Today on inside politics, facts versus feelings. On paper new data that makes a clearcut case that the economy is good, any minute the president tries to bridge the gap between the stats and how people feel about socalled bidenomics. Plus the speak ers race gives s an early test of Donald Trumps sway with republicans. Jim jordan score d the former president s endorsement. The question is will it propel him to the front of the line to claim the gavel. And a Card Board Sigh thai Coop SubmarinedNuclear Secrets. A new report sheds light on a story thats been confirmed by the Special Counsel prosecuting donald trump. Im dana bash. Lets go behind the headlines and inside politics. Up first, the Biden Disconnect between whats happening and what you believe. Any moment were going to hear straight from the president of the United States, who is going to speak just hours after a new and very good jobs number report. Lets get straight to the white house where kayla toush is reporting. Put this into context. Were going to talk about the specification, but how important is this for the white house to try to convince the American People, the American Voter that what they are talking about on paper really will translate to how they feel in their wallets and as they do their budgets at their kitchen table. Reporter its an effort thats been months in the making with the president and his cabinet officials talking about bidenomics with the hallmark of that message being the creation of jobs this this country. Millions of jobs created since the president took office. And today when he speaks in just a few moments, hes expected to tout manufacturing, in particular, and the renaissance there in this country. To be sure, job creation has been on a tear. The numbers this morning more than double what expertses and economists had been expecting, but it also shows just how difficult it is to predict where the economy is headed with many experts expecting a recession to begin by now, when they were pulled a few months ago. And also the Biden Administration itself suggesting that the economy would return to slow and steadier growth post pandemic and job creation would have to slow down. So it does put the administration a little bit on its heals in terms of messaging to try to explain why this is still happening and to take a victory lap, essentially, for the fact that it is. All that being said, thereses reasons why americans at the ground level do not feel that economic strength. Gas prices have been relatively high throughout the summer. Inflation, while its been slowing s far higher than a couple years ago. American feel that when they are paying their rent or buying a home or going to the grocery store. You have Student Loan Payments that just restarted this week after three years. A Senior Administration official tells me that the administration is confident they believe its going to take several months for that fully to kick in and to be felt by the american consumer. No doubt that today is a day where the administration feels good and feels like this data underpins its argument. I know we are waiting for the president. Were going to the get back to the white house when that happens. As we wait for him, were going to head down Pennsylvania Avenue to capitol hill. Were choosing a new speaker was meant to be a Family Affair held Behind Closed Doors and fox news stepped in and invited the candidates to debate in prime time. An invitation they accepted, and that is drawing the swiftest of blowbacks from members of their own republican conference. Im going to go to lauren fox. Im sure that your texts and email inbox is blowing up like mine is. I got a text from a house member saying the push is on to convince these candidates not to do this. They think it will be detrimental to their ultimate goal, which is unitty, Finding Unity inside the House Republican conference. Reporter yeah, think about the week that these guys have had up here on capitol hill. On monday they had a speaker Kevin Mccarthy. On tuesday, the historic ouster of that same man. So then theres certainly a lot of reeling, a lot of raw nerves on capitol hill. As you can expect, this feeling that they want to hear from the candidates first. Melanie zanona is reporting that jim jordan, who was expected to participate, wants to speak with his colleagues in private before he does this forum. We are also learning that Steve Scalise said he was initially not going to participate, but then was told these two other candidates were participating, and that influenced his decision. So up in the air. Theres a question about what this means for the schedule next week and if this will actually happen. So so many unanswered questions, but as you can expect, republicans are thinking what about us. Why dont we have this conversation amongst ourselves first before going public. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Before we talk around the table about all this, just a little context. Has there been turmoil at the top of the house, yes, but heres the yes part. In my time covering washington alone, we had a coup to push out Newt Gingrich. From the Washington Post in november of 1998, Newt Gingrich steps down in face of rebellion. Then a plan to replace him with congressman livingston of louisiana. He had to drop abruptly because of an affair. That led to House Republicans settling on a little known congressman. Fast forward to 2015 when john boehner abruptly resigned. That was because of a revolt led by jim jordan. Kevin mccarthy was the hair apparent and he ran into problems. They all coalesced around paul ryan. Each of these were cay the yachtic, but now is different. We really dont know how this is going to end. Theres no consensus. Theres no they who decide whats next. Lets talk about that with our panel. This is sufficient a fascinating time. The question that i have at this moment is whether or not the they is donald trump. Whether he will be the decider. Whether his endorsement of jim jordan will seal the deal for him. We dont know. Donald trump is the leader of the party and has a ton of sway with a lot of huge swath of the republican conference. But we have to remember youre dealing with a republican conference, 221, the total number, its such a narrow major majority in the house. There are definitely some members, we have heard from them, who are in very tough districts. 18 of them sit in districts that joe biden won who are are up for reelection. And who are going to be resistant to this notion of donald trump dictating everything. As we just learned with the eight members that ousted the speaker of the house for the first time in United States history, which is also what make it is different from all the other examples you went through, is that a very small group, just a handful of republicans can have real say in how this goes. As we continue this discussion, whether or not this debate happens in prime time in front of the cameras on monday night, or whether the debate happens where a lot of these House Republicans wanted to remain in the shortterm, which is inside the closed doors of a conference meeting, we do have the beginnings of the arguments that jim jordan and Steve Scalise are making why they should be speaker. Lets listen. What is different between you and Steve Scalise . I think this comes down to a few questions. Who can unite the conference, who can unite conservative republicans, and our party around the country. The problems that we have internally, they dont go away with a new speaker, but the real question the members have is how do we get things back on track. The reason i have been able to build such a strong base of support over the last few days, thats been growing. I have a long proven record as somebody that knows how to unify republicans. Listen, jim jordan asks a good question. Who can unify the caucus. He thinks its going to be him. Donald trump wants to be the king maker here and the center of attention and use his muscle there. Its the not clear that the moderates are going to take to jim jordan, someone who isnt as good a fundraiser as Steve Scalise, somebody who is in bearing in manner and approach to politics, much more of a bomb thrower than Steve Scalise, who is also very conservative and has his own interesting back story, which some people might like, some might think its problematic. But listen, its anybodys guess as to whats going to happen going forward. I think in scalise, you have somebody who has been in leadership and has lots of relationships across the caucus. Jim jordan, much more someone who doesnt like to wear a jacket and is just someone who will brand the party in a very different way that lots of republicans might be uncomfortable with. Its interesting to me, you mentioned a couple previous elections for speaker of the house. In each of those, and also the one when danny haster stepped down, that got us speaker boehner, each of those campaigns or battles, there was one candidate who was seen as low key, legislative craftsman, the guy who came up through the committee system, really knows hiss way around the way the hill works. I dont think we have that candidate in this race. Theres not an option right now, who if all you want to do is craft policy and have somebody who is going to know where to refer this and when to bring this up for a vote, they do not currently have that option. When you think back to the speaker vote in january, you heard over and over from allies of Kevin Mccarthy, if not him, who else even is there . I think youre seeing the same problem hit now. We have two candidates. They are both serious formidable figures within the republican party, but there are real questions about both of them. I think one of the biggest ones is either of these guys really up to the job of managing the house just on a purely operational level. Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, the democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries just p penned an oped that he put in the Washington Post, the headline is a Bipartisan Coalition is the way forward for the house. This is fascinating that hes doing this here and right now. He is not saying that there should be a Coalition Government or anything like that because thats not a thing in american congress. Its not a parliament. But he is talking about the fact that the narrow majority and the smallness, where the republicans who pushed to kick nancy pelosi out of their hideaway offices, that that is not serving people well. My question is whether or not there is a big audience for this. On an individual basis, if you talked to moderate republicans, those in the 18 biden districts, those who want want to get something done and not just blow up government, yes, theres an audience for this. But whether theres enough to do what the American People want, which is just everybody calm down, act like adults, figure things out. It seems to me what Hakeem Jeffries is doing is also doing a cleanup work just positioning after his party in lock step joined with gaetzs faction, im not blaming them, im just saying this is what happened to oust Kevin Mccarthy. They were not at all of the mind they should be part of finding a solution for Kevin Mccarthy to keep his job for governing purposes for the like. And i do wonder if indeed hes making a case now so that he portrays his party as not completely opposed to the idea of reaching across the aisle to make the house function. I think youre right. My reporting is that mccarthy was not interested in anything. He was done. I dont think the democrats were all that interested either. It made it easy on the democrats. Everybody, standby. We are waiting for President Biden to speak about this booming jobs report. More jobs is a good thing, but the question is, whether or not as we said before, we have to keep saying, he can convince people that they should feel better about the way the economy is going. You see the podium there. Were going to hear from the president shortly, stay with us. We are standing by to hear from President Biden. Hes going to be speaking to the the country after a Blockbuster Jobs report. 336,000 new hireses, doubling expectations. Its the 33rd consecutive month of job growth. If you zoom out at million more people are Cashing Paychecks now versus a year ago. And if you run are on the economy, you usually do it with numbers like this. Had this is what we have seen, cycle after cycle. And yet, americans who will decide who goes to the white house in 2024, they dont seem to be buying bidenomics yet. Jena smilek of the New York Times joins our conversation can can you help sort of connect the disconnect . Between these Blockbuster Statistics and the feeling among americans. It is a surprising disconnect in some ways. We have an unemployment at very low levels. Its been there for a long time. These job gains keep coming in month after month very strong. But the thing that squares the circle that make it is make sense is inflation. At the same time, we have dealt with an Inflation Rate thats very high. It slowed down in recent months and thats giving homeowners and households a lot of relief. But at the same time, youre dealing with a situation where people remember a time when it was cheaper to eat out or cheaper to buy whatever it is they want to purchase in their daily lives. And i think that memory doesnt fade that quickly. Were seeing that impact not just consumer confidence, but definitely president ial approval number when is it comes to the economy. I want you to weigh in and warn you i might have to interrupt you when the president comes out. I think everything you described is true. And by the way, this Blockbuster Jobs report may cause the fed to raise rates, because the economy is still on fire to some degree, and this is going to impact prices for people as well in certain areas like mortgages and the like. So theres no doubt that factor is the thing that keeps americans in this disconnect. I would also note despite 33 months of job growth, thats the length of time swjoe biden has been in office, new data this week shows here comes the president. Heres President Biden. Good news today. This morning we learned the economy created 336,000 jobs in september alone. That means we have created 13. 9 million new jobs. Its about your dignity. Its about respect. If they have children can say that through children and mean it. The Unemployment Rate has stayed below 4 for 20 months in a row, the longest stretch in 50 years. We have chefed a 70year low for women. Record lows in hispanic workers and people with disabilities. Folks who have been left behind have been left behind for too long. We have the americans in the workforce in 20 years. Its no accident. Bidenomics, were grow the economy from the middle out, bottom up, not the top down. Inflation is coming down at the same time. Its down 60 since last summer. Inflation was just 2. 2 over the past three months. Now we have the lowest in the world. Today we are celebrating National Manufacturing day. It was already National Manufacturing day. It seemed appropriate. 13 million americans are manufacturing jobs. They are restoring our pride, making things in america and today i want to highlight that 13 million jobs. And report we learned earlier this week 4i89 an alltime high last month. Folks Biden Normalics is about investing in america and businesses are investing more manufacturing than ever been ever and before the pandemic, Supply Change is a phrase most difficult and today after a few delays in availability and everyone has noun about. They know why and bringing Supply Chains home. And investing in industries of the future so we can make things in america again with american workers. Were creating good jobs. The communities all across the country, including in places that had been left behind for the last 20 years. Because the factories they used to work at for years and years shut down leaving them with no options. No jobs, n that community. All over the midwest and all over the northeast. Under bo you wont have to leave home to get a good job. People say ing my kid came up t me and got a decent education and said i have to leave. No jobs. No jobs. Youre going to be able to find a good job Close To Home across america. Woor also making sure jobs were the creating offer workers a free and fair right if they choose to join a union. Its leading the surge in unionized workers, exercising our Collective Bargaining rights. For example, our Clean School Bus program under the bipartisan infrastructure law, is replacing Dirty Diesel Buss with clean electric buss so children getting on and off the bus cans breathe clean air and not diesel fuel. Were encouraging the companies building those to allow employees to unionize if employees choose. Its working. We saw in georgia when workers of the electric School Bus Company voted to unionize because that was their choice. The Treasury Department lads out recently in a major report that unions and Collective Bargaining are good for the economy overall. They help raise wages not only for the workers in that factory, but for everyone. Whether or not they are a union and they increase corporate growth. Todays job report is just another example of ha what it looks like when we focus on building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. While bringing deficits down at the same time. Just this summer, i signed a strong bipartisan law where it shook hands with the former speaker. We passed in the house and the senate as well. To cut spending by 1 trillion over the next ten years. Unfortunately, last weekend, Republican House members decided they were going to put that progress in jeopardy. Instead of honoring that commitment, they once again brought us to the brink of a government shutdown, creating instability and risk to ensure more extreme cuts in programs that help Working Americans and seniors. Cuts that would have hurt everyone. It would have stymie d the pay f military people, a whole range of things. Tried Cutting Funding by 30 for Small Businesses, which are growing under our administration. For local manufacturers, for Manufacturing Extension Partnership program that helps small to mediumsized manufacturers train workers and grow their businesses. But we stop them. Im sick and tired of republicans in the house saying they want to cut the deficit when all they really want to do is cut taxes for the wealthy. When i was able to cut the debt by h1. 7 trillion, remember wha we talked about. It was 50 corporations that made 40 billion and paying taxes. Guess what we made them pay 30 . Its not about what the economy needs right now. More tax cuts. And my budget would cut it by 2. 5 trillion over 10 years. Heres the deal. The federal debt went up by 50 under my predecessor. In part because he passed a 2 trillion tax cut over skewed to the wealthy and large corporations. I believe they can just pay their fair share. Just pay their fair share. But cutting special interests by big oil and paid so little in taxes. Big pharma. We gave the American Public a gift in terms of guess what t cut the federal debt. For example over a thousand billionaires, youre going to hear me say this, you know what the rate of pay is . 8 . I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you want, but pay your taxes for gods sake. Pay some approaching a fair tax. Thats a teacher or firefighter or a cop pays their tax, its just wrong. House republicans will put us back in a crisis mode again. We have only 40 days for congress to get back to work around the same. To fund the government avoid a shutdown and protect the tremendous gains workers have made over the past two and half years. Shut down would mean troops dont get paid. Air traffic trollersen wouldnt get paid. Loans to Small Businesses would be delayed. Its time to stop fooling around. House republicans, its time for you to do your job. Continue our progress of growing the economy, investing in america, investing in American People. So lets get to work for the American People. They are waiting. And they are watching. We have to get to work. Thank you all very much. What are the prospects for a meeting between you and president xi next month . Theres been no such meeting set up, but it is a possibility. Former President Trump endorsed congressman jim jordan for House Speaker. Could you see yourself working with congressman jordan if hes the next speaker, and do you have concerns about who might fill that position . Whomever the House Speaker is, im going to try to work with. They control half the congress. And were going to try to work with them. Some people i imagine its going to be easier to work with than others, but whoever the speaker is, ill try to work with them. Can you be specific about what you did to reappropriate those border funds . Especially when democrats controlled both chambers of congress . I was told i had no choice, that Congress Passes legislation to build something, whether its an Aircraft Carrier or to provide for a tax cut. I cant say i dont like it. Im not going to do it. You tried to reappropriate the funds. We tried to ask the congress to consider changing the law. Saying dont use it for oh purposes. Give me more technical capabilities to detect fentanyl. You started your remarks here today by saying it was good news today with the economic report. Why do you think most people still dont feel positive or good news about the economy . First of all, you heard the news today too. I think the people the people that got jobs feel better about the economy. I have to choose my words here. You all are not the happiest people in the. And i mean it sincerely. It gets more legs when you report something thats negative. I dont mean youre picking on me, its just the nature of things. You turn on the television and theres not a whoel lot about boy saves dog as he swims in the lake. Its about somebody pushed a dog in the lake. I get it. But if it you just listen to whats going on around the world, theres reason for people to be concerned. Theres reason to be concerned with russia. To be currented about whats going on. I think the American People are smart in know whag their interests are. I think they know they are better off financially than they were before. All that polling shows they are more positive than they have been, more positive about their jobs. I just think plet me put it this way. If you watch what happened last week in the congress, how excited are you going to be about much of anything . Are you going to wait untils theres a speaker to make a speech on ukraine . You have been listening to President Biden come out to make a statement about the economy, about as we with said many times a at the beginning of the show, the Blockbuster Jobs report. And he made the case for why the economy is getting better, the thing he believes that his administration did and tried to stop in order to keep these numbers growing. And then he got several questions, lets just start with the last question, because its what we were talking about around the table before the president started, which is the disconnect between what hes say ing and the very real statistics that are out there, the data showing a good economy and the way people feel and that was really interesting to hear. We dont hear him much on things like this. And that you dont view the press, dont report on the boy saving the dog, you report on the boy pushing the dog in. I would argue that if that were the story, we would report the boy pushed the dog in and then, guess what, the boy saved the dog. I think thats what we try to do here. The economic numbers are fantastic for the most part. And yet people feel bad. His answer also the way it wound up, which is if you look at what happened last week in congress, how can you feel good about whats happening in washington . To me, maybe that was one of the most resonant things he said. About anything. It speaks to a sense of discontent, of tuning out, of disenchantment with Political Leadership in general and the State Of Affairs in america. Thats what he thinks the chaos that we casaw In The House Woul cause people to think. You can hardly blame him for making that particular case, but i just found it intriguing that on these fundamental questions of the disconnect, he said he had to choose his words wisely and took a very substantial amount of time to get to an answer. He doesnt have an easy answer to that question. And look, i think what was really telling to me, even before you get to the question and answer part of that, he gave this sort of meandering, lowkey accounting of this it moment in the economy where the digression about the importance of unionization, a swerve into attacking republicans for proposing driving the government towards a shutdown, pays of service for members, there was no proactive effort to address what we know voters concerns to be about the economy. There was no real, listen, i hear that people are frustrated with the price of consumer goods. I hear that people are having a difficult time with the cost of housing and this is what im going to do about it. So theres a disconnect here and a first and foremost between what hes talking about on the economy and what voters are looking for answers on. Lets just give you some data to back up what you just said. I want to hear what you have to say about this. This is a poll from Marquette Law School last month. The question of who is better on inflation, economy, creating jobs, you see in a hype thet call matchup with donald trump who wins on all of those. Then if you look inside republicans, independents and democrats, nobody is really feeling that great, especially independents, but even democrats say not so good. Almost 6 in 10. I think the Dirty Little Secret of politics is that inflation matters enormously to motor voters. Theres very little the president can do about it. Extremely little. So when you get the disconnect, where hes not talking about these things and not getting credit for inflation going down, he cant take credit for it because this is not that much he can do. The second Dirty Little Secret of inflation in particular, is that the way we bring it down, the way we slow it down is by working against exactly the progress hes bragging about. So the way you get this inflation under control is slow the economy, slow the job market, bring back these big gains. So for him, i think its really difficult to square that with one speech to say i hear you on inflation, but look at the job market. And thats the fed, which hz highway no control over. I do think he is getting at something. A kind of generalized anxiety that americans have about everything. Its not just the economy. Obviously, the economy is what it is, prices are high on everything from health care to child care to gas prices and prices of eggs. But people just came through a pandemic, which was traumatic for the world. And theres still a sense of unease about what lies ahead. Are your kids lives going to be better that be jury lives . Are they going to go to school and is a kid going to have a gun . Theres lots of bad news. The press reports on some of that, but listen, that falls to people who are living their lives daily looking at their neighborhoods, looking at the education system, and again, its not a lot that we have seen from politicians to address these issue mass americans experience every day. Such a good conversation. Really interesting to hear from the president , particularly there at the end. Glad i had you here to unpack it. Dont go anywhere. Coming up, did donald trump reveal sensitive Nuclear Secrets to a foreign billionaire . Were going to talk about a new report, coming up. Cmon, were right there. Cmon baby. Its the only we need. Go, go, go, go ah Touchdown Baby touchdown are your neighbors watching the same game . Yeah, my 5g Home Internet delays the game a bit. But you get used to it. Try these. Theyre noise cancelling earmuffs. I stole them from an airport. Its always something with you, man. Great solid greek salad . Exactly dont delay the game with verizon or tmobile 5g Home Internet. Catch it on the xfinity 10g network. Former President Trump is facing familiar allegations, abc news is reporting that trump shared military and intelligence secrets with someone he admired, billionaire athny pratt. He has been questioned by the Special Counsel in connection with this classified documents probe. Trump spoke publicly about his admiration for pratt while still in office in 2019. A lot of people dont tell you about anthony, but i will tell you about anthony. Hes the most successful man in australia. Hes a great man. Hes my friend, and i appreciate it. A spokesperson for trump denied any wrong doing saying in part that abcs reporting lacked proper context and relevant information and urge d the Doj O Investigate the leak behind the story. U. S. Army retired Major General james marks joining the conversation along with our great reporters at the table. The people that pratt allegedly told, 45plus people, 11 employees, 10 australian officials, three former u australian pms. What did you did this . My first question would be if i go to jail, can i choose my cell mate. That would be the first thing that crossed my mind. Most importantly, it talks about a cavalier approach towards the absolute necessity to control this level of Classified Information. This is about our nuclear national security. This is a Foundational Program that we have. The nuclear triad, we dont share that with anybody. We also have an agreement where we share among five nations, the United States, australia, uk, new zealand and canada, secrets of all level. We do that appropriately through procedures, but you dont have a conversation with a businessman because hes a buddy of yours. This is illegal behavior and needs to be addressed. Obviously, we have to look at the sourcing of the report as well. He didnts or says through a spokesman its not improper context. Were not sure what that would be. But to your point, the aussies put out a statement, according to the former uaustralian ambassador to the u. S. So its not an official statement, but it basically says that if he spoke to this billionaire pratt, theres nothing that we all did not know, meaning the Government Of Australia might have known that because they are part of the five eyes you talked about. I want to underscore a point you made because its one thing for governments to know. Its another thing for a former president to allegedly tell such Sensitive Information to a private citizen, a billionaire, who then apparently told a the lot of other people. Correct. This is the nature of any type of sharing. You have to assume theres an element of risk. So you want to bound that risk. So you establish levels of classifications and the president of the United States has every level of clearance and all the caveats that protect all those very special programs. And the president if he wants to share that information, theres a process by which he can do that. With the president , its kind of like that and it works in the world that i grew up in, certainly not at that level. If i wanted to share Classified Information, which i did, i had to go through a process where id go to the originator of that intelligence and ask permission. It would come back, this is what you can say and how much of it you can share. Its incredibly dangerous to simply mention that we have a five eyes program and say its no big deal because we have routine share ing with the aussies. Thats an official Government Program that takes place in a very controlled environment. And we do have partnerships. We have aussies on our ships. We share this stuff all the time. Absolute ly not the right approach. Any legal approach to share this with a civilian. Such important context. And for all of you, the other important part of this context is that this allegation is not in a vacuum. If you go back in time to when the former president was the sitting president , you just give examples of when he apparently shared Classified Information with the Russian Foreign minister inside the white house. The oval office, i believe. If you go back to another example where he told the philippines about u. S. Subs in north korean waters. Theres this pattern of treating this incredibly Sensitive Information as if its interesting gossip to share with your friends. Which is another layer of what problematic about this just reading the report its really quite vivid and i think we should all obviously look under the hood at the sourcing, but it does sound like donald trump, right, that hes sitting down with his wealthy friend of his in this mode of its almost a car salesman picture, what can i do to get you in this sub today . This is how many warheads it can carry, this is how close you can get to a russian submarine. It underlines persistent concerns that have been across washington, across the world for years that he fundamentally doesnt take this stuff seriously. We can play the what if Hillary Clinton did this game. Listen, its unthinkable behavior except for its totally thinkable in the context of donald trump. This is you know, when you hear Chris Christie make the argument or one of trumps opponents make the argument about him not being qualified to serve as commander in chief, it is this kind of thing. And you cant find we dont know of a comparable example to this kind of behavior in president ial history. Its what makes him unique, it makes him a threat to the way in which this is all supposed to function. And, again, its not surprising because we have become so used to this behavior, but it is still rather troubling. In some ways hes been excused by republicans, republicans excused him when the story came out in may of 2017 about revealing Classified Information to russians. Here we are going. Thanks, everybody. Coming up, President Biden is facing fire from some of his fellow democrats for new efforts to curb the record illegal crossings at the southern border. We will take you inside that battle after a quick break. The Biden Administration is in Damage Control mode after announcing it will build more of the border wall. The president is defending the move saying he tried and failed to redirect the funds appropriated by congress, making one thing clear, no, he says, border walls do not work. His Homeland Security secretary also is trying to defend the move. There is no new Administration Policy with respect to the border wall. From day one this administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer. That remains our position and our position has never wavered. If youre home scratching your head saying i dont get t you are not alone. Luckily Priscilla Alvarez is here to try to help explain. Priscilla . The resounding message from the administration has been that they had to do this, and when i talked to sources what they say is essentially these were funds appropriated by congress in 2019 for specifically border barriers. They were running up against a deadline, by the end of fiscal year 2023 to use them and they had to. And they chose to do so in the Rio Grande Valley sector. But of course this is one of those scenarios where the president s Campaign Message is really running into the realities of governing, which in this case meant having to use these funds to build barriers even if he thinks they dont work, and doing so along the texas mexico border. So the Homeland Security secretary just making very clear there in that stern statement that the policy hasnt changed so much as they were cornered and had to do it. Priscilla, you also have new reporting about a big shift in policy for the Biden Administration when it comes to venezuelan migrants. This is a major breakthrough, dana. For years the u. S. Has not been able to carry out regular deportation flights to venezuela, now they can. This is important because currently there are more than 7 million venezuelans who have fled that country. Thats more people than have left ukraine during an active war. They are moving across the Western Hemisphere and many are heading north. Up until this point the u. S. Had limited tools to Levee Consequences against these migrants because they couldnt really deport them. So now Administration Officials hope that by being able to show that level of consequence it would deter people from coming. If you talk to experts deterrence doesnt usually work, u. S. History has shown that, but the hope is that at the very east they can show providing Lawful Pathways for venezuelans while discouraging them from coming to the boarder we hear from fellow democrats who are not happy with this move. They are not because the situation in venezuela is so dire, economic and political turmoil and youre sending people back, a similar thing we heard from democrats when we were deporting haitians back to haiti. The reality for the administration is they cant sustain the number of Border Crossings right now. Thank you for that. Appreciate it, priscilla. Now to something donald trump said on this topic this week. In an interview the former president borrowed from white nationalists when he said this to national pulse, a right wing news outlet. Nobody has ever seen anything like were witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. Its poisoning the blood of our country. Its so bad. And people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with every possible thing that you can have. Here is what we heard from the antidefamation league, which released a scathing statement, saying in part, insinuating that immigrants are, quote, poisoning the b