when you re telling people that a presidential election is being stolen, you can t be shocked when people believe you and then become violent. at some point, they have to take responsibility. you know, you know, the thing is, mika first of all, donald trump is saying that it s smart. yeah, so smart that while he is sitting there lying to them and grifting and getting hundreds of millions of dollars from people lying, saying, give me money and we ll fight the election, and it all goes to him. first of all, not smart there. also, unfortunately, there were a lot of people that went up to the capitol because they believed donald trump. they believed his lies. yeah. they re sitting in prison right now. he s just sitting back at mar-a-lago, living his life, loving it. family vacations around the world, on beaches. flying all around on his private, well, you know, 757, whatever it is. flying from one country club to another. and they re sitting in jail, yeah. you ll no
we ll read from that new piece. so much different legal angles are percolating with the jan. 6 and other issues with the election. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is friday, july 8th. with us, the host of way too early and politico s jonathan lemire. associate editor of the washington post, eugene robinson. and we begin with the breaking news. former japanese prime minister shinzo abe is dead after being shot twice this morning. officials is say abe was campaigning for a candidate ahead of japan s upcoming house of counselors elections, where he was shot from behind, once in the back and the other in the neck, with what appeared to be a homemade gun. this happened in the city of nara, about 20 miles southeast of osaka. the chaos from the shooting and the subsequent takedown of the man police say carried out the attack was all caught on camera. and we warn you, some of this video may be incredibly disturbing. [ speaking foreign language ] abe was immediately
atlantic adapted from the new book. it s been said before but can never be emphasized enough, without the complicity of the republican party, donald trump would just be a glorified geriatric fox-watching golfer. i ve interviewed scores of these collaborators, trying to understand why they did what they did and how they could live with it. these were the kevin mccarthys and the lindsey grahams and all the other busy, parasitic suck-ups who made the trump era for them. who humored and indulged him all the way down to the last exhausted strains of american democracy. and here s more of what you write about kevin mccarthy and lindsey graham specifically. quote, i ve known these men for years, but they are a classically washington type, fun to be around, starstruck, and desperate to keep their jobs or get better ones, to maximize their place in the all-important mix.
washington. so mark leibovich has a new essay in the atlantic entitled the most pathetic men in america. it s adapted from his forthcoming book, thank you for your servitude. in it, leibovich takes a look at what he calls the, quote, slavishly devoted republicans who trump drew to his side. he writes in part, this, it s been said before, but never can be emphasized enough, without the complicity of the republican party and, joe, this is a point you ve been making all along donald trump would be just a glorified geriatric, fox-watching golfer. i ve been watching the collaborators, trying to understand how they did what they did and how they could live with it. these were the kevin mccarthy, lindsey grahams, and other parasitic suck-ups, who made the trump era work for them, who