His latest comment is just the most recent in a series of examples that we have seen from him in his words and deeds about how he devalues the ability of women to have the choice and the freedom to make decisions about their own body.
And by the way, I looked at her this morning.She had a little news conference.It lasted for like two minutes.She's exhausted. You know, she's exhausted.
She's a train wreck who is totally unqualified to be the president of the United States of America.There are some people who thrive under pressure, and there are some people who crack under pressure.She's a cracker.
And the more pressure Kamala, the more pressure Kamala has, the more you see it happening.No, she's cracking.
I'm OK.That's just for me.
It's kind of like he was asleep.I mean, say what?
What was it?She was my cracker.I'm I'm confused.There's so many there's so many things wrong with that.And we'll just leave it there on this Friday morning.
Yeah.You know, Mika, there's so much worse out there.You wake up this morning and you look at the front of the top of Drudge, the Drudge Report, and which really since the unfortunate demise of Twitter, of X, whatever you want to call it.
Yeah, I can't do it anymore.
No, I mean, you know, I've been on it every day, you know, since, what, 2009, 2010, and I can't believe, it's just gotten so bad.It's just straight on disinformation.It's just, it's just turned.Ugly images pop up.
Turned into a, yeah, a terrible, terrible sight.You can't really even get your newsfeed.So I deleted it from my phone, which is really unfortunate because it's, It's again, it's just been for a decade, well over a decade.
Yeah, it's a it's a go to for for a great news feed.But on the top and guys, if we can screenshot drudge and put it up, that'd be great. So this is where we end.
Donald Trump began his campaign saying, I am your vengeance, shows at the end exactly what I am your vengeance means.And the Drudge Report, Trump calls for Cheney execution. And he says that she should have nine guns trained at her face.
Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her.Firing squad, obviously.And that's where we end.And you know, Mika, it's... Well, actually, it's more direct than if she had guns pointed at her.
He actually says, let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, nine barrels shooting at her.This is his final pitch going into the final weekend.
of one of the most important campaigns, and a campaign that starts with, I am your retribution, ends with Liz Cheney needs to be in a firing squad with nine barrels shooting at her.Let's take a look at the bite right now.
She's a radical war hawk.Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay?Let's see how she feels about it.You know, when the guns are trained on her face.
You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh, gee, well, let's send let's send 10000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.But she's a stupid person.
Nine barrels shooting at her face.This is again, I want I want The Wall Street Journal editorial page to look at this because, you know, we've been spending a lot of time, rightly, about
The Washington Post bending to the will of Donald Trump and the Los Angeles Times bending to the will of Donald Trump and actually banning.Keep that up.Actually banning.Keep that up, please.You will actually banning, banning editorials.
where their editorial team calls for Harris's selection.But let's go back to The Wall Street Journal, who I have noted, and I read to you every day, whether you want to hear it or not, have.
Because for most of the time, they have actually called out Donald Trump's excesses.But as we go to the final weeks of the campaign, Donald Trump goes on Bloomberg.He says, The Wall Street Journal always gets it wrong.
says he's going to talk to Murdoch, and then what happens?They start making fun of people who are concerned about Donald Trump and his calls for violence.
They laugh and they jokingly say, this is again, after Donald Trump has attacked them and says he's having a meeting with Murdoch, they write an op-ed on an editorial on Monday talking about
a fascist meme, as if saying, I'm going to use my military troops and I'm going to use my National Guard to attack my democratic political opponents, as if that is a meme.
And then a few days later, as if they haven't already humiliated themselves enough,
Donald Trump keeps talking about violence against his political opponent, and they write another op-ed saying, to all the billionaires reading, and all of the guys driving around Maseratis who've doubled their fortunes while going to country clubs, calling Kamala Harris a socialist, they double down and say, there's nothing to see here.
Why, the Democrats have been for worse. And then we see this.I wonder, does this, could you put this up again, please?I wonder, Wall Street Journal editorial page, does this look like a meme to you?
Or does this look like something that you and the New York Times editorial page and the Washington Post editorial days, in better days,
And every editorial page and every politician on the Republican side, the Democratic side and independents would all come out speaking against this.Right.But you have preemptively.
capitulated to a man who you believe is going to win next Tuesday when many on his own side are panicking.They're panicking and saying, if we don't get more young men out, we are going to lose this race to Kamala Harris.But.
Willie, let's just again, look at this 30,000 feet. And this is how Donald Trump ends his campaign calling for nine rifles aimed at Liz Cheney's face to shoot at her face.This is how Donald Trump is ending his campaign for president.
Yeah, it's a staggering moment here as we make the turn into the critical final weekend.And we can already anticipate it's probably already happening.What the response will be.Oh, he didn't mean that literally, Joe.Come on, you guys.
You always blow these things out of proportion.How many times does he have to say things like this, though?It's not you can't take these in a vacuum.You can look back to him saying that General Mark Milley deserved death.
for talking to China to reassure China in the moments after January 6, 2021.
This kind of language he's used again and again, this kind of violent rhetoric about imprisoning opponents, about shutting down television networks, about people who cross him in any way deserving the worst kind of punishment.
And what do we know about that? Maybe a flip comment to him, maybe something he was throwing off the cuff.Maybe he meant that she should go to war herself and stand there and feel what it's like to be in battle.
But we know that his supporters take these signals, literally, some of them, some of his supporters take these signals, literally, see January 6th.So he stirs the pot, walks away, and lets hell break loose as we saw on January the 6th.
Yeah, and you know, Gene Robinson, as we look at this headline and we see the clip, and I'll be glad to play the clip again if anybody at the Wall Street Journal editorial page wants to call it a meme. as we close the campaign.
But, Gene Robinson, you have been reporting for decades like most great journalists.You've spent your time in the London Bureau as the Washington Post London Bureau chief.
as our friend Steve Ratner, but of course Murrow and others who've been through there.And it's that throughout your careers provided you a unique view at how the world looks at the United States.
I'm going to ask Katty in a second, but I just want to ask you.
Your reaction to Donald Trump calling for Liz Cheney being shot in the face by nine guns, nine rifles, in the closing weekend of the campaign, not only what it says about where the Republican Party is in 2024,
but also what it must look like to our allies in London, in Paris, in Madrid, in Warsaw, across the world.
Well, it looks completely insane to our allies across the world.And it is this is unprecedented.And this is I'm so glad that we're focusing on this and spending some time on it, because this is not normal.This is not acceptable.This is so dangerous.
And I just want to you know, I don't usually do a personal appeal, but I hope my friend, Paul Gigot, who's the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial pages, and is a friend of mine, Paul, are you watching this?Are you paying attention to this?
Is this OK with you?Because I know it's not. And you have a responsibility to say that to your readers.This is absolutely beyond the pale.It's a direct threat, not nine barrels pointed at her, nine barrels shooting at her.This is just...
Well, I don't.Gene, I I second that that plea for people like Paul Chigot and others to have the strength that they need to step up for people at The Washington Post to step up.Liz Cheney just posted a response.
This is how dictators destroy free nations.They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.Hashtag women will not be silenced.
Hashtag vote Kamala and Joe.To Willie's point, so many people will cast this off as you guys.He doesn't mean it.Who in your life, I ask to the people who say you guys.
Who in your life would you allow to speak that way, let alone someone that you would vote for president just to speak that way?
What politician would be allowed to speak this way?
Joe, I love your term about these billionaires and these newspapers and the Wall Street Journal preemptively capitulating trading on America.
And with the Wall Street Journal, they actually capitulated after Donald Trump attacked them at Bloomberg.And then Trump goes, oh, I'm going to talk to their boss.I'm going to talk to Murdoch.And then, Gene, we get that.
Now listen, I talk about New York Times articles all the time because I read the New York Times every day. I talk about the Wall Street Journal editorial page because I read it every day because it matters.And what you said about Paul Gigot.
I have been reading Paul Gigot and the Wall Street Journal editorial page like for 40 years when I was campaigning as a 29 year old. Everybody was getting faxes from the NRCC.Not me.
I would take the Wall Street Journal editorial page and I would carry it around the district.I would read it.I would go out.I would give speeches. And, you know, you look at a lot of it.
I disagree with him on on on on a lot of issues on taxes, carried interest taxes for billionaires, tax, tax, I mean, tax cuts and all of that stuff.But I will say Paul Gigo's page has.
has not disappointed me so many times where they've spoken out against the big lie.They've spoken out against Donald Trump's call for violence.But that's just filler right now compared to where we are in the final stretch of this campaign.
And I just I do want to say I do want to say to everybody that is out there. that is foaming at the mouth and thinking we have to capitulate to Donald Trump.We have to.I want you to know Wednesday morning will come.Wednesday morning will come.
This election will be over and whether it's next Wednesday or the following Wednesday, that day will come. but your words will remain.The actions at the Washington Post. leadership will remain.What's happening at the L.A.Times will remain a stain.
And, Gene, I want to go back because I've got great respect for him and I always have.I look at what The Wall Street Journal editorial page has done talking about a, quote, fascist meme.
I see what Dan Heninger writes going, oh, are they are Democrats really going to kill Donald Trump? Like Democrats are worse than Republicans.Hey, no, that is a lie.
And now, again, let's put drugs up here again for people just waking up because they wouldn't believe it if we said it.
And we'll play the video again for all the doubting Thomas's out there that are going, oh, Joe, you know, that's what Obama people would always say to me. I'd go like, hey listen, I think it's a really bad time.
There's much smaller things, but I'd say, I think it's a really bad idea for you to fill in the blank.They'd be like, oh Joe, oh Joe.So condescending.And then three months later they go, oh boy, we should have listened to you.
Well here, it's Trump people.Oh Joe, you and your fascist meme.But Jane, you're friends with Paul. Mm hmm.Yeah.I've I've had great respect for Paul for such a long time.Yeah.
And to to minimize this seems to me doing a grave disservice to those readers and to all of America.
Yeah, absolutely.First of all, just quickly on the fascist fascist meme, it's not lefty press that called Donald Trump a fascist.It was General Milley and General Kelly. Right?
Two of the most decorated and bravest warriors who worked very closely with him.And that's the conclusion they've reached from having worked with him in the first Trump administration.And so, that's not a meme.Those are facts.
This is what these very distinguished military men have to say.And again, you're absolutely right. The Wall Street Journal has called out Trump's nonsense about the big lie about some of his economic policies.They've been brave until the end.
And now the rubber is hitting the road.And all of a sudden, it's all OK.
Now, you know, there's still time for these people, papers to step up and do the right thing, perhaps at the peril of their own jobs, because I wouldn't put behind me if we're looking at a dissent into fascism, which right now, the things Donald Trump is saying and doing.
Parallel, exactly, fascism, not hyperbole.So there is time to step up because part of it, part of it is destroying things, destroying the very things that perhaps are beacons of truth.So be careful, Washington Post.Be careful, LA Times.
And remember who Liz Cheney is, by the way. Wall Street Journal, because I think your very existence is the problem here.Now, Washington Post is losing readers.I'm coming, Joe.And and that may be the very much exactly what is going on here.
Ultimately, you've got to think ahead and step up.And, Joe, I'll toss back to you.We're having Zannie Minton Beto's on The Economist. the economist, of course, doing what U.S.papers should be doing and printing a searing.
Exacting condemnation of Donald Trump at this moment in history.
a conservative, conservative magazine, The Economist, doing that.I just, Mika, I wanted to follow up and just follow up on what Gene said.This fascist rhetoric, the charges of fascism that are being dismissed as a meme.
Being dismissed by a meme despite the fact it's General Mark Milley former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who Donald Trump also threatened with execution because he disagreed with Donald Trump on January the 6th.
And he's one of the highest decorated, most highly decorated soldiers of this century. And they dismiss General Mark Milley as a meme.
The Washington Post decides that when you have two of the most highly decorated soldiers of the 21st century in Mark Milley and also in General John Kelly, that should be dismissed.So that's one side of the equation.
The other side of the equation here is Donald Trump is talking about Republicans here.He's talking about somebody that had a 95 ACU rating, somebody who has been the conservative's conservative for years.
So more conservative in every way than Donald Trump.
And yet, just because she's disloyal to him, just because she said, there's something deeply wrong with a commander in chief allowing riots to go on, refusing to stop those riots, and in fact, going into his dining room alone, staring and looking at some of the most violent
Parts of the riot, rewinding them, watching them again, rewinding them, watching them again, while his vice president and Secret Service detail.
are locked up in the basement and his secret service detail, Mike Pence, is calling their families and saying they don't think they're going to make it out alive while cops are getting their heads crushed inside doors, getting beaten up, getting clubbed almost to death, within inches of their death, having bear spray sprayed on them.
This This is what is so dismissed day in and day out and day in and day out.And that is what Liz Cheney objected to, which is what The Wall Street Journal editorial page objected to at one time.
And now, because Liz Cheney objected to those riots and the way things were handled, She's an enemy of the state to Donald Trump.And on his closing weekend, he's calling for nine guns to be pointed at her face to execute her.
It's as bad as it gets.It's as frightening as it gets.And it's to be taken seriously.And there are a lot of different narratives to look at in the final days of this campaign.This one is hard to turn away from.Who speaks this way?Who in your life?
Ask yourself. speaks this way.And again, as Joe points out, what we're seeing is big corporations and billionaires preemptively capitulating to Donald Trump.
If you can imagine what would happen if he won a second term, so many Jonathan Lemire would fall.And there's another preparation going on here, and that's preparation for a big lie in case he doesn't win.
Yeah, first of all, you're right.We're already seeing billionaires and corporations, at minimum, hedge their bets right now.But there is a lot happening here.
And there's a growing theory of the case that part of why the Trump campaign has been so over-the-top confident about their victory next week is they want to, and we're seeing it from Elon Musk every day, we're seeing it from Trump himself, other top allies, that they're trying to prime their supporters to expect to win and suggest that the only way
that they could lose would be if it was stolen, if things were rigged, if the election wasn't fair, which is going to preview not just court cases, where Trump to lose next week, but potentially many law enforcement officials fear violence.
But Jonathan, you have Donald Trump's own people. You even have people like Charlie Kirk freaking out now, telling the truth, saying the numbers are looking terrible in Pennsylvania, that right now Trump is on his way to losing.
I think it's a Politico story that was showing what Kirk and others were saying, because the early voting, according to them and many others, not going their way.Women are going out and they are voting and Two things are happening at once.
The Harris campaign is getting more confident by the day that things are breaking their way in the blue wall states.And the Trump campaign has two things happening.One, Donald Trump is starting.
You know, things are going well in Pennsylvania for Harris because he's starting to claim that, oh my gosh, they're they're trying to steal the vote from me.Oh, that's on one hand.
On the other hand, Charlie Kirk and other people attached to the Trump campaign are big supporters of the Trump campaign are literally freaking out, saying publicly, we're going to lose if the voting patterns continue this way.
Yeah, you're seeing A false confidence being put forward by the Trump campaign, in part because they want to appease the candidate, who doesn't like to hear bad news.But behind the scenes, there is some growing worry.
I've talked to some people connected to the campaign in the last day or two.The Trump folks were feeling much better about this a few weeks ago than they are today.
Polling suggests that some of the undecided, light-breaking voters may be going for Harris. early voting data.Joe, as we've discussed this week on this show, it can be deceptive.
It's not always clear what it means, but certainly there are signs, at minimum, that it's going well for the Harris campaign, particularly in those blue wall states, that they feel they're feeling increasingly confident about their chances there.
Look, they acknowledge It's going to be really tight.They do live in fear, as Democrats have since 2016, that there will be a late breaking day of vote for Trump.But at least to this point, they haven't seen that happen in the early voting, Willie.
We're seeing that Trump is and I think that's also the other part of this is Joe mentioned his truth social post the other day claiming fraud in Pennsylvania.No evidence of that.
I think we're seeing Trump's outbursts and violent rhetoric increase more and more.What does that usually show us? Behind the scenes, that means he's getting worried.The truth social is sort of a window into his soul, what he really thinks.
And there is a growing anxiety there at Mar-a-Lago that this might be slipping away from him.And let's remember, were he to lose?Suddenly, all the criminal cases come back.And that's adding to the pressure, I'm told.
Yeah, we saw even yesterday in the state of Georgia, John, the amplification by some people who support Donald Trump, some people around Donald Trump, of a completely fabricated story about Haitian migrants voting multiple times in Georgia.
The Republican Secretary of State, the Republican election officials quickly dismissed it, said this is from a Russian troll farm.It's a lie.Don't believe it.
But we can expect to see much more of those lies amplified by Trump and the people around him in the next few days.So, Sam Stein, we talk a lot about not grading Donald Trump on a curve.It's not something we do.A lot of people still do that.
Unfortunately, not giving him a pass.But let's pretend that this is a normal presidential campaign.And this is the final weekend before Election Day.
And just go down the list, just yesterday, of the things that this candidate, the man who wants to return to the White House, did.He called effectively for the execution of Liz Cheney, as the headline in Drudge says.He wants guns pointed at her.
He said he's going to sue CBS for $10 billion for routine editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. He was in the state of New Mexico yesterday, which he said he won twice.
He lost twice, including last time by double digits, spending part of his time there.He said that RFK Jr.would have a prominent role as a health official in his administration.Think about the implications of that.Some people saying RFK Jr.
would make measles great again due to his views on vaccines.And most importantly, perhaps, as we've been saying, seeding the ground. for his lie again that the election was stolen from him if he loses.
You actually undersold it, seriously.He didn't say pointing at Liz Cheney.He said shooting at Liz Cheney.He didn't say RFK Jr.would just be looking over our—he said women's health.
We have Elon Musk coming out there saying repeatedly folks should expect economic suffering in the short term should Trump win.We have Mike Johnson opening up the idea of going back at the Affordable Care Act.
I mean, this is—it's a remarkable close to a campaign. I was struck by the fact—you know, obviously it's insane that Trump said what he said about Liz Cheney.
They're going to say, well, he's just talking about she should, you know, know the consequences of war before, you know, voting for it.Whatever.The idea that you would sort of imagine her being shot at is, I think, the problem here.
But I was also struck by the fact that he was being interviewed onstage by Tucker Carlson. A normal campaign would not be doing that.They would be trying to expand the coalition.
They wouldn't be saying to women, you know what, I'm going to protect you whether you want it or not.This is a campaign that has been rigid, overconfident, hyper-focused on one sliver of the electorate.
The theory of the case is they could turn out young men voters and that they're just going to go time and time again and that they can act in a way that would appease them but also alienate everyone else. And this is the big test right now.
And when Joe mentions Charlie Kirk freaking out, the reason Charlie Kirk is freaking out is because the early indications, these are just early indications, look, early voting, whatever.
But the early indications are that this big gamble they made may not work out.
And if you want a reason why, you just go down the litany of the issues that Willie and I just listed, is that they could not reorient the campaign to something a little less offensive at the end.
Yeah, and Katty, obviously what we're seeing here very clearly is Donald Trump just drilling down deeper on his base of support.That is to say, not expanding and really appealing to women in any meaningful way.
Perhaps those Nikki Haley women voters that we talk about a lot, Nikki Haley Republicans, He's just drilling down deeper and deeper.
And again, it has to be said, he's preparing his voters for the idea that the election was stolen for him because that's not the stance and the position of a winner.
A guy who thinks he's gonna take the election, it's someone who's saying, uh-oh, I might lose.I better get my people ready for some alternate version of the story.
Yeah, I mean, the message that he would only lose if the election was rigged has been bubbling through the last few months.
I mean, ever since he lost in 2020, ever since he started running in 2016, I remember going to rallies, and this was a theme then.
But it certainly in the last few days got much more specific and much more pointed, whether he's pointing at Lancaster County in Pennsylvania and saying that there is risks there, whether he's pointing at Georgia.
And the campaign has this problem, because On the one hand, they want their people to get out and vote early, and yet you still have Elon Musk saying that early voting is open up to fraud.So, they haven't really got the message very straight.
But it is true that in the last few days, the darkness and the threats coming from Donald Trump have been exacerbated.And you have to think back. to when Donald Trump came into office in 2016, and there were guardrails around him.
There were people around him.There was the Republican Party that was still there pushing back against him.And none of that really exists this time.
And so, if he does win this time, you have to think this would be a Donald Trump talking as he does now, without the kind of guardrails that held him in check back in 2016 and the system that held him in check, but only just, in 2020.
And I think that's why you have a lot more alarm
when you talk to European allies, a lot more alarm, just even in the last week or two, coming from diplomatic leaders here in Washington, coming from leaders in Europe and amongst America's allies, because they see this would be Donald Trump unfettered.
I mean, Liz Cheney said, if you don't want to hire him to be your babysitter, you shouldn't hire him to be your president.But for The Wall Street Journal and those business leaders say he wouldn't be like this, would you hire him to be your CEO?
Character doesn't suggest they would do.
Well, let's put up drudge one more time before we go to break and and I wonder what those Wall Street leaders are thinking now with Donald Trump saying and again, it's Sam said he think should have nine guns rifles Firing at her face shooting at her
And this is how he's closing the campaign.If you want to understand, as we go to break, Mika, not you, but just people going, well, what's going on?Why are we seeing this panicking?Does this mean Harris is winning?
No, it doesn't mean Harris is winning.It means that the Trump campaign now understands what we've been saying for weeks now, as they've been brashly predicting a landslide.This race is tied. This race is tied going into the weekend.
Things are looking good for the Harris campaign for early voting in Pennsylvania.But Republican registration over the last year has increased a good deal in Pennsylvania.So we don't know how that's going to offset.
And anybody who's serious, who's looking at all these numbers can only say one thing.I have no idea how it's going to turn out.This race is tied.But Mika, it's almost like
Donald Trump just figured out that what everybody around him has been telling him is just to appease him, just to say, yeah, boss, boss, things are going great, boss.
But the fact is, when you have Charlie Kirk tweeting out and others tweeting out, hey, we're going to lose this race if it keeps going in this direction. then that's the understanding this race is still up for grabs.
And how America responds over the next three to four days will make all the difference in the world.
And to Cady's point about NATO allies terrified at a Trump win, more muted headline on the cover of the New York Times, but no less important, Trump clings to his image as strong man, labeled a fascist and in no rush to deny it.
And it goes into all the different times that he is called a fascist.And he's like, so yeah, it's, and he speaks, talks, looks, You have to take the next step.
Still ahead on Morning Joe, a look at how Vice President Kamala Harris is seizing on Donald Trump's pledge to protect women whether they like it or not.Plus, NBA superstar LeBron James is voicing his support for Vice President Harris.
We'll show you his powerful new endorsement video.You're watching Morning Joe.We'll be back in 90 seconds.
So I'm here for one simple reason.I like you very much, and it's good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.You know, on the East Coast, they like being called Hispanics.You know this?
On the West Coast, they like being called Latinos.I love the Hispanics.I love them. I love Hispanics, and they are.They're hard workers, and boy, are they entrepreneurial, and they're great people, and they are warm.They are warm.
Sometimes they're too warm, you want to know the truth.They are warm people.
President Trump, with those comments yesterday, campaigning in solidly blue New Mexico, again, a state he has lost twice, including in 2020 by double digits.So, Joe, a lot of people wondering what he was doing there, why he was there.
He says he was appealing to Latino voters, but then went down into one of his weaves that never really came together.He didn't bring that one in for a landing, Joe.
And he said just making it up as he goes because he clearly didn't know whether to call that group of Americans, Latino Americans or Hispanic Americans.So he made up an explanation about an East Coast, West Coast thing.
But if that's your appeal to Latino voters that there doesn't know what to call you and you're a little too warm sometimes, that's some closing argument.
Well, I mean, especially following up on on the outrage that he caused and the Puerto Rican community, which has spread to the Latino or the Hispanic community is Donald Trump.
You know, he sounded kind of like he was was a first time comedian on Carson back in the 70s.You know, in New York, they call them bombs. On the West Coast, they're called hobos.Funny.In New York, I mean, seriously, what's going on there?
And this whole thing about sometimes they're too warm, which is him saying, I like you from a distance.I like you from a distance, but sometimes you're too warm.Stay five feet away.
Yeah, that comedian, by the way, Joe, does not get invited over the couch to talk to Johnny after he does stand up.He just waves at him and we go.We go to commercial break.
Doc, take us to commercial.
Exactly.But that's that's his closing argument.I think, as you say, trying to paper over somehow or make up for what happened. at Madison Square Garden, the insult to Puerto Rican Americans and the larger Latino American community.
But I'm not sure that was terribly effective in doing that.Meanwhile, NBA superstar LeBron James came out yesterday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
The future Hall of Famer campaigned for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in previous election cycles.James also posted this video to social media.
All right, heck yeah, that's cool.Black guy, that's one of my buddies.We had fun, we carved watermelons together, it was awesome.
No, no, I'm not a racist.They're taking black jobs now.The whole country's gonna be like, it'll be like Detroit.A lot of it's about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe?They're poisoning the blood of our country. Troublemaker.
These are troublemakers.Look, I love the old days, you know?Do you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this?They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks.I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.
Now if you had one really violent day, like one rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately.But we're going to indemnify police officers and law enforcement from being destroyed by the radical left.
You're changing history, you're changing culture.
Of course I hate these people, and let's all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need.
It's a video posted by LeBron James yesterday to his social media gene.
Obviously, he's drawing a line from what we're seeing today all the way back through the last century or so in this country and reminding people that rhetoric is only rhetoric until it's not, until it turns into violence. That's absolutely right.
And first of all, whoever put together that video, that's really powerful.And I love the first line of what LeBron wrote.It's like, what are we even talking about?What?How are we here?You know, what is all of this?We're past this.This is not
who we were a few years ago, but yet it's what Donald Trump wants us to be once again, and that's not acceptable.It's not acceptable.It's amazing.But it was a very powerful endorsement, I thought.
And you know, Sam, we've talked about Donald Trump saying Liz Cheney should be shot in the face by nine rifles this morning, but he's also talked about the execution of General Mark Milley, chairman of his Joint Chiefs.
He's talked about being a dictator from day one.He's talked about terminating the Constitution.He's talked about so many things.And LeBron James' ad there, or his posting, is remarkable in that
He goes back and so many of these things that Donald Trump has said, we're numb to.We've forgotten.It's been blurred out of our collective memory because the brain can only hold on to so much. And he produces so much vile rhetoric every single week.
And so, yeah, the question is, what are we doing here?Well, one reason we're here is because the numbness, the fire hose of falsehoods has actually worked.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.The Overton window of what is acceptable politics has shifted dramatically, simply because he's been on our political scene for eight years now.
Things that would have been disqualifying for anyone else—and we've gone through them a million times—are not disqualifying for him.
continues to trip me up a lot, and I get it somewhat, but it still trips me up, is when people say, well, aren't you better off than you were four years ago?And I think back to where I was on election eve four years ago.
I was stuck in my home, right?Like everyone else.I watched the results and worked from my home because people were dying all around me because of a vicious, horrible pandemic. that was mismanaged by the Trump administration.
That has not really come up at all during this election.The only person bringing it up on the trail is Barack Obama, who was reminding people, yeah, we had 60% or more mortality in the United States than in Canada.
But we don't talk about that because we've moved on to so many other things.We don't want to relive COVID and we don't want to
look back four years, and I get why the Harris campaign doesn't want to focus on it, because no one wants to go back to the days of masks and things, but that's not a little element of his biography.
That was a huge element of his biography, and it just sort of swept away because we're dealing with such a gusher of other scandals and horrible statements.
Well, mismanagement is one thing.There's also actually inflicting pain, whether it be verbal abuse or actual physical trauma on people.
And coming up in our eight o'clock hour, we're going to have more coverage of the women who are suffering because of what Trump was able to accomplish in his first presidency.We're going to be talking to a woman from Atlanta who last month
was hemorrhaging so violently.She was pregnant with a baby she wanted so badly.And she was also hemorrhaging amniotic fluid.And yet doctors were grappling with whether or not they could administer her care right in front of her, holding it back.
So we'll have that story in our eight o'clock hour of Morning Joe.Also coming up, Iran appears to be weighing a response to Israel's attack against Tehran's military infrastructure.
We'll dig into that as tensions continue to rise across the Middle East.Plus, The Economist has officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president, warning, quote, a second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks.
The paper's editor-in-chief will join us to discuss that.Morning Joe will be right back. Welcome back.It's 51 past the hour.Joining us now, President Emeritus on the Council of Foreign Relations, Richard Haass.
He's the author of the weekly newsletter Home and Away, available on Substack.Richard, we've been talking about this disturbing imagery that Donald Trump has put out, talking about Liz Cheney in the most violent way imaginable.She is pushing back.
she is using her voice.If you could talk about that, especially in light of the fact that major newspapers and billionaire men have capitulated already to Donald Trump.
Yeah, two things, Mika.One, I just spent the week in Saudi Arabia.What's interesting is how many of the conversations with Saudis, discreet ones, were, we don't quite recognize you anymore.Right.
This is not the America we knew when we went to school there or visited.And by the way, who are you anymore to lecture us? We see what's happening, the degrading of your democracy, the violence in your society.
So just hold back, Americans, before you tell us how to run our societies.That was one takeaway I had.The others, there were a lot of wealthy American businessmen there.There was this Davos in the Desert conference.
And I was surprised, but just three quarters of them in one poll were all coming out for Donald Trump.And my view of it was, why? Right.Here's this economy that's doing extraordinarily well.
And you would have thought that a lot of them would say, you know, our stocks at an all time high.It just wasn't clear to me exactly what they're doing.
It was a reminder that how often people act against their own self-interest in this case was also the Jeff Bezos thing at large.
Well, exactly.And let me jump in on that, because earlier, you know, I called out my friend from the Wall Street Journal, Paul Zhigou.Like, what are you doing?Are you paying attention?I really do need to call out my boss, Jeff Bezos.
You know, is this the year? to start not endorsing a candidate for president.
He's very difficult to believe.His statement conflicted with the Washington Post statement.And come on, just use your eyes.This is just not the time.In fact, this is the time to speak out against what it is that is happening.
And Jonathan Lemire, while I'm trying to shed a light on what has already happened,
because of the consequences of a first Trump presidency, what is happening to women in extremely detailed ways that shows the trauma, the pain that they and their families are going through, including the men who love them.
So I think the fact that women are being denied life-saving health care in hospitals impacts women and men and families because everybody is left broken. by what is happening to these women.But I also shudder.
And I do think we might need to talk more about what America's foreign policy, what America's national security looks like in a second Trump term, because that is it makes your head explode when you think of the possibilities.
Well, I think he gave us a lot of strong hints in his first term.I was there at NATO when he was there in Brussels, where he almost pulled the United States out of that alliance.
A few days later, of course, he stood next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and said he believed Putin over U.S.intelligence analysts about the 2016 election hacking.And Richard, I mean, I think it's plain as day.
We'll be more isolationist, pull back or pull out of major alliances.The aid to Ukraine will likely stop. You were obviously just in the Middle East.Tell us about how you think you could impact the policy there.
But the rest of the world is watching with holding their breath, because it's going to be a very different United States if Trump wins next week.
And not only explain what will happen, but why it matters, why maybe a really busy American who is just tuning in right now should care about this.
OK, let's start with that, because that's the most basic question, why it matters.Look, you know, do we have these two oceans?The last I checked on either side of us, the Atlantic, the Pacific, whatever else they are, they're not moats.
What happens out there will affect what's here.I mean, just look what's going on in the world economically.Terrorism.We had 9-11.North Korea is testing missiles. With increasing range and accuracy, they're getting help from Russia.
At the same time, they're sending their own forces to Russia to help them deal with the war there.China could be moving against Taiwan at some point over the next four years.This is a world that's more turbulent than ever.
And in some ways more dangerous than ever.And the idea that we can insulate ourselves from it.We may stick our head in the sand, but that's not a foreign policy that can work.The rest of the world also watches this campaign, Jonathan.
And the idea that there's such a gap between the two candidates unnerves them.It used to be that when we had presidential elections, the presumption of continuity was pretty great.And that's important.
If you have alliances, these are countries that have made a bet that America is reliable and predictable. The fact that we've now become much less reliable, much less predictable for our friends.This is the most unnerving thing.
What we're beginning to see is they're hedging against America.They're beginning to look about other alternatives.Maybe some of them, for example, South Korea.70% of the people in South Korea now favor having nuclear weapons.Things like that.
We're looking at a world where American influence goes down and the dependence on us goes down.This is a world that I think has the potential to become much more violent.
Well, Richard, let me ask you about what you're writing about today in Substack, which is this idea that Secretary Blinken actually confirmed yesterday that North Korean troops now will be moving into Russia to join the fight against Ukraine.
And you're writing about what you call the gang of four, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran forming this partnership.
And we should point out that the leaders of three of those places, with the exception of Iran, have received lavish praise from Donald Trump.
Yeah, it's much more extensive, Willie, than we originally thought.And what we're seeing, for example, is not just the North Korean troops going into Russia.And we're not sure.It's 3,000 of them.Could be more troops.We'll see what else they do.
But what we also believe is that Russia is providing all sorts of technological help to North Korea to advance its missile program and its nuclear program. China's already helping Russia by transferring technology that has military implications.
Iran has been sending things to Russia.This is a whole network that essentially opposes the United States, opposes democracy, which they see as a threat to their political systems, and is increasingly willing and able to act against us.
It's one of the, you know, we've really entered a new era of history.You know, after the Cold War ended, the United States enjoyed a degree of primacy.We were really unchallenged.Well, that era is over.
And in part because of the rise of others and their hostility, in part because of our own divisions here at home, this is a very different world, and I would say a much less safe one for us.
Richard, there are reports coming out of Israel that Iran may be preparing some kind of retaliatory attack against Israel, potentially launching attacks from Iraq or somewhere like that.
But how damaging—and we kind of thought this had been put to bed and maybe this was over.It looks like it may not be.This could potentially come right on the eve of the U.S.presidential election.What would the implications of that be?
No, you're exactly right.I was one of those who thought it might have been put to bed.It looked for a few days as if Israel and Iran had somehow figured out a way of managing their rivalry without having it escalate.But maybe not.
And when I was in the Middle East this week, there was growing talk about how the Revolutionary Guards, that core of the Iranian military, is increasingly separate. that it's almost governing itself.
And they were the ones who shot, you know, who ordered the shooting of the missiles against Israel.There's a split within the Iranian government.So if they decide they want to escalate, then the case isn't closed.
And the Israelis have already demonstrated their ability to attack Iran.They wiped out a lot of the air defense systems.And this is the one crisis in the Middle East that has the potential to have global implications.
given energy, given Iran's ability to go after Saudi Arabia and others.
You know, what's happened in Gaza and is still happening in Gaza is God-awful, but it's essentially local, even though the Israelis are pressing ahead and are now talking about a long-term occupation.
What's happening in the north between Israel and Hezbollah, we'll see how that plays out.But again, it's local.
It's really Iran dynamic is the one thing in the region that has the potential in terms of energy prices and in terms of a larger conflict to be something much more than local.
And this is a world we've already got a crisis in Europe, potential ones in Asia.This could be a third geography.That's the last thing we in the world need right now.
Richard Haass, thank you very much.
