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what the hell is the matter with us? i'm not joking. think about it. what are we doing? >> president joe biden gives a fiery and impassioned speech in pennsylvania, vowing to ban assault-style weapons while calling out republicans for criticism of fbi following the search of mar-a-lago. we'll have much more of the president's remarks just ahead. meanwhile, there are several new developments in the justice department's investigation into the former president, including this picture from the doj, showing some of the documents seized. we'll walk you through everything that's happened overnight. also ahead, qanon and dangerous conspiracy theories. that's how donald trump spent his time yesterday on his fledgling social media platform. we'll explain how it is part of a growing trend for the former president.

♪♪ good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, august 31st. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. we'll begin with that breaking news overnight. a flurry of damning new revelations from the justice department's investigation into former president donald trump. several major headlines are emerging from the doj's med night filing in response to trump's request for a special master or independent reviewer of the materials following the search of mar-a-lago on august 8th. the doj arguing appointing a special master is unnecessary and would significantly harm important governmental interests, including national security interests. the doj points out that government review teams have already finished their work and a third party reviewing the documents would only impede its on going criminal investigation. the 36-page filing also reveals

that the justice department sought a search warrant for mar-a-lago after obtaining evidence that highly classified documents were likely moved and hidden and that trump's representatives had falsely claimed that all sensitive material had already been returned. the doj filing states, quote, the government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation. it goes on to state, three classified documents that were not located in boxes but rather were located in the desks in the xlv office were also seized. doj also included a picture of the documents seized during the fbi's search of the former president's palm beach estate. several of them are clearly marked top secret. in all, the filing says that

more than 100 unique classified documents were seized and some of the documents were so sensitive that fbi agents and doj attorneys needed additional security clearances just to review them. the doj filing reveals the fbi recovered twice as many classified documents than what was turned over by the trump team, casting doubt over their claim that there had been a diligent search following the grand jury subpoena back in may. joining us now to help break this down is msnbc legal analyst danny. thank you for being on set. huge headline here, one of the many headlines, the justice department team is saying the trump team moved and hid some classified documents. how damning is that? >> when this motion was or this response was first described as the government asking for additional pages, i thought, why is the government doing this? you don't ask for more than the

20 page limit from a judge lightly because you're likely to get that judge angry they have to read additional stuff. but in this case, i now see why. the government -- this is their position statement. they're putting out in excruciating detail all the efforts they made and other government agencies made, that were rebuffed and in some cases according to the allegations certified that all the documents were returned and apparently they weren't returned. it's a very damning, factual recitation. for that reason, it now makes sense why the government needed those additional pages to really hit the trump team with a factual folding chair so to speak about what they did and what they didn't do in returning these documents. and based on that, they make their arguments, one that is quietly very powerful, their standing argument. it's not a sexy argument, but by the way, it is one of the strongest ways to win your case with a judge. standing asks the constitutional question, what business is this of yours any way?

and that's exactly what the government says here. the president, the former president, no longer has any right to these documents. so therefore he has no right to even make an argument. he shouldn't even be here in court. it's an effective argument, one that might win the day very quietly. >> yeah. the picture of those files is the one that will resonate in the weeks and months ahead. >> right. >> but there's also the charge that there was a misrepresentation, that the trump lawyers said, hey, we gave everything back and that's not even close to being true. how many additional legal peril does that now post both trump and also his attorneys. >> this filing doesn't seek to hold those attorneys accountable, but if i were those attorneys i would be really, really concerned. now, i have to tell you as an attorney myself, sometimes clients lead you along a path you find out later was not the right path. it happens. clients say the darnedest things. but you have to be careful if you're certifying something based on information that they provided. you need to make sure that it's accurate. so, any time an attorney signs

something, they're representing even if they say to the best of my knowledge and ability, that's not an out. you need to do an independent investigation. that's why these kinds of affidavits or these certifications exist because an attorney has an additional duty, not just to say, hey, client, i'll take your word for it. they need to check for themselves. so, if i were trump's attorneys and i hate saying this, that they need to be a little concerned because doj obviously sees they may have been complicit in this entire process. >> all this comes about the doj has an opportunity to put out this information because of the trump team's request for a special master, hearing on that will be scheduled for tomorrow. how do we see that playing out? do we anticipate a special master being appointed? >> on the one hand the trump team cited cases where special masters have been appointed but those were almost all cases where an attorney's office is raided and that creates special issues of attorney/client

privilege. on the other hand the doj makes a very compelling argument which is the rules cited, if you look at rule 53, i don't mean to get into the weeds, this isn't a situation that applies especially when both parties do not consent. so, procedurally i think the rules are in favor of doj, but because this is such an unprecedented situation, you might see a judge just take the approach of well, just in an abundance of caution, maybe i should appoint a special master. it could go either way. >> danny cevallos, we appreciate it. we'll have much more on the breaking news as the show continues. meanwhile, the former president spent yesterday posting dangerous conspiracy theories on his social media website. trump posted qanon slogan and fringe content as well as a post that is a photo of president biden, vice president kamala harris and house speaker nancy pelosi with the words, your

enemy is not in russia, written in black bars over their eyes. deeply disturbing photograph. just reminder of qanon is, conspiracy theory built around an anonymous account. "the new york times" describes it this way, millions of qanon followers believe that an imaginary sex trafficking, is a tan worshipping liberals controlling the government and donald trump is leading the fight against it. news guard, a media watchdog that monitors misinformation, found that trump, who has nearly 4 million followers on his truth social account has promoted 30 different qanon accounts for total of 65 posts since joining the site in april. those numbers do not include yesterday's posting which made upmost of trump's morning. chris murphy had this reaction, posting on twitter, i just think everyone, including the mainstream press, needs to take seriously the growing coordination between the trump operation, the extremist 4chan/q

crowd and the monarchist new right. shelden whitehouse posted this the former president is spouting conspiracy theories that have inspired political violence and falsely called the legitimacy of the government into question. we cannot ignore the dangers of this extremism. one more important story before we go to break, the final leader of the soviet union who oversaw the end of the cold war has died at the age of 91. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has the details. >> gosh chef, the communest leader brief six year reign transformed the map of europe and the world. the first soviet leader with a larger vision for his country and willing to hold a soviet with ronald rang, who called the soviet union an evil empire. little dit gorbachev know he would preside over the end of the empire, saying we could and

should have saved the soviet union but we lost politically. the two men clashed famously in iceland. but by december of 1987, partly through the influence of nancy reagan on her husband, they were at the white house, signing a treaty to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons. the same year gorbachev gave television interview to tom brokaw. and later, he let the berlin wall come down without sending in russian tanks, for which he won the nobel peace prize in 1990. americans were charmed by this new kind of young soviet leader with his ideas and openness and economic restructuring and very modern wife, but back home his kremlin colleagues tried to overturn him in a three-day coup and failed. gorbachev returned from house arrest in crimea to find boris yeltsin in charge and soon

resigned. to avoid a bloody civil war in a country saturated with nuclear weapons. mikhail gorbachev the man who changed the world but could not save his own country from falling apart. >> mikhail gorbachev, extraordinarily important historical figure. still ahead on she show, president biden lays out his plan for a safer america. we'll show you what he had to say yesterday. plus the latest back and forth between pennsylvania's two senate candidates. democrat john fetterman is accusing the oz campaign from mocking his recovery from a stroke. we'll have those stories and a check on the weather when we come right back.

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president joe biden laid out his plan to combat crime and gun violence in america during a speech he delivered in northeastern pennsylvania yesterday.

dubbed the safer america plan it calls for more funding to recruit and train police, investment in services to address the root causes of crime, and common sense gun measures, such as comprehensive background checks and a ban on assault weapons and hypha capacity magazines. the president defended the fbi against recent attacks and blasted so-called maga republicans for siding with january 6th rioters over law enforcement. >> when it comes to public safety in this nation, the answer is not defund the police, it's fund the police. the point is we ask so much of you, so much of you, i have not met a cop who likes a bad cop. there's bad in everything. lousy senators, lousy

presidents, lousy doctors, lousy lawyers. no, i'm serious. but i don't know any police officer that feels good about the fact at that there might be a lousy cop. i'm tired of not giving the help they need. folks, look, we're in a situation in this country where we have to give them additional resources they need to get their job done. so let me say this to my maga republican friends in congress, don't tell me you support law enforcement if you won't condemn what happened on the 6th. don't tell me. can't do it. for god's sake, whose side are you on? whose side are you on?

now it's sickening to see the new attacks on the fbi. threatening life of law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job. look, i'm going to say this as clearly as i k there's no place in this country, no place, for endangering the lives of law enforcement. no place. none, never, period. i'm opposed to defending the police and also opposed to the defunding the fbi. >> that was biden at the first of three stops he'll make in pennsylvania over the next week. and speaking of the keystone state, democratic senate candidate john fetterman won't be participating in a debate next week against his gop rival mehmet oz. fetterman said he is still recovering from a stroke and called out the oz campaign for appearing to mock his recovery.

the oz campaign had released a list of concessions it would be willing to make if fetterman would participate. such as paying for any additional medical personnel he might need on standby, permitting fetterman bathroom breaks and allowing him to have his notes in front of him along with a, quote, ear piece so he can have the answers given to him by his staff in realtime. pretty lowsome. fetterman wrote my recovery may be a joke to dr. oz and his team, but it's real for me. he added, i will not be participating in a debate the first week of september but look forward to having a productive discussion about how to move forward and have a real conversation on this once dr. oz and his team are ready to take this seriously. meanwhile, nasa has announced its new window to attempt the launch the artemis i lieu mar in addition. the debut of nasa's meg rocket was called off due to engine issue on monday. now they're targeting a two-hour

launch window saturday at florida's kennedy space center beginning at 2:17 p.m. eastern time. crews plan to start cooling the engines earlier in the countdown to diagnose any potential problems sooner. if the test flight saturday is called off due to weather, which is a possibility, nasa officials say they could try again on monday, which of course is labor day. still ahead, we shift to sports and the big highlights from the u.s. open as two former champions are already eliminated. meanwhile, yankees slugger aaron judge continues his march towards roger marris. that's next on "way too early." ♪♪ o early. ♪ i'm mark and i live in vero beach, florida. my wife and i have three children. ruthann and i like to hike. we eat healthy. we exercise. i noticed i wasn't as sharp as i used to be. my wife introduced me to prevagen and so i said "yeah, i'll try it out." i noticed that i felt sharper,

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return to new york city last night, rallying to a four-set first-round victory under the lights of arthur ashe stadium. three years after he left the u.s. open with a trophy. he's the biggest name on the board. on the women's side, emma raducanu, u.s. open title defense is over after just one round. the 19-year-old brit unable to replicate last year's storybook run, stunningly falling in straight sets against kor nay. two-time u.s. open champ naomi champ also gone, losing in the first round of a second-straight major tournament. that's 19th seeded american danielle collins advancing in straight sets by defeating osaka. let's go just across the park lot, also in queens, major league baseball at citi field, the visiting dodgers beat the mets 4-3. this may be an nlcs preview.

the dodgers are already boasting the best record in baseball, are now the first team to 90 wins this season. 90 in 38. their magic number to clinch the national league west already down to just 14 games. across the country to anaheim, the new york yankees snapped a three-game skid with a 7-4 win over the halos. aaron judge continuing his march toward roger american league home run record of 61. judge slugged his 51st of the season last night. he has five homers in his last eight games and leads the majors with 113 rbi's. the boston red sox tlost the minnesota twins. time now for the weather and let's go to meteorologist michelle grossman for the forecast. good morning, michelle. how sit looking out there? >> good morning. we're looking at a building heat wave in the west. the major weather story today and also really through early next week, 49 million americans under a heat alert in the west. we have a heat advisory in our

orange. a heat warning that's in the hot pink. that includes los angeles and san diego. we're looking at temperatures climbing into the 90s, climbing into the triple digits, 100 degrees in salt lake city and these temperatures stick around for the rest of the week and really into early next week. we'll see daily records broken monthly records broken and all-time records broken. big contrast in the east, still sticky this morning, new york city, boston seeing rain right now and philly but we'll see humidity levels coming down throughout the day and looking at a nice next few days with temperatures in the low 80s. 70s on friday in boston. jonathan? >> those san francisco temperatures really grab my eye there. their summers there can be in the 60s and 70s. triple digits they're not ready for that. michelle groezman, thank you so much. still ahead on "way too early," a police officer attacked on january 6th testifies against three men who took part in the capitol riot. we'll take a look at what went on in court yesterday.

plus, the latest from ukraine as nuclear inspectors head over to a russian-held power plant amid growing concerns of an atomic accident. we'll also have more on the latest in the doj filing in the mar-a-lago raid. "way too early" will be right back. a-lago raid. "way too early" wille bright back power e*trade's easy-to-use tools like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis help make trading feel effortless and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market with powerful, easy-to-use tools power e*trade makes complex trading easier react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity tide pods ultra oxi one ups the cleaning power of liquid. that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders can it one up whatever they're doing? for sure. seriously? one up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi.

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welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, 2:30 out west. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. a police officer attacked while defending the capitol on january

6th testified yesterday against a rioter charged with assaulting him. metropolitan police officer daniel hodges appeared in court during the trial of three capitol defendants. you may remember this video where you can see officer hodges caught between a door entrance to the capitol and a police shield being used to pin him against the entrance by a rioter. hearing his screams are so difficult all these months later. it's patrick mccoy using the police shield as a weapon against officer hodges. in the year and a half following the attack on the u.s. capitol, more than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the riot. more than 350 defendants have pleaded guilty and more than a dozen have been found guilty at trial. more than a year and a half later, the capitol police are still dealing with the mental strain and other issues caused by the january 6th attack. that's the focus of a new piece out in politico by our next

guest, congressional reporter, nicholas wu. he joins us now. terrific and important story and in the piece you highlight some of the problems still facing the capitol police well more than a year after the attack. what is the largest issue they're facing right now and how and are they, if they are getting the help they need? >> one of the largest issues facing the capitol police now is actually the staffing issue. they've been -- staff are leaving in droves after the january 6th attack. people were overworked. there was the mental strain after the attack and all the lasting injuries and so on from the attack. and so there were hundreds of officers short staffed. what the chief told me yesterday there's still about 200 officers or so short of the number that they're supposed to be at in order to be considered full authorized strength. so part of what they're doing to try to address that is they

bumped up pay for officers. there was a hiring bonus and trying to improve retention for officers too. there's a new wellness center, for example, that was stood up in the aftermath of january 6th. and named actually for the capitol police officer who died by suicide after the attack. all in an effort to make sure that officers are taken care of. >> so nicholas, you also, of course, have been following all the developments surrounding the fbi's search at mar-a-lago, the former president's estate and last night just about midnight doj put out this filing including this extraordinary photograph of top secret materials that they say they recovered at mar-a-lago, some of which hidden, not where the trump representatives had said it would be. what were some of your key take aways as you had now a little bit of time to read from the filing last night? >> what we saw really was doj took this opportunity to present some of the evidence or some of the arguments that underlaid why

they chose to seek a search warrant in the very first place. we saw the doj show that they believe that trump was taking efforts to conceal these documents, right? doj said they found some of these documents in a desk drawer, for example, at mar-a-lago and co-mingled around other nonclassified documents, right? we see in the picture that doj released, for example, next to these classified documents there's a copy of "time" magazine, right? and so, that was one of my main take aways here. and the other one would be just simply how the trump team almost ered in a little bit in causing all of this. right? if the trump team had not sued to try to appoint this so-called special master, right, to filter out these documents and to get things back to the former president, there wouldn't have been an opportunity in the first place for doj to present all of this. >> yeah. and that picture you mentioned released by doj last night,

classified documents, "time" magazine, sort of the perfect trump tableau if you will. we know how obsessed he was with that magazine's cover. nicholas wu, thank you for being with us. we'll be joined by cnbc for the latest on wall street. the markets are mostly flat before the bell continuing a rough stretch that began friday. we're back with that in just a moment. friday. we're back with that in just a moment listen, i'm done settling. because this is my secret. i put it on once, no more touch ups!

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each lost about 1.1%. the dow jones not far behind losing about 1%. we also saw plunge in the oil price yesterday, brent and wti both dropped about 5.5%. and it looks as though today is going to be another down day for the price of oil. a lot of recession concerns swirling around. in terms of the day ahead, the data wise, we have the u.s. adp rofrt of private payrolls for august coming out. of course that's ahead of the all-important nonfarm payrolls on friday. we also have chicago manufacturing survey to look out for the month of august as well as fresh fed commentary. >> and worrisome eurozone inflation numbers as well. we've got also a wave of layoffs sweeping across american businesses in the past year. what's the latest you can tell us on that? >> well, the latest big headline around this is from snap. news came yesterday report from

verg snap will lay off 20% of staff, 1,000 employees. at the same time, two senior executives from the company are heading for the exit and they're making their way to netflix. now, it's been a difficult year for snap. you'll remember back when the company delivered q2 results shares dropped more than 25% in a single day. the company missed on both the profit and revenue lines. and those disappointing results kick started a wave of selling and a wave of disappointing earnings from a number of companies in the social media space due in large part to weak online advertising revenues. year to date, snap shares are down nearly 80%. >> and then as summer winds down and fall approaches, there's been a lot of discussion among businesses about trying to get workers back to offices. and goldman sachs yesterday raised eyebrows with this. set to scrap remaining covid-19 restrictions for employees at their u.s. offices saying

everyone has to get back to work. what prompted this move? do we think others will follow suit? >> well, let me give you some insight into what this memo said. a memo from goldman sachs that was obtained by cnbc. goldman's will lift all its covid-19 requirements in most offices from september 6th. now what does this sneen the bank will no longer require workers to be vaccinated to enter its offices or to test or wear face coverings except for those in lima and new york city. so new york, of course, a big hub for the investment bank. unvaccinated employees in new york city still need an approved exception. the bank wasn't explicit in its return to office policies, simply encouraging employees who have not come into the office in a regular basis to touch base with their managers. >> coming at a moment where cases started to decline in the u.s. but health officials

warning about a potential wave this fall or winter. cnbc's julianna tatelbaum, thank you for joining us today. still ahead, we've got important updates from ukraine, including the nuclear watchdog team that has finally made its way to a critical power plant. plus, we'll hear from two u.s. senators who were on the ground in the war torn country. "way too early" will be right back. ntry "way too early" will be right back announcer: type 2 diabetes? discover the power of 3 in the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. announcer: ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles.

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as the war continues to rage in ukraine, two u.s. senators visited kyiv yesterday to reaffirm america's commitment to the battered country. democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota and rob portman of ohio also met with president volodymyr zelenskyy and held a meeting with the ukrainian defense minister. the two then visited bucha where russia accused of committing war crimes. speaking to nbc news, this is how both senators summed up the situation on the ground. >> no one ever thought this was

going to be easy, certainly not the ukrainian people. but they have stunned the world as we told president zelenskyy and in terms of their bravery and their courage. and it just makes you realize that you can stand up to bullies, but you have to do it and you have to go to your friends. and wouldn't be where we are right now if it wasn't for the bravery of the ukrainian people. >> i say the sanctions need to be tightened significantly. the best place to look right now is to europe. europe made a commitment to cut off energy from russia. they have done so as of this month. with regard to coal said they will do it with regard to oil and gas next year. it's essential. >> a team from the atopic energy agency is going to inspect damage at russian-occupied nuclear power plant that sparked international fears of a possible radiation leak. the u.n. nuclear watchdog team arrived in kyiv yesterday and

met with president zelenskyy. the team of over 14 experts is confronted by one of the most complicated missions in the agency's history. the site is largest atomic plant and become a key battleground in the war with russia and ukraine accusing each other of attacks that threaten the stability of its reactors. it was captured by russian troops in march but is still operated by ukrainian staff. joining us now live from kyiv is national security reporter at "the washington post" our friend john hudson. john, thanks for being with us this morning. let's start there with that power plant. what could happen if u.n. inspectors do find damage and evidence of or potential for radiation exposure? and how do we see how putin views this plant? it seems like he's using it as a weapon of war. >> yeah. that's exactly right. ukrainian officials believe that putin has used this plant and basically taken the ukrainians

hostage. they believe they are firing from the plant on to ukrainian positions. really everything about this situation is unprecedented, john. the ieae director gave a short press conference this morning in kyiv just before he piled into a convoy of armored trucks and vehicles and went his way over there. he wants to figure out what's going on and what they can do to stabilize the situation. the important thing to remember, this visit is basically six months in the making. and everything about it is unusual. he's headed into one of the most contested areas in this war. there is constant shelling happening all of the time. he's going to try to get there. what he said this morning is he wants to speak to the ukrainian workers at the staff. two of these workers have died in the last month, related to shelling and violence that happened around the city where the plant is there. the power has gone out.

there have been blackouts, been disconnections. there is so much chaos and there's also so much competing accusations from the russians from the ukrainians that no one really knows what's going on. finally there's going to be an international authority that can go in there and figure out what's there and devise exactly these questions you just asked, what is the russian's intent. what are they doing? what type of nuclear blackmail is this if that is the right way to portray that. all of those questions are going to be some of the things that they're looking into. there will be a multi-day visit and they want to set up a permanent monitoring mission that lasts beyond the time that they're able to just be in country. >> extraordinarily important mission, the convoy of the specials themselves potential target, though, for russian violence. john, while ukraine has certainly outgunned and outmanned, they countered with some creative ways to stop russian forces. you wrote about one in particular in your latest piece.

walk us through it. >> yeah, exactly. what you are seeing in this battle and the six months of war is the ukrainians using some extremely unconventional ways of warfare, including the construction of decoys of u.s.-made artillery. including these very critical long-range rocket systems that the biden administration has been sending over. these weapons have been identified by russians as critical to winning the war. the ukrainians have started to build ones out of wood that from the viewpoint of drones flying overhead, they look like the real thing. and so the russians have been wasting very expensive long-range precision guided cruise missiles. and they are running out of those cruise missiles. and so the ukrainians are starting to expand the strategy according to ukrainian officials i talked to, who showed me this

exclusively. including a photograph of the decoys that they've created. it's part of the strategies that ukrainian officials have said is key to winning the war. a small soviet army cannot be a big soviet army. so they think they have to fight in new and creative ways that we haven't seen before in order to win. they've got a long road ahead. they've got a huge amount of challenges but this is one particularly creative way they're putting into force. in hopes of getting an edge on the kremlin. >> yeah, remarkably creativity there. extraordinary story. "the washington post's" john hudson, thank you and stay safe there in kyiv. meanwhile, more than 1,000 people including over 350 children have been killed this year by monsoon rains and flooding in pakistan. the pakistani army is helping with rescue and relief operations as the government pleads to international aid. more than 1 billion homes have been destroyed and more than 500 million people are in

displacement camps. pakistan typically sees two or three rain cycles during monsoon season, so far this year, they've seen 18. it's the extreme result of climate change. the united states says it will provide $30 million in humanitarian assistance. up next, republican candidates around the country are trying to scrub some of their hard line stances they took during the primaries. coming up on "morning joe," president biden portrays the democrats as the true law enforcement party ahead of the midterms. we'll hear from the democratic caucus congressman hakeem jeffries plan. plus, more analysis on the justice department's midnight filing on the mar-a-lago search and what it reveals into the investigation of the former president. "morning joe" is just a few moments away. ne! (nurse) wait... did you say verizon for just $30? (mom) it's their best unlimited price ever.

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today? >> good morning, jonathan. we have interesting reporting that's looking at republican candidates across the country. are, you know, severely walking back a lot of their most sharp and strongest rhetoric on andy abortion. and their anti-abortion stances. we're seeing this in places like pennsylvania, arizona, north carolina, michigan. several empire states as well. where a lot of these candidates, a senate candidate blake masters in arizona who has really leaned hard into the abortion debate early on. and i think in a way, too, attracted many primary voters, are starting to walk that back. and it's a really interesting time that we're seeing this happen because i think a lot of republicans and even many democrats thought that abortion was a big issue but they didn't think it would be as big an issue as they're seeing ahead of the midterms. and it's become a base fuelling issue. we saw that play out in the new york 19 race last week where

pat ryan who was not expected to win by many standards really used abortion as a centerpiece of his campaign. and cruised to victory in a very surprise win. and then we've also been seeing a lot of candidates lean into abortion as well. and the wins in kansas speak a big way for them to make some gains. so, i think a lot of these candidates are getting nervous. we see this often, a lot of people tend to go to the right of primaries and walk their rhetoric back ahead of general elections but the gymnastics that we're almost seeing right now with these republican candidates is really interesting and i think different. i think a lot of democrats as we spoke with the democratic central committee and the dccc, walking back the sharpest rhetoric ahead of november. >> and polling suggests that the worst issue for democrats and republicans at the moment. pennsylvania has become the

epicenter of politics for this week. obviously, there's a senate race there. governor race as well. the state is getting visits in the coming days from both president biden there yesterday and coming twice more before the week is out. as well as donald trump who is going to have a rally but they arrive in very different places. biden on a hot streak here that he has put up a number of legislative wins over the last few months. tomorrow night, we're going to hear from him, prime time address to lay out in the case in upcoming midterms painting republicans as a threat to democracy itself and now trump and a really interesting investigation of the doj and search for mar-a-lago. what are you expecting to see from these two men? >> it's interesting it's giving deja vu back to 2020 and foreshadowing to 2024. we're seeing biden, you're right, he's on a hot streak that he hasn't been. in several months we're seeing

his polls go up, popularity, throat% to 44%. i think a lot of that has to do with the legislative successes he's seen over the summer. and he's really starting to lean in hard to political campaigning. we saw him start this last week on thursday. calling out donald trump and really maga republicans across the country trying to paint the republican party as far right, you know, trump sycophant party. and it's looking like it could be a successful strategy of his. i think we're going to continue to see that throughout his time in pennsylvania. we saw that yesterday, in his first stop in wilkes-barre. and i think we can anticipate that again tomorrow and throughout the week. and also in pittsburgh over the labor day. where he's really going to be trying to paint republicans overall as the party of trump. meanwhile, trump doing the exact opposite. going after biden, going after democrats. i think we can very much expect him to say he's a victim of what's been happening with the doj investigation. he's been very eager to get

ahead of that. but even so, it's looking like these investigations aren't doing a lot for him. and it's an interesting split screen we're seeing in pennsylvania right now. >> in recent years august has been traditionally troublesome for presidents, biden, trump, and this august. thanks for all of you for getting up "way too early" on this wednesday morning. a jam-packed "morning joe" starts right now. >> let me say this to my maga republican friends in congress, don't tell me to support law enforcement if you won't condemn what happened on the 6th. don't tell me. can't do it. for god's sake, whose side are you on?