This is the June 1, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

JOE’S NOTE

Emily Sundberg asked for my thoughts on a favorite summer novel for her “Feed Me” summer reading special. After a few minutes, I remembered borrowing a Stephen King novel from my best friend. 

I’m so glad I did. 

It was a grand introduction to King’s immense talents, and my friend’s worn paperback helped pass time during an otherwise miserable monthlong slog. 

A lifetime ago, I spent the summer of my senior year on a high school trip across Europe. It was one of those travel packages where scores of students could see 30 countries in 29 days for $28. This miserable experience exposed me to some of the worst parts of Europe’s otherwise remarkable cities. 

My happiest memory from that trip was spending nights inside our battered hostels, listening to shouts of “Yankee, go home!” ring through the alleys of European slums, while reading King’s postapocalyptic novel “The Stand.” 

The 1978 opus, eerily enough, begins with a weaponized flu that escapes from a government lab and kills most of the world’s population. 

King masterfully describes the horrors of the unfolding pandemic, while taking readers on a journey starting inside a Lincoln Tunnel hellscape and ending with a cataclysmic showdown between good and evil set on the Las Vegas Strip. 

In between those 800 or so pages, we travel with characters moving across an unforgiving landscape, while survivors pass time by recalling the indescribable thrill of a Yankees-Red Sox game, as well as other uniquely American moments. 

“The Stand” is a book packed with magical pop culture references that made this American kid miss home even more. 

Tomorrow I’ll tell you some of the books I’m reading this summer. No surprise that many of the recommendations come from Morning Joe’s Friday Book Club with Ryan Holiday.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“No one will honor him when he is gone. He’s a failed president and a national disgrace.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff on why President Donald Trump is so focused on construction projects in Washington, D.C.

MORAL RECKONING

Source: Gallup poll of 1,001 U.S. adults conducted May 1-17, 2026. Margin of error: ±4 percentage points

ON THIS DATE

It was 59 years ago today, that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. Initially conceived as an artistic device to put distance between a rock band exhausted by years of endless touring and the chaos of Beatlemania, the British group transformed Abbey Road Studios into its artistic refuge and created a laboratory of sound that crackled with revolutionary breakthroughs. The resulting album altered not only popular music but the direction of Western culture for years to come. 

WHAT THEY SAID

Katty Kay on ICE protester violence

“There’s significant opposition to these detention centers, particularly amongst Democrats. But the violent clashes outside Delaney Hall don’t help the cause. They shift the focus from what’s happening inside.”