Morning Joe - Trump campaigns for Ken Paxton in Texas by jokingly calling him a 'pain in the ass'

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

October 2, 2026 – 6am:Karl Rove: Republicans ‘got to get focused’Trump campaigns for Ken Paxton in Texas by jokingly calling him a 'pain in the ass'WSJ: Justice Dept. reviewing whether Nixon got a raw dealTrump campaigns for candidates in Texas, OklahomaFamily of Renee Good sue the government over her killingU.S. deploys thousands of troops to the middle eastMT GOP Senator on midterms:  ‘2026 looks a lot like 2006’Top Trump meme coin buyers to win dinner with PresidentPOLITICO: ‘GOP attacks religious Democrats running for Congress’ by Samuel BensonMS NOW: Ukrainians with disabilities taken by RussiaVance condemns ‘far-left radicals’ at Florida midterm rally, says Dem candidate Angie Nixon ‘doesn’t belong in America’The Washinton Sun: ‘I never vote for Democrats, I’m making an exception’ by Matta Lewis 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.

The next four and a half weeks have got to be focused. The Trump, team Trump needs to have a message of the day that it pushes every day and stops as much of this extraneous stuff. We don't need to hear about the president saying, I'm going to tear down the Kennedy Center if I don't get recognition. We don't want to hear about the, I got the great triumphal arch, and I've agreed that we're going to have drones and snipers and a whole bunch of sniper ammunition. But who are those snipers going to shoot? People driving down the parkway? I mean, we need to stay focused. And this starts at the White House.

And it starts with the president's political operation. And they've got plenty of good material. I mean, we talk about two of them here. I know. But, you know, they got to get focused. Focused? Please. That's like a dog understanding the concept of Denmark, Willie.

It just is not going to happen. That's little Jackson lamb riff. there. But Carl Rove been very active, as have other Republicans and just saying that Donald Trump and the Republicans are in big trouble and they're big, in big trouble in part, not just because of the economy, because they're so unfocused. And last night, Donald Trump proved that again with just some really strange rambling speeches. He sure did. Texas and Oklahoma were the destinations yesterday. You'll be happy to know he did criticize Ken Paxton again. as he was sitting in the audience.

He was talking about how insult him effectively and said, is Ken even here? There he is. I don't care. And then he got back to his speech. He was there ostensibly to rally support. But also, you know, there's a Wall Street Journal piece this morning. They're going to pursue the prosecutors in the Watergate investigation.

It's just all these wild. Yeah, that's right. I said Watergate from 1974. Yes. So they're chasing all these rabbits down these holes. none of them having anything to do what's really on the minds of voters. With gas prices, just had a huge, huge hides, diesel, just crippling people in rural America. Well, and across the country, trucking companies going bankrupt, farmers, continuing suffering.

And, of course, rural health care in crisis because of Donald Trump and Republicans in the massive cuts to Medicaid. It just goes on and on. And last night again, just some, John, some incoherent speeches. Again, Willie brought up his kin-Paxon here. I don't care if he's here. And then looking around and talking about all the things that he could walk down, what did he say? He said, ramp.

I have the quote here, if you'd like me to read it. Could you read that? Yeah, Donald Trump last night in Texas says, I can go ramp. I can go stairs. So this is in more. When you looked around, I think, I can go stairs, I can go stairs, I can go stairs, I can go. stairs. I can go ramp or I can go. It reminded me of that moment with Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg gate. Yes. And Mr. Gorbachev, I can go stairs. I can go step. I can go stare, wall down.

Yeah, no, it's all very inspiring, but they just, again, they just aren't getting the message. No, he's not. I mean, it seems he continues to defend things that are deeply unpopular, whether that's his immigration policy or data centers. The list goes on and on. He continues to rave about the golden age that the nation's economy is under when most Americans don't feel that. And I don't know, I mean, we haven't put a poll in the field about this, but I don't know that there's a widespread clamoring to reevaluate Richard Milhouse Nixon. Right. But yet Trump's DOJ decided that would be, this would be the right moment to look at that.

Yeah, there's so many things the DOJ is doing wrong, so many things that they aren't even looking at, they need to be looking at. They're destroying entire divisions. But they want to go back and defend Richard Nixon. I would say, speaking of justice, you had Renee Goods parents, our family, come out yesterday and file a lawsuit against the administration and the ICE agent that killed their daughter and sister. I was glad to see that because clearly not only to bring some level of justice and some fairness to the family, the fact is that we need to deal with the fact that they,

This unarmed woman killed brutally for no reason on videotape that there'd be some sense of justice for it to just go into history that this happened. An oops of big mistake and there'd be no accountability is a danger to everyone. So I was glad to see the family do it as they sell them struggle to suffer through the anguish or what happened. But it gives some level of justice for them, but some level of responsibility that's, to society at large. And let's hear from the brother. This is from yesterday at the press conference. The fact that there's been no accountability, no investigation,

no expression of condolence, no change in policy is completely mind-blowing. What happened to America? Something must change now. It is our family's hope that today's lawsuit will accomplish our goal for Renee, accountability. And I'm sure the Freddie family is thinking the same thing. They want accountability as to the dozens of other people have been killed and been killed in this brutal, brutal mass deportation effort that is felling miserably on all levels. So they're not hitting the numbers they want to hit.

But more than that, it's crushing the Trump administration politically. It's turned immigration numbers upside down. And it has made Donald Trump every gain. that Donald Trump made in 2024 with Hispanics has been lost and been lost two-fold, three-fold, four-fold. And that could have a real impact, whether you're talking about in Georgia, Florida, Texas, or so many other states, Richard. So that's not going to help.

And also the war. The war's not helping either. And what did we hear yesterday? We got reports that Donald Trump's doubling down, that they're sending more troops to the Middle East. Yeah, on the immigration issue, it was interesting. poll in the Wall Street Journal the other day, Joe, we showed, yeah, Americans want to see a closed border and all that,

but a surprising number of not just Democrats, but Republicans do not want to have people forced out of the country, indeed want to have a path to citizenship. So it shows that the country's moved on this issue, and the president and Stephen Miller have missed it. And yeah, the war, you know, we'll talk about it, but, you know, I think we're at a point where more, there's no reason to believe that more military force.

is going to give you more result. We've had now, we're in month eight, by the way. We just entered month eight of this war. And it just seems to me the administration still doesn't have an endgame or an exit strategy. Yeah, and it raises a question, what is planned after the election? Are they holding back from doing something before everybody goes to vote? And then it actually gets ramped up even more. It's hard to say. But the numbers right now, we're looking so bad that yesterday we had, Republican Senator talking about how 2026 is looking a lot like 2006. Now, somebody who knows something about 2006 is former U.S. Senator, MS now political analyst, Claire McCaskill, who was elected that year. Claire, listen, if you will, to Republican Senator Steve Daines,

Montana. He had this warning yesterday for his party ahead of the midterms. There arguably could be some similarities between the 06 cycle and the 2026 cycle. Think about the condition of the country back in 06, an unpopular war. Six in ten Americans opposed the Iraq war at that point. Gas prices had doubled. Does this sound familiar? And we ended up losing six seats.

That was a night, by the way, we lost some redder states. That's when Jim Talent lost in Missouri. That's when, by the way, Sherry Brown won in Ohio and beat the wine. That's when in the state of Montana, John Tester beat Conrad Burns by the narrowest margin. Those were three of the six pickup seats that the Democrats got that night. Today, six and ten Americans oppose the Iran War. Gas prices, enough set on gas prices. And so there's an argument, if you look at history, that 2026 feels a lot like 2006. It's a good parallel. And, you know, Claire, you look at the foreign states, you look at sort of this

anti-incumbency, anti-Republican prairie fire area that seems to be sweeping across Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, suddenly, and even people are talking about Mike Rounds having to defend his seat. I think that's a little bit of a stretch there. But again, in years like 2006, 1974, 1980, you never know. Yeah. And another parallel is that when I began running, in 2005, most people didn't give the Democrats much chance of taking the Senate. In fact, most Missourians gave me no chance of beating Jim Talent. But as the year went on, Bush got more and more unpopular. The war got more and more unpopular. The economy got worse and worse. And then within 30 days of election, all of a sudden, everyone was talking about taking the Senate. Very similar to this cycle,

where a year ago, none of us really believed in our bones that we were going to take the Senate. I think it's hard to find somebody who doesn't believe it now. The only difference I would say I see is Bush was very unpopular. The Iraq War was very unpopular. But I don't think you had the passionate anti-president sentiment among the Democratic Party like you have against Trump. I mean, people have a visceral dislike for this guy in the way he handled. himself, his personality, his obnoxiousness, the fact that he's a crook. I mean, all of those things are like the whipped cream and cherry on top of a very ugly Sunday. And I think that's going

to motivate voters to get out more, even more perhaps, than 2006. Well, that's obviously showing up in the polls, clear, because I would tell you, every Democratic commercial I see, actually, that's what I did, Bill Clinton in 1994, showed my opponent, showed Bill Clinton, morph them together. And that was worth 62% for a guy that probably wouldn't have won any other year. This year, though, you have Willie in every single ad. You have Donald Trump.

They'll have somebody talking big and opening their mouth really loud and yelling, and then they'll do a split screen, and then they'll show Donald Trump doing the same exact thing, freeze them. But, you know, Mike Lawler, all the ads against Mike Lawler, he claims his independent votes with Trump, 100% of the time always runs across the bottom of that ad, have them morphed together.

He doesn't work for us. He works for Donald Trump. You hear that and all the other raises. Swazi, the guy he's running against, you hear the same thing. So, and for Republicans, it's just hard. You have costs, inflation. The president's numbers as bad as any of us have seen in that AP poll yesterday. And then you combine that with the war that's extraordinarily unpopular with

base, even if you divide that from the prices. And then sort of the third leg of just this devastating tripod that is beating the Republicans right now and holding up Democratic chances, corruption. And it's all over the place. And we may have, I won't say when a family's already raked up $2 billion, $3 billion. It's hard to say this is the worst example, a most flagrant example of corruption, but it's certainly up there with the president announcing this dinner for people that want to pay their way in. Yeah, you said announcing, and that's important because they're not hiding this stuff at all. I don't know that they ever were, but especially in the second term. President Trump is now offering investors what he's calling the most exclusive

dinner in the world, and all they have to do is to buy at least a million dollars worth of his cryptocurrency. It's part of a contest launched this week, which says the top one, 185 investors in the Trump meme coin will receive invitations to a dinner next month at a Trump golf club where three mystery legends will be in attendance. Meanwhile, the top 29 purchasers of that coin get a VIP reception with the president and the four largest holders will be gifted a Trump 18-carat gold watch, which retails for around $899. The Trump meme coin currently trades at $2 down from its high have $70 when it was launched. Trump does not own the firm that runs the meme coin, but he has made $635 million from the licensing of his name, Jonathan Lemire. First of all, John, you know that

watch is top of the line of his stakes and everything else or any indication, but also the fact that he is openly selling access to the president of the United States to the highest bidder. This is a worthless meme coin, so all you're doing is buying access to the president of the United States. And doing it out in the open in a time, again, where people can't afford to buy gas or groceries or pay their rent or pay for their health care. But, Willie, there'll be three mystery guests, so it'll be worth it. This is, last week, President Trump had this lavish state dinner at the White House for Xi Jinping of China. And afterwards, there were members of his staff, including Dan Skavino, his deputy chief of staff, who posted these AI images, videos of Trump, staff members and family members, like, dowsing each other in champagne, like, you know,

these over-the-top images of decadence and luxury. And there were even some Republicans who came here this week, and I included this in the story I wrote yesterday, I said, what are we doing? What would they do that? And by the way, great Tucker Carlson imitation of the guy who does the imitation. What are we doing? What's that about? What's that about?

Is that the new rule now? That's the goal. That's the goal. So what are we doing, though. You're right. I mean, it's what Republican should be. be asking because while people are struggling to pay rent, while an increasing number of Americans are only able to buy their groceries, like on layaway? And there, I saw a clip and I didn't, you know,

I didn't believe that it was actually on the account that it said it was on of champagne and women and all of this other stuff. Like, you know, it's extraordinary. The origin of this is so people were, it was made afterwards. Elon Musk put something out because he just reactively and retweets whatever he, they sees. But then members of the White House, like Jan Skavino is on the White House payroll. This is his official account put out a different version.

He made his own and put it out because they were just so reveling in this. And Richard, I mean, so that was last week. And now next week, or later this month, we have this dinner, this exclusive dinner, Willie read through the prices. Here is this, here's the Skavino. Dan Skavino, that's a, him in the middle, and that's behind him, Eric Trump, the president's son and his wife, they put this out. They're reveling in this. They want us to see this. And yet it comes at a time

when Americans are deeply concerned about affordability. And we keep coming back to this team. It's not just that the White House is like trying to fight affordability and it's not working. They're not even trying. And voters are just angrier and angrier. This is Marie Antoinette. This is let him eat cake. The 30-year mortgage is now at 7.28. Yeah. Basically means housing is increasingly now priced out of the reach of most Americans. This is like Cash Patel on stilts.

This is an out-of-control bunch. And that's what strikes me about it. It's the brazenness of this. It's the nakedness of this. So they're clearly living in a little bubble of their fellow partygoers and rich people at Mar-a-Lago. That this is some, this is frat-boy behavior. And these are people who are entrusted with the most powerful office in the world, and we're getting frat boys. This is, and you just wonder when the country is going to turn on the way, the way Hungary turned on Orban.

Right. But my sense is it's a question of when rather than if, and the sooner the better. You know, Rev, it is, again, it's so striking. Donald Trump has this gilded age meeting with the richest people in the world. He, again, he has this meme coin deal where, you know, instead of going out and shaking hands with Americans and listening to Americans and trying to relate to what Americans are going through, he's letting people give him millions of dollars to have dinner with him with a meme coin. And here you have, as Richard said, you know, rent was already terrible, gas price is high. you look at diesel, it's just out of control. Republicans have slashed health care so they can fund tax cuts for the very richest Americans.

And you see this Marie Antoinette stuff. And there's just a huge disconnect for a man who was supposed to be a, quote, populist president. This is the least populist president in our lifetime. You hit the nail on the head in the Senate. that, you know, I've been traveling a lot on this voter tour. And one of the things that I'm getting from people of all backgrounds, many of whom said, I liked Trump, is it's not even that they're insensitive. It's almost like they're holding people in contempt.

Well, they're rubbing their noses. They're rubbing their nose. That's Kavino thing. That's an AI-generated image that they had to work to get. This is when, this is, diesel is over $6. And you have farmers who are struggling, people who are losing their farms. You've got interest rates now, mortgages over 7%. So young people who are already locked out of being able to buy houses and pursuing the American dream like we were able to.

30, 40 years ago, they can't do that. And look, look at this. Look at this. Keep playing it. I want people to see this. And so while they're struggling, while groceries, more expensive than ever, While Americans are selling their blood to be able to actually afford groceries. I saw a stat on that this past week that more Americans are selling blood,

their blood for money than ever before, are buying groceries on layaway. This is what the White House is doing. And we, of course, we just have this Dan Skvino clip. But this comes from the top down. Dan would be doing this if he wasn't getting, you know, the read from the president of the United States and everybody else. They live in a gilded age. everything's covered in gold.

And I mean, this is like the last days of Rome here. What's the goal when working Americans are struggling more today than they ever have? And when people feel that you're not only being insensitive to my plight, but that you're mocking me because those kind of images make me feel like I'm being mocked, that I'm like, here, take this. And then you have the president making all kind of, I mean, he did an interview with Time Magazine where he was rambling like somebody that wasn't still with us. And this is what you give your party, 32 days before the primaries. I think that it is clear that this is something that is going to, the chickens will come home to roost on midterm election day.

I've never said anything like it, Willie. Yeah, and Claire, we don't have to wonder how the American public feels watching. all of this. We got that AP poll that dropped yesterday during our show that shows 17% 1-7 of Americans support how the president is handling the cost of living in this country. So when you get to 17%, that's just not cracking Republicans. You've cracked into the MAGA base at that point. His approval on the economy overall is at 26%, just deadly numbers politically. Yeah. As somebody who spent most of my adult life trying to figure out how I can tap into how people feel about their lives in order to be a more effective

political candidate. It is really interesting to me how bad they are at this in the White House right now. It almost makes you think that he kind of said to the inner circle, you know, it's okay if we lose because then I've got somebody to blame for the next two years because, you know, he loves to blame other people for everything that's messed up under his watch. It almost makes me think that. That he said, you know, go ahead. Don't worry about offending everyone. Don't worry about being so totally off key that it's jarring because I like the idea that I'll be blaming them and I'll be the persecuted one again.

And I'll be the one as a victim. That's brilliant, Claire. You know, he is so much better playing victim than he is playing leader. When he's having to offend himself, when he's being impeached, when people are calling him out for all the serial abuses that he's done, when he's the victim, when he gets to play the victim, that's Donald Trump at his political best. So that's a brilliant point. Maybe he's thinking, if we lose, I win because I get to be the victim again. And I get to be the one that's under siege. Yeah. And I think the Democrats are going to have to be careful, assuming we do win.

I think they're going to have to be very careful because if there is accountability that everyone is going to clamor for. And of course, nobody wants accountability more than I do for sure. But we've got to be really careful. The Democrats need to stay on message and make sure they're addressing people's economic needs and tender their knitting and not get so carried away with vengeance about Donald Trump. that you play right into his hand. And by the way, yesterday in Oklahoma, the president said all of this, his poll numbers, the way the country's feeling about him, is a PR problem.

He said, we're not good at public relations because the fake news won't tell the real story of what's going on in America. The problem is people feel what's going on in America every time they go to the gas station or to the grocery store. Still ahead this morning, on morning, Joe, new reporting on the Republican efforts to attack pastors, yes, pastors running for office as Democrats. questioning their faith. Plus, conservative columnist Matt Lewis joins us with his new piece.

I almost never vote for Democrats. I'm making an exception this year, he writes. And as we go to break, a look at the traveler's forecast this morning from Acuethers, Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking out there? Well, it's going to be humid across the mid-Atlantic and northeast today with increasing clouds. A couple of showers this evening, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, earlier this afternoon

in Harrisburg, Buffalo, turning out partly sunny. beautiful day in Chicago. It does feel like October. Still steamy in Texas, showers, Dallas, thunderstorms around Houston, and we'll have spotty thunderstorms from Miami toward Atlanta. If you're doing any traveling, I don't have too many delays today, maybe Atlanta, and I could see Miami this afternoon. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the Acuether app today. Enjoy the weekend. A number of Democrats running for Congress are talking about their Christian faith and connecting with voters. But Republicans rank guests out and whether those candidates truly share those values, using ads to try to turn their preachings against them.

Jesus, a radical feminist, a Christian who hates Christianity? Liberal weirdo James Tala Rico, too local for Texas. When the cameras are on, Lindsay James goes into a character, a caring pastor who says what you want to hear. But when there's no spotlight, Lindsay James shows just how radical she can be. Yeah, all right. With us now, politics, reporter for Politico, Samuel Benson, his new piece is titled Democrats are running pastors for office. Republicans are attacking their religious comments.

Well, you know, they're finding tweets, actually, from 2021 and not really talking about what they're saying now. You'd look at Tala Rico. Tala RICO has actually talked more about Jesus' gospel, Ralph, than... You know, I've heard any Republicans since Donald Trump got back into office because what they're doing is just simply inconsistent with Jesus' teaching. I mean, you look at the red letters. This is not theology. This is not subjective.

This is objective. What they're doing just lays waste of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether you're talking about Matthew 25, whether you're talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan, whether you're talking about love and mercy, the things that lay at the center of Jesus' gospel, they've laid ways to it. Now you actually have, you know, candidates in Texas, candidates in Kansas that are actually quoting those Gospels. And it's driving these phony Christian nationalists crazy. They're quoting them correctly and they're exposing the hypocrisy in some of them that have tried to act like they're the ones that are carrying the mantle of Christ. Tala Rico is quoted it more than some preachers I know. And I think that it is getting through because they're addressing the moral standards.

What is interesting to me is that, you know, in my younger years, we had Jerry Falwell and others with the moral majority. Right. And we could debate interpretation of scriptures. Right. They have just gone into attacking you for even quoting the scriptures correctly. There is no debate. Well, and we've had other guys.

on the show that, you know, if you're a Christian nationalist, you don't want to quote the gospel. That's right. Because it goes against everything that you're saying. Instead, you have members of Congress saying if Jesus had only had an AR-15, he wouldn't have been crucified. That's where we're standing, Samuel. So Samuel, tell us about your story. It sounds absolutely fascinating and something we're seeing every day on the campaign trail. Yeah, I'm glad Reverend Sharpton is here because, as he knows, for decades, we've seen a tradition

within the Democratic Party of the Black Church, speaking on on civil rights and having pastors and religious leaders that run for office and hold office. But what seems to be new now is that you have several individuals who are ordained clergy or ministers or pastors running who are part of white mainstream Protestant churches. And that's something that the Democratic Party hasn't seen to the degree that we're seeing this cycle in several decades. And Republicans, as we've seen through some of those ads, their closing message against them is basically to brand them as radicals, to say that they pretend to be real Christians,

but they're not. We talk so much about Tala Rico. Obviously, he's a seminarian. He's entraning to be a pastor. But aside from him, there are at least nine that I've counted pastors or ordained ministers running for Congress this cycle as Democrats. And they're talking openly about the things you just said, about their faith, about how it impacts their views on welfare or on caring for their neighbor.

I mean, they're not scared to point out where they think that Republicans is, especially conservative Christian Republicans, are going awry. And certainly there's been a lot of Democrats who feel very heartened by the choice of candidates they've had this time around, whether it's because of ministers like this or veterans, whatever it might be. It's a good group. So Samo, tell us, I mean, is there an effectiveness here? Because it does seem to me that some of these attacks from Republicans, and I've heard

this from those, even in the party, quietly, out of desperation, you know, they're leaning in on these cultural issues or in this case, religious issues, because they know there's nothing actually they can point to in terms of the record of this president and the Republican Congress. We know how poorly the war in Iran is going, for instance, and of course, prices are entirely too high. Well, I think an interesting case study here is Kansas. The Democratic nominee there for Senate is a minister, right? He's the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in America. And so when Adam Hamilton is talking about his faith, talking about his congregation,

talking about the things that matter most to him, the most pronounced Republican attack against him, at least in recent weeks, has been focused on his church. We saw that ad, or we didn't see the ad, but there's an ad on air right now, saying that he's not even a pastor. He's a woke megachurch CEO,

and that's basically the closing message. We heard that from Vice President Vance. When he went out to Kansas a few weeks ago, we've heard that from other prominent Republicans. I don't know if it's working. We'll know in about 30-some-odd days when the election occurs, but it is worth noting that all of the polls have tightened dramatically,

Kansas to the point that some Republicans are talking about that as a real battleground. Yeah, it is crazy. And Claire, how crazy that J.D. Vance, of all people, it's going around lecturing the pastor of the largest Methodist Church in America, the Pope. I could go down the list with just his bizarre views, which again, attacking people are quoting Jesus, which is what they're doing on the campaign trail. They're quoting the scriptures, and yet this is driving Republicans crazy. Yeah, and I'm going to do a little plug here. I've got this political potluck show on MS now for subscribers. And the last episode that dropped was me having a great conversation with Adam Hamilton in a kitchen eating smoked brisket. And I got to tell you, when they attack his church,

when J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States, comes in and attacks the congregation of the largest Methodist church in the country. And this is what he told me in the interview. His church is the number one source of blood in the Kansas City area. It's the number two source of food in the Kansas City area. It gives 100,000 hours of volunteer time. It does a dental clinic. for really distressed areas of Kansas City.

The work this church does in the community is astounding. And there are 24,000 members of this church. So when J.D. Vance comes in there and attacks his church, it is, frankly, it is unbelievably political malpractice because he's got a bunch of Republicans in his church and guess what they're going to do? They're going to vote for him. I think Marshall's in real trouble.

And Adam Hamilton is an amazing leader, not just of his church, but I think he'll be an amazing leader in the United States Senate. Well, when you're attacking the pastor of largest congregation, Methodist congregation, mainstream congregation in America, you know, it just shows how disconnected. I guess if you're a Yaleie and you ran around in San Francisco all those years talking about how much you love it, Silicon Valley and your little corporate village. I guess. Maybe you just get disconnected from reality. I don't know. I don't know. I've run for office four times. I don't attack congregations. It's just seems like, as clear said, political malpractice and also attack people who are preaching the word of God. And I know that irritates a lot of Christian nationalists because their job is to actually use that, use the name of of Jesus for political purposes, but never really bother reading the red letters?

Well, there are people who are doing that. They're running for office, and it's causing them to meltdown. Politics reporter for political. Samuel Benson, thank you so much for being with us. We greatly appreciate it and hope to see you again soon. Willie. Joe, I point out one more thing, too. In Texas, I promise Ken Paxton does not want to have a contest with James Tala Rico about

who's lived a more godly life. I think you're going to ask his wife about why she divorced him on, quote, biblical grounds. Coming up here, we're bringing an update on the effort to bring home Ukrainian children abducted by Russia during its ongoing invasion of that country. Morning Joe's coming right back. Welcome back. A new report by an independent humanitarian foundation is shedding light on the search for some of Ukraine's most vulnerable children and adults who've been allegedly taken by Russia.

It documents stories of people with severe disabilities who were removed from facilities in southern Ukraine during those first few months of the war. Let's bring in MSNAT reporter Nick McCool, who spoke with two mothers and a grandmother whose loved ones are among the missing. Nick, heartbreaking, what did you find out? It certainly is. Yeah, good morning, Jonathan. Good morning, guys. I mean, these loved ones described to us a waking nightmare, waiting for years on end for any information. They're now asking the international community for help getting their children, back, including U.S. officials. It's been four years

since Olinik became part of a club she never wanted to join, parents of a child taken during the war in Ukraine. She's cheerful. She wanted to be with other children. Her daughter, Anna, was 26 when she disappeared from a school

for students with severe disabilities. It always seems that my heart is beating wrong. I want some. news. Good news. Anna was one of dozens of people, including children as young as 11 months old, removed from two facilities in the southern Ukrainian region of Herzl. After much of it fell under Russian occupation in 2022. A new report from the Amil Foundation says they were taken by Russian authorities and tells the story of the desperate search to locate them. Co-founder and CEO, Mariam Lambert.

The ultimate goal is to eradicate the Ukrainian identity, the Kurdish. the history, and how do you do that? You go straight to the most vulnerable people, children, and adult with disabilities. The report says the transfers began that fall during the occupation. The Russians removing residents from the facilities and groups. Hanah Zemeshlaev's son Anton, then 20 years old, was among them. I do not understand what is for. What is the point? Before the transfers, Hannah says the occupation presented her with a terrible choice, rescue her son from the facility, or take her other kids to safety. She evacuated the others, thinking she'd have time to go back for Anton, but it was too late. If he doesn't receive the care he needs, even it's better for him

not to be alive, really, because it is so much hurt and it is a great pain in his brain. You said if he doesn't have the care that he needs, you would rather he be dead. Yes. For Larissa Brunitska, whose granddaughter Marina, was removed at 23 years old, the years-long wait for answers has been agony. God, grant that everything will be fine with her.

God grant that there will be good people to help her. If you could speak to Marina right now, what would you tell her? I would kiss all her fingers, her whole body, I would hug her. I would never let her go. You know, living in ignorance for three and a half years, not seeing the child, it hurts a lot.

The Emile Foundation says it now believes it's located dozens of the missing, but getting them back from Russian authorities has proven even more difficult. We just need a pathway, a third country, intermediary to return those children safely to their families. So tell me about your son. Last month, the group visiting Washington, D.C. to plead with lawmakers for help.

It's incredibly courageous that these moms are out there, putting themselves out there because they're doing it not just for their kids, but for all the kids. They are the face and voice of the inhumanity, the brutality and barbarism of Vladimir Putin. What realistically can you and your colleagues in Congress actually do to help? You know, obviously we're very focusing on sanctions, trying to make it harder for them, trying to punish them. There might be some countries that we know that we have similar to have good relationships. We could ask them, like, can you go and talk to these Russians? The Emile Foundation hopes to use the methods it's developed to locate some of the missing children and adults in their report

to find some of the other kids taken by Russia, widely estimated in the thousands. You know, we started with almost nothing. And we, I was like you, this is too much. This is impossible. We found those children. It's not thousands, but that means we can apply to others. There is hope, and we will do it. And for all the despair, the war has brought these women,

a mother's love is even stronger. Do you have hope that you'll see Marina again? Yes, that. I think I can translate that one. Still have hope after all these years. We reached out to the Russian embassy in Washington. We haven't heard back. But in the past, Moscow has denied taking children against their will, claiming its evacuated people voluntarily for safety reasons.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told us they plan to provide $25 million in new assistance to help identify, return, and rehabilitate removed Ukrainian children and youth guys. Joe? Thank you so much, Nick. Richard, we've all seen documentaries of the Nazis doing this in World War II, going into countries, seizing children, seizing the most vulnerable, taking them back to Germany, to try to erase those countries' identities in some small part. Is that what's going on here with Russia? We've heard about so many kidnappings of children. 100%. Their problems with Ukraine are not

about this or that territory. They're existential. Ukraine represents an alternative future for Slavic people. It's tied to the West. It's democratic. It's market-oriented. For Putin, Ukraine represents an alternative that he cannot tolerate or countenance. And Joe, we woke up to the news today of what? That President Zelensky announced that Russia is no longer going to observe any laws of war as if they're doing it. Well, you never did.

But it's a reminder of two things. What would happen if Russia ever were to win? What they would do to Ukraine would be war crimes at scale. And second of all, just underscores how unconscionable our policy is. Yeah. The fact that we are not helping Ukraine. The fact that Donald Trump continues to play it down the middle. If even that, he actually is more.

That's being very generous. He's not playing it down the middle, is he, Jonathan? No, he's not. He's not. He's favored Vladimir Putin. Still deferential to Putin. I mean, just in recent weeks, he's just in his off-the-cuff rhetoric, he's blamed Ukraine for the rise in diesel prices.

He's telling Ukraine to stop hitting Russia's energy facilities. He hasn't given the same warning to mom. And when, you know, he and his negotiators, Whitkoff, Krishna, and the like, talk about the impediment to a deal, they talk about it being Ukraine, that if Ukraine would just agree to give up some territory, that this would all be over, that he has never held Putin accountable. No, it's crazy. So, Nick, tell us a little bit more about the foundation. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this investigation has been sprawling. And to keep in mind, it's still ongoing. There are still residents at these facilities that they are trying to find. But they

used a number of investigative tactics to try to get to these kids. They use things like interviews with the family and even one staffer who was there, you know, around the time of the transfers. They use satellite images. And actually this new, what they call humanitarian facial recognition technology that they sort of built in part for this investigation to help find these kids. And as Merriam said in the piece, they're trying to scale this. They're trying to do this with some of the other children that have been, you know, said to have been taken by Russia. Now, Nick, thanks so much for doing this. It's so important. And still ahead, President J.D. Vance campaign in Florida yesterday, where he said the Democratic candidate for the Senate should, quote, get the hell out of America

if she calls herself a socialist? This coming from the man who works for the president, who is now taken over 30 American companies, according to Cato, that's socialism. And that's coming up on Morning Joe. Vice President J.D. Vans held a rally yesterday in Central Florida, as polling shows closer than expected races there for governor, Senate, and newly redrawn House districts. Vance encouraged the crowd to cast ballots in November to, quote, send a message to the far-left radicals. He went on to say it was almost, quote, too easy to attack the candidacies of the two top Democrats running on the statewide ballot next month, David Jolly for governor and Angie Nixon for U.S.

U.S. Senate. He then attacked Nixon, criticizing her association with the Democratic Socialists of America. Well, ladies and gentlemen, when Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say, then get the hell out of here. You don't belong in America, if those are your views. You don't belong in America, said Vice President J.D. Vance. Nixon responded on social media, writing, quote, the most ordinary man imaginable came to my home state to tell me to get out of America well, they enjoyed the comfort of buildings my ancestors built. She went on to argue pushing for lower cost, quote, isn't an American. Claire McCaskill, it's interesting, first of all, that the Vice President of the United States now,

less than five weeks from Election Day feels compelled to be in the state of Florida, which many thought was Ruby Red now forever, and these are very competitive races up and down the ballot, including David Jolly, who he tried to tar with the socialist label. David Jolley was a Republican, not so. long ago. So those attacks have kind of fallen flat. But what do you make about vice president, Van, being in Florida, first of all, and then telling a United States citizen who could be the next representative of the state of Florida to leave the country? Yeah, I don't remember a vice president telling the candidate to get out of the country because

he might disagree with their positions on policy issues. It's pretty bold and frankly depressing. But let's like back up a little bit and look what's really going on here. You've got J.D. Vance going to Kansas and Florida. You've got Trump going to Texas and Oklahoma. That's all you need to know to understand they're in trouble because those are not states where they should be spending their time. They should be spending their time in states that are more battleground states traditionally. Why aren't they in Ohio or Michigan? Why aren't they in the states where, you know, why aren't they more in Georgia or North Carolina? Bottom line is they're having to go campaign, either to make themselves feel better like Trump, in Ruby, Ruby, Red, Oklahoma, or in states that traditionally they haven't had to worry about because they are in trouble and they know they're in trouble.

So the tell is where they're going. That tells you that they know how bad they're polling is and what kind of trouble they're in. Yeah, you know, Rev, you would expect in this cycle for them to be in Georgia and North Carolina. But those races, they appear, if you believe, the polls, to be gone. Those are already Democratic wins. South Carolina now expects some people to start showing up in South Carolina. A lot of concern from Republicans at that seat may be closer than people expected with Darling Graham struggling to pull away in that one. But again, yeah, very, very strange that the Republicans, J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are having to campaign in that.

the reddest of states in America, one month out. One month out in states that you would think they could put in the column that this is with us, we don't have to go there. And then what they're saying when they go there, to attack the pastor of the largest method of church in the country, like he is unchristian, when you go there is only to drive his voters out even more. To go to Florida and say that a candidate, Democratic candidate, ought to leave the country. when you are socializing many companies, as you point out,

and she comes back with my ancestors built the country. J.D. Vance is helping black turnout in Florida more than any Democrat could do. Yeah, telling a black woman. Isn't it interesting? They always tell black women. Yeah, leave the country. They always tell Hispanic women. They always tell women who aren't white.

Donald Trump's done this all the time. Get the hell out of the country. Like it's our country. Yeah. You get out and I decide who comes in while they're bringing in certain people from South Africa from the fantasize genocide. So I think that it is backfiring. What is so interesting to me is not only where they're campaigning, which you usually don't see them, but how they are making it worse as they go in.

The last thing they needed was J.D. Vance saying that in Florida. It hurts their own candidates, Byron Donald's and all of them. The last thing you need is this. guy in Kansas questioning the pastor of, you're not talking about a marginal church, the Methodist church. Right. So I think the Democrats ought to help sponsor them to keep campaigning and keep talking. Keep campaigning.

I mean, I would guess, Rev, that right now the votes for people in your organization and in the churches across the country, they're pretty fired up right now, right? Oh yeah, they're fired up. You know, I've done four cities in the last six days. And by the way, you told me in 24, you quietly told me they are not as fired up as they need to be. You said, we got problems in Philadelphia. We got problems in Pennsylvania and Michigan. You said that in real time.

You said it on this show. But you're seeing something far different in 26. No, what I saw in 24, and it was most people thought I was just, you know, being too pessimistic, was there wasn't in The enthusiasm is there now. I mean, everywhere I go, people are flooding out. People want to do what needs to be done because they're personally being hit by the economy with gas prices, diesel and all. But they're also being offended. It's one thing to be insensitive to me.

It's another thing to hold me in contempt and is rubbing it in my face. There's one thing to say I disagree with you, you're associates. It's another thing to say, get out of my country. Right. Because it brings back all of the memories of things that we don't want to remember. Yeah, let's bring it right now. Political columnist for the Washington son, Matt Lewis, his latest piece is titled, I almost never vote for Democrats.

I'm making an exception this year. Matt, this reminds me when Christopher Buckley and I wrote a column in 2006, lamenting high deficits, high debt, big spending, just out of control spending in Washington, D.C. a war in Iraq that had veered wildly out of control. Terrible reactions, a Hurricane Katrina, Harriet Myers' debacle. And we did an article. It said it's time for us to go. And Chris Buckley and myself wrote the article saying, you know, we vote for Republicans.

We're not going to this year as a form of protest. It sounds like you're there in 2026. That's right, Joe. And look, I think it feels like 2006. I remember what it felt like in 2006. And that vibe, that zeitgeist, I think it's very similar. And look, yeah, you have a Republican president who has really just run this country into a ditch. I think there's an opportunity to send a message to him.

It could be about gas prices. But as someone who cares about the Republican Party, and I don't want to sound naive, but hopes to someday start to at least bring it back to the kind of the Reagan conservatism, I also think there's an opportunity here because for the first time, Joe, I'm seeing elected Republicans scrubbing Donald Trump from their websites. I'm seeing elected Republicans criticizing him over, you know, murdering people with ICE killing Americans in the streets. And, you know, over the war in Iran, which he promised not to do. And so I do think that this is an opportunity to send a message. It is a midterm. It is a referendum, I think, on the policies of Donald Trump. And so that is what I have decided to do this time around.

So, Matt, we've been talking this week about some of these numbers, unlike we've ever seen, that 17% of Americans 1-7 support Donald Trump on how he's handling. the cost of living. That's a crazy number when you consider Republicans and MAGA and everything else are now a part of the group that thinks he's not doing a good job on the economy. So we've heard Republicans try and flail to make a case. We heard Speaker Mike Johnson this week say, give us two more years and you're going to get more of the same or we're going to do a little better even. Well, America's saying we don't want any more of this. So the argument seems to be, well, the other side are socialists or their faith isn't real or some of these arguments we've been talking about this morning. If you're a Republican running in one of these swing districts or a state

that's suddenly close that shouldn't be, what is your case right now? I don't know if my imagination's that good, but I think what you have to do, you can't, I don't think you can plausibly make the case for Donald Trump actually. As a conservative, if you care about things like the rule of law, character, free speech, you can't make it. Even as a MAGA person, like as a hardcore America First MAGA person, like, how could you make it? He didn't bring prices down on day one. He didn't, you know, keep us out of foreign wars. I mean, you go down the list. He has really betrayed his promises. And I think that is a character issue. So I think what you have to do if you're a Republican running is you have to, if you can, begin to distance from these policies. And we're

seeing that happening. If you can get away with it, Trump makes that hard. But you also have to disqualify your opponents, right? You have to say, like, actually Sherrod Brown and Josh Turrick and, you know, James Telerico are woke. They're communists. They're woke leftists. And I'm just of the opinion, that dog won't hunt. Some of the, the candidate quality on the Democratic side right now is pretty solid. There may be a couple of exceptions where it will work. I do know there are obviously DSA people like running for Congress in places like New York and Illinois or Colorado. But for these prominent U.S. Senate races, a lot of these candidates are really good. So it's going to be difficult to demonize some of these people.

Yeah, to Matt's point just now about Republicans not having anything to run on. A strategist told me for my new piece that there's this also frustration. Voters are angry, quote, because they are hurting and through his actions, Trump is telling them that he doesn't give a damn. So there's that just utter disconnect, Claire, where there's no sense that he's even trying to make our lives better. So with this as the backdrop, my question to you is we're seeing some Republicans, some saying, hey, I might cross party lines, I vote for Democrat, more and more saying, or not, or saying, I'll probably just stay home because I'm just disgusted with the whole thing.

How do Democrats take advantage? What would be your advice to candidates? Is this something you need to sort of shift messaging, tailor an appeal? What's the play? Well, I think it's important to point out that any of the Republicans that are trying to distance themselves to Donald Trump, they were in Congress. They had the power to stop Donald Trump. And they didn't. Instead, they went along with what Donald Trump has done. They hit under their desks. They coward like the cowards they are. And so now for any of them trying to distance themselves, it rings very phoning. But I think really more importantly, they ought to continue to focus on those independent voters.

Yeah, they're going to have to get some Republicans in some of these states. I mean, Adam Hamilton won't win in Kansas unless some Republicans vote for him. Tala Rico won't win in Texas unless some Republicans vote for him. But those independent voters, the margins with independent voters is really where they've got to focus. And that's where you just stick to your knitting on cost, cost, costs. This guy is building ballrooms and gilding his office with gold filigrees. And I'm worried about your grocery bill. And if they do that, it's going to work.

And they won't have to get as many Republicans if they get their margins up with the independent voters that are willing to vote for either party. So, Claire, let me ask you this question. You represented Missouri in the Senate. How does Missouri go from having someone like you to having someone like Eric Smith? as a representative, and I'm not saying that being funny. What has happened in the state of Missouri? What has happened in some of these other states where you have these people who just I don't know, I don't know Eric Schmidt, but he acts like a clown on TV.

He lies. He spread, you know, he's warned not to talk about an Atlanta Hawks game, not to show. He does it anyway. He actually he calls Jack Smith a quote dirtbag when he's the one who has been trying to scrub January 6th from America's memory. I'm pretty sure I know if dirtback is applied to either Jack Smith or Eric Schmidt, what history will, who history will judge the dirt bag. And it will probably be the one not standing up for cops. They get the hell beaten out of them on January 6th.

So how is it that that guy represents a state you represented not so long ago? Well, what Donald Trump did brilliantly is he tapped into grievance. He tapped into people, particularly in rural areas of my state, that felt like they'd been left behind, that everybody was getting to help but them. They were living by the rules. They couldn't afford to retire. They couldn't afford to take a vacation. They couldn't afford to send their kids to college.

And meanwhile, they thought everybody else was getting something, and they weren't. weren't. Donald Trump figured that out. So he blamed it on the Mexicans, not microchips. He, you know, spent a lot of time convincing folks that were upset that they'd been left behind that he was their savior. And it worked. He got a lot of people in rural Missouri that had voted for Democrats to switch. And the cultural issues helped. The way he spoke helped because he said things out loud that they were thinking, but nobody had ever said out loud before. Now, here's what's happened, Joe. Those margins went crazy in rural areas in Missouri and allowed Eric Schmidt to be a clown and still get elected.

But what's happening now in rural areas, healthcare hospitals are closing. The tariffs are killing the farmers. Input costs on diesel or through the roof. And you're seeing those margins, at least in the polling I'm looking at, beginning to swing back to a more reasonable level that would allow Democrats to win in states like Missouri again. And you're seeing it in places like Iowa and Kansas.

I mean, you know, Willie, the crisis in rural health care, we've been actually talking about it long before, the so-called big, beautiful bill passed. That savaged rural health care even more. There's such a rural health care crisis. There's a farming crisis. You have people losing their farms. There's a trucking crisis. Truck companies going bankrupt right now. Diesel will over six a gallon. You're You look at the damage that tariffs have done. You look at the damage that so much of Republican policy is done, Trump's policy is done to rural areas.

You know, you can understand why Democrats are making gains in the rural part of America. In fact, what's hard to understand is why anybody in rural America would vote for Republicans right now under this administration. And what's so remarkable, Joe, about everything you just laid out there is each of those was a choice. The big beautiful bill was a choice to strip funding away from rural hospitals and red districts and hospitals all over the country. The war in Iran was a choice. The Strait of Hormuz was closed. Gas and diesel. The prices go up.

That was a choice. Tariffs were a choice. That's driving prices up across the country. And Donald Trump, Republicans were warned about all this. Many Republicans knew about all this. They wouldn't stand up to him because they fear him. And now they're left to deal with the consequences less than five weeks from. now we'll see what they are. Claire McCaskill, thanks so much. Claire earlier mentioned her

exclusive political potluck series for MS Now members. That new episode features her sit down with Adam Hamilton. He's the Democratic nominee making some noise for that race in the U.S. Senate in Kansas. To become a member, scan the QR code on your screen or visit MS now, sorry, ms. dot now slash membership. Claire, thank you. Political columnist for the Washington son, Matt Lewis. Thank you as well. Peace is online now. Coming up, President Trump has been saying for months, the war with Iran will be over soon. But now, a third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops are headed to the Middle East. We'll go through that new development. Plus, we'll bring the latest reporting on Republican Senator Eric Schmidt, we just mentioned, and those text messages, his team did not vet before presenting

them in a hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith. Morning Joe's coming right back.