Morning Joe - U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) joins Morning Joe

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

July 16, 2026: 8am — U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) joins Morning Joe 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.

Former President Joe Biden just announced that he's written a book about his presidency that's coming out in November. Here's the cover. Yep. The book was written by a ghostwriter, Joe Biden. It's the second book Biden has written. The first was The Odyssey. The book is about what Biden remembers from his presidency, so it's three pages. It's kind of a strange book because towards the end, it starts being written by Kamala Harris.

Oh, my God. Welcome back to Morning, Joe. It is Thursday. July 16th, we begin this hour with some of the top stories we've been following this morning. The United States and Iran have been trading strikes with the intensified fighting, now entering a fifth day. The Strait of Hormuz remains at the center of the reignited conflict. On Capitol Hill yesterday, Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton faced senators in separate confirmation hearings. Blanche, the acting attorney general, was pressed on the Epstein files as well as the president's attempt to create

a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Meanwhile, Clayton, the nominee for Director of National Intelligence, was grilled about the winner of the 2020 election, which he refused to answer. And tonight, the president is set to deliver a primetime speech that he claims will focus

on free and fair elections. Plus, the president is calling for ICE to continue its vehicle stop stops, despite two deadly shootings by agents just days apart in Texas and Maine. Well, and, you know, the thing is, all of those things that you talked about, each one of those would be a major headline in years past and would dominate news coverage for the week. If you actually had somebody that wanted to run the intel community, that wouldn't even

admit that the 2020 election was. not stolen when everybody knows it wasn't stolen. When 63 federal judges, many of them Trump appointed judges said it wasn't stolen, when you had the United States Supreme Court saying it wasn't stolen, when you even had Thomas and Alito saying in a Pennsylvania case that it wasn't stolen, that even looking at one of the complaints would not change enough votes to make a difference, that it wasn't. And yet you have somebody who, again, it reminds me of Orwell. You know, the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and your ears. Somebody, another one of these Ivy League trained guys, you're supposed to be so smart.

They're not even smart enough to tell the truth there. But the party told them to reject what their eyes saw and what their ears heard. And then you have Todd Blanche, who's going out there. And again, the guy that was at the center of the cover up on the Epstein. files, which we just don't talk about enough that how important this was to MAGA, leading up to the 24 election, through the 24 election after the 24 election. And now the cover-up continues. What are the 3 million files? Three million files still being covered up. Three million files still being kept from the American people. Three million files that contain the names of the rich and the

powerful that in the United States aren't brought to justice for some reason. The documents are released and they're brought to justice in Great Britain. A prince is brought to justice and Great Britain. The British ambassador of the United States loses his job because of the Epstein files. The prime minister of Great Britain is taken down in part. because of some of his cabinet officials' connections to the Epstein files. But here we are in the United States of America where it doesn't even seem to matter to a lot of these MAGA people.

It's crazy that the thing that mattered most of them before Donald Trump was president now matters the least to them. And the cover up continues. And then, of course, you have, again, we talked about what, happened with the president reversing course. Susan Collins promised. She promised when she gave $70 billion more dollars to ice. People who didn't need the money. Yeah. 70 billion more dollars to ice. She promised there would be body cams. She lied. There were no body cams in her own state. There were no body cams in Texas when a father, a husband. A husband. A husband.

husband, a worker, somebody who had been in this country for over three decades, was shot and killed and dragged from his car? There are no body cams there. This is happening all over America. American citizens are being shot in the streets of America and killed. Workers are being shot and killed in the streets of America. Fathers, young fathers and sons and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, in the streets of Maine. In Senator Collins State of Maine, a 25-year-old father was gunned down in front of his three-year-old girl and his wife, and he wasn't even the person they were looking for.

My question is, why doesn't Susan Collins, trust the people of Maine to investigate a killing on the streets of Maine. My question is, why doesn't Kim Paxton trust the people of Texas, trust the people of Houston to investigate a cold-blooded killing that happened in the state of Texas? Why are these so-called small government Republicans, by the way, are part of like the biggest deficits and debt of all time. Why do they want to federalize this? I mean, where are the don't tread on the flags on license plates on the back of Maseratis?

Like, don't tread on me what? Like, does that mean don't raise my tax rate by one or two percent? Or does that mean don't let federal agents that are masked come into my community and shoot people dead in the streets of my hometown and not face justice? I thought that's why we fought the British 250 years ago. We'll see. Well, the sons of Lorenzo Salgado Arajo, who was fatally shot in Houston last week by an ICE agent, they're speaking out about the loss of their father. I felt anger for sure. My dad had been taken away from me, from us.

I felt guilt because I should have been there sooner. I thought I could save him or at least see him one last time. What has been the most difficult and painful part of this entire situation for you? I think just accepting that he's never going to come back. I'm not sure I'll ever accept that. I have to. Let's bring in Texas State Representative and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, James Telerico.

It's very good to have you on the show. Obviously, there are so many questions about these two latest ice shootings and the overall deadly and dangerous deportation tactics on the part of this administration. At the same time, I'm curious, do you believe there should be a robust immigration policy? and border security. Absolutely. You know, we're on our Frontera tour going from El Paso, Texas to the Rio Grande Valley, 750 miles along our Texas-Mexico border.

We're talking about common sense border security. We had Republican and Democratic border sheriffs joining together to support our bipartisan common-sense border security plan. And I've also been talking about these ice killings in El Paso, I talked about Lorenzo Salgado, who raised three boys who all went to college. You saw two of them there, a public school teacher and an engineer. He embodied the American dream. And he was murdered after living in our state for 35 years. Two days after I talked about Lorenzo Salgado, we saw another killing in Maine. And a three-year-old girl watched her father killed before her eyes. And so we need a independent, independent investigation of these killings. We have to protect our immigrant neighbors while also securing our southern border with common sense policies like more border patrol agents, more surveillance technology, and more immigration judges, not this crazy border wall through the Big Ben National Park here in Texas. So that's what we're talking about. And I think it's

resonating with people across the state and across the political spectrum. So you would agree that Democrats made a big mistake in 2021. 22, 23, not focusing enough on border security, right? Absolutely. And I've called out President Biden and his administration for failing to secure our southern border. I remember talking to my colleagues in the state house who represent border communities, and they were telling me about the utter chaos along our southern border. And that's unacceptable.

We need to be about making government work for people. And this was a prime example of government not working for any of us. Do you think Democrats, other than you, do you think there are enough Democrats that understand what a horrible mistake that was? When you look at the 2024 election results and you see all of those counties along the border, all going red, are almost all of them going red? Do you think Democrats nationwide understand what you understand that open borders is no solution? In fact, it is a disaster, not only politically, but does. for the communities, Hispanic communities, along that border. That's exactly right.

You know, my family is from South Texas. My mom grew up in Laredo on our southern borders. So border communities in Texas mean a lot to me personally. They mean a lot to my family. And national Democrats took the border for granted. We stopped showing up there. And that's why people along the southern border, it's why people in South Texas started looking for,

for alternatives. Republicans came to town and made big promises about, you know, common sense immigration approach, lowering people's costs. But just a year into this administration, those promises haven't been kept. And we've seen more extremism on immigration with these ice raids. We've seen this crazy, useless border wall through Big Bend being proposed. When you already have a wall made by God with cliffs and mountain ranges, much better than anything, humans could build. And then you've also seen cost skyrocketing for people along the border. You've seen these tariffs start to hurt small businesses in the region. So folks are feeling really disillusioned. They feel like they've been let down by both political parties. And it's why

we're showing up. It's why we're listening and holding town halls to rebuild some of that trust that's been lost. And I think we've seen folks along the border, folks in South Texas joining this movement we're building. They're ready to finally have a senator who's going to fight for them in Washington. You know, you look at the numbers, not only in Texas, in Florida and other states, and any gains Republicans made that Donald Trump made with Hispanic voters have been completely wiped away because of the immigration policy. In fact, Donald Trump's strongest policy has always been immigration. It's now, he's now even upside down on that issue. I'm curious. And I just, I just put all of that out there because I'm not asking you this as a softball question. I'm asking you

this as somebody on the ground, knocking on doors every day, talking to people every day, and sort of want you to be a reporter to Americans that are listening to you right now. And explain the fear. Explain the heartache. Explain the pain that is going through the Hispanic community, not only in Houston, but across all of Texas and all of America. Yeah, you know, I've been traveling to every corner of Texas from El Paso to Beaumont, from Amarillo to Brownsville. We've been holding all these events. And I've got so many young people showing up at our town halls, at our rallies. Many of them say it's the first political event they've ever attended. Many of them are Hispanic. And so many tell me that they're worried,

their parents aren't going to come home at the end of the day. And these are hardworking neighbors who have been in our communities for years, for decades. The president promised to go after the criminals, and that's something I support. We should be deporting murderers and rapists and gang members, but that's not what's happening. I should be cracking down on the cartels, not our communities. I should be deporting these violent criminals, not small business owners. They should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies. And I think that's what most Texans want out of immigration and customs enforcement. They want to go after the threats to public safety, not to the hardworking members of our community who have been contributing to our economy, contributing to our state,

who've been making us richer and stronger as immigrants have done throughout American history. Representative Tallarico, thanks for being with us this morning. Let's talk specifically about your race. Democrats are excited about your candidacy here, but they also have that skepticism born of more than 30 years now of Democrats losing statewide. And in the state of Texas, people have been saying for years now, Texas is on the brink of turning blue, and it always seems to come up just short a couple of years ago. Colin, all read, a good candidate lost by just over eight points to Senator Ted Cruz, though he did outperform Kamala Harris in the state of Texas. So the question to you this morning

for Democrats who may be watching, who are excited about you, why do you feel this time is different in Texas? Why are you going to reverse the trend of the last 30 years of Texas, always statewide going Republican, is part of that, as John Cornyn would tell you, that you are facing a uniquely corrupt candidate in Ken Paxton? You know, the first words out of my mouth when I launched this campaign back in September of last year were that the real fight in this country is not left versus right, it's top versus bottom. So, you know, my party talks about turning Texas is blue. The Republican Party talks about keeping Texas red. I honestly think the best color for Texas is purple. I think she would look great in purple because what needs to happen is we have to

end this one-party rule. We need competition in our elections in Texas because when we have competitive elections, all politicians, particularly those who have been bought by billionaire mega donors, they have to stay on their toes. They have to try to serve all of us. And whether it's in red states or blue states, one party rule always leads to extremism and corruption because there's no competition. Competition is good in business. It's good in sports and it's good in politics. And that's what we're trying to do. We are trying to take on the mega donors who can increasingly control our politics, control our economy, and their puppet politicians who do their bidding in the halls of power. And that's not really a partisan thing, whether you're a little more conservative or a

little more progressive. We're all getting screwed. None of us can afford the basics, groceries, gas, utilities, child care, prescription drugs, the things that we need to survive. And so that's why we're bringing working people together across these partisan divides, racial divides, cultural divides so that we can take on the people at the top who have been screwing us over for decades. Watching this race pretty closely, it's been notable that the criticism of you from many Republicans, from the president all the way down to the grassroots level there in Texas, about you has been personal. It has been cultural.

It's been kind of, he's not one of us. He doesn't have that Texas swagger. They talk about the fact that you're a vegan, which you have said you are not, things like that. Like he's not Texas, which you were born and raised, correct me, in Round Rock, Texas. You went to UT, Ken Paxton's from North Dakota and came to college in Texas. Nothing wrong with that, but just stating the facts. How do you answer that kind of criticism from those. corners that say, I don't know, he doesn't walk and talk like a Texan. He might not be one of us.

Yeah, I think it's funny because I'm the eighth-generation Texan in the race. As you mentioned, Ken Paxton was born in North Dakota. He was raised in California. And I think California transplants like Ken Paxton can become Texans. That's what's great about our state. You know, Texas is a state of mind, as John Steinbeck wrote. And so I think what folks are hungry for is a senator who's going to serve all Texans, regardless of our political party, regardless of where we grew up, whether we've been here for eight generations or whether we just got here, like Ken Paxton. And I think that's what we've got to focus on over the course of this campaign. People want a senator who's going to bring both parties together to lower our costs. And that's what I have a track record of doing.

I've served for four terms in the Texas legislature. I have passed 60 bipartisan bills with my Republican colleagues in the state house, bills that cut property taxes, that raise teacher pay, that that lowered the cost of housing and child care and prescription drugs, including insulin. And so I have a track record of bringing down costs for working Texans. I think that's what folks are looking for, not these divisive culture wars that have been pitting neighbor against neighbor for years now. It's interesting. Ken Paxton says you're not Texan enough.

He was born in North Dakota. he grew up in California It's not Texas celebrates 4th of July in London or Iceland or I don't know where he was I'm curious

what what French city did you spend were you in like he's in London or Iceland or wherever were you in Paris how did you spend maybe Luxembourg

where did you spend your 4th of July so I actually spent 4th of July with an American treasure Willie Nelson in Austin at his annual Fourth of July picnic, which was a real honor as a longtime fan of Willie Nelson. And, you know, we've celebrated 250 years of independence from the British, and Ken Paxton

celebrated that important anniversary with the British. So it was quite a choice. So Ken Paxton's and Knightsbridge, and you're with Willie. On the 4th of July. Okay. Check, I think you went down. You know, I've always said that Donald Trump has succeeded by getting his opponents to act outside of themselves and do really stupid things. I have noted your campaign is doing the same thing to Republicans.

You drive them crazy. I mean, you take their obsession with low testosterone. levels. They are obsessed. Ken Paxton is obsessed with low tea and Pete Hegseth obsessed with low T. Lieutenant Governor Patrick. Actually, let's take a look at him. He says, you're not manly enough to actually. This guy. This guy says, this guy says, you're not manly enough to represent the people at Texas. And he's concerned about your low T levels. Your manliness. Your manliness.

Oh, yeah. You know what? Is this a parody? Yeah. Tell us about their obsession with low T. Yeah, when I first heard this low T thing, I had to look it up. Guys my age aren't really worried about that kind of thing. But I think people are really tired of this kind of professional.

professional wrestling in our politics, these old guys who are lathered up in their fake tan, throwing these corny nicknames at each other. People are wanting serious leaders who are going to get this economy back on track, who are going to start to lower costs, who are going to start to raise pay. And people are catching on to the fact that these corny nicknames don't lower the cost of groceries, don't lower the cost of prescription drugs, don't lower the price of gas. And so people realize that we're being played by these politicians who want to throw these nicknames at each other. And they're ready for a serious senator who's going to bring both parties together to get this economy back on track. By the way, Talafriko as a nickname.

I'm all in. If somebody calls me Talafriko, I'm meming that all the way to be over. And Joe. And Joe, yeah. Well, I don't know if everyone knows this, but we've got I'm a TalaFrico T-shirts available on our website. James Tallerico.com. Check it out and get your t-shirt today. I'll get you one.

I mean, seriously, they are just playing into your hands. I want to show a picture of this guy again, who's obsessed with low testosterone levels, I guess, and says you're not, oh, my God, manly enough. And I want to turn this a little serious. This guy felt comfortable, also judging your faith. This guy and others felt comfortable saying

that you're going to hell. Now, I find this absolutely fascinating that somebody could be so ignorant of the Gospels of Jesus Christ that they would make such a proclamation in a political campaign not even knowing that Jesus said, Judge not that you be not judged,

Blessed, the Merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. The same, you know, by the measure that you use for other people, I will use that measure against you. I mean, the fastest way to hell, if you believe what Jesus Christ says, is to be focused on the speck in your neighbor's eye instead of the plank in your own. And yet again, they continue to attack your faith and your relationship with Jesus Christ, which, again, I not only find offensive, but I, I also find it self-defeating because people that actually read the Bible, that read the red letters, understand that is the last thing a Christian is supposed to do. Yeah, that's exactly right.

You know, my granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas, in Laredo. And when I was real little, he told me that as Christians, we're supposed to follow the two commandments that Jesus gave us to love God and to love neighbor. That's it. Christianity is a simple religion. He would always tell me. It's not an easy religion because it's not always easy to love our neighbors, but it is a simple religion. And if we can focus on those two commandments, if we can love our neighbors, not just our neighbors who look like us, not just our neighbors who pray like us, not just our neighbors who vote like us. If we can love all of our neighbors, including our enemies, that's when we are truly following that barefoot rabbi from 2,000 years ago.

It's that commandment to love thy neighbor is what it got me into public service. It's why I became a public school teacher on the west side of San Antonio. It's why I ran for the state house. It's why I've passed those 60 bipartisan bills to lower people's costs. I'm trying to love my neighbor through public policy. I'm trying to make my neighbor's life a little easier, a little better, a little less stressful. And it feels like that kind of love has been missing from our politics, from our public service for a long time. now. And it really does feel like in Texas, that message from 2,000 years ago is still resonating

with people today, particularly today, given the divisive, corrosive politics we've all been suffering under for 10 years now. Yeah, you know, and I don't want to get too deep into theology here, but there is something really important that needs to be said based on what you just, you just mentioned what your grandfather, the preacher, told you. Jesus is very clear. All the laws, they all collapse into two things. Love God, love, your neighbor. And then, and this is so important to explain, I will say to my Republican friends,

who don't understand this, who may not have read the Bible, but also people that want to understand more of like what's going on on the hard right, how it's the antithesis of what Jesus preached. So Jesus said to the disciples, love God and love your neighbor. Stuypals said, oh, who's my neighbor? That's right. After Jesus said, love God, love your neighbor. So what does Jesus say?

He goes, let me tell you a story. And he tells the story of the Good Samaritan and tells how a man's beaten up. He's left on the side of the road. And all of his friends, all of his neighbors, all of his own people, passed him by. Left him in the ditch to die. It was a despised Samaritan. It was a foreigner. Jesus specifically picked a foreigner who is the most despised to save this man in the ditch.

And he said, that is your neighbor. So when I see people being gunned down in the streets, when I see people despising the others, whether they are black or they are brown, because they don't fit into their vision of what a white America is like, can you explain how that is the antithesis of everything Jesus taught his disciples, especially when he was telling them how to get to heaven? Yeah, you're taking us to church, Joe. This parable of the Good Samaritan, I think, has so much to offer us in this moment in our country,

this moment in the world. because you're absolutely right. For Jesus' listeners, 2,000 years ago, that story of the Good Samaritan would have been shocking. You know, these days, we think of a Good Samaritan as someone who just helps people on the side of the road. And that's important. You should help people on the side of the road.

But we're forgetting how radical that message was, that he picked a Samaritan, not just an enemy, but a religious enemy. And so he lifted up the heretic. He said, the heretic is where salvation comes from. That is such a shocking message. It's still shocking today. I've said it's as if Jesus stood in the middle of DKR Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas and told a story called the Good Aggie.

It would be shocking to the folks who were listening. And no, my dad's an Aggie, so I can make that joke. But, you know, I think we have to remember that the other, the outcast, the enemy, has something to teach us. And I would say that's true for the Democratic Party, too. Jesus would be telling us that the person who's going to help us is our MAGA uncle. And that would be shocking for Democrats to hear. So we all need to check ourselves because these media systems, particularly social media, these algorithms, they divide us for the profit of a few people at the very top.

They're pitting neighbor against neighbor telling us that our enemies are the problem. And Jesus is trying to break all of that from 2,000 years ago. His message is as relevant today as it's ever been. And I think if we can learn to love thy neighbor, if we can learn to love our enemies, that is the key to saving this American experiment in self-governance, not just here, but this experiment in democracy all over the world. So how do you take this message to the voters in Texas, but also to your competitor, Ken Paxton?

We understand you have an announcement. Well, you know, Ken Paxton's billionaire handlers don't let him answer questions in public. He hasn't appeared on a debate stage in more than a decade. He refuses to answer, really, basic questions like, why did you give an Epstein-style sweetheart deal to an admitted child predator, Adam Hoffman? How did you become a multimillionaire on a government? salary. Did Tim Dunn and Ferris Wilkes, your top two billionaire mega donors, buy an acquittal in your impeachment trial? He won't answer, I think, those very relevant questions. He doesn't answer to the public because he's not a public servant. He is a puppet politician. And I want him to

prove me wrong, as we just talked about. We have to be focused on forgiveness and redemption and second chances. And so that's why I am challenging Ken Paxton to three televised debates. I'll be on that debate stage because I answer to the people of Texas. Ken Paxton answers to his billionaire mega donors. We'll see if they let him show up. All right. We'll be watching for that. Hasn't it hasn't debated in 10 years. And we've got to be interesting to see a debate. I think it'd be good for the voters of any state where they're making a choice like this. They deserve it. Texas State Representative.

Yes, they do. And Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, James Tullerico. Thank you very much for coming on. This is 4th of July's with Willie Nelson instead of the Ninth Street. That's impressive. I'm a little jelly. I want to see Willie Nelson. You know, he watches Morning Joe.

Willie, look at that. We love Willie Nelson. All right. He's doing great. Thank you. Coming up. Thank you. We're good.

Following yesterday's Senate confirmation hearing for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, ranking member of the Senate. Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Dick Durman of Illinois will join us to discuss his takeaways from the testimony. You're watching morning, Joe. We will be right back. Can I get your word under oath that within the next 30 days, you will personally sit down with these 10 victims and hear their case in terms of what needs to be done by the Department of

Justice? Chairman, I appreciate them being here today. I also have somebody from my office who's spent her entire career working. on cases like Mr. Epstein. She's in charge of our task force investigating human trafficking. She's available to talk to them. She can sit right next to you. She can sit right next to you when you meet with these survivors. I am, I have never said I will not meet with survivors. Will you meet with these 10 survivors? I'm asking you on the record. If they have lawyers, as you know, I'm prohibited from meeting directly with them. That exchange between the ranking

member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and acting attorney general Todd Blanche came during Blanche's confirmation hearing yesterday to be the permanent attorney general. And Senator Durbin joins us now. Senator, thanks for being with us today. Curious, what stood out to you beyond that exchange, perhaps, yesterday about Epstein survivors. I guess at least he acknowledged them, that infamous scene where Pam Bondi wouldn't even turn around and look at them as they were in the chamber there. But if you just take one step back, Senator, and consider that the president's former personal attorney wants to be the attorney general. In previous days, that would have been a non-starter,

but here we are on the brink of it. I can tell you, that question that I asked, I thought I knew the answer. I thought Todd Blanche, when he met with me the day before, made it clear that he would sit down with these survivors. Ten of them were in the room. He refused. And why? Well, we're not sure if they have an attorney or not. Get over it. These young women have risked an awful lot and shown real courage to come and tell their story. I met with them afterwards. I heard those stories. To have a young woman say to me, I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein when I was 13 years old. I defy any father or grandfather to visualize a woman in their family, age 13, going through that terrible abuse. And here we have Mr. Blatch basically refusing to even sit down and hear their

story. That to me is unacceptable. I'll tell you this. I don't believe there's a senator of either political party who could meet with those survivors and turn around and vote for Todd Blanche, who said he won't meet with him. You know, that to me is an outrage. And yet, Senator Durbin, it sounded just from the casual comments from some of your Republican colleagues yesterday. I'm thinking of Tom Tillis, among others, who are actually leaving town, some of them retiring, some of them losing their seats, saying, yeah, I'm inclined, I think, to support this nominee. Do you believe that Todd Blanche will make it through? Well, I can't tell you the answer to that. There were some tough questions from Republican senators, including Senator Cornyn,

but how they're going to vote I wouldn't want to predict. I will tell you that is not the only problem. The fact is that Mr. Blanche was and still is in his own mind the personal attorney for this president. He said it during the course of the hearing. And look at what happened when he signed that one order from the court that basically said that neither President Trump, his family, or businesses could be held responsible for committing tax crimes before the date of this document. Think of that.

Get out of jail, free card for the Trump and family and businesses across the board. When has that ever happened in the history of the United States? The answer is never. And Todd Blancher is the one who signed that order. You know, it just tells you the bottom line. This is the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States of America. A president who makes $1.4 billion out of cryptocurrency in his first year is a clear, indication of corruption.

Senator, what do you make of the president's reversal? Very sudden and quick reversal on traffic stops, ice traffic stops, that was made in response to do of the latest ICE shootings, especially the one in Maine where the wrong man was targeted. And there are many, many questions surrounding both of these killings, including Maine and in Houston. Meek, I'm not a betting man, but I'll bet a lot of money, that there was one reason why the president reversed what was a sensible position. What was announced that was that ICE was going to take a close look at the way that they were conducting these traffic stops because people were getting killed.

Even people who weren't the targets of the ICE activity. Why did he change his position? Two words. Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller is relentless in his quotas to try to deport people who don't look like him. And that's why the president reversed himself as far as I'm concerned. All right, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. Thank you very much for coming on the show this morning.

Thanks, we appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Up next with all the streaming services available out there, everyone has a lot of passwords to remember. But one service is looking to make things easier. We're going to take a look at that straight ahead on Morning Joe. We like to know what dango means, because I know fan means for fans, but I don't know dango, what that means. You go on the internet, you find out what time the movie plays, and then you do the Fandango with my credit card, right?

Yeah. We had to sit in separate seats. We had to sit separately. Yes, so we could have used Fandango then. Yes, we could have. But we go to the movies at least once a week. We don't always go Friday and Saturday nights because we go clubbing. Buy and print tickets on fandango.com or call 1,800 Fandango.

Remember those ads? That was an early TV commercial from the movie ticket provider, Fandango, serving cinema goers for more than 25 years. The company also has a robust selection of premium content. It's come a long way since those ads. Now is unifying its entertainment offerings under one brand that comes with a big boost to its budding free streaming service featuring thousands of TV shows, movies, and even live sports. now correspondent for Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes.

Nikki Novak, Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes, by the way, both owned by Versant, the same parent company as us at MS now. Mickey, great to see you. Great to see you. Did you like those sock puppets? Those were great, I almost forgotten about them. We need to bring them back. We did.

We started giving them out to actors in their own likeness, and they love it. Oh, that's brilliant. I love that. Yeah. Come back to that. I want to talk about this streaming, free streaming in just a moment, but let's talk about this summer at the movies. Oh, my gosh.

We have to talk about The Odyssey, which comes out, it's tomorrow. Yeah, right? Yes. We've both seen it in IMAX. For me, it's one of the most extraordinary spectacles I've ever seen on a screen. What was your take on it? Same. We were chatting a little bit before.

I think it's one of my best moving going experiences ever. And we talk about spectacle, but with Christopher Nolan, everything is shot practically. And what that means, what it means for me is sometimes when I'm watching films are so much CG these days. I'm like, okay, that was CG. But it looks great. This time around, everything. everything is so visceral. You feel like you are there and the performances. Matt Damon,

I mean, give this man an Oscar. Totally. I mean, I don't want to give away too much, Joe, and you've seen it too. But to watch some of the scenes in this movie, you can't believe there's no special effect. How could they possibly pull that off? How did Nolan do it without CGI? And you talked to Christopher a couple of days ago. I did. I did. And it was one of the most extraordinary movies I've ever seen. One of the most extraordinary movie-going experiences I've ever seen. I still, I'm just at a complete loss at how he and his wife, Emma Thomas, do what they do. It's like every time he goes, hey, I've got an idea.

His wife is like, oh, no, because she knows that she's going to have to bring that to life. Here, Willie, and we can talk about this for three hours. Everything they did was remarkable. the ships that they were going in. Like, no CGI there. I think it was Matt Damon, when he talked to you, he said, this was the toughest acting experience

of his life and the capstone of his career. Because these little ships that were ancient ships that were getting knocked around on the open seas, they were actually replicas that he'd built. And they were actually on the open seas,

Willie? They were on the open seas. And these storm scenes, Matt said, there was a fireboat. that would come in and just blast them with fire hoses to recreate the storm. But he said, Christopher Nolan was on those boats with him so they couldn't complain he was getting blasted too. Nikki, another one that I think just blew up social media this week, it came across my

Instagram feed. I said, that's Tom Cruise? What is going on with Digger? It looks amazing. Yeah, so he had a trailer launch this week for this new movie. It doesn't come out to October, but I think the Oscar press run is starting now. We're used to seeing him jump off. you know, cliffs on motorcycles, we're used to seeing him do a lot of stunts.

In this case, he is going back to, like, Les Grossman, those days of like Tropic Thunder, Stacey Jacks from Rock of Ages. That was one of my favorite Tom Croft's performances, really over to top. He's so unrecognizable. He's playing this eccentric billionaire who basically sets off the end of the world and then has to stop it. But he had a trailer launch. He had an event. I got to speak to him one-on-one about it.

And I just said, Tom, how much joy did you have? I mean, as much fun as jumping off a cliff, he said, you know, he just loves to entertain people. He loves what he does, the commitment that he brings to everything that he does. And when he looks you dead in the eye, you feel like you're the only person in the world. The charisma that this man has, it's no surprise. He's the biggest movie store of all time. Yeah, he can sell you on jumping the motorcycle off the cliff or playing that character. Tom Holland and Zendaya are both in The Odyssey, but they also have this new Spider-Man movie coming out, which is going to be huge.

Spider-Man brand-new day comes out July 31st. I mean, the last one made almost $2 billion. That was a trilogy. This one potentially setting off a new trilogy. I mean, you say the name Spider-Man, you've already sold a ticket. I think this could end up being the highest-grossing movie of the year. In terms of pre-sales, it was off the charts. But yes, Tom Holland, Zendaya's character, Mary Jane,

if you remember at the end of the last one, doesn't remember him. He's been living in isolation. It's a new Spider-Man. He's got some powers that are mutating. There's going to be, there's a lot under wraps. They've only shown press about 30 minutes of the movie, which tells me there's going to be some massive surprises, which we love that about Spider-Man. I mean, how do they top the last one with the trifecta of Spider-Men? But I think they're going to do their best.

I'm like seeing them on screen together, too, married in real life. Okay, so let's talk about this exciting news from Fandango, which is, I have so many streaming services I can't keep track of. I don't know the password to any of them. You know how it is. I 100% know how it is. So this is a little bit different, though. Yeah. I mean, we know and love Fandango.

for buying our movie tickets and going to the movies. And this is obviously, you know, a nice, goes hand in hand, where we want people to be entertained, whether they're on their phone, whether they're at home. And our streaming service now offers free movies. And when I say free, Willie, I do mean free. There's no catch. You do not have to log in.

You do not need a subscription. You literally press play. The joy I felt just going to the app and turning on the Super Mario Brothers movie and hitting play and going, what do you mean it's already playing? I don't have to do anything and remember my passcode.

But yeah, we have thousands of titles that are free, whether you want to see an Oscar-winning movie. We have Oppamaheim coming next month, speaking of Christopher Nolan. Family-friendly movies, like I said, Super Mario. We have like Pretty Woman, the classics. And then we're also going to be offering sports coming up with the Bundesliga announcement that we just...

So how are they pulling that off? All I do is hit an app and that's it? You just press play. That's all you have to do. You go to the Fandango streaming app. And it's as simple as that. All right. We're going to be using that for sure.

No more passwords. We always like that. How do they always log us out? And then we log back in. And it's like, they've changed it. This sounds much, much better. Correspondent for Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. Nikki Novak.

Nikki, great to see you. Great to see you. And we'll be right back with more morning, Joe. I'm authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency. for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best. I just did the obsession with testosterone, Willie. Like, who that age obsesses?

You know, RFK Jr. He goes on Dr. Oz's podcast, and he goes, Trump has abnormally high testosterone levels. Tala Rica's opponent is like. oh, he has low T. Tala RICO's like, what's low T? Yeah, because he's too, like, yeah. But Ken Paxton's obsessed with it. Then you have this guy, Dan Patrick, obsessed with low T, saying that Tala RICO's not mad enough, not mad enough to represent Texas.

Look at that. What is that? Yikes. It's getting weird out here, Joe. It's getting weird out here. Secretary Higgs have just turned 46 years old. Maybe this is top of mind for him right now. Flu vaccine bad.

Gas station testosterone drugs, good for the U.S. military in the middle of a hot war. And with that, we'll say that does for us this morning.