by Joe Scarborough | Sep 15, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
This is the Sept. 15, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
Hello, “Morning Joe” Family!
We love hearing from you. Here’s what was on your mind this week. As always, you can write to us any time.
MAILBAG
After years of waking up before most of us, what’s one story that changed the way you see the world — and what’s a story you still hope to report someday?
— Helen C., Rockville Center, N.Y.
Helen, that is a great question. Looking back over my 32 years in public life, I’ve seen government shutdowns, destructive foreign wars, the horrors of 9/11, the rise of China, the collapse of the economy in 2008, and other stories that might be viewed as era-defining in past decades. But nothing prepared me for the collapse of constitutional checks and balances that accompanied Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House.
While historians will debate the Roberts Court’s reaction to the Trump presidency, the highest court in the land has often provided important checks and balances to the president’s most dangerous attempts to steal elections and disrupt the way states run their own elections.
There are fewer mitigating factors to soften the harsh judgment that historians will pass down on this Republican Congress. The Article 1 branch has allowed Trump to strip it of its power to declare wars, enact tariffs, appropriate funds for agencies, and practice basic oversight duties.
Even when Congress passed a law requiring the Epstein files to be released in full, the White House defiantly broke the law. With this Republican Congress, no
by Joe Scarborough | Aug 17, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
This is the August 17, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
“I’m not going to pledge that, and no attorney general should ever pledge that.”
— Attorney General Todd Blanche on being asked to pledge his independence from President Donald Trump
On Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists dragged Officer Mike Fanone down the Capitol steps. They beat him with the pole of a “thin blue line” flag and repeatedly tased him at the base of his skull until he suffered a heart attack.
Todd Blanche shamelessly stood next to the president this week and said anyone who touches a federal law enforcement officer will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Where was Blanche when Donald Trump pardoned every cop beater who attacked the Capitol that day — trying to overturn what Trump’s own officials called the safest election in American history.
When asked what message pardoning cop beaters sends to police officers, Blanche bizarrely said: “We will protect you.”
Todd Blanche knows he is lying. That’s not the news here. The real takeaway from this sordid affair is the message Trump and his minions sent the bad guys that day: “Do the crime, skip the time.”
Message received.
After the thugs were pardoned, their crimes multiplied.
Child molestation. Home break-ins. Threats to kill politicians. A conspiracy to murder FBI agents. One Jan. 6 convict even threatened the life of a D.C. cop on the anniversary of that bleak date.
But for the president, even pardoning these cop beaters isn’t enough.
Now Trump wants them paid.
That’s what makes Todd Blanche’s bland pronouncements look even more
by Joe Scarborough | Jul 27, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
This is the July 27, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Sometimes history rhymes. Sometimes it jumps up and down and repeats.
It is bitterly ironic that the president who for a year has mocked Jimmy Carter for how Iran played him now finds himself in the same position.
Chris Matthews was a speechwriter in the Carter White House, and he’s talked on “Morning Joe” repeatedly about how the Iranians knew exactly what they were doing in 1979 — the flag burnings, the blindfolded diplomats, the daily humiliations designed to destroy Carter politically before the 1980 election.
They knew he was desperate for a deal, and they used that against him. They didn’t release the hostages until Carter left office — minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in.
Now here we are, more than four decades later, and the Iranians are using the same playbook on Donald Trump.
The president — and really more his party — wants out of this war at any cost because of an upcoming election. And the Iranians are using that false deadline to humiliate this president in every possible way. They’re just going to sit back, get the terms they want, and make him look weak.
Asked recently why he didn’t send Special Forces into Iran, Trump answered: “I didn’t feel like being Jimmy Carter.”
The Iranians are already saying “too late.”
CHART OF THE DAY
WHAT THEY SAID
Jon Meacham on content warning signs at the Smithsonian
“The American republic was founded, in part, to resist the human tendency toward autocracy — which makes the present irony as thick as
by Joe Scarborough | Jul 24, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
Thirty-eight thousand people packed Fenway on Wednesday night — the biggest crowd in a decade. The Red Sox lost. Such a Red Sox thing to do, but as I’ve always said to my long-suffering Sox friends, baseball season doesn’t really begin until after the All-Star break. This year’s Red Sox team proved that again, with a dismal spring and early summer. But a historic run in July put them back in the pennant race.
Baseball is life. A long season. Head down. Learn from your mistakes. Burn the bridge behind you. Win the next tonight. Take the next series. And then focus on the game after that.
As I told my daughter as she went off to college, don’t get overwhelmed at everything coming at you at once. Eat the elephant one bite at a time.
The Sox play the Blue Jays tonight. Tomorrow doesn’t matter. One bite at a time.
Here are some fun events you can have a taste of this weekend:
In Queens, MoMA PS1’s “Warm Up” returns today, the courtyard dance party that’s been a summer institution in Long Island City for more than two decades. Six Fridays, all summer long.
In Newport, the Folk Festival takes over Fort Adams this weekend, with three days of music at the grounds that gave us Bob Dylan’s historic move of going electric and Joni Mitchell’s return to the stage. An American original since 1959, and it still sells out for a reason.
In the nation’s capital, Poet’s Homecoming wraps this weekend with its “Big Old Kids Party”: part poetry brunch, part indie wellness fair, all of it free.
In Chicago, Double Dutch Fest takes over South
by Joe Scarborough | Jul 22, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
This is the July 22, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
There’s a traditional notion in Washington that a president’s second term tilts toward foreign policy in an attempt to solidify a global legacy.
That’s proven true for President Donald Trump as well, despite his “America First” agenda. The war in Ukraine, global tariffs, battles with NATO allies, regime change in Venezuela, the ongoing war with Iran — all of it has dominated the Trump administration’s focus since he returned to office last year.
Trump voters chose a candidate who promised to keep America out of foreign wars, and specifically warned that his opponent would attack Iran. He assured his supporters that domestic concerns would come first.
But look at what’s happened.
He threatened Greenland, Canada, and Cuba.
U.S. troops invaded Venezuela and bombed Iran on his orders.
Trump insulted NATO, attacked the prime ministers of Italy and Spain, and raised tariffs on our closest friends— all while pulling troops out of Germany and warning he would take them from Poland.
So much for America First.
Eighteen months into Trump’s second term, we invited three foreign policy experts to join us on “Morning Joe” to discuss the president’s legacy and where he might take America in the years ahead.
Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations:
“Almost two years into Trump’s second term globally, I would define his foreign policy as a kind of aggressive unilateralism.
“Traditionally, the United States has pursued what I would call an imperial foreign policy — promoting a rules-based order, building alliances, maintaining stability. Under Trump,
by Joe Scarborough | Jul 10, 2026 | Morning Joe, News, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
This is the July 10, 2026 edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
ON THE CALENDAR
It’s a World Cup weekend. Spain meets Belgium at SoFi this afternoon. Norway vs. England and Argentina vs. Switzerland tomorrow. France already punched its ticket last night — and Mbappé is now one goal from tying Messi’s all-time record. Somewhere in between all of that:
In New York, watching movies at home is out; watching them in the park or on a rooftop is in. And if a concert is more your speed, take your pick: Jay-Z at Yankee Stadium, Meghan Trainor or AfriCarnaval at Lincoln Center.
Just down I-95, “Beetlejuice” is back in Washington, D.C., for a run in the capital’s National Theatre. Go catch the ghost with the most, babe.
In Chicago, things are less “race” than they are “racy” at the 22nd Annual World Naked Bike Ride this weekend. The dress code is “bare as you dare.” Questions? Us too.
For the peachy keen in Georgia, PeachFest at Underground Atlanta takes over Sunday — live fruit-bearing trees, 30-plus chefs whipping up their best peach-forward meals, and a peach-cocktail-off, all on the menu.
Out west, Shohei Ohtani makes his final pitching start before the All-Star break tonight against the Diamondbacks. A 1.79 ERA tends to be worth the price of admission.
Up the coast, San Francisco’s Free Folk Festival returns to Golden Gate Park all day Saturday for its 50th year. Half a century of free music in one of the great American parks.
In Miami, Turntable Bagel asks the brave question: “What if we could shmear
