i mean, can you fathom that? where in the he -- like i said, he injected too much of that bleach. i think it affected his brain. >> president biden drawing yet another contrast on the campaign trail, this time in philadelphia. he and the vice president made a pitch to black voters. we're going to have much more from their campaign stop in just a moment. meanwhile, the former president was rage posting from the courthouse holding room while a jury deliberated his fate in the criminal hush money case against him. we'll bring you expert legal analysis ahead of the jury reconvening later this morning. plus, we'll go through a possible major shift in policy on the war in ukraine as the biden administration now appears open to allowing u.s.-made weapons to be used in strikes in russian territory. >> willie, i'm just looking at this now. i mean, after all of this, they dropped the charges. >> breaking news. >> can you believe that? >> there was so much stuff. you'd think after all this coverage, it really seemed -- >> they just dropped the charges. >> -- like they were serious. yeah, willie, i can't explain it. >> we can't explain it. >> charges dropped. >> you just drop the charges on the number one golfer in the world? take us through it, willie. >> beautiful delivery. nice setup. yeah, scottie scheffler -- >> thank you. you knew exactly what i was going the entire way, by the way, which makes you you. >> we sort of saw this coming yesterday. we talked about it. louisville, kentucky, officials have dropped all charges against world number one golfer scottie scheffler. there was a hearing yesterday. the jefferson county attorney said prosecutors will not pursue the case, asked for the charges to be dismissed. he said mr. scheffler's characterization that this was a big misunderstanding is corroborated by the evidence. it goes on from there. i think what scottie scheffler said that day at valhalla golf club ahead of the pga championship, when he went out, after having spent time in a jail cell and shooting a 66, that this was a misunderstanding. his hope that it would be worked out. people looked at the video, saw it probably was a mistake by him, and perhaps the cop's original characterization of what happened wasn't quite accurate. the charges now, as you say, joe, have been dropped against the world number one. >> there you go. >> the video evidence shows that what the police officer said wasn't true. >> weird morning that day. >> wasn't dragged. by the end, he was saying, he tore my pants. i don't know how, except when he came running up, knocking on his window, hung his pants on his car. there's no dragging in this entire process. >> what a weird scene. >> well, and why -- i don't know why he would lie about it. >> right. >> don't know why they amped this up the way they did, but they did. my gosh, we always support police officers whenever, you know, police officers should be supported. >> this was weird, and the charges are now dropped. let's get to the news. along with joe, willie, and me, we have the president of the national action network and host of msnbc's "politics nation," reverend al sharpton. nbc news national affairs analyst john heilemann. he is a partner and chief political columnist at puck. and deputy managing editor for politics at "politico," sam stein is with us this morning. and thank you for doing "way too early" for us. reports of hand-wringing from democrats about president joe biden's re-election chances. "the new york times" is out with a new piece this morning entitled, "perhaps lost in the polling: the race for president is still close." in it, chief political analyst nate cohen writes that november's election will likely come down to just three states, michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. where have we heard that before, joe? as cohn points out, biden could lose every other swing state, but if he wins those three, he will most likely win a second term. for what they are worth, most polls show biden right in the mix in the rust belt. that includes the time zone recent poll with siena college. >> the end is near, freaked out. >> biden is running slightly better than his 2020 numbers with two groups that traditionally lean republican. white voters and voters over 65. as cohn puts it, quote, "biden has already done what would ordinarily be the hard part. the polls are not perfect. they've been off before, and they'll be off again. they wouldn't really need to be off target by much at all for mr. biden to squeak out a victory. but even if the polls were exactly right, in the sense that mr. trump would win if the election were held tomorrow by the precise margins implied by the recent polls, mr. biden would still have a very real chance to win in november." so you've talked a lot about this, but you've also lived it, watching elections closely by experience. it's sort of what you've been saying, although, i'm all okay with the panic if you apply work to it. >> right. >> if panic inspires you to work hard, go for it. >> right. over the past several weeks, democrats have been freaking out. you know, i -- -- i'll just say, in 2016, people freaked out when we said donald trump could win. in 2020, i've even dared to say how likely i think it is that -- or in 2024, how likely i think it is that joe biden will win. i know everybody will freak out and say i have my head in the sand. you look at the numbers. you look at what biden is sitting at right now. you look at the fact he's had a low water mark. you look at the fact that the two areas that he should be having the most problem with, white voters and men, older men, he's actually -- older americans, he is actually doing very well. my feeling has always been the same as what nate cohn said, he's already done the hard part, right? he's already done the hard part. i always say, in politics, conversion is the hardest thing to do. what joe biden has to do now, as cohn says in the article, is he needs to bring his base home. black voters, hispanic voters, young voters. much easier to say, come home. it's going to be okay. stay with me here. we're facing a real and imminent danger. much easier to say come home, than say, hey, go to that house over there you've never been in before. no, conversion is hard. politics, this is my creston coleman theory. if your family -- and i've told people this since i was 30. no, no, don't convert. if the family has been a crest family their entire life, they're not switching to colgate. 1990s toothpaste wars. it's marketing, biden has to bring them home. he states they're very close, very tight, and i always talk about blocking and tackling. they're light yeas ahead right now, the biden team, of organizing on the ground. is this a pep rally for joe biden? no, it's not. i'm just -- just like it wasn't a pep rally for trump in '16 when everybody said, no, he can't win. yeah, he can. he can get 270. we were mocked and ridiculed and abused because we predicted the hurricane was coming in september and october. i'm here to tell you, the freaking out, the democratic freaking out is just so tiring. i think the thing that bothers me the most is they're freaking out about things in a national campaign, right? they're freaking out, whether it's about this obsession with the national race and the national polling, whether it's truth social tweets, whether it's all the crazy things and confused things donald trump says at rallies. that's fine. but this race is not going to be won in the courthouse in manhattan. regardless of the outcome of the case, it's going to be won by knocking on doors in kenosha, by planting yard signs in the suburbs of detroit. by making sure you've got the philly suburbs locked down, and you get the margin you get by making phone calls. i'm sorry to go so far into this but, again, the stupidity i've been listening to over the past several months, about how this race is over and, you know, democrats are freaking out and trumpers are so overconfident. john heilemann, it's just absolutely insane. it reminds me when i ran the first time. i would drive past state fairs, and i would see all my opponents. they'd be waving to people at state fairs. i'd drive by laughing. then i would go to a neighborhood where i knew there were -- what i called super voters who voted every two years. while they were waving at tens of thousands of people, i was knocking on doors, shaking hands, planting yard signs. it's how i won. i didn't have money. nobody knew who i was. it was targeted. this political race this year is targeted. it's basically about 7, 8, 9 congressional campaigns. in wisconsin, in michigan, in pennsylvania. i thought the nate cohn article explained this better than any i've ever seen. explained why biden, man, biden has as good a chance as he had in 2020. right now. >> well, good morning, joe. i will say, the last time we were talking about "the new york times" on the air, you and i were having a healthy, spirited exchange. you know, you were pretty angry, annoyed, irritated at the -- at that last wave of siena battleground state polling. i guess someone at "the new york times" may have been listening. this seems like a useful corrective on that front, this piece by nate cohn. the paper acknowledging, without getting into any debate over the methodology of those swing state polls, noting the evident truth, which is, you know, it's a narrow path. i mean, i don't think there are very many democrats who would not like to -- who would rather win this race with more than exactly 270 electoral votes, and, yet, to your point, you know, this has always been the challenge for biden. those three states, the blue wall, if the blue wall stays in tact, and to your point, another way of thinking about that, of coming home, is if joe biden can do in 2024 exactly what he did in 2020, he'll win those three states. he'll get 270 electoral votes, and he'll be re-elected. as i said, i think, you know, a lot of democrats would like to have some margin to play with. i continue to say that even in the other states, nevada, arizona, georgia, north carolina, it's still a margin of error race in those states. i'm going to keep saying that until it is not a margin of error race. to your point, about 800,000 voters across those three states, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, 800,000 voters out of 350 million people in america, those 800,000 voters, unlike joe scarborough, the biden campaign does have money. the biden campaign doesn't have to bring those people home on the basis of just joe biden's charm. they have more money than the trump campaign. they have more resources on the ground in those three states. they have more experience, having done it before, four years ago, about how to get those people to come out, and they have other things like this trial, which, you know, on the margin, what do they need to do to get the people to come home? remind those people of what it was like when donald trump was president four years ago, and remind those people of who donald trump is. i think the trial, especially if there is a conviction, helps in that effort. they have a lot of clubs in their bag here, and, again, the path -- 270 is not a comfortable path to walk. that's a tight rope to walk. >> right. >> it's a rope that they have walked before. >> well, and i'm with you, i'm not saying he can't win the sun belt states. >> i know. >> people like you, people are suggesting the sun belt states are gone. obviously haven't followed presidential elections in nevada the past half century and haven't been seeing what's happening in arizona over the past four to six years. so, you know, those races are still in play. in i were to criticize robert de niro front, i think i would say, willie, again, just explaining what type of race this is, i wouldn't send him down to the courthouse in southern manhattan. i would send him to kenosha. i'd say, go into a living room of a union worker. just sit down and talk to him. have the kid film it. put it up on tiktok. put it up on youtube. get in people's homes in kenosha. get in people's homes in bucks county, pennsylvania. get in people's homes where this race is going to be won or lost, and let people see, you were fighting hard for every one of their votes. that's how the next president will be elected. >> and there are plans to do just that. speaking of one of those battlegrounds, in pennsylvania yesterday, president biden was there with vice president kamala harris, rallying in philadelphia. the event was the launch of the campaign's planned outreach. a big, enthusiastic event, speaking to black voters. >> because black americans voted, kamala andry president and vice president of the united states because of you. that's not hyperbole. because you voted, donald trump is a defeated, former president. with your vote, with your vote in 2024, we're going to make donald trump a loser again. maya angelou said, when someone shows you who they are -- believe them the first time. you got it, kid. you got it. i'm showing you who i am. trump has shown you who he is. today, donald trump is pandering and peddling lies and stereotypes for your vote so he can win, for himself, not for you. donald trump, i have a message for you, not in our house, and not on our watch! folks, the threat to trump poses is greater in his second term than his first. it's clear when he lost in 2020, something literally snapped in this guy. i'm serious. that's why january 6th happened. he unleashed an insurrection. now, he's running again, and he is clearly unhinged. he calls insurrectionists who stormed the capitol patriots. patriots. if re-elected, he wants to pardon, quote, every one of them. [ crowd booing ] let me ask you, what do you think he would have done on january 6th if black americans had stormed it? think about this. what do you think would have happened if black americans had stormed the capitol? i don't think he'd be talking about pardons. >> if he wins a second term, i promise you, he's going to go even further. so all of this is to say, who sits in the white house matters. [ applause ] it matters. it matters for the people of america and for people around the world. >> rev, this was really, of a concerted effort by the biden/harris campaign to reach out to black voters. this was at a school that's predominantly black. talking in faith centers, churches, kind of places you spend a lot of your time. what do they need to do to do what joe is talking about, which is to bring the democratic base back home and convince them that they deserve another term? >> they need to keep doing what they're doing now and more so. they've done our conferences. president biden spoke at our national action network conference virally and engaged all of us. they've gone to some churches. so has the vice president. i also think they need to show the contrast. when you have on one side president joe biden standing there as he did yesterday at gerard, with the u.s. president who was a u.s. senator and the attorney general of the state of california, contrast that with donald trump, who went to the bronx for a black and brown vote ers, who wrappers under indictment. which black america do you want to project, they ought to say to voters. we stood and did the george floyd policing executive order when we couldn't get republicans to make it law. he stood and supported, saying we don't want to have the police have any kind of reform in any way, donald trump did. donald trump was for qualified immunity, which was in the george floyd bill. so when you contrast what each stands for, then when you have a man saying that i've been the best president for black americans since abe lincoln, it is to call us stupid. i mean, he is really insulting our intelligence. you've been better for blacks than fdr, for john kennedy, than lincoln johnson and the great society, than barack obama? i mean, you can argue what you want to argue about what you think you did, but to say you were better than them means you think we're moronic. i think if they keep contrasting who they are and who trump is, and showing what they have done -- they have a record. unemployment among blacks is lower than it's been in two generations. we've seen them deliver in terms of the infrastructure. we've seen them in terms of inflation reduction, how it has disproportionately helped blacks. they have a record to run. hbcu money. show your record. show your contrast. show who you're running against. i agree with joe, show that this is home. donald trump has never been home for us. he's not even been in the neighborhood, less knowing the house. >> it is patronizing. he said, black voters like me because i have a mugshot now. can you imagine? he thinks it'll resonate with black voters. >> some black voters, he remember the mugshots he wanted all of us to have when he wanted the death penalty for the central park five. he should never bring up mugshots and blacks in the same sentence. >> joe, reaching out the black voters, the event was a large crowd, and they were genuinely enth enthusiastic. when we talk about the contrast, supporters paint joe biden a certain way, as being old or whatever it is, put up the split screen of two events. put up that event yesterday, the president of the united states, with that crowd, and then just watch the hour or 90 minutes or however long the ramblings go on in a donald trump event, and tell me who is losing when you watch those. >> the crazy thing is -- >> rage posting. >> -- just yesterday, willie, i had somebody i know very well call me up and tell me that, oh -- and i get this call every three months -- oh, such and such has known joe biden for 50 years. went into the white house, and they were shocked. they were just appalled. he's completely lost it. he's staring off into space. he's lost control of blah, blah, blah. i kept hearing this before i went in and actually had lunch with him and sat and talked to him about foreign policy for close to three hours. i thought, gee, this guy actually -- you can tell he's been doing this for 50 years because he is smarter than any politician i've talked to. we talk to people every day, and we know who can follow us and who can't follow us. i don't think i could get 15 minutes of foreign policy from donald trump. but i heard that yesterday, and then i saw this speech last night. i'm like, you know, republicans just -- okay, my wife is telling me to stop saying people are acting stupid. >> you need to be more validating. >> i'll be more validating. republicans are blinded by their hatred of joe biden, and they don't understand that they're actually hurting themselves. they always do this. they set expectations so low. will he drool during the state of the union? will he be able to complete sentences? then he knocks it out of the park. >> mm-hmm. >> they always set expectations low and lie about him. their running thing is that he's lost his mind, he's not cogent. it's not true. when he shows up, he wins. the expectations game is all politics is. that's part one of it. part two, sam, i did need to get back to this because my better half does say i need to validate people. >> it's a scary time. >> who may be panicking over donald trump winning. the stakes are so high. i've said the stakes are so high. i wasn't really talking that much about democrats, other than those that are sitting in cocktail parties all the time talking about how joe biden is going to lose. maybe you'd want to pick up the telephone and ask how i don't can help instead of whining all the time. but it is a frightening time. the stakes are higher than they've ever been. obviously, i do understand why people are panicking. i guess i would just ask them to actually focus on the reality that's in front of them instead of all the things that frighten them. >> yeah. i think one of the issues here is that people don't -- not everyone recog