Morning Joe - Newsom says he won't run for president if Harris does

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

September 15, 2026: 7 am — Newsom says he won't run for president if Harris does  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.

Yeah, it's a lot of Democrats. 31 flavors. You're not even the only California. No, right. You got Rocana, Kamala. Yeah, I don't know if she runs, but we'll see. I know she's called around. Yeah.

But I wouldn't run if she ran. If she runs, you will not. Of course not. Why would I? I wouldn't do that to her. I wouldn't do it to me. Why would I wouldn't do that to you? I wouldn't waste everyone's time.

Who needs that? What do you mean? That doesn't even make sense to me. I just, I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't. But first of all, electorally, it's a gift from God for everybody else. They enjoy the hell out of it, mutual assured destruction. It services no greater good.

I mean, you do whatever you want. I don't care. But like counterargument would be like, you know, she had a shot. Yeah. And you've never run, and she's run twice. Yeah. I mean, that would be the approach to the campaign, certainly. That would be the case you'd make.

Pretty good one, actually. You know, that's objectively true. I just, but I know what that means. I know her base of supporters. I know her friends. The Zen diagram on that is just pure crossover. It's not, I wouldn't do that to. First of all, only a California governor would call it a Zen diagram.

Yeah. I love that. Gavin Newsom. A Zen diagram. He won't launch presidential campaign in 28 if Kamala Harris plans to run again, but they were fly fishing. It's one thing when Willie did it with Letterman that kind of like that work because that's what he...

What was that? I don't know what that was. What do you think? I think if you're going to run for president, you don't really care who else is running. Right. Oh, you're talking about the content. Well, yeah, I'm not going to talk about the theatrics there.

Ray Zip's a loquiter. It speaks for itself. But if you're going to run for president, Donnie, it's like you got to know. that you're going to run. And anybody that's going to run to win doesn't care who else is in the race. They go into the race going, I'm going to run

and I'm going to win. And if these other people want to get in the race, well, I feel sorry for them because I'm going to beat them. That's how you have to think before you knock on the first school. What was his logic if she ran, he's not running? I don't even understand.

I've seen some polls where she's at like 5% now. But what is it, are they best friends? I don't even understand What was behind there? No, I mean, it's... They're not best friends. They're both California politics, obviously. But, yeah, no, I mean, I'm not sure.

There are two thoughts here. One is, I mean, I guess three. We could take him as a word. It's also possible... That's one. Okay, hold on. Take him at his word. Two is, there is... He's received signals that the former vice president's not going to run.

Exactly. So, therefore, he can make this sort of seemingly generous offer here. And I'm told lately the Harris camp is undecided, whether she will do it again. Or the third is, he's just being disconcined. And like, you know, you say these things now, but then you come to some realization. Can I say the fourth? He doesn't want to offend black voters.

I was just about to. It's like, this is a whole thing. Right. All of that was about, I, I am a white politician, fly fishing in California. I am not going to say something, Mara, that defends black voters and say I'm going to run against a black woman who is, who made history in the last campaign. No, I do know. Okay.

I do know, but I do know. This is boring. Laura, wait, you find that boring? Everybody's talking, everybody's talking bullshit and I actually tell the truth and you find the truth boring, Mara? Why did he say what he said? No, I totally agree.

I'm thinking about how South Carolina is going to be the first Democratic primary state. So, you know, and especially if the former vice president isn't going to run. You know, this is a no-brainer for him. He's not stupid. He's not going to stick his foot in it with black voters.

Also, though, the setting, the fly fishing. It was kind of funny. I mean, it reminded me, halfway like Yellowstone, the show. But then also I'm thinking about Graham Platner. I'm like, we've done this, this cycle. Let's move on.

Do they know how to do it? No, they don't. That's the point. I don't feel like that's what I looked at. They don't know how to flycass. If it's in South Carolina, go bass fishing next time. But they do not know how to flycast. They should watch old clips of the greatest flycaster of all time. Ted Williams. Okay, of course. There you go. I like if they should drive into the river and grab those fish

by the hand. It ain't a river runs through it. I love that. All right. Also with this former host of Hardball, Chris Matthews joins us this hour. Good to have you, Chris. So according to New Projection. Wait, you're not going to let Chris talk about this? I mean, Chris, what's your take on Gavin Newsom

deciding he's not going to run if Kamala runs? Gavin Newsom is has a problem, which he doesn't explain to people why he makes decisions. And that, as you said, Joe, that's not how you make decisions. No politicians. Would Jack Kennedy have not run for president if he thought Adelae Stevenson was coming back? Of course he would have run.

And people don't make decisions based on somebody else's life plan. If you're running for president, that's your life plan. You don't need anybody else to guide you. Yeah, and you know, I do think, again, this isn't particular to the California governor, so I'm not knocking him here. But it's, it is such a politician move. When you know somebody else isn't running to say, oh, I wouldn't run if she ran. And that way, it is, it is deferring to somebody without any political cost to yourself. Okay, according to new projections from Decision Desk HQ, Democrats are predicted to take control of the Senate this fall.

The latest data shows Democrats leading in almost every swing state with five seats, North Carolina, Alaska, Texas, Ohio, and Maine currently forecasted to flip in Democrats' favor. So, Chris, I'm looking at these numbers. and these numbers right now mean... That's confident. Absolutely nothing. That said, you know, we say in January, it's early, February, it's early, July, it's early, August. I know you and I who've done this before, you get in the middle of September, and it's kind of like baseball.

Okay, this actually is when it starts counting. There's early voting starting up in North Carolina. You see these numbers and if they stay hard, you know, that's when you start to realize, okay, this is actually firming up a bit for the Democrats. But we aren't there quite yet, but I think a week or two from now, things start getting serious for the Republicans. Yeah, I think after Labor Day, you begin to, people are back from their vacations, the kids are in school, and they really need to make their decisions.

And I think that the Democrats are looking good. There's a little movement in their direction in all these races for the U.S. Senate, for example. what does look like if the conditions don't get swept away by events and they always occur, it looks like the Democrats can win enough seats to take over the United States Senate. So I think that's really a big story. I also think Trump is desperate to come up with an idea. He didn't even know he's going to lose this Supreme Court decision last night. But now he is in a world where he doesn't seem to understand what's going on.

He's calling the Democrats communists, for example. That's a big term to use. We haven't really heard it in a dispiriting way since back in the early 50s. And back in the early 50s, calling people a communist did not say you thought left-wing too much. You thought too much about big government. No, it said you were loyal to another country, Russia. And now look at Trump. Look who's guilty of that.

His best friends in the world are China and North Korea and the guy who began his career as a Stasi officer in East Germany. And it's now been trying to rebuild the Soviet Empire. Vladimir Putin. who his friends are. Not a last, not Canada, not Europe, not NATO. His friends are communists. And that's a really a reality of loyalty. Why is Trump loyal to these people? And he seems to be taking, actual communist, Chris, actual communist, paid for weddings. Actual communist. Go ahead. Your thought. No, I said actual communists. Chinese Communist Party. North Korea, actual communists. Putin, want to be communist.

But I'll tell you something else that real communists are, real socialists. Are there people that take over companies? Donald Trump, according to Kato, not a left-wing outfit, has taken over 30 companies. The federal government has taken interest in 30, economic interests in 30 different corporations. And that is, that's like Clement Attlee material in Great Britain after World War, too. That's what a socialist is. Look at these, I want you to look at these Senate races again, everybody, and see if any of these jump out at you. Anybody want to talk about, I mean, I think most of us agree Cooper is looking really good in North Carolina.

I think that Alaska numbers a little high. Texas is a little high, especially after hundreds of millions of dollars are thrown in that direction. Ohio. He has a, you know, we've, Sherrod has run some great races. He's a real populace. This is, this would seem to be. his time. And his opponent's just not that good, is he? No, and I think, I agree with you, though. The North Carolina, I think Democrats feel very good about North Carolina. And we didn't even see

George on there, did we? That one's pretty much a lot. People seem to think that one's more or less in the bag for Ossoff. The rest of them are tighter, and I think there is a sense, we talk about this a lot, Joe, that in a wave election, everything kind of breaks one way. And like, you know, Democrats really have a big night. You can throw like Iowa on there, too. Maybe a couple

others. But most Democrats I speak to still think those races are pretty much a toss-up. Even though they do feel like they've got good candidates this year, they have the right candidate in Alaska. To your point, they have the right candidate in Ohio. They seemingly have the right candidate in Texas. They certainly have the right opponent in Texas. Oh my God. In Ken Paxton. But I think that there's still a sense that these are 50-50 and Republicans do have in most of those states, not all, most of those states, a significant financial advantage. Well, more, I've always thought Texas is fools gold. Like I used to say that Pennsylvania was fools gold until the day it wasn't.

But in Texas, you've got the worst possible opponent for, for Tala Rico, who is, despite what the crazed Maga Wright says about Tala Rico is a good candidate. Like, he's a skilled candidate. And yet that's still a one two-point race. No, it's going to be close. It's going to be so tight. The Democrats also have to hold. on to some seats in really tough competitive races, including Georgia, though Asoff looks to be in a very

confident position. New Hampshire, but also Michigan. Michigan wasn't on that. I mean, well, that's because I think it was states that we're going to flip or they're going to try and flip, but this is a question of a state that the Democrats have to hold on to. So, you know, those are tough races. So the map is still extremely difficult for the Democrats. And I think similarly, the redistricting in terms of the House is going to have a significant impact. Post-Calais, what the Supreme Court did when it allowed these Republican-led legislatures across the South to steal within hours seats, not only from Democrats, from a party, but from voters who live in them in these districts. That it's going to have an impact.

So there's a lot of headwinds that the Democrats are made. A lot of headwinds. Mike, they have to hold on to Michigan. And which I could hold on, too. They've got to hold on to New Hampshire, which I don't know what to believe in New Hampshire because you'll see, you'll see New Hampshire Democrats saying, oh, we're going to lose, we're going to lose, we're in trouble, we're going to lose. And I think that's more about, like, fundraising. And then I'll see some polls that have the Democratic candidate comfortably ahead.

Is New Hampshire one of these things that's going to go down to the wire? I think it is. Yeah. Yeah. Two candidates, both flawed. One trying to keep the seat Democratic, Pappas, and the other, Sununu with a brand name in New Hampshire. He's going to be close. He's not a bad candidate. It's going to be close. It's not... His brother is very popular, his governor. Very popular. Very popular. Very popular. Still is very popular.

But I would tell you this about all of those seats. If you go to a gas station or go to a grocery store, early in the morning, you can feel in this country a combination of anxiety and anger as people head to the polls. People are anxious about what's happening. They're angry about what's happening, and they're going to blame someone on election day. That some of these things are not fully baked yet. I kind of say, what would happen to keep this from being a wave? I can't see it.

I mean, if anything, just every piece of momentum tells you that. and every Democrat is on message with cost, cost, cost. Right. The matter what they get asked, the matter what they get asked about the far left, they bring it back and they go, no, it's about cost. So you've got Trump self-destructing. You've got a very unified message.

I see every one of these things tilting blue. Well, I mean, it just depends on the money. The money that's going to be poured in against Democrats is going to be absolutely massive. Hundreds of millions of dollars from crypto, from tech, from all of these other areas. So I think we're just going to see the impact of that. I will say to Mike's point, though, I was lucky enough to run in a wave year in 94.

If I'd run, I would have said, if I ran a 92, I would have lost. If I ran in 96, I would have lost. I just, I just got on the wave and I went in. But you can really tell in those years. You could tell in 94 as they got closer and closer. Boy, everything is breaking against Democrats. We don't know what events might happen. No, we don't.

You never know what events are going to happen. We're pretty close. We're pretty close. We'll see there's an October surprise. We'll see if Donald Trump has an October surprise. Jonathan mentioned the newly released New York Times-Sanapole that shows Democrats gaining the edge as President Trump drags down the GOP. As the Times notes, quote, voters said they trusted Democrats more than Republicans on not just health care and

foreign wars, but also on the two issues that powered Mr. Trump. 2020 victory, immigration and the economy. Democrats are favored when it comes to handling the deficit and the cost of living. The Republicans are favored on artificial intelligence, but only by two points. And in terms of the economy and immigration, Trump delivered everything he promised. And he said it loud and clear as he was campaigning tariffs and mass deportations that you'd never seen before. A bloody mass deportation. And then I talked to Trump voters, and they're like, I didn't think he was really going to do that.

I don't really follow the news. I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't. Can't believe he did this. Yeah, he promised he was going to do it. Show that first chart, T.J., if you would, with the health care plus 24. Donnie, I just somehow feel like this is, we don't talk about health care enough. The fact that, first of all, a lot of people in red states are just absolutely crushed because Republicans ran to cut Medicaid.

to cut funding for their own hospitals. I mean, you look and see, and he can yell all he wants to, but you look at Michael Aller. He voted to slash funding for hospitals in his own district. You can look at all of these other states. Look out in Kansas. Look at all of these other states. You've got the Medicaid part of it,

which is hurting red states more than blue states. And then you look at private insurance. And look at the fact that they're rejecting one claim after another claim after another claim and people growing bankrupt because of healthcare costs, I can't help but think this isn't going to be a huge issue. It is huge. And we say costs and I think healthcare is built into costs. I think it's groceries, gas, and healthcare. I mean, those are the three kind of big elements. And elements of course. So yes. So I think basically healthcare is a just huge underlier, but I put it under the cost category.

Cost, cost, cost. I was going to say, Mika noted that the Republicans were favored on AI by two points. I'm going to guess after this week that's going to change. Considering how President Trump's rather. Today is National Voter Registration Day, and MS now is joining forces with the Voto Latino Foundation. With a flagship event at the University of Texas at Austin, it's a campus of more than 50,000 students where more than 25% identify as Hispanic. By the way, can we just up there for a second? Did you guys see the post by the idiot that's running for what?

What's your running for? I think it's Congress. I'm going to look that up right now as we speak. So they had a shot of a Texas crowd cheering. And there were people of color in that crowd. And a guy that's running for a major position in Texas, I thought it was a statewide position. Railroad Commissioner said basically this is what's wrong with America.

It's a picture of the football game. Texas has a stunning comeback win against Ohio State. It's a photo of the crowd, diverse. It seems to be of Indian heritage, perhaps, and he basically says something. I paraphrasing slightly, like, this isn't the Texas I know or something along those lines. And it was deeply racist. And the guy will control, Alex tells me, oil. It's a very powerful position.

position. Carl Rove, I saw, Mara said, okay, this is finally done it. I will not be voting Republican this year straight down the ballot. I will never vote for this bigot. I'm glad he has a line. I think everybody should have a line. I don't think this is the vision for America that most voters want. But, you know, at the same time, this is, this is America. This is part of our history. Right. It's not, you know, all of it. But this is, this is part. You know, immigration, it is our history. This is our history. But also, when Donald Trump said he wants to take us back to a golden age, for a lot of people,

this is what they heard. And we can't, we can't deny that. Do you know what the golden age was like at the turn of the century, like going into the 20th century, when Germans were kept out of the country, when the Irish were kept out of the country, when the Irish were kept out of the country, 50 years before that, right? That's right. There have been, you know, where did the Trumps immigrate from? Germany.

Germany and Scotland, I think, yeah. Exactly. So, I mean, here's what the guy said, just so we know. He said, I heard UT graduate. This is Beau French, the Republican running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission. I heard UT graduation this year. Look like this. He wrote in the Post.

I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. And John Cornyn also announced it. But here's a crazy thing. And I heard somebody say this yesterday. I wish I could remember who it was, but I'm old. But they said, wait a second. So the big complaint is that immigrants can't assimilate in America.

And here we have immigrants cheering like the long horns. They are assimilating in the most American way possible. and this clown down in Texas is angry because people with brown skin are at a longhorns game. I mean, we can't discount how much racism continues to be a factor in our politics. Right. And we can't let it define us. And it's kind of up to all of us to make sure that that happens. He wouldn't have said it if he hadn't have heard it while he was campaigning.

That's right. Joining us now, President and co-founder of Voto Latino, MS now contributor Maria Teresa Kumar, It's great to have you on. Tell us what can we expect at today's event. Well, Mika, this whole conversation you've been having is the precise reason why Voto Latino and MS now are teaming up and doing National Voter Registration Day at U.T. Austin. UT Austin is one of the largest Hispanic serving institutions in the country. But the biggest secret about Texas is that when you look at a classroom, K through 12, 78 of the kids, 78% of the children there are kids of color, meaning that they are 8. that they are multicultural, that they are biodivate, they're diverse.

And that's the reason why Texas is so important. When we look at Texas as the laboratory of the GOP, it is where a lot of the laws that so many Americans take on bridge with. They're the ones that are restricting voter access. They're the ones that are restricting access to reproductive health. They're the ones that are right now fighting whether or not environmental issues actually exist. But the majority of Texans, when you pull them, are very much front and center saying,

this is not the America we want to live in. We actually live in a very multicultural state, and we want to bring that forward. So today we are kicking off National Voter Registration Day, trying to register as many young people because in Texas, the best kept secret was that three out of five young people are not registered yet. But if they were, they would be an incredible force in changing the direction of that state. and we're going to be activating in over 13 campuses on Texas. We can't wait because this is a lead-up to MS Now's big debut on September 26th.

So if you want to learn more, please go ahead and have your eyes on Texas because one thing that MS knows what to do is how to inform their voters to make sure that when they go to cast a ballot, they're informed and at the same time giving them agency to do the right thing for their communities. So we're super excited. For Hispanic voters, what are they feeling economically the most? Is it the cost of gas? Is it the cost of groceries? Is it rent? Is it the mortgage? What are you hearing Hispanic voters are being the most pounded by during this economic crisis?

Joe, it's all of the above. One of the reasons that Latinos switched from left to right and voted for Trump was specifically because they couldn't afford rent. 39% of the people that we pulled just two months ago were skipping meals. When we're talking about the cost of the affordability of gas, it's through the roof. So one of the biggest challenges we have right now is trying to tell people, look, if you actually participate, you can help inform policy. Because at the end of the day, whether it's a Republican or a Democrat that's representing you, they will heed because they want to keep power. And the Democrats right now, the reason they're going around the country,

marching on affordability agenda, is because they recognize that every single American is having a hard time making ends meet. But particularly in the Latino community, when you talk about not just affordability, but then you put on the onus of being brown in America under this administration. I have to tell you, I can speak with colleagues that are in Wall Street. They have people that are, we have friends that are working in the field, every single Latino in America right now does not feel safe.

And so what we have found historically when it comes to anti-immigrant bashing by a government, whether it's a governor or in this case of president, it is a catalyst for people to pay more attention. And so what we are seeing in a place like Texas during the midterm elections, when we saw during the, excuse me, during the primary elections that we saw back in February, was that Latino turnout in Texas was on par, not for the middle, congressional races, but for presidential races. And we're seeing that as a litmus test that people are not only engaged, they're rightfully angry, but they're also saying not only is affordability not okay, but the fact that my loved ones are at risk every single time we go

out the door is an opportunity for us to have a message and saying it's time for us to get our ducks in order, and it's our opportunity for us to register, to vote, and to send a clear message to Washington that what we want them to do there is not to discriminate against who's American or not, but to actually do the people's business. The National Voter Registration Day event takes place today at the University of Texas at Austin, starting at 10 a.m. local time, president and co-founder of Voto Latino, MS now contributor, Maria Theresa Kumar, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. Donnie, you're a following.

You're a long-born fan now, aren't you? My daughters, my daughter's at UT. We love that school. It's like, it's the greatest place in the world. Very cool. She got to see a good football game. Very, very good. Going on parents' weekend in a few weeks.

Very excited. Mike, you wanted to ask Chris a question. Yeah, Chris, listening to all of this about immigration, about Latinos and Texas, about Haitians everywhere in this country, I'm wondering you've been around a long time, you've seen a lot, you've heard a lot. Did you ever think you would be listening to someone an administration that is trying to roll the clock back on all the progress we've made as a United Nation? Yeah, especially in this political time. We're all thinking about the midterms. I'm very optimistic about

the Democrats picking up at least 30 seats in the House and a very good shot at winning the Senate. And I think it's because people, Hispanic or Angler or whatever, we put ourselves in whatever category, the cost of living is the reality on the ground. I spent a lot of time recently with a guy who just went through a tough primary challenge, not a real challenge, but he won big. And it's all about cost of living. It's not about people that watch this. show even. It's not about people politically interested. It's about everybody dealing with the fact of having to

fill your tank up twice a week and paying up to four bucks for a regular and paying up to five bucks and certainly six bucks for premium. You're paying a lot of money into that gas tank of yours and it's real and this food costs. That's the reality out there. The life

of people living in this country. And it's bigger than President Trump calling somebody a communist or anything like that. It's the reality of their lives. And people feel that in their souls. They feel it at the lunch at the kitchen table with their kids, what they eat, how much they can afford to eat. This is a real challenge. And not just for young people. And I can imagine Hispanic people who are being, well, they watched what happened in Minnesota. And they saw that way they were treated. And they saw the attitude

of those ice people. And it's not about closing the border down. It's about treating people the way they should be treated. And I think that was very smart when Maris said about. about that. Maria, also, this idea that you have to treat people like human beings, no matter what your policy is, you're an American, act like an American, and stop treating people like their crap. And that's really an issue that people feel, and in addition to the economy. It's not just Minnesota. It's Maine. It's Connecticut. It's everywhere. It's Texas. The number of school children not going to school. Yeah. Because of fear. First day of school, ice raids, parents being taken away, and kids coming home to no parents.

Are we serious? Chris Matthews, thank you very much. Coming up on Morning Joe, one of our next guest says Russian President Vladimir Putin has been working to subvert U.S. elections since 2016. So will he intervene in this year's midterms? We'll talk about that with best-selling author David Korn, who's covering it all on his new book, How Russia Won. But first, Donnie brings us his latest edition of Brand Up, Brand Down. Morning Joe is coming right back. Look at that beautiful shot of New York City. And it's time for a new edition of Brand Up, Brand Down. I'm going to launch it.

Then I have to go to an MS now event. But the concern I have is leaving you and Donnie alone together. He just yells at me. I'll be sitting here and he just started screaming. That's why we have the call map. It makes me sad. You know what? Today is 11.

Do you have the call map? I'm near the mainstream. I told me to play nice. Everybody today. Okay. But you also need to get the ad. Do you have the call map? Of course I do.

All right. Well, you can... I'll start us off. Howard Stern, Brand up. I'm going to give him a lifetime brand up because I just learned Howard so much. How can you not? What's he done? What's he done?

He's bringing his show, his serious show, which now is only once a week, but it's gone on HBO Max on Thursday nights. The series show breaks Monday. They're going to do a video version of it. I think it'll do great. What I love about his brand, he's so evolved his brand. Obviously, the way he was 20, 30 years ago. He couldn't do today because of The Times and also he's an older man.

But he's now just one of the great interviews of all time. He's fantastic. And what a really nice guy also. He really is. I mean, you know, yeah, he couldn't have done what he did, like 10 years ago now. But you are right, though. He lives forever on YouTube. And his long, long-form interviews, whether it's with Billy Joel, whether it's with Paul McCarney, whether it's with some of these other extraordinary musicians,

you just sit and just watch and all, what a great interviewer. Yeah. He is. And just in person. completely different from what you would think. Just very low-key, very chill, very just down to earth. And now I see the next. Judge Judy, a little different than Howard Stern,

but also Judge Judy, brand up. Huge brand up. She's retiring after 30 years, 25 years in syndication, five years on prime. She's going, she says she wants to just relax, be with her family, take naps. Other than Oprah, I think she's the biggest daytime name in history. I mean, she is just an institution.

Very cool lady. Her son is taking over, handing the mandol. I think his name is Andrew. He's got a show coming on with Judge Judy as an institution. She's kind of riding off 83 years old into the sunset. I certainly applaud her ambition to take naps. We would like to do that.

Yes. And when she figures out how to do that, if she could let me know, then will improve my life for a great deal. I'm not very good at napping. Dye, next one's a brand down. We all know about dropping out of college, but you're talking about dropping in college. This is Gen Z.

It wouldn't be a brand-up brand down unless we take a shot at Gen Z, the knuckleheads that they are. Basically, this is you go to college. Aren't some of your children, Gen Z? What is the official age of Gen Z? I don't know. Alex, what's the official age of Gen Z? I think it starts in 98.

I think it's 1996, maybe as they were cut off. We're not sure. Ninety-eight. By the way, what we're talking about this? I just want to clear something up. If you were born like Barack Obama in 1962 or me in 1963, you are not a boomer. We grew up loathing boomers. We went to the big chill.

more at the table. Trying to distance. No, I'm just saying we went, we went to the big chill and we were just like, oh, those self-involved, just pigs. No, we grew up hating boomers. They were the people that tried to levitate the Pentagon in the 60s, the Abby Hoffman's, all of those, nothing against Abby. God rest of soul.

But I'm just saying, though, it's like they need them work to cut these out. Because does anybody here think of Barack Obama's a movie? You just can't say somebody that's over a certain age is a boomer. No. Those were the freaks from the 60s. I was a boomer. And all of our, everybody that watches here. We love boomers.

We love all of you. I'm sorry. So 1996 on we hear our Gen Z. Okay. So what Gen Z, it's called dropping in, which basically means you go to college for a few weeks, you sample it, and you say, I'm going to take the rest of the semester. off and start the next semester. I don't understand the logic behind it. It's bizarre. New York Times did a whole thing on this. Gen Z just seems to be just, and I'm not going to...

They're not paying the tuition. You know, the thing is, well, I'm wondering that because I'm seeing with some of my Gen Z kids sort of the same sort of contempt that I had for some self-indulgent boomers. I'm seeing Gen Zers having contempt for millennials going, oh my God, stop talking about your feelings. Yeah. They also say that we can't dress, which is potentially true, but I've seen a lot of Gen Z wearing things that we wore in middle school. So everything comes full circle. Everything. But no, but brand up, Costco, I'm a member myself. They're now partnering, they're selling Medicare. They're selling Medicare. Look, they sell caskets. They sell, eye exams, they do everything health related. Why not? They're teaming up with a major health care provider. They sell caskets.

They sell caskets. They still cast a... And basically, what's so smart out of... Is that the perception is, obviously, Costco is such a trustworthy brand. That's a great place to buy a health care. Got a family in Jersey that would be interested in that discount. And that you're going to get it cheaper. So once again, there is nothing you can't...

You get hot dogs. You get health care. You get it all at Costco. All right. Cross. Oh, but you could jack. Large swaths of the deep south on travel baseball. There you go.

Well, it's the course. I apologize. $1,500 a kid up to $1,500, is it $1,000 to $1,000 for a kid to play sports every year? $10,000. You got multiple kids. It's the gear. It's the joining the teams, the travel teams. And basically the people participating between the age of six and 12 is dropping every year because families just can't afford it.

I mean, you got two boys. It's insane, right? Yeah, the travel. ball and soccer. It's also your whole weekend. You know, the thing, though, too, is a lot of really smart people after the World Cup, after U.S., team USA lost again, they said, okay, here's the deal. The reason why America keeps losing this is because in Europe, if you're young and you're great, they pay you to go into the academies.

In America, if you're young and you're pretty good, your parents are having to pay thousands and thousands of dollars. So you may get to play in college one day. But think about the great athletes that are left on the sidelines through no fault of their own. There's their parents, their families can't afford to do this.

Our best athletes. Yes, it's a real problem. Use sports of the United States. Absolutely broken. Donnie, let's move on to the next one. It is a brand up being single. I'm going to just... I just made this up.

You're just making this up. It feels like I just feel like I just made this up to get dates. I mean, that's just... There it is. There it is. Next. No, being single, they're saying, that it is very healthy.

The difference between someone who's searching versus shoes need to be single, way up ages between 40 and 55, they say it's better for self-worth. I think a lot of this has to do with, again, I'm not going to say what I was going to say. You know, I would encourage anybody else at the table to follow through, but I won't encourage you. I don't know, this is tough. You know, I'm hearing, you know, I'm not obviously, I'm not about being single, but I'm I'm hearing especially, I read more and more, especially women over, let's say, the age of 50, have just decided.

Yeah. I'm not, I just don't need a man in my life. I don't want to take care of some guys. I don't want to take care of some guy. I want to, yeah, I don't know. I'm going to just leave it there. Yeah, you should just leave it. I'm just going to get in trouble.

You just leave there. Okay, so finally, pumpkin spice. Now, this, you say it's brand down. This seems like a cheap shot. every fall. I had never had a pumpkin spice latte, but I know the snobs, coffee snobs love to knock it. I know. Pumpkin is in everything. It's in deodorant. It's in dog biscuits. No, pumpkin spice, it's a $2 billion business. It's obviously started. You didn't even stop on the deodorant.

Wait, I'm stopping on the deodorant. If somebody walks in the room and they smell like a pumpkin spice latte, I'm exiting. They're saying 45% people say they have pumpkin spice fatigue. ESF. I had to get an acronym with that. This has been put up by the honey. It said standard say I had to say that this is put up by the honey post honey nut cereal survey who's going up to pumpkin spice. You can't fight big pumpkin. You can't. I know.

I'm a big pumpkin guy. So I'm going to give that a brand up even though it says brand down. All right. So headline today, Donny Doidge says being single, brand up. Brand up. I'm trying. I'm punching away. I'm just lonely.

I'm lonely. I'm lonely. I'm just going to say that. Could you, hey, T-Z, could you zoom in, going slowly? If you can push in slowly and Donnie to saying, I'm lonely, I'm lonely. Ready, and go. But I don't feel lonely when I come here. But Donnie, how do you feel at night when decades end up being single?

Lone. You're still by yourself. Lonely. Lonely. Please tell. Call me. Cut, Steve. Doni Noy!

Thank you so much. Still ahead. He will do anything for a date. FBI director, Cash Patel, is set to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. We'll have a live report from Capitol Hill about questions he's facing about personal decisions while leading the nation's top law enforcement agency. Morning, Joe, we'll be right back. Say it again.