Our premier event is taking place september 7th in brooklyn, new york. I will be there with the rest of the gang, you do not want to miss it. Good evening from new york, we have a two hour special edition of all in on this labor day weekend yves, we are 67 days out from the election which i cannot believe, the past 24 hours have been a microcosm of the whole race, you've got kamala harris and tim walz doing the standard campaign work, they kept an even keel in a sitdown interview last night that went through a lot of the republican charges against them. And while they are doing that, trump is out there and honestly stumbling to put together english sentences. His campaign keeps making a mess, including an enormous one tonight which we are going to get to. Both the candidate and his aides are as usual posting through it, the fallout continues from his political photo operand campaign commercial on tiktok at arlington national cemetery at the beginning of the week where he gave the thumbsup over the graves of veterans including many who did not consent to any of this. And a video claiming their deaths on democrats, now his campaign is openly doing battle with the united states army, remember when a worker tried to just enforce rules against political filming, a trump aide got physical with her, she filed a report but did not press charges fearing retribution. The trump campaign spokesman said she was a liar and clearly suffering from a mental health episode, so the army was forced to put out a remarkable statement rebuking the trump team from lying, this incident was unfortunate, it is unfortunate this arlington national cemetery employee has been attacked. The dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation's fallen desert. The trump campaign said they had video of the incident that would vindicate their version of events and prove they were being defamed. Wait, have you seen the video? weirdly, the trump campaign manager posted this unrelated 13 second video to social media showing trump standing in a different part of the cemetery, and he put it up again, noting we are reposting hoping to trigger backs of the office, that was a marine that helped put together john kerry's presidential campaign in 2004. Now to please trump he is reduced on social media as the u. S. Army, so who is triggered here honestly? they seem to be anticipated among rightwing viewers as it was among supporters, the democratic ticket because a lot of republicans, and this has always almost become candid for them, really seem to believe that harris is not a smart person, it is a baseless charge and it carries a lot of sexism and racism but if you need any more evidence of that, trump running mate, jd vance posting to social media, i have gotten a hold of the full interview, accompanied by that notorious viral video, the flustered beauty pageant contended contestant. Here is what kamala harris actually said in her interview. When we came in, our highest priority was to do what he could to rescue america and today we know we have inflation under 3%, a lot of our policies have led to the reality that america recovers faster than any wealthy nation around the world. But, you are right, prices in particular for groceries are still too high, the american people know it, which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries, for example dealing with an issue like price gouging. What we need to do to extend the child tax credit to help young families, be able to take care of their children in their most formative years, we need to do to bring down the cost of housing, the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up, that is what is at stake as much as any other detail that we can discuss in this election. Did that sound to you like the infamous meme from the beauty pageant contestant? she destroyed the city of san francisco, and i own that big building there, i shouldn't talk about this but that's okay, because this is what i'm doing, i should say it's the finest city in the world, sell and get the out of there, but i can't do that, i lost billions of dollars. Somebody said what you think you lost? i said, probably two or 3 billion, but i don't care, and they always say, i don't know if you know, lincoln was horribly treated, jefferson was pretty horribly, andrew jackson was the worst of all, that he was treated worse than any other president and i said do that study again because i think there's nobody close to trump. I even got shot and who knows where that came from, right? he can't keep a single thought in his head for longer than three seconds, so where is jd vance? he cannot stay on topic, cannot stay with the thought for more than a few seconds before returning to his default, nothing so far. There was even darker subtext to his use of the viral video of the pageant contestant which actually shocked me because it was so gross and uncalled for. The woman in that clip is caitlin upton and that totally wrecked havoc on her life and jd vance was asked about her this morning. I'm not sure you are aware, in 2015, caitlin upton did an interview about all the social media attention this clip got, she said i definitely went through a period when i was very depressed but i never let anybody see that stuff except for people i can trust. I have some dark moments where i thought about committing suicide, so when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you are posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention it had received? certainly not, and my heart goes out to her, i hope she is doing well, politics has gotten way too boring, you can have some fun while making a good argument to the american people about how you are going to improve their lives. I just want to make it clear, you did not know that before posting last night mr. Mark john, i'm not going to apologize for posting a joke but i wish the best for caitlin. She responded this morning on social media saying it is a shame that 17 years later this is still brought up but, one thing i know that social media and online bullying needs to stop, she deleted her account a short time later. Host of the upcoming in sync of alexi podcast, we got some news that just broke on the campaign, literally just 10 minutes before it went down there about donald trump and abortion, you might rumor yesterday my colleague interviewed donald trump about the referendum in florida that would uphold abortion rights, it is on the ballot this fall, it would secure abortion rights in that state and overturn the six week ban, and when asked, donald trump didn't actually answer the question but seemed to indicate that he was going to vote for that referendum as a voter in the state of florida, and an avalanche of pushback and anger from the antiabortion right came his way after that, so he was asked about it today after his campaign walked it back, and i think we have the clip. Here is what he said today. I think six weeks you need more time, then six weeks, i disagreed with that right from the early primaries and i heard about it, i disagreed with it. At the same time, the democrats are radical because nine months is just a ridiculous situation. So i will be voting no for that reason. So, just to be clear, this is news, he is on the record, he said, he seemed to say i'm going to vote yes on this referendum, i think this is bad, he got hammered over 24 hours, now doing an apparent 180 today. I think it is incredible that anyone in the media can have a conversation about kamala harris flip flopping on anything when donald trump is getting us a master class in the last 24 hours in the literal definition of flipflopping but worse than that, it is another example of the central question we have to ask ourselves, not just with trump as a candidate but god for bid he becomes president again, is women's health to him a political tool or genuine policy proposal when he's talking about anything from abortion to the government and suddenly paying for people to use ivf, which i would implore him to actually explain whether he even knows what that procedure is. It is a disaster, i think the one thing is clear, nobody should believe anything he says because he will listen to whoever talks to him last and apparently this time it was marjorie from the sba list. And on that last point, i agree with you, it is all bs, just quintessential, like whatever. The one thing that is clear here and the reason i think you could hear the cheers go up in the harris walz campaign, he made a promise to get elected in 2016 for the antiabortion movement that he would choose to overturn roe from a pre vetted list. They overturned roe and the last 24 hours shows there is one group that he will doublecross, that is the antiabortion forces in the republican party. Let's be clear, why are we talking about idf? why are we talking about the florida abortion measure? donald trump, the arsonist created a fire, we trust the arsonist to put it out? he created this problem, his supreme court justices put us in this position, now you are asking the arsonist to come in and say, you have to put out this fire here. We have to move on from him and we are having too much of a rational debate about him coming out with this interesting position. He is trying to win an election and he is lying to people and trying to deceive you, on abortion, he's trying to move on florida in every which way. But for those who care about women's rights, reproductive rights, just be clear who started this fire that we are all still living. Yeah, that's a great point, it's also worth reminding people, whatever people say on campaign, it's like there are two major parties that actually do stuff and vote on stuff to pass things, like donald trump appointed the free justices that overturned roe. And to basically mandate ivf treatment for americans under insurance, republicans block to the bill as the democrats made the push on republican care, they only got two republican votes, susan collins of maine voted for it but everybody including jd vance was on the ticket i can stay. There is no daylight here, i mean, everyone knows, i think, who knows this seriously, knows who's on what side point and also, just like the number of times trump continues to lie any given time he opens his mouth to give a speech or comments to the press or anything, that can't and shouldn't be discounted, the man is going so far as to evolve from fake news in 2016 to now claiming there are a. I. Crowds and images being created at kamala harris's events because he is not living in the same reality and the facts do not matter to him and that is a problem whether it comes to women, health and otherwise. I feel like we cannot state that enough, the man lives so much that we don't keep up with it. Who cares what he has to say when he started this fire and also, when he doesn't even believe the words or know the words that are coming out of his mouth half the time he is saying them. That is a good point, and i think this is a real conundrum, you see this in campaign coverage, it is past wise, it is this meaningless prattle of cognitive decline, but there's no semantic, there's no propositional concept to the whole thing. Now we get into trouble and why he is uniquely dangerous to american politics, he has no vision of right and wrong in anything and therefore he will create false realities for his own followers, he will tell them, the economic staff, feeding you lies, and okay, democracy doesn't even work because we are creating fake crowds for kamala harris, he is creating a false reality for his followers, which of course then goes to the election, which is, if he loses, how does he talk about a rational loss, he doesn't. He is sowing the seeds of distrust in the very institutions of democracy and telling people honestly, this is the last time you have to vote. People are reading between the lines and he is building a reality that is dangerous for all of us in democracy. Alexi, i found myself pretty disgusted by these comments about, harris, like she's not smart, and the jd vance posting. I think it is gross, but it also strikes me as a little counterproductive because you are making her out to seem so ridiculous, like that is the vice president of the united states, i'm not quite sure it is such a tactical move. It is in contrast to the interview that harris and tim walz gave last night, taking shots at trump and jd vance the entire time, telling people we are working on positions we have evolved on overtime because of intellectual curiosity, meanwhile these folks are doing xyz, and they don't, i think it is disgusting to see the sexism, the racism that is already coming from that side but i think it will just remind not just americans but women who are crucial voters in swing states, these guys have no idea what they are doing on abortion rights, they have no idea what they are doing with reproductive rights in general and now they have no idea how to give respect to the sitting vice president of the united states. They have a complete lack of respect for many traditional american institutions or leaders or organizations like the army, like you are talking about. It is completely in contrast not just to traditional republican party values but also to the core of america. The american dream at the end of the day. And there's also the same way they are trying to do jedi mind tricks on abortion rights, like we are going to be the party that protects abortion rights. They try to do the same thing on the proworker label, like jd vance getting booed, it is a similar audacious gambit. And we know about the working class shifts in politics right now and there are too many people in the blue collar working class, people making under $100,000, people without a high school degree. Quite frankly we need that back and to the extent that donald trump is going to win the election, it is going to be people like that who will make the economic decisions at the end of the day and i'm confident that right now, we are going to win those people but the way in which donald trump has won, too many of them is not by policies, by expressing in anger and emotional valence that strikes a chord with people who have had factories closed down for decades, feel like they are getting screwed by corporations and there's anger and trump hits the emotional cord for some of them and it's not to say, harris needs to turn into an angry person that i think we need to have a valence of how to speak to people, particularly as we move into the last few weeks of this, and we want to know, are you feeling my life and are you as upset as i am about trying to rectify what i see as fun of the problems of corporate wrongdoing. And i think we are on the right track but i hope we hit that emotional cord as well as the policy cord. Thank you both. Up next, with less than three weeks until a sentencing, trump is still trying to dodge his conviction, we've got news on his latest attempt to wriggle out of it, we will bring that to you next. Indeed instant maty delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com/hire you've got a pepto predicament, ace. You overdid it on the loaded fries and now your gut is in the gutter. Undo it with pepto fast melts. So you can keep on rolling. [bowling pins knocked down] when you overdo it, undo it with pepto bismol. I'll be honest. By the end of the day, my floors. . . Yeesh. But who has the time to clean? that's why i love my swiffer wetjet. It's a quick and easy way to get my floors clean. Wetjet absorbs and locks grime deep inside. Look at that! swiffer wetjet. If you have chronic kidney disease, you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with farxiga. Because there are places you'd like to be. Farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. A rare, lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. farxiga 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? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. Call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. Pete g. Writes, my tween wants a new phone. How do i not break the bank? we gotcha, pete. Xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig. So you get high speeds for low prices. Better than getting low speeds for high prices. Right, bruce? jealous? yeah, look at that. Honestly, someone get a helmet on this guy. Get a free unlimited line for a year when you buy one unlimited line. Plus, get up to $800 off google pixel 9 phones. Switch today! just a just a short time ago, a federal judge denied donald trump's request to move his manhattan case to federal court, in an effort to delay sentencing until after the election. His hope was to manage that and the win in november, the department of justice could just dismiss the case outright, if that sounds familiar, it's because this is the second time he has tried. Back in july, 2023, his lawyers argued to move the case into the federal system and were denied. The imminent sensing will continue to cause direct harm to president trump and voters located far beyond that. Joining us now is lisa rubin, nbc legal correspondent, this seemed like a hail mary the first time but, things that look like hail mary's end up getting caught in the end zone for a touchdown, i didn't know, what happened here? it is not over yet, this is a classic example, if you first don't succeed, try, try again. The manhattan federal court has rejected this effort to move the new york hush money case to federal court, but really on technical grounds, he told the trump lawyers they can refile their application but when they do so, they have to attach one of two things, both of which it seems they don't have, they either have to attach the written consent of the manhattan d. A. S office, or they have to attach permission from the judge himself and they have to apply for that permission. They have delayed the necessary time to process this application, that also gives the judge time to resolve the existing motions before him that they brought, that include a motion to postpone trump's sentencing until after the election, a motion to set aside the verdict and of course he dealt with the third one already, the third motion to recuse him from the case which he denied. Okay, so if i count this right, they are going to refile this but there's already three motions before merchan. We don't have a sentencing date yet, is that right? we do have a sentencing date but of course that sentencing date could move, on the basis of one of the two outstanding applications, either judge merchan could decide to postpone the sentencing on trump's motion or he could decide that on the basis of the supreme court's july presidential immunity decision, that there was evidence admitted in the case that necessarily means that he has to vacate the verdict. That is the trump folks argument here, whether or not the judge is going to buy that on the other hand is less certain and that is because there was a panel of evidence, at one point the judge said it could fill a courtroom how much evidence was presented in the case. The evidence they want to exclude his evidence from his time in office, conversations that he had with white house aides and of course, we both know that the central evidence of the scheme predates his time in office and that is what the manhattan d. A. S office said, they principally relied upon and bringing their case to the jury and getting a guilty verdict on all 34 counts. So let's say that he doesn't vacate the conviction, based on that argument, so let's say he disposes both of these motions in front of him. The question is, are they going to refile this federal motion to move it to federal court and if they lose again, do they get to move that up the appellate chain while holding in pause the sentencing? that's an interesting question, they have two levers to play now, if judge merchan denies their motion to set aside the verdict, they have already indicated that they are going to try to appeal that prior to any sentencing as well, they signed a letter to him indicating that they believe they have state and federal appellate vehicles for that and as you noted, if and when they get judge hellerstein's permission to file a third notice, if that happens and they don't like his ultimate answer, they could try to exercise their appellate rights with respect to that, too. The question is whether or not they have left themselves enough time to essentially beat merchan to the punch if he wants to go forward with the sentencing on september 18th. Am i crazy? i feel like you usually can't appeal postconviction presenting, right? that is not usually the way it works? you are not crazy but of course we are making up a lot of new rules as we go along and they seem to believe that the unprecedented nature of the case plus the immunity decision necessitates an appellate option prior to that postconviction review that is typically unusual in state courts. That is the argument they have made, that they don't have to go through sentencing first, if they lose the motion, they are entitled to take this up through either state or federal courts. But you are not wrong to say that is not usually the way that this happens. Justice john roberts is busy writing new law and procedure just for donald trump. Lisa rubin, thank you very much. Coming up, it is one of the underappreciated threats of project 2025, what it would mean for you, with the one and only michael lewis, next. And bleeding worry, for life. Watchman. It's one time, for a lifetime. Ok y'all we got ten orders coming in. . Big orders! starting a business is never easy, but starting it eight months pregnant. . That's a different story. I couldn't slow down. We were starting a business from the ground up. People were showing up left and right. And so did our business needs. The chase ink card made it easy. When you go for something big like this, your kids see that. And they believe they can do the same. Earn unlimited 1. 5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business. Make more of what's yours. You founded your kayak company because you love the ocean not spreadsheets. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com/hire unnecessary action hero. . . The nemesis. Mit appears that despite myn. Sinister efforts, employees are still managing their own hr and payroll. Why would you think mere humans deserve to do their own payroll? because their livelihoods depend on it? because they have bills to pay? hear me now, paycom! return the world of hr and payroll to its rightful place of chaos or face a tsunami of unnecessary the likes of which you have never seen! have you always had trouble losing weight and keeping it off? same. Discover the power of wegovy. with wegovy, i lost 35 pounds. And some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. Wegovy helps you lose weight and keep it off. I'm reducing my risk. Wegovy is the only fdaapproved weightmanagement medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight. Wegovy shouldn't be used with semaglutide or glp1 medicines. Don't take wegovy if you or your family had medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. Stop wegovy and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis and gallbladder problems. Wegovy may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes, especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. Tell your provider about vision problems or changes, or if you feel your heart racing while at rest. Depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. Call your provider right away if you have any mental changes. Common side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. With wegovy, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off. And i'm lowering my cv risk. That's the power of we. check your cost and coverage before talking to your health care professional about wegovy. I think i think that what trump should do, if i'm giving him one piece of advice, fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every single servant in the united states, replace them, and when the courts stop you, stand before the country like andrew jackson did and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it. That was the vice presidential pick nearly three years ago, laying out what is the central part of the project 2025, replacing it with our people, corrupt pro trump loyalist. Trump tried something like this the last time around, he really did. And michael lewis chronicled, just how crucial that independent expertise is not just daytoday function of the government, but from preventing catastrophes like for instance, nuclear war. In an upcoming leash piece from the washington post, explained just how critical the unheralded work of the services, the very people donald trump wants to purge in 2025. Joining us now, michael lewis, i thought about the fifth risk when i saw the project 2025 section about the civil service and also when i first heard that jd vance clip, because i think that book is sort of about just how central and essential exactly that vast expertise basis is to run in the entire country. It is like one of the great untold stories of our era, that the civil service, it's what the president is supposed to be managing or at least not screwing up, and when you actually go in and ask what they do, when you don't just wave and say all the rest, you find the most amazing stories. It's not boring. It sounds boring, and the people who are engaged passionately, with the subjects they have become obsessed with and solving problems that are just not going to be solved any other way than by this instrument, so for me, i wrote the fifth risk, i was shocked by how great the material was and shocked by how receptive the audience was to it, so what we've done in the washington post starting tuesday, i have brought in six other writers, and i said here's the literary opportunity of your career and we are going to parachute them into for parts of the federal government and these pieces we will run once a week up until the election and the writer was told, go find something that interests you and i swear to god, after five minutes, they all came out and said how did i not know about this? so, that is what this series is, and i hope people will read it because i think the country needs a civics lesson. And that point about, one of the things that came through and had the opportunity to interact with folks in the federal bureaucracy in different ways, a lot of times, these are people that really take it seriously what they are doing, whether they are checking hormone levels or doing soil erosion work or whatever it is, they really are doing it because they care about it, and also, you have no idea what their politics are. Literally, they could have whatever politics, but what they are focused on is doing the job and there is something so important about that and also so ominous to me about the phrase our people, as a recipe for replacing that knowledge base with like, who signs the loyalty card. That's exactly right, because their politics are largely irrelevant, they are dealing with problems that no one else is going to deal with. And they are not even thinking other politics, and as a group, it's like the kind of people who are, i don't know, my character, it is going to sound boring if i tell you about it but if you read it, you are not going to believe how great the character is, spent an entire decade working with coal miners, and it is a huge deal and his audit, it is a thirty year odyssey and it's an incredible story but this guy has never once asked for attention and it's like the opposite. It's not just trump, the opposite of trump but opposite of the person who stands up to run for office, it's like, don't look at me, but they are the most import person here. And the goal, michael, well first it was literary opportunities, but stop looking at the thing you are looking at all the time and start paying attention to this because this is critical. This is life or death stuff, and you need to know about it, before you decide who you are going to vote for. One thing that points to this when you talk about opposite of the person who runs for office, of all the things we think of that person's job being, you know, some sort of symbolic role where they channel the nation and talks to the nation and stuff, this sort of proposer of legislation and budgets, the thing they are more than anything is the boss at the top of the chart that is all the people from seal team six to the guy that works on the problem of coal mines collapsing. That is literally what the job is. Literally, and if you have someone in office who is just constantly abusing and insulting the people, that cannot be a recipe for successful management. We had an episode yesterday or the day before when trump went into the military cemetery and try to use it for his political purposes which is actually against the rules, what no one said is that the person in the department of veterans affairs, who runs that sacred part of our government, how we bury our war dead, that person turned it from kind of a wellrun thing into the best run organization in the country. There is an operation at the university of michigan that ranks the consumer satisfaction, customer satisfaction of private and public institutions and those people are number one, and it's like trump is using it for his purposes and it happens and people say oh, those people that do the work in the cemetery, they are functioning as bureaucrats, no, they are delivering a service that is a sacred duty of the country and they are better at it than anybody. And we don't even know how that happened or why. And this is like a failure of the citizen, to understand the government. And that is sort of what we need to step in and correct. And these stories are so fun, i'm hoping everybody wants to hear more about that because really, it isn't just trump that is the problem, nobody is really telling the stories and people don't know they need to know them. I'm psyched for this series that is going to come out. Let me ask you this as a final question, one way i think you can interpret this, i think this is true a little bit in new york city governance, new york city has an incredible civil service, at the municipal level, all sorts of amazing people doing expertise stuff, and one thing you can say and i would like to get a response, because that repository of expertise is so good, because there's institutional vibrance and resilience, if you get trump, it's all right, they are sort of cornered off, it doesn't matter that much because of the permanent governing apparatus which is immune to it, what you think about that notion? falls, because the first thing he wants to do is politicize the civil services, remove the civil services ability to protect itself from the politicians and make them all political employees. We already have a problem, too many of our people and federal government are political employees, it is critical, it is creating a number. So, that will make it very hard for things to get done well. Exactly, do you want the guy inspecting the fire safety codes to be someone who really knows about fire safety, or like he was the mayor's body, that is basically the question, that is what we are looking at. Michael lewis, who the book is now out in paperback, look for that series in the washington post, it'll be coming up in the next few weeks. Thank you. Still ahead, the danger as trump once again tries to coop officials to overthrow the election, an election that has not happened yet but he is preparing to overthrow it anyway, the measures underway to stop him from doing that. Hey, jackie! () evan, my guy! you're helping them with savings, right? () i wish i had someone like evan when i started. Somebody just got their first debit card! ice cream on you? ooo, tacos! i got you. Wait hold on, don't you owe me money? what?! your money is a part of your community, so your bank should be too. Like, chase! stains happen to the best of us. I bet carl lewis doesn't get tomato sauce on his jacket. Dang it. Urghh! when they do, tide's got you covered. looking good, man. learned it from you! it's got to be tide. not every decision you make will be as good as getting a volkswagen at the savvy vw summer sales event. 2024 volkswagen models cost less to maintain than honda. Get 0. 9% apr financing or a $3500 customer bonus on a new 2024 atlas or atlas cross sport. Our biggest challenge? uncertainty. Hidden fees, surcharges. . . Who knows what to expect! turn shipping to your advantage. Keep it simple. . . With clear, upfront pricing. With usps ground advantage. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. With skyrizi, feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks. Many people were in remission at 12 weeks, 1 year, and even at 2 years. Serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. Liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. Ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. control is everything to me abbvie could help you save. Your record label is taking off. But so is your sound engineer. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com/hire (psst psst) ahhhh. . . With flonase, allergies don't have to be scary spraying flonase daily gives you longlasting, nondrowsy relief. (psst psst) flonase. All good. 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? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. Call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. It's time. Yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. Everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time to quit the kibble and feed their dogs fresh food from the farmer's dog. Made by vets and delivered right to your door precisely portioned for your dog's needs. It's an idea whose time has come. the law the law is quite clear, these officials have one duty, to certify our elections indigos to the state level and then they certify it. So, all that to say if someone were to violate the law, and not certify the election at the local level, we will come for you, so any local certifier thinking of skirting the law and not certifying the vote, don't even think about it because we will get you. Back in 2020 there was a push by donald trump to have his election loss in michigan overturned by local election officials, basically. He went so far as to call the lobby to convince them to not certify biden's victory in that state, specifically in wayne county, although his plan ultimately failed, although came close to working. That is why michigan secretary of state, jocelyn benson put out that warning less than two weeks ago, don't even think about it. And the state attorney general also put out a statement strongly advising any wouldbe election deniers against trying to subvert the results this time around. Defying the will of the people based on conjecture, dissatisfaction in the results, will not be tolerated, but the willful neglect of your duties is a criminal act. And the michigan attorney general joins me now. Good to have you madam general. Let me ask you this question about the board. The closest this came to happening was in your state, and in wayne county. My understanding is that they don't have partisan majority, they are bipartisan on purpose because they are supposed to just essentially to this ministerial function? yeah. As secretary benson sort of laid out, these are ministerial duties and you just have to make sure that the canvas has been done properly and there are tabulations that have to be done. It's not up to these, you know, unelected individuals who are appointed by the party to make a decision as to whether or not they think that the election was fair or not in their assessment. They have certain very specific elements that they have to look at, and if those components have been achieved, boom, they have to certify. And the important thing is this. We are prepared for that this time around. I think we were a bit taken aback that was happening. We didn't expect the president of the united states to call up a couple of random, you know, county board of canvasser members and essentially, you know, threaten them. So this time we are prepared, and basically, you know, what secretary benson indicated, first of all, it's illegal to fail to certify if the components have been otherwise met, and secondly, we are ready. If we have to get a writ of mandamus from a court to make you it do your job or have a court substitute their order for what you are doing,su so be it. We hope that doesn't happen. Right? we want everyone to do their job in accordance with the law. Unfortunately, you have a lot of people out there, including the former president of the united states, that seem to be encouraging illegal activity. And his message is very clear, right. You are either with us or you are against us. E and he doesn't have a problem threatening people to get thema to do what he wants. The important thing is that perhaps as important as the election in 2024, the elections that20 took place in 2022 with e attorneys general and secretaries of state in a lot of these pivotal swings states. We have people in the offices that are determined to comply with the a law and to ensure others do as well. Yeah. That point about being prepared this time p because i remember covering the wayne county board of canvassers. There is a wild story. They weren't going to certify. Then they reneged. Then trump called them. Then they tried to unrenege and go back. The entire time i remember scurrying around doing research of, wait, can they do that? what happens if they don't? these questions were completely unasked and unanswered question s at that point. We are plead for it. If you remember, it went up to the state board of canvassers and they tried to do the same thing there, to certify all 83 counties in the state of michigan. And one of the republicans refused to certify just for no prepared reason other than he didn't like the results. Thank goodness we had a brave man on the state board of canvassers. We always debate mo will play him in the movie one day. He said my job is to ensure certification where all the elements of certification have been met. And he did it. Now he got lots of threats as a result ofhr that both before an after, but the important thing is what we have donent is chang the law in many critical ways, right. Like, the false slate of electors which was a problem in my state and many other states, that can't happen anymore because a bunch of randos can't just send in their own slate and send it through the postal service to the united states senate and expect that, you know, the vice president is going to count it. It now has to go specifically it has to be transmitted through the office of the governor of the state. So that can't happen anymore. Right. Other things, right? we have new laws that have elevated the penalties for threateningor election official. We've changed the way the state board of canvassers works to ensure those things that happened in 2020 can't happen again. We will be prepared for any and all sets of circumstances. That's really interesting that you have sort of actually gotten into the kind of engineering if it will, you will, the mechanics of all this to make a sure that those fail points are proofed up. Dana nessel, who is the line from the convention, the court can pry the wedding ring from your cold, dead, gay hand has been ringing in my ears. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Much more ahead, including the latest tight polling on trump and why it isn't reflected in the polling for republicans down ballot. Plus, podcaster ted cruz on the ropes in the reelection bid in texas. His opponent colin allred joins me. And meet some of the republican voters who are backing kamala harris. That's all coming up next. They expect it to be on time. Turn shipping to your advantage. Keep those expectations with reliable ground shipping. Thanks brandon. With usps ground advantage. if you're living with hiv, imagine being good to go without daily hiv pills. Good to go unscripted. Good to go on a whim. With cabenuva, there's no pausing for daily hiv pills. For adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, longacting hiv treatment you can get every other month. It's two injections from a healthcare provider. Just 6 times a year. Don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients, or if you're taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. Serious side effects include allergic reactions, postinjection reactions, liver problems, and depression. If you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems, mental health concerns and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. Some of the most common side effects include injectionsite reactions, fever, and tiredness. With cabenuva, you're good to go. Ask your doctor about switching. Your shipping manager left to find themself. leaving you lost. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com/hire with dexcom g7, managing your diabetes just got easier. So, what's your glucose number right now? good thing you don't need to fingerstick. How's all that food affect your glucose? oh, the answers on your phone. What if you're heading low at night? [notifications ringing] wow, it can alert you?! and you can even track your goals. Manage your diabetes with confidence with dexcom g7. The most accurate cgm. Learn more at dexcom. Com. That grimy film on your teeth? dr. G? it's actually the buildup of plaque bacteria which can cause cavities. Most toothpastes quit working in minutes. But crest prohealth's antibacterial fluoride protects all day. So it stops cavities before they start. . . Crest. We are back for another hour of our supersized show on this labor day eve as we head into the holiday weekend in this last week of summer. The polls have continued to look pretty promising across the board for vice president kamala harris. A fox news poll of key sun belt states found kamala harris leading one point in georgia and nevada, behind bun in north carolina, within the margin of error. But a much better standing than joe biden's position, say, two months ago. The really jawdropping thing is the enormous gap we are seeing between the top of the ticket, presidential race, and down ballot statewide races. This was true when president joe biden was the democratic nominee and people pointed to it as a reason that biden should drop out, right? but it has remained the case even as kamala harris has considerably improved the democrat's position in the presidential race. So the same fox news poll shows the democratic candidate for senate in arizona, ruben gallego, is running 15 points ahead of republican kari lake, 56% to 41%. A one point gap at the top of the ticket, 15 points down ballot. In nevada democratic senator jackie rosing expands kamala harris' twopoint lead into auto 14 point lead, 5541. In north carolina, donald trump's one point over harris totally collapses in the race for governor, democratic attorney general josh stein running 11 points ahead of the republican lieutenant governor mark robinson. So this is not just this one poll. It's been a consistent reliable finding in state after state and poll after poll. And it's kind of weird when you think about it, right? especially striking because what it seems to say is that donald trump is by far the best performing republican candidate in this election cycle. Like the guy that's sitting around posting qanon memes and trying to explain why he staged a campaign commercial of fallen shoulders is seven or eight points above those other republican candidates. What's going on here? and there are a bunch of different theories. One possibility, which we should talk about, is that this is kind of an artifact of where we are in the cycle. As we get closer to election day, voters turn in, down ballot races and the numbers will converge. In the end the polls and outcome for senate and governor will look a lot more like the ones for president. All the statewide races in the swing states will be very close. Another theory is candidate quality. In a few cases republicans are running truly unlikable candidates. Kari lake who won't concede her gubernatorial loss in arizona and conspiracy theorist mark robinson who says women seeking abortions in north carolina weren't responsible enough to keep their skirt down. They fit that bill i think it's fair to say. My theory here that i'm sort of working with is i think that donald trump like a vampire, basically, has managed to suck all of the value out of the republican party brand into himself. Like he absorbed it all for himself in his own political benefit and left nothing behind for anyone else. Today trump is the republican party. Right? there is the trump phenomenon and nothing else. The party has no other identity brand independent of him, explanation for what is means. Coherent body of beliefs. And that has consequences. A result, trump has wrecked the value of being a republican for all of the other candidates on the ballot. And this is true of candidates who should be able to run as basically generic republicans and have a decent shot of winning in swing states where there is a lot of republicans and they are just getting their butts kicked right now. Like the republicans running for senate in the battleground real tight states, pennsylvania, wisconsin are perfect examples. David mccormick in pennsylvania, eric hovde. They are not great candidates. They are uber wealthy carpetbagger with residences outside the state, make tons of money, but they are not, like, total freak shows either. They are not mark robinson. They are not kari lake. They are pretty standard rich republicans, right, with standard rich republican positions. Guys like that have been winning senate races as long as i have been alive. In recent polls mccormick is eight points behind casey. Hovde is trailing baldwin by seven points in wisconsin. That might narrow. They are doing better than, like, robinson and kari lake. They are very tight swinging states where joe biden narrowly won in 2020. There is a deeper problem here. You see it in state legislatures, in midterm elections. It's a problem for republican candidates other than donald trump, not just this year, in the trump era. They have no real convincing argument for voters that they should want to be republicans and to vote for republicans not named trump. Trump has sucked up all the value of the enterprise leaving nothing for his fellow party members down ballot. And i think it could spell disaster for republicanness chas of taking the statehouses, the house, holding the house, even taking back the senate. Valencia johnson's a democratic strategist who served as a senior advisor in the kamala harris campaign. Deputy chief of staff to harry reid and they join mimi, adam. A senate veteran of the institution of senate campaigns for your take on this, like, what is going on here? why is there this enormous gap? well, i think you put your finger on one factor in your opener, which is that trump has, you know, like olivia rodrigo would say, sucked a lot of life out of the republican party like a vampire. But i think a corollary is we live in a twoparty system. When one party loses, the other gains. You are seeing democrats broadly popular. Politics you test a generic democrat on the ballot, right. Something we often substitute for what the outcome of congressional elections are going to be, and i think not to take anything away from the democratic candidates in the races, in a way you are seeing a generic democrat performing against these republicans and a generic democrat performs well. The democratic party is broadly popular. I think that is generating these massive gaps in the numbers. The question is will harris' numbers converge with the senate candidates or the other way around or will they meet in the middle? that's an interesting way of framing it. Like to not focus on what's wrong with republicans. What are they doing wrong. But, like, it speaks to something broad a based about something the democrats are doing right in the brand of the democratic party. Yeah, i mean, i think coming off of the amazing democratic national convention last week you saw that the party wasn't just running against donald trump and against republicans. We actually do have an identity. An identity that encompasses a lot of people of different backgrounds and ideologies but believe in what a future should look like. That's what shows our strength. It is our diversity. It is the ability to do well in some of these states that, you know, republicans thought were more so always leaning red. And now that they are in play. I do think to your point about the candidates not being that good, i mean, we saw this in 2022 in the midterms. We started to see the donald trump effect in that republicans lose when they run donald trump type of candidates, and yet they continue to run them over and over and get their butts kicked, but they are doing it again, to the point you were making, the republican party doesn't have an identity except for donald trump. It's going to be interesting to see what happens after election day because i don't think any of these senate races are going be predictable. I believe democrats have an opportunity to actually hold on to the slim margin, right, and kamala harris has the ability to win. But even after that the republican party has a lot to contend with in order to rebuild and figure out who are they besides make america great again and trump maga republicans. Yeah. And as i think about it, you know, there is for most of the time i cover politics, a generic republican, i could say here is where they will be on the issues, right, want to overturn rowe, call themselves prolife, be antiabortion, cut taxes for rich folks, sort of pro business is how they brand themselves, anti you know, want to deregulate the they believe in free markets, strong national defense, you know, like, there is a sort of litany. So much has kind of collapsed in on itself. You can't even kind of generate the generic package because maybe trump will change his mind on an issue tomorrow and loves putin and kim jongun. Like, it's just very hard to actually just, like, generate the list anymore. That's right. One of the reasons trump is hard to beat as a candidate is that he has this idiosyncratic quality to him that is very unprincipled and makes him extremely unpredictable. Some voters see that as he'll always do the right thing, you know. Right. And the ideology you're describing was extremely unpopular. This is why we beat mitt romney in 2012. Cutting social security, raising taxes on the middle classes, lowering taxes on rich people is generally an unpopular policy prescription. Trump has the ability to scramble that in voters' minds. He is an x factor. Democrats are doing a great job at the convention last week of driving home that this basic republican philosophy, powered by dobbs, you know, is what trump recommendation and will make happen when he is in office. That is another interesting idea. And i think that there is a dobbs factor here, which, you know, and you see the harris campaign working on this and we did in the previous hour, trump saying he is going to vote against the referendum that would secure abortion rights in florida for floridians, overturn the sixweek ban, a total ban on abortions it if that state. He is going to vote against that. He likes he is upholding the ban. But i do think there is a weird way he is not doesn't seem as touched by the dobbs effect as sort of generic republicans partly i think because of adam's point about the weird idiosyncrasy and people thinking he doesn't believe in any of this either way. It's actually interesting that people still believe that he doesn't believe in these things that he says or that he is going to, quote, unquote, do the right thing when dobbs the dobbs decision came down, he was proud of that. He was running around with a victory lap around the rt supreme court justices he appointed, right? then he realized it's a losing issue for republicans. I am glad you brought this up because i was looking at polling and how some of the senate races coinciding with ballot measures around abortion, that could actually be in our favor in regards to democrats winning those seats or maintaining those seats as well. But it's really interesting to see that donald trump goes wherever the wind blows, wherever popularity is, and the reality is being an antiabortion is not popular. That is the only reason that he is moderating, quote, unquote, his position on abortion care. But we know that if he becomes president again, he will sign a national abortion ban. The extreme evangelical right and aentd abortion movement will not let him stay in office without doing so. If you had any doubts before today, he lasted 24 hours not even from giving a sort of equivocal though not committal answer how he would float in a florida ballot initiative, just his individual vote. He couldn't stand up to that for 24 hours. Like, what? he is going to, like, veto a national abortion ban? like, get out of here. Like, it just showed he is completely at the of these folks. That explains a little bit of what is happening in the polling, that brand of we're the party against abortion has been built up by the republican party for decades and decades and decades and adheres to generic republican in a way that is very hard to run away from. That's right. And i think that's a good case why the trump harris numbers might converge with what you are seeing in the senate numbers, right, because, you know, trump made dobbs possible. He is the president who appointed the justices who decided dobbs. Democrats can hang this around his neck in a way they couldn't before and prevent him from having that sort of antigravity quality where he rises above the issues. Dobbs happened because of trump. No two ways about it. And his answer on the florida ballot initiative today underscores the fact if he is president there will be a national abortion ban, republican congress would pass it and he would sign it. That's a big, big factor going into the november. There is not we talk about this sort of converging question. There is not a ton there is sort of this idea of coattails at the top of the ticket and folks lower down the ticket might ride on the coattails, people vote straight ticket. That there is less and less ticket splitting as we've gone on on in time. There is a notion of a reverse coattails effect. A wide gulf in down ballot race. That might affect the top of the ticket. There is way less political science for that. Seems like there might be some of that going on, particularly south carolina, mark robinson said unbelievably outrageous stuff, including like talking about, like, a jewish conspiracy to, like, fool black people and making marvel's black panther and disgusting stuff. I think, like do you think that's an affect maybe that, like, you get bad candidates lower on the ballot affect a the top line numbers? oh, my goodness. The people i talked toer embarrassed by him that he is on the ballot to be governor. And so i do think this could be a race for us to watch for a trend like that. I would say that with carli lake as well. Voters are going to see how brash and out of this world this man is. And then to the point we are talking about earlier how the republican party doesn't van identity, well, they will tie up the identity of the republican to someone like mark robinson and therefore think maybe i should actually show up for vice president harris and the democratic governors candidate in north carolina and see where that gets me because it's not that brand that i don't associate with. So i think north carolina and i throw arizona in there are actually two places to watch to see if the grassroots bubbles up to the top, right. If these down ballot races actually end up helping vice president harris. I got to say the republican party of arizona is just on a run like you just haven't seen from a statewide i mean, they took the barry goldwater, john mccain state dominated by republicans for decades and have just, like, destroyed the party. I mean, just absolutely destroyed the whole thing. It's really a wild thing to watch. Thank you so much. Thank you. Up next, an area podcaster moonlighting in the u. S. Senate confronts a scary reality. I don't have any way to ask this but directly. Is donald trump becoming a drag on republicans? no, i don't think so at all. Now nipping at the heels of ted cruz and he joins me next, colin allred. Allred with the ones you love. Ask your doctor about farxiga today. Farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. A rare, lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. farxiga you can learn unbelievable things on the internet unbelievably cool and unbelievably false. Remind your kids, just because it's online doesn't mean it's true. Keep an eye out for misinformation. The more you know. () behind every splenda product is a mission. Helping millions of people reduce sugar from their diets. Now try a sweetener grown by u. S. Farmers. Introducing zerocalorie splenda stevia. At splenda stevia farms, our plants are sweetened by sunshine. Experience how great splenda stevia can be. Grown on our farm, enjoyed at your table. () you know, in the nfl we had a term for guys like donald trump and my opponent ted cruz. Me guys. You know the type. Talk a big game, only care about themselves. But you don't want to be stuck with them at a barbecue. The truth is america has never been about me. As president obama said, the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word we. We the people. We shall overcome. Yes, we can. Congressman colin allred is campaign to go unseat republican senator and fulltime podcaster ted cruz and become the first democrat to represent texas in the sixth is since 1993. That's not a ton of reliable polling, but a poll conducted early in the summer showed allred trailing cruz by three points. Crucial 7% undecided. Given how apparently the close the race is, democrats are hoping to dislike of donald trump will compel him. How that breaks in november could be the difference of another term of ted cruz or senator colin allred. And joining me now is texas congressman colin allred. Congressman, good to have you. Thanks for having me, chris. Appreciate it. Let's start with just sort of some meat and potatoes here. We were talking about senate polling, battleground statewide polling in a bunch of races, arizona, pennsylvania, wisconsin. When you go to voters in texas, what are the top three things you say you send me to the u. S. Senate and i will do this, this, and this, vote this way, on the opposite side of ted cruz? yeah. In texas, we are experiencing a total ban on abortion looks like. The reality is it's horrific. And we are telling these stories and unfortunately there are so many texas women who have so many different stories. And so what we're talking about is i am a fourth generation texan. I know who we are. We believe in flee dom. We have to restore this freedom of 30 million texans who have been living under really the boot heel of this and this is ted cruz's abortion ban. You also i think have seen a lot of discussion of the southern border. My family is from brownsville. My grandfather bass a customs officers there. We have a senator who we have a bipartisan effort to try to address that bring billions of dollars to our state he takes it down because he thought it would be bad politics. That's saying he is more important than texas. And of course we have to make sure that here in texas as we continue to grow our economy it's working for everybody. I was raised by a single mom, public school teach early. We don't pay our teachers enough. He wants to cut taxes for the rich, go after medicare and social security and not doing anything to help working families. The contrasts are enormous and texans know it. On that border bill, you would vote for that bipartisan border bill that had been negotiated between both republicans and democrats that donald trump came out to oppose because he thought it would essentially help joe biden, who was the nominee at the time. You would vote for that bill? i jumped all over it as soon as i talked about it, put out a statement saying this is what we have to do. I want folks to understand that this was no state would benefit norman texas. This addresses what we are seeing at the southern border and i talk to border patrol agents about, an asylum crisis. More resources, more none for technology, nor immigration judges, more border patrol agents and for ted cruz to take it down is saying my election or what is good for me is more important than what's good for texas. That's not acceptable for texans. An argument i heard from folks when talking about the border, texas is the biggest border state, obviously, that over the last 10 to 20 years we have increased border enforcement tremendous amount. I mean, literally by orders of magnitude in terms of personnel, the amount of money that goes in the budget, sending more equipment, sending more people, money, and that somehow that doesn't seem to be fixing the problem, like, maybe we are working on the wrong lever and every time response to what is happening, people showing up, sometimes just trying to come here for, you know, economic opportunity, that the sort of increase border enforcement doesn't is not working. Yeah. Well, here is the thing, chris. Number one, you have to have short, medium and longterm plans to address a crisis like this. The short term, yes, we have had more resources and i voted for them and ted cruz has voted against those budgets that have funded the border patrol at record levels. But in the short term we have also had a massive increase especially last year in the number of crossings. We had a record number in december of 2023. You have to have a response to that, a policy response, and that response has to allow resources. Sow have to address in the short term the asylum situation at the southern border which is these folks are coming and claiming asylum, 90% will be lee jekted, but it takes, five, six, seven, eight years for the rejection to come. We can fix that. We can fix the asylum system to work better. The medium term a comprehensive reform to the immigration system. Having a broken system contributes to the illegal immigration. But then in the longer tem we have to work to stabilize the countries in our own hemisphere where the folks are coming from. I worked in the foreign affairs committee helping with haiti, what's happening there. We see venezuela. Work to do in the northern tribal countries. You remember how colombia was in the '90s. It took a couple decades to where colombia is now much more stable and contributing country on the world stage. We can do that with some of our other neighbors here who are driving so much of this migration. You have to come at it from every single element. Final question for you. On the eve of football season, are you a cowboys fan or now you are running statewide, have to be sort of, like, both cowboys and texans? i grew up a huge cowboys fan because they were incredibly good when i was a kid. Then i played against the cowboys and it's hard to abfan when you are playing against somebody. And so now i root for what i like in terms of the way they are playing and the defense they are playing, as a former linebacker. I want the cowboys to do better, to do well, and i want the texans to do well. You know what, chris? people are literally in a better mood, dallas in tick, when the cowboys are doing well. I'm sure that's the case. Texans will be fun this year. Colin allred, running against ted cruz in texas, thanks so much. Thanks, chris. Still ahead, we have seen black women and white dudes, comics and swifties, and now republican voters for kamala harris. I will talk to a mini focus group next. A mini focus group next elections come down to a small group of undecided voters in seven states. People who tend to not be die hard part since. And a key part of president joe biden's 2020 victory was convincing enough conservative or republican voters to cross party lines and support him in states like georgia and arizona. It's a strategy that the harris/walz campaign is trying to emulate. The democratic convention featured many republicans back harris and create a permission structure for fellow party members to do the same. I am not left wing, sponsored. But i believe our leaders should bring out the best in us not the worst. That's why i'm voting for kamala harris. She is tough. She's going to tackle inflation. Trump will make it worse. I am voting for kamala harris because she'll make us proud to be american again. Kyle sweetser is a twotime trump voter from alabama, publicly backed harris. Robert knicks is a former trump voter from pennsylvania. They are involved with republican voters against trump. And they join me now. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Kyle i will start with you. You live in alabama, which is a pretty conservative place. Trump will win by to 20 points, something like that. You are a twotime trump voter. I guess i think people that went back the second time, 16, 20, locked in. Not you. What changed your mind? yeah. So i voted for trump in 2016. I thought he was a good change of pace. I thought people especially down here were not well represented. And 2018 we had the steel tariffs and those started affect products. I saw the firsthand affects before anyone else, the inflation started then. In 2020, after all the things that trump said, i was actually kind of holding my nose to vote for him. Kind of to beat the democrats. That kind of thing. And so i just assumed he was going to go away. I assumed it was over with, especially after january 6th, and in 2022 when i started paying closer attention to geopolitics and what was going on in the world i started to look at trump's record, especially on foreign policy and the things he said and his could beling of dictators and enemies, essentially the united states, and looked close at his record and he is a disaster. Robert, you were a trump voter i think in pennsylvania in 2016 and then did vote for president joe biden in 2020? is that right? i did. I voted for biden. I did in fact like kyle said held my nose and voted for biden. But because i simply couldn't bring myself to vote for trump. In fact. The reason i am involved with republican voters against trump and on billboards and writing opeds is because i think i am trying to atone for even voting for trump in 2016. Make up for my mistake. And there is some people i think who would maybe sort of go from trump, you know, go from trump and vote for biden. Maybe they come back in the fold or not. But you are now devoted. What was for you that pried you away from trump? well, initially, i mean, from his very first term i saw the problems right away with the undermining of the press, undermining of the constitution, and in particular the rule of law and particularly the checks and balances that hold our government together. He flaunted all of that. And it looked like we were headed towards disaster, you know, just in his first term. And then, then came and i couldn't vote for him after that. Then came the loss of 2020 where he began to he created the big lie. Instigated an insurrection. I thought how can he possibly even run in 2024 much less how people could support him. I am appalled as i watched the republican party that i have been involved with for 44 years and not just as a voter, but i have run for office as a republican, i have helped hispanic outreach all over the state of pennsylvania with bush going back to bush/cheney in 2004, helping senator santorum and sect sector with hispanic outreach. And now to see what the republican party has been reduced to by trump turns my stomach and it afalls me. So, yes, i could never vote for him again. I work very hard to try to make as many people as i can aware of the problems that we are facing here. It's not the issues. It's the problem of the destruction of our form of government is what i fear. And then i think too many people are thinking, oh, it's a normal race about between democrats and republicans and i got to go with issues like immigration and inflation or israel or abortion. But those are we can fix we can get by with bad policy, survive it as liz cheney said. We can't survive the undermining and trampling of our constitution. That's the basis for what i believe in now. It's so interesting to listen to you two. There is this i think a little tired and trite, you know, pundit conventional wisdom, like, the real voters don't care about foreign policy or democracy. They care about kitchen table issues. You are talking about your trajectories. Let me come back on kyle, foreign policy. Interesting you mentioned that because a lot of times again the conventional wisdom is people don't care that much about it. What specifically was it the ukraine war? was there something you started to be, like, this not right that got you? yeah. So i just started to pay attention to trump and basically his orbit and the things they say. And it was startling how they were pretty much pushing the same talking points as russia. You know, i start to look back at trump's record on s230, trying to come after freedom of speech and tie it into funding in 2020. You know, all those things. And the tariffs and the trade and all that. I don't think people really understand that a lot of these things affect the prices that we have now and inflation. It's just wild that there is not enough effort to educate voters on how important foreign policy is, how important trade policy is, and really how trump himself has completely thrown out conservative economic and trade policies. He is not fiscally responsible. If you look at the current rate or the current the federal budget, i think that he has proposed, it's five times what the democrats are proposed. That's insane. 2020 trump, he had the single highest year of murder rate in 2020. So he is not a law and order president. Yeah, and that point about tariffs, i mean he is proposing at a minimum a 10% sales tax on every import in the country. I think that's underappreciated. Robert, you were a republican. There is a crucial down ballot race in your state. Mccormick is running against the incumbent democrat senator there. What is your feeling about that race? well, it's for me, if you had been endorsed by or endorse trump, you are tainted with the same problem that is taking over the entire republican party. There is only a very few republicans left in my view, and they include liz cheney, larry hogan, adam kinzinger. Everyone else, if you endorse to see hailey after she dropped out endorse trump made me sick. Dave mccormick in my view is tainted as well. The only way to fix the republican party is to burn it to the ground and start over. Anyone affiliated with trumpism, we have to start over. It's like a mattress with bedbugs. You've got to burn it and throw it out and start over. And so that's how i feel about anybody endorsed by or endorses or supports or stands on the same stage with trump. Yeah, time for a new mattress. Yeah. Thank you both, gentlemen. Still ahead, trump and republican the republican party's attempt to rewrite its own recent list everything from january 6th, the election results, to what happened in arlington national cemetery. That's next. Republican republican and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. E*trade from morgan stanley with powerful, easytouse tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. React to fastmoving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. E*trade from morgan stanley to my son, i've never been the cool dad. I always wanted to know what he's up to online. But with tiktok's privacy settings being on by default for teens under 16, accounts are set to private. He cannot send or receive dm's, and only his friends can comment. So he can post away, and i've got one less thing, to worry about. So, dad, how old do you have to be to get a tattoo? uh, um. Teen safety settings on by default. with dexcom g7, managing your diabetes just got easier. So, what's your glucose number right now? good thing you don't need to fingerstick. How's all that food affect your glucose? oh, the answers on your phone. What if you're heading low at night? [notifications ringing] wow, it can alert you?! and you can even track your goals. Manage your diabetes with confidence with dexcom g7. The most accurate cgm. Learn more at dexcom. Com. Donald trump of course no stranger to warping reality to his needs or desires or his own delusions. The fall out from the arlington national cemetery altercation another example. When trump gets caught transgressing or caught lying, they then just commit to the position and they think that through sheer will and reputation they will, like, change reality even. I mean, at least people's perception of the event to avoid any accountability for their actions. Trump insisted to dr. Phil he should have won california if not for voter fraud. In the real world, he lost by more than five million votes. That on the screen, not a close election. Not the result of voter fraud. That kind of casual disregard for anything real is the thesis behind the new book by rachel maddow producer steve bennett, a guy i have been reading literally over a decade. Ministry of truth. It examines republican efforts to distort and rewrite anything embarrassing or inconvenient in their quest for power. Steve bennett joins me now. Congratulations on the book. Give me the sort of central thesis unifying idea here. The thesis is that republicans have systemic attack on recent history and they are trying to bully our memories into submission. All part of an effort to rewrite history to benefit republican politics. Events from january 6th to the trump russia scandal to federal response to covid, all those instances are a dramatic failure for them, they feel it's necessary to rewrite recent history. It affects everything from legislation to elections even democracy itself because really when you think about it democracy rests on a foundation of shared knowledge. When that is corrupted on purpose the corrosive effects are dramatic. There is two examples you gave there that i think strike stand out to me. One is very successful and one with more sort of mixed success. The first is covid. I do think partly because of the trauma and fatigue, there has been a remarkably successful rewriting of that whole year, partly, like, everyone forgot huge portions of it. Tell me about that aspect. When i look at 2020, i think of disaster, failure, donald trump and his administration catastrophically dealing with the most serious public health crisis in a generation or more. What we saw was a white house that sidelined experts, promoted quack thata white house that sidelined experts, that promoted cures and really failing in every possible way and yet right now we see donald trump on the campaign trail routinely whining that he is not given enough credit for his successes in dealing with covid, when in fact there were no successes in terms of his response to covid. We know why he is doing this of course. Because if he is held accountable for the catastrophic failures in 2020 he would never win another election and republicans would be out of office for years to come. So they feel it is necessary to tell us no, don't believe your lying eyes. Don't believe your lying ears. Don't believe what you remember. Replace those narratives and republicans in the white house were a great success when it came to covid. Even going so far, we did this a lot about were you better off, you know, better off than you were four years ago? of course i am better off than when we were stuck inside our homes, wiping down groceries and sitting on zoom. The second example is january 6 and that is interesting because to me it is mixed with success, but what i think has been successful is when you think of concentric circles. The hardcore base and out to normal republicans, to people in the middle, to everyone. It does seem like it has been effective with the kind of hard core maga base, but maybe it stopped there. What is your feeling of what they have done with january 6? we look at january 6 and republicans changed their mind constantly as to who the villain is. No, we will blame the fbi, blame the deep state and then it changed. Flip it on its head and actually the criminals are the good guys. We have to look at them as hostages and victims. They deserve pardons, they deserve our money. So really we have watched republicans rewrite this story and in this dramatic way where reality has no meaning whatsoever. To your weston, chris, i think it is true that there is polling to suggest the republican base has fallen for this and yet at the same time we see trump on the campaign trail appealing to the entire electorate. Saying no, we're going to pardon all of these folks. I'm going to host fundraisers for them and treat them as if they are heroes. There is a reason people use the term the big lie, famously a phrase used by one of hitler's chief propagandists to describe an approach to warping truth and a connection to other traditions of authoritarianism. Look, politicians do stuff similar to this. They try to spin the truth or change. Where does this fall on the spectrum to you? to me i think we are dealing with a qualitative different thing than we have seen in generations because it is not just one politician lying. It is a systemic approach to rewriting history and authoritarians have been trying to rewrite history for as long as there have been records, but they did not have fox news, they did not have conservative radio and they did not have rightwing websites and that partnership is unique. Again, i have been reading and learning from you for 15 points at this point. The new book is titled ministry of truth, democracy, reality and the republicans were on the recent past. It is available now. I will be right back. Back my eye doctor explained the root was inflammationso he prescribed xiidra. Xiidra works differently. Xiidra targets inflammation. Overthecounter drops don't do this. They only hit pause on my symptoms. But twicedaily xiidra gives me lasting relief. Xiidra treats the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. Don't use if allergic to xiidra and seek medical help if needed. Common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort, blurred vision, and unusual taste sensation. Don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. Before using xiidra, remove contact lenses and wait fifteen minutes before reinserting. Dry eye over and over? it's time for xiidra. () have you always had trouble losing weight and keeping it off? same. Discover the power of wegovy. with wegovy, i lost 35 pounds. And some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. Wegovy helps you lose weight and keep it off. I'm reducing my risk. Wegovy is the only fdaapproved weightmanagement medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight. Wegovy shouldn't be used with semaglutide or glp1 medicines. Don't take wegovy if you or your family had medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. Stop wegovy and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis and gallbladder problems. Wegovy may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes, especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. Tell your provider about vision problems or changes, or if you feel your heart racing while at rest. Depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. Call your provider right away if you have any mental changes. Common side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. With wegovy, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off. And i'm lowering my cv risk. That's the power of we. check your cost and coverage before talking to your health care professional about wegovy. Oh, why leaffilter? it's well designed, efficient, i appreciate that. Leaffilter's technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good, guaranteed. What more could you ask for? call 833. Leaf. Filter today, or visit leaffilter. Com. () behind every splenda product is a mission. Helping millions of people reduce sugar from their diets. Now try a sweetener grown by u. S. Farmers. Introducing zerocalorie splenda stevia. At splenda stevia farms, our plants are sweetened by sunshine. Experience how great splenda stevia can be. Grown on our farm, enjoyed at your table. () a couple a couple of things you are not going to want to miss. In over a week me, rachel maddow, joy reid and a bunch of your favorite msnbc hosts will descend on brooklyn for msnbc live, democracy 2024. Cs all there at the bottom? i will be interviewing a special guest about the election and the role the supreme court is playing in politics and could play in the election. My favorite constitutional scholar who also happens to be my wife, kate shaw. That is her right there. There are very few tickets left. You can scan the qr code on your screen to get your seats and i will see you in person one week from tomorrow and if you happen to be looking for extra content this long holiday weekend and can't get by without it, check out the latest episode of my podcast, why is this happening? it is about the electric atmosphere at the dnc, what it means for the election going forward and i got to sit down with my very dear friend alex wagner who spent all week on the floor at the convention and was direct from the plane from chicago. We talked about the significance of the kamala harris nomination and why it is a pivotal moment for the country. Liberals and democrats were on the back foot and this really feels like wait a second, if the chart showing all of the presidents has barack obama and then donald trump and then kamala harris, we are at the hinge point when everything changes. In fact the democratic, liberal tribe is the ascendant one and the america we thought we knew was actually the one we do know, that this actually is who we are as a country. What so surprised me about the convention in the context of that, it was not just celebrating the ascendance of kamala harris to the top of the ticket. It was sort of reclaiming the country for democrats and saying this is ours. It was no longer we have to apologize for the way we think about the world and our priorities. They are the values of a broad section of the country, if not the outright majority. It was such a fun and interesting conversation. You can find it again with another qr code. Don't we love qr codes? you can scan the qr code on your screen or look wherever you get your podcasts. That is it for this week. Have a great weekend. Alex wagner starts right now with katie phang in for alex. Good evening and thank you for filling in for me