Something really unusual, and im going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trumps rallies. Theres no need to feel down i said, young man really interesting thing to watch. Women, i wont be following you around to the hospitals, monitoring. What you will also notice is people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. By the way, her crowds are zero. Her crowds, she has no crowds. Ill tell you, The One thing you will not hear him talk about is you. Theyre taking the geese. You know where they are, The Park and the lake, even walking off with their pets. My dog has been taken. You will not hear him talk about your needs, dreams, and your desires. I always liked him. Im not going to watch him anymore. Im not going to watch him because hes not legit. What he did, im not going to watch him. [ applause ] and his hair is not as good as it used to be, you know . Ill tell you, i believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first. Mom is so proud. Come on, baby, you can do it. You saw it. Uh, cant do it. She couldnt get it up. I pledge to you that i will. My wife hates when i do this. She says it is so unpresident ial. Yeah. Good morning. Welcome to Morning Joe. It is friday, september 13th. Willie, you ready for The Weekend . I am. I love his obsession with David Muirs hair. Hes disappointed the hair has gotten worse, implying he thinks he has great hair. Went on about that. Fascinating. Does he really want to be talking about hair . I dont know. Then the weave, i dont know. It seems to me that, right now, The Big Story is the fact that he doesnt want to debate again. Id love to get your thoughts on this. Yeah. Seems to me they could have waited a week or two, but he must have been so traumatized by being so badly beaten that he just wanted to get it out of his mind, that hed ever have to be on stage again with Kamala Harris. Yeah, i mean, he objectively got blown out of the room at that debate three nights ago. He knows that. His advisors know that. Republicans who support him generally have said that on television. Fox news hosts are saying that. He knows he got creamed. Now, hes Framing It as the debate was unfair to me. The moderators were mean. Im not going to do that again. He doesnt want to get back in The Ring with Vice President Kamala Harris. Thats the truth. As you said, Donald Trump officially now is backing out of a second debate with the Vice President. Despite previously claiming he would participate in one more debate with harris, the former president said yesterday during the rally in arizona that because he, quote, won on Tuesday Night, he doesnt need another one. But when a Prize Fighter loses a fight, youve seen a lot of fights, right . The first words out of that Fighters Mouth is, i wanna rematch. I want a rematch. Thats what she said, i want a rematch. Polls clearly show i won against comrade, Kamala Harris. She went to abc, which in my opinion has taken a big heat. These people were bad news. They kept screaming at me. I said, why are you screaming . Im saying to myself, i always liked him. Im not going to watch him anymore. Im not going to watch him because hes not legit. What he did, im not going to watch him. [ applause ] and his hair is not as good as it used to be, you know . So because weve done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate. [ applause ] its too late anyway. The voting has already begun. You have to go out and vote. We have to vote. North carolina, two nights ago, Donald Trump and i had our debate. [ applause ] did you watch it . Did you watch it . Look, i believe we owe it to have another debate, right . We owe it to the voters. Because heres the thing, in this election, whats at stake could not be more important. Thats Kamala Harris, willie, On The Road in front of yet another massive crowd, despite what Donald Trump says. Heres the problem with everything Donald Trump said in those sound bites, how many people watched the debate . I think it was a pretty big number, like 70 Million or something. Yeah. Across multiple networks. So we dont have to actually say, oh, hes lying. Lets factcheck that. Everyone saw it. Everyone saw it. Everyone knows that hes lying. Yeah, and he likes that Boxing Metaphor about a rematch, somehow framing that as how he won. Doesnt need another one. I think the more apt Boxing Metaphor is he just got his butt kicked in the third or fourth round, and hes deciding not to come back out for the next round, where Kamala Harris is handing in the middle of The Ring saying, lets do it again. He wants none of it. Lets continue the conversation with cohost of msnbcs The Weekend, Michael Steele. Associate editor of the washington post, eugene robinson. And managing editor of The Bulwark, sam stein. What does it mean when someone declares they dont want another debate . Yeah, yeah. When you come out and try to frame this the way Donald Trump is Framing It, after We Saw what We Saw, right . Its not like this was one of those things that you only heard on radio or you just didnt tune in and missed it. No, a lot of people saw this. We know hes lying. We know he got not just got stung, but he got knocked down. He got knocked down in such a way that he could not get up. Basically, what you have is the to keep the Boxing Metaphor going, the guy on the Mat Looking Up, one hand in the air, trying to get up off the floor, saying, i dont want anymore. No mas. Its very clear why. Because he recognized from the very beginning of that debate, and, for me, willie, it was the Moment Heshe walked over and shk his hand. He had no intentions of shaking her hand. He was not going to be the gentleman to go to the center of The Ring, if you will, and shake your opponents hand, and to begin the conversation. But she did him one better. Went over to him and introduced herself, Kamala Harris. From that moment, he was not the same. She started off a little rocky, but she found her footing very quickly on issue after issue. And the only thing he was reduced to was talking about ducks and cats and whining about the fact that, you know, she was lying about his Crowd Size. If thats the that is basically the essence of that debate for Donald Trump. Yeah, hes on the Mat Looking Up from the floor, saying, i dont want no more. God bless you, donald, because when you get up, shes going to hit you again. And shes ready. I think the country is ready for her to continue to do that because i think i heard mika say at some point earlier this week, were just exhausted. And i think were done with all of this. And she has become as Donald Trump was the avatar for Grievance And Regression and looking backwards, shes now the avatar for looking forward and hope. People see that there is something ahead that they can move towards as opposed to staying stuck where we are. Kudos to you, Michael Steele, for taking our extended Boxing Metaphor to the Doran And Sugar Ray Leonard Fight with No Mas in 1980. Nicely done there. We saw the stark contrast. We saw Donald Trump in his rally in arizona talking about dogs and cats and geese and David Muirs hair. Yeah. Cut to two ruckus, crowded events, contrary to what Donald Trump keeps saying, for Donald Trump in the state of North Carolina. Whoa, look at that. Just trust your eyes. Is there a big crowd there . Are they enthusiastic . Are they excited . Yes, the answer is. And how gleeful the Vice President was when talking about the debate. The smile on her face. She, too, knows how it went in the floor in philadelphia Tuesday Night. Yeah. She had two rallies in North Carolina yesterday. One was, like, 7,500 people. The other was 17,500 people, something like that. They were huge. And they were ruckus. They were enthusiastic. They were full of joy. They were exactly what trump and his camp most fear. Look, this debate was well see if it was a real Turning Point in this election, but it was certainly a moment. A moment that can only be good for Kamala Harris and a moment that come be bad for Donald Trump. And i imagine that his staff, when he said, okay, maybe we dont do another debate, i imagine they encouraged him, okay, okay, send that out. Say that today. Lets eliminate the possibility of another debate. How could they stand one of those . Another beatdown like that . I just dont see it. Right. You know, not overtly trying to be mocking, because these are really serious times. Nobody made that more clear than Kamala Harris did on the Debate Stage. But one final note about the debate. I mean, it really was, no joke here, it was a Wizard Of Oz finally at The End. When the curtain is pulled back. His act was dismantled by her face alone, and also everything that she said in front of so many people. Its going to be very hard for the former president to convince anybody, except for diehard maga who dont the types of people who will follow him to anywhere, its going to be very hard for him to convince most americans that he had any hits during that debate. He was the loser. And for the first time, everyone, everyone at the same time saw it. The Wizard Of Oz. Lets talk more about the Vice President s rallies in North Carolina. She received a Ruckus Reception. Huge crowd Last Night inside the Greensboro Coliseum complex. [ applause ] that was the roar from 17,000 people when she took the stage. The Vice President recapped the debate and pushed one of her core messages of her campaign. On Tuesday Night, i talked about issues that i know matter to the families across america, like bringing down the cost of living, investing in americas small businesses, protecting reproductive freedoms. [ applause ] and keeping our nation safe and secure but thats not what we heard from Donald Trump. Instead, you know, and i called it at the beginning of the debate, it was the same old show. Same old tired Playbook Weve heard for years. No plans for how he would address the needs of the american people. Well, folks, look, its time to turn the page. Turn the page. [ applause ] prior to greensboro, the Vice President spoke to people in charlotte, where people gathered in line several hours before the start time. Once the rally kicked off, harris highlighted the flood of republican endorsements shes recently received. Over 200 people who worked for president george h. W. Bush, President George W. Bush, john mccain, and Mitt Romney, endorsed me for president. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Congresswoman Liz Cheney are supporting me, as well. [ applause ] because, as they said, we have a duty as citizens to put country above partisanship and defend our constitution. On that point, i mean, its overwhelming, sam stein, her crowds, which is Something Trump talked about. He got so i mean, he fell for it, and it was painful to watch, how quickly he fell for Kamala Harris kind of Making Fun of his rallies in a very real and realistic way. He talks about Hannibal Lecter, makes up crap, and just throws it out there and really speaks out nothing. Most importantly, does not talk you, the american people, and what he could do for the american people. But even more so, he was very rattled about Crowd Size, saying nobody comes to her rallies. Again, if anyone wants to check, i mean, there was 17,000 people at one rally alone yesterday, and they were going wild. Of the 200 republicans endorsing her, i do think there is a decision to be made by former President George W. Bush and others that are very highlevel republicans. If they truly believe that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, but if they also truly believe that there is a republican party to be saved, that there is a republican party to be rebuilt, that there is a republican party that should be part of the democracy we live in, isnt the only way to go at this point, to endorse Kamala Harris and let the republican party rebuild . I mean, very, very good questions. First on the rally size, you know, trump will probably respond by alleging that this is all a. I. Generated, right, and that this cant possibly be real. Secondarily, on the issue of republicans supporting harris, first, it was disorienting, i have to be honest, to see a massive stadium filled with democrats, cheering the mention of Dick Cheney. 20 years ago, that would have been unfathomable. But were in a very weird, disorienting time. Mika, i think you bring up the right question, which is, do certain republicans who we presume or know dont like Donald Trump, want him to fail, do they feel a moral obligation to not just say theyre not voting against trump but to make the affirmative case for voting for harris . To stand up, yeah. Dick and Liz Cheney have done that. Alberto Gonzales Yesterday did that. The question on the mind of People Like Us at The Bulwark is will people like george w. Bush, condoleezza rice, people we presume do not support Donald Trump, will they come out and say its good for both the republic and republican party to see Harris Win . Good for the republican party in that we need a saner version of the republican party, and the only way that can happen is if we prove that trumpism finally and fully is a loser . Yeah. I mean, by the way, Donald Trump is not a republican. Like, if everybody just really looked at the reality of Donald Trump, the person leading the republican party right now is anything but a republican and will throw away any issue if it doesnt serve him personally, even abortion. But hes already done so much damage on that that id like to point out, willie, one thing about what sam said about that crowd of democrats supporting kamala, clapping about Dick Cheney. I can tell you, i know personally, that there are some republicans in those crowds. Republican women especially are gathering together and going to Kamala Harris rallies. As her campaign and Kamala Harris will tell you, they are welcome to be there. Yeah. Republicans for harris is what the campaign calls it. Lets not forget that group of Nikki Haley voters that are potentially up for grabs, who say they cannot abide Donald Trump and they need to be convinced that Kamala Harris is the choice. I will say, sam and i are living in the same headspace. I watched that clip, and i thought, my god, go back to 2004. An arena full of democrats. Amazing. Cheering for Darth Vader himself, Dick Cheney. Yes. Who was the Arch Villain of American Politics. Extraordinary time for sure. During the Arizona Rally Yesterday, as we said, Donald Trump continued to push that baseless claim that migrants from haiti are eating pets in springfield, ohio. Theres a place called springfield, ohio, that youve been reading about. 20,000 illegal haitian immigrants have descended upon the town of 58,000 people. Destroying their entire way of life. This was a beautiful community, and now its horrible, whats happened. Enrollment in the States Medicaid and Food Assistance programs have soared. Motor vehicle accidents have skyrocketed. Recording of 911 calls even show residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the towns geese. Theyre taking the geese. You know where the geese are . In The Park and the like. Even walking off with their pets. My dog has been taken my dog has been stolen. This can only happen these people are the worst. As the people of arizona understand better than anyone else, under Kamala Harris, our country is under a thing called invasion. Did you ever hear the Word Invasion . Just like a military. Its like a Military Invasion. Were being conquered, and we are being occupied by a foreign element. Officials in springfield, ohio, and the republican governor of ohio, mike dewine, again say there is absolutely no evidence of haitian immigrants, not illegal immigrants, haitian immigrants abusing pets. Many of the migrants are, as i say, here legally under temporary protected status. Meanwhile, the mayor of springfield said the city received a Bomb Threat that used hateful language against the migrant and, specifically, the haitian community. Yesterdays Threat Led to the evacuation of city hall, two schools, and the local Motor Vehicle agency. Mayor Rob Hugh telling the washington post, its city needs help and not the hate being spread by some political leaders. It is easy to laugh, Michael Steele, at all of the Dog And Cat and geese eating thats coming out of the mouth of Donald Trump, all of the memes that hes posting. Hes actually leaning into this. He thinks hes got a winner here. Also, it has realworld implications for people in springfield, ohio, for haitian immigrants who are here legally, and for people of color across the country. It absolutely does. There are some real ramifications here that extend well beyond the jokes. And i think, you know, its time we hold Donald Trump responsible for this. He is he is being deliberate in what hes saying. Hes been told what the truth is. Not just by his campaign, but by officials of both the city and the state. That State Official happens to be a fellow republican. This is not some democrat trying to do politics on the subject. If someone is harmed or injured, and Bomb Threats are being called in, there are idiots who are following this man, who will take action because they believe Donald Trump. When you use terms like there is a Military Invasion by these individuals, by these others, you will have people who will respond to that. It rests on Donald Trumps lips and on his hands, what happens. We just Cant Sugar Coat this. Theres great memes and jokes for sure, but this very quickly turns the corner of becoming serious for the people who live in that community. And for haitians not just in that community but in other communities around the country. And, you know, we just it just i dont know. I get frustrated and, yet, at the same time, confused by how something like this takes off the way it does, and that people think so little of their fellow Human Beings, to believe in something as insidious and stupid, and stupid as this. Yeah. That could lead to someone being hurt. Yeah. I mean, look at january 6th. Look at this Bomb Threat. I mean, these are real events. Its not, oh, democrats just exaggerating, taking a word out of context and getting hysterical about it because he said this or said that. No, these thin