House. Perhaps as were turning the corner here now, about a year and change away from election day, to confront this age issue which another poll shows is real. Its kind of like when i said, would you like a five spot . Thats the way we talk, twenty and change. Willie in your old category . Im getting there, mika. Were old enough to remember when duke used to beat clemson in football. Wow. Thats how old we are. What a game. Can you believe that . Okay. First of all, duke beats clemson, right . Fsu, the night before, routs lsu. Never saw that coming. Alabama, alabama rolls over middle Tennessee State. Im telling you, i thought middle Tennessee State would win by two or three touchdowns. Doing good things in murphysboro but not enough in tuscaloosa. College football turned upside down this year, mika. Well get to all that, as well. Meanwhile, half of Congress Returns to capitol hill today with a long todo list, including a new federal budget, but demands from farright members of the house could complicate getting a deal done by the end of the month. What a shock. Well follow that. Plus, Vladimir Putin is turning to another dictator for more weaponry for his war in ukraine. Can you imagine . No. Willie, russias fake seeking so low, hes got to go to north korea, like, to save his military. Unbelievable. This is a real tell of where things are, if you have to go to north korea, of all places. Kim jongun making a trip, reportedly, which he doesnt do often, to visit Vladimir Putin. I dont know, give him a pep talk among weapons. He counts among his allies, apparently, kim jongun and north korea. Thats where russia is right now. Terrific. Were going to make a nice segue here. Not a nice one, a sad segue, just not a smooth one. Three musicians passed away. Gary, dream weaver, leader of smash mouth, and our friend Jimmy Buffett. Came as a real surprise to us, and im sure to you, too, willie. You know, weve known jimmy for a long time, regularly talked to him, texting. Just a real shock. We knew we saw him last october, was it . Yeah. We saw him at our place last october, and he seemed to be doing pretty well. You could tell he was fighting something, but he was very quiet guy about that sort of stuff. One of the loveliest, loveliest people youll ever want to meet. Just a great, great guy. Yeah, that was woke up to that news alert saturday morning. Youre right, it was a shock. Seems like the kind of guy who was going to be here forever, and you hoped he would be. We learned yesterday from his camp he had an aggressive form of skin cancer that he had been fighting for four years and died on friday at his home in sag harbor out on long island here in new york. Yeah, joe, just a first and foremost, a wonderful, warm, man, as we heard from so many tributes. Joe, youre our music expert, but id argue an underrated musician, if you can say that if in terms of his popularity. Paul ccartney putting out the praise. Elton john. Years ago bob dylan saying, Jimmy Buffett, one of the greatest songwriters he ever heard of and listened to. He was a great, great man, and we miss him a lot, and also a great songwriter and musician. Always underestimated, i think, by the critics of his day. I think he underestimated himself. He said, im not that well, heres the deal. Hes from the gulf of coast. We are from the same neck of the woods. We grew up together in that area, so that may have been a little false modesty. Jimmy knew. Jimmy knew he was good, but he was humble. By the way, its a businessman. Just extraordinary. Yes. Ended up a billionaire. He played this, like, laid back, you know, beach bum, but he was always working. Just worked around the clock because he loved doing it. But, you know, its so funny. Last time we were talking to him, we were talking about his music and how hed always been underestimated. I said, well, yeah, its pretty incredible. Bob dylan and he finished my sentence. He said, yeah, said he was my favorite songwriter, and he kind of smiled, like, not bad, huh . If you have dylan saying youre his favorite songwriter, you dont care what the rock critics say. No. You said it, you cant go anywhere, to any destination, without seeing a margaritaville restaurant or the business imprint that made him a billionaire. But it is the music and the soundtrack, particularly on a long labor day weekend, you could hear it everywhere you went, it was a sound track for so many people. Mika, you know, hes an alabama boy. It was so nice seeing bryant denny stadium, all 90,000 of them, erupting in margaritaville on saturday night. Beautiful. Beautiful tribute. Jimmy would have loved that. So sad. He would have loved all the kind, wonderful things, as willie said, that came in from all over the place. Would have been pleased with Paul Mccartney and all the beautiful things paul said about jimmy. It meant a lot to him. He meant the world to millions of fans. I will just say, ending here, i asked him during covid, when he was getting ready to go back out on the road, i said, well, you know, its kind of tumultuous out there politically. Are you seeing it in the shows . He goes, no, its kind of beautiful. You know, the crowd is about 50 50. Its mixed. I can tell, you know, when i talk to people. Theyre about 50 50. This was, you know, going into the president ial election. He goes, its about 50 50. Whats so beautiful, when they come to my show, that stays outside, and its about the music. Its about everybody getting together and having a good time. Isnt that beautiful . Just about says it all. Need a hell of a lot more people like that. Absolutely. Well have more on his life coming up on morning joe. Along with joe, willie and me, we have the host of way too early, White House Bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. Bbc newss katty kay is with us. Associate editor of the Washington Post, eugene robinson. And George Conway of the Washington Post is with us this morning. The house is set to return next year, the senate is in session, and lawmakers have a long list of items waiting for them. At the top of the list, the federal budget, which is set to expire on September 30th, and will need to be renewed to avoid a fullfledged government shutdown. Also hanging in the balance is the fallout from senator Tommy Tubervilles hold on military nominations. I mean, this is getting so serious. Three branches. You now have the leaders of the branches of our Armed Services saying, you are really, really damaging readiness for ow tro our troops the world. I dont know what he is doing. This is military nominations, a hold because of him. Americas Military Branches do not have a confirmed senate chief in place. Many generals and admirals being forced to perform two roles simultaneously. That fact has prompted the secretaries of the navy, the air force, and the army to cowrite an oped for the Washington Post entitled, three Service Secretaries to tuberville stop this dangerous hold on senior officers. They write in part, we are proud to work alongside exceptional Military Leaders who are skilled, motivated and empowered to protect our National Security. These officers and the millions of Service Members they lead are the foundation of americas enduring military advantage. Yet, this foundation is being actively eroded by the actions of a single u. S. Senator, Tommy Tuberville, who is blocking the confirmation of our most senior military officers. Thus far, the hold has prevented the Defense Department from placing almost 300 of our most experienced and battletested leaders into critical posts around the world. Three of our five Military Branches, the army, navy and marine corps, have no senateconfirmed senate chief in place. This is sickening. Instead, these jobs and dozens of others across the force are being performed by acting officials without the full range of legal authorities necessary to make the decisions that will sustain the United States military edge. They cant make the decisions that they need to make. Thats impacting readiness. I know Tommy Tuberville doesnt care, obviously. But he knows this. He knows this. On a personal level, planning for service families, for children of Service Members, they should be in their new locations, in their new schools. Everything has been held up. Their lives have been put on hold because the promotions arent going through. Then, of course, planning for our military, longterm planning for our military cant be done because, as these Service Chiefs said, they dont have a full range of power to make a lot of those decisions. So readiness is at risk. Willie, you know, the republicans are forfeiting what they always claim to have, which is some special thing with the military, despite the fact they spent years trashing the United States military, saying they wish they were more like russians, saying that theyre weak, saying theyre woke. Its all a lie. Our military is stronger than its ever been. Compared to the rest of the world, the strongest its been since 1945. Yet, you have one republican senator, which other senators are allowing him to do, one republican senator damaging the readiness of the United States armed forces in a way that just makes Vladimir Putin and makes the communist chinese, makes the north koreans, makes everybody so happy, that one senator is able to damage the United States militarys readiness as much as Tommy Tuberville is able to do that. Again, youve got to start asking, why is he doing this . The republicans supposedly dont want him to do this. The people of alabama dont want him to do this. Why does he continue acting in a way that damages the readiness of the United States military . It just makes no sense. And he says he is doing it because he doesnt want the military to allow its Service Members to travel between states for abortions, for reproductive care. So this is the political hill hes willing to die on. You have, youre right, people like Mitch Mcconnell saying, i disagree with what senator tuberville is doing. But in the senate, under our rules, he can do it. Do you not have any power . Does the Republican Leadership have no power over tuberville to say, knock this off, youve made your point . John, the pentagon said last week, 301 generals and admirals are sitting in limbo, including 83 threestar and fourstar nominations generals pending right now. Again, a lot of republicans in the senate have said they disagree with what tuberville is doing, but he continues. He will continue. This has become his issue. His argument last week, he said, people have known for a long time the u. S. Military is top heavy. Saying, we have too many generals, so this isnt a big deal, in his view. This is the first time in history so many of these seats have sat open. Of course, this isnt just impacting generals. Its impacting regular troops and their families who cant know what the future holds because theyre on hold. Theyre in limbo because of this. And there are multiple things going on here. We mentioned mcconnell. This is one of the things thats raised eyebrows among those In Washington, wondering if mcconnells grip on power is diminished because of his Ongoing Health challenges. He pushes back on that, but it is persistent in d. C. Democrats have been sharply critical of this throughout. Senate Majority Leader schumer denounced this at every turn. The unhappiness behind the scenes from republicans is growing, but there hasnt been a push to get tuberville to stop. There hasnt. Theyre willing to let him, even if theyre privately unhappy, letting him command the stage like this. It comes at a moment where, of course, we have a land war in europe, where the United States is trying to increase its Readiness Posture because of that. Because of potential challenges from china down the road, from rogue actors like north korea and iran. Those in the white house are furious about this, and it is evident nearly every day from President Biden who is loathe to criticize his former Senate Colleagues. He has respect for the institution. He no longer loathes to criticize tuberville for what he is doing. George conway, back when we were republicans, we used to take great pride at how much we fought for the strengthening of the United States military, the readiness of the United States military. I was on the Armed Services four terms for a reason. Because thats what my constituents wanted. Thats what republican constituents used to want. Now, we have republicans who are saying the United States military, which is the strongest in the world it just is. I mean, theres not a close second we now have Tommy Tuberville, republicans saying, oh, the military is top heavy. Who said that . Nobody. Nobody who knows anything about how strong our military is. Then you have republicans saying we need to be more like the russians. We need to be more manly like the russians, like the russian military. Youve got republicans that say our military is weak, that its woke. Republicans saying that our leaders are stupid and fat pigs. I mean, the insults just keep flying towards extraordinarily strong, vital United States military. If anybody thinks theyre weak and woke, just ask the 500 Russian Troops that tried to bum rush the United States military in syria a few years back. You cant really ask em because they were all gunned down, all blown apart in about three minutes. So why is it that just republicans have this blindspot when it comes to how strong, how successful and how good our United States military is . Why do these republicans hate the United States military so much . They hate the United States military because its a part of the United States government. This is basically the republicans have become antiamerican, antigovernment, anti the United States. Thats their shtick now. Thats why theyre attacking the state department, fbi, prosecutors, and they attack the institutions that normally republicans were very, very supportive of. Now, its just this Nihilistic Attack On American institutions. Its also it spri brings to the fact we live in a different era now. The senate rules that would allow one senator to block a unanimous consent agreement to have these Batch Nominations sent to the floor, i mean, all these arkane senate rules we talk about, that we dont really talk about, but it depends on the good faith of the members, of collegiality of the members. Thats one thing the Republican Party has completely abandoned, which is not just the truth but good faith and collegiality. Yeah. Well, well talk more about this. We do have more polling from the Wall Street Journal that has President Joe Biden and donald trump in a dead heat in a 2024 General Election matchup. In the survey, 46 say they would vote for biden, while 46 say they would vote for trump. 8 say they are undecided. So in this conversation, mixing this in really shows you where the country is at, joe. Well its trumpified. Gene, look at the numbers. You have 46 of americans supporting a guy who has been indicted four times, indicted for stealing nuclear secrets, indicted for stealing war plans. Called a rapist by a new york judge, saying what he did was akin to rape. You have a guy thats being charged for his legal payoffs to porn stars. I mean, he could go down the list. A guy who started a riot on january 6th, an insurrection, had fake electors, had this fraudulent scheme to steal votes from millions and millions of americans in seven swing states. I could go on. Called the republican secretary of state of georgia and said, steal enough votes for me. Find enough votes so i can steal georgia. 46 of americans are voting for the guy who said he would terminate the constitution to get back into power. Yeah, those numbers are unbelievable, yet there they are. The Wall Street Journal does good polling, and, you know, any one poll can be an outlier. But there have been a lot of polls that indicate that if its a trump biden rematch, this is going to be a close election. Again, that stupefies me. It should not be a close election. There is no way that any substantial portion of the electorate should support donald trump, after what we saw during the four yea