Fake electors plot before the 2020 election was even decided. Well have more on that video which appears to undermine some claims from the former president s legal team also ahead, the latest developments in the Georgia Election case including the proposed trial date from Fulton CountyDistrict Attorney fani willis. Plus an update on the Recovery Efforts in maui amid increasing scrutiny for hawaiis electricity provider. Good morning and welcome to Way Too Early on this thursday, august 17th. Im johnnen lemere. Thanks for starting your day with us. Well begin this morning with a disturbing situation out of texas where a woman was arrested and charged with threatening the federal judge who is presiding over former president Donald Trumps federal election interference case here in washington, d. C. The 43yearold who was denied bail allegedly threatened to kill judge tanya chutkan. We want to warn you some of these details are down right disturbing. According to an affidavit filed last week the woman recently left a voice mail just laden with racial slurs for chutkan where she told her, quote, you are in our sights, we want to kill you. If trump doesnt get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you. So tread lightly. Youll be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it. Additionally, the woman is accused of threatening to kill democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson lee who is like the judge also black as well as other democrats and members of the lgbtq community. Nbc news has reached out to this womans lawyer for comment. We have not yet heard back. Well bring you any developments as they occur. Truly disturbing. Fulton County District attorney fani willis meanwhile is asking that the Georgia Election interference trial begin on march 4th of next year, march 4, 2024 just one day before the key Super Tuesday primary contest. In a new court filing she says she chose that date to make room for former president trumps several other pending legal cases. Now, march 4th were to happen, it would be 2 1 2 months before trumps federal classified documents case in florida as well as three weeks before the trial start date for the manhattan hush money case. Its also two months after the proposed start date for the federal election interference case against trump. In that same filing, willis asks that all arraignments for the 19 named defendants in the case be scheduled for the week of september 5th. Everyone has everyone charged has until august 25th thats next week to complete booking voluntarily. In Fulton County defendants must complete their booking at the Fulton County jail. That includes taking a mug shot and fingerprinting. Arraignments are then typically done separately. Judges occasionally waive Arraignment Appearances or hold them virtually. There is no confirmation yet which route the former president will take. Hes not had to take a mug shot in any of his other legal proceedings. Meanwhile, a judge has scheduled an evidentiary hearing in response to former Chief Of Staff mark meadows and his request to move the Georgia Election case to federal court. Judge steve jones ruled meadows has met the minimum Legal Standard for this matter to continue at least for the time being. If the judge Grants Meadows request it would presumably give him a more conservative jury pool. Fulton county. A. Willis has until next wednesday to file a response to meadows request. Joining us now, our friend msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. Thanks for joining us this morning. First lets start with that March 4th Trial date. Theres been a lot of speculation that the georgia case because its so big, so sprawling and people are involved it would be slow to put together and maybe even go last of all the legal matters currently facing donald trump, but the d. A. Suggesting march 4th, thats pretty soon. What do you make of that time line . Is it realistic . Do you think the trump people will have reason to push for delay . Its not realistic. The georgia case will probably go dead last of all these four cases. If you put up that graphic again ill show you something interesting. Fani willis is pushing for a march 4th date. The new york case is scheduled to start i believe march 25th. There you see it. Now, if the trial really did start on march 4th in georgia, Jury Selection wouldnt even be close to finish by the time the manhattan case began. Let me give you an example, theres currently a trial in Fulton County under fani willis, a rico trial of a criminal defendant thats arguably pretty wellknown but nowhere near as wellknown as donald trump. They are in the month 8 of Jury Selection, not trial, not the prosecutions case, not the defense case, not witness testimony. Jury selection, eight months. Its just not going to happen and that will run smackdab into the new york case. Now, the reality is a georgia judge can schedule trial for that kate, and a new york judge can schedule trial whenever they want. They dont control each other, they dont even have to talk to each other, but whats going to happen is if that case goes forward in georgia in early march, the new york case simply isnt going forward. I mean they can call interest trial, but trump wont be there, nothings going to happen. So this is a thing where prosecutors who want this case to go forward early are going to push for early trial dates, and theyre not going to get it. Maybe thats part of the strategy, ask high, get somewhere in the middle what you wanted. Its just not realistic asking for a March 4th Trial date in a case with 19 codefendants in a jurisdiction where your Jury Selection in high profile cases, rico cases is running eight months. Its just not going to happen. You can set that trial date and maybe you can even call it on the day of trial, but its not going forward. So also out of georgia this report mark meadows has pushed which tried in a federal court, you know, moving forward as it at least got some initial green light from the judge there. Likely donald trump as well. So give us your assessment, a, if this is going to happen for meadows, but whether it happens for meadows or not, how do you think it will impact the same bids from the others . Ill start with this. If the movement is successful, itll be a massive strategic move for the defense. Everyone today is talking about this being a petition or a motion or request. Thats not how a removal works. The Removal Statute works like this. If youre a defendant and you think removal is appropriate, you file a notice of removal, and then the case is removed. The case is gaup, and now its in federal court, and its fani willis, the prosecution, its their burden now to push to get it back to state court. Now, i think theyve got a pretty good chance of doing that thatch two things here. Why is this going to be so massive for the defense . Number one youll be dragging a prosecutor out of Home Field Advantage in state court into federal court. Point two, youll be drawing a jury pool from a larger geographic district area. That will pull in people from the suburbs and arguably people i mean arguably you could just look at Election Results that would probably include people that would be more republicans, arguably more favorable to meadows, favorable to trump, so that is huge, huge difference. Now, will meadows be successful . You can look at the new york situation where trump tried to exact same removal and was unsuccessful, but in that case the argument was what trump was doing Making Hush Money payments to an adult film star, was that within his duties as president . That was a pretty easy analysis and the answer was no. Here meadows has a stronger case. He can argue i was a federal official, i wasnt elected. That puts me more squarely in the definition. And hell argue, look, i was just taking orders from the president. That makes those official acts, therefore im exactly within the people contemplated by the Removal Statute, im a federal official and i should be in federal court because otherwise this would allow states to simply prosecute federal officials and drag them into criminal court. So meadows has a chance more than trump did in new york. I dont know itll ultimately be successful, but he does have a chance. So many developments to follow in the days ahead including, of course, when donald trump will surrender to authorities. Hes got to do it by next friday. Msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos, thank you for starting us off this morning. We appreciate it, and well talk to you soon. Meanwhile, theres new evidence that shows the fake electors plot from Donald Trumps allies was in the works well before he lost the 2020 election. The beat with Ari Melber Air never before seen footage Last Night Of Trump ally roger stone dictating an outline of that plot to his assistant that was then supposed to be sent to a group chat on the signal app that was recorded by the danish filmmaker who is making a documentary about stone. You might remember this from a year or so back. Heres a part of that video. The final decision as to who the State Legislatures authorize be sent to the Electoral College is a decision made solely by the legislature. We must be prepared to lobby our republican legislatures. The filmmaker says that clip was recorded on november 5, 2020, which was two days before joe biden was officially declared the winner of the election. Did seem, though, he was well on his way of doing so. It was also a munch before trump lawyer ken chesebro outlined that very plot. Stones representatives declined to comment on the story when reached by msnbc. Still ahead here on Way Too Early, well bring you the very latest on the wildfires in hawaii as the Death Toll Climbs and Recovery Efforts continue across the island of maui. Plus, congress is trying to avert fears over another possible Government Shutdown. Well take a look at the options on the table. Those stories and a check on weather and sports when we come right back. Age is just a number, and mines unlisted. Try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. Boost® high protein. Now available in cinnabon® bakeryinspired flavor. Learn more at boost. Com tv power e trades easytouse tools, like dynamic charting and riskreward analysis help make trading feel effortless. And its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. E trade from Morgan Stanley. With powerful, easytouse tools, power e trade makes complex trading easier. 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Plus, get a free Samsung Galaxy z flip5. Only on verizon. Wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. Its to die for. And its all right here. Streaming was never this easy, you know. This is the way. You really went all out didnt you . Um, its called commitment. Could you turn down the volume . Here, you can try. Get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. Welcome back as we turn to some of the mornings other top headlines. Tragagy is still unfolding in maui as the death toll from those devastating wildfires continues to climb. Nbc News National correspondent tom llamas has the very latest. Reporter search teams in lahaina continue their heart breaking work, already more than 100 bodies found and theyre still looking for the lost. What was once a paradise is now a mass grave. The tears just constantly coming for the families who have lost a lot. Reporter the flames destroyed his scuba business. Is it your belief, too, the power lines start this fire . Absolutely. The amount of power lines up in that area are horrendous. There should have been a lot more upgrading. Reporter while the cause of the blaze is still being investigated, theres increasing scrutiny on Hawaiian Electric. Data from a private company that monitors the grid through a network of sensors shows 34 major electrical incidents on the power lines around lahaina. Literally dozens and dozens of faults occurring over that several hour period overnight any one of which could cause an arked fault that would cause a spark and wildfire. Reporter Hawaiian Electric didnt specifically address that data or the multiple lawsuits but said in part we know there is speculation about what started it fire, but the causes havent been determined. This was a preventable circumstance. Reporter graham is one of the attorneys who filed suit against the utility. The activity was keeping the power running during this very serious wind event. Reporter but Hawaiian Electric ceo told me they dont have a program for shutting off power. It can be seen as creating a hardship for those customers that have medical needs. In lahaina the electricity powers the pumps that provide the water. And so that was also a critical need during that time. Shutting off the power just wasnt an option. I just dont understand what youre saying. There are choices that need to be made, and all of those factors play into it. Reporter with President Biden set to visit maui on monday, The Road To Lahaina is now open. We were with the cajun navy, an aid group that formed during hurricane katrina, as it delivered food and supplies outside of lahaina. Its been a big help for all of us here. Reporter but these signs of hope overshadowed by the name of the dead like buddy, a 79yearold musician and beloved grandfather. Its a fate this family of 16 narrowly avoided, their Escape Route Under Siege by flames and smoke. Five of the familys homes were lost, but the entire family is safe. Theres a lot of families still not together, and so well take what we have. Were blessed. Nbcs tom llamas with that report. Here in washington with a possible Government Shutdown looming at the end of next month, lawmakers on capitol hill appear to be eyeing a shortterm funding bill. During a Conference Call this week House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy told his fellow House Republicans he believes there will be enough votes to pass a Stop Gap Measure to keep the government running. With lawmakers on recess this month, mccarthys remarks reflect a growing recognition that congress simply wont have enough time to reach a longterm deal before the September 30th deadline. Meanwhile, President Biden calls it one of the most significant laws that has ever been enacted. Yesterday marked the oneyear anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation is, of course, a Signature Piece of the biden administrations economic agenda. The president celebrated the milestone at an event in the east room of the white house. This law is one of the biggest drivers of jobs and Economic Growth this country has ever seen. Since i took office, the private sectors announced nearly 400 excuse me me, 240 billion in new Clean Energy Manufacturing investments, the private sector, 240 billion of investment. And the laws already created an estimated 170,000 clean energy jobs. In one year its estimated it will go to 1. 5 million more jobs over the next decade. First is one year, now were talking about a decade. That legislation, of course, will be a center piece of the president s reelection bid next year. Still ahead here on Way Too Early well turn to sports and bring you the best highlights around Major League Baseball including a wild walk off from wriggly field. Well be right back with that. Y. Well be right back with that. So they can stop the spread of wildfires. Nows the time to see what americas largest 5g network can do for your business. And were done. Hm, what about these . Looks right. [sfx spilling sound] nooo. Nooo. Nooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. And bounty is 2x more absorbent so you can use less and get the job done with one. This works. Kind of. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. psst psst ahhhh. With flonase, allergies dont have to be scary spraying flonase daily gives you longlasting, nondrowsy relief. psst psst flonase. All good. Take the pitch. In the air. Right field. Gone christopher morels three Run Walk Off Lifts the chicago cub tuesday a 43 win over their Cross Town Rival the white sox and into the Third NationalLeague Wild Card slot. Great moment there. The cubs also now just 2 1 2 games out of the lead in the National Lead central. The Milwaukee Brewers they lost again last night in los angeles. The dodgers streaked to a tenth straight win. They win 71 improving to 14 and 1 since the start of august. L. A. Playing incredible baseball right now. Their National West lead over the San Francisco giants has now grown to ten games. Those giants, meanwhile, were victims of their own ballpark yesterday. Watch this, giving up this Inside The Park Home Run on a ball that ricochetted off the brick wall in right center and then bounced off the top of the Outfield Wall before dropping on the Warning Track towards left field. The One In A Million ricochet easy the tampa bay beat the giants 61. About 500 miles or so south in san Diego Fernando tatis jr. Caught the padres sleeping. He barely has to sprint, he has that stolen so easily. Tatis one of the more exciting players in baseball. The padres take this one 52. Baltimore still does have a three game lead over the rays at the top of the American League east. Meanwhile the New York Yankees drop below 500 for the first time this year. They lost the braves last night, and they now own a losing record this late in the season for the First Time Since get this september of 1995. And credit where its due, the red sox lost last night to the washington nationals. And finally in arlington, texas, Los Angeles Angels star shohei otaun ae, he led off the game with his 42nd Home Run of the season. There it goes. Meanwhile, his teammate took a no hitter into the eighth inning. Angels shutout the als leading rangers 20. Time now for the weather and lets go to meteorologist Angie Lassman for the forecast. More heat, huh . More heat, no relief. We could see records in dallas, austin were going to be hot once again today with Triple Digit Temperatures lasting into tomorrow too. As we get into the weekend and early next week, this heat expands. Denver will be in the mid to high 90sch well see wichita in the triple digits, too, so uncomfortable conditions setting up for folks as they plan their weekend for saturday, sunday, even into monday. Weve also got a line of thunderstorms working their way into the great lakes today. We dont have a great chance of severe weather, but we could see heavy rain working through michigan, indiana, ohio. By tomorrow it work into parts of the north east and well see some unsettled conditions with some heavy rain and maybe even some breezy conditions for folks in the north east and new england area tomorrow. And of course weve got a lot going on in the tropics. Weve got two areas to watch in the atlantic, one in the Gulf Of Mexico and three Tropical Storms in parts of the pacific. Theyre going to keep the breezy conditions around for the trade winds for the folks in hawaii here for at least the rest of the day today. Those will kind of diminish and weaken. Were not looking at main impacts from that, but we will see Tropical Storm hilary bring pretty heavy rain to parts. Still ahead here on Way Too Early, weve got some new reporting about how donald Trump Supporters are targeting members of the Fulton County grand jury that indicted the former president and his 18 codefendants. Way too early will be right back with that. Way too early will be right back with that with 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. Boost® high protein. Now available in cinnabon® bakeryinspired flavor. Learn more at boost. Com tv mlb chooses tmobile for business for 5g solutions. To not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. Nows the time to see what americas largest 5g network can do for your business. 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Help stop the frustration and start taking align every day. Align probiotic was specifically designed by gastroenterologists. To help relieve your occasional digestive upsets. So you can enjoy life. when you feel the signs, its time to try align. Welcome back to Way Too Early. It is 5 30 a. M. On the east coast, 2 30 out west. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for being with us. Following this weeks indictment in Fulton County, georgia, Trump Supporters have posted the names and addresses of the grand jurors there in the atlanta area raising concern over their safety and privacy. The nonpartisan Research Group advance democracy spotted the names on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric. Some of the online posts claim the jurors were biased against trump and claim jurors had expressed support for senators Bernie Sanders and rafael warnock, former president barack obama, and the black lives matter movement. Nbc news is choosing not to name the website to avoid further spreading the information that reported the names of the jurors. To note under georgia law the identities of the jurors are not secret. In fact, the names are listed right there in the indictment but not the jurors addresses or other personal information. Joining us now congressional investigations reporter for the washington post, jackie almeny. You and your colleagues at the paper reached out to those colleagues at the paper. What are they saying about their privacy and potential safety being threatened but also the process that led them to deliver this indictment . Yeah, we reached out to every single one of the jurors who were involved with this process. Thefore person, assistant foreperson, et cetera, and not one of them wanted to speak with us. Which based on the threats they immediately started receiving we did understand. We did reach the son of one of the jurors who told us that his father was concerned about security and about some of the threats he was getting and that it was very unlikely that he would speak with us. Plus these jurors are sworn to secrecy about the process that goes on Behind Closed Doors in the deliberations that take place. And while theyre sworn to secrecy, their names and their involvement in the process are not. So jackie, i mean whats the reason behind identifying these grand jurors . This was sort of met by surprise by a lot of us in recent days when we realized their names are right there on the indictment. Yeah, and its not typical of indictments nor of any of the federal indictments that weve seen so far. And it varies in the Codes State By state. And georgia seems to be a bit of an outlier. And the law is aimed at bringing transparency to criminal proceedings, and it doesnt give judges an option to protect the privacy of these jurors even in the case of an extremely high profile case like this trump indictment. We spoke with the Executive Director of prosecuting Attorneys Council of georgia, and he said that its been really important to the state because its been a very important process, and it, you know, allows everything to be a matter of Public Record including the people who were involved in the deliberations. But, you know, in this modern era where there is such a risk of these people being exposed and their addresses and targeted on social media, you know, we did have several prosecutors, former prosecutors including the Chuck Rosenberg who said its about time for georgia to change that code and fix it. And lastly, jackie, whats the latest outlet of trump camp as how they are viewing whats going on there, in particular the decision to turn himself in. Hes still got a week or so to do that. You know, theres still some theories he might choose to next week to even upstage the republican primary debate. How are whats their Thought Process and whats their feelings about what theyve seen now theyve spent a few days with this indictment . Yeah, john, you know, quite frankly this has sort of become Standard Operating Procedure for them. It wasnt that different of a week than the past few weeks theyve had, which is not to say that the charges were extremely extraordinary, that fani willis released earlier this week. But at this point they are well familiarized and sort of socialized with a lot of the charges that came down. A lot of these charges were sort of from jack smiths indictment. A lot of this was not new per se, so it wasnt as much of a shock that they had to deal with in terms of media coverage. Actually one advisor noted it was much less intense media coverage, also potentially due to the fact that were at the end of august and a lot of people are tuning outright now, but its not to say theyre not concerned about all of this exposure and a lot of the time its going to take up for trump down the line although they did acknowledge that this one is going to take quite a bit longer than jack smiths prosecutions. And as weve noted because its a state case the legal peril a little different for donald trump as he tries to get back into the white house. Great stuff as always from congressional investigations reporter for the washington post, jackie alemany. Thank you for being with us this morning. Still ahead here on Way Too Early, well turn to our friends from cnbc for a look at the mornings business headlines and inside the markets ahead of an highly anticipated Earnings Report due out before the market. Thats all ahead. Dont go anywhere. Ll ahead dont go anywhere. 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And inthe s p now sitting at a five week low, the nasdaq at a seven week low. Members continue to see significant up side risk to inflation, which could require further tightening of Monetary Policy and that saw yields move a lot higher. The tenyear Treasury Yield now sitting at levels not seen since 2008. Weve also been sitting at some of these retail earnings. Target disappointing relative to expectation but also cutting fullyear sales and profit target for the year. Up to today weve got walmart coming up and people are saying they may fare better than target nameby because a big portion of their sales are from groceries, around 50 . Thats a nondiscretionary item, so well see. We now move into the elon musk portion of the Program Starting with tesla which is yet again cutting prices of its most expensive United States vehicles in china. Tell us about that. Right, so tesla has been introducing multiple rounds of price cuts. They had already introduced price cuts from model y and model 3 in china, but this week they announced theyre going to be cutting prices of existing mobile s and mobile x cars in china. Those are more expensive versions of the cars, price cuts up to 6. 9 . And this is part and parcel of a Pricing War Strategy going on in china right now. Other chinese manufacturers of evs have had to follow suit, many of them are sitting on razor thin margins, and it is a big focus of the Analyst Community as well. A lot of people were pointing out the tesla Operating Margins of 9. 6 back in june were the lowest for the last five quarters and even elon musk himself has said it does make sense to sacrifice margins to make more vehicles. So the china price wars go on. And one more about musk. His company x, which of course used to be twitter, appears to be finally following through on its promise to make tweet deck a paid service. This upset a number of people in my life yesterday. Give us a rundown here. Yeah, so it appears that tweet deck is actually moving behind a pay wall. If you go to the page now and try to log in, youre being redirected to the twitter blue page, which means youll only be able to get access to it if youre a twitter blue subscriber just part and parcel of another level twitter x is introducing to get more people sign into their subscription service. Will it succeed, well see. We will see, but i think were all going to keep calling it twitter. Cnbcs joumanna bercetche, great to see you as always. A Campaign Fundraiser who did work for congressman George Santos, well, hes now been indicted. We have details about the high ranking aide on capitol hill he impersonated in order to solicit some of those donations. Thats next on Way Too Early. Thats next on Way Too Early. No fingersticks needed. Manage your diabetes with more confidence. Freestyle libre 2. Try it for free at freestylelibre. Us fan 1 there ya go thats what im talkin about josh allen is this your plan to watch the game today . hero fan uh, yea. I have to watch my neighbors Nfl Sunday Ticket. josh allen its not your best plan. But you know what is . Myplan from verizon. Switch now and theyll give you Nfl Sunday Ticket from youtubetv, on them. hero fan this plan is amazing josh allen another amazing plan, backing away from here very slowly. fan 1 that was josh allen. fan 2 mmhm. vo for a limited time get Nfl Sunday Ticket from youtubetv on us. A 449 value. Plus, get a free Samsung Galaxy z flip5. Only on verizon. Mr. Clean magic eraser powers through tough messes. So it makes it look like i spent hours cleaning, and you know i didnt. It makes my running shoe look like new its amazing. Its so good. It makes it look like i have magical powers. Magic eraser and sheets make cleaning look easy. Welcome back. Theres a new controversy this morning surrounding embattled congressman George Santos. Thats a name we havent said in a few weeks. This time the inskraufbls who served as a paid Campaign Fundraiser for the New York State republican. Samuel has been indicted on federal criminal charges related to his allegedly impersonating a top staffer to House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy as he solicited donations for santos. According to the sixpage indictment the 27yearold raised money for Santos Campaign in 2020 which lost and then in 2022, which won. He was charged with four counts of fire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Miele did not immediately respond to request for comment. Joining us now Special Correspondent of vanity fair, host of the politics podcast. Her new piece is titled what happened to dealing with George Santos quickly. So let me ask you. What happened to dealing with George Santos quickly . They needed the votes. Kevin mccarthy needed the votes, so he just decided, you know, when you have a fiveseat majority you sort of sweep stuff under the rug. And i also think theres a larger problem that mccarthy has, which is if you start pulling people out of this Republican Caucus because they lied about things, where will it end . Yeah, it would dwindle their numbers i suppose. So, molly, santos to your point and a good one hes representative of the Issues Mccarthy has because his margins are so slim in the house. And theres a couple looming fights coming, the government shut down. Theres some talk today maybe they can be avoided at least temporarily as well as ukraine funding. This would be the first time the white house is asking congress for a big new package of money since the republicans took over the house. Just give us your analysis as to how does mccarthy navigate all that and does he have to bow to the hard right even though public polling suggests most American People walk the other way . Yeah, i mean he has made bowing to the hard right kind of his thing, mccarthy. And youve seen this again and again. I mean he barely won the speakership, multiple votes, and, you know, hes just not a vote whipper. Hes almost like the opposite of nancy pelosi. You know, he takes votes to the floor and doesnt necessarily want to win, and weve seen it again. Look, the hard right in this caucus wants to impeach mayorkas, merrick garland. They have a wish list of impeachments which is going to make them look terrible and more likely going to alieniate more mainstream voters and theoretically lose republicanps in the house. Whats so interesting as i was working on this piece i was looking at these five republicans, not just the five besides santos who won in New York State and they all won by like 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 votes. I mean these are tiny, tiny margins. And you really see the republicans dont really have these seats. And if you have a major election where you have a president ial on the ticket, i think its going to be very hard for republicans to keep the house. Yeah, theres a sense if trumps atop the ticket for the gop those seats there particularly in districts President Biden won last time around will be very hard for the republicans to keep. And one more for you, molly, speaking of trump. You know, we know next week hes got to turn himself in at some point to the sense had been probably not. Recent days, the door has been opened a bit, it feels. What do you think happens . The theory of the case that i have heard from a number of people is that hes not going to show up at the debate, but hes going to show up and get and surrender on the same day as the debris and take all the oxygen out of the room. Look, donald trump, its his party now, right . Whatever he does ultimately hes going to unless something huge happens, but hes not growing the electorate, so i think that a lot of the republican heavies are pretty worried about how theyll run this guy again. By the way, theres no evidence to support the idea that trump will ever decide he wants to stop running for president , so good luck with that. Good luck with that. Always great to talk to you. Lets do it again soon, Special Correspondent at vanity fair and host of The Fast Politics podcast, molly jongfast. Thank you, my friend. The latest on the wildfire Recovery Efforts in hawaii as the white house announces that President Biden will travel to maui amid the ongoing search for survivors. Well bring you that. Then coming up on morning joe, a texas woman is in Police Custody after threatening the judge presiding over Donald Trumps federal election case. Well have the details about the disturbing voice mail message prosecutors say she recorded and well tell you who else was on her target list. Plus, a proposed trial date has been set for trump and his 18 codefendants in georgia. What that means for the former president S White House bid as the potential time line collides with one of the busiest weeks on the primary calendar. Also ahead, sex, lies, and comedy. The stars of broadways the cottage will be live in studio. Morning joe will be just a few minutes away. New dove men bodywash gives you 24 hours of nourishing micromoisture. That means your skin still feels healthy and smooth now. Now. And now too. Get healthier, smoother feeling skin all day. The white house announced that President Biden and the first lady will visit the Hawaii Wildfire Disaster Zone on monday. According to a release put out yesterday, the first couple will meet with first couples and discuss next steps in the recovery effort. President biden has been in contact with both the states governor and the head of fema since the wildfires broke out. More than 600 federal personnel are currently deployed in maui to help the public. This will be the president s first visit to the scene of a Natural Disaster since he toured the damage caused by a deadly Tornado Outbreak in mississippi. That was back in march. Joining us now, White House Reporter for bloomberg news, akayla gardner. Great to see you. Its a Rite Of Passage for any president , something terrible happens, they tend to go. This president has received a little bit of criticism for being a little slow to talk about hawaii and gave a no comment over the weekend but, you know, the white house said, look, hes going to go and offer his help. You have reporting about how this came together. The time line is important because we saw the president last week quickly approve this Disaster Declaration and saw him comment on thursday. I think the difference between thursday and the following days is the death toll then was 36. It has ballooned as we know to over 100 people and for four days we did not hear anything publicly from the president and he had an opportunity at the beach this weekend to comment and he decided to say no comment and unsurprisingly that was not taken very well. He took a lot of heat for that including from donald trump, his biggest rival and it sort of felt like almost an East Palestine moment for Different Reasons obviously, that was more about slow response, but hes taken heat from republicans and from people who thought he has not been sympathetic enough. He has prided himself on spending time with victims, being this consoler in chief and this felt out of step. Empathy one of his Stronger Political talents, youre right and never went to East Palestine, ohio. We heard a lot from the president about thing theyve accomplished. He went to wisconsin to talk about the economy. That was on tuesday and yesterday in a big event at the white house commemorated the oneyear anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act which is a Signature Piece of legislation. Its a big deal but white house staffers including some i talked to in the aftermath were like we still feel like the American People doesnt know whats in there. Beyond yesterday how are they going to try to sell that to the public . That has been their chief concern, whether its bidenomics, folks dont understand what these things mean. They need to frankly translate those better. Weve seen polling for bidenonomics and folks dont know what it is, whether its clean energy or bringing down costs, thats what they need to do is break through. Biden has an advantage in terms of he does not have to worry about a primary challenge the same way republicans do and were seeing him hone in on things important to independents, important to people in the midwest and Middle America and yet he hasnt had the type of success he feels like he deserves especially li when it comes to manufacturing. The white house has made the strategy in the campaign to just theyre seeing Donald Trumps legal troubles and staying out of the way. Theres nothing we can do to add to this. Its going to get covered. No need for us to talk about it and trying to zero in on the economic message. We know the polling suggests americans dont feel great about the economy yet but theres underlying data that shows things are Getting Better so they hope it will turn around. Will that be a big part of their message as they start to begin to ramp up that reelection bid . They have to turn that data into perceptions, as well. Weve seen inflation come down but it hasnt come down to that 2 target yet and folks are frankly still feeling like prices are too high. I think what democrats are hoping some of these social issues will be their winning issues, like climate change, like abortion, like gun reform and, frankly, things were seeing Vice PresidentHarris Focus On and seen them be dynamic and that biden can focus on economics and she can go on the road and focus on other topics. I think theyre hoping both of those things combined will get them both the base and also some of these independents and outlier voters. Certainly choice, the Abortion Rights has been such a winner at the ballot box. Aides i talk to think they could expand the map, maybe North Carolina could be one the biden team could focus on. I know youre going with the president next week. We appreciate seeing you. Thanks to all of you for getting up Way Too Early with us on this thursday morning. Morning joe starts right now. Beautiful shot of washington, d. C. For you on this thursday morning. It is 6 00 on the east coast, good morning. And welcome to morning joe. Its thursday, august 17th, and we have a lot to get to including a trial date proposal from the Fulton County d. A. Fani willis. Well have the latest on her ambitious time line. Plus, a woman is now facing charges for threatening the federal judge in Donald Trumps election case. Well have the disturbing details on that. Meanwhile, a trump ally whos been off the radar for awhile is making headlines this morning. Well show you the video of roger stone that could do serious damage to the claims from trumps legal team. I saw it on ari melber last night. Its staggering. Its