Morning Joe - Terms of tentative Iran deal remain under wraps

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

June 16, 2026: 7am — Terms of tentative Iran deal remain under wraps 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.

Happy birthday President Trump. The president celebrating a milestone birthday this morning. What an incredible American dream he has led. He just had a birthday. He's 80 years old. He's the oldest serving president ever. 80. Octogenarian.

We're not going to hear much about this birthday from the White House because this is something they're trying to downplay as much as possible. President Trump turns 80 today, but compared to his predecessor, well, he looks a whole lot younger. Is there a more fit 80 years? You're all, particularly in public life. The life expectancy in average in the United States. Now, everyone ages differently, let's remember. But at this point, are we really just pushing it a little too far with President Biden? Don't you think it's a little ageist?

Instead of celebrating his physical health at his age, we're targeting him because of his age. We have to have a fitness test to anyone that's a leader of any kind over a certain age. Happy early birthday. Happy birthday, President Trump. Happy birthday, Mr. President. Happy birthday to President Trump. My sister has a very old dog that's kind of going blind, and he's incontinent, and she calls the dog Joe Biden.

Oh, wow, how old, like 15 at this? Yeah, it's very old, I don't know if it's going to make it. Well, please give your sister's dog our best, and the same to your friend, the president, too. Oh, my God. Wow. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

They're bad. Beyond parity. They don't even know how to cover it up. Yeah. I don't think they know their parody when they're parody. Welcome back to morning, Joe. It is Tuesday, June 16. Jonathan O'Meer still with us.

Joining the conversation. We have political strategist, Mark McKinnon, a very spry, 39 years old. Also, 39 CEO in the Messina Group, Jim Messina. He served as a White House deputy chief of staff to President Obama and ran his 2012 re-election campaign when he was 13, also with us. Turning 50 this year, professor of history at Tulian, Tulare University. Triathlete, too. Historian Walter Isaacson, he's a triathlet.

He's the author also of New York Times' best sell the book, the greatest sentence ever written. Walter, I want to ask you, though, about another book that you wrote. And because of the topic you get skewered, I think they may have said you were a fascist, or maybe you need to be deported to the moon or something like that. You wrote a book in 2003 about Elon, Mollinger. which a certain section becomes far more relevant today to explain exactly what we've been seeing unfolding before our eyes over the past week or two when Musk became the world's first trillionaire. I want to read from your book. This is when the entire industry said reusable rocket

starlink and cheap access to space were impossible. Musk's mindset, was, you said, if you were negative or thought something couldn't be done, you were not invited to the next meeting. He filled the team with reality-bending willfulness and extreme risk tolerance, people who knew how to make things happen. You know, Elon Musk has more than a few serious problems, what he did. I'm just going to say, just so people don't do to me what they did to you, Walter. he did when he first started working with Donald Trump in 2025 was absolutely savage. He was leading to the starvation of some of the world's poorest people. Um, um, um, so that's on one side. On the other side is Elon Musk, a person who's really creating an entirely new economy

with SpaceX, also with Starlink. Talk about how every step of the way, much like Steve Jobs he was surrounded by people and people in the industry who said you can't do that that won't work it's impossible and yet he got rid of those people and put people around him that said no I think we can do this let's let's work towards this impossible goal talk about it you know he had a reality distortion field as Steve jobs did and that can cut both ways as you said he's somebody who when he went in and did doge did really major damage yet he was also the only person who could get, you know, astronauts back into orbit, get things back from the space station.

We create the Internet and outer space. We're not very good these days at keeping in our mind that somebody can be really astonishing in certain areas and really bad in certain areas and even more complex that those strands may interweave, that the person who is taking ridiculous risks and saying, I can move a into the era of electric vehicles when nobody was building that, or I can get us back into space, can also be crazy. But as Steve Jobs said, it's the people crazy enough to think they can change the world or the ones who do. So in our day and age, sometimes you can't just quickly characterize somebody. And I tell you, we're about to enter, this will be as big as AI, we're about to

inner an era of a space economy in which everything from data centers to energy to the internet to communications will be in low earth orbit and then based on the moon and other places. NASA Boeing had trouble getting us back into space. Now we have a really good new NASA director Jared Isaacman. We have two companies that are trying to do orbital launches that are different from Boeing, meaning Blue Origin and SpaceX. This is interesting. and it's complex, and you can't just quickly say, all right, I'm going to categorize somebody as good or evil. Yeah. All right, we're going to get to our top story now. Major questions remain about the

agreement reached between the United States and Iran as specific details are still under wraps. President Trump says the text of the deal will likely be released only after a formal signing ceremony on Friday. Meanwhile, confusion and contradictions. predictions continue. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, says Israeli forces will remain in Lebanon. Netanyahu added in a defiant address yesterday, quote, the struggle has not ended. Iran's foreign minister said this morning that continuing Israeli occupation of Lebanon would be a violation of the deal. Meanwhile, on the Strait of Hormuz, Iran indicated yesterday, it intends to charge fees for unspecified services in the key waterway.

Just one day after President Trump claimed it would be reopened and be permanently toll-free. And when it comes to potential reconstruction funding for Iran, the president is pushing back on those reports. But a senior U.S. official told reporters yesterday that the possibility of releasing frozen funds sanctions release and a big, big, $300 billion fund to rebuild. Iran was discussed and would be tied to performance. Joe, sounds like there's a lot of work to do between now and Friday. Yes, and also a lot of work to be done between the president or the vice president and their communications because he accused that $300 million billion fee being put out by Democrats, his vice president,

told CBS News that, yes, that $300 billion was possible for Iran to get based on their behavior. So Democrats, no, Vice President J.D. Vance, yes, you need to talk to J.D. because he's the one that was telling everybody yesterday, confirming what the Iranians were also saying. You know, Martin McKinnan, I thought from the beginning of this war that it was deeply ironic that the president that, you know, a lot of people may think that Donald Trump, despises Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter the most. George W. Bush, actually, for just like, pound for pound. I mean, based on what I've heard him say, I mean, he just loathes George W. Bush and will tell

anybody who will listen to him how dumb and stupid Bush was for getting us into Iraq and not taking the oil. One of the great ironies is he found himself in a similar position as George W. Bush, where actually the stakes were much higher. The stakes were the world economy. Talk about, you saw what getting tied down in the Middle Eastern War did do a president and the inability to do anything else. Talk about what looks like at least desperation from this vantage point of this president, willing to give Iran pretty much what they wanted to get out of this war.

Yeah, Joe, a lot of PTSD that I'm having these days about the Iraq war and the parallels But the place where the parallels fall apart is remember how actually popular the Iraq war was when we went in. I mean, on a lot of those resolutions, they got 99 senators voting, including, you know, everybody but one Democrat was supporting it and huge public support. This was never, was never popular from the very beginning. And so, I mean, we have a, you know, a Trump supporting publication here skeptical about the mystery deal. And I was thinking, you know, with Jim here on the set, I'm a shallow media guy. so I can't really get into the substance of the deal. But what I can think about is the politics of it.

And think about the midterms and this deal. Where would you rather be attacking this deal or defending it, Jim? A thousand percent. You want to attack this? You want to go straight at it. Mika's right. The devil's in the details. We can't see the details.

The more of the details come out, the worse this deal gets. It starts, this entire war starts out is very unpopular. And now it's going to get worse as we see what they had to give Iran to get this deal done. I think this is going to age very poorly. And Jim, following up, I mean, there's also splits within the Republicans about this deal. First of all, as we noted, a number of them have questions like, well, okay, what is the agreement? We haven't even seen it yet. We have seen Lindsey Graham and others, or more Ted Cruz and some who are more would consider Iran Hawks being at least skeptical, if not downright critical of concerning where this could go.

There feels like we know there are very few places where Republicans are willing to defy Trump, But this seems like a spot where he is going to be open to some criticism. I think Lindsey Graham is the best example here. He went straight at the vice president of the United States. He said he wants J.D. Vance to come to the Hill and defend this because this is a deal he made, which shows a couple things. They no longer think that J.D. Vance is going to be the definite nominee of the party. And two, they are beginning to split on what they had to promise to get this deal done.

Isn't it odd that Vance is out there, is the tip of the spear on this rather than Markle of Rubio? Yeah. agree. And now he is, and I think those who are looking towards 2028 on the Republican side, Joe say this is a pretty tough hand for J.D. Vance to have to play, that he is sort of like left holding the bag. And it is remarkable, though. The Secretary of State has been nowhere on this around war. He has distanced himself from it from the start. Yeah. You know, focused much more on Venezuela, focused on perhaps upcoming actions in Cuba and other things. He is sort of clearly decided deliberately to keep his distance.

this is giving jd vance Iran it's like Joe Biden giving Kamala Harris the border it doesn't work out and it's not gonna and it's deliberate it's not going to work out in the end for him especially when he's saying stupid things like

oh well you know they've changed their way so we have that clip yet damn the clip where jd was on tv saying oh well the Iranians now what's so neat is the Iranians have changed their way Not yet. Well, get that for me, if you will. I think I asked for it in 1924. So let's get it before the next World Cup.

So anyway, now I forget an exact lawyer. I was going to say, Walter Isaacson, when is America going to learn? Actually, I do remember what I was going to say. As a historian, when is America going to learn that you can win every single battle militarily? We won every single battle in Vietnam. militarily. At the end of the war, General Hurdling tells a great story of one of our colonels saying one of the Vietnamese colonels, you know, in 75, you know, you guys didn't beat us in a single battle over the course of this entire war, over the course of the decade. And the response was

from the Vietnamese colonel, he said, well, that may be true. It's also completely irrelevant. You look at Iraq. You look at Afghanistan. By the way, look at the American. You look at the American Revolution. We had trouble. Washington had trouble winning a lot of battles, but we won the war. I think in the Revolutionary War, one of Washington's greatest achievements was his retreat from Long Island, just staying alive for the next battle against the British. And so when are we going to learn?

When are American presidents going to learn? It doesn't matter what your military might looks like. in drawn-out battles, you can win every military battle and still lose the war. And we keep doing it, and that sure as hell happened here, Iran's going to be in a stronger position regardless of how this still ends. Iran's going to be in a stronger position after this war than they were before it. Yeah, I think we forget how strong nationalism can be. And when we go in, there's many historic examples when Eisenhower was thinking of going into Vietnam after the French lost at Denver.

He asked Matthew Ridgway, what would it take? And the general says eight years and eight divisions. So Eisenhower is smart enough not to do it, not to go in that way. It did take eight years and eight divisions, and we still didn't win. The notion that you can bomb or try to invade a country and change the government generally gets us mired down. And certainly the problem for me with the Trump. invasion attack on Iran is we didn't quite know what the point was. Was it to get the enriched uranium

out? Was it to get regime change? Was it to control the strait of Hormuz? If you're a colon, power, you say, define your objectives. Tell me your aims and then you figure out the resources you need. But if you don't define what we're exactly doing, it's hard to balance the commitment with the resources. Yeah, the smartest thing any president do is look. at how Colin Powell added to the Weinberger doctrine, which basically said, first of all, do we have support of Congress? Do we have support of the American people? He answers there were no. And then he asks, tell me how this is going to end. What's a triggering point? What do we have to achieve before we bring our troops home? We never had any of that here. And that's one of the biggest

problems. The president finally settled on no nukes for Iran. But we're getting out of this deal right now. absolutely nothing other than I will talk about it in 60 days. So that doesn't work. So Jim Messina, I see these clips and the old politician in me thinks, I sure would like to run against that guy. Why wasn't I ever lucky enough to run against that guy? I want to show you one of those clips right now. The coolest thing about the progress we've made over the last few weeks

is that you see people within the Iranian system, senior leadership, even IRGC officials say, you know what, we may have some animosity, we may have some mistrust, but we recognize the way that we've done business with the United States for 47 years is a mistake. Let's try something else. We're going to verify that, of course, but we're certainly willing to try something else if they comply. I've seen the lie. I've seen the lie. Praise the Lord. I've seen the lie. Yes, the Revolutionary Guard, we are told by J.D. Vance has seen the light after we killed their Supreme Leader, after we killed people that ran parliament, after we killed people that ran their defense industry, after we killed people that ran their intelligence, like, after we obliterated about half of the country,

after we killed over 100 girls in a girls' school on the first day of the war, they've seen the light? I'm sorry. Again, we don't know what's in the deal. I'm always a big believer. You never know what's going to happen. The Soviet Union falls overnight. Iran looks better 20 years after the invasion than they did at the time in the invasion. These things have to play out. But I do know this.

The Revolutionary Guard hasn't seen like a vision in the clouds. And they haven't suddenly found Jesus. And now they think, hey, it's cool. Let's work with the United States, the great Satan, instead of working against them. Oh, Joe, there's clips that you say to yourself, oh, my God, what was he thinking? Mark McKinnon is sitting over here giggling because he'd love to make an ad against that clip. It is remarkably bad politics thinking that someday the Iranian Guard is going to pull well in America. They're going to say, oh, yeah, he did a great job.

He made him love America. These same people who said that America is the great Satan that wanted to get rid of the entire Jewish state of Israel. Like, what are we doing? This is one of these things where you realize. That's like, that clip is like when I first saw John Kerry windsurfing. Right. That ad made itself in 10 seconds. This is why I'm just so far off the JD Vance train.

Like, this guy will not be the next president of the United States. I agree with you 100%. I mean, that guy just has no natural skills. I mean, I think the coin of the realm in politics these days on either side is just pure authenticity. is this person like Rick, and I believe him? He has none of that, not an ounce. He makes a nice head to his Democrat. He's like so wanting and desperate, you know.

Correct. He makes Al Gore seem like, you know, a combination of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. And speaking of politicians, writing books to run for office, Jody Vance, a new book out today. Walter, let's shift away from the politics and back the situation in Iran for a moment. It is hard to argue that the United States accomplished any of its goals at the start of this war. Yes, Iran's ballistic missile supply was knocked down. but it's not gone. Yes, its Navy

was damaged. The big boats, but the fast attack speedboats are still there. But everything else, they still have. Hardliners empowered. Hardliners about to apparently make a lot of money in the months ahead. It's also about American weakness here that we, the best military in the world, by far, could

not bring this country to capitulate as the president had demanded. Not only did we not accomplish some of our demands or any of our demands in terms of getting the uranium out or regime change. A pro. U.S. regime there, and total clean passage on the Strait of Hormuz. We've hurt ourselves. We've shown that Iran has leverage just by being able to send drone attacks into the Strait of Hormuz.

We have made Iran much more of a player in that region than it was before. We have helped China by solidifying its relationship with Iran. So everything that's come out of this war has been against U.S. interests. Unconditional surrender. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to ask you, and they said they needed unconditional surrender. I'm looking right now up for the exact number. I can't find it on my selected AI tool, but I can tell you it was a clear majority of Americans, Mark McKinnon.

And I'm just adding this as a caveat. You never know how the world turns. That's why they had a soap opera go. You never know how the world turns Martin McKinnon. I do remember, and this is just a big old caveat, I talked about Iraq being in a better place today than it was 20, 22, 23 years later, despite the horrific costs. I do remember in 2007, George W. Bush talked about a surge.

We're going to try this one more time. We're going to try this one. This was after the bloodiest days of two. 2006, the bombing of the Golden Mosque, sectarian violence, just ripping that country to shreds. It was a low point. And I think I remember maybe 30% of Americans supported the surge when it first started. There were a lot of Democratic politicians talking about General Betray Us. It was a savage environment, as you remember. And I'll be damned if the surge didn't work. And to such a degree that Dexter Filkins, the extraordinary war correspondent, came back to us in 2009 and said, I don't even recognize the place anymore.

It's amazing how much the surge worked. Exactly, Joe. And as you know, that was like the worst option on the table for most of his advisors. Yeah. That's what everybody said, don't do. And it was the boldest move that he could have made. And again, as you said, it had incredible confidence. consequences when everybody thought that that was, you know, the exact wrong strategy. So we never know

what's going to happen, but it's, it's, as what we do know is how complex it is and, and what a quagmire can be. Yes, yes, we do. Mark McKinnon, Jim Messina, and Walter Isaacson. Thank you all very much for coming on the show this morning. Great conversation and still ahead on morning show. What do Ariana Grande, Stephen Spielberg, and Father's Day all have in common? They're all, of course, part of the latest edition of Brand Up, Brand Down. Donnie Deutsch joins us with that straight ahead on Morning Joe. We'll be right back. It's time for a new edition of Brand Up, Brand Down, and you know what that means,

joining us now the host of On Brand with Donny Deutsch, Donnie Deutsch. And let's dive right in, Donnie. number one, I don't really get, because she's always brand up. Ariana Grande. Yeah, Ariana Grande, great brand up. You know, the ICE put out a promotional video on TikTok showing people getting arrested, you know, and she just said this is this, and they used their music as a soundtrack against it. She commented right on the TikTok and said, this is, I will not be part of this heinous, barbaric, inhumane behavior.

They since have kind of muted it, but she's not the first artist to do this. You've had Kenny Lagin, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Cizzer. A lot of times that the Trump administration just decides to use music without any permission and the artists have bitten back. And I really have granted. We love for her and we love for this. I totally get that. Now, I appreciate that.

So topic two, brand down, cannabis. I've been reading a lot about this because it's so widely used now. It's practically mainstream. Yeah, this is going to be very upsetting for John Howard. People are having a lot of problems. Yeah, you know, people use cannabis. One of the reasons they use it is for sleep, Jonathan. And the irony is that 20% of 19 to 30-year-olds use it to sleep.

But in reality, it does not help sleep. It actually hurts REM sweep. They've done studies on it. A New Yorker ran a big... Not New Yorker. Who ran it? Somebody did... Cannabis study.

It's a University of Michigan study. I'm sorry. And they said that basically it's not the case. And it interrupts sleep. And particularly if you mix THC and CBT, It's the equivalent of an insomniac, and that's counterintuitive, and I'm going to not use it to go to sleep anymore. So, Donnie, I cannot believe it took us to topic number three to get something Nix related. I know how happy you are about their championship.

But number three is Nike's new Nix ad. Yeah. Advertise, a lot of people think advertising is dead. If I said to you, what was the last great commercial you ever saw on TV? This is it. Nike ran an ad. The first commercial break that obviously had the app prepared. It wasn't going to air for the Nix didn't win.

Josh Safdi, the director of Marty Supreme and Uncut Jems, shows a young Knicks fan. This is running through the streets of Manhattan, set to New York, Billy Joel, in New York State of Mine. He shows up and he sees a big crowd there and he just gets this huge smile. And the tagline at the end is, never slept, always dreamed. And it is probably the best ad I've seen in a decade. It's a use of pop culture. It's relevant and it's just of the moment.

And it reminds me of how few great TV ads are we see. You haven't seen this yet, go online and see it. It's a treat. It's a work of all. And it captures the energy of those fan gatherings that so defined this playoff run, the parade Thursday morning. But topic number four, also NBA finals related, but are you giving a big brand down to Victor Wemeyama? Yeah, Wemeyama, 22 years old, obviously super talent. He cost himself tens of millions of dollars with this behavior. Not necessarily, well, yes, necessarily on the court.

I mean, a lot of flagrant fouls, there was a fourth that could have been called. They could have been suspended for a game. He gave a press conference afterwards afterwards that talked. talk to you, never, did not congratulate any of the players. He's obviously only 22. Big men historically have trouble getting endorsements other than Shaq, who was this kind of lovable creature, Wilt, Moses Malone, Hakeem, Al-Irejuan, Tim Duncan. Kareem, none of the big guys get big endorsements. This guy had the potential because he's such a superstar, carried on like a child, he's got time to redeem himself. But as opposed to

Jaylon Brunson, who comes across is the most likable, lovable player. Wembe was kind of a villain here. It's going to hurt him in the endorsement. deals. Oh, come on, man. You really, such a, you're such a homer. I mean, come on. He's 22 years old. I know, but, okay? Come on. He was not like, just relax. Well, just get, he, the kid's 22 years old, for God's sakes. Give him me, give me a year or two. I want to talk about number five, because it's very interesting. Mika will tell you, I talk to everybody. Like, you know, I'd say, wherever I am, I get people like pulling me away. We've got to go, Joe. We got to go, Joe. It's a problem, Donnie. It is a problem.

I just, I'd say, it's like John Mullaney said, you know, a balloon will hit him, like walking down the street, he'll turn around, make a conversation with a balloon. That's me. But I will tell you, when I get on a plane, I get in a zone, I put on my headphones, I close my eyes, and I just don't talk on planes. It's like the, it's one of the only places where I just, I don't make conversations in planes. are elevators. I think it's the polite thing to do. And I sat next to friends who've said, wow, you really just kind of zone out on a plane. But this is brand down chatty seatmate. So this was kind of for me because I'll talk to them when we're walking off the plane and they'll say, I can't get rid of the guy. But on that plane, earbuds in, music going. And I'm like, I'm in my own zone there.

Well, the psychologists have come out with kind of proper etiquette what to do with chatty seatmates. Basically, the first thing to do is do what you do. Put your headphones on, start to read. And somebody continues to chat. It's appropriate to say, I like quiet on my flight. I like, I'm not a chatty person. They say the next thing to do, if the person doesn't stop talking, you can go to the flight attendants and get it reassigned to see. But that seems to be proper etiquette.

You hit it right on and said, please don't talk to me. Yeah, you know, you're combining. Number six, three of my favorites, Stephen Spielberg, Emily Blunt, and Colin Firth. Tell us about Stephen Spielberg being brand up. Stephen Spielberg, his new movie of Disclosure Day, which is, they're saying his best-reviewed movie in 20 years. It's about a whistleblower who finds the government's been suppressing information about aliens. He has since come out and said he believes there are extraterrestrials on this planet. He was at a conference at South by Southwest. He even tweeted after Barack Obama came out and said that he thinks there are aliens and said,

wow, this is great for my movie. Obviously, this is a guy that brought you close encounters. This is 50 years later. When you think about what this guy's has done, Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, E.T. It's stunning. And this guy, he seems to be back bigger than ever. He's had a little bit of a trough as far as super super hits.

This one looks like it's going to be one. It had a good opening weekend, too. Don, I skip it ahead a little bit. Let me set this one up. Brand down, misophonia. which is a neurological condition which specific sounds trigger intense emotional responses ranging from anxiety to rage. You mentioned if you hear, chewing, breathing, clicking a pen, typing on a keyboard,

a let's go Yankees chant, whatever it might be. Yeah, 20% of people suffer from this. It's a real affliction. And basically, as you said, it could be caused by anything, clicking of a pen, chewing gum. And there was no, the FDA has no solution for it other than change your behavior. either, this is terrible, either eat alone, don't get a job in an open work environment. But there's no, other than cognitive CBT therapy, there's nothing to sleep for this. I'm one of these people that this generation is just kind of like stop it already.

I mean, with the trick, there was no such thing as triggering when I was growing up. You weren't happy about something you figured it out. So this is a little bit of, I'm not surprised this is probably a Gen Z problem more than anybody else. So you said that with such contempt. Anyway, let's talk about somebody who definitely was not Gen Z. That is Gene Shalett. Old people like you and me grew up with Gene, and he started in 1973. He was around for about 40 years. Joel Siegel was on Good Morning America, Gene Shalett on The Today Show forever. And you know, the thing I loved about Gene Shalot was

he might pan a movie, but he didn't enjoy it. He was a lovable guy, and he understood that these artists had put their all into movies. And even if they may miss once a while, he did not take glee in giving a movie thumbs down. No, Gene Shell, an American Treasure passed away Friday at age 100. As you said, he was on the Today Show for 40 years. He had that handleball mustache, the crazy hair, used to use crazy puns all the time.

He was the one that kind of invented, even before Ciskel and Ebert, entertaining movie reviews. They tended to be dry. He was just such a character. It's interesting you mentioned, Joel Siegel. We kind of don't have those guys today, but it was a moment in time, and we're going to miss him, Gene Schallet, Real American Treasure. Got to miss him so much. And you can finally, number 10 is for you.

Yes. Bathroom air dryer. You were telling me about this earlier this week, and I did not believe it, but it churns up, like, stuff from the urinal and puts it into your hands? Yes. If you are on the churn pike, and you're just... And you stop and go to the bathroom or, and you've got to hold your breath before you enter the bathroom. You've got to go in there. You've got to do everything.

Do not breathe until you leave the bathroom. Why? Donnie explain. Yeah, well, the jet dryers and particularly, I mean, the warm dryers and the ones that you're really the stream, they say that they take bacteria from within six feet everywhere. This is on the walls. This is on the coils. And they blow it back out.

and you're better off using a paper towel and even better off using your clothes versus using one of these dryers. They say it moves the bacteria. So next time you're one of those things, you're going to keep your hands to the same. So what you're saying is it's been a mistake for me to dry my face with those things

for the past 40 years. Wash my face. Yeah. Stay away from the jet blow dryers. Let me mark that off my list. Okay, there you go. Okay, Donna Deutch, that was a good one. Good to see you guys, as always.

Joe, go next. Okay, you can't breathe in the public potty. Go next. Thank you, Donnie. Coming up, our next guest is looking at how the Trump administration could use the United States Postal Service to influence the midterm elections. Former House Oversight Committee spokesperson for Republicans. Kurt Bardella will join us next to explain. Morning, Joe, we'll be right back.

Welcome back in a new piece for the watchdog report in Substack. Our next guest is sounding the alarm about what the ways are that the Trump administration may try to impact November's midterm elections. Former House Oversight Committee spokesperson for Republicans, Kurt Bardella, is warning the U.S. Postal Service could rig the election for President Trump. And he's calling on Democrats to demand a public hearing with the postman. General before it's too late. And Kurt joins us now. He's also the co-host of the Party Lines podcast. Kurt, what's at stake here? And what do you see is happening? You know, it was just a few months ago, Mika, that the Postmaster General testified before Congress that the post office is dangerously underfunded, understaffed, almost incapable of performing its operations that a year from

now, it may have to stop delivering mail. So it's surprising and shocking that the President of the executive order giving power to the Postal Service to determine who should be participating in mail-in voting, that we're in a situation that in order to comply with that executive order, the Postal Service is issuing guidances to states to say, turn over your voting role data to us, and if you don't, we will not deliver your mail-in ballots. We will not deliver any of the election-related materials to comply with this executive order, because this executive order carries penalties for postal workers, for employees, for workers if they illegally carry out election-related information without getting these states' information. States are pushing back.

States are in court right now this summer trying to put a suspension on this executive order. They say it's unconstitutional, that it's illegal. States are given the exclusive right to administer elections in this country. And moreover, the federal government, the U.S. Postal Service, they are not equipped to carry out this kind of operation. The technology does not exist, the ability to check the state roles with U.S. citizen data, the databases, they don't exist. The manpower for a postal worker to even determine whether a ballot should be given or not does not exist, yet they're being asked to play this transformational role in our election process. So, Kurt, of course, the backdrop is President Trump has long been a vocal critic of mail-in

voting, even though some Republicans have tried to caution against that because the GOP uses it too, but certainly it's prevalent in a lot of Democratic-run states, heavily blue states. So tell us what's at stake here. Is there a possibility of widespread disenfranchisement? Yeah, at the end of the day, the end result of this is if executed, U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote will not be given a ballot to participate in the mail-in process. And mail-in balloting has become routine.

It's become normal. Almost half the country participates by mail-in voting, especially in an off-year midterm election where you have less turnout than the presidential. Mail in voting is pivotal to the participation in this process. That's why so many states right now, 23 of them, are suing to try to stop this from taking place. All right. The new piece available to read online now on The Watchdog report Substack. Definitely worth to read.

Former House Oversight Committee spokesman Corparendella. Kurt, thank you. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Still ahead here on Morning Joe. With the country set to celebrate its 250th anniversary, our next guest is trying to tell the story of America by focusing on extraordinary historical figures. His latest focus? Teddy Roosevelt.

That'll be straight ahead here. I'm Morning Joe. We'll be right back. It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles. Where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose faces marred by dust and sweat and blood.

Who strives valiantly, who airs? Who comes short again and again? Who spends himself. in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least failed while daring greatly so that his play shall never be. With those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Eat that, said Teddy Roosevelt. That was New York Times best-selling author Brad Meltzer, reciting a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt, who is the subject of his new children's book, highlighting the lessons from the 26th

president. It is titled, I am Teddy Roosevelt and Brad joins us now. I love the way. It's good to have you back on the show. The book in part, it's four children focusing in part at least on the childhood of Teddy Roosevelt and what shaped his experiences. But could you talk a little bit about, I know we're celebrating the 250th anniversary, and there are a lot of timely pegs for this book, but also why now might be a very important time for children to be learning from a book like this. And that's what we started this series for, Mika, right, is to give our kids better heroes to look up to. And as America 250 arrives, you know, I had to look and see what was Teddy Roosevelt. What does he stand for?

And his father didn't like bullies. And he taught Teddy when he was a boy, listen. Listen, just because we have money and we have power, it doesn't make us great. It means we have a responsibility to other people, a responsibility to the environment, to take care of our world. And right now, especially young men, they're being taught that, especially on social media, that to lift yourself up, you have to take someone else down. And in my house, I want my sons to know, my daughter to know that caring is strength, that kindness is strength, that thinking about other people is strength. the most important is to stop thinking about yourself. And my gosh, do I want that lesson right now in America 250s to show that the best leaders bring out the best in us, not the worst in us. That's why

Teddy Roosevelt matters. That's why, to me, this book was written for my kids. Brad, for the record, I'm disappointed. You didn't show up with a TR mustache for your appearance here this morning, but we enjoyed it in that video. You know, Teddy Roosevelt is often overshadowed by the other president, shares his last name, but yet he's on the one on Mount Rushmore. Talk to us about a few things that we should take from him, the why he still met. We know the conservation. We sort of looked into that there. You know, he certainly was a, in some ways, a swaggering character, but also one with a real heart. Tell us about why he matters today.

Yeah, you know, we talk about Teddy Roosevelt as if he's like the strongest guy, the biggest guy. But he wasn't that. When he was growing up, he was small, he was sick a lot, suffered from asthma at a time when they had really no way to treat it. His mother, he was so scared when he was little, his mother used to read to him at bed so that she could calm him down. And then he builds himself into who he is today. And I love that idea, that we can teach strength by teaching empathy, that we can teach strength by showing responsibility to look out for other people. And I think right now what we're seeing is just the opposite of that in our leaders. And for me, every time we do one of these books, I say, well, what are my kids need right now?

What are my nieces and nephew need? What do grandkids need right now? And I think right now we need a leader who shows that leadership's not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge. And as we hit, maybe even separate from TR, as we hit the 250, what's the one piece of America's legacy here that you think we're missing, that we should be focused on because there's just so much noise and distraction? No, and I appreciate that. You know, for right now, for me, it feels like there's always things we disagree on politically. That'll always happen.

but it feels like an attack on American values right now. There are basic lessons we agree on, right? That you can disagree with someone politically, but not attack them personally. That you don't dance on someone else's grave. And you don't put your name on government buildings like you own them. And that feels like an attack on the American dream itself to me. And to me, the American dream is not about money. It's not about power.

It's that when you see someone being picked on and bullied, you use your voice and you say, enough or anything. And my mother, may she rest in peace. She taught me that, you know what, you always need to make the best of yourself, but not by ripping apart other people are kicking them when they're down. We need to be better than that. And at America 250, we have to find our voices as Americans and teach our kids right now. And I can't change the minds of adults. But for over a decade now, I've been using these books, our IM series, to arm a generation of kids with these lessons. And I'll take that fight any day.

All right. The new children's book, I am Teddy Roosevelt, is on sale now. New York Times bestselling author. Brad Meltzer, thank you very much for bringing this to us. And thanks for coming on the show today. We appreciate it. Take care. And still ahead will turn back to President Trump's deal with Iran

as he continues to promote the agreement, despite not publicly releasing any details of it. We'll also bring you the latest from the G7 summit in France, where the president is again meeting with world leaders today. Morning Joe is coming right back.