Morning Joe Labels SCOTUS as Part of Trump’s Team, Decries ICE's 'Sick,' 'Backward' Actions

Nicholas Spinnato
August 25th, 2026 4:51 PM

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Tuesday’s Morning Joe continued the worry from MS NOW over the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow a Trump Executive Order on limits to mail-in voting amid the liberal morning show’s constant fears that the 2026 midterms would be stolen. 

Co-host Jonathan Lemire went as far as to falsely claim the court was “part of the team” for the Trump Administration, before Mika Brzezinski went on another rant about ICE.

MS NOW Justice and Intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian, who left NBC in the Versant divorce, led with his own attacks on the court, as he paraphrased what he imagined both sides thought during the decision process.

He led with the majority decision, which he called “extraordinary,” before he represented the liberal side’s views, which really just sounded like his own opinion on the case:

And the dissenters, the liberals, are saying, ‘You've got to be kidding me. The midterms are around the corner. Are you saying that we have to wait until the Trump Administration improperly interferes in an election that's supposed to be governed by the states before you will act?’ And yet that's what the Supreme Court has done here. And it's not the first time they've done this in other cases involving the Trump Administration.

 

 

Lemire then jumped in to label the Supreme Court as followers of all Trump actions:

And yet another moment where the Supreme Court, of course, seems highly deferential to President Trump and the executive branch, the conservative majority, at times, acting like it's part of the team.

This assertion by Lemire was false, as the Supreme Court had made a number of decisions against Trump in his second term, including when the court struck down his birthright citizenship order. At the time of the birthright citizenship order, SCOTUSBlog labeled the Supreme Court as a “wild-card court."

Lemire continued after his assertion of a possible stolen midterm election and exclaimed, “But there's been this fear hovering over this election for - for a year or more, that the Trump Administration was going to find a way to put its thumb on the scale.”

He used “ICE agents in the streets” and “the National Guard trying to crack down on voter rolls” as examples for his midterm election fears.

Lemire closed, “But here it appears, at least temporarily, they're getting yet another assist from the courts.”

 

 

After the election fears, the show returned to even more familiar territory, as Mika Brzezinski, who has had multiple freakouts over ICE in just the past year, once again attacked agents and the overall deportation agenda.

She claimed ICE activity actually deterred people from entering the country legally:

And the list goes on of story after story after story of people being nabbed off the street in violent ways, often by ICE agents that don't appear to be trained to even be able to use their weapons correctly.

I'd be scared if I got near anybody like that. And everybody is scared when they see a situation like that. And isn't that part of the point here? How could it not be to fear people into not showing up and doing their process and trying to be here legally? 

Are, again, we going after the worst of the worst, or are we just going after people to create a level of fear out there where laws can be broken, people can be detained for months, and children have to show up alone for the detention hearings? The list goes on as to how backwards, un-American, and sick this is.”

 

 

Lemire responded with drama: “What are we doing here as a nation? What are we doing?” He then said the issue was “more than a political issue. It's a human issue. It's about humanity. It's about our nation's decency. And we're failing that test.

Election fearmongering combined with more attacks on ICE portrayed just another day of division wanted by those at MS NOW.

The transcript is below. Click expand:

MS NOW’s Morning Joe

August 25, 2026

6:06:40 AM Eastern

(...)

KEN DILANIAN: The other extraordinary thing about this decision is that it's once again an example of where the conservative majority has said, ‘Oh, no, no, we're not ruling on the merits, but you haven't shown that you've been injured yet. You states have not shown that you have actually experienced an injury, and so we can't rule yet.’

And the dissenters, the liberals, are saying, ‘You've got to be kidding me. The midterms are around the corner. Are you saying that we have to wait until the Trump Administration improperly interferes in an election that's supposed to be governed by the states before you will act?’ And yet that's what the Supreme Court has done here. And it's not the first time they've done this in other cases involving the Trump Administration. 

As Lisa said, it's not the end of the story. We're going to see more litigation on this. And the Supreme Court may well ultimately decide that what's happening here is improper. But what they've done is they've left a sense of unease here, along with all the other ways that we are concerned that the Trump Administration is going to try to interfere in the elections with this midterm. Here is the latest example, Willie.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: And yet another moment where the Supreme Court, of course, seems highly deferential to President Trump and the executive branch, the conservative majority, at times acting like it's part of the team. 

And J. Mart, let's talk about the politics of this. You know, the polls suggest this November we could be heading for a democratic wave. Strategists in both parties think the House is heavily favored to go Democrat. Senate, true toss-up now, something that would have been unthinkable a year ago, considering the map looked pretty favorable for Republicans. But now Democrats think they've got a chance. 

But there's been this fear hovering over this election for - for a year or more, that the Trump Administration was going to find a way to put its thumb on the scale. Whether that was the ICE agents in the streets, the National Guard trying to crack down on voter rolls. You know, of course, we'll see if they even accept the results if they don't like them come November. But here it appears, at least temporarily, they're getting yet another assist from the courts.

JONATHAN MARTIN: Yeah. Let's just get straight to the point. The coverage and the attention to this ruling would be vanishingly small, at least in terms of the national media, were it not for precedent, to borrow a legal term. We all lived through the 2020 election and the aftermath, John, like that. That's the reason for the concern. 

We know what Trump is capable of, and we know the degree to which we as a country relied on the courts in the aftermath of 2020 to effectively cast aside Trump's challenges, one after the other, and affirm Joe Biden's election and swearing in as president. So once again, we're at the mercy of the courts. 

That's why this matters so much, because, yes, I think there is this assumption for good reason, given his past action, that Trump is not going to sit by and lose control of one or both chambers of Congress without a protracted fight, that invariably will get into the courts. And here we will be again, much as we were six years ago, hoping and waiting for the court to do the right thing.

(...)

6:58:36 AM Eastern

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The Department of Homeland Security says Border Patrol arrested Avila's father during a vehicle stop in Key West, but Aviles claims his father has a driver's license, Social Security card, and work permit, and has lived in the United States for 19 years. 

And here is one of the problems exactly a case like this, where you have people like Mr. Aviles who is trying to do the process and trying to do everything right, and this comes at great cost to people who are doing everything they can to be here legally and do things the right way. And it is bankrupting for many people to do that while trying to make it here in America. And now they're too afraid to show up to their immigration meetings or hearings. 

They're too afraid to show up because of these violent tactics by ICE, because of the videos that we've seen across the country of people getting shot, of U.S. Citizens getting treated violently, documented or undocumented, there is illegal activity should not happen to anybody on American soil. Due process should happen to everybody on American soil. 

But what you have is these intense violent tactics against documented or undocumented people that make them too afraid to actually follow the law. And it's the violence and the fear that is now exacerbating what is a horrible situation, again, deployed by ICE and the way they do business. 

(...)

7:01:32 AM Eastern

BRZEZINSKI: So, fleeing violence from their countries, and this is what you've got here in America. You get in a car accident, you go to the E.R. - A mother and a daughter are ripped out of the E.R. like that, Jonathan Lemire. And the list goes on of story after story after story of people being nabbed off the street in violent ways, often by ICE agents that don't appear to be trained to even be able to use their weapons correctly.

I'd be scared if I got near anybody like that. And everybody is scared when they see a situation like that. And isn't that part of the point here? How could it not be to fear people into not showing up and doing their process and trying to be here legally? 

Are, again, we going after the worst of the worst, or are we just going after people to create a level of fear out there where laws can be broken, people can be detained for months, and children have to show up alone for the detention hearings? The list goes on as to how backwards, un-American, and sick this is.

LEMIRE: What are we doing here as a nation? What are we doing? This is not the worst of the worst that President Trump promised that he would focus on during the campaign. And his administration keeps saying that they're targeting a mother and daughter at a hospital, a video impossible to watch. 

And then the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has just had a record deployment in the Middle East with terrible conditions on board, conditions that the Trump Administration won't admit to. But we know from relatives of sailors who have been on that ship how bad things got, so bad that some members tried to jump overboard. And yet, while one of those sailors was serving his country for months at sea, his father was detained. And he has to write that heartbreaking Facebook message telling him, telling him, Willie, that, you know, stay strong, dad. I'll be home soon.

I mean, this is - I mean, yes, there's the political angle of this, that this is why Trump is so underwater and what used to be a signature issue, immigration. This is partially why Republicans are expecting to do poorly this November. But it's more than a political issue. It's a human issue. It's about humanity. It's about our nation's decency. And we're failing that test.

WILLIE GIEST: I mean, we're told it was rapists and murderers who are going to be shipped out, right? This whole time during the campaign in 2024, again, to which people said, ‘Yes, please secure the border and get out the violent criminals.’ We just heard as Mika read those stories, these were not criminals, other than overstaying a Visa and awaiting their asylum hearing.

(...)

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