Whatever she did on that, that will be looked at too, im sure. But i didnt do it. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes, the house is expected to vote on emergency funding for the border within the hour. Even among worries from some democrats that the measure proposed does not do enough to restrain the president S Immigration policies. Donald trump has already threatened to veto that measure even as his administrations mix of cruelty and incompetence continues day by day to exacerbate a humanitarian crisis at the border. We reported yesterday about the 300 Migrant Children held in truly horrifying conditions at a border station in west texas in clint. Last night an eyewitness described an appalling situation. We saw children who were being forced to live in horrendous conditions that no child should ever have to live in. You mentioned the influenza outbreak, where children were put into isolation. Lice infestation in one of the rooms, which required the Border Patrol guards remove all the bedding and sleep on the cement ground. Including infants, toddlers and preschoolers. We saw the children who were dir by, and some of them smelled. We saw their clothes were stained, there was no soap, they were infrequently allowed to brush their teeth or take a shower. Even then it was only for a moment or two. Reports of those conditions spurred immediate outrage. Soon came word that 300 children were being moved out of that facility. Then came two pieces of news today. The acting commissioner of customs and border protection, whos overseeing this entire thing john sanders was stepping down. And second, some of those children had been moved back to that facility in clint, texas. The agency was able to send about 100 people back to the station because overcrowding had been alleviated. The official disputed the lawyers accounts of conditions at the facility, insisting that migrant detainees were given access to periodic showers and offered unlimited snacks throughout the day. The Border Patrol station in chin the is not the only facility with problems. There have been similarly terrible conditions reported in mcallen texas, the water tastes like bleach, and where it was so bad, the mothers would save any bottled water they could get and use that to mix the baby formula. In el paso, men were left to bake in the sun for weeks in a makeshift holding area. It was described as a human dog pound. Perhaps its not surprising this keeps happening, when the people running our nations infrastructure con stan thely denigrate, insult and dehumanize migrants. Mark morgan who was head of Border Patrol under president obama and will be named by President Trump as his new acting head of cbp. Ive been to detention facilities and ive walked up to these migrants, and i said, that is soon to be an ms13 gang member. Amazing talents, he can unequivocally determine the future culpability of a child. Think about the entire world view that leads a person to Say Something like that about a child that theyve looked into the eyes of. The chaos throughout the trump infrastructure has gotten so bad, that agents and customs enforcement, hardly the most sympathetic to migrants are now reportedly getting annoyed with the administrations incompetence. Hes not succeeded in saving taxpayer money on this issue, instead, he has only succeeded in sewing confusion, in punishing and traumatizing blameless children. And casting fear over millions of immigrant communities throughout the country. Joining me now, Julia Ainsley whos broken a number of immigration stories over the last year and a half. What happened in clint, texas, do we have any indication of, were they taken away and brought back, has the facility been changed . Whats the deal . It was shocking, we heard this on a press call with reporters, even though there were 300 children moved out of that facility yesterday to tents outside of a border station, they were supposed to be air conditioned and better equipped, 100 were moved back because they decided they didnt have the space. Some of the children may have been new arrivals, its not one third moved from here to there to there. But there are unequivocally some children who are spending the night tonight in the place they wanted to escape from. Its hard to imagine they would have sanitized this place or made it sanitary. You heard all of this conditions, the lice, the flu, the stench. I cant imagine how that would have gone away in 24 hours. And what this reminds me of is some reporting from Jacob Soboroff about these children a year ago, who were going to be taken to be reunited with their parents. They had to wait in a van in the parking lot, they had to try to come up with Quick Solutions when theres pressure to do so. The management isnt quite there. That is why i think and well get to that second piece of news. Its significant that what were now learning in the past 24 to 48 hours. Its not just a funding issue, its a management issue. Its not just, they need more money. They need people in place who know how to move children and take care of them. Lets get to that. The acting head of cbp. No one has been Senate Confirmed. Its all acting up and down the chain. The acting head announcing hes resigning today. Do we know what prompted that, and do we know what mr. Morgans plans are there . It looks like it was not something he was forced to do. Unlike some of the other resignations it seems. He felt like he could not continue to serve. I saw a letter that he sent out to employees of customs and border protection. Trying to boost their moral and telling them to carry on. I could tell you one thing. And that is that john sanders was never seen in the same way mark morgan was seen. Now mark morgan who we expect to be named to take that place. Mark morgan is a hardliner, he was pushing for those raised over the weekend. The ones that were pulled back at the last minute. And this administration that kind of talk gets you favoritism. Not like john sanders, he didnt have people to surround him and protect him in this situation. When you say, i want to return to this, theres going to be a vote later today. Elaborate on your point about management versus funding. What does your reporting indicate about what breakdown is happening here. About 2, 2 1 2 weeks ago, we got these numbers that were staggering, that showed how many children were stuck in these border stations across the border. Most was in the Rio Grande Valley and el paso where the clint facility was, and then in yuma. We said, okay, theyre overcrowded because yes they have a lot of unaccompanied children across the border, and theres not enough capacity for them to be sent to Human Services where they would be better taken care of. It was sort of a backlog. Now it seems like, okay, even if they do have more funding if they can expand capacity, theres some basic human needs that arent being taken care of. The maximum time theyre supposed to be there, 72 hours, theyre staying weeks, that can be part of the backlog. Even if youre there for 72 hours, a fresh change of clothes, a shower, toothbrush, soap, having people take care of you, thats something that needs to be managed. The other thing is what made clint so unique, the chief there decided to take his unaccompanied child population and separate them into another facility. You usually dont have to separate a child from an adult they came with, often times a grandmother or someone else who is not a parent. You wouldnt separate them until they moved to health and Human Services. For some reason, this chief decided to move all of these children. Take your most vulnerable population and move them to a place where they have very little adult supervision. It shows that not only did that chief act if a way that he shouldnt have. There wasnt enough oversight to keep that from happening. An Inspector General of dhs is looking into this. The fact that there was so much autonomy, that Something Like that bridge you described. That human pound for adult men, that was the same chief in el paso, theres a lot thats been happening in this sector, its the one to watch. And i think it also shows that the people at the top are not able to control the people and these border sectors, if theyre able to make such sweeping decisions. Julia, thanks for that great reporting. Congressman ruiz has introduced a bill that would set out basic standards to meet the humanitarian needs of those in his custody. Describe their legislation and how it differs, the leadership is backing thats going to get a vote in a half hour. Im a Board Certified emergency physician. I am a Public Health expert trained in medical, prehospital command as well as humanitarian aide from harvard. And the rcic in geneva. This bill will not meet the needs of children and families. This bill is a desperate measure for a desperate situation to fund items into a dysfunctional system with an administration that doesnt believe that children are worthy of toothbrushes, blankets or soap for personal hygiene. My bill, the humanitarian standards for individuals will change behavior in that it will change protocol and the way the individuals under their custody and responsibility are treated in situations with health care, for example, high risk individuals children, pregnant women, elderly will get a health exam, consisting of an interview, vital signs, physical examination. Assessment and plan with medical consultation within three hours, in terms of shelter, it would ensure that individuals get two meters square of space that they will have lights off at 10 00 allow them to sleep, keep the temperatures in a humane setting. In terms of water theyll get one gallon per adult, and 2,000 calories for adults, weight based and age based. What im hearing from you, is that your legislation would have humane treatment, medical examination, care, feeding and the like for the population detained by cbp and that is totally absent now and governed by the flora settlement which seems to be honored in the breach, as much as weve seen. Correct. The changes that have been made to appease some members and to make a an attempt to move us toward more toward my legislation is to allow cbp to come up with those standards. I see. Allowing cbp to come up with those standards is like asking the fox to guard the chicken koop. They already have standards and those are the standards that allowed six children to die under their responsibility. I see, so the current legislation again, the leadership, and the House Democratic leadership is backing, its going to be voted on in maybe 15 minutes. It requires standards, but delegates the cbp to come up with it, your legislation would specify the bare minimum standards. Does that mean youre a no on this bill thats going to come up . No, because were between a rock and a hard place. On in maybe 15 minutes. It requires standards, but delegates the cbp to come up with it, your legislation would specify the bare minimum standards. Does that mean youre a no on this bill thats going to come up . No, because were between a rock and a hard place. This is a desperate situation and a desperate measure, and we need to stop the bleeding. We dont have any food to give to children or blankets. You know, we got to at least find food and blankets. But this is an administration that has been serving frozen burritos to children. This is an administration, if we fund latrines or soap, they dont believe that children are worthy of using soap or bathing once a day, which my bill would allow them to do. All right, it sounds like you are a yes on this, which suggests to me, the descenters in the caucus which are significant, that thats going to pass, and the president s going to veto it anyway, right . You know, you never know what the president says, he changes his mind all the time, thats what hes saying right now, but we cannot be fooled that this bill is going to solve the problem or meet the humanitarian needs of the children or families, we have to continue to push hard to get the humanitarian standards for individuals into law. Cbp custody act. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. I want to turn to the other side of capitol hill, jon tester of montana, senator, the house is going to vote on legislation that the white house has already issued a veto threat toward the senate has voted on something, i think at least at a committee that had bipartisan support. Where do you stand on this . Well, i supported in committee an Appropriations Committee when this bill was put up last week. I think congressman ruiz is correct, we need to do something to take care of the humanitarian needs on the southern border. And the senate bill is our best effort to do that, its a compromise bill, if i had written the bill it would have looked different. Nonetheless, where were at right now, this is the best that the United States senators are going to do, i think its a step in the right direction. Youre a member of the United States senate, and trusted by the u. S. Constitution, to provide advice and consent to the executive in the filling of appointments in the executive branch. Here are the folks that are running dhs, at leasts of today. Kevin mcelaine, acting. John sanders who resigned today, acting. Not confirmed by the u. S. Senate to that position. Mark morgan expected to be named acting director of cbp. Not confirmed by the u. S. Senate to the position he serves in. Is this a problem . Its a huge problem. Everybody in this administration that deals with immigration or customs is in an acting position. Thats crazy, how can you get how can you enact policy the congress can put policy forth, but the fact that these are all acting and can be kicked out at the whim of the president. You try to do something right, the president s going to get rid of you. Thats a problem. The constitution is such that they need to bring these folks in front of the senate, so we can bring them advice and consent on whether theyre right for the job. Youre exactly right, chris. The president is not doing what he needs to do to try to get people in a position a permanent way so they can be held accountable. I dont quite understand this. Mitch mcconnell currently is the majority leader of the u. S. Senate, where he has a republican majority that allows him to control much of what happens on the floor of that body. If there was a democratic majority that said, we dont like donald trump, this situation would make more sense. I dont understand how it is at crucial position after crucial position the president is so focused on doesnt have anyone in the Senate Confirmed . I dont think theyre sending them over. Im Ranking Member on the Veterans Affairs committee, weve been trying to get a director of the Health Administration confirmed for months. Many, many, many months. The person theyen watt to send over, i think we could get confirmed by unanimous consent but they dont send them over. I think thats the problem. I dont know if senator mcconnell is working with the administration on this or not. But i can tell you, they dont send the people over, we cant have the hearings in committee and they dont get to the floor. The president said he would prefer to have these folks in temporary positions. Its aparent to all of us, that congress is a nuisance to this president. And thats not how the constitution is written, and we need to be able to hold him accountable and weve yet to do that. Do you think theres a cause and effect here between the kinds of conditions that were seeing, things that are managed by the executive. And the fact that they have treated congress in the way they have . Whats going on on the border now didnt happen in the last week or two. Were seeing numbers that are very high. I was at the border three weeks ago, and the facilities were jam packed then, im sure its gotten worse, the fact is, every time the president talks about closing down the border, every time that we come up and talk about, maybe we should give some aid to guatemala and el salvador and honduras so these folks can stay there, its not even considered. The fact is, we talk about separating kids from their parents and that kind of stuff. Thats not what this country is about. Quite frankly, like i said, Congress Needs to be able to do their job, we can, but its going to take senator mcconnell standing up to the president and saying, no more, this is the way its going to be. Were going to act as a check and balance on the executive branch. Thank you for making time. Thank you. Maxine waters, explains her events to prevent an attack on iran. Xfinity mobile is a Wireless Network designed to save you money. Whether you use your phone to get fit or to find the perfect gift, youll use less data with a network that automatically connects to millions of wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. So you save hundreds of dollars a year on your wireless bill. Xfinity mobile has the best network. Best devices. Best value. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. President trump is ratcheting up the rhetoric with iran taking us every step possible to the brink of war with the country. He continued this morning on twitter, ignoring the fact that not only is iran the second most populous country in the area. One of the fundamental issues here is that trump appears to think its his decision and his decision alone, whether or not to wage war on iran. I like the idea of keeping congress abreast, but i wouldnt have to do that. Nancy pelosi said you must have congressional approval. I disagree. Most people seem to disagree. I do like keeping them they have ideas, theyre intelligent people. I actually learned a couple things the other day, when we had our meeting with congress, which was helpful to me, i do like keeping them abreast, but i dont have to do it legally. No, he does. Its literally in the constitution the congress should have power to declare war. Unveiling an event to key legislation today that will prevent federal funds from being used against iran without congressional approval. Joining me now is one of the lawmakers supporting that amendment. Congresswoman, explain to me how this amendment to the National Defense authorization would work . Well, its very simple and it works this way, after september 11th attack on our country and what happened in new york, the authorization for the use of military, that is aumf came into being, and it was designed basically for what was going on at that time. Giving the president the authorization that did what needed to be done. In order to not only deal with the attack as it was taken. But now this president wants to use that authorization in order to go into iraq iran, im sorry, with a possible war. Without coming before the congress of the United States. He wants to say that that authorization gives him the right and the power to do that. We absolutely disagree with that, and we are pushing back on it, we have already organized that were going to have a caucus. No war with iran caucus, and some of us who created the push back on the iraq war out of iraq, are going to be engaged in this, making sure that we do everything we can, to get the true facts out, to push back, to do speaking engagements, to rally, to do everything that we can to we can. All of that, speaking engagements, getting the facts out, youre a member of congress, the democrats control the house, you can pass if the leadership is behind it, right . You can attach some rider to the Defense Authorization act which is needed as part of the appropriations process for the entire military, right . Absolutely. That says you cannot strike iran. Is that the plan to pass that rider . Do you have buy in for that . Well, as you know, barbara lee is attached to the biggest appropriations bill. The authorization does not apply to iran. In addition to that, we have some legislators with legislation to make sure that that is clarified, and he cannot use it to go into war without coming before congress. So a lot is going on. To try to make sure that we dont allow this president making unilateral decisions to go into war and strike iran, and we just think that any little incident could cause us to go in. We think hes not having the advice of advisers who would make sure that he does not bumble and stumble into war, he doesnt have anybody around him, he doesnt have a defense secretary. He doesnt have people mr. Bolton and mr. Pompeo, theyre war hawks and were worried about the advice theyre giving him. Is house leadership, the speaker of the house nancy pelosi and house leadership, committed to putting a rider in legislation must pass legislation before the floor that would explicitly bar the president from using authorization to attack iran . Yes, nancy pelosi is committed to that. Thats going to happen. Okay, good. Maxine waters, i wanted clarity on that. Thank you very much. Youre so welcome, and thank you. Still to come, in just 24 hours, the first round of democratic debates will be taking the debate stage, well discuss why it will be unlike any political event weve seen over the last few years, right after this. The nature of a virus is to change. Move. Mutate. Today, lifechanging technology from abbott is helping hunt them down at their source. Because the faster we can identify new viruses, the faster we can get to stopping them. The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. We got the rules in hand for tomorrow and thursday nights opening democratic debates which will feature a slate of 20 karndy dates over two notes and be hosted by msnbc, nbc news and telemundo. Crisp answers will be of the utmost importance. Because to make time for each of the 10 people on stage, there will be no opening statements. Candidates will have 60 seconds to answer questions and 30 seconds to respond to followups. It will be the First Time Since donald trump came down the escalator four years ago, that a political event does not really revolve around him, and the historic levels of deception hes inclined to spin off. Instead it will be a debate among a lot of people with genuine, conflicting policy substances who are in the main tethered to the basic rules of reality and fact. We looked at the speeches this weekend in South Carolina, most candy dates did not say a single thing that was objectively false or misleading. Theres a lot of rhetoric about trump, but the facts they cited were entirely correct or supported by enough evidence not to call false. Joining me now, Cornell Belcher and phillip ryeness. He helped clinton prepare for the general election debates. Big question here. The early part of this primary has been characterized by a lot of policy proposals, substantive and weighty ones. How much do you focus on that, if youre a candidate on that stage tomorrow night. You have a limited amount of time, and for 15 out of 20 candidates, a lot of people dont know youre running. How is that what you try to focus on and breakthrough with . I think ideally your game plan is to go up there and say what you would say on any other day. Whether it is in South Carolina, iowa, florida, because you have a message, and the point is, you want to keep repeating it so it resonates and it actually people hear it and absorb it. If youre going up there tomorrow night saying something completely different than you do otherwise, you have a problem. Either what youre saying normally isnt working or you cant be disciplined enough. You made the comment before about time, im talking right now about longer than what most of the candidates are going to be able to speak to tomorrow. But its i know. My producer is in my ear telling me that. Its also important, youre going to have five mod raid raters, lester holt and two other moderators. They dont just say, okay, what do you want to say to the camerap p they have a question. What do you think about iran . What do you you not only have 60 seconds, you have to answer a question and pivot to your message in 60 seconds. The question of your message and how substantive, how much do you engage. The other question is how much you talk about the president. And this has been a really interesting through line throughout the 25 plus candidates on the trail. Everyone in that room is going to be united in this feeling about trump. Its a place to go in this sort of emotional core of a democratic primary voting block that like everyone agrees on, but it also in some ways strikes me as a wasted opportunity because everyone already agrees on it, what do you think . If i were being paid to consult, i would say, dont talk about trump. I mean, you take a shot at trump, but most of this, theyre at 2, 3 support, you have to talk about yourself, you guys, you got to make the case, you have to have a moment here that breaks through, thats about you, because most of the democratic primary universe, they have very little idea of you unless your name is joe biden or senator sanders. If youre one of those candidates sitting at 2 or 3 support, i would not waste a moment of my time talking about donald trump, but talk about me and why i should be the president. I disagree, ill tell you why, yes, 100 of the audience in miami and at home are going to agree that donald trump is terrible and needs to be removed. 38 of them think it should be joe biden. 15 think it should be Elizabeth Warren, 1 thinks it should be jay inslee. While theres unanimity in the goal overall, you want to show you can go toe to toe, the way people are assuming that some of the bigger names i mean, it seems that joe biden is really benefiting from this notion that he has what it takes to take on trump. You want others other people want to show, hey, i can do it too. You dont need to do that by fighting with joe biden, you can do that by looking into the camera. Right, heres i want to make sure i understand that. The way you show you can take on trump is to take him on in absentia, thats a way theres a marker to people who are looking to someone who can do that. For all intents and purposes theres going to be an 11th person on stage both nights, its going to be donald trump. I dont think that distinguishes you. What distinguishes you is how you contrast yourself from other people on the stage, youre not running against donald trump right now. At some point you have to contrast yourself from whoevers in front of you. If youre a centrist democrat, you better be contrasting yourself to one of them or even to a certain extent joe biden, you have to take away support from him and come away from whos in your lane. The debate that were having is going on right now in 20 different campaigns. Thats exactly right. Well, heres the interesting thing, you said two things, i think i learned the lesson from the republican race, dont think about lanes, in some ways, the electorate heres my basic idea, you should be really good. And what i mean by that is, essentially no, what i mean here is that my way i think voters will see this is show dont tell. As opposed to saying, heres why i could beat trump. If you sparkle, if youre good, if youre compelling, if your message is strong, that shows youre a good candidate. To me, much more important than almost anything else is to perform in such a way that you are memorable and impressive, above anything else you do. Because everything flows out of that, what do you think, philippe . I do. I mean, you know, for all intents and purposes, you should answer questions as if the moderator said, okay, just speak for 60 seconds, because youre probably right. I think thats why Elizabeth Warren is in great position tomorrow night. Whatever shes been doing on the campaign trail has been working, and she has a this is just another audience. Theres a part of this were not discussing, which is the totality of the whole thing. When it comes up at 9 00, we see 10 people, only five of them are going to be white guys. There are three women on stage, i dont think theres ever been more than one woman on stage. Youre going to have, i think, five people of color. I mean, this is its going to energize the democrats, and people are going to say, you know what . I think the point earlier about people are going to hear that we have ideas. The contrast to whats going on with trump, you know, listening to senator tester talk about immigration, or listening to congresswoman waters talk about iran, people are going to be just so worked up and ready to go. I remember the first day at the house swearingin of the new class, just the striking visuals of the contrasting coalitions. They should all wear white tomorrow night. Well see. Thank you both for being with me. Remember, right here right here tomorrow night, the first democratic debate of the 2020 cycle. Yours truly will be part of the coverage starting at 7 00 p. M. Eastern. Be sure to tune in. Shocking new details about one of the sitting republican congressmen facing felony charges. One of the two. As his lawyers argued, he should only be tried in a district won by trump. Thing one tonight, we watched as one swampy Trump Administration official after another has gotten the boot mired in scandal. Axios has obtained documents that show red flags about some officials who have gone on to get jobs in the government. Allegations of coziness with big energy companies. Its not like the Trump Administration needed a private detective to tell them that. They just needed the google. The red flag on rex tillerson, his russia ties go deep. You think . Maybe they saw rex getting putins friendship medal. They were so vast, they required a 25 page Business Research dossier. All this is known, its just that they didnt care. The president has had the least Senate Confirmed nominations of any president , has withdrawn twice as many nominees as president obama at the same time in his administration, there was one person the president really wanted on the team he couldnt get. And her red flags were on display for everyone to see. If the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me Opposition Research on my opponent, id be now, donald trump we know loves trump tv, his favorite shows are the truly excellent ones, hannity, trump tv friends and, of course, justice with judge janine. My title for Hillary Clintons new book instead of what happened is, living in denial and in need of a labotomy. Im convinced thats an andy kaufmannesque bit shes doing. Jeanine pirro has visited the white house several times since he became president. When it came down to it, Jeff Sessions blocked her appointment. She did not take this well, she went back on tv and said this. The man who has the honor to carry the prefix, United States attorney general before his name, Jeff Sessions, is indeed the most dangerous man in america. Pero also met privately with trump to discuss investigating hillary clinton, which sessions opposed. And soon after that meeting, trump again publicly attacked Jeff Sessions. In the end, sessions lost his job, but pirro didnt get hers either. Shes more effective for him on the outside. What was he supposed to do, take a gun out and shoot putin . Putin said, i didnt meddle in your elections. The president should say, hang on, let me execute this guy. Did it get trump elected . No, did it change one vote . No. Everybody needs to snap out of it. In the era of trump, its so very easy to forget that there are actually two sitting republican u. S. Congressmen who are right now as i speak to you facing a bevy of federal felony criminal charges. One of them is Chris Collins of new york state who is charged with Insider Trading and hes set to face trial early next year. The other is none other than the vaping congressman, Duncan Hunter who has truth be told had a bad run of things. Hunter stepping over a vehicle barrier he was presenting marked the u. S. Mexico border. Even though it is squarely within the United States, was indicted last year along with his wife margaret and accused of using more than 250,000 in Campaign Funds for personal expenses. When the charges were filed and there is really no polite way to say this, hunter promptly threw his wife under the bus. When i went to iraq in 2003 the first time, i gave her power of attorney and she handled my finances throughout my entire military career. That continued on when i got into congress. Im gone five days, im home for two. She was also the campaign manager. Whatever she did, that will be looked at, too, im sure. That perhaps not surprisingly has come back to bite him. Hunters wife pled guilty and struck a cooperation deep with prosecutors. It looked like she had plenty of incentives to do so. In a new court filing the Justice Department says congressman Duncan Hunter conducted several extramarital affairs, five of them in total, which might have been something in the private context of his marriage, but, one, he was using Campaign Finance funds to conduct the affairs. One was a staffer and another was a woman who worked for house leadership. So why did prosecutors reveal the affairs . Precisely because each of the women worked as lobbyist or professional staffers. Hunter may have thought he was justified in spending Campaign Funds for his meeting with these individuals. Evidence of the intimate entirely personal quality of hunters interactions with these women. His spending to facilitate those encounters was improper. There is more. Prosecutors say there are some other unspecified activity that is so bad they cant disclose it because doing so would risk improperly tainting the jury pool. Now, this would normally be the point at which the Party Leadership would call congressman hunter up and say, probably time to go, buddy, but its Donald TrumpsRepublican Party and Duncan Hunter knows it. His lawyers even want his trial moved out of san diego and into an area where trump got more votes than hillary clinton. Because in trumps Republican Party, you can get away with pretty much anything. My colleague joy reid has just published a new book about how the president remade the party and the countrys political culture and she joins me next. These folks, they dont have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again theres a case to be made that literally the most successful con job in history, and i mean all of history, was carried out by the man who got himself elected president even though he lost the popular vote by 3 million votes. In her new book, the man who solid america, joy reid took at a look at the strings pulled together to sell the con. Trump seemed to normalize a public display of thuggery and open racism by white americans who felt empowered to assert themselves as the arbiters of cultural legitimacy in his name. Donald trump was indeed waging a new American Civil War joining me now is joy reid, host of msnbcs a. M. Joy. Congratulations on the book. You caught the bowie reference. I stopped myself. You know, to me, the book is wrestling with these competing ideas, which is there is something new and different about donald trump. Right. And what he is in this moment. Yeah. And there is something deeply old and as american as apple pie. Theyre both. Donald trump, the newness and the novelty of him, the fact that hes a celebrity whose real expertise is pretending to be something hes not, a successful person who could date princess diana, pretending to be rich when he had gone 1 billion in the hole. There is anecdote when the apprentice first started, the crew goes to trump tower to set up the boardroom and the place looks, like, shabby. Thats a great passage. The lack of current wealth is obvious. Mark burnett helped to build this character that seemed like this incredibly posh and successful man and he sold that to the public, and to people who thought that not that he could get them rich, but that he could restore in america where White Christian men had primacy and where women had to sit down, where black athletes had to sit down and where immigrants would be deleted from the population so that they would not overwhelm the population of the United States. So the newness and the novelty of this celebrity allowed that old ugly thing thats been living with our country from the beginning, he can sell that thing. Right. There is a chapter you call the new civil war where you talk about the sort of strains of white backlash, white reaction hes playing on. The one thing he is genuinely talented at being a con man. He is. George wallace was really good at this. He was glib and could tell a joke and a story. He starts out being problack and turns all the way antiblack. He loses an election and famously says i will never get out n worded again. Only black celebrities. There are two kids of black people to him, rich and famous black people he wants to take pictures with and every other black person who thinks they lived terribly, if they ever got ahold of the country would ruin it. He thinks of barack obama in the second way. Why the hell would he be president . The con man sensibility starting in 2011 to put his finger on whats the most powerful con in American History . Thats right. He understood better than anyone else in the republican establishment what would actually trigger base Republican Voters because he is a guy from queens who thinks that way. Sam nunberg in the book likens him to a retired cop who thinks the neighborhood is going to hell because all these black people are moving in. I quote a guy in the book from alabama who says, look, if he had been a southerner with a southern accent he wouldnt have gotten away with it so easily because he would have been tagged with the kind of racism thats very interesting. Hes from queens. The new york media understands him and is friendly with him. Thats the key, too. They had given him hes their guy. He had been fetted and tolerated. He was part of the new york establishment even if he was always a little bit on the outside and looked down at. People looked down on him a little bit but found him entertaining right up until he started caging children. He has it over the media on morning joe talking about the fact that donald trump doesnt read briefing books. He isnt very smart about policy and he doesnt read books books. But he does read what he wants to read. I guarantee he understood what the lineup was going to be in South Carolina when those democrats were speaking at that convention and fish fry and he interrupts the speech by Kamala Harris by just walking out to say nothing. Right. But hes constantly trying to reprogram the media. Look at me, look at me, look at me, and to tell his base i got your back. Joy reid. The book is called the man who sold america. A. M. Joy airs weekends here on msnbc at 10 00 a. M. Thank you so much for coming by. Thank you, chris. If its tuesday, it means there is a new episode of our podcast why is this happening. I think one of the most interesting members of this freshman class, especially someone to watch going into 2020. Went ahead and dropped that interview in your podcast feed safe and sound. Go and check it out. That is all in for this evening. Tonight Robert Mueller will testify in public before cameras and on Live Television on july 17th before two committees. House intelligence and house judiciary. Thats after he was subpoenaed by both committees. Tonight what this news means for donald trump as he faces a crisis of his own making with children at the border. Potential war with iran and a rape accusation all with a few days time. And about the democrats. This is also the eve of that first debate in miami. Steve kornacki will take us to florida, show us the new poll numbers as the 11th hour gets underway on this busy tuesday night