Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20200909

Twilight doubleheader, shortened, seven innings, thats a sign, will. How are the yankees doing, by the way . Whoa, i knew you were going to id like to point out that secretariat was not 13 1 2 games back when he broke down the stretch at the belmont, but but, the yankees now are tied in the loss column for fourth place in the a. L. East after losing again last night to the blue jays. Theyre tied for fourth place. This is a team on paper we thought was going to win all the games. Whats happening there . Well, everybody i mean, and im being really serious here, because ive been so obsessed with the red sox. I havent been looking around the other league, i mean, the rest of the league. Then a couple of days ago, i saw that they were a couple games above. 500. I expected them to be like ten games in first. So, whats going on with the yankees . So, they get garrett coal, the best pitcher in baseball, we figure okay, this is one of the best yankee teams weve seen in a long time. Well, everybody got hurt again. Last year stanton got hurt, torres got hurt, hurt or not performing. The pitchings not what we thought it would be. The bullpens not what bethought it would be. Theyre still 6 1 2 games out, but man, when you looked on paper, this was going to be a really good yankee team and they have totally disappointed. They started great. They looked good and totally fell off a cliff. Oh, my gosh. And not to put everything on injuries, but when literally half of your starters are on the injured list, its tough to win. It is bizarre how snakebit the yankees have been over the past couple of years. I said when the red sox won 108 games in 2018, that that really wasnt the most remarkable thing, even in the American League east that year. It was that the yankees won 100 games, as beaten up as they were. And man, you guys have been beaten up every year. Now, how many of again, im sorry, i havent been paying close enough attention youre focused on the sox, that run, that magical run. Im focused on polls. Well, seriously, if we can cue up one moment in time by Whitney Houston after last night. But how many of the yankees players do you guys expect to be back in time for the playoffs . For the playoffs, they should be back, but the question at this point is do they make the playoffs . I mean, i think theyre holding onto the eighth spot right now. I have to look after last night. But they are clinging to a playoff berth. So, theyll get you know, theyve got time before the playoffs and theyll get guys back, but the question is will it be too late by then to catch those magical red sox . Yeah, and by the way, willie, any updates on new york city crime blotter . No, no, okay. I havent loonked this morning, but thank you for asking. Kibosh. Looking at the polls no, i have i dont want to hear what lemire has had to say. He has had his say and then theres a delay and he finally says it and its like, wahwah. Enough of the banter. Were talking about polls. Theres a new poll in pennsylvania i wanted to talk about the other guys. Out just now with joe biden up nine points over donald trump. In the latest nbc news marist poll, biden up 53 43 . He holds an advantage over suburban voters. By 19 points, voters with a College Degree. By 29, women by 21 and independent voters by 22. White voters are split between biden and trump at 49 each. President trump holds an advantage with white evangelicals. Why . Why . And why shouldnt he . Because he got that endorsement from Jerry Falwell jr. , and i guess that was it. I mean, seriously, he is a living, breathing example of the beattitudes walking among us. 59 points. Wow thats a whole story among itself. White voters without a College Degree by 22. Rural voters also by 22. And among men by five points. So, willie, you know, we have, i think, again, because so many people are still jarred by 2016, all you hear is oh, this is just like clinton and trump. This is going to same things going to happen again. The one thing were seeing here is joe biden in more polls than not when hes ahead, is getting close to 50 or above 50 . Here hes sitting at 53 . And a lot of other polls were going to share this morning, hes at 50 51 . There arent a lot of persuadables left. And people were going in the last few months of 2016 trying to figure out who they were going to vote for. Bluntly, many said they were trying to figure out who was the lesser of what they considered to be two evils. Here, thats not the case. And we should say that this pennsylvania polls a bit of an outlier. Other polls show it at 2, 3, 4, 5. This one has nine points. But again, looking at bidens numbers, hes above 50 here. That certainly is where you want to be two months out. Yeah, no question about it. And i think the panic was inevitable from democrats. Its such a long race. It starts to feel good over the course of the summer. Some polls show donald trump closing the gap a little bit and the panic sets in a bit. But if you look through and we will in a moment these Morning Consult battleground polls, joe bidens still leading in most of those, some tighter than hed like it to be. But lets remember, eddie glaude, the race last time was won by a sliver, to be generous, in wisconsin and pennsylvania and michigan and all those states. So if joe biden can swing a few votes in two or three of those states, hell win the election. And if you look inside those cross tabs among suburban voters, among women, among americans with College Degrees and all these battleground states, hes enjoying Comfortable Leads. There are areas of concern, like latino votes in the state of florida. But by and large, despite the panic that we hear from some democrats right now, hes still basically where hes been. Yeah. Good morning, willie. Good morning, everyone. I think hes in good position. I think its important for them not to get too confident. We do know that it will continue, i think, to tighten in certain ways. But i think Vice President biden needs to in some ways invest more in the Latino Community. Those numbers in florida raise some questions for me. It kind of threw me back into the 2016 moment, i guess, joe, with Hillary Clinton in milwaukee and some other places. But i think hes in good stead. Im always worried now, in the context of the pandemic, willie, what do we make of the ground game . How will it look . What does the turnout look like . Hows the ground game make itself known in this context . But hes in good position, and i think thats a good thing, to not say anything worth saying, but hes in a good position. So, why dont we go, mika, to the florida poll sure. That eddie was referencing . The latest nbc news marist poll has biden and President Trump tied at 48 among likely florida voters with some key demographics shifting their support from 2016. Biden is up with black voters by 72 points, women by 17, independent voters by 11. And it is a statistical tie among seniors, which is a Demographic Group that trump won by 17 points, according to 2016 exit polls. That must be pandemicrelated, you would think. President trump holds an advantage among men by 20 points, white voters by 15, white voters without a College Degree by 28 points, and among latinos by four points, which is a statistical tie. Were going to have more on that in just a moment. But in the latest Morning Consult poll, biden holds a sixpoint lead nationally over President Trump, 50 44 . Among key battleground states, biden is up by ten in michigan, up by eight in wisconsin, by six in colorado, by five in florida, pennsylvania, and minnesota, by three in arizona, by one in North Carolina. The two are tied in texas. And President Trump holds a twopoint lead in georgia and a fivepoint lead in ohio. Yeah. Jonathan lamire, a lot to go through there. Ive got to start with, were talking about polls that seem to be a little bit outside the margins. That pennsylvania poll showing eight, nine points. That really looks like an outlier. Maybe its a sign of things to come. Same thing with arizona, sitting at about two or three Percentage Points there. Thats been a more Comfortable Lead for biden and still is showing up as a more Comfortable Lead in most states. But i mean, in most polls about arizona. But you look at all of these numbers, and again, it shows a steady, solid lead for joe biden. Here we are, a week past the conventions, a week past kenosha, and i remember you and me talking in early august, saying, hey, you know, trump keeps saying ive got three months. His staff was trying to say, well, no, mr. President , early voting starts soon enough. Well, early voting has started, and these numbers are not moving in trumps direction, except for what were about to talk about after this, about hispanics in the state of florida. But other than that, boy, these polls are pretty solid. Yeah, its striking, joe, despite the spectacle of the conventions, and obviously, the tumult weve seen on the streets in kenosha and portland, things that the republicans thought would all benefit President Trump, just how stable this race remains. Yes, i think youre right on that pennsylvania poll. That seems to be an outlier. Neither campaign thinks the margin is anywhere near that big, though both agree that joe biden right now is up, but by a smaller amount. I think there are a few things to go through here. One is that there seems to be sort of a little bit of disconnect in some of these states. I know were going to dive in deeper to florida in a moment. The idea that florida certainly is a state where there has been some tightening. Yet a demographically similar state, florida, has not been the case. Joe bidens had a Pretty Healthy lead there. Same with the great lakes states, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan. Michigan throughout this race has been joe bidens probably best battleground state. Hes had a pretty sizable lead, to the point where earlier this spring and summer, joe, we talked at length about it, the Trump Campaign had all but thrown in the towel in michigan. Theyve reversed course there now. They feel like they see some movement. Theyve invested some money there. But certainly, biden is still up. He still enjoys a pretty decent lead in wisconsin, too, despite all of the energy that the Trump Campaign has poured into wisconsin, thinking that kenosha would be the turning point. But yet, while those two still lean clearly to biden, pennsylvania, this one poll aside, looks like more of a tossup, although it is hard to imagine a scenario where joe biden would lose pennsylvania, his native state, where he has such strength, both in the cities of philadelphia and pittsburgh, but also in the northeast, in scranton, where hes from, that part of it. And most of all, in the philadelphia suburbs. Theres a sense that that t in the middle of state, the red t of rural voters, there probably just arent quite enough votes there for donald trump this time around, though, of course, he did pull it out narrowly four years ago. Theres also another factor here. As much as the Trump Campaign is pointing to that theyre putting ads up in the next few days, there is an issue about money. They have not released their fundraising total in august yet, which is striking. Here we are, september 9th, or you know, coming up on september 10th and 11th, and they still havent done it. Thats days late, after the Biden Campaign put up a record 350 million or more fundraising haul from august. The Trump Campaign has remained silent. And theyre looking to expand the map, because they are so nervous about states like arizona and they are trying to figure out a path to 270. They realize theyve got to figure out some other states to put in play, which is why were seeing the late investment in minnesota and now heading into this weekend, nevada. Thats another state, nevada, where the Trump Campaign feels like they have to play, because otherwise, if they lose arizona, theres no path to 270. Well, more now on trump leading biden by four points among latinos in the nbc marist poll of florida voters. Its a demographic that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 27 points. Trumps lead over biden in that poll is sizable among latinos of cuban descent, whereas biden is just slightly ahead among all other latinos in the state. And another poll out of florida shows a similar trend. In the ben dixon amandi poll in Miamidade County, biden leads among noncuban hispanics by 26 points, 58 32 . However, among cubans, President Trump has a 38point edge, 30 68 . Weve seen in 2016 and 2018 cubanamericans making a huge difference in how elections turn out with a majority going for donald trump in 2016, and actually, not enough cubanamericans going for the Democratic Candidates for governor and senators and allowing republicans to really go against the tide in 2018. So, victoria, as we talk about these polls that are causing democrats to flinch nationwide this morning, in florida, a couple of things. Yes, cubanamericans are put off, especially put off by socialist policies, by the fear that joe biden, if elected, will implement policies influenced by people like Bernie Sanders and aoc. Thats certainly what the Trump Campaign has been pushing. But also, man, nothing works like work. And donald trump has been working hard, advertising nonstop in the cubanamerican community for some time. And that hard work, surprise, surprise, is paying off dividends right now. Joe biden has not worked hard down there in the hispanic communities, in the cubanamerican communities yet, and i think were seeing the result of that, at least in these two polls. And they should indeed be flinching, joe. Democrats should absolutely be flinching at these numbers. I mean, look, the cuban numbers are not surprising. We know that republicans have always had a very strong base with cuban voters. However, weve seen that base grow under donald trump. He has cultivated that vote over the last four years. And as you pointed out, joe, he has been putting in the work. The Trump Campaign has been up in florida with tv ads, with digital ads, for at least a few months with biden coming, i would say six weeks later than that. So, that matters. But what i have my eye on, and what i think democrats should really be worried about, is the noncubans. So, if we remember, in 2016, Hillary Clinton won noncuban latinos 71 26 . So, whats happening there . Whats happening with the puerto rican voters who are traditionally more democratic and who have been growing in huge numbers as a result of Puerto Ricans migrating over from the island because of the economic downturn, because of the hurricanes . They are ripe for the picking in terms of getting them registered to vote and bringing them over to the democratic side, but these polls arent showing that. So, i think that what were seeing here is twofold the Trump Campaign building out its cuban base very healthyfully, something that obama had chipped into in 08 and 12, and at the same time, im seeing that the Trump Campaign is also picking up some noncuban latinos. Im thinking, you know, the d ii diaspera. This will be very worrisome as we get down to the homestretch of the election because there isnt going to be that much more time to mobilize these voters, register to vote and turn out, because its also a mobilization game. So, this is something that democrats should have their hair on fire about, absolutely. Yeah, you know, and willie, the mistake and weve been saying it on this show for many years now, the mistake that democrats have made for some time is a lot of democrats have made for some time, progressive democrats especially is the assumption that all hispanics, all latinos are the same, other than cubanamericans, that they all vote the same, that they all think its just not true. Like black voters in South Carolina and across the deep south, and really, across america, proved in the democratic primary this year, they are far more conservative with a small c than some of the more woke elements, the white woke elements of the National Democratic party, as reverend al calls them, latte liberals. So, this message that Donald Trumps team is sending not only to cuban americans, but also to new voters that are coming in from puerto rico and across latin america, that joe biden is going to be implementing socialist policies . You know, that is a very persuasive argument if youre a new arrival from venezuela, or if youre a new arrival from nicaragua, or if youre a cubanamerican. And thats something that the Trump Campaign understands, and its something that democrats have missed for a very long time. Nothing against Bernie Sanders, but sanders brand of socialist policies does not play well among a lot of latinos, at least in the general election. I know he did well in the democratic race but not in general elections, especially in florida. Theres a reason the Trump Campaign continues to push this idea that joe biden is merely a vessel for what he calls the radical left Bernie Sanders, aoc, et cetera, et cetera, and you can see its gaining some traction in the hispanic community, even if others roll their eyes and say, wait a minute, look at joe bidens career over 50 years. Hes been a centrist and has been criticized, even as recently as the democratic primary, for being too much of a centrist. Victoria, im interested in your view of whether this plays beyond the borders of the state of florida. 3 million or so registered eligible voters hispanic eligible voters in florida. 1. 3 million eligible hispanic voters in the state of arizona. In both states, thats more than 20 of the electorate. So, is this more than a florida story . Should democrats be worried about other places, beyond florida . They should be worried. I guess its the level of degree, right . So, i think when were looking at arizona, weve seen traditionally hispanics being more conservative, even though theyre of mexicanamerican descent more conservative than say latinos in california or in new york. That being said, if you remember back to sb1070, the show me your papers law, since then, we have seen activism by a part of the Latino Community in response to that, and nothing mobilized like anger, so that anger against sb1070, the anger against joe arpaio. So, i think thats helped democrats with the Latino Community in arizona. So, i think thats where were seeing some headway with joe biden in arizona. The other thing about arizona is that you have a very Competitive Senate race. You have mark kelly, a centrist, a hero, an astronaut, doing outreach to the Latino Community in arizona. So, i think thats going to help as well, in addition to the difference in demographics of latinos, you have that race. And here in texas, i cant believe my eyes that were seeing the ds and the rs tied in texas, you know, deepred texas. But latinos are, again, part of the story, but we have to recognize that there are shades of ideology within the Latino Community. Here in texas, it cant be assumed that all latinos in texas are going to be a lock. Remember, this is a state where george w. Bush got 49 of the latino vote when he ran for reelection as governor. Latinos are open in texas to voting for a republican. So, i think biden has made inroads, especially because latinos in texas have been so hard hit by the pandemic, but still, you know, be very cautious if youre a democrat mobilizer, because the Trump Campaign knows that they can creep into that latino base and pull them in terms of family values, in terms of entrepreneurial spirit, in terms of that. So, i think theres a little bit more comfort than in florida, but not a whole lot. Ill tell you what, the texas race is, it really is remarkable that we have seen one poll after another showing, basically, a tied race over the past several months, and were still within the margin of err you there, and a lot of that does have to do with the explosion of latino voters in texas, but also the loss of former republican strongholds to gop candidates in the suburbs of dallas, in the suburbs of houston, in a lot of areas that used to be the reddest of red states. So, thank you so much, victoria defrancesco soto. We greatly appreciate you being with us. Jonathan lamire, one final thought on arizona. You and i have been talking for some time about how arizona its been interesting to see arizona and florida going in two Different Directions. Most polls show donald trump losing arizona by five, six, seven points, and florida tightening up, and thats been a trend over the past couple weeks. And other than the cubanamerican issue in florida, which is obviously very big, weve been asking why, and i think victoria may have just really touched on it there. When she talked about the anger towards some of the things that republicans have done in the state of arizona. And im just wondering if characters like joe arpaio, who donald trump pardoned i wonder if joe arpaio doesnt prove to be the pete wilson of arizona at the end of the day. And by the way, im speaking in short he pete wilson, of course, was the republican governor who pushed antiimmigration laws in that state, and, well, republicans havent won statewide races since then. But go ahead, jonathan. No, i think theres a comparison to be made there, in the backlash to some of these policies. And we certainly know Donald Trumps rise in the 20152016 republican primary was due in large part to his rhetoric on immigration, his hardline stance on immigration, and he has not backed away from that since taking office. You know, he has during this pandemic, he has still made a couple of trips to arizona, twice now, to yuma, one when i was with him to inspect the border wall. He is still making that a central part of what hes about, despite Everything Else thats happening right now. And i think there is some backlash to that. He is seen in arizona. Its also a senate race, certainly, where the democratic candidate, mark kelly, has a wide margin over martha mcsally, the republican, far greater than at the moment joe biden has over donald trump. You know, this is potentially, maybe the most vital state on the map. Going back to what we were saying before. In terms of reaching that 270, so many of the trump scenarios include arizona. And if they dont, if they dont get arizona, that puts an extraordinary amount of pressure for him to win more than one of those great lakes states, and that could include minnesota, but thats not enough. They need more than that. They might need to flip pennsylvania, which would be exceedingly, exceedingly difficult. And the Biden Campaign knows that. They have devoted a lot of resources in arizona. There is talk of a candidate visit out there shortly. But one thing they are looking at, though, the difference between the two candidates ground games to talk about briefly what eddie said earlier, d the republicans have made more investment, despite the pandemic, so concerned about health issues, about going door to door still. They have put more into that effort, far more than the democrats have. And thats something to watch carefully over the next two months. Lets look at other stories were following this morning. There are now more than 500,000 coronavirus cases in children in the United States in children. According to the American Academy of pediatrics, these numbers came from. From august 20th to september 3rd, 70,630 children, the cases were reported, an increase of 16 . The largest increases were reported in six states indiana, kentucky, missouri, montana, north dakota, and south dakota. While it is rare that children develop severe symptoms, experts warn that children can pass the virus on to more vulnerable family members, also to teachers. Childrens cases now make up nearly 10 of total cases in the country. The president of the academy of pediatrics said in a statement, these numbers are a chilling reminder of why we need to take this virus seriously. Well, and mika, also what we dont understand we dont know right now, what are the longterm impacts of coronavirus on children, on younger kids, on teenagers . We just are assuming that, all right, if they get it, they have the sniffles, they move on. Right. We found even in athletes the red sox best pitcher, a 27yearold athlete, got it. And now hes got heart problems, and thats something that weve seen happening with others as well. So, again, we dont know the full extent and the longterm impact of the coronavirus on children or on teenagers or all these people that we just assumed, they can get it, you know speaking of children, where is betsy devos . Who i mean, where is the plan for schools . Because right now theres mitigation, the leadership on mitigation is barely there, compared to other countries. And vaccine hopes are becoming a little fleeting. There is no plan. So, destructive wildfires continue to spread across california, where officials have successfully transported out more than 100 people stranded in remote locations of the Sierra Nevada by the creek fire. Yesterday, 148 campers and others along with 16 dogs were airlifted to safety by the California National guard. As of this morning, the creek fire has spread over 143 acres and is 0 contained. The state has seen a recordbreaking 2. 3 million acres burned this year alone. And the entire command structure of the Rochester Police department stepped down yesterday in the wake of protests over the death of daniel prude in police custody. The rochester chief of police, the deputy chief of police, and a commander announced their retirements while another deputy chief and commander were demoted. The police chief said in a statement, the mischaracterization and the politicization of the actions that i took after being informed of mr. Prudes death is not based on facts and is not what i stand for. Rochester police had not disclosed prudes death until his familys request for records led to the release of body cam video from the night of his march arrest. Protests have ensued in rochester, calling for the resignation of the chief and the mayor since the video was released last wednesday. The chief denied any wrongdoing on the part of the officers who have since been suspended. The 20year veteran will step down at the end of september. Eddie glaude, whats your reaction to the events in rochester . Well, it seems to me that it is a reasonable outcome, joe. Look, the pressure that brought to bear on the command structure of the Rochester Police was a direct result of the disclosure of the video. Prior to that, the family was groping for answers, and they only moved that is, the Rochester Police command structure they only moved with public pressure. If the video was not revealed, if the evidence had not come into view, would they have done anything . Thats the question. And so, he might make the argument that they did nothing wrong, but its not until the actual evidence and the same thing happened in the Ahmaud Arbery case, if you recall, not in regards to police, but Nothing Happened until the video was revealed that these white men literally shot this black man down. Nothing happened in terms of policing with regards to holding folks accountable. So it makes sense that public pressure generates this outcome. People have to be held accountable, joe, and this is one example of the public bringing pressure to bear and folk actually being held accountable. Yeah, and jonathan lamire, you just sent me some sad news. With all the talk of College Football starting up and with us talking about the impact of covid19 on not only Young Children but also athletes, some very sad news out of College Football. Joe. And i think thats to your point about how we simply do not know yet the ramifications of this insidious disease on children and even those among us who look like the youngest and healthiest. A College Football player, its been reported by various sources, including nbc jamien stevens, the son of a former nfl player, died at age 20 due to coronavirus pandemic. Their season had been canceled, you know, but 20 years old. I think it points to and certainly our hearts and prayers go out to him and his family and teammates and so on. It shows, again, though the president himself is part of the pressure here to get these colleges to play. You know, some conferences are resuming, or are going to have their seasons, others not. The nfls going to start on thursday night. Theres still so much we dont know. And particularly in college sports. You know, these are athletes who are not being paid. They are not able to make the same sort of riskreward decisions that a lot of their pro counterparts can. It just goes to show just how much of this disease we dont know and why, you know, there are some that its an extraordinary risk for some to be out there resuming these sort of group activities. Well, and willie, the question is, how much of a risk are you willing to take to be entertained . Thats the question. And again, we talk about e. Rod, a fantastic, young pitcher for the red sox, who got covid. Everybody assumed, okay, he got it at the beginning of the season, hell be back in about 20 days. Well, no, hes out for the year because hes got a heart condition now and may never pitch again. Yeah. I dont know if there are preexisting conditions for this young man who died, and it does look like just reading this story that his college team had canceled their season, so i dont believe he was playing with his teammates. But your point is right, no. Which is the right one. These are young, Healthy People in the primes of their physical lives. And we dont by definition, as you said earlier, we dont know much about this disease. Its called the novel coronavirus. That means its new. That means its something doctors and scientists have never seen before. So, as Public Health experts like dr. Jah and others tell us when theyre here, were learning as we go. Doctors are learning as we go. We dont know the longterm effects of this on children, on healthy, young adults. Weve seen what it can do to senior communities. But this is a learnasyougo thing, and i think thats why you see so many people erring on the side of caution, because they dont want to roll the dice and learn later that their decision cost lives. Yeah. Still ahead on morning joe, a major vaccine study gets put on hold due to a suspected adverse reaction. Nbcs keir simmons joins us with that new reporting. Plus, former fbi agent peter strzok, who became a target of the president for his role in the trump russia investigation will be our guest. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. The United States Postal Service is here to deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Can it one up spaghetti night . Cleaning power of liquid. It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . 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Astrazeneca, one of the companies racing to make a vaccine for the coronavirus, announced yesterday it has paused now its global trials. That includes large, latestage trials of experimental Coronavirus Vaccine. Thats due to suspected serious Adverse Reactions in a participant in the united kingdom. Joining us now, nbc News Senior International correspondent keir simmons. Keir, good morning. So, this was one of the many promising vaccines that was out there. What exactly happened here . Reporter thats right, willie. Its come to be known, i guess, as the Oxford University vaccine. You are making the great point just before the break that theres so much we dont know about the coronavirus. That point extends to vaccines. So, two crucial things to say, willie. The Vaccine Research does not work to a political timeline. It works to a scientific timeline. And we have to face the sobering reality, which this brings into stark relief, that we may not find a vaccine for the coronavirus. But heres what we know. This trial involving tens of thousands of people here in the uk, there in the u. S. , in brazil, in south africa, in india, has been paused. Its been paused for everyone, both phase two and phase three trials. Its not the first time. There was a pause that just lasted a few days in phase one, when someone had an adverse reaction and was hospitalized. There is an independent review under way. And astrazeneca making clear that that is a routine action whenever there is unexplained illness. So, in a way, it is routine, but it is also serious. The New York Times reporting that a volunteer in the trials here suffered from transverse mailitis, which is a viral infection of the spine. Nbc news hasnt confirmed that one source reporting, but it just brings home the point, willie, that this vaccine, potentially, would be given to billions of people around the world. So its not just about whether its effective. Its about whether its safe. And even if theres a fraction of danger, that has the risk of undermining peoples confidence and also, of course, risking peoples health. And willie, today, weve spoken to one potential person who would take part in the trial in his 60s who says hes now having second thoughts. So, that just underscores that you really do have to make sure these vaccines are safe. Otherwise, you know, frankly, they are selfdefeating. Yeah. We should remind people that these companies are moving at unprecedented pace to try to get this vaccine, not just the one youre describing, but all of them. So, is it your sense, keir, that they feel the political pressure, if you will . President trump talking all the time about perhaps a vaccine ready by election day or before election day. Dr. Anthony fauci came out yesterday and said he finds that very unlikely by the end of the year at the earliest. But are these companies feeling that pressure . Reporter well, clearly, theres money involved, so theres always pressure from that. We speak regularly to the scientists at Oxford University who are behind this particular vaccine. And ive got to say, they give no impression that theyre under that kind of pressure. The only pressure they feel under is that, of course, there is a Global Hunger for a viable vaccine. He also makes another point and the head of vaccines welcome making this point in a statement, saying this is why its important that we work on multiple vaccines, because some may be effective in different ways, some may work, and others may not work. So, i think that the political pressure plainly is there, but frankly, the real pressure is just for these scientists and doctors to find a way to help people around the world. And theyre moving quickly. Keir simmons in london for us this morning. Keir, thanks so much. Mika . Well, coming up, a disputed reelection, massive protests, police violence, and now an Opposition Leader detained. Well talk about the deepening political crisis in belarus, russias role, and how the u. S. Is responding. Morning joe is coming right back. When its hot outside your car is like a sauna steaming up lingering odors. Febreze car vent clips stop hot car stench with up to 30 days of freshness. Get relief with febreze. Eve going faster than a closerollercoaster love like yours will surely come my way ahey, aheyhey [music playing] love like yours will surely come my way cancer wont wait. It wont wait for appointments to open up or test results to come back. Thats why at Cancer Treatment centers of america, our worldclass experts give you the care you need, when you need it. With appointments in as little as 24 hours and rapid test results to get you a personalized treatment plan. Because cancer isnt just what we do, its all we do. Call today. Appointments available now. 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Kolesnikova is part of a trio of women forming the opposition to belarus president aleksandr lukashenko, who refuses to step down amid mass protests that erupted in the wake of last months disputed elections. On monday, kolesnikova was abducted along with two colleagues by masked men who snatched her from the street and forced her into a car, according to local reports. Her colleagues spoke from ukraine yesterday, confirming they had been kidnapped. And while they accepted to leave belarus, kolesnikova refused. Speaking to russian journalists yesterday, lukashenko blamed the u. S. For the protests in his country, warning, quote, if belarus collapses today, russia will come next. Nbc news has contacted the belarusian border services, and president lukashenkos office for comment. No word back. Joining us now, the president of the council on Foreign Relations and author of the book the world a brief introduction, richard haass. Also with us, former u. S. Ambassador to sweden under president obama, mark brazinski. He served on the staff under president clinton as director of russian and eurasian affairs. So, richard haass, Financial Times reporting this morning that maxim znak, who is another of the Coordination Council which was set up to negotiate a transfer of power, has been abducted this morning by the state. That now means five of Seven Members of this council have been abducted or arrested or driven from the country. What has Donald Trumps response to this been . Well, the United States, joe, and the eu, have both criticized whats going on. I think trump called it a, quote unquote, terrible situation. The United States and the eu are talking about economic sanctions. But quite honestly, events on the ground are outpacing what the United States or europe are saying and doing. And what you describe is essentially an attempt to decapitate the political opposition in ukraine. So rather than something blunt like you saw in ukraine, what were seeing in belarus is something much more targeted, in this case, on the leadership. I think its probably being done with a significant degree of russian assistance. And mark brazinski, what should the United States government do in this situation . Joe, the choice that the west faces in belarus is, is this going to be poland, which is now a free european country and a member of nato and the eu, or is it going to be ukraine, a country now physically occupied by russia . Thats the choice. 40 years ago, this year, there was the birth of the Solidarity Movement in poland out of the godinst shipyards. That was a solidarity of opposition between workers and intelligentsia, between eastern poland and western poland. That is belarus. Thats the opposition there. Its a consolidation of all the different groups that oppose the person known as the last dictator of europe. And what did america do 40 years ago when solidarity was born . It funded solidarity. I mean, mika will remember that our father was National Security adviser at the time. He literally signed off on blocks of cash being delivered to lack valencia, the head of solidarity. Or will this be ukraine, which in certain ways stumbled along after the collapse of the soviet bloc . 26 countries emerged out of the collapse of the soviet bloc. Some thrived. Some stumbled along. And the vulnerable have been picked on by russia, which is trying to integrate them into something that putin hope residence respects some kind of skeleton of the former soviet bloc. Well, and you know, its very interesting. Mark is talking about how dr. Brzezinski, obviously, and the Carter Administration worked to fund solidarity. What was so fascinating are the stories that he told about how he worked quietly with the reagan administration, and bill casey especially, to continue to help dissidents behind the iron curtain well into the reagan administration. Richard haass, are you surprised . I guess we shouldnt be surprised by anything that Vladimir Putin does when he knows that hes going to get very little pushback, or not at all, from the president of the United States. Are you surprised how open Vladimir Putin has been in offering his support to crushing these democratic protests . No, im not surprised, joe. Hes got geography on his side. But again, putin does not want to do what he did in ukraine. You dont have a russian ethnic demographic in belarus like you had in ukraine. It would not be nearly as politically popular at home. He wants to do it more subtly. The words youre seeing in the conversational phrases like soft annexation, integration he wants to draw the 10 million or so people of belarus back into the russian orbit. And you know, we obviously dont have military options. The options we have are things like mark talked about, supporting the opposition, also financially. We can sanction the russians. We can sanction belarus people around lukashenko. But lets be honest, our options here are less than good. And again, geography infers tremendous advantages on the russians and on the leadership in belarus. That said, its hard not to be impressed by the breadth and depth of the opposition, the role of women. It always comes down to Security Forces. If the Security Forces are willing to arrest and kill their own people, it will be very hard for the protests to prevail. Hey, richard, friday is the 19th anniversary of september 11th, and we got news just moments ago that one of the wars launched in response to the iraq war in march of 2003, the footprint will be reduced. Centcom announcing just a couple of minutes ago that american troops will be reduced down to 3,000 over the course of this month, just in the next few weeks. Is that a good decision . Whats the impact . Obviously, there will be some politics involved here a couple months before the election. The president can say im bringing the troops home. But what about this decision . It leaves me uneasy, willie. Theres two reasons to keep the troops there. One is the war against terrorism doesnt end. Its an openended proposition. The other thing is if were that worried about iran and the middle east, one of the ways we push back against iran is by our closeness with iraq, keeping a u. S. Force presence in iraq. And to do this unilaterally to reduce our presence in iraq it seems theres an increasing gap between the robustness of our rhetoric against iran and what weve seen in syrian, now what were seeing in iraq, the winding down of an american physical presence in the region. So, Mark Brzezinski, the g7 yesterday, as im sure you know, condemned the poisoning of navalny and actually pompeo signed on, despite the fact donald trump is still claiming he has no idea how such a thing would ever happen. What should the United States do . Lets move forward, and just for arguments sake, assume that we have a new administration on january 20th, 2021. What should the United States position towards russia be on matters such as this, when putin poisons or skills his next political opponent or poisons or kills the next journalist who writes a negative article about him . Joe, these issues, whether its the poisoning of navalny, the situation in belarus, these arent just american problems. These are international problems, and it is good when others join us. My concern about the current dynamic, whether these issues or corona or the threat of international terrorism, is that we have fragmented our alliances. We have turned against our friends, and we have a little bit coddled our enemies. And i think that a unity of whether it pertains to belarus or whether it pertains to navalny, speaking in one voice, has a much more credible impact on someone like putin than lowlevel Administration Officials in the Trump Administration, you know, speaking tough about belarus but then really nothing much coming from the top. The opportunity of a National Election and change in america is generating a unity of purpose among shared minds around the world against these challenges. I mean, look at canada. The deputy Prime Minister of canada, christia freeland, who used to appear regularly on your show, is a sanctioned speaker of russia, because she speaks toughly about putin and about what happens in central europe. These are things that we should join with our friends to stand up against, and we are not doing that credibly. In certain ways, whats happening in belarus is lowhanging fruit. This could be democracys dawn in central europe, and im speaking to all of the americans who have slavic endings on their last name like mika and i share. We hail from people in a part of the world that until recently were occupied and have a very delicate position now. We have an opportunity to really support the opposition and to create change in the heart of europe in belarus, and in so do further consolidate a stronger position to support the right side in ukraine. Were not doing that. Richard haass, i want to end we talked about russia i want to end talking about china. Because one thing that, obviously and i understand this happens in every campaign there is a rush to see who can bash china the most, from both of the candidates. And i understand thats happening. Despite the fact despite all of chinas bad behavior and weve spoken about this before the United States and china are going to be occupying the global stage together for the next 40, 50 years, most likely. And back in may, i remember you wrote a piece saying that a cold war with china would be a mistake. I agreed with that then. I agree with that now. But you have, of course, over the past week, started talking about leaving behind some of the ambiguities that we allowed to seep into our relationship with china. And again, i understand that, too. But can you just talk, not only to our audience, but also some of the people in both of these campaigns that are watching the show today, and talk about what is at stake in the United States china relationship and how two things can be true at the same time, that yes, we are deeply offended by many things that china does, and at the same time, we have no option but to figure out a way to forge a way forward with china, because anything we want to achieve on the global stage will only be achieved with the United States and china doing it together economically, environmentally, and so many other spheres. You set it up exactly right, joe. This will be the defining relationship of this era, just like the u. S. soviet relationship was the defining relationship for four decades of the cold war. The challenge for the u. S. And for china is going to be, how do we structure the competition in ways that dont spill over into direct conflict over taiwan or over the South China Sea . How do we structure the inevitable competition so it doesnt preclude or rule out cooperation, say on Climate Change or on dealing with the north Korean Nuclear challenge or in dealing with stability in afghanistan . So, were looking at a relationship thats going to have multiple personalities. And this is going to place tremendous a real premium on the quality of foreign policy, on the quality, but its not going to be onedimensional. Its not going to be onedirectional. Were going to have to find a way to cooperate on tuesdays and thursdays, yet compete the rest of the time, and were going to have real disagreements, but can we still limit the disagreements, so again, like it worked out with the soviets, it doesnt spill over into direct conflict . And can we shape our relationship overall so we can still cooperate, say on global Public Health . It serves our interests to do that, even if we disagree fundamentally on the South China Sea. That will be the challenge. And how well that challenge is met will probably, as much as anything, determine the character of the next 50 years of this era of history. All right. Former ambassador Mark Brzezinski and president of the council on Foreign Relations, richard haass. Thank you both for being on this morning. And its just past the top of the hour now. Princeton professor eddie glaude jr. Is still with us. And joining the conversation, we have msnbc contributor Mike Barnicle, editor at large for the nonprofit newsroom, the 19th, and an msnbc contributor, errin haines joins us. And National Political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc, Steve Kornacki is with us. Well start with a spade of new polling. In the latest Morning Consult poll, biden holds a sixpoint lead nationally over President Trump, 50 44 . Among key battleground states, biden is up by ten. In michigan, up by eight in wisconsin, up by six in colorado, up by five in florida, pennsylvania, and minnesota. By three in arizona and by one in North Carolina. The two are tied in texas. And President Trump holds a twopoint lead in georgia and a fivepoint lead in ohio. Willie . So, Steve Kornacki, lets stay with these battleground state polls, just this morning out over Morning Consult. There is some consternation today about joe bidens work in the Latino Community. We can look at that inside the polls in florida in just a moment. But just those snapshot battleground polls look an awful lot like the polls we saw even back before the convention. So, whats the state of the race this morning . Yeah, i would say in our nbc marist poll, i think the most significant here coming out of pennsylvania this morning, because pennsylvania is where the most questions, i think, have been raised in the last week or two about, heres a state that trump won by a fraction of a point in 2016. Youve seen larger biden leads, perhaps steadier leads in the recent polling in other states, so i think theres been a bit of a question mark if, perhaps, something a little different was happening in pennsylvania, something a little bit more advantageous to trump than we were seeing in other states. And i think our nbc marist poll today throws a little bit of cold water on that notion. Theres joe biden leading by nine points there. You see that by now very familiar split when you look inside this poll among white voters, donald trump doing very well among white voters without a College Degree, joe biden doing very well with white voters with a College Degree. But the overall story when you look at white voters, you see at the bottom of the screen right there, in pennsylvania, 49 49 . That is movement. That is Significant Movement from where the 2016 election ended. Donald trump won the white vote in pennsylvania by double digits in 2016. Now its a tie. That is the Common Thread im seeing in polling in state after state. Im seeing it in national polling. The Biggest Movement from 2016 to now has been toward the democrats among white voters. In a state like pennsylvania, with a large or particularly large white population, when you have that kind of movement and it favors one party, youre going to get results like this. So steve, weve heard so much about suburban women, suburban women, suburban women, and donald trump perhaps losing those suburban women. Weve seen him tweeting as recently as yesterday about joe biden abolishing the suburbs, a claim that obviously doesnt make any sense, but hes driving that home. He thinks it works, somehow. If you look again at that graphic we had up, just take pennsylvania, where those suburbs are so important around philadelphia and pittsburgh. He is up by 19 points in the suburbs and 21 points among women. Yeah, and if you look at sort of the five collar counties there outside philadelphia or immediately outside it, in the 2016 election, if you just took the cumulative vote in those suburbs, its the suburbs of philadelphia, might be defined a little bit differently than the graphic youre seeing there. But just by way of comparison, the margin there in 2016 in those counties for Hillary Clinton over donald trump was nine points. And if you looked at the exit poll in 2016 among white voters with a College Degree in pennsylvania, you were looking at a tie. The exit poll showed in 2016. Now youre looking at a biden margin in pennsylvania in excess of 20 points. So, the combinations were seeing in different states vary a little bit, but again, the Common Thread is suburban, metro area, white voters with a College Degree, some version of those three sort of factors i just put out there, those groups of voters have moved pretty dramatically away from republicans toward the democrats. Trump continues to do well, you know, with noncollege white voters, bluecollar white voters. But right now in most places, hes not doing quite as well as he did in 2016. So hes experiencing slippage kind of on both ends there demographically of the white vote. You know, steve, i really expect those pennsylvania numbers to end up within five for that to be a really tight race. But ive been saying for some time, just looking at philadelphia, and the incredible numbers that hillary rolled up out of philadelphia, how well she did in the suburbs and expecting biden to do better there than hillary, who did very well there in 16. And then you go to scranton, wilkesbarre, and you know, thats joe bidens home base. Expecting him to do better there. Ive been able to see, and i thought florida was going to tighten and in the end florida would probably end up going for donald trump. I still am having trouble put if im trying to figure out a way for donald trump to win pennsylvania, its actually one of the harder states for me to figure out how to put into Donald Trumps column. Structurally, what are you seeing in pennsylvania . Are you seeing the same there . Whats his best chance for victory in pennsylvania . Yeah. Heres sort of the challenge i see for trump demographically. Its kind of a doubleedged sword. I put pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin and his campaign likes to talk about minnesota, you know, a clinton state in 16, that they like to say they think they can flip. Out o i put those four states in one bucket demographically, where youve got trump sending messages talking about the suburbs right now, but what he really needs in those states, and what is potentially available to him, just when you look at the demographics of those states, is noncollege white voters, bluecollar white voters, sort of his bedrock base in 2016. To get what he got from them in 16 and more, to find a way to drive up the numbers further, at least theoretically. You look across those midwest states, and the possibility is there. Its not bearing out in the polls right now, but theoretically, its there. When i say doubleedged sword, what i mean is this. Lets say hes able to go offer that vote in a pennsylvania, in a michigan, in a wisconsin, and lets say hes able to connect and get one of those states, get two of those states, something he absolutely has to do from the Electoral College standpoint. That alone is not going to be enough to get him to 270 with the changes were seeing in arizona, in North Carolina, in the second Congressional District of nebraska, a suburban district, a metro area, omaha. This is where they give out the electoral vote by Congressional District. And i wonder and the tension here may be, the more trump leans into a message that could help him hang on to a wisconsin or a michigan or a minnesota, the more he leans into that, he may also be alienating the exact voters he needs to hang onto a state like arizona. Because the polling has been very discouraging for him in arizona, and there youre talking about the key voters being suburb asuburbanites, pho metro area folks, Maricopa County, where its like 60 of the population of the state is right there. So, theres that demographic tension. If we talk about the white vote going in two very Different Directions politically, and trump taps into the noncollege white vote in the midwest and can hang on there, he may also, with the same message, be alienating the exact voters he needs to hang onto in arizona. And it looks like hes going to have to do some combination of both if hes going to get to 270. Its such a great point. If you gain a voter or two in wisconsin, with that sort of divisive message, how many do you lose in arizona . How many do you lose in the i4 corridor . How many do you lose in the suburbs of philly . How many do you lose in Macomb County . How many do you lose in all of these swing states, swing areas of these states . Errin, theres another number here. We have thrown a lot of polls out there, which, i think just to figure out how volatile this race is, that have been very interesting, but theres one number that im looking at this morning that shows an extraordinarily stable race in a state that you would think would be all over the board, and that is wisconsin. Once again, joe biden in wisconsin, up eight points, like he was in two polls yesterday, like he was even in the rasmussen poll yesterday, up eight points. Wisconsin has been extraordinarily steady for joe biden, a pluseight state with biden over 50 , which, by the way, is another thing thats very different from 2016. The democratic nominee over 50 in a lot of these polls. And i just dont know what other assumption can be drawn but that Donald Trumps june 1st stunt, violent stunt in Lafayette Square didnt work any more than his reaction to kenosha worked. Yeah, joe. You know, i think an assumption that can be drawn is that joe biden may have learned some lessons from 2016, and not just in wisconsin, but also in michigan where hes going to be today, and in pennsylvania, where he was earlier this week. Senator harris also in wisconsin this week. Listen, joe biden was one of the key surrogates for Hillary Clinton headed into the home stretch in states like this and was going there repeatedly when, frankly, she was not there nearly as much. And the Trump Campaign was there quite a bit. And so, trump voters told me, especially in places like wilkesbarre the day after the election in 2016, that they saw President Trump, that they saw members of his family coming to places like this over and over again. They felt seen by President Trump. They felt heard, you know, by thencandidate trump. And that was the reason that you saw him winning by those very thin margins in some of those places. Joe biden understands that these are battleground states and that he needs to treat them as such. And i think that that may be whats making a difference. The campaign told me earlier this week, coming out of the convention, the republican convention, they were looking to see if President Trump was going to kind of get that postconvention bump, especially with his message of law and order about places like kenosha. That didnt really happen. That has not really materialized. And so, you know, theyre continuing to stick to their message that this election is a referendum on this president and his inadequate response to the dual pandemics of coronavirus and racism. And really, his campaigns original message since he launched last april that this is a battle for the soul of america, and thats something that seems to be resonating with voters, which was, you know, true i think for them before the campaign but has come into even sharper focus in the pandemic. Mike barnicle, you are plugged into the Biden Campaign. Im curious how you think theyre feeling right now. As i said, the numbers have just been incredibly consistent over time, even with two conventions, some tightening in polls over the last couple weeks that showed President Trump making up some ground. But if you tick through those battleground states, its incredibly consistent. As i said earlier there was always going to be some panic among democratic voters uhoh, here comes 2016 again, here comes President Trump. But how, with less than three weeks to go now until the first big moment now where we see them on a debate stage together, how is the Biden Campaign feeling about where it is . Well, i think theyre confident but not overconfident. They are keeping their foot on the gas pedal. They intend to do that right through november. I think they also realize something that we dont talk about a whole lot here in the morning, is that the significant differences between 2016 and 2020, willie there is no jim comey this year, there is no Hillary Clinton this year. There is the virus on the ballot this year. And the virus will be on the ballot this year. They also realize that in 2016, there were 14 states where neither donald trump nor Hillary Clinton got 50 of the vote. And the three states that steve was just talking about michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin, the thirdparty candidates in those states got more of the vote percentagewise than the difference between Donald Trumps election. So there are some significant differences between the two years and the two candidates, and its going to come down to the message, where are we going in the future . Thats what people want to hear. They dont want to be scared. They want to know, where are we going . Where are we going . The latest nbc news marist poll of florida likely voters has biden and President Trump tied at 48 . Biden is up with black voters by 72 points, women by 17, independent voters by 11. And it says statistical tie among seniors, which is a demographic trump won by 17 points, according to 2016 exit polls. President trump holds an advantage among men by 20 points, white voters by 15, white voters without a College Degree by 28 points. And among latinos by four points, which is a statistical tie in a demographic that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 27 points. Trumps lead over biden in that poll is sizable among latinos of cuban descent, whereas biden is just slightly ahead among all other latinos in the state. And another poll out of florida shows a similar trend. In the bendixen and Amandi International poll out of Miamidade County, biden leads among noncuban hispanics by 26 points, 58 32 . However, among cubans, President Trump has a 38point edge 68 30 . Lets bring in former republican congressman carlos scerbello of florida. Good to have you on the show. Looking at those numbers, whats the logic behind them from your point of view . A couple factors. Number one, in 2016, a lot of cubanamericans are so upset about the nasty race between donald trump and marco rubio and jeb bush, two favorite sons here in south florida, so they had not consolidated behind the president. Now some of those voters are behind him. The other issue is that, throughout the country, the Trump Campaigns weapon of choice is scare voters with law and order, tying Joe Biden Kamala harris to some of the protests, the violence, the rioting. Here in south florida, the weapon of choice to scare voters, to motivate the trump base, is socialism and tying the biden harris ticket to socialism. And remember, a lot of cubanamericans, venezuelanamericans, nicaraguanamericans are people who fled socialist revolutions, so that message is penetrating, is breaking through, and is costing joe biden some votes here in this part of the country. So, the biden harris ticket, they have an offensive strategy on covid19 here in florida. They probably need a defensive strategy against some of these efforts to tie them to some of the socialist revolutions that voters here in south florida fled. Well, and congressman, as you know, as i said last hour, nothing works like work, and donald trump has been working to the cubanamerican community very hard over the past few years. There is concern among democrats that the Biden Campaign hasnt worked hard enough down there. What can you tell us on the ground that youve seen . Is there a disparity between the biden presence and the trump presence . Well, joe, thats right. And you know how important it is to work the cubanamerican community. A lot of people credit that community with george w. Bushs tight win in this state in the year 2000. Of course, fewer than 1,000 votes. And the president has been here a lot. There were cubanamericans featured prominently at the Republican National convention. The Biden Campaign hasnt had a strong presence here. There werent any cubanamericans featured prominently in the Democratic National convention. So, time is running out. But if the Biden Harris Campaign wants to win florida, they ought to invest more resources here in this crucial part of the state because Miamidade County is a democratic county, and democrats need to run up the score here if they want to make up for other, more republican parts of the state, especially up north. Whats happened here in florida is actually quite interesting. Weve seen donald trump gain minority support. Even saw double digits there in support from africanamericans. And hes also gained support among latinos while losing support from suburban white voters. So, steve, latinos make up more than 20 of the electorate in both florida and arizona. If youre on the Biden Campaign this morning, how concerned are you about that number you see in florida . Right. Well, we talk about the hispanic vote. Obviously, were talking about the term there being just a large umbrella term. So what the former congressman is talking about there, the polling we did here nbc marist suggest its really specific whats happening there in florida to the cubanamerican Community South florida, miamidade. Thats a huge, huge part of whats happening in florida thats not so much a factor elsewhere. But the bigpicture story there in florida, thats the single most encouraging poll, if youre the Trump Campaign, youve seen in a while, the 44 44 tie in florida, and its for exactly the dynamics youre discussing here. One thing is happening in florida that were seeing everywhere the erosion of trumps support among white voters. I just talked about those numbers in pennsylvania. You look at florida, youre seeing the same thing. In 2016, trump won the white vote in florida by 32 points over Hillary Clinton. In the new poll, his margin among white voters you could see it right there its down to 15. So its been cut in half, and thats entirely consistent with what were seeing across the country. So, that thing is happening in florida, too. But florida, with the latino vote, more specifically, the cubanamerican vote, huge, huge there in florida. Trump has found another group of voters that he is tapping into right now that he was unable to tap into in 2016. Its one of the few places where he has shown real significant demographic growth. And you can see, it offsets in florida, or at least potentially offsets the erosion among white voters, puts him in a tie in florida, when in state after state after state we see him losing right now. The problem for trump is you look at arizona and do not see something comparable happening in the polling right now. You see the erosion of trumps support, particularly among white suburbanites in the phoenix, Maricopa County area. You dont see the degree of surge. To this degree, clinton won the hispanic vote in florida by 27 points in 2016. Our poll now has trump by four. You dont see that kind of movement. You see some movement there, some nonwhite movement away from the democrats towards trump some. Not to this degree. And when trump is suffering the kind of erosion he is in state after state among white voters who remain just a very, very large voting bloc, he needs Dramatic Movement in other Demographic Groups. Florida is the only state where im seeing that right now. So, joe, to put some more data behind steves point about the distinction between cubanamericans and other latino voters in that new miami herald poll, joe biden is actually up in florida 58 32 among noncuban latino voters. But among cubans, hes down 68 30 . And again, thats the difference between arizona and florida. For everybody who believes that hispanic latino voters are homogenous and all think the same, all vote the same, which, by the way, ive seen democrats do that for a quarter of a century, it is just not the case. And theres always about this attitude that, you know what, were just going to write off the cubanamericans in south florida because theyre never going to be with us anyway. There has been a move, a bit of a move, towards the center for many cubanamerican voters. But certainly not this year. And not in 2018. They werelifeline for ron desantis. They were a lifeline for rick scott in those races, which the pollsters showed democrats winning throughout most of the campaign. So, there is no doubt, the Biden Campaign, if they want to win the state of florida, are going to have to do better, not only in south florida, not only in miamidade, but also in central florida, in the i4 corridor, in orange county, florida. Theyre going to have to do better among hispanics. And if i remember correctly, that was also a weakness for joe biden during the primaries. So they are going to have to figure out how to get hispanic voters moving in his direction, at least as much as they moved in Hillary Clintons direction. Lets talk about those white workingclass voters who have always been considered Donald Trumps lifeline in state after state after state, especially in the industrial midwest. I think were seeing through these polls and ill say it again especially in wisconsin, that for every white, workingclass voter you pick up by seeming to embrace a 17yearold kid from out of state thats running around wisconsins streets with an ar15 around his neck, shooting at people indiscriminately for every one voter that may pick up, youre losing a couple of more. We saw it after charlottesville. David duke praising donald trump for his moral equivalency. And yes, maybe that got some hardened trump voters to be even more supportive of their president , Donald Trumps moral equivalency. Certainly, hacks in the press continue to insist that he didnt preach moral equivalency and that people like david duke werent thrilled by what he said after charlottesville. But you look at these numbers from pennsylvania over to wisconsin, it seems that this strategy may harden, boil down and harden his support. But man, it seems hes paying a price for it, a heavy price among white voters in the suburbs. Yeah, joe, but it was really interesting, as i was listening to steve earlier talk about the doubleedged sword of the strategy of how to, in some ways, expand the base among high schooleducated, noncollege educated white voters, rural voters and the like, doubling down on law and order, grievance and the like. And as you noted, every time he does this and hardens his support among that constituency, he loses a suburban voter of the like. But its also a twin strategy. Remember yesterday, you talked about very briefly how donald trump is still polling very strongly among those who believe he will handle the economy better than joe biden, right . Even though the numbers are what they are, there is this sense that donald trump can, in fact, be the one to hold off the radical left, the socialists that joe biden is supposedly beholden to. So, theres a sense in which the strategy maybe and i might be wrong here kind of relies on these twin efforts. Double down on grievance and fear and on selfishness and selfinterest, that many folk in the suburbs will not take the risk of betting on joe biden because joe biden and the radical left will jeopardize their economic wellbeing, their 401 k s and the like. So, those two strategies go hand in hand. As one appeals to grievance, the other appeals to selfinterest, and hopefully, he can thread that needle. I dont know if it will work, but i think thats the strategy that responds to in some ways the doubleedged sword that steve mentioned earlier. Well, and mika, you know, joe biden as a leftwing radical, joe biden as the aoc in a business suit, joe biden as Bernie Sanders from delaware. That kind of cuts against what joe bidens been attacked for over the past 30, 40 years, being too close to banks, being too close to credit card companies, being too fiscally too pro business. Thats been his knock. Article after article over the past 30, 40 years has been that biden, a guy who has represented a state that is home to multinational corporations, the knock has been that he has been too friendly to corporations. So, its really hard to recast him after three or four decades as some shea gruvera leftwing socialist whos going to hike taxes up to 70 . Trying to recast him in a lot of different ways. It doesnt appear to be sticking. Now to President Trumps rally last night, i guess another superspreader event is another way of putting it, in North Carolina, where he launched into another attack against mailin voting. He accused democrats, without any evidence, of sending out unsolicited ballots and repeated his suggestion to a packed crowd, very close together, that voters should test their States Election system. And by the way, when they send out their millions and millions of unsolicited ballots, when you get a ballot say, well, i wanted to go and vote, darling, i wanted to go and vote, why are they sending me those ballots . Now, sometimes youll ask for a ballot. Thats a solicited ballot. Its okay. You have to go through a process. You sign a form. You get it. Sending out millions of unsolicited ballots. Make sure you send the ballot in, and then go to your polling place and make sure it counts. Make sure it counts. Because the only way they can win is by doing very bad things. Thats the only way. You know, im just a simple country law here, but it appears that he is asking the good people of North Carolina to commit a felony in his name. Well that is a very interesting home stretch strategy for any candidate, but literally asking them to commit a felony by voting twice. Lets bring in a real lawyer . A real lawyer, somebody whos not a simple country lawyer. Lets bring in fin ginsberg. Hes practiced election law for 38 years and cochaired the 2013 president ial commission on election administration. Hes written an op ed for the Washington Post titled republicans have insufficient evidence to call elections rigged and fraudulent. And ben, it is always good to talk to you. Ill let you first if theres anything in what the president said there, feel free to correct it right now. But why dont we start with Donald Trumps continued claim that these elections are rigged . Well, the problem, joe, is that ive been looking for 38 years on election days, along with literally legions of other republican liaawyers and politil operatives for elections that are rigged in fraud. It is true that there is an occasional election where you can prove fraud. Those are caught. But elections and the credibility of the results of the elections is a fundamental bedrock of our democracy. And to say overall that elections are rigged and fraudulent and the only way i can win is if theres cheating going on, is just not borne out by 38 years of looking for those incidents. And its time for the Republican Party to basically deal with that reality in what they do. Yeah. And ben, of course, for those that dont know, has been working with republican candidates, republican president ial candidates, republican president s, for some time, looking into election law and looking for these instances. Ben, also, you know, a question that ive been asked a good bit, because of course, donald trump wants to stir up doubt, is, hey, whats the difference between an absentee ballot and mailin voting . And my response is, really, theres not really a difference. It depends on how the individual states define that process. What can you tell us . Are there any differences that im missing . So, the president is confusing what nine states do, which is universal balloting, sending out actual live ballots to all voters. So, nevada and new jersey put that into place with this election. And what i think were bad moves for the credibility of their elections. Governor newsom in california decided to do that. It means there are lots of live ballots sort of out there going to bad addresses. But the rest of the states, and really, they are not any of the states that youve been talking about this morning as target states, that do that. What they do is require voters to request an absentee ballot. Those are absentee ballots in some states, mailin ballots in other states. Its really just a labelling and not a definition. But there is the difference between universal ballot states, which is the nine and really, nevada and colorado are the only potential target states in there and then every other state in the country. So, there is no demonstrable proof of rigged or fraudulent elections or even really anything to be able to rise to the level of the rhetoric of rigged and fraudulent elections in the vast majority of states. And of course, willie, this is the second time that donald trump has gone to North Carolina and lied and claimed that everybody had a ballot sent out to them, and so, they should vote twice, which is, of course, a felony in North Carolina. It is. And if you thought there was some gray area or he misspoke that first time, hes said it since a couple of times to remind us exactly what hes telling people to do there. As you point out, thats against the law. Ben, its great to see you this morning because you know this stuff so well. You worked, of course, on the 2000 recount. So, help us game out what might happen on Election Night and beyond, in the days, perhaps weeks, after that, what it might look like if the votes come in on Election Night, but we havent yet counted all these millions of mailin ballots that are coming in. What will that process look like . Do you expect lawsuits . How long might it take . How are you looking at Election Night or election week or election month this year . Well, first of all, willie, i think it will be very different from the florida experience. That was a historically close election in a state that mattered to tip the Electoral College. The results were quickly canvassed, and the recount activity began, really, three days after election day. What were talking about in 2020 is the onslaught of absentee ballots that you mentioned. That is going to postpone the count a good deal. A number of states are allowing ballots to be received either three days or a week, or in some cases, a couple of weeks after election day. That means there wont be the final tallies. So im not sure were in recount territory in this election. No reason to think the fickle finger of recount fate is going to point more in this election cycle than others, but we will have all the deadlines for beginning the process of finalizing the results, pushed back a good deal. Whats interesting about this cycle and concerning is that you do have the hard deadlines in the constitution for the end of the president s term and for the meeting of the Electoral College on december 14th. And this delay in getting final certified results can really bump into those deadlines in a way that we just made in florida in 2000. All right. So no hanging chads. Thank you. At least we have that nightmare wont be on the horizon. Attorney ben ginsburg, who knows this stuff because hes lived it. Great to see you. Thanks so much. Congressman curbelo, last word to you on the state of the race as we turn out of labor day, looking ahead, as i said, less than three weeks until those first debates, the president ial debates. What is the state of play right now in florida where you are . You talked about the latino vote, but more broadly as you look at it across the country, where is this race . Well, willie, florida, florida, florida. That was coined by nbc news years ago, and it could come down to this state. And what we see is the Trump Campaign knowing theyre behind, trying to scare voters to the polls, trying to scare people away from the biden harris ticket. Two big weapons of choice. One is law and order. Trying to tie joe biden and Kamala Harris to the protesting, to the looting that weve seen in some american cities. And then in other parts of the country, its this message of socialism, trying to scare voters by saying that the biden harris ticket are going to take this country toward a radical extreme. The Vice President campaign has an offensive strategy. Weve seen the messages on covid. They also need a defensive strategy. They need to reassure some of the voters, white suburban voters, hispanic voters here in south florida, that they are going to try to bring the country together, that they are going to try to heal some of the wounds that have been opened in this country in recent years. I think whether or not the Trump Campaign is able to scare a sufficient number of voters and whether or not the Biden Campaign can defend themselves from those efforts can prove to be decisive on november 3rd of this year. Carlos curbelo, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. It also could be michigan, michigan, michigan, you know . President trump and joe biden will both campaign in the key battleground state of michigan this week. Joining us now, michigans governor, democrat Gretchen Whitmer. Great to have you back on the show, governor. I guess, first of all, the trump events, from what weve seen so far, more like rallies, and theres not a lot of social distancing. Are you concerned a bit about the Health Threat that a trump event could pose . Yeah, of course i am. Were watching the events that hes holding in other states leading up to this is visit here in michigan tomorrow, and we know that theres no social distancing, theres very little maskwearing. Theyre projecting their voices. And those are the prime conditions for the spread of covid19. Weve pushed our curve down. Weve saved thousands of lives. Our economys reengaged. And yet, we know that all of this is very precarious, and a superspreader event could change all of that and make us have to roll some things back, and thats what were desperately trying to avoid. So of course im concerned about it. And what are you able to do as governor . Because if the president wants to come to town, is that it . Can you not have guidelines that the people of your state need to instead of like what were seeing here . Were showing video of another rally. Yeah, we have guidelines. You know, we see the vast majority of people in the state following them and doing the right thing. Im not going to stop the president from coming into the state of michigan, but i am going to do everything i can to encourage michiganders continue doing the right thing and protect themselves. We know this virus does not care about party line, doesnt care about state line. Its still a very real threat and thats why weve got to stay smart, weve got to do the right thing and protect the economic gains weve made and the lives weve saved. Weve got to mask up. Hey, governor, Joe Scarborough here. Lets talk about covid and the state of michigan. Obviously, youve won a lot of praise, not only from members of the media, but also, i think, for you, probably more importantly, from voters in the state of michigan, if you look at your approval ratings. But were in the fall now. This is what weve been warned about for the past six months from epidemiologists and doctors, about the possibility of flu and covid hitting at the same time. What is michigan how are you all doing right now in terms of infections and deaths . And what are you doing to protect people in your state as we go into these possibly dangerous times . Well, joe, we were rising at the same time that the city of new york was and new orleans. We were the were the tenth largest state in the nation, and for a long time, we had the fourth highest death rate and covid cases. Now we are in the 40th position in terms of number of covid cases and our positivity rates are 3. 7, which would be the envy of probably almost every other state in the nation, but for a handful that are doing a little bit better. The fact of the matter is weve made incredible strides. Weve paid a huge price for it, too. You know, real sacrifice. But with a vacuum of leadership in d. C. , its put on the nations governors to take the lead, and our aggressive actions have taken off. Weve saved lives. Were in a stronger position. But we know the weather is changing. Its 55 degrees here in michigan today, which means more people will be inside, and thats when weve got to be heightened concerns for a resurgence, a second wave. And thats why were promoting the flu shot. We are continuing to be aggressive around actions were taking to preclude community spread. We have 30,000 tests a day, which is a phenomenal step that weve been able to build here in michigan. But a National Strategy coming out of washington, d. C. , and the resources to support our effort in terms of a supplemental that wed like Mitch Mcconnell and donald trump to get over the finish line would go a long ways towards protecting our economy and the health of our people. Governor, Mike Barnicle is with us and has a question for you. Mike. Yeah, governor, on that point, the president of the United States seems to have two themes that he sticks to in campaigning for reelection. One, of course, is radical violence in american streets and cities, and the other is rigged elections. But to your point that you just raised, the last federal assistance check that many, many families got was july 1st. There has been no covid relief bill passed since then to give families a boost who need a boost. And we are on the edge of an economic catastrophe for millions of americans. What is the status muof that catastrophe among michigan workers . Well, its the stark reality. Dinner table issues at least here in michigan. Thats why ive been encouraging the Biden Harris Campaign to keep doing what theyre doing focus on addressing the Health Care Crisis so that we can get people back to work and keep them at work and build our economy back better. The dinner table issues are that theres a lot of americans that are out of work right now, fearful, whether or not theyre going to make it through this upcoming fall season and winter season, and thats why the inaction in washington, d. C. Every state in the nation is waiting for d. C. To get the supplemental done. Its about Public Safety and Public Education and Public Health, arguably the three most important things we need to do as a nation right now in the midst of this pandemic. The Trump Administration didnt create covid19, but they are responsible for the terrible response with a lack of a National Strategy. And thats why right now, more than ever, theyve got to get this floor supplemental done so that we can help American Families stay in their homes while theyre fearful of just paying the rent. Governor whitmer, its willie geist. Good to see you this morning. One of the ways President Trump is trying to win votes in your state is by encouraging michigan and Michigan State to play football along with the other teams in the big ten. Do you believe michigan and Michigan State should be playing Football Games this fall . You know, i love football. I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. That was my original plan. Im a state kbrad and ive got a kid at the university of michigan. The fact of the matter, is the big ten made a decision based on the best epidemiology, their research institutions, learning from the best and making decisions, and i think weve got to respect the decision that they made to keep their student athletes safe and families safe, and i think that making this a political question really undermines the seriousness of this issue and how critical it is that we follow science and we do what we need to do to protect people. We can play football again. Theres no question about that. But weve got to be safe right here and right now, and were still in the midst so you agree with the big tens decision then . I do. And if the Trump Administration had had a National Strategy and taken this seriously, we might be able to safely play football now, but thats not the case, and thats why weve got to be smart right now with the circumstances that were dealing with. All right, governor Gretchen Whitm whitmer. Thank you very much for being on the show this morning. And coming up, with more than 500,000 American Children infected by the coronavirus, were going to check in with former fda commissioner dr. Scott gottlieb about where the country stands as the new school year gets under way. Morning joe is back in a moment. Orni jngoe is back in a moment you should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. You should be mad at forced camaraderie. And you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. But youre not mad, because you have e trade, whos tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad. Get e trades simplified technical analysis. vo verizon knows how to build unlimited right. Start with americas most awarded network, include disney , hulu, and espn , and offer plans to mix and match starting at 35. Plus, get up to 1,000 off our best phones when you switch. The network more people rely on gives you more. Can it one up spaghetti night . Cleaning power of liquid. It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . Yeah, even that i would very much like to see that. Me too. Introducing tide power pods. One up the toughest stains with 50 more cleaning power than liquid detergent. Any further questions . Uh uh nope one up the power of liquid with tide power pods. Hey, welcome back to morning joe. Lets bring in former fda commissioner dr. Scott gottlieb. Thank you for being with us. Im wondering with what the news out of oxford yesterday does to the timeline that many doctors and other Health Care Officials have been given to be expecting a vaccine by early november . Well, it could prompt regulators to take a closer look at the clinical trials, certainly the astrazeneca trial, but also the other ongoing trials. There are two large trials that are pretty far along, one with the pfizer vaccine, one with modernas. Ill remind you, im on the board of pfizer, the company thats developing that vaccine. Its unclear if the side effect that was unmasked in this trial and the New York Times is unmasked in this vaccine, a form of meningitis, if thats related to the vaccine. The other question, if they determine its likely related to the vaccine itself, the other question, is it related to the vaccine constructs. Youre using basically a virus, a chimpanzee adnovirus, a virus that causes a common cold in mopg monkeys. In this case the spike protein. The question is, is it the adno viral vector causing the side effect, if theres a direct link or the spike protein itself. Fitz the spike protein, it might be a side effect youd be concerned about with other vaccines so youd want to take a close look at them, too. This is early days. Its speculative right now. We dont know whether or not theres a relationship between the vaccine and the side effect. Doctor, i have not spoken at least in person to a doctor who believes that vaccines can be delivered safely by early november. Most say its going to be late 2020 or more likely 2021 event. And obviously its a moving target. Im just curious where we are in sect. Were coming to the middle of september. What does the timeline look like to you . I think its unlikely were going to have vaccines certainly for the general population this year. I think the idea that you can go to your doctor or go to a Vaccine Distribution site and get vaccinated for covid for the general public, thats a 2021 event. Hopefully the first half of 2021, the First Quarter of 2021. Its going to happen next year, not this year. The best case what you could see toward the end of this year, and i dont think it wont happen in october or maybe not november as well, but perhaps november, is a staged entry where you get an emergency use authorization where the fda provides access to certain highrisk populations either because of the way people work, where they work, so think of Health Care Providers or people who are at unique risk of a bad outcome. Think of older people, people who might be in a nursing home. I think its unlikely we get data in october. Its possible if everything goes right, you could get data towards the end of october. Getting the data and getting the fda to issue an emergency use authorization are two very different events. I think its very unlikely we would see an emergency use authorization at any point in early november. I think at best case its a late november event, maybe december. I know tony fauci has said perhaps toward the end of this year. I think thats probably a good base case. Dr. Gottlieb, the American Academy of pediatrics opened some eyes when they said there have been 500,000 cases of covid in children, that represents about 10 of the total number of cases in this country. What does that number tell you, especially as we send many kids, not a lot, many remote learning, but as we send many kids back into schools . What does that number tell you . It tells me, number one, the virus has become epidemic in children so we should take steps to protect children. In certain cases we are, in certain cases we arent. I think some schools are doing a good job implementing measures. When you look at the outcome among kids, there is some reason to be reassured. There was an article out yesterday looking at rates of hospitalization, rates of intubation and icu, saying its proportional to what we see in flu. Thats not trivial. Kids have bad outcomes from flu every year and we know that. The rate of bad outcomes with covid doesnt appear to be higher than flu. That could be a sort of base case of what the experience is going to be. On the flip side of that, the cdc just reported on the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, this sort of postviral syndrome in kid that seems to be a post mediated viral syndrome and they reported on 792 cases. The number has gone up. Thats a cause for concern. I think the data is mixed, but on a whole were not seeing the kinds of high rates of bad outcomes we certainly see in older kids. Youve come on over the last several months and others and said, you expect some form of a second wave in the fall and winter as it coincides with flu season as well. Is that still where you are now as we turn into fall . Do you believe this is going to come back in many parts of the country . I think that has to be our expectation. If it doesnt, that would be a surprise. It obviously would be good news. Weve been in this position before when cases came down after new york, everyone thought it was over and covid wasnt coming back. We sort of bottomed out at 20,000 cases a day in sxen we had the epidemic in the south. Theres a lot of parts of the country that have been largely untouched by this virus where the virus is going to want to spread. As we enter into the fall season, people go back indoors, schools restart, colleges have restarted, thats a focal point of spread. Theres a risk we see a third wave, a third bounce in cases as we head into the winter season. Coronaviruses are respiratory pa pathogens that typically spread in the wintertime. You dont typically see them in the summer. This is going to want to spread in the fall and winter, so we need to contain to, vigilant. I know people are exhausted by what weve been going through, but this is probably the riskiest point that were entering. The number that were at, 190,000, remember when it was such a massive story when it was 100,000 dead. Now were edging toward 200,000 dead. At the rate we are going now, from the directions that are being given from leadership to the way this country is operating in terms of this virus, is that number going to go down or is it going to consistently go up . Well, its certainly going to go up. Were going to end up tragically somewhere between 200,000, probably 300,000 deaths by the end of this year. I think the ihm model which predicted over 400,000 deaths is wrong. I think its going to be hard to get to that number, fortunately, but its definitely going to be above 200,000 by the end of the year. Somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000. Were doing a much better job preserving life. Inhospital mortality has been cut substantially so the rate of death will go down as the proportion to the total number of infections. There will be people that we cannot rescue in the hospital still. Hopefully Mike Barnicle is with us and has a question for you. Mike . Doctor, i cant imagine a group of americans who are more filled with fear and anxiety over the virus than young parents, about the decision whether to send their child to preschool, kindergarten or first grade. What would you tell them . The first thing i just sent my kids back to school, inclass learning here in connecticut. I think the first thing to look at is what the local prevalence is. Is the local infection is low, its a safer environment to send kids back to school. I think when kids go back to school, its prudent for schools to take precaution. Mask wearing, trying to bias teaching towards outside the classroom, if you can hold classrooms outside, be mindful around lunch if youre delivering food in the school, thats a point where you can have mixing of kids. So, the more you can keep kids sort of separated in discreet social groups and not have them intermingling with other children, that will reduce risk. We need to think of risk as cumulative. If youre going to do certain things that increase your risk, look for other places where you can lower your risk because your risk of contracting this over the course of a day is cumulative. You cant say, well, im doing this, this is high risk, so ill give up on all the other stuff. You should think if im going to be taking certain steps that are risky because theyre important to me, then the other places where it might have taken some risk, try to reduce those risks. Dr. Scott gottlieb, thank you so much. Still ahead, well talk to peter strzok, the former fbi agent vilified by the. The and Congressional Republicans in the wake of the investigation. Well have his new warning ahead of the president ial election. Keep it right here on morning joe. Lookentertainmentour experience xfinity x1. Its the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps. Plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost. This baby is the total package. It streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. Yup, the best really did get better. Magnificent. Xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. No strings attached. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is wednesday, september 9th, along with joe, willie and me, we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press, jonathan lemi lemire, professor at principeto university, eddie glaude jr. , and professor at ly. Ndon b. Johnson school of law, victoria defrancesco so ito. As Jonathan Lemire well, jonathan, why dont you just tell willie what you tweeted about the red sox and sure sign that theyre about to break like secretariat down the home stretch of the Belmont Stakes and win the world series. Go ahead. Its really baseball lore. We know about babe ruth calling his shots, we know about ernie banks saying, lets play two. Its a cliche, really, any time theres a pandemic mandated doubleheader rule where you only play seven innings in the game and you lose the first game and walkoff fash, but rally to win the second, how many times have we seen it . Thats a sure thing. It happens all the time. Joe and i are clearing our calendar. How many times have you seen it . How many times . It is, willie, its truly baseball lore by now, is it not . You win the second half of twilight doubleheader, short seven innings. Thats a sun. How are the yankees doing . The secretariat was not 13 innings back when he broke down the stretch but the yankees are tied in the loss column for fourth place in the a. L. East. They are tied for fourth place. This is a team on paper. What im being really serious here because im ive been so obsessed with the red sox i havent looked around the rest of the league and a couple days ago i saw they were a couple games above. 500. I expected them to be ten games in first. Whats going on with the yankees . They get gerrit cole, best pitcher in baseball, we figure this is one of the best yankee teams weve seen in a long time. Well, everybody got hurt again. It happened last year. Stanton got hurt, judge got hurt, torres got hurt, gary sanchez is hurt and cant hit. You go down the list, hurt or not performing. The pitching is not what we thought it would be. The bullpen is not what we thought it would be. Theres still time. Theyre 6 1 2 games out. Man, when you looked on paper, this was going to be a really, really good yankee team and they totally disappointed. They looked great and totally fell off the cliff. Not to put everything on injuries but when literally half of your starters are on the injured list, its tough to win. It is bizarre how snake bit the yankees have been over the past couple of years. I said when the red sox won 108 games in 2018, that that really wasnt the most remarkable thing, even in the American League east that year. It was that the yankees won 100 games as beaten up as they were. Man, you guys have been beating up every year. Sorry, im i havent been paying close enough attention to this. The sox on that run, the magical run. Im focused on polls. If we can cue up one time by Whitney Houston after last night. How many yankees players do you and. To be back in time for the playoffs . For the playoffs, they should be back. The question at this point is, do they make the playoffs . I think theyre holding onto the eighth spot right now. I have to look after last night. They are clinging to a playoff berth. They have time before the playoffs and theyll get guys back. The question is, will it be too late to catch those magical red sox. By the way, willie, any updates on the crime blotter . No, no. None this morning. Thank you for asking. Kybosh. Lemire had something to say. I dont want it makes us all said. Jonathan lemire has had his say, then theres a delay and he finally says and its the enough of the banters. Were moving to polls. Theres a poll in pennsylvania i wanted to talk about the other guys. That has joe biden up nine points over President Trump. In the latest nbc news marist poll, biden is up in pennsylvania, 5 . Biden holds an advantage among suburban voters, by 19 points. Women with a College Degree by 29. White voters are a split between biden and trump at 49 each. President trump holds an advantage with white evangelicals and why shouldnt he . He got that endorsement from Jerry Falwell jr. He is a living, breathing example of the be attitude. There you go. Up 59 points. Wow, thats a whole story within itself. White voters without a College Degree by 22. Rural voters also by 22. Among men by 5 points. Willie, i think we have again, because so many people are still jarred by 2016, all you hear is this is just like clinton and trump. Same thing is going to happen again. The one thing were seeing here is joe biden in more polls than not when hes ahead is getting close to 50 or above 50 . Here hes sitting at 63 . A lot of other polls well show this morning, hes at 50 , 51 . There arent a lot of persuadables left. People were going in the last two months in 2016 trying to figure out who they were going to vote for. Bluntly many said they were trying to figure out who was the lesser of who they consider to be two evils. Here thats not the case. We should say this pennsylvania poll is a bit of an outlier. Other polls show it at two, three, four, five, this one has nine points. Looking at bidens numbers, hes above 50 here that is certainly where you want to be two months out. No question about it. I think the panic was inevitable from democrats. Its such a long race. Starts to feel good over the course of the summer. Some show trump closing the gap. Battleground polls, joe biden is still leading in most of those. Some tighter than he would like it to be. Lets remember, eddie glaude, the race was won by a sliver in wisconsin, michigan and all those states. If joe biden can swing a few votes in two or three of those states, hell win the election. If you look inside those cross tabs among suburban voters, among women, among americans with College Degrees in all these battleground states, hes enjoying Comfortable Leads. Theres some areas of concern, like latino votes in the state of florida. By and large, despite the panic that we hear from some democrats right now, hes still basically where hes been. Good morning, willie. Good morning, everyone. I think hes in good position. I think its important for them to not get too confident. We know it will continue. To tighten in certain ways. But i think Vice President biden needs to in some ways invest more in the Latino Community. Those numbers in florida raised some questions for me that threw me back into the 2016 moment, i guess, joe, with Hillary Clinton in milwaukee and some other places. But i think hes in good stead. Im always worried in the context of the pandemic, what do we make of the ground game . How will it look . What does the turnout look like . How does the ground game make itself known in this context . But hes in good position. I think thats a good thing, to not say anything worth saying but hes in a good position. So, why dont we go, mika, to the florida poll. Sure. That eddie was referencing. The latest nbc news marist poll has biden and President Trump tied among likely florida voters with some key demographics shifting their support from 2016. Biden is up with black voters by 22 points. Independent voters, by 11. And it is a statistical tie among seniors which is a Demographic Group that trump won by 17 points due to 2016 exit polls. That must be pandemic related, you must think. President trump holds an advantage among men, white voters by 15, white voters without a College Degree by 28 points. Among latinos by 4 points, which is a statistical tie. Were going to have more on that in just a moments. In the latest Morning Consult poll, biden holds a sixpoint lead nationally over President Trump. 50 to 44 . Among key battleground states, biden is up by ten in michigan, by eight in wisconsin, by six in colorado, five in florida, pennsylvania and minnesota. By three in arizona. By one in North Carolina. The two are tied in texas. And President Trump holds a twopoint lead in georgia and a fivepoint lead in ohio. Jonathan lemire, a lot to go through there. Ive got to start with, were talking about polls that seem to be a little outside the margins, that pennsylvania poll showing eight, nine points. That really looks like an outlier. Maybe its a sign of things to come. Same with arizona sitting at two, three Percentage Points there. Thats been a more Comfortable Lead for biden and still is showing up as a more Comfortable Lead in most states. In most polls about arizona. You look at all of these numbers, it shows a steady, solid lead for joe biden. Here we are a week past the conventions, a week past kenosha, and i remember you and me talking in early august. Trump keeps saying, we have three months. The staff was trying to say, no, mr. President trump, early voting starts soon enough. Early voting has started and these numbers are not moving in trumps direction except for what were about to talk about after this, about hispanics in the state of florida. But other than that, boy, these polls are pretty solid. Its striking, joe, despite the spectacle of the conventions and obviously the tumult weve seen on the streets in kenosha and portland, things republicans thought would benefit President Trump, just how stable this race remains. I think youre right on that pennsylvania poll. That seems to be an outlier. Neither margin think its near that big. Both agree joe biden is up but by a smaller amount. Could be disconnect in some of these states. I know well dive deeper in florida. Florida is a state where there has been tightening yet a demographically similar state, arizona, has not been the case. Joe biden has had a pretty good lead there. The same with the great lakes, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. Michigan throughout this race, joe bidens probably best battleground state. Hes had a sizeable lead where earlier this year we talked about the Trump Campaign all but have thrown in the towel there. They have reversed course. They have seen some movement, invested some money there. Biden is still up and enjoys a pretty decent lead in wisconsin despite all the energy the Trump Campaign has poured into wisconsin thinking kenosha would be the turning point. While those two still lean pretty clearly to biden, pennsylvania is more of a tossup. Its hard to imagine a scenario where joe biden would lose pennsylvania, his native state, where he has strength in philadelphia and pittsburgh and also in the northeast, in scranton, where hes from, that part of it, and most of all in the philadelphia suburbs. Theres a sense that middle of the state, rural voters, there probably isnt enough votes there for donald trump this time around. Though, of course, he did pull it out narrowly four years ago. Theres also another factor here. As much as the Trump Campaign is pointing to putting adds up for the next few days, theres an issue about money. They have not released their fundraising total in august yet, which is striking. Here we are, september 9th or coming up on september 10th and 11th. They still havent done it. Thats days late after the biden put up a record 350 million or more fundraising haul from august. The Trump Campaign has remained silent. Theyre looking to expand the map because they are so nervous about states like arizona and trying to figure out path to 270. They have to figure out other states to put in play which is why were seeing the late investment in minnesota and heading this weekend to nevada. Thats another state, nevada, that trump feels they have to play because if they lose arizona, theres no path to 270. To florida and how the cuban vote is having a big impact on the vote there. Youre watching morning joe. Microban 24. Watch as microban 24 kills 99. 9 of bacteria. And then, even after multiple touches, keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours. I trust microban 24 to keep killing bacteria for 24hours. Who trust in our performance and comfortable, longlasting protection. Because your strength is supported by ours. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. You should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. But youre not mad because you have e trade which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad get e trade and start Trading Commission free today. Anything i want to buy is going to be on rakuten. Rakuten is easy to use, free to sign up and its in over 3,000 stores. I buy a lot of makeup. Shampoo, conditioner. Books, food travel shoes stuff for my backyard anything from clothes to electronics. Workout gear. I even recently got cash back on domain hosting. You can buy tires. To me, rakuten is a great way to get cash back on anything you buy. Shop. Get cash back. Repeat. Sign up today and get cash back with rakuten. For more on trump leading by four points in latinos in the latest marist poll, its a demographic that won for clinton in 2016. Trumps lead over that poll is sizeable among latinos of cuban descent where biden is slightly ahead among all other latinos in the state. Another poll out of florida shows a similar trend. In the miami herald poll out of Miamidade County, biden leads among nonhaiku ban his pan i guesses, 58 to 32 . Among cubans, trump has 68 to 30 . Weve seen in 2016 and 2018, cuban americans making a huge difference in how elections turn out with a majority going for donald trump in 2016. Actually, not enough cubanamericans going for the Democratic Candidates for governor and senator and allowing republicans to really go against the tide in 2018. Victoria, as we talked about these polls that are causing democrats to flinch nationwide this morning, in florida, a couple of things, yes, cubanamericans are put off, especially put off by socialist policies, by the fear that joe biden if elected will implement and policies influenced by people like Bernie Sanders and aoc. Thats certainly what the Trump Campaign has been pushing. But also, man, nothing works like work. And donald trump has been working, advertise itting nonstop in the cubanamerican community for some time. And that hard work, surprise, surprise, is paying off dividends right now. Joe biden has not worked hard down there in the hispanic communities and the cubanamerican communities yet. And i think were seeing the result of that in these two polls. And they should, indeed, be flinching, joe. Democrats should be flinching at these numbers. The cuban numbers are not surprising. We know republicans have always had a very strong base with cuban voters, however weve seen that base grow under donald trump. He has cultivated that vote over the last four years. As you pointed out, joe, he has been putting in work. The Trump Campaign has been up with tv ads, with digital ads, with biden coming up, i would say, six weeks later than that. So that matters. What democrats should really be worried about is the noncuban. If we remember in 2016, Hillary Clinton won noncuban latinos. Whats happening with the puerto rican voters who are traditionally more democratic and have been growing in huge numbers as a result of Puerto Ricans miami graiting over from the island because of the economic downturn, because of the hurricanes. They are ripe for the picking in terms of getting them registered to vote and bringing over the democratic side. But these polls arent showing that. So, i think what were seeing here is twofold. The Trump Campaign building out its cuban base very healthfully, something obama chipped into in 08 and 12, and at the same time im seeing the Trump Campaign is also picking up some noncuban latinos. Im thinking the folks who have come throughout latin america, your nicaraguans, and some Puerto Ricans. This is worrisome as we get down to the home stretch of the election because there wont be more time to mobilize these Voters Register to vote and turn out because its also a mobilization game. This is something democrats should have their hair on fire about, absolutely. Coming up from florida to texas, its another state packed with votes. That in many ways are up for grabs. Well break down the latest from there next on morning joe. How they gonna pay for this . They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident. Cut is that good . No you were talking about allstate and. I just. When i. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Accident forgiveness apps except work. Rywhere. Why is that . Is it because people love filling out forms . Maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much Vacation Time they have. Or sending corporate their expense reports. Ill let you in on a little secret. They dont. By empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. To learn more, visit paycom. Com until i found out what itust . It actually was. D me. 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Do you know whos further left than crazy bernie . Kamala. Kamala. Kamala. Theres a reason the Trump Campaign continues to push this idea that joe biden is merely a vessel for what he calls the radical left, Bernie Sanders, aoc, et cetera, et cetera. You can see its getting some traction in the hispanic community, even if others roll their eyes and say, wait a minute, look at joe bidens career over 50 years. Hes been a centrist and been criticized, even as recently as during the democratic primary as being too much of a centrist. Victoria, im curious of your views if this plays beyond the borders, 3 million registered 1. 3 eligible registered voters in arizona. Is this more than a florida story . Should democrats be worried about other places beyond florida . They should be worried. I guess its a level of degree, right . I think when were looking at arizona, they seem traditionally hispanics being a little more conservative, even though theyre of mexicanamerican descent, even a little more conservative than latinos in california or new york. If you remember back to sb pen 70, the show me your papers law, since then weve seen activism by part of the Latino Community in response to that. And nothing mobilizes like anger, so the anger against s. B. 70, i think that helps latinos in arizona. I think thats where were seeing headway with joe biden in arizona. The other thing about arizona is you have a very Competitive Senate race. You have mark kelly, a centrist, a hero, an astronaut, hes been doing good outreach to the Latino Community in arizona. I think thats going to help as well. In addition to the difference in demographics of latinos, you have that race. And here in texas, i cant believe my eyes were seeing the ds and rs hide here in texas, deep red texas. But latinos are, again, part of the story, but we have to recognize there are shades of ideology within the Latino Community here in texas. It cant be assumed all latinos in texas are going to be a lock. In is a state where george w. Bush got 49 of the latino vote when he ran for reelection as governor. Latinos are open in texas to votesing for a republican. I think biden has made inroads, es and he shally because latinos in texas have been so hard hit by the pandemic, but still, you know, be very cautious if youre a democrat mobilizer because the Trump Campaign knows they can creep into that latino base and pull them in terms of family values, in terms of entrepreneurial spirit. I think theres a little bit more comfort than in florida, but not a whole bunch. Coming up on morning joe, its a name you heard a lot during the russia probe. Former fbi agent peter strzok joins us with his new book and a warning about warngs. Introducing stocks by the slice from fidelity. 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Why do we offer so many active safety features on our chevy suvs . Oh yeah. Call us when you get there, ok . Ready, freddie because were not just engineers. Slowly. Im going slow. You got it. We have families too. Get 15 of msrp cash back on most 2020 equinox models. Thats over fiftyseven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Mr. Chairman, at any time in any of these texts did those personal beliefs interview the realm of any action i took. Furthermore, this isnt just me sitting here telling you, you dont have to take my word for it. At every step, at every investigative decision, there are multiple layers of people above me, the assistant director, deputy director, and director of the fbi and multiple players of people below me, section chiefs, supervisors, unit chiefs, case agents and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions. They would not tolerate any improper behavior in me any more than i would tolerate it in them. That is who we are at the fbi. And the suggestion that i and some dark chamber somewhere in the fbi would somehow cast aside all of these procedures, all of these safeguards and somehow be able to do this is astounding to me. It simply couldnt happen. The proposition that that is going on, it might occur anywhere in the fbi, deeply corrodes what the fbi is in American Society, the effectiveness of their mission and it is deeply destructive. Then fbi assistant deputy direct of counterintelligence, peter strzok testifying in 2018 about Text Messages that got him removed from special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Strzok is now the author of a new book compromised counterintelligence and the threat of donald j. Trump and he joins us now. Good to have you with us. You said you wrote this book because the president s relationship with russia is too important to ignore and the American People deserve to know about it. What specifically can you tell us about his relationship with russia that we dont already know publicly . Absolutely. Look, i worked county counterintelligence under six different administrations, republicans and democrats. What i can tell you is that what i saw with regard to President Trump is deeply concerning. A lot of that remains classified and i cant tell you about it, but a lot has started coming to light. And there are k356r78sexamples give you. All of these revolve around his financial entanglements with russia. Whes when hes on the campaign trail in 2016 and assuring the American Public he has no financial relationship whatsoever at russia, at the very same moment his personal attorney is pursuing a deal for a trump tower in moscow. The minute he says that on the campaign trail, Vladimir Putin knows that hes lying. Trump knows that hes lying. The fbi happens to know at the moment he was lying as well, but nobody in the American Public did. And so to maintain that lie, trump needs putins complicity. That creates a coercive relationship putin can use to leverage trumps actions or inactions and goes a long way to explaining some of the inexplicable things weve seen trump do relating to russia. As recently as in just the last week, actually, when he wouldnt condemn Vladimir Putin for the poisoning of navalny. So, youve said in the book that you could have destroyed President Trump in 2016 and you could do it again now knowing everything you know. You use that as a defense that you werent biased personally because you could have done worse and you could have exposed information. Is there something in there you can tell us now, now that you are a private citizen . What do you know about President Trump that you think voters should know less than two months away from the election . Well, absolutely there are things that are not known that would still be damaging. The decision to release that is up to the administration. Youve seen them declassify material, which unsurprisingly tends to all be helpful to President Trump. Theres a lot of material that simply is classified and that i cant talk about. But its there. Le American Public has a right to know it, but that is a decision for the administration to do. I cant go declassifying information. Im going to honor my oath to both the office that i held as well as the security clearance that i held. That information, the American Public deserves it and the administration, frankly, deserves to have that known as well. You mentioned the trump organizations pursuit of trump tower moscow over the years. Is it fair to say, if you cant disclose classified information, is it fair to say broadly that the nature of President Trumps relationship is a business relationship and that is, perhaps, why he will not push back against Vladimir Putin time and again . I think thats absolutely fair. If you look at the scope of his businesses relationship to russia, going back decades. If you look at the statement by one of his sons about the disproportionate amount of Russian Holdings that represented the trump financial assets, all of these things speak to an ability of russian interests, of illicit interests, to hold him under their sway and get him to do things that, frankly, we cant explain. Why isnt he speaking out against russia placing the bounties on the heads of american soldiers in afghanistan . Why isnt he pushing back against, as you mentioned, the attempted assassination of navalny . Why is he talking about withdrawing from nato, from withdrawing 11,000 troops from germany . The list goes on and on and on. None of these things are in americas interest. Most if not all are in russias. It begs the question, why is he doing this . My answer, what i believe is, because there is leverage russia holds over him that is causing him to act in his rather than americas National Security interest. Some people will listen to that and say, all that for a hotel in moscow . In other words, hes willing to put to the side relationships weve had with other countries, as we talked about nato, willing to ignore things that Vladimir Putin has done for a hotel in moscow. There are people, including, by the way, prominent members of the intelligence community, former, who have suggested that donald trump is a, quo te, asse of russia. Do you believe thats true . That sounds extreme to a lot of people but do you believe in some way Vladimir Putin has so much leverage over donald trump that he is a, quote, asset . Look, i recruited spies for two decades. What that looks like varies. On one end, you can have somebody who fully knowsness theyre working for you, taking tasking and going to do every single last thing you say. On the other end theres somebody who doesnt even realize theyre working with the United States government. I think the truth with President Trump lies in the middle. Do i think hes a manchurian candidate . I do not. Do i think hes doing in the United States because russia is Holding Things over him that he does not want known . Absolutely. If you step back, if you look at that as a patriot, as machine american citizen, its horrifying. But its exists, its real and something every american should be concerned about. Are the thins youre saying russia holds over him, in your words, is that just a hotel or other things you cant say publicly . Look, i think its fair to say within the context of what i can and cant say, his financial involvement with russia and all of his business dealings are very broad. There exists within that multiple opportunities, not just multiple hotel deals but between real estate holdings, licensing opportunities, beyond just simple donations potentially to his campaign. There are a variety of entanglements that he holds, without getting into classified detail, are of great concern and present prime opportunities for leverage over the president. Peter, Jonathan Lemire with the Associated Press is here. He has a request question for y. Jonathan . Peter, as you well know, when president putin was asked if they had any compromising material on President Trump or his family, that question in helsinki, he didnt give a no to that. I want to ask you about Robert Muellers investigation, for which you were part of for a time. You mentioned here in great detail the business dealings of the president and youve written in your book you felt a broadbased, deep investigation was needed into the president s business dealings. Mountains of financial records would need to be sifted through and pored over. But can you, as you see the finished product, as youve examined what Robert Mueller and his team were doing after you were removed from the investigation, do you feel like that has happened . Was the work done that was needed to really examine the president s financial dealings . Well, my concern is that it wasnt. Look, director mueller and the scope of his work within the special counsels office was never going to touch on the counterintelligence aspects of that investigation. When you look at the recent Bipartisan Senate intelligence report, almost 1,000 pages signed off on by both republican and democratic senators, its clear there is a pervasive counterintelligence problem surrounding Trumps Campaign and his administration. That to do that effectively, to understand that would need to go back decades and would have to, as you know, very detailed in looking at those financial transactions. Could the fbi be doing that . Absolutely, they could. If they were, i would have i would expect it would be quiet, classified, you wouldnt hear about it am. At the same time, given the way trump has fought tooth and nail to avoid releasing anything about his financial truth, i would expect had anybody in the government attempted to go after the financial records, we would have heard about it in the press. He would have been fighting about it, he would have been taking it to court. The fact we havent heard anything like that gives me some concern that that sort of deep look never took place. Peter, what do you make of what the president has done to morale and to, frankly, the effectiveness of the fbi . We know hes called you out repeatedly from the rally stages across the country, and called into question the integrity of former director komi and others who have worked at the bureau. Im sure you still talk to people inside. What is your sense of where things are at the fbi and, more broadly, at the department of justice under william barr and after a years worth of attacks from this president . Look, the people i speak to still in the fbi, the people i knew, the men and women at the fbi, they are fearless and they are strong. Having said that, there is no way in this environment, given the attacks not only on me, not only on the fbi by the president , but if you look across the board, at career Civil Servants hes attacked at the department of state and department of defense in literally every Single Department and agency of the United States government, coupled with the statements to the attorney general who is throwing out plainly misleading and inaccurate statements about the lack of junction for the investigation, all of that cannot help but have a Chilling Effect on the daytoday work of anybody in the government, including the fbi. So, i think that the people i know the good men and women ive worked with, that theyre holding the line, that thats continuing to the good work continues to occur, but im very, very worried about the prospect of what another four years of a Trump Administration administration will do to destroy the whats going on within the rest of the executive branch. Peter, we came into this segment with your forceful testimony where you said, yes, despite these Text Messages with lisa page, i remain professional, i remained objective. But when people read you texting to lisa page, we will stop it, talking about the election of President Trump in 2016, when you write, he simply cannot be president , hes an idiot, hes loathsome, awful, all these different texts, the things you said about donald trump, how could someone read those and not see personal bias against this president . Look, i can understand that concern. I point to two things. The first is, every single thing that the fbi did investigatively with regards to secretary clinton and candidate trump, almost an individual item all hurt secretary clinton or helped candidate trump. The second thing ive pointed to, there have been multiple investigations, multiple congressional looks all of which have found no indication of any improper activity based on impermissible bias or other acts. So, the record is very clear. The work that we did, the work that i did, was independent, objective and thorough. And any suggestion otherwise is pure partisan nonsense. What is your concern here now, were two months away from election day, about what russia may be doing . Knowing what you know as former counterintelligence official in the fbi, you watched it in 2016. How bad is it now and are you concerned it may tip the scales . Look, its bad and it may get worse. As we are talking this morning, there are people in russia scouring social media, who are reading American Media reports and watching the show and others, finding where those flashpoints are within American Society and tailoring propaganda to exacerbate those splits. As we talk right now, there are people attacking our voting infrastructure, who are seeking to get into voter rolls and databases and Equipment Software and that is only going to increase as time goes on. The russians saw what they were able to do in 2016. They havent been sitting still the last four years. They have taken the things they have done, they have improved them, they have increased their ability to hide their hand so its not as obvious when they are working, and they are actively working right now. And my concern is that its only going to increase not only up to the election, but past the election as we try and come to terms with whatever result occurs in early november. It may be a while after election day. The new book is compromised counterintelligence and the threat of donald j. Trump. Peter strzok, thanks for your time. Still ahead on morning joe, the Justice Department intervenes in a defamation lawsuit brought against President Trump. Were back in a moment. N a momet its ubrelvy. For anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if its too late, or where i am. One dose of ubrelvy works fast. It can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours, relieving pain and debilitating symptoms. Do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. Most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. Migraine hits hard. Hit back with ubrelvy. The anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. You should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. Hit back with ubrelvy. You should be mad at forced camaraderie. And you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. 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The Justice Department yesterday told a federal court it seeks to take over the president s defense in a defamation lawsuit brought against him by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s. In a motion filed in federal court, doj lawyers argued that the president was acting within the scope of his office in 2019 when he denied in interviews having sexually assaulted journalist e. Jean carroll in a Department Store dressing room more than 20 years ago. Since the denial was an official act, the doj says, the government should therefore be allowed to stand for the president s stand in for the president s private attorneys. Court documents go on to say the United States will file a motion to substitute itself for President Trump in this action, making the u. S. Government instead of the president the defendant in the defamation suit. The filing moves the case from state court to federal and it was made on the president s last day to appeal a new York State Court ruling that the defamation suit could proceed while he was in office. Carroll responded by tweet saying trump hurls bill barr at me just when trump is required to produce documents and dna in discovery. He sics the doj on us. This is unprecedented. The department of justice did not respond to requests for comment. Jonathan lemire, unprecedented to say the least. Can this happen . It just seems sort of in so many ways inappropriate to say the least. Yeah, highly unusual is another phrase that would certainly fit here, mika, to have the Justice Department take on what is a personal matter for the president of the United States. Mind you that means taking on a taxpayer expense. This is the federal government using americans taxpayer dollars to mount this defense, claiming their justification is that President Trump denied knowing carroll while in office, but these are events that took place, carroll alleges, well before he was president of the United States. Simply as a public citizen. I think for the blowback to this has been fierce and swift. And for a number of people, legal observers and critics of the administration, this is another example where the department of justice has seemingly stepped beyond its bounds in order to defend the president of the United States. As our last guest outlined, we have certainly had attorney general barr a number of times seemingly wade in to help the president with his own legal matters, whether thats dismissing the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york or framing the results of the Mueller Investigation before they were made public really shaping the narrative of that case. There are several other examples as well. This is another very unusual move and i think it is going to, i would assume, face sharp criticism from democrats. E. Jean carrolls allegation is from 1995 or 1996, 20 years before donald trump became president. Meanwhile, jonathan, the armys top general defended military leaders yesterday after President Trump accused them of making war to keep defense contractors happy. His words. Heres trumps comment on monday followed by general James Mcconville in his response. Im not saying the military is in love with me. The soldiers are. The top people in the pentagon probably arent because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those Wonderful Companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make Everything Else stay happy. When i take a look at, you know, the Senior Leaders in the United States military, im talking generals, im talking admirals, sergeant majors, many of these leaders have sons and daughters that serve in the military. Many of these leaders have sons and daughters who have gone to combat or may be in combat right now. So i can assure the American People that the Senior Leaders would only recommend sending our troops to combat when its required for National Security and a last resort. We take this very, very seriously in how we make our recommendations. Jonathan, weve seen this a few times over the last year or so, where military leaders have come out, sitting military leaders, and have to contradict in their diplomatic way what the president of the United States has said. But again, President Trump twisting himself in knots to defend himself against the allegations in the atlantic piece that were confirmed by a number of media outlets. Right, and thats the backdrop to this, willie, that we shouldnt lose sight of. The president and his team spent the last 24 to 48 hours trying to clean this up, suggesting these are comments in line to Dwight Eisenhowers warning when he left office against the military industrial complex. If thats true, it defies credibility that thats what the president was trying to this in this off the cuff remark at the News Conference in the midst of this story so well set this aside. But this is him again trying to clean up and repair the story from t from the atlantic in which he is heard denigrating those who have sacrificed, soldiers, many of whom who have lost their lives and how they loved their country to make that sacrifice. It was a hamhanded attempt to try to get around that. Instead, he has only caused himself more trouble. I will say as we barrel into the last two months of the president ial race, this is something that drives his advisers simply up the wall and its simply not a surprise, but his inability to stay on any sort of message and instead relitigating fights, battles with the media, and distracting from the story that the campaign is trying to tell in lieu of settling personal feuds. Ive always been surprised, willie, at how certain members of the white house, either former members or staffers are actually out lying for the president when its kind of obvious that this is sort of the way he speaks about people, especially on the mccain front and on the kelly part of the story. Before we go today, amid this pandemic just about everybodys workplace has completely changed. At know your value. Com, the focus is on resetting your entire approach to your work and your career. Its all part of the kyv pandemic reset. Every day were looking at ways to grow your value during this very uncertain time. Today its all about the art of the zoom meeting now that were all suddenly on camera, so you can get great pointers and join the conversation only at knowyourvalue. Com and on our social platforms. And that does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi there, im stephanie ruhle. It is wednesday, september 9th. Heres whats happening. This morning, the race for a Coronavirus Vaccine hitting a serious speed bump. Drug Maker Astrazeneca announcing it will halt Global Clinical Trials on its vaccine because of an unexpected illness in one patient. While the company says this is a routine check, it is unclear how long the pause will last. Out west, fires in california, washington and now oregon are taking a very dangerous turn. New mandatory evacuations put in place across california overnight, as a total of at least 362 people have now been rescued by the