Hardship and heart break were everywhere, but president ial leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the covid virus. Boy, that was something. Do you remember we were in the middle of that pandemic. That was something. Man. We never thought that would pass. That pandemic was bad. Just like cancer. That was remember when people used to get can terrible. Oh, wait. Theres still people dying from the coronavirus. Were moving towards 180,000 dead so im not really sure why larry cud lokudlow who used to about it going away quickly, im not sure why hes talking about it in the past tense but, of course, he is consistent if nothing else. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. Its wednesday, august 26th. Along with me weve got willie. Also nbc news and msnbc contributor Shawna Thomas host of msnbc nation and reverend al sharpton. Mika will be back tomorrow. Willie, were going to get to the big take aways from night two of the Republican National convention. As jonathan omere put it, covid gets ignored, rising 2024 stars and pompeo and milan yes. The president ever a showman makes official business with campaign politics. You know, very, very interesting, willie, that if you looked at this night, it really was an alternative reality. You had larry kudlow talking about the coronavirus in the past tense. You also had melania actually criticizing people who were mean on social media and gossipers. Of course, never heard her criticize her own husband when he said that mika was bleeding badly from a face lift or when i was a murderer or when a woman who had passed away tragically 19 years ago, her husband was begging donald trump to stop being so hateful and causing their family extraordinary pain, begging him to stop and he just continued over and over again causing pain for that family. Never heard melania say anything then. Never heard her say bleeding badly from a face lift, but somebody used her childs name in a pun and oh, my god. Locusts were descending from the heaven. It was the end of the world. So i guess shes fine with donald trump savaging other people every day, causing immeasurable pain, being the most extraordinarily hateful, ma level voe lent force in american politics on a personal level in his constant daily attacks but shes going to stand up and lecture about gossip . She . Shes inside the house. A little lecture about fwos sip . And shes going to lecture about the meanness of seriously. Talk about being shameless, absolutely shameless, speaking of that. Another person i know, former Florida Attorney general, pam bondi. She chased all the conspiracy theories on ukraine. Like why . Pam, why . Whats in that for you . Its crazy. So anyway, willie, its incredible, a night of alternative reality, alternative facts and if were in that world, then i can tell you that last night the Boston Red Sox took yet another step towards the 2020 world series, they came back, six runs halfway through the game. They beat toronto 96. How many times have you and i grown up when we were little kids sitting on our fathers laps and our father saying, son, if you can go into buffalo on a tuesday night, beat the blue jays, then you can win anywhere. Your dad told you that, right . He did. He always said, son, that neutral site buffalo field, itll break your heart every time if youre not careful, but somehow the red sox managed to get out of there. Well have complete coverage of the red sox and yankees later. Youre right about the parallel universe. I think larry cud low captured it talking about a pandemic. Being dismissive of it. Yes, it was bad, death and destruction. Then comes the but and this entire construction so far has been about an invented but. Joe, 178,000 people are dead, 30 Million People are out of work and theyre touting, again, the president s response to the coronavirus in this country. Amazing, were coming up on 180,000 dead. Larry kudlow, that was one moment in time. His dismissiveness and willingness to raise President Trump up to be the hero of this crisis, it just defies reality when we cover this and watch this. And not just us, but americans who live this every day. Well, weve seen it unfold over the past six, seven months. Again, if larry kudlow is going to say its over and if theyre going to say that donald trump has somehow made this better than it was looking at the numbers of americans who have died compared to every other country across the globe, we have the worst record on every level but, again, this is a man who said that the coronavirus is one person coming in from china. One person coming in from china and it was going to go away. That was in january. The same time joe biden said we werent ready for the pandemic and begged the president to listen to the scientists and the doctors who were warning him. Then at the end of february this is the same president who said its only 15 people and soon its going to be gone. In march he said that it was going to go away very soon and told senators to stop worrying about it, republican senators, that everything was going to be fine. He wasnt worried about it in march. Said it was going to go away in april when things warmed up. Told a am group of africanamerican leaders and drugs that his own scientists said werent proven and wouldnt work. He started pushing that. Then he started pushing cleansers. What, disinfectants, injecting disinfectants in body. That was the second time. That his administration had to put out a message saying, dont listen to the president. Dont put disinfectants in your body, or uv lights into your body, it wont help you. It will kill you. Then he said it was going to go away. Again, it is still with us. We still, of course, lead the world in total coronavirus deaths. The president has lied every step of the way, every step of the way telling us not to worry about it, that it was going away. You see the number of deaths in italy . Remember when italy was the great challenge and we thought, well, at least were not italy. Now were a country with about 4 1 2 of the worlds population. Weve got about 25 of deaths in the world. Has nothing to do with testing. Thats deaths. On march 10th donald trump said were prepared. Were doing a great job with it. It will go away just stay calm. Itll go away. Thats on march 10th. And, willie, youre right. Despite all of this, despite the fact he said its not coming back in the fall, despite the fact his own people know hes been wrong time and time again, this was a president who pretended last night like to wasnt there. He didnt see masks. Many people Wearing Masks going out talking about it in the past tense. Theyve made that deadly mistake over the past six months. 180,000 people soon to be dead in the United States and its been extraordinarily bad leadership with a deadly, deadly consequence. Yeah. The president said its magically going to go away. If we watch the first two nights of this parallel universe you might have thought it had gone away. The reality is different. Well talk about what happened in the rnc. Theres a lot to get to. We want to begin with jacob blake. He is the 29yearold black man shot multiple times by police in kenosha, wisconsin. Hes now paralyzed. He said the damage to blakes spinal cord as well as to his internal organs is so severe that it would, quote, take a miracle for him to walk again. That shooting has sparked protests over Racial Injustice in cities across the country, some of which have erupted into violence. Amid the protests over blakes shooting overnight Kenosha Police reported two fatalities and also that a third gunshot victim was transported to hospital with serious but nonlife threatening injuries. It marked the third night of protests that tore through kenosha which saw Police Fire Tear gas to subdue groups near the courthouse past the 8 p. M. Curfew. 250 National Guards men were on hand. Governor tony evers has declared a state of emergency. Yesterday jacob blakes parents pleaded for justice for their son and for an end to the violence. They shot my son seven times, seven times like he didnt matter, but my son matters. Hes a human being and he matters. As im driving through here, through the city, i notice a lot of damage. It doesnt reflect my son or my family. If jacob knew what was going on as far as that goes, the violence and the destruction, he would be very unpleased so i really am asking and encouraging everyone in wisconsin and abroad to take a moment and examine your heart. An eye witness to blakes shooting told nbc news he heard officers yell drop the knife but police in kenosha have not said whether they recovered a weapon. Rev, this is, again, a pattern weve watched so many times. We see these shootings on video and we see a family full of grief but also full of grace having to go out in front of the cameras and address the pain in their own family, the pain of what happened to their son or their daughter but also to make an appeal to the country. Astounding to watch jacob blakes father, his mother, and his sister yesterday, the grace that they showed. It was very moving and at the same time challenging. Blakes father called me the day before yesterday and asked for our support. In fact, hes joining us at the National March in washington on friday that Martin Luther king iii and i had already called. When you look at the fact that this young man was shot in the back seven times, probably will not be able to walk again, prayerfully maybe he will but certainly hes paralyzed now, but in any way, shape, or form it does not seem justified at all, unarmed, nonthreatening running away from the policeman, and yet his mother and father stood there and had a grace about what was going on calling for peace, calling for people not to do anything that this young man himself would want to stand for. They showed a grace that the country and the Law Enforcement officials have not shown them and i would hope that this not only speaks to those that would go out and misrepresent what jacob is about, i hope it speaks to those in the case that this needs to stop and we need to have laws that will enforce protection of those of us that are subjected to police that take matters above the law, beyond the law, rather than enforce the law. Thats what fridays about and thats what this family reminds us as other families in the past. Its not just the video. Its the law and enforcement of the law. We had a video 20 years ago, 25 years ago with rodney king. What we havent had is the willingness to say to police, you will pay and be accountable if you go beyond and above the law. It was an incredible display of grace by the family, the mother, also telling those protesting not to resort to violence, that that undermined everything that her son stood for but also said she was praying for the police but also that she expected justice. Obviously there has been a response across the country to this tragic shooting. Here is l. A. Clippers head coach doc rivers speaking yesterday about jacob blakes plight. What stands out to me is just watching the republican revenge convention and theyre spewing this fear, right . Like all you hear is donald trump and all of them talking about fear. Were the ones getting killed. Were the ones getting shot. Were the ones that were denied to live in certain communities. Weve been hung, weve been shot and all you do is keep hearing about fear. Its its amazing why we keep loving this country and this country is not loving back. And its just its really so sad. Like i should just be a coach and its so often reminded of my color, you know . Its just really sad. Weve got to do better, but weve got to demand better. You know, its funny, we protest and they send riot guards, right . They send people in riot outfits. They go to michigan with guns and theyre spitting on cops and nothing happens. The training has to change in the police force. The unions have to be taken down in the police force. My dad was a cop. I believe in good cops. Were not trying to defund the police and take all their money away, were trying to get them to protect us just like they protect everybody else. I didnt want to talk about it before the game because its so hard like to just keep watching it. That video, if you watch that video, you dont need to be black to be outraged. You need to be american and outraged and how dare republicans talk about fear . Were the ones that need to be scared. Were the ones having to talk to every black child. What white father has to give his son a talk about being careful if you get pulled over . Yeah. You have dock rivers, extraordinary. You have at the convention the sons of a billionaire who inherited 400 million talking about fear, stirring fear, trying to stir fear among white voters in the suburbs, that the blacks are coming to get you. Talking about the fear, making up just making things up, talking about the fear, theyre coming for you. Theyre going to abolish the suburbs. Gangs are coming to your neighborhoods and are going to kill you and your families. They talk about fear, shawna, and yet as doc rivers said, donald trump never had to sit his sons down and have the talk with his sons, hey, you know, if you get stopped while youre driving in your porsche or your lamborghini or whatever you drive in, as youre driving down to atlantic city, turn the lights on in the car, keep your hands on the dashboard because if you make the wrong move, you may get shot. Shawna . I think we lost her. Rev, to you on that same thought, that doc rivers, extraordinary point that doc rivers made. I think it was an extraordinary point, but i also think it was extraordinary, it was doc rivers. Because when you see lebron, you see a dock rivers, you see people that are not activists like i am, that are not involved in movements for decades but that step outside of their zone, maybe a lot of people and clearly from the polling it is true a lot of people dont ordinarily give the kind of attention they should are going to look at this. Then you contrast it with a president who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to fear anything but getting caught up in some real estate schemes of discrimination start trying to put fear in the minds of people. He has people that held weapons on nonviolent protestors in st. Louis and are under indictment for doing so featured to speak at the Republican National convention. That is why people like doc rivers are calling out. You contrast that, lastly, joe, and we look at the fact that the mother told the story, the mother of jacob yesterday told a story yesterday that when she was standing at bedside with her son and said, lets pray, there was someone in the room, an officer, and her son said, are you a person of faith . Said, yes. He said, pray with us. They could pray together with people that you would think they would be angry at at a time that a president is stoking fear, fear against who and for what . This has to stop and were the only ones that are going to be able to stop it, and thats all of us together. We have shawna back now. Watching doc rivers, ive been a basketball fan my whole life. I watched him as a player and a coach. I think that was the best moment ive ever seen him. What a beautiful message and a beautiful speech and obviously wasnt easy for him to do, but he felt like it was important with the additional meaning, as he pointed out, that his father was a Police Officer for 30 years in maywood, illinois, where doc grew up. What did you hear in that message from doc rivers . What did you see in his face . What did you hear in his voice . I mean, i heard extreme pain, and i think that is being reflected throughout the country. I was watching the press conference with mr. Blakes family yesterday, and i just want to read a quote that i ended up texting one of my friends from his sister. Quote, he was not treated like a human that day. He was treated like some foreign object that didnt belong, and that is when we see these shootings on tape, when we see these things happen, when we hear coach rivers say what he said, thats the reality that many people are living. And forgive me for bringing this back to politics, but part of the issue of the Republican National convention is that it is like two realities. This is kind of what doc rivers was talking about, that that juxtaposition between this idea that a womans brother went out and wasnt treated like a human versus the idea that it wasnt really being acknowledged by an entire party in the United States during a president ial election is really it makes it in some ways even harder to deal with. Its part of why melania, and i heard everything joe said about melanias speech as well as all of the things the president has done and said, i heard all of that. But one thing that stands out to me about the Convention Last night is that Melania Trump, the first lady, did acknowledge some of the division. It wasnt like the entire convention was in this alternate universe, but the thing that is interesting that you decided to lead with this, because what doc rivers is saying is what so many people are living every day is that sense of fear. We want our government to at least acknowledge it and try to work towards it. Not even including whats happening with covid19 right now on top of that. All of these things make it pretty scary to be a black person in this country and we have to figure out a way to Work Together to get beyond that. We cant do it if a large chunk of the country is ignoring it. In fact, the message from the convention, from the white house is just the opposite of that. When you have that couple from st. Louis sitting in their parlor talking about theyre coming for you next. The suburbs are going to be abolished. We know what that coded language means. We will go back to kenosha later in the show. Still ahead on morning joe, well get into night two of the Republican National convention which blurred the lines between campaigning and governing. Jonathan la mere joins us with his latest reporting. First, bill karins has a check on the hurricane headed to the gulf coast and picking up steam. Bill . Willie, this is one of the pit in my stomach mornings seeing this satellite image behind me filling up the entire gulf. The storm is intensifying quickly and its getting larger in size. It will push more water towards the coast. Let me explain what all of this means and tell you where the worst of this is going to be. I certainly hope that the federal governme