They have no Public Events on the calendar today. It is friday. We thank you so much for being with us. And enjoy that weekend. Im Frances Rivera alongside luis burgdorf. Morning joe starts right now. So no one should have any illusions about what is really going on here. The names may have changed. Racists now call themselves racialests. White supremacists now call themselves white nationanationa. Altright, and now trump is trying to rebrand himself, as well. Dont be fooled. Good morning. It is friday, august 26th. We have a big show in store for you this morning. Hillary clinton will be our guest this morning for an exclusive interview. Shes going to join us live at 8 30 eastern. Joe is actually off today, but he is going to join us on his day off for that big interview. Before that, tons of news to bring you. With you on set we have legendary columnist and msnbc contributor, Mike Barnicle. Former communication director for george w. Bush it stuck. Not old. Nicolle wallace. Were doing vinegar hill music theater. You and joe are doing. You are sold out with a waiting list, i hear. Breaking news from kennebunkp t kennebunkport. Meacham will be there, too. Well, meacham is going to be there, too. John meacham. Im so interested in it. Im so excited about it and i love music theater, by the way. Whatever we can do. The host of msnbc politics nation and president of the National Action network al reverend. Also with us and associate editor of Washington Post and
msnbc political analyst, Eugene Robinson. All right. Im going to use my nicolle card to come up to kennebunkport. You dont need it. Everyones welcome. There was a march on bush and now im coming to join. I would love it. Were all softening. As president bush once said, it is kinder and gentler all over the place. Exactly. We have never the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Mike, you just said it. We have never been here before. And i hope we dont return. Lets see where it goes to. Hillary clinton opened her speech in reno talking about jobs and small businesses, but she spent little time on the subject. Quickly shifting to donald trump. She called his message to the black community in recent days, insulting. And said he doesnt have the solutions to take on systemic racism. And she went much farther in her
explanation of how he has exploited the altright to fuel his campaign. From the start, donald trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia. He is taking hate groups main stream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party. Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes. And offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters. Its a disturbing preview of what kind of president hed be. Now, all of this adds up to something we have never seen before. Theres always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, but its never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it and giving it a National Mega phone until now. My friends, this is a moment of reckoning for every republican dismay. The party of lincoln has become the party of trump. 20 years ago when bob dole accepted the republican nomination, he pointed to the exits in the Convention Hall and told any racist in the party to get out. The week after 9 11, george w. Bush went to a mosque and declared for everyone to hear that muslims love america just as much as i do. In 2008, john mccain told his own supporters that they were wrong about the man he was trying to defeat. Senator mccain made sure that they knew barack obama, he said, is an american citizen and a decent person. We need that kind of leadership again. By the way, the ageism going on in senator mains race is
another big story were going to get to. Its unbelievable what his opponents said on msnbc yesterday. First, Eugene Robinson. A moment of reckoning. Do you agree . What do you think of Hillary Clintons speech . I thought it was a very powerful speech, actually. And it was, she read it more like an indictment. It was very level. Built on point and she essentially said this is something new. This is not, this is not the Republican Party you knew from even just a few years ago. This is Something Different and something dangerous. And, you know, i mean, you know my view of whats happened this year. I think, you know, not long ago i had a very friendly chummy conversation with george w. Bush whom i was somewhat critical when he was president. I saw that. Im a witness to that. Meacham was there. It was remarkable. The feeling was, were both in this together. Before her speech, the Clinton Campaign also put out a web video. Lets take a look at this. It talked about linking the Trump Campaign to White Supremacists. Take wbr id wbr3805 a look. The reason a lot of clan members like donald trump is because a lot of what he believes we believe in. Donald trump will be best for the job. For president. Yeah. Im farmer and white nationalist. Support donald trump. Sending out all the illegals and building a wall and a moratorium on immigration. Running against donald trump at this point is really treason to your heritage. Will you unequivocally condemn david duke . I dont know anything about White Supremacists. So i dont know. Tinges of racism at the very b
least, reverend al, throughout the Trump Campaign. Maybe even gaps into it. He now is calling Hillary Clinton a bigot. Take it from there. You know, i think that mrs. Clintons speech really hit it right on the head yesterday. Because i think what she raised is the fact that there are boundaries in politics. And that even if we disagree, you dont go beyond certain bounds. And he has no boundaries. Beyond the boundaries. Wbrid wbr4505 and he has consciously done that. When you compare mccain or bush, who i disagreed with, but there were boundaries. They said, no, were not allowing this. He has allowed it. He has played to it and he knows better. And the reason im saying he knows better is hes not conducted himself like that throughout his career. He has done that, hes played to an element that he knows. In 2003, i gave alex a photo. Donald trump came to my convention and National Action network with geraldine furnando and cut the ribbon. He wants to run the campaign that way. And chooses to lay with these kinds of people and this kind of element. I think its the most cynical and insulting play on the american public. To use his word, Mike Barnicle, sad, exclamation point, end caps. Yesterday as he tries to walk himself back towards some sort of the middle in his mind, both on immigration and on race, he had a meeting yesterday over at trump tower with several purported africanamerican leaders. Let me ask you in the past couple of weeks on at least two occasions, donald trump has stood before what appears to be the Admissions Committee of Augusta National golf club and
asked the question about africanamericans in this country. Vote for him. What do you have to lose . Thats what he asks. So im asking you. What would you have to lose . Youd have to lose an ongoing progression towards our fights around equality whether its in the economy, whether its in education, whether its in the criminal justice system. The real question that donald trump ought to be answering rather than asking is what is he proposing. Do we know what he is proposing to africanamericans . I hope some of the africanamerican Republican Leaders said, what is your plan . If you say youre new, what is your new plan . What are you going to do about the Economic Conditions . What are you going to do about criminal justice, education . You cant slogan your way into trying to get people to vote for you. My mother and father were republicans. They turned democrat because the Democratic Party supported the civil rights movement. We are not just stupid that we
just were going to do 90 democrats. We are as intelligent as any in america. We vote our interests. What is the interest youre giving us, mr. Trump . Youve been in business for 40 years. Show us the level of equality in your employment practices. Show us the contacts youve given blacks and latinos in terms of your building and your cuke casinos and all. Give us your record and tell us your plan. As mike mentioned, donald trump spent the morning meeting with millennial Republican Leaders in his new york offices and later he met Hillary Clintons speech head on before she delivered it. During a rally in New Hampshire he called her speech, one of the most brazen attempts at distraction in the history of politics. Its a movement, folks. Like theyve never seen before. And dont accuse decent americans who support this campaign, your campaign of being racists, which were not. Its the oldest play in the democratic playbook. When democratic policies fail, they are left with only this one tired argument. Youre racist. Youre racist. They keep saying it. Youre racist. They keep going back to the same well. But you know what, the people are becoming very smart. Theyve heard it it too many times before. The well is dry. The well is dry. Shes trying to turn this around on you now saying youre bringing a hate movement. Do you want white supremsts. Thwe want our country to be strong, again. You called her a bigot. She is bagt. You look at whats happening to inner cities and africanamericans and hispanics in this country. How is she a bigot . Bigot is having hatred towards a shes not doing anything for those communities. She talks a good game. Ia think she has hatred. Her policies are bigoted because she knows theyre not going to work. Personally bigoted. Of course she is. Theyre her policies. She comes out with the policies and others that believe like she does, also. Look at the poverty. Look at the rise in poverty. Look at the rise in violence. Hatred is at the core of that . Maybe shes lazy. I dont know what it is. Were just talking off set. I just have to say it. Donald trump, you have no idea
what your words mean. You have no idea. You have no idea what your words mean. And i cant pretend and sort of try and cover this fairly and put it in the veil of objecti objectivi objectivity. You have no idea what your words mean and what youre doing to this country. And to the Republican Party. I mean, where we started was Hillary Clintons speech last night. And i watched it, like you just said, objectively. And then when she invoked. I was with george bush the day he went to the mosque and i was ten feet away from john mccain when he when he did the right thing. Whether we agree with him or not, he is a human being who knows between right and wrong. I thought, he doesnt care what happens. Hes worried about the country. I worked for ken malmann when he ran the rnc and his biggest effort is to make the republican case to broader audiences. Its not just what hes dag. Its what hes done to the Republican Party. I think we should enter this black box phase where we crashed. This is our nominee. I think nicolles point is important. We need a debate in this country. We want the debate between the democrats and republicans that could appeal to africanamerican voters. We need women to have that debate. We dont need gene, jump in. Reverend al is absolutely right. It would be great if the Republican Party actively competed for africanamerican votes and for hispanic votes and presented policies that the community could look at and evaluate and say, maybe this is a good idea. Maybe this is a better idea. Whatever. So, i just long for that day. I just wanted to point out one thing just to put this whole trump thing in context. In her 20s, Hillary Clinton went to the south to fight School Segregation and in his 20s donald trump was being sued along with his father for refusing to rent apartments to africanamericans. There is a bit of a contrast there. Its a slight contest. But nothing is funny at this point any more. Go ahead, mike. Let me ask you, we sit here every day and we talk about trump versus clinton and its cable chatter. And politics. But across the great sweep of history, has there ever been a moment when a candidate of a Major Political party has opened the door to a donald trump seesp to have opened the door to. This is a matter of degree, probably not of kind. If you were making a democratic case, upper case, you can argue there were forces that were unleashed in 1964. When the nominee of the Republican Party opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Lets remember this. Of course, white democrats at the same time were filibustering that bill. This is an american dilemma. Not just a partisan dilemma. When president johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 he turned to an aide and said i just handed the south. Its been two. Even in the wreckage of this, trump is going to carry, i would imagine, the states that George Wallace carried in the hard core south where i come from. So, this is an ongoing conversation. Its an ongoing phenomenon. I think what is different is that in senator goldwaters case and president nixons case and president reagans case and
senator mccains case and governor romneys case and i think secretary clinton should have mentioned the last nominee of the Republican Party has attacked this republican nominee and did so early. All of those figures had a vision for the country beyond this ideology. Beyond this weird often racist force. Thats the difference. Trump is an empty vessel and this is whats filling it. So, as Hillary Clinton challenges donald trump to distance himself from extremists and violent rhetoric, the republican nominee his top veteran suggestion that Hillary Clinton should be over classified information on her email server. Are you kidding me . I mean, this actually happened. The adviser has refused to apologize for the statement. Even repeated it in recent days. And yesterday trump was asked about it. The state rep is here today. He said some controversial things over the last month or two about Hillary Clinton suggesting she should be put in front of a firing squad for treason. What do you think about his comments . I didnt know that. But i will tell you, he is a very fine person. He is a person that loves the military and he loves the veterans. So you dont condone any comments . Youd have to show me what he said. Trumps claim that he didnt know what he said comes despite the fact that the u. S. Secret service is conducting an investigation into the comments. And his Campaign Spokesperson tells wmur in july that trump does not agree with what was said and in an interview just last week, a massachusetts newspaper asked paul whether he had spoken to trump about his views while baldasaro said he
had. Either he is lying or this is the worst run president ial campaign in, i dont even want to say recent history. I think there is a base line here we should establish. Which is if you cant disavow a statement that talks about the shooting of your opponent, you should just get off the ballot. Get off. Res have and extend your comments off of my question. Yeah. This should be a winnable election. Tripped him up before. Paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, Republican Leaders. We dont want to win this way, democrats. Im a democrat. Not pleased about this. I really dont want to add any type of emotional or political fury into this. This is not the way we want to win. But Hillary Clinton needs to win this election because this is sick. And all of you need to come clean, get a spine, do whats right. Do whats right. Everything that just happened. How can you endorse this candidate . How can you look in the mirror or look at your constituents no matter what you have to pander to. How can you endorse this candidate . And i think to add to meacham if there is any way possible you can add to the historian mr. Meacham. All of this is done when you had such hope that america had moved forward because the only thing i would add to him is that the difference now is that we just had elected and reelected a black president. To come behind that. To come behind this monumental achievement of american history. Though, i dont believe were in a postracial generation, we did then. To answer that with the most racist kind of campaign is absolutely something. We for the first time could tell our children, you could become president. And this follows. Imagine what were doing to the future of the country, both
parties. How did he get besides the apprentice, what was his political baptism . It starts there and it may end there. He could have done so much with this. This is pretty depressing. This is so disappointing and so discouraging. He could have done so much good. Still ahead on morning joe a live exclusive interview with president ial candidate Hillary Clinton. Plus, Donald Trumps latest comments on immigration have some conservatives crying foul and others simply laughing. Well explain that. Also ahead you feel comfortable diagn e diagnosing him on air like this . Diagnosing him as an 80yearold man . Yes, i do. Age is just a number, unless its the Arizona Republican primary. That was unbelievable. That was unbelievable. We have much more i couldnt keep up with that man. S