by Peter Alexander | Sep 19, 2026 | News Analysis, White House
This morning, President Donald Trump followed up on his threats to ban journalists from three major outlets -— including this one, MS NOW — with reporters, producers and cameramen from those organizations having their credentials confiscated when they tried to enter the White House grounds.
It marks an unprecedented and escalatory assault on journalism — the president, in the Oval Office on Friday, even described his decision as a ban on the free press. He’s not hiding it. He’s trying to ban reporters because of the content of their reporting
He’s not hiding it. He’s trying to ban reporters because of the content of their reporting
Notably, Trump did not identify a single story, report or inaccuracy that triggered his outrage. Instead, he blamed negative coverage and demanded favorable reporting.
To be clear, this is not normal, this is not business as usual. What’s happening right now is different: it is the latest threat against our cherished freedoms protected by the Constitution.
The media is not perfect. There is a debate to be had about who you can trust and where you should get your news. But this is something bigger.
Among the privileges and duties of a free press are to hold power to account, to ask the difficult questions and to document history as it happens. The president insists “fake news” is reporting that’s untrue. In fact, it’s reporting that he finds unflattering. But, here’s the reality: A little more than seven weeks until the midterm elections, many of the facts are unflattering.
Where to begin? Gas prices are now $4.48 a gallon on average, $1.50 more than where they were
by Joe Scarborough | Sep 19, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby”
You can never go wrong quoting Fitzgerald on the magic of fall, the warmth of winter dreams, or the glistening summer nights Gatsby spent gazing toward Daisy’s green light as it bounced off the Long Island Sound.
You could also go back to the summer of Mark “the Bird” Fidrych and be moved by the opening lines of Boston’s instant classic “More Than a Feeling”:
I woke up this morning
And the summer’s gone
Turned on the music
To start my day
And dreamed of a girl
I used to know
I closed my eyes and she slipped away …
Instant. Classic.
I love Septembers in New York, but really love Octobers in Boston, because that means I’m in the seats at Fenway Park watching the Red Sox in the playoffs.
Since I refuse to set foot in Yankee Stadium, here’s hoping the Sox get past their wild card matchup in the Bronx to play a few games in the old ballpark.
In the meantime, this is the last official weekend of summer. Here’s how to make the most of it:
In New York City, Little Italy’s signature festival is celebrating 100 years of the San Gennaro Feast. Mott, Mulberry, and Grand streets will be packed with arancini, zeppole, braciole, and lotsa mozz. Buon appetito.
In Boston, What the Fluff? — now in its 21st year — is doing what it does best: turning marshmallow creme into civic pride. Expect gooey competitions, sticky tributes, and Fluffernutters at every turn.
Over in Detroit, the Savannah Bananas are bringing Banana Ball to Comerica Park on both days this weekend —
by Brandy Zadrozny | Sep 18, 2026 | News, News Analysis
In the midst of unprecedented infectious-disease and foodborne-illness outbreaks, the nation’s top health official is taking a break from campaigning for Republicans to headline a conference for Children’s Health Defense, the world’s largest anti-vaccine organization.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. opened by acknowledging the frustration of the anti-vaccine activists in the audience that he was moving too slowly in changing the federal vaccine program. He detailed the ways his administration had slashed vaccine advisory panels, overhauled recommendations for the childhood immunization schedule and ordered more research on vaccine safety. But he urged patience as he works to upend the federal vaccine schedule.
“You have friends in the White House,” Kennedy told them.
“In government,” he continued, “a bunch of things have to happen before something else happens, or you get sued, and it’s a very laborious system, and there’s a lot of inertia built in that if it was, if we were able to overcome it, we would have changed things on Day 1, but those would have been short lived, and I would have been out of a job.”
Kennedy’s appearance marks a homecoming for the least popular of Trump’s Cabinet members, who has kept the fringe anti-vaccine group he built at arm’s length, at least in public. Thursday’s keynote at the Grand Hyatt Washington in the District of Columbia ends the pretense and gives Kennedy and the Trump administration a stage to rally a movement that has shown signs of splintering ahead of the midterms.
In his speech, Kennedy hit well-worn talking points, familiar to a crowd that gave him a standing ovation before and after he spoke. He
by Luke Goldstein | Sep 17, 2026 | AI, big tech, Congress, News Analysis, Regulation
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) took to ABC’s Sunday morning show to assure the public that the Democratic Party is taking strong measures to combat the AI Doomsday threat roiling the country. His prime example: a Democratic House commission on artificial intelligence stacked with lawmakers who’ve received a bonanza in campaign funding from Big Tech.
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by Joe Scarborough | Sep 17, 2026 | Morning Joe, News Analysis, Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea Spilled Morning Joe, The Tea, Spilled
This is the Sept. 17, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
“‘Give us another chance’ might be the worst political messaging I’ve heard in a very long time. This is what your ex says after they cheat: ‘Just give us another chance.’”
—
Jim Messina, on Vice President JD Vance’s plea to voters ahead of November.
Ronald Reagan asked voters in 1980 whether they were better off than they were four years ago.
Republicans do not want voters to answer that question today. So they try to change the subject and twist the facts.
JD Vance told voters this week they shouldn’t give power to the people who “caused the problems that we’re fixing.”
The statement begs a simple question: How stupid does the vice president think we are?
Joe Biden has been out of office for 18 months. Republicans have had a monopoly on power in Washington since then.
As The Wall Street Journal wrote, Donald Trump owns the economy. He’s also tied to the lies he told on the campaign trail.
Trump promised no more “forever wars.” He then blundered his way into an unwinnable war with Iran.
He pledged to end the war in Ukraine on Day 1. Instead that bloody war drags on because Trump regularly provides comfort to the enemy.
He said he would bring down prices. But Americans are getting crushed by costs at gas stations, grocery stores, and the doctor’s office.
Trump vowed to secure the border by going after the “worst of the worst.” But too often it’s been hardworking immigrants and American citizens who have been stopped,
by C.J. Polychroniou | Sep 17, 2026 | Alternative for Germany (AfD), Europe, far right, Fascism, Germany, News Analysis
The far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party scored a landslide victory this past Sunday in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state election, although it fell short of a majority in its bid to form the first far right state government in the country’s postwar history. It won 43.8 percent of the vote, more than doubling its share of the vote five years ago in the region, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’…
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