Morning Joe: ‘The clock is ticking’: Senate Republicans rush to save budget bill after blow to Medicaid cuts

Summary

Morning Joe Podcast Summary Episode: “The clock is ticking”: Senate Republicans rush to save budget bill after blow to Medicaid cuts
Release Date: June 27, 2025

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1. Senate Republicans Face Setbacks on Budget Bill

The episode opens with a critical discussion on the recent hurdles faced by Senate Republicans in passing their expansive domestic policy bill. Nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough ruled against several key provisions, notably those aiming to cut federal funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for individuals with unverifiable immigration status. Additionally, changes proposed to how states can tax Medicaid providers were dismissed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune characterized the rejection as a “[03:36] speed bump,” expressing confidence in having alternative strategies to advance the bill. In contrast, Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama reacted vehemently, urging Thune to “[03:36] fire the parliamentarian asap,” highlighting the growing frustration within the GOP ranks.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri added to the tension by dismissing the notion of overruling McDonough, stating, “[03:36] I just can’t imagine that you’d get people to overrule her.”

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2. Internal Divisions Within the Republican Party

The hosts and guests delved into the implications of the parliamentarian’s decision, emphasizing the fractures it reveals within the Republican Party. Eugene Robinson noted, “[04:42] Democrats chances in the midterms are stronger, bigger and better if this bill passes as it is,” suggesting that the unpopularity of the bill could bolster Democratic prospects in upcoming elections.

Sam Stein echoed these concerns, mentioning, “[05:04] there's something in there to make a bill that big... Everything is in there. The entire legislative agenda of this Trump administration is in this one bill,” predicting significant challenges for Republicans as they approach the midterm elections.

Jonathan Allen criticized the expedited legislative process, remarking, “[05:30] It’s: total madness. We’ve never seen anything like this happen before,” highlighting the lack of thorough hearings and analyses before the bill’s swift advancement.

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3. President Trump’s Push for the Spending Bill

President Trump remains steadfast in his campaign to pass the "one big beautiful bill." During a White House event, he asserted, “[04:06] Make America great again... Our country is going to be stronger, bigger, better than ever before,” emphasizing job creation and economic growth through proposed tax cuts. However, his claims, such as the bill including “[04:06] no taxes on Social Security benefits,” have been criticized as misleading.

Sam Stein pointed out the disconnect between the administration’s messaging and public perception: “[10:00] The president wants it. July 4th is a week from today. So that seems the clock is indeed ticking.”

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4. Damage Assessment of Iran’s Nuclear Program

A significant portion of the discussion focused on the aftermath of America’s airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy provided a sobering analysis: “[09:27] It still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months,” challenging the President’s assertion that the program was “obliterated.”

Eugene Robinson added, “[15:38] I don’t think Donald Trump did himself very many favors by coming out straight away and saying it had been obliterated,” arguing that premature declarations undermine credibility.

The hosts also addressed concerns about the Trump administration’s approach to intelligence sharing post-strikes, highlighting moves to limit information dissemination with statements like, “[18:08] The administration plans to post less information... after an early assessment... was leaked.”

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5. Supreme Court's Decision on Birthright Citizenship

The episode covered the highly anticipated Supreme Court decision on President Trump’s attempt to revoke automatic birthright citizenship. Katty K. explained the case details, “[24:25] it focuses on whether federal judges have the power to block Trump's birthright citizenship proposal nationwide while litigation about the issue continues.”

Katty K. further elaborated on potential outcomes: “[33:45] There are a lot of directions that today can go,” indicating uncertainty over whether the Court would uphold the 14th Amendment’s clear language or allow for restrictive interpretations.

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6. Launch of the Lowering Costs Caucus

Adding a political dimension, Democratic Congresswoman Hillary Skolton and Congressman Derek Tran introduced the new Lowering Costs Caucus aimed at addressing affordability issues plaguing Americans. Skolton emphasized, “[36:35] We are in an affordability crisis... The cost of childcare, the cost of groceries is crippling American people,” positioning the caucus as a direct challenge to President Trump’s economic policies.

However, skeptics like Eugene Robinson questioned the caucus’s effectiveness, “[38:20] But, Congressman, you are out of power... what can you do about that?”

Skolton responded with a forward-looking strategy: “[42:28] We're going to start laying out policy by policy that really connects with the American people... We can tackle health care, we can tackle childhood, we can tackle housing through smart and workable policies.”

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7. Additional Headlines and Briefs

The episode concluded with a roundup of other significant news:

• Wildfires in Greece: A massive wildfire near Athens resulted in the destruction of at least 20 homes, exacerbated by extreme heat and strong winds.

• Private Jets and Emissions: A study revealed that private air travel generates significantly higher greenhouse emissions per passenger compared to commercial flights, with U.S. private jets accounting for over half of global private flight emissions.

• Cinema Industry’s Future: Polls indicate that movie theaters may have fewer than 20 years left as a viable business model, with film executives reporting unrecovered revenues post-COVID.

• Meteor Event in the Southeastern U.S.: A mysterious fireball traversed the skies from the Carolinas to Florida, causing disturbances and sparking investigations into its origins.

• Anna Wintour Steps Down: After 37 years as editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour is retiring from Vogue’s American edition, transitioning to a global editorial role within Conde Nast.

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Notable Quotes

• Senator Tommy Tuberville: “[03:36] We have to fire the parliamentarian asap.”

• Senator Josh Hawley: “[03:36] I just can’t imagine that you’d get people to overrule her.”

• Senator Chris Murphy: “[09:27] There is significant remaining capability.”

• Senator John Thune: “[03:36] It’s a speed bump.”

• Eugene Robinson: “[15:38] It’s not too early to say whether these strikes have made the region safer.”

• Congresswoman Hillary Skolton: “[36:35] We are in an affordability crisis.”

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Conclusion

The episode of Morning Joe delves deep into the fracturing within the Republican Party as they struggle to advance a controversial budget bill amidst internal dissent and external pressures. Simultaneously, the administration faces scrutiny over its international policies and domestic legislative strategies. With the Supreme Court’s pivotal decisions looming and new political initiatives underway, the political landscape remains highly dynamic and charged as the nation approaches critical elections.

Transcript

[John Lemire]

Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts for early access, ad free listening and bonus content to all of MSNBC's original podcasts, including the chart topping series the Best People with Nicole Wallace, why Is this Happening? Main justice and more. Plus new episodes of all your favorite MSNBC shows ad free and ad free listening to all of Rachel Maddows original series, Ultra Bagman and Deja News. Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts. I'm not going to talk about anything from the briefing. I walk away from that briefing still under the belief that we have not obliterated the program. The President was deliberately misleading the public when he said the program was obliterated. It is certain that there is still significant capability and significant equipment that remain. That's Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut offering a sobering assessment of America's strike on Iran after he had a briefing with Trump administration officials. We'll dig into those comments as the House is set to have a meeting on the matter later today. Plus, several provisions in the President's massive spending bill have been disqualified in the Senate. We'll take a closer look at that and the divisions it's causing within the Republican Party. Plus, business leaders are hedging their bets in the race for mayor of New York City, becoming so desperate to box out the presumptive Democrat in the race, Zoran Mandami, that they are now willing to support scandal scarred Eric Adams for another term. We'll dig into that and what it could mean for the party nationally. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe on this Friday, June 27th. I'm John Lemire here. Thanks for being here. I'm joined by the BBC's Katty K. Who is host of the Rest of Politics podcast. Joe, Mika and Willie have the day off with us. We have managing editor at the Bulwark Sam Stein and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and MSNBC political analyst Eugene Robinson. Great group to start off a busy news morning and we will dive right in, beginning with Republicans now facing a major setback after a Senate official ruled against a series of health care cuts and savings savings in their sweeping domestic policy bill. The nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough disqualified several provisions, including one that prohibits federal funding of Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program for adults or kids whose immigration status cannot be immediately verified, as well as changes in how states can tax Medicaid providers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the setback a, quote, speed bump and told reporters that he has contingency plans in place But Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama took a far harsher tone, calling for Thune to fire the parliamentarian asap. Others in the Senate call for her to be overruled, which can happen by a simple majority. But Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri threw some cold water on that idea.

[Katty K]

Do you think that the parliamentarian should.

[Hillary Skolton]

Remain in her job?

[Katty K]

Should you guys try to overrule the parliamentarian?

[John Lemire]

Oh, I can't. I just can't imagine that you'd get people to overrule her. I mean, I just don't think you get the votes for that. So I just, I just don't. I mean, I think Tony himself has said he wouldn't vote for that.

[Eugene Robinson]

So I don't see that happening. Well, President Trump has urged all congressional Republicans to get behind the so called one big beautiful bill, one warning any members of the GOP from voting against it. During an event at the White House yesterday, Trump said Americans would benefit from the tax cuts in the measure and that the bill would create millions of jobs and grow the economy, while also falsely stating it includes no taxes on Social Security benefits.

[John Lemire]

This is the ultimate codification of our agenda to very simply a phrase that's been used pretty well by me over the last 10 years, but maybe even before that. Make America great again. Very simple. Make America great again. We don't want to have grandstanders where one or two people raised their vote. We are, we don't know. And they do it to grandstand. That's all. Not, not good people. They know who I am, who I'm talking about. I call them out. But we don't need grandstanders. We have to get our country back and bring it back strong. And our country is going to be stronger, bigger, better than ever before.

[Eugene Robinson]

Stronger, bigger, better. One person that I've spoken to, Democrats and Republicans about this bill, Jean, who are saying to me, well, one thing that they do is that the Democrats chances in the midterms are stronger, bigger and better. If this bill passes as it is.

[Sam Stein]

Absolutely. It's not a popular bill. I mean, it's not. There are provisions in this bill for, you know, various groups to hate, for everybody to hate. There's something in there and make a bill that big. Yeah, there are probably going to be a fix that everybody can hate literally more than a kitchen sink bill. Everything is in there. The entire legislative agenda of this Trump administration is in this one bill. And so of course, there are members of the House and members of Senate who don't like various provisions of this bill. Even if and when they corral all the Republicans into supporting some version of this bill with this stripped and that stripped, I think they have a real problem going into the midterms. I really do.

[Jonathan Allen]

I can't get over a couple things here. One is the process, which is they haven't finished writing this thing. Are they going to vote tomorrow? They're still going to vote on it tomorrow. It's crazy to me that there's not been a single hearing in the Senate. They don't have a budget analysis. They don't have an analysis of how many people will be impacted by the Medicaid cuts. They don't actually know what's in the bill. They have to rewrite the bill and they're still going to vote on it tomorrow. I mean, it's madness. Let's just call it what it is. It's total madness. We've never seen anything like this happen before.

[Eugene Robinson]

What does that mean? If they, I mean, they are actually going to vote on it tomorrow and it can go to the President's desk.

[Jonathan Allen]

As of now, they're going to start the first vote tomorrow. As of now, I don't know. Maybe not. But the idea is to get to the president's desk by July 4th. That's seven days. Again, this is, it's crazy. And if it were to happen in the reverse direction, Republicans would rightfully bemoan how absurd this legislative process is. The second thing, which is maybe more substantive, but I also can't get over, is that the cuts to this bill on the Medicaid side, specifically, the people that are going to be harmed are actually Republicans and Trump voters in the majority. Now, it's obviously not exclusive to them, but because of the political realignments, we're talking about, you know, rural hospitals, we're talking about MAGA types who depend on Medicaid. Republicans are going to make a huge hit to their own coalition, to their own interests. And you're starting to see some kind of realize this. I mean, Thom Tillis, for instance, the senator from North Carolina who's up this cycle, he's been like, I can't do this until I recognize how bad the hit is going to be in my state on Medicaid because his people, his voters, his coalition will take the brunt of this. I don't think I've ever really witnessed a party self sabotage in this type of fashion as the Republicans are doing right now, all because they're extremely worried about offending Donald Trump.

[Eugene Robinson]

Yeah, I was talking, John, to a former Republican senator Just this week, who was saying, yeah, but health care is never up there in voting issues. You never see it ranking. It's not an issue. And actually, the argument that the Democrats with him were making us. Yeah, but this is not. It's not health care. This is an affordability issue. And, and affordability is the issue of the moment. That is what everyone is talking about, of course. Actually, really, health care is just affordability under another guise. Do you think it gets. Do you think it gets to the president's desk by July 4th? Are we taking bets this morning?

[Jonathan Allen]

I'll take.

[Eugene Robinson]

Hey, look, no one else is here, so we may as well have the under.

[John Lemire]

Sam. Sam has the DraftKings app for legislative measures as well.

[Jonathan Allen]

I'm a polymar. Come on, let's put it out.

[John Lemire]

There you go. I mean, the president wants it. I mean, July 4th is a week from today. So that seems the clock is indeed ticking. But we're going to see a lot of pressure, it's really begun in the last day or so from President Trump to try to push this through by hell or high water. And it is. It's a test. Will Republicans ever stand up to him? And we know if past his prologue, very few ever will. But we're seeing a little bit of dissent right now, at least on the edges. And for more on that, let's bring in NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen. John, good to see you this morning. It is striking that Josh Hawley, who is about as MAGA as it comes, first of all, spoke out a few months back about the Medicaid cuts, and then yesterday take a, you know, somewhat reasonable tone about the Senate parliamentarian, like, maybe he doesn't like the ruling, but he's like, well, we have to live with this. That's part of the institution. We don't have the votes to overturn it. So what is your read here in terms of the willingness for Republicans to defy Trump? What other recourse do they have after being dealt a significant blow yesterday?

[Chris Murphy]

Well, I think the point that Sam makes is the right one, which is that nobody has read the bill yet. And as a result of that, the reason that I say that is that this is now the time for them to fight. You know, eventually this thing will come to the floor. The odds are that it will pass. Historically, when presidents have their own party in power in the House and Senate, they get the one big thing that they want done passed. So you would have to expect that that's gonna happen. So they're fighting about it. Right now. But you mentioned Josh Hawley. And look, Josh Hawley understands what Thom Tillis from North Carolina understands, which is that MAGA populism isn't taking away, or at least it shouldn't in theory be taking away health insurance from poor rural people in order to fund tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. And so Trump is trying to get this bill through. There are a lot of different interests. This has been the idea of slashing Medicaid by as much as a trillion dol budgets has been something that has been a hobby horse of Russ Vogt, the Office of Management and Budget Director for at least the last 20 years. And so this is an ideological push going on from the White House hitting right into a realpolitik or practical politics of senators like Hawley and Tillis who don't want to take benefits away from their own constituents.

[John Lemire]

One thing that President Trump can do, John Allen, is read polls, and the polls are really bad on this. We've seen a wave of them. First of all, most Americans, frankly, like legislators, don't know what's in the bill just yet. But what they've heard, they don't like. And they particularly worry about these cuts, cuts to services, cuts to Medicaid. And so many of them will disproportionately hurt Trump voters. And then President Trump is usually pretty protective of his base, but in this case, he really seems to be favoring the rich who are going to benefit from the tax cuts that are part of this as opposed to these sort of rank and file Trump voters. So many of them live in red districts or rural districts. And are Republicans in the building behind you aware that they're staring in a deeply unpopular bill and therefore potentially facing a real blowback at the midterms next year?

[Chris Murphy]

Yeah, I think they are. But we've seen this movie before, Jonathan, where, you know, there is a president in their first two years of their term who is pushing unpopular legislation and they're asking the members of Congress in their own party to walk the plank on it and to basically put the party, party goal ahead of their own goal of reelection. Easy to remember the 2010 elections after Obamacare passed and the sort of public backlash to that with the Tea Party. So, you know, I think that this is a dynamic that's well settled. But yes, the people in the building behind me are acutely aware that they are risking, certainly their House majority, risking some Senate seats by moving forward with this bill and at the same time, the vast majority because of redistricting, because of the way our Politics are polling. The vast majority of people in the building behind me are not actually on the line themselves, which makes it a lot easier to vote for the thing that the president wants.

[John Lemire]

Yeah, good point there. Just about how there are so few competitive seats these days. But we know of a couple senators who are worried. NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen. Jon, thank you so much. We turn now to the latest out of Iran. And this morning, the House of Representatives is set to receive a classified briefing on last weekend's military operations there after senators received their own version yesterday. It followed a contentious press briefing at the Pentagon held by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hegseth spent the first half of the media mostly criticized. First half of the briefing, I should say mostly criticizing the media. Before Kainlan stepped up, told some stories and offered some operational details, the president offered rave reviews, calling it the most professional and most confirming news conference he'd ever seen. He then called for reporters from some outlets to be fired. He repeated that position again later in the day, calling journalists bad people with evil intentions, threatening to sue the media outlets. New York Times in particular said, go ahead. We stand by our reporting. CNN the same. Meanwhile, NBC News reports that the majority of senators who left yesterday's classified briefing on those strikes in Iran felt as though Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials who led the briefing did a good job relaying the information. However, when speaking to reporters after the briefing, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut offered a sobering assessment. Listen to me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months. There's no doubt there was damage done to the program, but allegations that we have obliterated their program just don't seem to stand up to reason. So obviously I can't share any of the details from this briefing, but I just do not think the president was selling the truth when he said this program was obliterated. There's certainly damaged under the program, but there is significant, there's still significant remaining capability. And that right there, Katty, is the heart of the matter. And just taking a step back to remind viewers, after the strikes, the first assessment we heard, again, it was a preliminary assessment, one even delivered with low confidence. But from the dia, which suggested that this strike may have only set back Iran's program a couple of months since then, that triggered the real anger of President Trump. We've heard from other agencies, the CIA and the like, some over international assessments suggesting that perhaps more damage was done. But it's. No one is going as far as the President in terms of saying it's been completely obliterated. Iran will never start this program again. We also. The fate of that enriched uranium, very much a mystery.

[Katty K]

Yeah.

[Eugene Robinson]

I mean, generally for leaders, the best plan of action in this sort of circumstances is to get all of the intelligence, wait for the intelligence and analyze the intelligence, and then give your assessment to the intelligence. When you give a pre assessment of the intelligence that hasn't come in yet, you slightly prejudice people's perception of what that intelligence is. So, in fact, I don't think Donald Trump did himself very many favors by coming out straight away and saying it had been obliterated, because then you set the standard so high for what people expect that anything that falls short of that is slightly a political disappointment. As to that enriched uranium, I thought it was interesting in the press conference yesterday. We really got very little in the way of information about that, Gene. I mean, that seems to be the outstanding issue. And I've heard from people in the national security world, senior people in the national security world, that it's actually very easy to move this. You can get a 2 kilogram gallon, you can move this stuff around. It could have been those trucks we saw beforehand, but it could have been moved almost in anything. I wouldn't like to be the driver of those trucks.

[Sam Stein]

No. But in the trunk of a car, you can move one of these boxes of uranium.

[Eugene Robinson]

And we're just not hearing much from the administration.

[Sam Stein]

Right. I mean, you know, it's a bit frustrating because this is kind of an argument about assumptions in a lot of ways. I mean, everybody's making assumptions, including the intelligence analysts at this point, about what damage was done, you know, at Fordo and Isfahan and the Tanz and about that enriched uranium specifically. Right. And it makes sense that the Iranians would have moved it and dispersed it. And in fact, the IAEA says they intended to do that. So one guesses they probably did. But again, we're making assumptions when there is better intelligence, and I think there will be at some point, we'll have a better idea of the state of Iran's nuclear program. So the range of possibility is the whole range. Right. I mean, it could have been wiped out. They could have gotten their uranium. It could be years before they could get back to where they were, or they could still have the 60% uranium, enough for nine bombs. They could have centrifuges hidden away someplace else to further enrich it. They're Certainly probably working on weaponizing that material. I think if you were the ayatollah, you would be. So, again, we need more information before this argument actually makes sense.

[Eugene Robinson]

And all of this big picture is why it's kind of too early to say whether these strikes have made the region safer or less safe, because we don't know yet. The White House, meanwhile, however, to try and limit leaks, is planning to limit its intelligence sharing with members of Congress. A senior White House official tells NBC News the Trump administration plans to post less information on the system used to share classified material with lawmakers. The decision was made after an early assessment of the damage caused by America's strike on Iran was leaked to the press. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer objected to the move, telling NBC News, quote, the administration should immediately undo this decision. Seem not to want to see the facts get out, just Trump's version of the facts, which we know is often false. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson is now suggesting the leaked Iran report came from Capitol Hill. Though Democrats, they're disagreeing.

[John Lemire]

There was a leak, and we're trying to get down to the bottom of that. It's dangerous and ridiculous that that happened, but we're going to solve that problem, and we'll keep the coordination. Do you think the leak came from Congress, sir? That's my suspicion. I don't think it came from Congress. The leaks were. Were specific enough. And let me say, leaks are not okay, but the leaks were so specific that it implied that, like, somebody who actually had the document was talking to somebody. And, you know, typically members of Congress get to read something and then they walk out. So I'm not. I'm not at all convinced that it was anybody in the Congress, Sam.

[Eugene Robinson]

I mean, there's so little goodwill between Republicans and Democrats in the House at the moment, at a time when even over my issue of national security, traditionally, in the good old days of American politics, they would have found a way to come together, even if temporary and even if pro forma. But they're just not doing that now. And I think in the end, that squeezes Democrats further out of the equation, doesn't it?

[Chris Murphy]

Oh, for sure.

[Jonathan Allen]

Just a technical note. The original report on that DIA assessment was not from a congressional reporter. Take that however you want.

[Eugene Robinson]

You mean it was not the report of it?

[Jonathan Allen]

The reporter was not a congressional correspondent.

[John Lemire]

That's true.

[Jonathan Allen]

I just want to note that. But to your larger point, the profound level of distrust is remarkable. And Jim Himes, who we saw in that clip, he's a member of the Gang of eight, he's the House until ranking member on the Intelligence Committee. He was not told in advance of the operation. He told me he was sitting on his couch on a Saturday night following it on Twitter.

[Eugene Robinson]

Was he having a beer?

[Jonathan Allen]

He was having a beer, yes.

[Eugene Robinson]

In the original story, Sam, he was having a beer.

[Jonathan Allen]

I didn't want to be repetitive, but yes, he was having a beer. But there are serious long term consequences to doing things like not sharing intel, your members of Congress. And by that, it's not just what we're talking about here of distrust. It's people need to have confidence in the intelligence. Right. And if you can't get bipartisan buy in. If you're not sharing with Congress, if in Trump's case you're saying your own Dni Tulsi Gabbard has it wrong, then increasingly foreign governments, nonpartisan observers, people who rely on intel, will not be able to rely on your intelligence. And I think that has pretty profound national security consequences where you want to be able to have a trusted intel come from your administration. I just don't see if it keeps going in this direction how people would ever trust the intelligence produced by this administration, especially when Trump's running out there to say, oh, we obliterated the whole thing. We got it done. Congratulations, I get the Nobel Prize.

[John Lemire]

To that point, it's the administration potentially limiting the intel it's sharing that's worrisome. And also potentially pressuring government agencies, including the intel community, to create intel or material that is politically favorable to the president that is deeply concerning. And we certainly there's a long history of bad decisions being made by White Houses based on faulty intel or potentially ginned up intel. That's something to keep an eye on going forward. Still ahead here on MORNING joe, we're going to bring you the latest on the federal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as the Justice Department says, it does plan to deport the Maryland man again. And we're going to dig into the decisions that the Supreme Court is expected to deliver later today, including a big one on birthright citizenship. MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin will join us to break it all down. And of course, a reminder that the Morning Joe podcast is available each weekday featuring our full conversations and analysis. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. MSNBC's Jen Psaki, host of the Briefing. We've never experienced a moment like this in our country and it leaves us.

[Eugene Robinson]

All with a choice.

[John Lemire]

Are we going to speak out or are we going to be pressured into silence? I've worked for presidents. I've faced the toughest questions from the press and even threats from the Kremlin. And if there's one thing I've learned is that you can't cower to bullies. You don't need to be hopeless. We have our voices, and I will continue using mine. The Briefing with Jen Psaki Tuesday through Friday at 9pm Eastern on MSNBC. 1984 wasn't supposed to be a guidebook, but here we are. If you think living in a dystopian hellscape is kind of scary, you're gonna love Band Camp, a comedy podcast where we read banned books and try to figure out why they were banned in the first place. We've tackled Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse 5, and now, because we're basically living in an Orwellian sequel, we're reading 1984. Banning books isn't just stupid, it's dangerous. Because when the facts get erased, the lies take over. And that's why we've got ourselves a fact checking robot to help us separate the truth truth from what they call alternative facts. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Thursday. Search Band Camp that's banned with two ends and start listening today before they ban podcasts too.

[Katty K]

This Supreme Court term isn't business as usual.

[John Lemire]

It's a full blown battle over democracy. Justices are shattering precedent, grabbing power, and even turning on their own. It's messy, it's high stakes, and it's.

[Katty K]

Already reshaping how this country works. And our podcast strict scrutiny breaks it all down legally, clearly, and with just the right amount of side eye. New episodes drop every Monday. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.

[John Lemire]

Gloomy start to this Friday morning in Washington, D.C. sun coming up 6:23 on the east coast and we are anticipating a big day in Washington from the Supreme Court, which is set to conclude its current term later this morning with a flurry of rulings. And that includes the closely watched case regarding President Trump's attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship. Specifically, the case focuses on whether federal judges have the power to block Trump's birthright citizenship proposal nationwide while litigation about the issue continues. We're also weighting decisions today on five other cases, including some on voting rights, religious rights and health care. And that comes as Democratic state attorneys general have filed dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration and are showing no signs of slowing down. Earlier this week, three state AGs gave testimony on Capitol Hill about their roles in combating the second Trump administration through litigation, giving insight on what they consider constitutional violations. For more, let's bring in MSNBC legal correspondent and former litigator Lisa Rubin. She sat down with those state attorneys general on the latest episode of her podcast, can they do that? Check that out. So, Lisa, you talked about Trump's order on birthright citizenship with the attorney general from Illinois. It highlights just a blatant disregard for the Constitution. What I mean by that is the language is so clear in the 14th Amendment that the president would start with disregarding an amendment with such clear language that you are a citizen of the United States if you're born here and subject to the, to, to, to its law.

[Sam Stein]

So plain and slanguage.

[John Lemire]

We have a president who said several few weeks ago that he doesn't know whether he has to follow the Constitution. I think the birthright citizenship case highlights the total disregard for the Constitution that this president has because the language is so plain. So, Lisa, busy day at the corporate. Let's indeed begin with birthright citizenship. Remind viewers exactly what's at stake here. And is there any, what can we, are there any hints we could have gleaned from arguments as to where the court might end up?

[Katty K]

Let's start with what's at stake. There were three different court orders in three areas of the country, all blocking the president's executive order barring birthright citizenship to certain people in this country. One of those cases was brought by the three gentlemen with whom I spoke, as well as a number of others. What the administration did, Jonathan, was go to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis and say, we want you to, to stay, or pause the impact of all of those orders or limit them in their application just to the plaintiffs who brought those cases or maybe just to the districts in which they were brought. That would mean if they win, either that only that the executive order can apply in other areas of the country, but not those particular districts, or the executive order can't apply to a discrete group of individuals, but can apply to everybody else if they get their way. But really, what this case is about, beyond birthright citizenship, is, as you noted, it's the power of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions. Three weeks ago, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Josh Hawley brought out this big chart to show how many nationwide injunctions have been issued against President Trump. It numbers in the 60. It dwarfs all other modern presidents. And he basically used that as an example to say, look at these radical left leftist judges that are trying to constrain the President, Kate Shaw, our colleague Chris Hayes wife and an accomplished law professor, very calmly responded, well, the Senate. Well, Senator, there's also a possibility that the increased number of nationwide injunctions against this administration is a reflection of the lawlessness of the policies that they're implementing.

[John Lemire]

And let's be clear, there have been presidents of both parties that have been frustrated by these sorts of injunctions just zeroing in on the broad matter of birthright decision. Is is this going to be the decisions today going to be around the edges on the power, or is it going to be about the actual, the right that's enshrined in the Constitution?

[Katty K]

It's not clear. I think that at oral argument, you asked me what we could glean from oral argument, you could see that there was widespread discomfort with the notion that nationwide injunctions would be used so frequently. At the very most, even those justices who seem to believe that district courts should have that power thought it should be used rarely. Justice Kagan, in particular, really struggling with the sort of growing pervasiveness of nationwide injunctions. That said, could the justices also talk about the merits of the case? Absolutely. There's no granting a stay without touching on the merits. The reason is in order to grant a pause in any case, the standard for granting that stay has to do with how likely is the party that wants that stay to prevail on the merits when this litigation plays itself out. So there should be some sort of conversation about that. Could the court sort of allied the issue of nationwide injunctions entirely and just say this executive order is so blatantly unconstitutional, given our precedent, that we're not even going to consider the issue of when and where district courts have that power. That's also a possibility, and it would be a convenient one for this court given how much they're struggling with this sort of issue of where to draw the line on nationwide injunctions?

[John Lemire]

Yeah, that's a really good point. So, Lisa, let's now hear what Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had to say about the future of these lawsuits.

[Katty K]

We talked earlier about this being a constitutional crisis. You're willing now to cross that Rubicon and say we're in it. So now let me ask you the question on the other side. How does it end?

[John Lemire]

The American people are coming out more and more every day, more people who've never been to a protest march in their life. There's a lot of there's research out there. There's a really awesome scholar by the name of I think her name is Erica Chenoweth and there are others as well who studied like four or five hundred movements where the society has gone from democratic to authoritarian and how people have tried to resist those. And she's found that when about three and a half people, three and a half percent of the population says, we're not doing this, we're going to have democracy, then it's extremely hard for the authoritarian government to do what it's trying to do. So I think, yes, we're going to keep on suing, but I also think it's important for us to continue to communicate with the public and give people hope that we can protect and defend and extend our democracy, because it really is, at the end of the day, it's about people power. And Eugene Robinson, sort of a theme through a lot of the cases where the Court will be making rulings on later today is this idea of the attempt to expand executive power.

[Sam Stein]

Yes, absolutely. And this is a Supreme Court that has been pretty friendly to the idea of what do they call it, unitary executive power or whatever that the president does does have a very wide range of powers and is able to act. Given that the Constitution vests power in the president himself and not necessarily in other agencies or anybody else, executive power goes to the President. That's John Roberts theory, I believe. LISA My question I'm getting back to birthright citizenship. Was there any sense at oral argument, Is there any sense that you have from the court about what the justices think about the core issue about the issue of birthright citizenship? Is the Constitution as clear as it seems to be? Do you think there are any justices who would rule the other way on that and say, well, maybe not?

[Katty K]

I think there are at least a couple of votes for entertaining the possibility that there is an alternative interpretation. GENE but the Supreme Court has a 127-year-old precedent on this issue of birthright citizenship. The administration's position is no, that's not actually about being born in this country and just being here. It's about whether your parents are residing here or domiciled here in a meaningful way. I think that's a distinction without a difference. Their tortured interpretation of the constitutional text here, I think didn't meet with, let's say, happiness from a majority of the court. But then again, it will be interesting to see whether a court that's been overall, as you noted, very receptive to the expansion of executive powers, whether they're willing to just grant a stay. They've been handing them out like candy lately, right. And left to this administration, they that has filed emergency petition after emergency petition to the court, leapfrogging lower appeals courts in order to escalate disputes to the Supreme Court and get their way to be able to implement policies that otherwise would have been put on ice by lower courts. So we'll have to see. There are a lot of directions that today can go and I think this is one where if I were a betting person, I still wouldn't bet.

[John Lemire]

MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin, Busy day ahead. We expect to hear from the Supreme Court around 10am or so. So Lisa, thank you. And you can check out her show. Can they do that on MSNBC's YouTube channel? Coming up, a new Democratic caucus in the House is looking to push back on President Trump's economic policies. The founding members of the Lowering Costs Caucus, Congresswoman Hilary Schlatton of Michigan and Congressman Derek Tran of California, join us straight ahead here on Morning Joe.

[Sam Stein]

Foreign.

[John Lemire]

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[Jonathan Allen]

I think just speaking truthfully on these issues and leading with humanity over gamified.

[John Lemire]

Politics, both sides to me, that's the Midas way. The Best People with Nicole Wallace listen now. For early access ad free listening and bonus content, subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts. Start your day with the MSNBC Daily Newsletter. Sharp insights from voices you trust, standout moments from your favorite shows, and fresh perspectives from experts shaping the news. Sign up [e-mail].

[Hillary Skolton]

To stand here with my colleagues today to officially launch our Lowering Costs Caucus, a new caucus focused on a broad coalition in Congress committed to one clear mission, to make life more affordable for the American people.

[Eugene Robinson]

That was Democratic Congresswoman Hillary Skolton of Michigan launching the announcing the launch of the new Lowering Costs Caucus yesterday. It's the latest effort by Democrats to reach and reengage with voters after last year's elections, which saw Republicans take the White House, of course, and both houses of Congress. Not to rub it in to my new guests, the new caucus also aims to combat President Trump's economic policies as Republicans push toward their mega bill. And Congresswoman Skolton joins us now, along with another founding member of the Lowering Cost Caucus, Democratic Congressman Derek Tran of California. Congressman, we have seen an awful lot of talk about affordability. We had Abigail Spanberger, who's running for governor of Virginia, on the program yesterday, saying that's the number one issue she hears about from voters. We saw it in the New York mayoral primary race. But different bits of the party seem to have quite different approaches to how to actually tackle affordability. What is your caucus hoping to do?

[Hillary Skolton]

Well, you know, this caucus is launched by myself, Derek Tran, and several other members of Congress who know this crisis firsthand. We are in an affordability crisis. Derek and I are both parents of young children. You know, and the cost of childcare, the cost of groceries is crippling American people, and they want their representatives to do something about it. So this caucus is our answer to Donald Trump, who ran on making prices lower, and he's done anything. But since he has been in the White House, his reckless tariff policies is making life actually more expensive for the American people. And we're going to combat that through policy and action.

[Eugene Robinson]

But, Congressman, you are out of power. So it's nice that you've set up a caucus, but what can you actually do? I mean, people who are paying 6x their income in rent that used to be paying 2x their income in rent, what can you do about that?

[John Lemire]

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think, you know, just because we're out of power doesn't mean we can't tune out the noise of Washington, D.C. and focus on what matters to the American people. When I go back in my district to get my hair cut to go grocery shopping with my kids, the hair.

[Eugene Robinson]

Looks very good, by the way.

[Hillary Skolton]

Oh, thank you, thank you.

[Eugene Robinson]

Whoever's cussing.

[John Lemire]

The single issue. And the main talking point is we don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. We want to know what you're doing to help us right now. Because we need relief at the grocery store. We need relief with childcare.

[Jonathan Allen]

Let me pick up on that. First of all, good luck with the kids. I'm in it myself. Expensive. What happened in 2024? Why did it take a wake up like this to get you guys to focus on affordability? Or were you focusing on affordability all along and we just didn't notice?

[Hillary Skolton]

I think we were focused on affordability. And that's why, you know, folks like Derek and I are here I'm the first Democrat in a century to hold my seat in Congress in Grand Rapids. And Derek, obviously famous, famously had one of the closest races in the country. And it's because we stuck to issues like that. And you know, I think right now people want to hear what Democrats are going to do, not just complaining about what the other guys are doing wrong. They want to see what our proactive plan is. And that's exactly why we launched this caucus, so that we can talk about what we are going to do when we're back in the.

[Jonathan Allen]

Let me just pick up on that. Let me just pick up that. Because we talked to one of your Michigan colleagues, Alyssa Slotkin, yesterday at the Bulwark and she said, yeah, the reason I won in Michigan and Kamala Harris did not is because I kept talking about economics and, and affordability. Is that your assessment of the top of the ticket as well?

[Hillary Skolton]

Absolutely. I know that I stayed laser focused on the affordability crisis when I was running. And I think we lost the thread a little bit. And the American people need to hear clearly what we're going to do for them, not just what's wrong with Donald Trump.

[Sam Stein]

So that word clearly is doing a lot of work there because Congress. Tran, what are your ideas for affordability and how do you express them in a clear, understandable and motivating way, the way, frankly, Zoran Mamdani did in New York? Now, you can say what you want about his ideas, but people got free buses, frees the rent. I mean, these are very simple, easy to understand policies, policies that connected with a lot of people. What are the caucuses policies?

[John Lemire]

Look, you can't get any further from New York than Southern California, where I come from in my district. And I cannot speak for all Democrats, but I can speak for my constituents in my community. And what I'm hearing and what I'm feeling as well is when we get back to fall and it's time to shop for back to school, whether it's shoes for the kids, clothes, backpacks, school supplies, guys, these products are coming from somewhere. It's not here. And these tariffs are going to kill us. So they are worried about having enough money to be able to provide and get these essential products for their kids. These are the same worries that I have and that's going to be my focus as I move forward in this caucus.

[Eugene Robinson]

Isn't that the issue, to Jean's point, about what we heard in New York, I can't imagine for a second that you going around your district, which is a purple district, and saying we're going to to make free buses and we're going to freeze rents, that that would fly. Right. You're going to lose a whole load of voters if you go around and say that because they're going to paint you as a social, I don't think socialist actually in America, but a democratic socialist even, that's a bridge too far. So for each of you, I mean, you can try and have a unified message that we're all focused on affordability, but when it actually comes down to the implementation of that message, that's where it gets more complicated, not quite as unifying.

[John Lemire]

Right? Yep.

[Hillary Skolton]

And that's why, you know, over the course of, you know, the next year and a half, but, you know, beginning next month, we're going to start laying out policy by policy that really connects with the American people that can actually, you know, get things done. And it's not going to be the government's going to pay for everything or we're going to make everything free. Someone has to pay for it. Right. But, you know, we can tackle health care, we can tackle childhood, we can tackle housing through smart and workable policies that bring people together. You know, Derek and I are, you know, we're both deeply bipartisan and we're hoping to bring our Republican colleagues along with us in a lot of these policy ideas as well.

[Eugene Robinson]

Okay. Democratic Congressman Hillary Skelton of Michigan and Democratic Congressman Derek Tran of California, thank you very much for coming in. Good luck with the caucus and good luck with bringing some Republicans on board. Will, if you manage to come back.

[John Lemire]

And tell us exactly, bring them with you.

[Eugene Robinson]

Yeah, absolutely. Still ahead, we'll turn back to the damage assessment of America's strikes on Iran's nuclear program as some Democrats offer a different view than the Trump administration. And as we were just discussing, we'll take a closer look at how the race for New York City's mayor is shaping up as Democratic candidate Zoram Mamdani is set to face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. Morning Joe. We'll be right back.

[John Lemire]

Welcome back. Time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning, beginning with a large wildfire that broke out in southern Greece, prompting evacuations as temperatures there approached 104 degrees. Water dropping planes and helicopters battled the blaze, which broke out in a populated area about 25 miles south of Athens, fanned by strong winds. At least 20 homes have been destroyed so far.

[Eugene Robinson]

Caddy spies everywhere. Now, private jets polluted more than the total of all commercial flights departing from London's Heathrow Airport. That's what a new study finds. Private air travel generates between 5 and 14 times more greenhouse emissions per passenger than commercial commercial flights. Private jets from the US account for 65% of all global private flights and 55% of gas emissions. Which is the only reason that Sam Stein doesn't fly private.

[Jonathan Allen]

Yeah, exactly.

[John Lemire]

By contract, any story that involves a mention of Heathrow Airport Caddy Getz. That's how this works. Also, a majority of cinema owners and film professionals believe that the traditional cinema experience has left than 20 years remaining as a viable business model. That's according to a new poll. In addition, nearly 90% of film executives said their revenue has not yet recovered to pre Covid levels.

[Eugene Robinson]

A mysterious fiery object lit up the southern skies and prompting hundreds of calls to authorities in multiple states. NBC News correspondent Jesse Kirsch has the details.

[John Lemire]

Out of nowhere, South Carolina's sunny blue skies got even brighter. Rider A fireball shooting across the southeastern US Spotted around midday from the Carolinas to Florida. Just a huge ball of fire just.

[Eugene Robinson]

Literally fell out of the sky.

[John Lemire]

Did y' all see it? Fireball that just fell like from the sky. Garrett Thrift was driving with his daughter when he saw the bright flash. It sounds like when you see this go across the sky, there is part of you that's worried what's going on.

[Chris Murphy]

Oh yeah, for sure.

[John Lemire]

I mean it's definitely not something you see every day. In Georgia, officials say someone reported that a ro fell through their ceiling as people thought they were experiencing an earthquake. So what are we looking at? The National Weather Service says this appears to be a meteor or space junk which even showed up on satellite based lightning detection. The American Meteor Society says It's received around 150 reports. So many people felt it, their windows rattled, their doors rattled, they heard a rumble. And that's what generates this interest. Trying to see the cross boom. Bright, bright flash. Whatever it was. The surprise. Offering a potential bright spot on an already sunny day. Some extraordinary video there.

[Eugene Robinson]

Whatever that people saw it.

[John Lemire]

Yeah, whatever that was. And then last story here, a little closer to home, Anna Wintoura stepping down as the head of the American edition of the fashion magazine Vogue. The legendary Wintoura served as editor in Chief for 37 years running the publication's day to day operations. She is without a doubt widely considered one of the most influential people in the industry and made the Met Gal one of fashion's most high profile events. The 75 year old says she will now serve as global editorial director of Vogue as well as global chief content officer of Conde Nast. The magazine is now searching for a new editor in chief. So, Kati, it seems like she'll still be. Be involved less. But this would mark really, the end of an era.

[Katty K]

Yeah.

[Eugene Robinson]

End of an era. Not just a Vogue, but in fashion generally, there was really Anna Winter and pretty much nobody else when it came to defining what was good taste, defining what was going to be fashionable that year. Of course, there was the iconic movie Devil Wears Prada, which was based on Anna Winter, in which Meryl Streep played her. I don't know that the characters are identical, but she does have this reputation for being fearsome, which I think you have to be if you're at the top of the fashion industry for 40 years. She'll be much missed, I'm sure, at Vogue. And Vogue's going to have to struggle now to keep its kind of cutting edge because she was the one that really defined it. Coming up, we'll break down the growing debate among Senate Republicans over President Trump's domestic policy bill as the Senate parliamentarian rejects a key provision. Morning. Jo will be right back. You go to your closet and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquoise, it's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. You're also blue, blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then, I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you no doubt fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs. And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry, when, in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff.

[John Lemire]

It's 2025, and it's time you embrace the future of toilet clip cleaning with the Clorox Toilet Wand. The Clorox Toilet Wand is an all in one toilet cleaning system that comes complete with a sleek bathroom caddy and disposable scrubbing pads preloaded with cleaning solution. The set even comes with six scrubbing pads preloaded with disinfecting toilet cleaner. Just click, swish and toss for a fuss free clean. Visit Amazon to purchase your Clorox Toilet Wallow Clorox.