Simone Sanders Townsend and I have known each other for more than a decade, tussling over politics and policy when she worked in the White House and I reported on it. And now we're friends and colleagues and on our podcast, Clock It, we are positioning ourselves at the intersection of culture and politics. Clock It is where we talk about what we see and hear in the news so you can start to Clock It too. Clock It with Simone Eugene. All episodes available now. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Wednesday, April 8th. We have a lot to get to this morning, including the two weeks ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran announced last night by President Trump. We'll dig into details of that truce and if it could lead to a permanent deal to end the war. Last night's announcement is having a major impact on the markets and oil prices, which are now under $100 a barrel. But the question is, will Americans see relief at the gas pump anytime soon? Plus, JD Vance continues to campaign for an autograph in Eastern Europe, delivering a stump speech that resembled something you would hear at a MAGA rally in a red state. We'll bring you the latest with a live report from Budapest. With us, we have the co-host of our 9 a.m. hour, staff writer at The Atlantic, Jonathan Lamere, columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, David Ignatius is with us, managing editor at The Bull Work, Sam Stein, otherwise known as the Easter Bunny, opinion columnist for The New York Times, David French, and former White House official into President Biden, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, who is an MSNOW national security analyst. So a lot to get to this morning, Willie, including how we're back to exactly kind of where we were with the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah, that's right. After nearly 40 days of fighting now, the United States and Iran have agreed to a two week ceasefire. President Trump announced the agreement on social media last night, just about an hour before his self-imposed deadline for Iran to come to a deal or face the obliteration of its infrastructure. And in the president's words, its whole civilization. Trump said at the urging of Pakistani mediators, he would withhold his threatened apocalyptic attacks on Iran for two weeks, subject to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials accepted the ceasefire with the foreign minister there saying, passage through the Strait would be possible via coordination with the Iranian military. The pause now buys both sides some time to try to reach a permanent end to the war. Israel, meanwhile, agreed to suspend strikes on Iran, but is insisting the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, issuing an evacuation order for a southern city there just this morning. Missile alerts also continue to sound in several Gulf states in the hours after the deal was reached. In assigned ceasefire orders may not yet have filtered down to some Iranian forces. David Ignatius, let's start with you and pause here for just a moment. We all agree that a cessation of attacks on both sides for now is good for two weeks. But to what end? Are there real negotiations going on? And now with Iran still effectively controlling the Straits, but just letting ships through for a couple of weeks, does this look like progress to you? So, Willie, without question, there is a sigh of relief. I think it was felt around the world that we've moved from this extraordinary threat to wipe out a civilization to a process of discussion that's said to begin Friday in Islamabad and acceptance by both sides of basic terms. The problem, as always in negotiation, is the ambiguity of the two sides' positions. President Trump has said that the Iranian 10-point proposal for resolving this conflict for a ceasefire is a workable basis for negotiation. But when you look carefully at it, there are a number of items that the U.S. is going to have trouble with. And it's striking, 40 days into this conflict, the U.S. has gone from demanding unconditional surrender from Iran to basically working on the Iranian term sheet for a settlement. That's going to lead to a lot of bumps in the road ahead. Also, there's going to be so much discussion about whether Donald Trump's rhetorical style, his wild threats, ended up harming the U.S. position in global opinion. Hopefully, O called it totally unacceptable in the last hours before Trump decided to accept negotiation. Or whether, as I'm sure in Trump's mind, it was part of forcing Iran into finally accepting a negotiated structure. And then lastly, what exactly has happened in terms of reopening the Strait of Hormuz? That's the key issue in terms of the global economy. Iran is saying that it will work with Oman across the Strait on a system to allow a shipping in and out. But it also talks about the two of them collecting tolls, revenues. That's going to be something that will be very hard to negotiate. But the details now are to be worked out. This is the kind of negotiation that could easily collapse because of differences you can already see. But again, the financial markets are telling us there's generally a sense of enormous relief. Admiral Kirby is kind of an extraordinary headline in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Trump backs off threat to level Iran. That's where we were entering this negotiation in a two-week cease-fire that he had said, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again from the United States president. That drew criticism from some Republicans, not many. But your sense of where things are now and what these two weeks by in terms of finding a permanent end to the war? Well, that's the big question, isn't it? I mean, the three things I'm watching and David covered a little bit was, will the cease-fire hold? That's an open question, Willie, because there's not a great history here. The last time Israel and Iran earlier this year declared the cease-fire, they were still slugging it out because the command and control systems in Iran are not well established after 40 days of war here. And the IRGC operates kind of independently. So we got to see whether that holds. Number two is, as David said, we got to see what the straight opening looks like. And it's important for folks to remember that before this war, the straight was well open and was something between 100 and 135 ships were transiting that straight every single day without molestation, without having to pay any tolls, without any checking in with the Iranian military. So the straight, though it may be open, will be restricted and that will affect the flow of oil. And then number three, of course, is where these talks go in Pakistan and Islamabad. And that's a very, very open question. What I'm concerned about or what I'm looking for here is when we get to peace talks, what will be the role of the IRGC and the regime going forward? Are we just leaving them in power? And with what capability will they be left with? Because although a lot of it has been degraded over 40 days, it has not been eliminated. Their ability to threaten their neighbors still exists. And so what's that going to look like at the end of these peace talks? So President Trump says the two weeks he's spire will give the United States and Iran time to finalize a peace agreement. But as David Ignatius and Admiral Kirby discussed, there are significant sticking points among Iran's 10-point proposal for peace. So that's the U.S. would guarantee a complete end to all strikes against Iran on a permanent basis. Frozen Iranian assets would be returned to the regime. Sanctions would be lifted. American combat forces would be withdrawn from the region. Israeli operations would cease in Lebanon and against other Iranian allies. Iran and Oman would collect fees from passing cargo ships to help rebuild. And the United Nations would pass a binding resolution affirming those details. Still a significant unanswered question revolves around the status of Iran's nuclear program. And those details are not clear. What do you make of this plan and how acceptable it might be? Well, there are some real sticking points also in the Farsi version of this. In the language in Iran, there is mention of keeping some Iranian enrichment capabilities, which President Trump has said is a no-go. So there's really work to do this weekend. And there's also, of course, the fact of the matter, the Strait of Hormuz, as just mentioned, was prior to this conflict open and ships used it. And what has at the end... Without a toll. Without overseers. Right. With this outcome, at least for now, Iran has increased their control over the Strait of Hormuz. And has now learned that they can turn that spigot on and off. That gives them an extraordinary amount of leverage over the world's energy supply and, of course, the United States. So these are significant obstacles that still need to be cleared, even as the ceasefire now starts. And, David French, let's talk a little bit about how we got here. The president is posting yesterday morning. We dealt with it in real time on air. Should not be glossed over here. The language there was a war crime. It threatens war crime. It threatened genocidal-like behavior. It is the kind of language, as I said yesterday, associated with the monsters of history, to wipe out a civilization. That's simply not how presidents speak. That's not how leaders of democracies speak. Now, Trump, he'd say, well, that was part of the plan, the art of the deal. There was that kind of bellicose language that got Iran to the table. Perhaps that's true. Perhaps not. But not only are we not sure what that deal looks like, I think we also need to grapple with. The military is something that will leave a stain on the White House, the legacy of this president, but also how the US is viewed throughout the world. And particularly in that region in Iran, where certainly a vengeful regime someday could still lash out. Yeah, I'm going to use a phrase that was popularized after World War I to distinguish the tactical brilliance and courage of service members from the absolute failure of strategic leadership by the political leadership. And that phrase, and a lot of folks who are listening or watching will be familiar with it, is Lions led by donkeys. And what that means is you have a military here, a United States military, that is tactically brilliant, that has accomplished remarkable things in its missions, particularly we saw this incredible rescue over Easter weekend of a downed pilot deep in Iran. Just a remarkable accomplishment by the military. But all of that tactical brilliance has been in service of a man who's unstable, who's unhinged, who had no real strategic vision, obviously, given all of the different contradictory war aims he's announced and war objectives that he said have been achieved or not achieved. And then it culminates in this, what is truly a horrible episode. And I don't want to hear a single person say, oh, don't pay attention to this. This is just a negotiating tactic. The man wasn't just threatening war crimes. The man was threatening actions that have constituted the basis of allegations that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in the nation of Ukraine. He is promising an infrastructure campaign, arguably even more comprehensive and more deadly than what Vladimir Putin has tried against Ukraine. This is a stain on the United States of America. It's an absolute stain. And then to end it with this two week ceasefire, which the world is rightfully breathing a sigh of relief, but it never should have been in this position to begin with. And the terms of that ceasefire seem to be completely up in the air. Monitoring it overnight, you could see there was no consensus about what the terms were, how this was going to be worked out. And everyone's right. As of right now, Iran is left with greater control over the Strait of Hormuz than it had before, with potential to receive even greater financial rewards that could be used to reconstitute all of the equipment that it has lost. So right now the American people should be demanding answers through Congress from this president. How do we reach a point where an American president in charge of the American military seems to be on the verge of ordering them to commit some of those clearly obvious war crimes in modern history? That's what we were facing. And we should not sugarcoat any element of this because at the very last moment the order was not given, that this unbelievably unlawful order was not given. And now we're left in a state of total strategic ambiguity where Iran, weirdly enough, could come out of this in a stronger geostrategic position in spite of all of the damage done to its military than it had before. This is a stunning development. Sam Stein. Well, I mean, I would just further that. This was not a cost-free four weeks. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars on munitions to stockpiles depleted. There are 13 service members who have died. There are thousands of Iranians who have died. A elementary school was bombed in Iran. Infrastructure critical, energy infrastructure in a number of states was damaged or completely ruined that has to now be reconstituted. And then, as David mentions, all the other stuff, reopening the strait, it's not going to happen. Now we have to apparently have a surcharge on the ships. So I go out about the stuff and I know people like to pile on Trump in these moments and say, well, he taco'd and he was always going to taco. And I just think that's just the wrong framework because it's not about chickening out. This brinksmanship, and I guess I should ask David about this, this brinksmanship has real tangible costs, real costs, a substantial cost, not just over the past four weeks, but going forward. I mean, how do any Gulf state allies, how do they rearrange their geopolitical thinking around this? What are the Europeans ever going to trust us again when we said to them, you have to go reopen the strait? I mean, how does this reorient the global world in a matter of just four weeks? So I think this does add to new questions about American leadership. I think European and Asian countries will come away, believed at what we hope will be some kind of patched together settlement. Less confident that America has a clear strategic direction. It will mean that the Arab Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain will be under what will be more or less permanent threat, potential threat in coming years from Iran. Contrary to the President Trump's claims that there's been a kind of regime change because there's a new cast of characters in Tehran. I look at this as regime reinforcement. Right. I mean, Iran has taken America's and Israel's best punch and is still standing, still negotiating. You know, the talk of unconditional surrender has been replaced. They are mocking us right now. And I just make one final point that many of the initial analyses kind of bumped over. President Trump affirmed that China played an important role with Pakistan, its close ally, in framing the terms of what appears to be the initial settlement proposal. That's a big diplomatic step forward for China. And we'll see in coming weeks whether China is going to be in effect a co-guarantor of the settlement. That would be a different world where a major conflict has a key Chinese role in settling it. So Admiral Kirby, Iran, they're not gleeful at the moment, but they do, as David and others have been saying, do feel like they've taken the United States' punch over the last 40 days and still standing in many ways. So what is, you think about this two-week ceasefire, the President says, hopefully within these two weeks, they come to a permanent end to the war and that he will not have to end the civilization, as he put it. What is the best possible outcome now under the current state of play for the United States? How do you see this playing out in the best way for the U.S.? How does this end well? Well, I mean, the best way that it would end in my mind is that you don't leave the regime in power here and that you have some sort of guarantees about how and in what way they will be able to exert military power in the region and to what degree they can be limited in terms of the threats that they pose. But honestly, Willie, I'm just, I mean, I'm pessimistic about us getting to that kind of point. What appears to be the case going forward here is that the regime will stay in power. And as everybody has said, it's not a less radical regime than the one before. It's different, but it's still a theocratic, aggressive regime and I worry that they're going to be left in power. And what does that mean? And this is something that's been bugging me now for a few days. What does all this mean for the Iranian people? I never heard the president once mention the Iranian people and his speech in the White House last week. And I've heard little about what the future looks like for them in the last 48 hours. So when we get to a peace deal, if we get to a peace deal, I'm going to be looking for post-conflict governance and how the needs of the Iranian people are going to be met. Some 3 million of them are displaced in the country right now. Infrastructure, buildings ruined. What does reconstruction look like? So the best possible scenario for me would be a stable regime that is responsible and is responsive to the needs of the Iranian people going forward. And I'm just I'm afraid I'm not seeing signs of that right now. And Mika, on the question of regime change, there's an extraordinary piece we're going to dig into on the front page of the New York Times from Maggie Haverman and Jonathan Swan about how Trump took the U.S. to war. And in some of these meetings, you had the CIA director telling the president of the United States the idea of regime change was, quote, farcical with Secretary of State Rubio stepping in and saying what he's saying, Mr. President, is that idea is BS. Wow. OK. We'll get to that. MSNOW, National Security Analyst, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, thank you so much for getting up early for us. Good to see you again. And still ahead on Morning Joe, we'll have much more on Iran, including that new reporting Willie just mentioned on what went on behind the scenes within the White House ahead of President Trump's decision to go to war. Also ahead, we'll turn to Vice President J.D. Vance's trip to Hungary, where he's looking to bolster Prime Minister and authoritarian leader Viktor Orban's reelection chances. We'll get a live report from Budapest. And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers' forecast this morning from AccuWeather's Bernie Reino. Bernie, how's it looking? Burr! It is cold this morning, Nika, but your exclusive AccuWeather forecast shows sunshine, less wind, lingering chill, Portland, Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C. Here comes warmer air, Pittsburgh toward Indianapolis, sunshine, some clouds from Texas toward the Carolinas, including Atlanta and Charlotte, Watchtamp or Orlando and Miami, though. That's where there's going to be some thunderstorms and some travel delays today. The rest of the East Coast looking great. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the AccuWeather app, enjoy Wednesday, and as always, with a view. Listen to your favorite MS Now shows anytime as a podcast. Enjoy new episodes of Morning Joe, Deadline White House, and the Rachel Maddow show. Every small D Democratic muscle that we have is flexing. Plus the last word with Laurence O'Donnell, the beat with Ari Melbour, The Weeknight, and more. On the go, wherever you get your podcasts. Or add free listening to all of your favorite shows. Subscribe to MS Now Premium on Apple Podcasts. Vice President JD Vance is still in Hungary this morning ahead of this weekend's high stakes elections there. Vance has been campaigning for Prime Minister Viktor Orman on the ground in Budapest, even dialing up President Trump yesterday who joined in on the praise for the authoritarian leader. Well, I just want to tell you, I'm a big fan of Viktor. I'm with him all the way. The United States is with him all the way. And it's a real honor to talk to you. You're really incredible people with great enthusiasm and brilliance because you're brilliant people. I really love it. Yeah, but man, that kept your country strong and he kept your country good and you don't have problems with all of the problems that so many other countries have because they left their countries be invaded. Will you stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels? Will you stand for sovereignty and democracy? Will you stand for Western civilization? Will you stand for freedom, for truth and for the God of our fathers? Then my friends, go to the polls in the weekend, stand with Viktor Orman because he stands for you and he stands for all these things. God bless Hungary and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. All right, before we go to our reporter on the ground, David French, I mean, at times like this, I like to take a look at what Trump adjacent networks are saying, like, how do they talk about being on the brink of decimated a civilization and Vance doing what he was doing? And I noticed one broadcast that danced around the Iran issue with word salad and then quickly mentioned perhaps we want to get to this situation with Vance because it's troubling, but then proceeded to do the rest of their show about Gavin Newsen's woke wife and how you have to show ID at the Obama Center. So avoidance was the way they got around moments like this, but moments like this can't be ignored. Tell us your thoughts about what we just saw. Yeah, what we saw was extraordinary. And if you're wondering why would a vice president of the United States and a president of the United States try to intervene in an election of one of the least powerful countries in Europe, Hungary, this is not a European power by any means. You have to understand the outsized role that Victor Orban has in the imagination of part of the American right that he's not, in their view, some small time wannabe autocrat of a small European country. No, to them, he is the vanguard of a sweeping global change and the very identity of Western leadership. And if he is ousted from office, a lot of the whole proof of concept of the entire sort of international right wing revolution just starts to falter in much the same way the whole vibe shift that existed after the November 2024 election, when a lot of MAGA thought that they were on the cusp of large scale permanent change in the United States of America is evaporating before our eyes in the U.S. as the Democrats just consistently overperform and overperform in election after election. This what's happening in Hungary is very much connected to how parts of MAGA, especially sort of the intellectual post liberal right in MAGA sees itself and sees its hopes for the future. And so if Victor Orban is a here today, gone tomorrow, small time European politician, well then he's of no consequence. But if he can keep winning and arguably translate that into wider gains for sort of the populist reactionary right around the world, then he's on the cusp of something. He's on the wave of beginning of the wave of something. But it's becoming very clear right now that the populist energy is dissipating, that the Trump movement has squandered all of the momentum it had after the November elections, and that is bringing us chaos far more than any sort of revolutionary new Western order. All right. Joining us live from Budapest, Hungary. MSNOW, International Reporter in Nesta, La Quaterra. And that's what's the reaction in the region to Vice President Vance's visit and President Trump's praise. Yes, so it depends who you talk to. If you talk to Peter Major Orban's big opponent in this election, he has been clear that he feels Vance campaigning for Orban is a form of foreign election interference. Ironically, Vance says that it's the European Union that's been meddling in Hungarian affairs by withholding funding from Hungary because they don't agree with some of Orban's policies. But yeah, a full-throated endorsement of Viktor Orban by the U.S. Vice President, and you heard it there, it wasn't just him. It was also President Trump calling into that rally, talking about how he loves Orban, how Orban has done great things for Hungary. Orban, of course, a very controversial figure, someone who's been repeatedly at odds with the European Union over things like corruption, like Russia, like Ukraine. He's actually maintained a very close relationship with the Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout the war in Ukraine. He's also blocked financial aid to Ukraine. And he is Europe's longest-serving leader. He's been in power for 16 years, pretty much unchallenged. But that is changing now with Peter Major really emerging as a stern competition for Orban. Now, we'll see if Orban manages to close the gap. A lot of polls do show Major leading in a lot of those polls. But Orban has been trying to close the gap by campaigning, for example, with Vance. It's unclear whether that will really help him, though. We should point out that part of the reason that Major has been leading is because of domestic political issues. So things like corruption, like the economy, the fact that Hungary has the third lowest wages in the European Union. We did talk to a political analyst here about all of this and whether Vance could actually help Orban. I'll let you listen to what she had to say. Viktor Orban built up his narrative as a global leader. So obviously, Vance's visit is a big shot for him. On the other hand, the opposition and a lot of disappointed Hungarians are really fed up with Orban as such, with all his global glory, because of the governance is really not working in Hungary any longer. So there is a very strong local focus of the campaign of the opposition. So we don't really know whether this actually matters so much. And so there is a sense that if Orban does lose this election, it could signify the beginning of the end of the rise of populism in Europe. And I think the fact that you're seeing Vance here taking time out of his busy schedule, even as they're trying to figure everything out with Iran, goes to show that MAGA World really cares about what this might mean for Hungary, for Europe, but also for themselves, for the MAGA movement and for populism more broadly. And that's now International Reporter Inez Delacuatera reporting live from Budapest, Hungary this morning. Inez, thanks so much. Let's bring in editor at the inside of Michael Weiss for more on the election, as well as his new reporting about Hungary's foreign minister and his ties to Russia. Michael, always great to see you. You've been listening to this reporting coming out of Hungary. I'm curious. One of the things that stood out to a lot of people yesterday was at that rally was Vice President Vance heralding Orban as this great statesman who's trying to broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, when in fact he's doing exactly the opposite. He's standing in the way of many of the things that would bring an end to the war. So can you just kind of take a step back because this is sort of your beat and explain Hungary's role in that war, his close ties to Putin and what it means to have the American Vice President there rallying on his behalf? So Hungary at the very start of this is wholly reliant on Russian gas and energy, you know, to keep the lights on. So Hungary basically is paying Russia to facilitate its own war machinery in Ukraine. From the very start Hungary has said this war was unnecessary, it's really the fault of the West and the United States and the European Union. We don't support Ukraine, we have to do a deal with the Kremlin. His entire campaign this election, I mean again Hungary is an economic ruin, you said, you know, the third smallest level of wages in all of Europe and the rest of it. The entire campaign platform has been Ukraine is this bugbear, right? They are the ones that are trying to bring chaos and subversion to Hungary. If you vote for the opposition, Peter Magyar, it's going to lead to World War III. However, the reporting that we have, and this is, we have receipts, we have intercepts between Viktor Orban's foreign minister Peter Siyarto and the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. These intercepts show really a conspiracy. One European intelligence official that we queried said, listening to the two of them talk, it's like Lavrov is a case officer handling an agent in the field. What do they show? The latest disclosures that we have, which is going to go up online at V-square in about half an hour, show that when the European Union was negotiating Ukraine's accession talks, you know, Ukraine wants to join the EU very forcefully. Also the accession talks from Moldova, another impoverished nation in Europe. Siyarto would step out of the meeting, call Lavrov, and give him a play-by-play of how Hungary was threatening to block, you know, financial aid to Ukraine, doing everything it could to stop that accession. There's a direct quote that Lavrov tells again, that through the Hungarian foreign minister, says Peter, sometimes goodwill direct blackmailing is the best option. Now this is one of several phone calls of this nature. They also discussed the famous Alaska summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. In this instance, it was Siyarto querying Lavrov for information about how badly did this go, because in Europe, you know, there's high dudgeon about the, you know, the Russians basically eating the Americans lunch and selling Ukraine down the river. Lavrov was reassuring him that things are going well. I mean, again, it is a weird conspiracy, because Hungary is not only a member of the European Union, it is also a member of NATO. And one of the things that they volunteered themselves to do was to block any aid packages, any sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine, using the same rhetoric, the same narratives that the Kremlin has used from the beginning, the root causes of the war. Certainly the conflict between Russian Ukraine, shadows of selection, you know, Orban is trying to paint Zelensky as sort of a villain in this somehow. We heard even Vance, the vice president of the United States, suggested Ukraine trying to interfere with the election there. When we know, of course, Russia has a long history of interference with elections. What do we know about what they're trying to do now to prop up Orban in these last days of the campaign? And what are your concerns? If the polls are right and Orban loses, what happens next? So it's kind of a short note. You have the vice president of the United States in Budapest. You know who else is in Budapest, according to our reporting? GRU officers, Russian military intelligence operatives, so-called political technologists, which is a Russian term of art for people who fix elections and so disinformation and push social media-born narratives. Sounds familiar. These are the guys that did the same thing in 2016 in our election. You have the vice president of the United States singing from the same hymn sheet as Russian military intelligence, the same organization that goes around the world poisoning dissidents, blowing up ammunition depots, interfering in other sovereign democracies, including our own, and using the same exact narrative, right? Ukraine is the enemy. Ukrainian intelligence is responsible for trying to sway this election, not the Russians and not even, you know, the United States. My fear, the fear of our colleagues at V Square, including, by the way, one of my colleagues who the Hungarians have opened an investigation into because of this reporting, alleging that he is a foreign spy, he is on the Ukrainian payroll, is that Orban loses and loses dramatically, but doesn't leave, doesn't want to go quietly, and then what happens? You know, a revolution in the streets, the Hungarians are not going to take this lying down. And if this turns bloody, if this turns violent, if the Russians intercede in some manner, where does that leave Hungary? Again, a member of NATO and a member of the European Union, they could have their rights at the EU suspended permanently for trying to steal an election like this. I wonder where Republicans are in this. I mean, this is so Trumpian, way out in the open, way out in the open. JD Vance, and it's going to require people to recognize what is happening. A lot of people want to just get through the week, you know, do their jobs and figure out how to pay for gas, Sam Stein. Yeah, look, I couldn't be, I couldn't ignore the dichotomy here of JD Vance across the globe doing campaigning for a foreign autocrat. As we have, I mean, there's not like an absence of domestic elections happening. We had elections last night in Marjorie Taylor Greene's old district. He is not working domestic politics right now. He's out overseas, which gives you a sense of how the Trump administration views the importance of this election. I do share Michael's concerns about what happens if the polls do project correctly, and there is an outcome that Orban and the Russians don't like. But I guess, and David, this is for you as well. It does sort of raise questions about the status of the US-Russian relationship, right? So we had reporting over the past couple of weeks that the Russians were supplying the Iranians with satellite imagery. Obviously, they have close ties to the Iranians, and also that we had allowed Russian oil into Cuba, even though we had been fairly bellicose with how we were going to blockade the island and get regime change there. And then in the backdrop, of course, is the Ukraine situation, where Ukraine was helping us with anti-drone technology. And yet, I still can't go over the possibility, in fact, frankly, that the Trump administration's posture to Iran is more friendly than we could possibly imagine, considering all this. So as the Iran war perhaps begins to wind down, the attention is going to return to the Ukraine war, Ukraine has been remarkably successful in blunting the Russian offensive. Last winter, spring is coming, the Russians may have new efforts to take the rest of the Donetsk province that they've coveted. On the verge of this, to have the American vice president campaigning for Russia's most important ally in Europe, who stands against so many of the policies of the European Union, which includes France, Germany, the countries that are the key traditional allies for the United States for 70 years, is amazing to see him kind of calling on all the political gods to bring down the person closest to the rest of Europe. Again, it's one of those things you never thought you'd see, but you're seeing it every day. The next issue, I think, for all of us to focus on is can the Ukrainians really hold on against what will be growing Russian pressure, whether Orban wins or loses? Mika, one last note on this, the Wall Street Journal editorial page is wearing deeply critical of J.D. Vance's visit to Hungary and suggesting that this is a lot about 2028 for him, that if he's going to run for president, he's trying to signal that he's with Donald Trump and that he's with sort of this MAGA podcast universe that supports Viktor Orban and others like him. Again, on everything I asked the question, Joe was asking yesterday, where are the Republicans? Where are they? Who are they at this point? I don't get it. David Ignatius, David French, and Sam Stein. Thank you all very much for being on the show this morning. Editor at The Insider, Michael Weiss, thank you as well for your reporting and analysis this morning. Good to see you. And coming up, it's the first day of the annual National Action Network Convention. Reverend L. Sharpton joins us with a preview of the event, plus the possible 2028 presidential contenders scheduled to attend. Morning Joe will be right back. Lawrence O'Donnell, The Beat with Ari Melber, The Weeknight, and more. On the go, wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening to all of your favorite shows, subscribe to MSNow Premium on Apple Podcasts. I did not ask for this job. I love working for President Trump. It's the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else, and I go back to being the dag, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say thank you very much. I love you, sir. That's acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, literally professing his love for President Trump while defending the DOJ's efforts to indict Trump's political adversaries. The Washington Post points out Blanche is currently dealing with severe staffing shortages with more than 3,400 attorneys having left the department since last year, 3,400. Many forced out for work they did during the Biden administration on Trump related cases or January 6th prosecutions, a cleaning of house. This is the man, John Lamir, who could potentially lead the ostensibly independent Department of Justice, literally saying, I love you, Mr. President. Outlining the hypotheticals of his career path and basically saying, if I'm fired, I will say thank you, I love you, sir. That's where we are with Todd Blanche. So I think we have one question answered that acting Attorney General Blanche will probably carry out the President's wishes at the Department of Justice. And that had been a source of some frustration with Attorney General Bondi that the Epstein matter, yes, but I'm told it was far more about her lack of success and the fact that she occasionally would raise questions about these retribution campaigns, the political prosecutions that President Trump wants. It would seem that Mr. Blanche has no such qualms, and Mika and I think that he will profess his love for the President as he accepts whatever orders he gets. Okay, today politicians and change makers from across the country will converge on New York City for the 2026 National Action Network Convention is always so good. I love them. They're so fun, Reverend Al. Today is the first day of the annual conference that runs through the weekend this year. The storied civil rights organization celebrates its 35th anniversary. The event is a key stop for a number of rumored 2028 presidential candidates, big names like former Vice President Kamala Harris and governors Andy Beshear and J.B. Pritzker are all expected to attend. Joining us now the host of Politics Nation on MSNOW, Reverend Al. Sharpton, he is president of the National Action Network. These events are so incredible. There's so much activity. There's so much joy and you guys get a lot done. So tell us what's on tap. Well, we want to hear from the potential candidates and of course we're going to have many areas. We're going to have our women's lunch and Jennifer Lewis, the actress is doing with honor and Billy Porter, the artist at the gala tonight and the governor of New York and the governors around the country will be there to really talk about what are we doing in terms of civil rights in this era of Trump. I think what a lot have been forgotten is that as we look at what is going on and rightfully so in Iran, we are still facing serious threats to voting rights in this country. Martin Luther King III who calls to gala tonight, very concerned with the Supreme Court may rule. We're very concerned with the president is trying to raise in terms of redistricting. So we're dealing with voting rights. We're dealing with the fact that he has in many ways killed DEI diversity, equity and inclusion. So there are many civil rights issues that we'll be dealing with over the next four days. And it is our 35th year since 2020. We've always had the presidential candidates come to our conventions. I had breakfast of the money with president Kennedy's grandson who's running for Congress, Slasherberg. And he said the first time he heard Barack Obama speak was at our convention, National Action Network. So it's keeping our history going. And we captured off by announcing yesterday we bought a permanent headquarters in New York. His start building and in Harlem and it's a good send off. Hopefully though we win on the voting rights battles and other things that we're concerned about. And Friday, we have a surprise appearance. Yes, no longer surprised. We have a Joe Scarborough. Oh, there it is. I may have to mind him. Come along. You we welcome or you've been honored at our women's action. Yeah, no, we'd love to have them. But Joe is coming and he's speaking between Kamala Harris. Oh dear. Yeah. Oh, wow. Jim Clyburn. He's Oh, I have to come along. Forget the president. I'm inviting myself. There's your headlining right there. Rev, interesting to hear you talk about 2020, two years ago in 2024, where the Democratic Party was where the progressive movement was where the kind of feeling was on some of the issues that you all talk about at your conference. Do you feel the party moving, perhaps having learned from the loss in 2024 about the kind of issues? There's been so much talk about just focus on the fact that gas and groceries and all these things include you want to include that with civil rights issues, obviously, but just to stay on the failures of this administration to make life more affordable. Do you feel like the party has politically moved off of some of the stuff they were talking about two, six years ago? I think that it has moved off of a lot of the internal bickering where we were arguing two years ago about whether we should say defund the police or reform the police and things like that and say it is about affordability. It is about people being in many ways concerned about the education of their children, about healthcare. We still have not renewed the Affordable Care Act and people's premiums are going up. And I think that sometimes you can't bring people together where they just frontally embrace, they back into each other. And I saw that as I was one of those that was online, the front line at the No Kings march. People of all races and ages and I'll come together. It's no longer that kind of fight because Trump has united everybody. When you wake up on each the morning and the president is using such profane language and mocking a religion, it's time to us to get into a one tent and say, wait a minute, we need to stop bickering because our whole society is at stake here. It is. The 2026 National Action Network Convention begins today in New York City. Reverend Dallsharpton, thank you very much for coming on this morning. Thanks for having me. See you there. And Simone Sanders Townsend and I have known each other for more than a decade, tussling over politics and policy when she worked in the White House and I reported on it. And now we're friends and colleagues and on our podcast, Clock It, we are positioning ourselves at the intersection of culture and politics. Clock It is where we talk about what we see and hear in the news so you can start to clock it too. Clock It with Simone Eugene, all episodes available now.
