Biden was in power, 19 months. They know that the debt has gone up over the last five, of the last year or so, a trillion dollars every five months.

Think about that. It was a trillion dollars less than March. It was a trillion dollars less than that in October. A trillion dollars every five months. And you touched exactly on the farmer question. Farmers are really upset, not about the Green New Deal, which, by the way, never passed. They're blaming the Green New Deal that did not become law. It's a theoretical concept from members of the Democratic Party.

Blaming that, tariffs farmers are upset about. And inflation that's obviously driving the price of their fertilizer through the roof, which may be in part while you're seeing races tighten up so much in the state of Iowa. We'll get to that in just a moment. But this dismissive approach we saw from so many. members of the administration yesterday, including Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, he said, $40 trillion isn't some magic number. We can grow our way out of that and kind of waived it off. I wasn't worried about the jobs number. Once we end this war in Iran, prices come back down.

Everything's going to be fine. There's literally no concern about what's happening to Americans, to working Americans in their daily lives right now. The arrogance that we saw on display yesterday, because it's not affecting them or their friends, all the prices and the trillions of dollars were adding to the debt. They just don't really acknowledge it. And it is, the numbers are the numbers. Donald Trump's been president now in the second term for 19 months, pathetically blaming Joe Biden, who hasn't been here for that long, and adding every five months another trillion dollars to the debt. Well, and Willie, 40 trillion is not a theoretical number. It is a real number. And as I said yesterday,

if you want to put perspective on how much that is, if you made a million dollars every day, a million dollars every day, it would take what? Thousands and thousands of years. I did what, 20, I think 20,000 years to get enough money to pay that debt off. It's just absolutely staggering. I think it's actually even more than that. bringing it, like back to where we are right now, American tax dollars are actually being blown on paying interest on the debt. We are spending more money paying for Washington's debt that's

been juiced by Donald Trump. And truthfully, all presidents this century, but especially Donald Trump, I'll just say again, when I left Congress in 2001, we had a one hundred $155 billion surplus. So all these people running and going, oh, it can't be done. It can't be done. That's what people said when I first ran. It can be done. But they have absolutely no will.

They want to spend more on everything. They make no choices at all. And it is the U.S. tax dollar that ends up being left with the bill, the interest payment. So we're paying more to service our debt than we are defending our country. And when you spend more, when any country spends more historically on debt service than on defending their country, well, that's the beginning of the end. Washington better get serious soon because Donald Trump and Scott Bessent and this administration and J.D. Vance, oh, my God, they have no clue how much trouble we're in or if they do understand how much trouble we're in, they're just lying through their teeth. With us to talk about a lot today, we have happy Friday, by the way, everybody.

We have co-host of our 8 a.m. hour staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, MSNNN, National Affairs Analyst John Heilman. He's a partner in Chief Political columnist at Pock. He's also so glad to have started his Friday morning off on such a chipper note. Also, MS now Senior Capital Hill Reporter and host of way too early, Ali Vitale, and President of Meritist of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haas. He's the author of the substack home and away. Richard, I want to go from one happy topic to another happy topic.

I just saw this morning that the economist came out with a quite a bit of new reporting on a new crop of leaders that are filling leadership vacuum in Iran. And this is what the economist writes. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is consolidating power. in Iran. Battle-hardened and results-driven, they are focused on security and repression, and they're turning the theocratic foundations of the Islamic Republic into a military dictatorship. So there you have it, Richard. We've been warning about this for quite some time. You want regime change. You may get regime change, but believe it or not, the regime change that Donald Trump got is even more radical than the radicals that ran Iran for the first 47 years of their existence?

Absolutely, Joe. And as if we needed it, it's another lesson that bad situations can get worse. And that's what we're seeing in Iran. And these people are not interested in at the moment in negotiating, certainly not to end the war. My fear is over time, they're likely to be more interested than ever in acquiring nuclear weapons. So I would, you know, we haven't been talking about that lot a lot because we're focusing on the straight of our moves. But that issue, shall we say, has, has not gone away. So when history looks at this, I got to tell you, Joe, this is going to be a high on the fiasco list of basically a self-generated situation that I think is going to plague the Middle East in the world for years or even decades to come. Jonathan Lemire, we've been talking now for two days about what Donald.

Trump is called Economic D-Day. They realize that military might is not going to finish the job. In Iran, now it's about the economy. We heard again yesterday from Scott Besson, more of the chest thumping. This is going to be the greatest package of economic sanctions the world has ever seen without a whole lot of detail. So is it actually happening? Unfortunately, these days, we have to ask that question, number one. And number two, do we have any shape to it? What's it going to look like? Yeah, the White House, not exactly reliable narrators, well, about anything, but particularly on measures with Iran. And the answer is they're still working on it, so we don't know just yet.

But there are a lot of questions that have to be answered. One is, okay, maybe there'll be more sanctions against Iran, fine. But what about, as Trump threatened against those who are still doing business with Iran? Is this the moment where he will finally step up and get tough with Russia, China, North Korea, more on them in a second? You know, we will see. He has to this point been reluctant. Yes. A flurry of a trade war with China at the, you know, sometime last year, quickly, a truce called.

And as we have been documenting for a better part of a decade, President Trump has never really been tough with Vladimir Putin and Russia. So therefore, if he can't do those things, then Iran's going to continue to be able to limp on. And there's no doubt their economy is hurting. We should stipulate that. Iran's economy is hurting. But the hardliners in charge, especially now with this reporting about the Revolutionary Guard, consolidating power, they don't care about your average citizen. Iran. They just want to maintain power. So that's piece one. But piece two to what Richard just said about the nuclear program, that is, I think, about to come to the forefront again, in part because

Trump inadvertently has put it there in the last few days. Our friend Tom Nichols, who just wrote a very smart analysis for the Atlantic, noting that North Korea's regime has managed to survive, and now, you know, gets flowers from President Trump, these love letters. He wants to have another summit. He's not willing to have military force against North Korea. or even much the way of economic pressure to this point. Why? Because they have nuclear weapons. And Iran can see that.

Iran got attacked because they don't, you know, in many ways. North Korea continues to survive because they do. And, guys, this would seem to be just more incentive for Tehran to try to race to deliver that sort of weapon because they think it's a way to ensure that the regime survives. Well, and of course, Willie, this article and the economist, you know, they're talking about the seven men who are now being put out there as leaders of the country, following up on what Jonathan said about how they don't care about how the economy is going. You know, they, the economist goes down the seven men who are now leading this country. One of them is responsible for brutally

cracking down on any protests. Another one is responsible for keeping people off the streets to protests and using any repressive tactics that needs to be done. A third is the one responsible for cracking down on women's rights. You know, the one that led the charge in making sure that women kept their faces covered four years ago when that was, when that was going on. So, this is a regime that is focused on repressing their own people and pushing back and kicking the United States, as the economist says, out of the Middle East. Yeah, and someone along the way convinced President Trump that this is going to be like Venezuela somehow. Go in, knock out the top of the regime, and democracy will flourish. The people will rise

up in the streets, obviously, obviously a much more complicated problem in Iran. And also yesterday on the economic side, you had Treacher's Secretary Besson saying, effectively, we're going to go after our allies now within, are you with us or are you against? us posture. We're going to talk. You do any business with Iran or you don't side with us on these global economic sanctions. You're off the list. So President Trump has attacked South Korea for not helping us in Iran. He's going after allies. Our allies in the Gulf are being attacked by Iran. He's going after Oman and now saying Scott Besson, if you're not with us on these economic sanctions, you're against us. Coming up, our next guest stars is Anthony Bourdain in a new

film about the late author and chef. Dominic Sessa joins us with a preview of the biopic Tony. Straight ahead on Morning Joe. Coming up, our next guest has spent years investigating safety issues at Bowen. Now, filmmaker Rory Kennedy is back with a new documentary, this time on the mysterious death of a whistleblower who'd come forward with damaging claims about the company. That's next on Morning Joe. This is how you open an ice down. I ate these in France. I was a kid. I said they taste like the future. I was reminded every measure. I got a guy.

He's like a master chef. And the world still so well to be. We're going to be closest. Yes, for you. The ass. I'm not a writer. I work in a kitchen. The late culinary giant Anthony Bourdain,

the blunt and incredibly smart chef and writer who opened so many eyes to cultures and cuisines from around the world is now being portrayed in the new film from A24 called Tony, in which audiences learn how the man found his passion for cooking. Instead of replaying the highlights of his very famous life, the biopic focuses on one summer when Bourdain was just 19 years old. Just going by Tony at the time, Bordane spends an unforgettable summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, to pick a God and starts a journey that changes the course of his life. Joining us now, we're happy to have the star of the new film actor, Dominic Sessa. Domic, thank you so much for being here.

Congratulations on this, a super buzzy film. First, let's just start with the decision that you and, of course, the screenwriter and a filmmaker's made to narrow the focus on just this one element of a life that would, of course, take Bordane to so many places. Right. I mean, I think generally when you're trying to make a biopic or tell a story about a real person, I find, at least in the movies, I find, at least in the movies, watch and enjoy when you're able to consolidate it to more specific time and in this case like one summer right a couple of months for Tony it allows it allowed myself it allowed Matt the writers on this script to really tell a story I don't know that that shows like a real emotional um transformation in a way and I think sometimes when you're trying to fit too much

of someone's life into something you can miss those um relatable elements are really humanizing. So it's a challenge for any actor or actress when they play a real person, right? Like, how much do you want to base what you're doing, your performance off, what's readily available? You can see on television. Now, this is a little different, though,

because I'm assuming far less material available for him at age 19. For sure. I mean, when I first read the script, I didn't know much about Bourdain. And when I read it, I thought it was based off of, like, a book he wrote about himself during the summers when he was a kid.

And that was, I don't know, like I was apprehensive to that because almost feeling like you're retelling something that somebody's already told, I didn't know how I felt about that, but then realizing that really we're trying to, you know, make more of an emotional connection to the character rather than hitting these,

like, specific bullet points, it gave me a lot of freedom. And I felt like, okay, I don't have to try to do an impression of this person, right? I can really just try to connect them on a deeper level, which I think for audiences and for performers, like, that's the more exciting stuff. Your performer is certainly winning a lot of acclaim. Here's a scene from the movie where Tony gets some tough love on his first day in the kitchen.

You know, I can cook, too. Excuse me? He says he's a cook, chef. Yeah, wonderful. I'm not a cook. I'm a writer. I just said I could cook. Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't understand that. Shut the fuck off. My dad's like one of the best chefs in New Jersey. Oh, your dad, why didn't you say so? Whatever. You know what? I'm sorry, brother. You're a cook. Help me fight these.

You'll help me out. I'm behind, please. All right. I do love Stavros, Halkeus, just owning you as seen. But in real life, are you now expected to be good at cooking? Like how much of that was part of the skill set? Ever, maybe. I mean, for me, I, like, I just had to wash dishes for a lot of this movie. I learned how to shuck oysters.

That's, like, the one, I think, real skill that I walked away with. But other than that, like, I maybe got a little bit better at washing dirty pans. You know, I was thinking of, like, why Bourdain became such a phenomenon, as, of course, he was later in life. And he had Obama on his show. And he was sort of an embodiment of, like, not being pretentious and sort of welcoming people into and being welcomed as a result into other lands and other worlds and other cuisines. Young Tony, though, how much of that was evident that he would become that guy?

I think that's kind of what we wanted to show a lot, especially with the other characters, like Stavros, Leo, Antonio, these guys that on, you know, on the surface level, they kind of, to Tony, they're like these crazy pirates, you know, like he's never going to be able to relate with these people or feel anything for them. you get a sense at the end of the film, like he's really made an important connection with these people specifically. And it was through working in this kitchen and making not like the fanciest food in the world, but sharing a meal with these people, he felt for them. And he felt ultimately he had to service them in trying to do the right thing, you know. And I think that

is something we saw that still was alive in Bourdain for the rest of his life. The new movie, Tony is now playing in select theaters, and it will expand nationwide on August 21st. Dominic Sessa is in it, the star of it. He's fantastic in it. Dominic, thank you for being with this. Thank you. And we'll be right back here with more. Morning Joe. After so many headlines and incidents, you start to wonder how Boeing is still flying.

With whistleblowing, you lose your job, you lose your community. I raised it to my quality manager. I went to FAA. I followed it and played with Ocean. We were retaliated against. My tire was fast. I'm scared what they're going to do. I thought that this could get somebody killed.

We're trying to nail down the timeline of John Burnett's sass. That's a look at the new Netflix documentary, Freefall, a reckoning for Boeing. The film delves into concerns surrounding the aviation's giant aircraft following a series of incidents and then the death of an outspoken whistleblower. Joining us now, the director and producer of the documentary and the award-winning filmmaker, Rory Kennedy. Rory, congratulations on this. Thank you for joining us again. Good to see you. Talk to us, if you will, about, let's start at the beginning. You know, certainly Boeing had a series of high-profile incidents. Was that what decided for you that this was a story worth telling? And how did you decide on the angle you chose?

Yeah. Well, thanks for having me back. It's great to be here. you. I had made a documentary called Downfall, the case against Boeing, for Netflix about four or five years ago. And that really focused on the 737 max crashes in which 346 people died to airplanes, same model of airplane, new model of airplane. And they crashed within five months of each other. And that film really documents all that Boeing knew about that aircraft. the compromises of the airplane, as well as acknowledging that they played a role in not explaining to the public and to the FAA, the regulatory agency, all that was happening in that airplane and took responsibility for that. In the aftermath of those crashes where these 346 people were killed, Boeing promised us that it would change its ways. It wouldn't

focus so much on profits. It would focus on safety. and making sure these planes are safe for us to fly. But since then, unfortunately, once the max got into the air, we saw a lot of the old behaviors manifesting again. A number of whistleblowers were coming forward saying that not only were things reverting back to how they used to be at Boeing, but they in fact gotten worse. And in the same moment, we were seeing all these incidents of cockpids filling

with smoke, engines falling off of airplanes. And then, of course, the window coming off of the Alaska Airline 737 max mid-flight, which was, you know, obviously terrifying. And then my friend, who was also a whistleblower, John Barnett, died under very suspicious circumstances while he was doing a deposition about what he was seeing at Boeing. So let's talk more about that. We should know your first documentary was 22. This is its sequel. You know, the, the Barnett death certainly triggered a few headlines, but this is, tell us more about what you found, which certainly so suspicious at minimum in its timing. Yeah, so John was in our film Downfall and was a very brave whistleblower who really sacrificed so much to, I mean, what his concern was,

is that they're making these airplanes. They're going up in the air and that they're going to fall out of the sky. And that, you know, he felt responsible because he was the person who was in charge of safety and he kept alerting his management about protocols that weren't being followed. He, I mean, just to drill down in some of the specifics, he said the oxygen masks are not working on these airplanes. And he did a study and found that 25% of the oxygen mask don't work. And he complained about that. And as a result, he was ostracized by the company.

And then, of course, you know, we see a number of years later in the Alaska Air incident. People are on the plane. The oxygen mask go down and many of them don't work. You know, and if an oxygen mask isn't working at 30,000 feet, you know, you have 20 seconds. before things start going really badly and people start dying. So the implications of what John was complaining about and what these other whistleblowers are complaining about are so significant. We're not, you know, Boeing's not making dishwashers.

They're making airplanes that we all fly, that our children fly. And I think, you know, more than anything, that was the reason I wanted to go retell this story and really help people understand the choices that Boeing is making and the compromises and how it puts us all in positions that are really terrifying. And we should just note in a statement to USA Today, a spokesperson for Boeing addressed the claims made in the documentary. It reads in part the allegation the film have been widely reported over the past several years. Some remain unfounded claims to this day, while others are issues that Boeing thoroughly

addressed or continues to approve upon under the rigorous oversight. of a regulator, so that's their version. But people can decide for themselves by watching the new film Free Fall, A Reckoning for Boeing, which is streaming now on Netflix. Director and producer, Rory Kennedy, thank you very, very much.

We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. And still ahead here on Morning Joe, an Albany woman is facing federal charges in connection with a threat involving the New York State Capitol. What federal investigators say they uncovered. Plus, we're going to tell you about a New York Times investigation raising questions about their federal government selling America's wild horses.

What the Trump administration is saying about that concern. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. Welcome back. We turn to some other headlines now. Federal officials say that a woman has been accused of providing support to a terrorist group over an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol. 35-year-old Jessica Bowie of Albany was arrested Wednesday and now faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. According to the criminal complaint, Moui is accused of telling a confidential source that she supported ISIS and asked for help learning to make explosives. The complaint also states that Mowie converted to Islam five years ago, became radicalized online, and created several social media accounts. using an honorific Islamic name. Meanwhile, our New York Times investigation

has found that the federal government is selling thousands of wild horses to private buyers for as little as $25 each, and some may now be ending up in the slaughter pipeline. The Bureau of Land Management says it is placing horses in good homes, but records actually show that Mustang sold to an Ohio livestock trader

later appeared on trucks headed to Canada, where horses are typically slaughtered. Government sales more than doubled last year to 3,700 horses, with the Bureau claiming the program saved taxpayers about $56 million. Critics say the practice exploits a legal loophole that allows the federal government to sell Mustangs on the cheap, stripping them of any protections. Still ahead here on morning, Joe, my new reporting on the White House's response to John Assov's comment about close Trump aide Natalie Harp. You're watching Morning Joe?

We'll be right back with that. A running theme the last two months on this show is how President Trump has lost what was a political superpower, his really his feel for what connected with the American people, or at least his base. Another example of that, over the weekend when Georgia Senator John Ossoff delivered a pretty standard criticism of Trump's handling of the Iran war, but he slipped in a magic word. That word, Natalie, as in. Natalie Harp, the mysterious young aide who enjoys a very close relationship with President Trump,

ever present at his side, often with a big smile beaming at him. She's often in charge of his social media account and has become a gatekeeper for the Oval Office. You know, the mention from Ossoff delivered some social media traffic. We mentioned it briefly on the show here Monday. A few others did as well. But it largely would have come and gone, except the West Wing lost its mind. And I have a new story out in the Atlantic charting how that happened, how the press office and MAGA allies went to scorched earth immediately, attacking Ossoff, attacking anyone they think was being inappropriate to Harp or Trump. And all that did was make the story worse. It blew it up, made a source of national conversation, created a permission structure in which

newsrooms across Washington and the country could suddenly start writing about Natalie Harp. The Trump team had made news. And now I'm told that Harp, certainly her job is safe. There's no expectation that she will leave. But West Wing is preparing for more scrutiny about her and her relationship with President Trump. We should also note, First Lady Melania Trump yesterday chose to make her first public appearance in more than a month. It's a storyline that's not going away. But more importantly, it gave Asoff attention as he runs for reelection and is a possible 2028 candidate and shows yet again that this White House might be losing its touch in being able to control the nation's political narrative. That does it for us this morning, but we'll have more on that and so much more

Monday at 6 a.m. for another morning, Joe. Money, power, politics with Stephanie Rule is up next after a short final break. Have a great weekend, everybody.