Morning Joe - Trump reverses course and tells Republicans to vote by mail

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

October 5, 2026: 7am — Trump reverses course and tells Republicans to vote by mail  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.

If your state has early voting, do not wait. Go out and vote. Vote early, vote by mail, or vote in person on Election Day, November 3rd. So we can defeat the radical left Democrats in a midterm victory that is too big to rig. Democrats. You know, he said last week, I think, most people don't understand that dumb has a bee at the end of. Where did he go to school? I must have gone to one of them Ivy League schools because I'll tell you at University of Alabama, we know you put a bee at the end of dumb. But that is fascinating. Donald Trump on social media over the weekend, he's encouraging now Republicans to cast their vote any way they can, including by Mel. That, of course, comes after he spent several. months fighting to stop voting by Mel via executive order and Supreme Court challenges. And for years, Donald Trump's made baseless claims about the security of voting by Mel, even though he himself has voted by Mel twice in Florida this year. Jonathan Amir, Marigay, Pablo Tori, David Druggers, still with this. David, you know, you and I've talked about this before. The four times I ran for

Congress. I juiced that vote by mail, man. The early vote. voting, absentee voters. I worked at nonstop because Republicans, we knew that the first wave of votes, and you know, in Florida, we actually aren't stupid like a lot of other states. In Florida, we actually count the early votes early. So polls close at 7. At 701, you know how you did with the early vote. And I always, it's almost like I had an insurmountable lead because Republicans did great with absentee ballots. They did great with early voting until the age of Donald Trump. When he started telling every Republican, don't vote by mail, it's rigged. So apparently he wants his voters to cheat and rig the election. Who knew?

Look, Joe, this has never made any sense to any political practitioner. It's driven to Republican operatives crazy. At the very least, you can get somebody to vote early and make a decision today. And by the way, it's October, right? So in a lot of states, early voting, vote by mail is beginning. And they don't have time to have second thoughts between now and election day. You might mess up. Your party might mess up between now and election day. That vote's already banked.

And so everybody knows, number one, you get them to make a decision early. That decision's off the table. And now you can go focus on those remaining voters that you still have to persuade or turn out because you get to track all this stuff. And that's why it's just, it's never made any sense. But, I mean, look, you know, President Trump, he has his proclivities and, you know, that, that, there's no good way to. Some of his, look, some of his schick, you can explain in some sort of strategic way, even if it's not strategic for him. It's just the id talking.

But, but this one, I don't know. Boy, it's so self-defeating. Let's bring in somebody who really knows about this. outgoing Republican Senator from North Carolina, Tom Tillis, he's the author of a new book that comes out tomorrow. It's called How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents, not quite the type of book that my mother would hand to me going off to school. But, Senator, why do we start right there? You know a heck of a lot about running elections. And one thing that I've never understood is a guy that ran four times as Republicans. Why do you have a president that is constantly telling

people that voting by mail is rigged and not to do it. And now, of course, he does this little social media post, but too late. Yeah, I tell you, look, early voting is critically important. You know, Joe, because you ran elections I did too. You chase the absentee ballots. You don't know how people vote, but you know when they get a ballot, you call them up and make sure they go to the polls. And I hope that Republicans will yield, I should say yield to the message that the president issued. But we should. should have always been encouraging early voting, early voting, absentee voting. Those are the things that let us control who gets to the polls. And we need a lot of people to get out to save some of our

incumbents. Senator, you're like the rest of us over the past 10 years, been kind of in the eye of the storm, but you've been sort of the hurricane tracker that's like deeper in the storm. You've seen more of it up close. I'm curious, how is history going to judge Donald Trump? I think it's going to be mixed, but I think the president has time to actually leave a good mark on his legacy. The key here, and what I continue to say in the book, is the president and I very seldom disagree on the what, but the how and who he has involved in implementation has to change. This is about the president's legacy, and why am I concerned with the president's legacy? Because it's the legacy of the Republican Party.

And I'm concerned that we've become unmoored. We've gone away from some of our principles. We've got to get back to that. But we also have to highlight a lot of the things the president does that is consistent with our principles, the tax reform bills, those sorts of things that are positive marks on this president's administration are being, we're being distracted to these, to things that are just not on strategy, not for Republicans, and certainly not at this time in the election. Well, can you explain, like, the immigration, the extreme immigration policy. Of course, I've said on the show during the Biden administration, we have laws for a reason. We need to secure southern border. So I think you and I probably agree on that.

But the beating of people in the streets that have constitutional rights, if you believe what Scalia said, the gunning down of Americans in the streets, these policies that have been pushed by Stephen Miller, they've been so not only destructive, but they've gone against everything that Ronald Reagan said in his farewell dress to America. How do Republicans square that up? And how do Republicans get control of the immigration policy again in a way that is not so hateful, not so mean, and not so deadly? Joe, you're absolutely right. Look, the president in the last election, there's significant evidence to suggest that people were concerned with the open border policies of President Biden, four million people coming across the border illegally. The president was able to successfully shut down the border without building a wall, by the way. I got criticized for saying it's not just about a wall.

It's about policy. It's about people, technology, infrastructure. The president should have taken the win there and then maybe marry that effective border policy with immigration policy that makes sense. Instead, he puts an incompetent secretary of homeland security in place. And she destroyed the narrative around our success Republicans had with sealing the border. We need to get to reasonable, sustainable immigration policy. And hopefully the president in the next Congress will try to take that up.

You talk about your regret for Pete Higgseth. Glad to see you regret that. I'm wondering, though, the president asked this weekend if he had any regrets. Of course, he said he had none. I'm curious, what regrets do you have and what regrets do you talk about in this book? Well, you know, the president referred to Pete Hegseth is right out of central casting. And I agree with that. He's an actor.

He's not a manager. He is simply not demonstrating any knowledge of the Department of Defense. I was the either ranking member or chair of the Personnel Subcommittee, Personnel on Readiness for Senate Armed Services. So I had a front row seat to managing the personnel, the DOD, and I can't imagine a worse score than what Pete Hegseth is getting. He doesn't even understand the tooth-to-tell ratio. He wants everybody to look like him, everybody to train like him, everybody to be in the uniform like him. But what about the four people backing up that one soldier on the battlefield?

These are people with all kinds of different skills. And physical fitness is only one of them. So he's missing the whole point about his organization. He's focusing on about maybe 15, 20 percent of the entire organization at the expense of demonstrating any real knowledge of the fact that he is in control of the most lethal, complicated organization, arguably on the planet. So, Senator, just now and your public comments for months now, you've been pretty unsparing about the quality of some of the president's aides, believing that he has been let down by a number of his advisors.

You mentioned Hakeseth. I mean, the book, the cover of the book has a few. Stephen Miller, Christ, you know, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the like. But at the end of the day, the president himself, A, made the decision to hire these people, and then B, empowered them to enact the policies that you don't like. So how much responsibility does Trump bear for the bad choices of his staff? At the end of the day, the buck does stop at the president's desk. But what should have occurred a long time before Hegsef got to there, got to that point was a vetting of, is this guy really ready for prime time for a large complex organization?

But like, the reason I don't criticize the president directly is like any CEO, you've got to rely on experts to bring you. And, you know, we think about Pete Hegseff and the president spending hours. hours on it. The president in any given day is dealing with a million different topics. He's got to have his best recommendations or act on him. And I think his instincts or the recommendations were simply just wrong on Hegg Seth, on Kennedy, and on No. The reason I went ahead and deferred and voted for them is because the committees of jurisdiction voted them out unanimously. In one case, in the book, I refer to Matt Gates. That happened to be a committee of jurisdiction that I was on. When it was

coming to my committee, the immediate thing I did was trying to prevent him. from coming through the committee. That occurred. I think I highlighted a couple of times in the book. That didn't happen in some of these other committees of jurisdiction. I wish they had. But I wasn't going to be a lone voter against them on the floor if the committee of jurisdiction unanimously supported them. So you say you don't blame the president personally. The American people seems to, at least in the polls right now. He's doing very poorly. Republicans doing poorly. And there's real fears that the House could go and now maybe even the Senate. And North Carolina, your home state, Republicans seem to be cutting bait there, suggesting this seat is going to be lost,

that Democrats are going to capture it. What do you see happening in North Carolina? The issue that we have in North Carolina, we're a microcosm of the country. We've got 40% unaffiliated voters. You can't win in North Carolina without getting a significant number of unaffiliated. If every Republican votes, it's not enough to win. And I think that we've not focused on some of the concerns that they have, whether it's tone or substance, and it's very difficult to get our folks out to vote.

And it doesn't help that up until recently, we were against early voting. So we're even seeing a bit of a suppressed turnout in early voting. We're one of the first states to begin early voting. And so I think these are all just unforced errors that really make it difficult for us to prevail in North Carolina. But we have to prevail in Maine. Susan Collins, a rock star of a senator. We have to prevail in Alaska. We've got to make sure that we get Houston back in Ohio.

We have got to keep a majority. because as I say in the book, folks, this is not just about this Trump administration. This slippery slope of politics that we've gotten in today started when I was in the last two years of the Obama administration, and every single administration is up the ante. And now we're to a level to where we've got to step back and realize Democrats and Republicans are responsible for the state of affairs, and we cannot sustain this trajectory. Yeah, Senator, despite whatever dissension behind the scenes, Americans have seen very, little in the way of Senate Republicans holding this president accountable for almost anything,

nothing but a rubber stamp. So given that, why should American voters of any party trust Republicans this November? Yeah, I was smiling because you said rubber stamp. I used that in every interview and every debate to describe my opponent in 2014 for President Obama. The rubber stamping of the president when your guy or gal is in power has got to stop. But for anyone to try and claim the moral high ground, I can give you, and I do give you a lot of examples in the books where Democrats are equally responsible for the state of affairs. They're all afraid in the modern age of social media of being targeted in a primary, so they just go with the flow. And most of the time, it's at the expense of that president's legacy. I got elected

because Obama did not listen to people who were concerned with the implementation of Obamacare. due respect that's over a decade ago. Yeah. And Americans are suffering now. They can't put food on the table. They can't pay their rent. They can't put gas in the car. The Republicans have been in control of the Senate. So why should they get another chance to do more damage to the American people? I think you're with due respect. That's exactly why Obama lost majorities.

And I came in as the first or second Republican speaker since the Civil War. The point that I'm trying to make is that people need to focus on the people who elected them, not the one who may threaten them in a primary. Obama did it, Biden did it, Trump did it. It's degrading the prominence of the Article I branch, and I am a steward of the Article I want it to become equal, a co-equal branch to the administration. And both parties have done a poor job over the last 20 years.

Do you think you lived up to that? Well, you know, I've tried to do my best, and the beauty I was telling some of the other day, what people don't know is the number of times that I've actually stood up to the president that never got reported. That's the way we should work. And in the old days, you could. But now everything becomes public when you disagree. And that's why we've got the state of affairs that we do today. Well, the state of affairs, you know, I want to point out, again, you are very unsparing about key members of the president's cabinet. The question I have,

though, as it relates to where does the buck stop? Is the question of all these bucks? Is there a corruption problem with this administration? Well, I think next year we'll probably have a Congress it's going to look into that. I think every administration has some corruption problem. I think it's a fair, it's fair game. It's no different than the oversight hearings that we've had in judiciary when Democrats or Republicans held the gavel. That the American people deserve an answer to that, and I have no problem with a well-thought-out fair process. You know, one of the reasons why I pose some of the impeachment processes, we're treating it like a kind of a vote of no confidence. And so let's be methodical. Let's not be quick. Let's take the time. And if the Republicans, if the Democrats win the congressional race, they take over the gallows in the House, I have no problem with them performing their oversight role.

Well, let me just ask you, is there any moral equivalency between this administration on the issue of corruption where the president's family is taken at least $2 to $3 trillion, where sons of the president are getting what, $600, $700 million loans, a new. companies that they're starting up from the Pentagon. Is there any moral equivalency? Because you said, well, every administration has problems. You would agree this administration's problems are far more extreme on the issue of corruption than any that we've seen in our lifetime, right? Well, you know, there's a bad look and there's corruption. There's a lot of bad looks, but you've got to prove corruption. And I have no problem with going through the due diligence and to provide counsel and to let

people go through a process of discovery. Do you not think, do you not think these meme coins where the Trump's made billions of dollars and 98% of their supporters lost their money? Is that not corrupt? I think it's worth looking at. Again, there's a difference between breaking a law and a bad look. I'll give you a good example. And it's this nonsense of an oligarch helping pay for a wedding for a Don Jr.'s wedding. My God, who that's working with Trump or Don Jr. would have thought that was a good idea. Should that be elected to? Sure. I think so. I agree with my colleague, Senator Curtis, on that. Any other thing? Let's let people defend their actions in the clear light of day. I think you and I are probably aligned politically on a lot of issues, like for instance, with

Ukraine. Can you explain to me why the president continues to give Vladimir Putin every benefit of the doubt when it is in Western civilization's best interest that Donald Trump helps the Ukrainians push Putin back and get to a settlement? Look, I'd never thought I'd see the day that a Republican president wouldn't take the opportunity to take the win against the despot leading Russia. This is something where I completely disagree with the current posture of the administration. I was over in Harkiv just a couple of weeks ago, went to the frontline first delegation to be able to do that.

And look, the Ukrainians deserve our support. The Western world deserves our support. Russia needs to be limited to any kind of opportunities to reemerge with the Russian Empire. You know, they don't want to stop in Ukraine. This isn't about a little disputed territory. These are steps to realize, in Putin's mind, his greatness. And it's absurd for me to think a Republican wants to allow him to do that, or at least not check him. Hopefully, in the remainder of this Congress and next Congress, the president's going to recognize

Ukraine's our friend and Russia is our enemy. And Putin is no friend of Donald J. Trump's. Senator Tell, it's good to see you again. I want you to take us inside the room when Republican senators, because that's the room you're in, are just discussing how to navigate the Trump administration from this perspective. As you were talking about, this isn't three co-equal branches of government. Your branch is supposed to be the Supreme Branch. And what the founders counted on was that you would be jealous enough of your power that you would put a check on the president regardless of partisan affiliation. How much frustration is, there with your colleagues, many of whom are very impressive people, who have worked very hard to get to the Senate, to stay in the Senate, with the fact that it often appears as though you guys are talking a lot but not doing much. And if the fear is fear of getting primaried and the fact that this has been happening on both sides of the aisle, is there any way out of this quagmire in your estimation, based on your experience over the past, you know, dozen years or so,

Or is just the state of the United States Congress for the foreseeable future? You know, one thing I think we're going to need in the age of social media and targeting, and really going back, because social media came into being on the tell end, the Obama administration. Now it's used the digitally target and pressure members from vote to vote. We've got to figure out how to manage that. That's not going to go away. So the president already had a bully pulpit. Now they have one that amplifies and it sustains itself 24-7.

we've got to figure out how to fight that. Look, the big problem I talk about this in the book, the horseshoe theory. I look at the extremes of the Democrat and Republican Party right now. They have more in common than most of us that are right or center right or center left. And I really believe the American people are center right or center left, just like you, Joe. And we've got to figure out how we can provide a place and provide support for those who are willing to make the tough decision and maybe disagree with their own party on one matter or the other. But what I would tell the president and the administration, folks, you're looking at somebody that's voted with the president probably 90% of the time. And when I vote against them, it's because I don't think it's in the best interest of Republicans.

I don't think it's in the best interest of the Republican brand. I don't think it's in the best interest of outcomes in the next election. Why would anybody think I'd take on the president just for giggles? You know, it's a pretty weighty task. I'm doing it because I believe in conservative values and I want to win in November. Perhaps, though, there will be some giggles in the new book. How to Lose Friends and antagonize presidents. It is out tomorrow.

Republicans there, Tom Tillis of North Carolina and Mr. Senator, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Still ahead here on Morning Joe, we'll turn to Michigan, where Democratic Senator Alyssa Slotkin and Senate nominee Abdul El-Said share some notable differences, but they say what they have in common is actually more important. We're going to bring you a new joint interview with both Democrats that's straight ahead here on Morning Joe. we will be right back.

A season high, 34 pitches for Mason Miller. And the first three walks of his postseason career have loaded them up for Jackson Churio's moment. Juryo hits it on. What a moment. The Milwaukee Brewers

walked it off against the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the ninth inning last night. Jackson Juryo tagging baseball's best closer with a two-run walk-off single and a two-run. 2-0-N-LDS lead. He took a 99-mile-hour slider. Just missed, took it, and then hit 101-mile-hour fastball for the game winner.

The Brewers can sweep the Best to Five Series with another win as the series shifts tomorrow night to San Diego. To Los Angeles now, the Atlanta Braves, even their NLDS against the Dodgers. Michael Harris, the second, came up just a home run shy of the cycle and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning as the Braves beat the Dodgers three to two. The series now shifts to Atlanta for game three tomorrow night. The ALDS resumes this evening in Cleveland, where the Guardians will try to avoid a two-o-hole against Chicago White Sox, and the Tanton Bay Rays will host the Yankees in game two

after nearly no-hitting New York to win Saturday's opener. One more thought on that Dodgers Braves series, because, look, Dodgers are going for the three-peat. They're still the headline for anything in October. You know, they got a great outing out of scoble in game one. Blake Snell, though, scuffled yesterday. The Braves did just enough. And they get to go home and they get Chris Sale, who's as good as anybody in baseball,

awaiting for one of the upcoming games. The Braves really have a chance. So weigh in there and give us your panic meter, if there is any, about the Yankees tonight. You do have your best pitcher on the mound, Cam Schlittler. Yes. But he's got to bounce to carry the team after what was a pretty heartbreaking loss in game one. Pitching to me is the through line and the two stories you just mentioned.

Obviously, Chris Sale, what he did coming out of the bullpen to close out. I mean, the question of who do you trust when the highest leverage innings are in front of you? Chris Sale. Yeah, he's earned that. You had him on the Red Sox, of course. On us to World Series. Against a certain team that we just mentioned. And in this case, Camp Schlitler is the reason why my EKG meter is relatively calm.

But after game one, I mean, it's a reminder. Look, I don't want to just call for a constitutional convention about how to reseed playoff brackets. But the race of the Yankees had the best two records in the AAL. And this is a very long regular season in this sport. And the idea that they got to play each other right now after the Yankees survived the wild card against your Boston Red Sox. I don't love that. And you're seeing the raise in a 100 shutout.

Yeah, prove why they actually are deserving of the respect of everybody else that we tend to focus on in the ALE East to their detriment. So kudos to them. But Kams Littler is the young ace that I just count on to relieve my mental health. health issues. He wins tonight. Yankees even it. Go home. They'll be just fine. But a huge game looms. And Pablo, we should know, we'd like to, the morning, those of us at Morning Joe, have joined the ranks of AI industry leaders. We're begging, we're begging the government to step in. Please regulate our technology. It's got out of hand. Look, here's the NFL power rankings. They're up.

You can hear that. No. Look, the morning Joe computer power rankings. The budget, the no expense spared here. There's a 10% chance that this computer will wipe out humanity within the next year or two. But in the meantime, Niners first, your Kansas City Chief, second, Seahawks third. The Vikings can't score, but their defense is great. They're fourth.

And despite losing to the Patriots, Buffalo Bills at fifth. It is funny. I'm just making sure the computer hasn't missed anything. But yeah, the undefeated Minnesota Vikings not being one of the top three teams ahead of the Seattle Seahawks who have one loss. I want to, on some level, object to the computer, but I think,

think the computer is seeing the qualitative. I think the computer is right. The computer has taught, is teaching itself to understand strength of schedule. And hey, the Vikings, they can't score. Let's keep them forth. Again, Congress, the president, we need to step in here. Is that number one right now, Mr. President? I think we need some sort of intervention.

We need some help. Definitely. Still ahead here, I'm morning, Joe. We'll set aside sports for the time being. And bring you the president, Trump, who has said he has no regrets, none, when it comes to his second term. We're going to show you those new remarks straight ahead here. I'm Morning, Joe. Live shot of the U.S. Capitol, cloudy morning in Washington's about 740 a.m. So Senator Alyssa Slotkin and Democratic Senate nominee Abdul Al-Said are banding together to convince

voters in Michigan that their differences only make them stronger. The two participated in their first ever joint town hall event on Saturday, speaking to voters in the Bellwether District of McComb County, touching on everything from their differing faiths to how they plan to lead in the Senate for the rest of President Trump's time and office. And in an exclusive sit-down interview with MS Now, they broke down their plans for how they hope to serve Michigan going forward. MS Now congressional reporter Kevin Frye conducted that interview and joins us now. Kevin, good to see you. What did they tell you? Yeah, I mean, look, so one of the dynamics that's quite interesting between these two is one, they're both going to have,

defeated Mike Rogers, if El Coyette ends up pulling this off in a couple weeks, because of course, Slotkin and Rogers faced off two years ago. On top of that, they will both be among the youngest members of the Senate. And that's certainly one area where they're kind of wrapping, grasping arms to talk about how they can bring a youthful perspective, and particularly when it comes to issues like AI and technology and communication strategy to the Senate. But of course, they do share some notable differences, which have been underscored by all of the column inches, for example, spent on Israel, on Middle East politics. And so we kind of try to get at some of those differences. Here's how they view that and how they see that as actually a strength in this particular state.

There's no such thing as like the Jewish voters, just like there's no such thing as the Muslim voters or the black voters. Like people have their own views and the things that they prioritize are going to drive their vote. But I think, frankly, for the state of Michigan, We want to, like people want to see a Jewish woman and a Muslim man being able to get along, debate, push and pull on each other, and move the state forward. Frankly, I think it's good for Michigan. I think it's good for the country to see that. I'll tell you that the thing that neither Senator Slakin nor I will ever budge on is that you ought to be safe in your place of worship,

whether you are Jewish or you're Muslim or you're Christian or you're Hindu or you're sick. And we all believe that this is a place that is better because of our diversity. And we want to fight to protect that. I often feel like some of my fellow colleagues who have been in the Senate for a very long time, they grew up in a Senate that I have never seen or experienced. The world has changed from 30 years ago. And the Senate has changed and how you express authority and oversight is different. You know, you think about how the Senate operates.

It is quite clear that the body does not fully take seriously that information moves by way of the Internet in clips. And, you know, that's just one example, right? And so I do think that there is an opportunity for us to upgrade not just our tactics, but also an understanding of strategy about what conversation we ought to have. And so that second part you heard there was them talking about that sort of new generational change. As Slot can put it during the town hall, she wants to be on team. fight, and then she pointed to El Sallad as someone who could bring that to Washington. Slotkin basically tried to argue that the differences, but within the Democratic coalition right

now, are not between left versus moderate, but essentially between those who want to take on new tactics, to take on the administration, to learn in this kind of new political environment we are in versus using old tactic. Now, neither of them would play ball when I kind of touched on these. So what would you do about Senator Schumer, particularly if a lot of his picks for these key Senate races are the ones that end up giving Democrats the majority in the Senate, they wouldn't necessarily play ball there. One other thing I will note is McComb County, the significance of them holding this first joint campaign appearance there together. If you look back two years when Slotkin won Michigan at the same time that President Trump won Michigan, Slotkin lost that county by only nine points

compared to 14 points that Kamala Harris lost it. So if she can transfer any of that credibility with voters there to El-Sayed, that could arguably help him there as well. Yeah, Kevin, did you get a sense from them and from your time with them about the issues that they do plan to campaign on together? I mean, McComb County is interesting, actually, because we'll see what happens there, but that's not an area of the state that has a particularly large Jewish or Muslim population at all. So you talk a little bit about what issues they have found common ground on and where they think the Michigan voters are. Yeah, I mean, and some of that was demonstrated in that town hall, which is attended by a couple hundred folks,

which is we saw questions about labor and how they're going to be standing up for that. And that is one area where they clearly both are in line supporting things like the Pro Act. They also talked about corruption. And this is an area where they both are very keen to lean in on, particularly when it comes to fighting the Trump administration, doing oversight in that space, but also doing what Slotkin and El Cid was somewhat deferential to Slotkin on this, given her experience in the Senate and Congress writ large, basically trying to set up guardrails and using the years ahead to try to prevent Trump or someone like Trump from breaking norms going forward

to basically put into statute things that have traditionally just been part of the accepted norms of Congress. the one other area, notably where we see these two, particularly kind of forging a path together here on, and I think this is quite interesting, is kind of their approach to the next two years, because if Democrats are able to win control of the Senate and the House, there will be the question of exactly what should be prioritized and what can legitimately get done in that sort of setting because obviously President Trump will still have the veto pen. And both of them argued that when it comes to issues that deal with the cost of living and addressing these major campaign themes that we heard at that town hall and have been the centerpiece of El Saitz

campaign and Democratic campaigns across the country, they at the very least need to pass legislation and dare, dare President Trump not to take it up. Democrats feeling bullish about so many states right now, but they acknowledge Michigan is going to be close. And it's going to take a lot of work in this next month. MS now is Kevin Frye. Kevin, thank you so very much. Coming up here on Morning Joe, our next guest tries to bring historic heroes to life in his best-selling books. His latest focus? The Wright brothers. There they are. Arthur Brad Meltzer joins us next with that. Morning Joe. Be back in just a minute. Beautiful live shot there, the Statue Liberty in New York Harbor. That's right. I'm on a ferry in front of it now. People get into work. It's Monday morning.

Yeah, Monday, just before 8 o'clock. Arthur Brad Meltzer is known for his popular children's picture book series, Ordinary People Change the World, which has more than 9 million copies in print worldwide, and has produced 14 New York Times bestsellers. He's now out with his 40th install in the series, this time focusing on flight. His new book, We Are the Wright Brothers,

is an inspiring introduction to the American innovators whose determination and curiosity forever changed the way people travel and connect and stand in security lines. And Brad joins us now. Brad, congratulations on this. We should note your illustrator deserve some credit here. Particularly love the mustache on the one of the right brothers here. Historically accurate mustache.

So the Wright brothers are rightly acclaimed as we were discussing here. I sat down and claimed by two different states, Ohio and North Carolina. Why do you think, why did you choose them for the next installment of your wildest, popular series. You know, this is my favorite story about the Wright brothers, is every time the Wright brothers were going to fly their plane, they bring enough extra materials from multiple crashes, which means every time they went out, they knew they would fail. And they would crash and rebuild and crash and rebuild, and that's why they took off. And I love that story. I wanted my sons to hear that story. I wanted my daughter to hear that story. I wanted everyone to know you

dream big and you work hard and you have a good side order of stubbornness. You could do anything in this world. That's why they get the book. I want to just take the temperature of the world right now, though, as it relates to how we, I have a six-year-old daughter, how worried all the parents are about whether they're going to be reading and how this feels perhaps different from, I mean, this is what number of book in this series? 40. Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, right now we live in an age of anger, an age of division, and I refuse to accept that. To me, what we should be teaching your kids, right, is we should be back in an age of inspiration. And right now, if you look at it, there's so many things that make me so crazy when we look around at the world. And those ideas

of inspiration, those values endure, even if our politicians are lacking them. So we let people vote on the 40th book in the series. We said, who do you want? And they wanted two brothers from the middle of the country who used ingenuity and perseverance and teamwork. And that's what we always. our kids, we do still have shared values in the country. And what we have to do is use our own ingenuity and our own sense of connection to build kids a better world. Brad, can we talk about the Wright brothers themselves for a moment? It sounds like, and I did not know this until you came here and said and told me a moment ago, they had an interesting mother who herself was a tinkerer, as you said, kind of an inventor type. Could you talk about that? Yeah. What I love is

we always want to know how the Wright brothers, why are they the Wright brothers? And it's their dad who brings home a toy when they're seven and 11 years old that flies across the room, one of those propellers you put with a rubber band. But it's their mother who's the builder in the family. And she catches them one day. One of them is taken apart their sewing machine. And, you know what my mother may she rest in peace would do if I took apart the sewing machine? Their mother says, fantastic. Keep building.

And to me, that's the lesson that these books also have is love your kid for exactly who they are. That's how they thrive. That's how we build a better world. then that's what we've got to give our kids, is we've got to show them that better universe. See, where I'm thinking, I wonder what their mother could have done. Yeah, and their sister as well. Of course, of course. It's a story of innovation, perseverance, and good parenting.

The New Children's Book, We Are the Right Brothers, is out tomorrow. Best telling author Brad, Meltzer Brad, always good to see you. Congratulations on this, the 40th in this series. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Still ahead here, morning, Joe. Several Senate and governor races in Republican-leaning states are now tilting in the Democrats' favor with just about a month to go until the midterms.

We're going to run through some brand new polling straight ahead here on Morning Joe.