Let’s go through the checklist of the White House’s goals in Iran, Mike Johnson

This is the August 19, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

“I’ll put it this way: If the U.S. is in charge of the strait, then I’m also straight — and let’s face it, I’m not.”

— Rosie O’Donnell, guest-hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday night

“We must not promise what we ought not,” Abraham Lincoln warned his fellow Republicans in 1856, “lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.”

Mike Johnson went on Fox News this week and said Republicans had “fulfilled our promises.”

Let’s check the performance.

Regime change in Iran?

No.

Iran’s nuclear program obliterated?

No.

The Strait of Hormuz reopened?

No.

X. X. X.

Tic-tac-toe.

Six months into this unnecessary war, the Iranian regime is still in power, its nuclear program remains intact, and Tehran exercises more control over the Strait of Hormuz than it did before the first bombs fell.

Meanwhile, Americans are paying more for gas, groceries, and just about everything else.

And after spending trillions of dollars on national defense, we’re running out of the munitions needed to fight a third-rate power.

That’s quite a performance.

It may be time to update the bumper sticker:

Promises made, promises broken.

CHARTS OF THE DAY

WHAT THEY SAID

Marc Caputo on the Florida Senate primary

“It’s probably the biggest Democratic upset in modern Florida politics. Alex Vindman ran perhaps the worst campaign I’ve ever seen in Florida. I know he spent $9 million, but I really wonder where that money went.”

Mike Barnicle on the midterms

“This is a unique moment in American political history — because every Republican and Democrat is being confronted by a White House that has married cruelty and incompetence. Elections are simplified by one thing: how people live and what they want out of their lives. Right now, things are tough for most Americans, and that’s going to be the biggest issue as we head into November.”

Eugene Robinson on Republicans in Congress

“The U.S. Congress has effectively been neutered. The Republican majority won’t even question — let alone oppose — Donald Trump’s actions, however erratic, ill-conceived, and insane they may be. That’s cultlike behavior.”

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