preparing for this bout like rocky balboa getting ready for clubber lang and trump is hard at work trying to go with the scented aquanet or unscented. biden is gathering with aides this week at camp david where his debate prep will likely be fueled by his favorite drink, orange gatorade which explains this new ad. ♪♪ >> is it in you? >> yes. >> good, good. i'm glad. yeah. got to stay hydrated. got to stay hydrated. i like orange gatorade, too. lemon lime probably my favorite favor. >> oh, no. i'm a blue one for me. every time. >> in wilmington, delaware there's a store near where his transition headquarters was so i spent a lot of time there in the fall and winter of 2020, and there was a store that sold souvenir scented candles, joe biden-themed scented candles. the scent, orange gatorade. his love for gatorade is well known and as you heard from the late-night comics, both campaigns are in debate prep mode with less than a week to go before their showdown in atlanta. we'll go through the strategies for both president biden and his challenger donald trump. and speaking of the former president, there's new reporting on alarming comments he made about the use of nuclear weapons, and could today be the day we finally get a ruling on trump's immunity claim? the supreme court is expected to release more decisions later this morning. hrm we've had legal experts on the show yerkd the delay in many ways is the decision. we might hear from them tailed on the immunity case. it might spill into next week, but because it's taken them so long there's little to no chance that the january 6th federal trial can even happen before the election so many feel, many democrats feel for sure democrats have put their thump on the scale. >> we're entering into the no chance realm and it's not because chief justice roberts is going to go to members of the supreme court on the bench and say, look, can you hurry this up? that's not the way that i'm told the supreme court works, so if there are justices who want this to be delayed, then they can slow walk this one, so let's see if we get it today. everybody is waiting. for the first time in months, however, president joe biden has overtaken donald trump in national polling averages. according to the poll aggregate site 538, biden .a .1% lead in the race yesterday. that is the first time that biden has led since at least march which is as far back as the website's tracker goes. the change comes after a series of recent polls show biden narrowly ahead of trump, though all those results were within the margin of error. trump has continued to lead in a number of swing state polls, most also within the margin of error. meanwhile, president biden traveled to camp david last night. he will spend the next few days there with a team of advisers preparing for the upcoming presidential did bait. the plan is for biden to remain at camp david until at least monday, but he may stay longer as he needs to as june the 27th debate draws closer. campaign officials say the president is gearing up to hold donald trump responsible for his extreme record and the dangerous things he's saying on the trail, ripping awe reright, undering my political violence and doing the bidding of his billionaire donors to give tax breaks to the wealth and corporations. we know joe biden is likely to have a conventional debate prep and from the trump campaign i'm sure you're hearing the same thing. that's not the case with donald trump. >> the words conventional and trump end up in the same sentence. certainly on the biden side we saw an image of him boarding marine one, the presidential helicopter, in response to a question about how the debate prep was going. that's haul he had to say and there was a hand gesture and they are being very tight lipped and ron klain who is a veteran of presidential debate prep. bob bauer, his lawyer and the man who played donald trump in the 2020 debate prep will be there as well and they will go through and prepare the president for what will be deeply personal attacks from donald trump, including against about hunter biden. they encourage him, of course, to retain the presidential field, but flashing a little temper, not a bad thing. it's going to be humanizing that will connect with a lot of voters. particularly voters whose only families have struggles with addiction and while donald trump and his team have long downplayed he does any formal debate prep at all. trump is not exactly winging it. he's been holding informal policy sessions where he'll discuss top thanks will likely come up. issues the trump campaign has maintained are notable weaknesses for president biden. we're told here at nbc that he discussed the economy and inflation with senator j.d. vance, immigration with former white house aide stephen miller and former acting i.c.e. head tom holman and held a session with rick genell on national security. trump has also spent time meeting with marco rubio and eric schmitt. next week trump is planning a debate watch party in atlanta set to be attended by several allies and vice presidential hopefuls. what's clear that debate next thursday a huge early moment in this race. and to talk about it we're lucky to have former aide to the george w. bush white house and statehouse elise jordan, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "washington post" and pool analyst eugene robinson and deputy editing manager at "politico" some sustain. you saw him host "way too early" depthly, i might add. that's the only compliment he'll get from me today. eugene, let's talk about this debate. both debates have been pretty tight-lipped. you don't want to tip your hand to the other side but before we get into the nitty-gritty let's frame the stakes. why next week matters so much. >> look, this race is balanced on a knife's edge. went through the polling biden having inched ahead in polls that have been within the margin. error. the state polls showing trump with a lead. this is such a close race that anything, know moment when the two are together and you can compare them side by side potentially has a huge impact on which way this thing is going to go because it's going to go, you know, obviously one way or the other. so it's a really, really big moment. i think the biden camp really sees it as an opportunity to -- to -- for the first time to really get the american people to focus on this stark choice, and i think the trump team, you know, feels he can kind of pour it on in the way that he tries to pour it on. it's going to be fascinating, and it's also a weird format, right, because there's no audience, won't be any cheering. the mics will be muted so what i'm looking for is whether any sort of back and forth between the two of them is allowed, and we'll see. >> yeah. certainly, there's a sense that -- because the biden team really pushed for it, no crowd because trump plays off the crowd so well. he'll be deprived of that. there was a coin flip and he picked which podium rather than going last so trump will close it next week. the biden camp, we can tell how important they think this moment is for when they want to have it, june, the earliest we've had a debate in decades. this is a choice. we need to remind americans that, hey, this is who donald trump is and who he'll be again. >> well, the biden campaign needs to set the narrative early that biden is competent and capable to lead going forward, and he absolutely cannot have a senior moment at this debate. that's what i heard -- i was in michigan and wisconsin two weeks ago for a lot of focus groups and i heard democrats who support biden is that they are going to be watching and they want to make sure that he's up to the task. they might still be planning to vote for him, but if -- but still they are uncomfortable about the age and it really is an albatross that is hanging around this candidate and campaign. >> as joan was saying off the coin flip, we now know who will have the last word in the debate, and according to cnn biden's campaign won that flip. they opted for the right podium, right-hand podium on stage which means that he'll be on the right side of your screen as you're looking at it next week. the podium positions will be identical to the candidates' placements during both 2020 debates. trump's team chose to get the last work in marking the first of their debate matchups in which trump will deliver the final statement. he did interrupt biden's closing remarks back in september 2020 debates. you may remember that. sam >> yes. >> this as you know is jujitsu around debates. i don't know i it matter where where or who has the campaign. the trump campaign says he needs to watch his facial expresses. we'll still see donald trump's reaction toss to what joe biden is saying. i don't know how weird that's going to be for the audience if donald trump or joe biden is trying to interrupt and it's on mute. >> right. >> but i guess that the person on the stage will be able to hear. is there a chance that even though he's muted donald trump's either facial expressions or interruptions the will still be heard. >> yeah. >> will he be picked up on joe biden's mic, probably, right. >> or at least presumably joe biden will hear him. >> if past is prologue i assume that trump will be unable to stop himself on interrupt, right, so it could create this weird image or moment where you can hear him sort of in the background and you're wondering what he's saying and joe biden, is you know, distracted by it. i think ultimately your first point is the valid moment. this is a visual experience for people as much as it is an audible experience for people, and by that i mean with biden everyone knows will he come out of this night looking spritish, looking like someone who can handle another four years in office, dispelling the concerns around his strength and stamina, and with trump it's somewhat related but not the same. will he come off looking more grounded and sane, or will he be this rabid caricature of an ex-president that we've become accustomed to for that reason this debate matters. it's been a visual experience. go back to kennedy/nixon. it was looking at these two men. who was young and who was up and coming and had that 5:00 shadow. >> nixon won on radio but kennedy on television. to your point that it is a visual debate. >> john, what are you watching for? >> there are a number of things. there have been other tests of joe biden's ability and ability to do the office, state of the union most notably and he passed that with flying color and put that to rest for a time. democrats have said privately if biden has a very bad night there will be real worries about whether he can continue for this campaign, but his team feels confident. they think he will do well. usually in these debates the incumbent president is at a disadvantage. that incumbent president not usually challenged from the oval offers. did not go through the primary process so, therefore, didn't have to debate opponents in his own party. that's true. biden hasn't done a debate in lang time and neither has trump because he sat out all the republican debates this time around. there's a chance he'll be equally as rusty and the biden team is rusty what they will be reminded of the chaos of his four years and argue that he's even gotten worse. we continue to learn more about his time in office. the former governor of puerto rico said trump talked to him about preparing for nuclear war while he was president. according to "the hill" which has obtained an excerpt from the former president, the conversation happened when trump visited puerto rico after the hurricane in 2016. trump allegedly told the ex-governor, quote, nature has a way of coming back. well, it does until it doesn't. who knows what nuclear warfare what will happen. trump added but i will tell you what. if nuclear war happens we won't be second in the line press the button. in a statement to "the hill" a trump campaign spokesperson said trump did not deny the remarks but had horrors of this type of war. it seems that trump brought this up out of nowhere. there's been other reporting that he has a real preoccupation with these weapons. this seems like another moment to remind americans to just, you know, what those four years were like. >> what the four years were like, that reminded americans that comes with the job, right, that comes president presidency. you have the nuclear suitcase trailing you around, and you can push the button, and i think -- so when we talk about this, i think people need to realize, that you know, you're entrusting this vast power to one of these two men, and now you could argue that, well, both have successfully managed not to get us into nuclear wars during their presidential terms. nonetheless, it does focus you on the stability and frankly the sanity of the two candidates and, you know, while there are crises going on, but there can be a real crisis. you look at russia and north korea, this closer relationship, what russia potentially is going to do to help hit any u.s. city potentially which they can't do. what does a u.s. president do then? and that's like a very real possibility, so what do you want, you know, at the he will snm. >> this is a continuation of trump's fascination with nuclear power. he's long fancied himself to be some nuclear specialist because he had an uncle who was some kind of scientist at m.i.t., and he's talked about it since the '80s and he bragged -- he's scared countless journalist in the run up to the election and my uncle says nuclear is really, really bad. >> the worst trump impersonation. >> i'm not very good so he seems to have a little bit of understanding that it causes widespread decimation and destruction, but he still just really doesn't grasp, that and it shows his fundamental instability and that he is crazy which is what voters judge him on versus biden and his age and not being -- not judging his mental acute and trump's is a mental acute of the other side of the coin that he's never possessed. >> right. >> so anything that the biden campaign can do to draw that out and to draw out the existential stakes of trump having the button, that's a good thing for the biden campaign. >> i was part of the presidential pool at bedminster back in 2017 when trump threat endoto fire in furry at kim jong-un so this is a threat that's growing. >> watch that situation. that could get really, really bad really quick. >> we'll have more on that later in the show. next up leer on "morning joe," two federal judges in florida have reportedly suggested that judge aileen cannon should recuse herself from the trump classified documents case. we'll dig into the brand new concerning about the concerns raised by her more experienced colleagues. plus, a group be minimized oren. (♪♪) when medicine gets better, all of us can get better. look at that beautiful shot of the white house. it's 20 past 6:00 and already day light. a nice sunny day here in washington. we aring going to ignore the fact that it will get up to 100 degrees. just enjoy that shot. not mentioning there. there is now audio of donald trump admitting that he lost the 2020 election and then quickly reverting back to the original lie. it comes from research for the new book "apprentice in wonderland"ry ramin statuda. he spoke to the former president six times and recorded the conversation. trump's admission that he lost came during a conversation with his relationship with geraldo rivera. >> what was geraldo like? >> he did a good job. he was smart, cunning, did a good job. >> are you guys still close? >> no, i don't think so. he is -- after i lost the election, i won the election but when they said we lost, he called me up three or four times. >> after i lost the election -- i won the election. in another conversation between trump the former president claimed joan rivers voted for him in 2016. >> joan said she was a republican. did you know that? >> i thought she might have been a republican. i know one thing. she voted for me according to what she said. >> one small hitch with all of this. joan rivers actually died two years before that election. sam. we heard the president say in his own words, the joan rivers stuff aside. i lost the election and then he very quickly gets back on message. >> pavlovian. >> i don't reach too much into it. >> me either. >> i think he knows he lost the election probably and he's convinced otherwise. >> he's never going to say it. >> might be a slipup here or there and the fact that he ever admitted seems impossible because it's so core to his political appeal, this idea that something was taken from him and relatedly from his supporters. i mean, that is essentially why the basis of the campaign. he talks about it all the time. it's retribution, right, and what are you having retribution for, for this grave unjustice done for you which was the election being done? everyone knows it's been a live. countless lawsuits to litigate this. no extensive corruption overturned and that's the world he lives in and we're forced to live in. >> and lots of people that testified before the january 6 committee hearings that said he knew it was a lie. i agree with sam. i don't think this will have a huge impact. a slip of the tongue that he very quickly wanted to put right in his own mind. in his own mind. >> the big question is who is joan rivers going to cast her ballot for this time around. >> i think that's definitely a concern. we know dead people vote. >> we hear that. >> no doubt about it. moving to the president day during a radio interview yesterday with a milwaukee-based station, vice president kamala harris suggests donald trump's comment about milwaukee being horrible in a meeting he held with house republicans last week represents a larger pattern of the former president attacking predominantly black cities. >> your opponent thinks milwaukee is less than wonderful. in fact, he called it horrible. i know you've been here many times. madam vice president, have your experiences in milwaukee led you to believe that this is a horrible city? >> let me tell you. i love milwaukee, and i keep coming back to milwaukee. look at what donald trump did to apparently criticizing milwaukee. you know, he did that with my home city of oakland. he did that as it relates to baltimore, as it relates to atlanta and philadelphia, and i'll let your listeners connect the dots in terms what have all those cities have in common but there seems to be a pattern at play. >> trump later denied that he called milwaukee horrible claiming he was referring to the city's crime rate and what he claims are voting issues. gene, there's also reporting that he planned to stay in chicago during the republican national convention. >> no doubt at the trump hoe they will. >> which would allow him to bill secret service staying with him? >> funny thing. >> so he could make some money off of it while he was there, but there's no doubt that -- that the cities he criticizes many times have black mayors, certainly have large black populations, and he uses them to create this image of chaos and fear and crime. >> yeah. >> usually not backed up by the numbers, but it's part of his pitch. >> it's part of his pitch. this is not new, you know. you go all the way back to the central park five and just draw the line right to the president day, and, look, let's be honest. that is part of his -- his appeal to his base. not, you know, explicitly we hate black cities, but atmospherically and tribally he makes that pitch, and it's -- you know, it's not quoted language -- coded language anymore, it's just kind of bullhorn. >> was it's just a joke that trump is going to woo black voters from biden in significant numbers enough to change the narrative. basically, what he's doing is trying to make white voters think that