plus, senate republicans block a bill to protect access to birth control as "the 11th hour" gets underway on this wednesday night. good evening once again, i'm stephanie ruhle. we are now 153 days away from the election, and it -- that means it is exactly five months from today. and as we get closer to that day, president biden is trying to show the sharp differences between him and donald trump. right now he's in france to mark tomorrow's 80th anniversary of d-day. and while he is there for a very important occasion, he is also trying to reassure our allies about america's place on the world stage. and what will happen when voters go to the polls in november. as our friend reports for the atlantic, quote, in capitals across the continent, leaders and diplomats express a sense of alarm bordering on panic at the prospect of donald trump's re-election. on friday, he is scheduled to give a major speech on democracy and the global struggle against authoritarianism. compare that to what donald trump's allies are doing here at home. they are openly calling for revenge against democrats after trump was convicted in new york even though there is zero evidence that president biden or any of his allies in congress had anything to do with that prosecution. steve bannon, one of donald trump's oldest allies, told "the new york times" that now is the moment for obscure republican prosecutors to make a name for themselves by prosecuting democrats. with that, let's get smarter with our panel, and it's a super one. my dear friend molly is here, special correspondent for vanity fair and an msnbc contributor, evan joins us, reporter and former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, glen kershner is with us. molly, it's obviously important for president biden to be there as america's leader, but from a political standpoint, what is the image he's trying to protect -- excuse me, project, and how important is it? >> it's really, look, it's really important, because it really is a struggle for democracy. i think -- and we were talking about this before -- the more he can get out there, every time biden gets out and speaks, people are like, oh, he sounds pretty good. i mean, that state of the union address was excellent. it was so -- >> they said he knocked it out of the park that night. >> and he was so good, in fact, that trump was like he's on drugs -- remember the trump world was -- couldn't even like conceptualize it. so you need to get out there. this kind of thing is good. he did this before the midterms and a lot of people in the media were like this doesn't work, people don't vote on democracy. and in fact, it worked really well. also, d-day is really important, and world war ii was one of the sort of, you know -- the thing that sort of created american democracy in a different way and also nato. >> okay, that's kind of the thing, right? so the president is there marking d-day but sort of standing arm in arm with other world lead ears, do you think it will be success eful or they're hitting the right tone raising the alarm that this is a battle across the world against the rise in authoritarianism? that threat is real. >> you mentioned coppins piece at the top, there's question all over the world to what's happening to the conversation about democracy, what happens next in all these countries and the world system we've been used to is a big one. and what's remarkable to me, when you put those two things back to back, they show how different these candidates are who are running for president. i talk to a lot of vote ear, people all over the country, and a lot of americans are kind of sad and freaked out. they want to feel econfident and good about being american again. they don't feel that right now. and biden tells them there's a way to do that by building up from what we are used to as a country, the foundations that we have, build up. i'm going to talk to nato, rebuild those alliances, we're going to have a country you're used to. and trump's argument is we're going to tear these things down and prosecute democrat, do politically motivated judicial things. the difference is so stark, and it is remarkable to me just how close the election is when you see how different the two guys are and the two messages they have are. >> how different they are and those messages. those messages that donald trump is pushing one would think are wildly unpopular, so who is he speaking to and why is it sticking? because the new sort of super wealthy set that's getting excited about him, that's all about tax cuts and deregulation. they cannot be down with any of this. >> a lot of these republican policies are not super popular, but they are -- you know, look, we live in a media bubble, right? there's not that much media that -- mainstream media that's getting to a lot of the people in this country. >> bingo. let's talk about what donald trump and his allies are doing. talk to us about this revenge mission, right, steve bannon saying this is a moment for obscure republican prosecutors to make a name for themselves and go after democrats, what? >> you know, the republicans are distinguishing themselves as the pro-crime party, plain and simple. when you see house speaker mike johnson, you see representative jim jordan and his weaponization of government committee, i mean, what they are doing, at least this is the way it looks to this old prosecutor, is they're obstructing justice. they're obstructing prosecutions of donald trump for political advantage. they're doing it whether they're state court prosecution, whether they're federal court prosecutions, and i wish some prosecutors would actually rise up and begin to call them out and hold them accountable for it. because they seem to stand for nothing other than just a naked power grab in the way they per ereceive, i think, their chances of retaining power is to make sure they never break from donald trump. so i don't understand it, but i hope it comes back to haunt them come november. >> evan, molly's correctly identified media bubble be let's talk about the truth, because republicans are arguing that the justice system is being weaponized, but sit those every republicans that are openly advocating for politically persecuting their opponents. while at the same time while donald trump just stood trial, guess who else is, the president's son and new jersey senator bob menendez, at this very moment. what is going on here? on what grounds can republicans say this? >> sometimes you ask me hard questions, it's a difficult challenge for me to answer them. i've got to dig deep. >> if we knew the answers, we wouldn't have you on. >> but sometimes these questions are just like straight up politics. like the most old school, boring politics you can kind of think of. and when you think of a person saying the judge that prosecuted my case, that judge is a bad judge, but the judge that is going to be good rulings in florida, for example, or the judge that's prosecuting the case against hunter bide on or the judge that's doing -- those are good judges. this is just basic politics as it goes. the idea is if it's against me, it's bad, if it's against them, it's good. and that's all it is. i mean, it's the most direct thing i've ever seen, at least in this cycle. it's just such an obvious, obvious political play. >> the steve bannon argument is you opened the door, if you're going to do this to trump, we're going to do this to you. >> the whole thing is retribution, right? the idea is if you try to do these prosecutions, we will get back at you. you need to be afraid of republicans. and look, the whole party is basically about trump now. i mean, like name a republican platform like one of the tenets of the party now. >> well -- >> trump? >> if you were in the trump sphere, you're never doing mainstream media, so no one is going to look back and see bannon and say, well, what about bob menendez, what about hunter biden. >> but look, this is very dangerous. one of the things you cover as a reporter is the things that bind us together as a country, and we talk about this idea of attacking the judicial system, just saying that like it's just fake. this is what they're saying. when someone says, look, you elect me, i'll prosecute everybody that you hate, and it'll -- that's just how it works. and when they prosecute me, it's fake. and it's fake. this stuff has real impact down the line, right? it is politics right now. people are making bets they can say these things and get votes and get just enough of those swing state votes to win, but there is a really serious long-term impact to be thinking about here. when we take away the idea of the courts as being real, we don't really know what happens after that. and that is something i am watching so closely when i do my reporting and talk to these voters who are concerned tant state of america to come and tell them that this whole other chunk of it is not working, is also fake, i don't know what that means for the nation's sort of, like, health in the long term. >> glenn, it's sort of this reminder of how extraordinary it was that a week ago 12 ordinary new yorkers took on the brave, bold, and difficult task of sitting on that jury and convicting donald trump, because now today we learned from axios reporting that trump allies are already talking about this idea that they want to throw d.a. alvin bragg in jail. what does that say to you? especially where donald trump was in 2016 to where he is today. >> yeah, it says the republicans are the pro-crime party. you know, i am thrilled that new york -- a state jurisdiction decided to do the hard work of holding donald trump accountable for just some of his crime sxchlts these were crimes that were designed to gain unfair advantage in the 2016 presidential election. and what did they get for it? new york? we have jurors who are being doxxed. we have witnessed being s.w.a.t.ed. we have judge's family members and prosecutors being put in harm's way, including by the republican party who want, to as you say, steph, go after alvin bragg for simply doing his job. and you know, the one thing that i think would probably go a long way to, you know, kind of prod justice into wakefulness writ large is if the federal government began charging some of the hierarchy of the insurrection. the suits of the insurrection as compared to the boots of the insurrection. the command structure. because what happened on january 6th, steph, is a federal problem. and it needs a federal solution. and for whatever reason, the feds seem content to elet the states, whether it's new york or arizona, wisconsin, georgia, michigan, do the dirty work, the hard work of justice and for whatever reason the feds continue to just sort of sit back as they did until we saw the house january 6th select committee begin to prod doj into wakefulness. i would like to see the federal government start flexing its justice muscle and begin indicting some of these folk, including the ones that are presently unindicted co-conspirators in donald trump's federal prosecution in d.c. >> so molly, what do democrats, what does the biden campaign do with this, right? how do they break through and explain to the american people this right wing drive for vengeance? this ain't old school politic, okay, this is dangerous. >> i think what we were talking about before, donald trump is an awe tro crat. that's just -- he's running as an awe tro crat. he does these things which are anti -democracy, the norms that we have lived by in this constitutional democracy. and i think that what democrats have to do -- and biden has done a good job of this, but he needs to be out there more. and then the vice president, who's really an effective messenger, she needs to be out there too. and they both need to be out there, and they need to explain that these are the norm, and if these norms go away, we will no longer be the country that we our whole lifetimes have lived. in we'll be closer to hungary or russia or turkey. that's what it'll eventually be. i think they need stakes not odds. >> oh my god. all right, glern, i saved this question until the end because i know this story has you ready to bust out your black belt and start kicking, today the georgia court of appeals basically froze the fulton county election interference case at least for now. why is this happening? what does it mean? >> yeah, but for the new york result, justice seems to be going nowhere fast. and i think georgia is now proving the point. listen, appellate litigation can be a very slow, plodding, you know, ordeal, and the georgia appeals court just proved it by not only setting the argument in the appeal of the disqualification of district attorney fani willis issue, which was rejected by judge mcafee and trump and company appealed it. they set that off for october, but they have also sort of put a stay in place, so now judge mcafee can do nothing except kind of tread justice water until the georgia appeals court finally resolves the appeal. so look, there is no hope now of anything happening in georgia before the november election. of course, there's still a slim chance we might see something happen in d.c. if the supreme court danes to decide the absolute immunity issue and return it to the judge to put it back on the trial track. and of course, down in florida, judge cannon has made sure that that case will make zero progress. >> down in florida, safe to say, forget about it. molly, evan, glenn, thank you all for starting us off. don't go anywhere if you're watching from home. in fact, stretch your legs, sit back down, and turn up the volume. when we come back, bibles in classrooms and making abortion a homicide. texas republicans are making their extreme platform very, very clear. how they are taking a page from the project 2025 playbook. and later, my keynote conversation with charl main the god. why he says we need to quit the small talk and commit to deeper, tougher conversations. "the 11th hour" just getting underway on a wednesday. " just getting underway on a wednesday. craig here pays too much for verizon wireless. so he sublet half his real estate office... [ bird squawks loudly ] to a pet shop. meg's moving company uses t-mobile. so she scaled down her fleet to save money. and don's paying so much for at&t, he's been waiting to update his equipment! there's a smarter way to save. comcast business mobile. you could save up to 70% on your wireless bill. so you don't have to compromise. powering smarter savings. powering possibilities. you've heard us talk a lot about project 2025 on this show. sit the 900-page playbook for a far right agenda that is backed by many of trump's closest allies. and it lays out policies and plans that trump could put into effect if he wins in november. now the republican party has not officially endorsed it yet, but some members got closer than ever to embracing its most extreme principles at the texas gop convention last month. watch this. >> they want to take god out of the country. they want government to be god. >> it's not a battle between republican and democrat. it's not a battle between conservative and liberal. it's a battle between sane and crazy. and the forces that are targeting this country, they are organized, they are incredibly well funded, and they are committed. look at what the democrats have done. i want to ask you, if you were actively trying to destroy america, what would you do differently? >> for more, i'm going to bring in robert a democracy reporter for the texas tribune. robert, educate us. the texas gop convention is known to amplify the loudest and most hard line activists, but have you ever heard anything like this before? >> you know, as you said, you know, this convention has always kind of been where the most hard line people come. you know, last year -- or two years ago we saw a referendum on texas succession. we saw calls that homosexuality was an abnormal lifestyle, but even in talking to people who went this year, the consensus was this year did have a much more overt kind of spiritual warfare dynamic that i think really was concerning to even some republicans, because as we saw from the stay jiness, a lot of this was framed not as a fight with political enemy, people on the other side of the political aisle, but an existential battle. >> what does that even mean, spiritual warfare? >> you know, i think it's -- it is a term that is, you know, really started, i think, has been popularized amongst evangelicals in particular and among more charismatic pentecostals, but what it calls for is in line with this idea of an appeal to heaven. it is this idea that their political opponent, again, are not just political opponents. they are dark cosmic forces, principalities of evil, satanic. that has kind of created the permission structure for a lot of the things we're seeing on the right right now. >> how does thet gop's new party platform compare to project 2025, which is the most extreme we've seen? >> i think that there's a lot of overlap. some of the things that, you know, i think in the platform there is, for instance a call for a constitutional amendment that would require statewide office holders to win a popular vote in at least the majority of texas counties, which would effectively lock democrats out of elected office statewide. there was a call that abortion would be labeled homicide, a call for the state board of education to require the bible to be taught in schools. and i think as you rightly pointed out, not just the platform, but the rhetoric that we saw over the last few days and are increasingly seeing, this us versus them rhetoric, is integral to not just project 2025 but it's precursors, whether it's council for national policy, just this broader marching christian nationalist, christian dominionist -- we've seen flare up. >> you interviewed a republican vote who are leads this group that's dedicated to pushing back on fox news, not because fox is too extreme but because he says it is not extreme enough. he said in your piece that people need to go, quote, further down the rabbit hole. okay, going down the rabbit hole is usually a negative thing, and this guy's pushing for it? what's he talking about? >> this is one of, you know this was not an uncommon sentiment we heard from delegates, which is this idea that fox news had been coopted by rinos. we are coming off a political season in texas where the term rino was thrown at some of the most conservative lawmakers in the house simply because they supported the impeachment of ken paxton. and so really what i saw, you know, much more than that at the convention was this really, you know there have always been conspiratorial minds in that world, but really it seemed to be ingrained into the texas gop in ways that the people i talked to said was really unique this year. we had in the lob bis the epoch times, which has been in the news recently. the john burkes society, the original communist conspiracy theory group that was too radical for the gop in the 1950s and '60s, and here they are being embraced and their ideas elevated within, you know, in the convention hall of the texas gop. >> too radical in the '50s and '60s and is center stage in 2024, robert this is really important reporting that the whole country needs to hear. thank you for being here. when we return, my next very special guest says small talk is killing society and that real, meaningful, difficult, sometimes uncomfortable conversations are what we need to repair the deep divisions in our country. charlamagne tha god joins us when "the 11th hour" continues. ins us when "the 11th hour" continues [sfx] water lapping. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [sfx] water splashing. ♪ ♪ [sfx] ambient / laughing. ♪ ♪ the 2024 election is now five months out, and the country is more divided than ever. a lot of americans have given up on having hard conversations with people they might not agree with. tonight's keynote conversation is about the way we speak to one another and how we can communicate better. i'm happy to welcome media mogl, radio host, tv personality charlamagne tha god, you recognize him from the breakfast club. his new book is already a best seller. it is out now. charlamagne, the irony is right now there's a lot of people who just see your face this second or saw that we promoted you, and they're going, i'm mad at him, i don't want to hear from him. >> why? >> because of a sound bite they may have heard on sunday that was taken out of context. and the irony is, that's what this book is about. >> absolutely. >> no one's actually taking the time to think and listen and learn. >> that's right. me and you have had these conversations, you know a lot of times because you can come on one of these platforms, and if you dare to be objective, if you dare to be nuanced, if you dare to be critical, you know, of both parties, if the right wing -- the right media will take what they want to push their narrative, and the left is just not good at that. so the left ends up responding to the right's narrative, and then the left ends up, you know, eating either their own or attacking people who aren't necessarily against them. i'm just having a nuanced conversation about, you know, both parties. >> but isn't small talk how we're lying to ourselves? how we convince ourselves we're communicating, we're connected on social media, i like this, i like that, but we're not actually getting real. >> that's why the title of the book is get honest or die lying, because i'm daring people to not just be honest with themselves but to stop lying to themselves and stop volunteering those lies to other people. stop lying like you're open minded. stop lying like you have nuanced conversations. stop lying like you're objective. top slying like you can put yourself in other people's shoes, because you have your opinion, you have your feelings, you have your narrative, and you're sticking to that, and you refuse to be moved by anybody. >> the book is a lot about heart, but the heart that you write about isn't soft or warm, it's raw, it's real, and it sometimes can be perceived as rude. >> you know what's funny, my mom always tells me, what she used to tell me, me and my dad don't know how to talk to people. so that's been something i've been trying to -- >> a massive communicator who can't talk to people. >> you know, because my dad told me the fastest way between two points is a straight line. and that's what i mean when i talk about being real, because it's easy to be real with other people, right? you can look at somebody else and tell them what they're doing wrong or what they're wearing is whack or how they look is whack, but can you look in the mirror and do that to yourself? that is very hard for some people to do, to have those hard, uncomfortable conversations with themselves, that's hard to do. that's something, i use myself as a muse for that every single day. >> in the book, you look at how politicians and lawmakers communicate in this inauthentic way, and you don't like it, right? >> no, not at all. >> but you hold donald trump to a different standard. you said except donald trump, this guy knows how to get right to the heart of things and sneak to people. but here's my issue with that, he might keep it real in his delivery, but it's all a hustle. >> oh yeah. >> because the majority of words that he's saying are boldfaced lies. >> absolutely. the chapter is called the language of politics is dead. what you said is absolutely true. what i always said is republicans are more sincere about their lies than democrats are about their truths. guys like donald trump or marjorie taylor greene, they'll tell you a boldfaced lie, but it'll sound honest. some democrats could be standing on truth and they sound very shaky in their delivery. they don't sound confident about what it is that they're telling you. the republicans, conservatives, they sound very confident about the message, you know, that they're delivering. >> so why give them the platform? why -- what does one need to do to address that? what's your advice? >> what do you mean? >> right, so when donald trump is sitting there lying and lying and so is marjorie taylor greene, and we're lifting them by giving them attention, are we making a mistake? >> i don't think you're lifting them. you can't ignore them. one is the former president of the united states of america and the other is a congresswoman. what i have told a lot of people on the left is, man, go on conservative platforms and actually have conversations with them. like it's easy for them to take you out of context when you're talking, you know, on -- >> when you're not there. >> -- on another network. they can take you out of context and do what they want with your language or your rhetoric, but if you're actually there and their audience is watching you, it's very hard to be taken out of context. president barack obama used to go on fox news, right? like you've got people like gavin newsom who go on, you know, fox news. that's why you see people looking at them in different ways. like gavin newsom's profile rose considerably. >> pete buttigieg does some of his best work. >> that's what i'm saying. why run from it? if you're afraid they're going to take you out of context, why not go there? why are we running from a whole other side of america? >> you don't support people getting canceled, but where do you draw the line? >> it depend. i'm not god. >> i'm sorry, your name is -- >> charlamagne tha god, right, but i'm not the god, right? canceling is subjective, because if you are the owner of a network or if you're fan of somebody and you don't like something that they did, you can cancel them. you can unsubscribe from them, you can stop listening to their program, stop watching their tv show, stop buying their music. you can do that. but just as far as this whole social media era where we are, you know, putting everybody through the court of public opinion, and you know, we are the judge, jury, and executioner. like who are we? >> and everybody needs to fit in an exact category. >> why? who are we? and i want to go back to something i said about trump and the language of politics is dead. he's made it to where politicians can be honest if they choose to be. >> ah. >> he's not a politician. >> hold on a minute. why do we keep saying -- he is a politician. he is a politician. >> now. but he was the executive producer of celebrity apprentice. he was a reality show star. so somebody like that gets into politics, of course, they're going to communicate better than the politicians. because the politicians are sitting there with their notes. you've interviewed a bunch of them. you ask a question, they stick to the script. ask them that again after they got rid of their talking points. now they got to be honest. he's not moving with no talking points. when congresswoman jasmine crockett called marjorie taylor girl bad butch body, yo, that was a beautiful moment. someone was like, i'm not normalizing this bs that is coming from y'all. now i'm going to check y'all on the bs that y'all keep spewing. because if you leave it unchecked, then it starts to look -- it starts to get normalized in our society. >> i want to ask you something a little personal. you grew up in rural south carolina where you had a long attention span because you grew up at a time when you were spending a lot of time outdoors where your internal clock was the sunrise and the sun setting. >> that's right, that's right. >> fast forward 30 years and you are in the middle of new york city, you have, in some instances, debilitating anxiety -- >> mm-hmm. >> -- and your advice for people is to unplug. >> all the time. >> is to get out there in nature. literally ground yourself in the dirt and hug a tree. >> i was blessed to be born in 1978, so i was born before a lot of this technology. and we came up in the era of technology. so i have both, you know, both points of reference to know how when you're disconnected from something how good it can be. and you know, now at 45, about to be 46 years of age i'm still that kid growing up in south carolina. i like to walk barefoot in my yard and do grounding. in japan they call it forest bathing. i like to put my back up against the tree and just sit out there and just meditate. i go up there and go up to trees and put my hands on them. that's in the book too. i have a chapter called tree hug the block. just talking about how a lot of -- being connected with nature helps to reduce anxiety, reduce stress. if you're dealing with bouts of depression just go outside, go in the ocean. you know, say a prayer, look up to the sun. we don't look up enough, stephanie. that's the other thing too. i was telling my cousin tony that earlier. we was outside running, training. i was like, look up. look at the trees. look at the clouds. >> gratitude. >> you think about the world we in, we're always looking down at our phones. i think about like tupac when he said keep your head up. i think about songs like be optimistic from sound of blackness. as long as you keep your head to the sky, things will be okay. it's got to be something to where they're keeping us constantly looking down. like why aren't we intentionally looking up enough? if there's all of these devices that are making us look down, we have to be intentional about looking up. we have to. >> there's another person that you talk about, that you write about, that you hold at a different level, a higher standard. and if the audience had a picture of you and i and said which person in the picture truly is connected to, loves, and has been inspired by their whole life judy bloom, i'm guessing 99.9% of this audience would go obviously, it's you, stephanie. but it's not, it's you. >> that's my girl. my mom is an english teacher. >> 30 years. >> yeah, probably longer now. but you know, she's an english teacher, and we grew up off the book it program, where you had to read four books to get a free pizza. i used to read all types of things in the library. my mom gave me a great piece of advice. she said read things that don't necessarily pertain to you. so i would be in the library and see books from beverly cleary and judy bloom, judy bloom was talking to young, white girls, that was like the total opposite of who i am, but i fell in love with the story telling. i love judy bloom's story telling the same way i love jay-z's story telling. >> judy and jay. >> she tells great stories. i'm not a person that's afraid to celebrate people, so i've always spoken about her for years. and so about five, six years ago she sent me an autographed copy of are you there god, it's me, margaret, for myself and my oldest daughter. i thought my team was playing a trick on me. i was like, this didn't happen. when her movie came out, she asked to meet me in new york so. i went to go meet with her, you know, her and her husband george. and you know, we kicked it. i've been down to key west a couple of times, me and my wife. we've done cool double dates, you know. i've been to her movie theater in key west. i've been to her bookstore in key west. me and her had a great conversation we recorded. it's up on my youtube channel. you can go watch that. >> a 50-minute interview, you and judy bloom. >> yeah, and we had a conversation for simon and schuster's 100-year as well. that's my girl. >> congratulations on the book. thanks for being here. >> thank you, stephanie. >> it's always good to see you. jb and jay-z, charlamagne's inspiration. again, his new book is out, it's called get honest or die lying: why small talk sucks. when we come back, the summer of the show boat has begun. chuck schumer's strategy to put republicans on the spot when it comes to reproductive rights. we'll have that when "the 11th hour" continues. that when "the 11th hour" continues. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? 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(announcer) dexcom g7 helps protect against highs and lows. call now! earlier today, republicans in the senate blocked a bill to protect access to contraception. only two republican senators, women, lisa murkowski and susan collins, joined democrats to support the right to contraception act. the rest voted no, and the reason? well, that birth control, it's already protected under the supreme court precedent. so let's talk about it. i want to bring in my friend jennifer, former white house communications director for president obama, and reed, cofounder of the lincoln project and a veteran republican strategist, jen, what do you make of this argument by republican? >> i mean, this is a pre-dobbs, i saw that senator cassidy said that he voted against it because democrats are making a show -- try to show that as if contraception was not readily available to women, well, senator, not anymore. you know, there are times where you can say that democrats took votes to try to get people on the record to -- for political purposes, but this is a time where democrats took votes to get them on the record on a women's rights issue. and i'm kind of surprised that more republicans did not choose to vote for it, because it's something that they will rightly pay a price for in november. >> reed, explain this to us. because republicans also said that they voted against the bill because it was a messaging push, but why wouldn't they want to send the message that contraception is protected in this country? i mean, it's super important to voters. >> well, look, they, you know, they have a very, very conservative evangelical base that really wants to get rid of all of this stuff. we're seeing it down in the fifth circuit, we're seeing it in texas. this is the kind of stuff they're going to do in louisiana as well. so they don't want to upset the base of their party. that's what this is. and so they think, okay, you know what, we'll vote against this. no one's really going to pay attention. but as jen said, like this issue, the issue of choice, is after dobbs the bumper that this dog just can't get enough of. and they just keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it. i applaud senator schumer for passing -- or for pushing a messaging bill, right? this is what democrats should do. if you have the power, do this stuff, right? this is how you wage a campaign against people who really will get rid of this stuff. and i'd also like to say to all the young men and women out there, like, do you really want these people in charge of this stuff, i don't think you do. >> all right, new topic, guys. president biden's age and his mental sharpness are a vulnerability, and the white house is absolutely furious about this new "wall street journal" reporting that talks about it. but rather than deny the reporting, why not have this white house make the case that the person he's running >> for the 2016 election, people said that we gave donald trump too much time, too much attention. but should we be playing more to our mind america, this is who this person is, this is what he represents, this is what he is capable of. this is what he is saying day in and day out, rather than what could joe biden potentially do? just show people what trump is doing today. >> i do think, last week, last friday, after the conviction, msnbc ran trump press conference at trump tower and it was bonkers. if you watch msnbc you don't see a lot of him. and i think that might be why people don't come you know, people forget how bad he is. and even if you are supporting biden you might not realize how bad trump is and you know, it is always a balance and it is hard to figure out. it is due, he is a republican nominee and i think that we should see more of him and just see, run him and see how crazy he is. >> when we return, retired journalist and dear friend of this show, kerry sanders. his big moment on the mound, when the 11th hour continues [sfx] water lapping. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [sfx] water splashing. ♪ ♪ [sfx] ambient / laughing. ♪ ♪ four the last thing before we go tonight, play ball. we just had to share this awesome story with you. our longtime friendly former nbc collie, kerry sanders, throughout the ceremonial first pitch at a miami marlins game last night. watch this. >> now heading towards the pitchers mound for the ceremonial first pitch of the gig, please welcome from the nationally televised nbc today morning show, kerry sanders! we will give it to you, in there for a strike. how about a round of applause for kerry sanders from nbc today morning show? >> i miss carrie. of course, he was a correspondent for nbc news for 32 years we all wondered what he was going to do when he retired. but now it looks like he might have a new career on the mound. great job, carrie. we miss you. what an awesome way to end our night. i wish you all a very good night , from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news. thanks for staying up late. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. tonight on all in. >> on the evening after we won the accountability project is going to start. it is going to be, they are going to be person. >> a corrupt retribution scheme and playing site.