This is the April 22, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional.”
– Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, apologizing on his podcast this week for his prior support of President Donald Trump
CHART OF THE DAY
THE MAP IS THE MESSAGE
Virginia voters approved a redistricting overhaul on Tuesday that could reshape the state’s congressional map dramatically in Democrats’ favor — and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wasn’t subtle about what comes next.
“Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,” he posted after the result came in, telling MS NOW that Republicans “started this gerrymandering battle.”
They did. Trump called Tuesday’s vote a “blatant partisan power grab.” The irony is doing a lot of work there.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger joined “Morning Joe” to discuss the Democratic victory — and reiterate the party’s commitment to a measured and bipartisan response to Republican gerrymandering efforts.
“We recognize the stakes of this moment,” she said. “We recognize the seriousness of what is occurring in other states, whether it’s North Carolina or Texas or Missouri. We will be responsive, but we are also responsive to the people.”
With House control potentially hinging on a handful of seats, Virginia just became a very big deal.
Spanberger explains below.
ON THIS DATE
On April 22, 1970 — after watching a massive oil spill devastate the California coastline the year before — Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson organized a nationwide demonstration to force the environment onto the national agenda. Twenty million Americans showed up for what became the first Earth Day — and marked the birth of the modern American environmental movement.
“Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level,” Nelson said. “That was the remarkable thing … it organized itself.”
A CONVERSATION WITH RACHEL GOLDBERG-POLIN
On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Rachel Goldberg-Polin received the last messages she would ever get from her 23-year-old son, Hersh:
“I love you.”
“I’m sorry.”
Hersh would spend the next 330 days as a Hamas hostage in Gaza before being killed by his captors in a tunnel underground. Goldberg-Polin — who alongside her husband, Jon, became one of the most recognized and relentless advocates for the hostages — joined “Morning Joe” today to discuss her new book, “When We See You Again,” a reckoning with grief, love, and what it means to keep living.
WG: Rachel, this book asks readers to walk alongside you through the darkest chapter imaginable. What is it like to relive it in the telling?
RG: The truth is that this book is not a memoir or a tell-all. It’s actually a love letter wrapped in pain — or perhaps it’s a pain letter doused in love.
It’s been fascinating to share this pain and for people to understand why I have this very visceral, not typical response to the question “How are you?” I realize now that the book is a very long-winded answer to how I am.
JS: Rachel, moms love to brag on their sons. For people who never knew Hersh, what would they love about him most? What brings a smile to your face when you think about him?
RG: Hersh was a radical listener. He was genuinely curious about people with completely different worldviews. That’s something I’m trying to learn from him.
And then there were the small things — he always carried my bag. Always. No matter its size. Maybe it was his love language, maybe I’m projecting — but he always did it. And another thing: He always put the toilet seat down.
WG: You wrote that the 330 days Hersh was held hostage were, in a way, the “good part.” What did you mean by that?
RG: We had this unusual compartment — I think of it like a Tupperware container — of this purgatory-like intermission. Hersh was stolen on Oct. 7, and we had this arduous, terrible odyssey trying desperately to save him and the other hostages for 330 days.
It was utter torture — torment, misery, angst. Imagine your child, your partner, your sibling — anyone — being in horrific conditions with no contact. Everyone was fighting as hard as they could.
Then we were told he was executed. And I had this terrible realization: That was the good part. Because we had hope and something to fight for.
Now I’m in this other place. When you bury someone who is core to your existence, part of you is no longer in this world. Now I’m trying to unpack those 330 days that I shoved into emotional suitcases just so I could function.
WG: Has your understanding of grief changed, especially in how it connects you to other people?
RG: Grief always felt like a scary word, something to be avoided. But what I’ve realized is that grief is really a badge of love, and death doesn’t stop that love. It keeps growing after our person is gone.
So there is this wildly amazing relationship that still exists because the love remains. It doesn’t mean I like it — I hate that Hersh isn’t here — but if the price for the love is the grief, I will pay that. It’s a privilege to pay that.
JL: What do you hope this book changes in the way people think about grief?
RG: Grief and loss actually unite us. It’s part of the human experience — we are all going to go through it.
What people don’t always realize is that grief is always with us, every second. We don’t need anniversaries or memorial days — it’s always here.
What I hope is that people become more sensitive to the fact that even if they don’t see the pain, it’s there. That’s why when someone says, “How are you doing?” there can be this disconnect. Our thought is often, “How do you think I’m doing? Do you not see this dagger?”
JS: You wrote something powerful — that even in the darkest moments, a form of light still persisted. Talk about that light and how you use it to help others
RG: I don’t think we “get better,” and people don’t like to hear that. When you lose someone central to your identity, that doesn’t go away.
But you can get stronger. You can carry the grief in a more graceful, meaningful way. The idea that you should “get better” is actually a form of toxic positivity — it’s emotionally harsh. I recently learned the opposite of that is tragic optimism. That’s what I am — a tragic optimist. And I’m OK with that.
I have two incredible daughters. I have an amazing partner in John. I was blessed with Hersh for 23 years.
If the price of that love is pain, I will pay it again and again.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
GREEN TEA
$2.3 trillion
— The value of investment in clean energy projects in 2025 — one of the many things going right in the push to slow global warming and reverse the negative impacts of climate change
ONE MORE SHOT
Linh Mai makes her public debut at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo today. The calf is the first Asian elephant born there in nearly 25 years.
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