meanwhile, a court hearing is scheduled for today on the request to unseal the affidavit used to search donald trump s mar-a-lago home. we ll have new reporting on where that investigation stands. plus, new polling in the fight to control the senate from a tight race in ohio to the democrat in wisconsin expanding his lead over republican ron johnson. we ll have the latest numbers for you this morning. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is thursday, august 18th. joe, looking ahead to a big hearing today. yup. a lot of political waves beginning to sort of form out of this. they are. i m curious, what did you think of mike pence s speech? it feels it feels like he s looking for a lane. i believe his speech, willie, if i m not correct, was in new hampshire, was it not? it was. yes, it was. that would be kind of the, i think, real story there. what is he doing there? there s obviously maybe a long game being played here. i don t want to get ahead of anyth
Polls. white house not worried. they point to head-to-heads to show he is up on trump and desan desantis. midterms are coming. democrats are getting a boost in a lot of race, particularly the senate. in wisconsin, mandela barnes opened a 7-point lead on ron johnson, one of the biggest supporters of trump and his big lie. there seems to be, democrats i m talking to, a sense of optimism here. they feel the wind is at their back to hang on to the senate. what is your concern? can they do this? how much are they being benefitted by republicans who are being out of touch and extreme? i read it the same way you do. they feel there is a wind to their back, but that is also when you can make mistakes, when you depend more on the wind than you do your legs. you keep running hard on the ground. the fact of the matter is, with all of this crainess that appears to be on the republican