Other. With the basic principles of the republic on the line. A name more famous for decades and decades than nikki haley, in republican circles, came out swinging directly at the Presumptive Republican nominee, donald trump, early this morning. In a post liz cheney saying this, quote, the gop has chosen. They will nominate a man who attempted to overturn an election and seize power. We we have eight months to save our republic, and ensure that donald trump is never anywhere near the oval office again. Then liz cheney sent people to this video originally released in may. Watch. Donald trump is the only president in American History who has refused to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power. Joe biden he lost the election and knew it. He betrayed millions of americans by telling them the election was stolen. We will stop the steal he ignored the rulings of dozens of courts. Rather than accept his defeat, he mobilized a mob to come to washington and march on the capitol. Then he watched on television while the mob attacked law enforcement, invaded the capitol, and hunted the Vice President. He refused for three hours to tell the mob to leave. There has never been a greater dereliction of duty by any president. Trump was warned repeatedly that his plans for january 6th were illegal. He didnt care, and today he celebrates those who attacked our capitol. Donald trump has proven he is unfit for office. Donald trump is a risk america can never take again. The great task is responsible for the content of this advertising. This is particularly notable heading into another election after the political harm that liz cheney and chairman Bennie Thompson and the entire January 6th Select Committee inflicted politically on the republican brand ahead of the 2022 midterms. And let us just say this could be interesting. Someone whose last name is synonymous with the highest echelons of Executive Power on the right impeaching the very fitness of a member of her own party this early in a general election, this loudly and this publicly, has not happened before. Her clarion call stands in stunning contrast to the rest of the party in which she served. Nikki haley winning in just two places during the stage of the republican primary where it was just nikki haley against donald trump, saying shell support the nominee. Mitch mcconnell endorsing donald trump today, Glossing Over or swallowing, i guess, the racist attacks donald trump meefrd and over again against his wife to say nothing of the fact that trump talented mcconnell himself saying mcconnell had a, quote, Death Wish Becausey had had the audacity to pass a bill to keep the government functioning. Donald trumps grip on the party is not possible without those Republican Leaders abdicating their duty to say nothing of their dignity over and over and over and over, and predictably over and over and over again. All over a person they know perfectly well is unfit to serve. The apocalyptic alternate realty trump is selling on the stump to Republican Voters. Maybe thats why, too, in his Victory Speech with the New York Times called a, quote, dark vision, trump pelled facts not in modern day realities. He claimed as he did practically every day that the United StatesJustice System is being weaponized against him even though the 91 Felony Counts he faces were brought by independent prosecutors and approved by juries of his peers. Trump claimed that the migrants crossing the Southern Border are violent criminals even though officials in his own administration said that most migrants are fleeing poverty and violence. And of course theres the big lie that he peddles all the time when he rails against the Voting System even though he just won more than a dozen primaries and as far as we know hasnt contested any of those results so far. So this is what the Republican Party has signed up for again. But rest of us, including millions of American Voters, still have a chance to weigh in. Thats where we start with some of our most favorite experts and friends. Former Trump White HouseDeputy Press SecretarySarah Mathews is here. She resigned from the Trump White House on the evening of january 6th, 2021. She went on to testify publicly before the January 6th Select Committee. Also joining us former u. S. Deputy National Security adviser under president barack obama, ben rhodes is here. With me at the table, former republican congressman david jolly. Ill start with you. Nice to see you, my friend. This was such a bizarre in some ways a sad way to wake up, Mitch Mcconnell rolling over and endorsing trump after referring him criminally to the Justice Department for inciting the violence on january 6th. And then just endorsing him, didnt have to. The guys retired. He threatened his life, threatened his wifes security with his racist attacks against her. There he was today with an endorsement. Yeah. Nothing surprise being it. I mean, this has now happened three cycles in a row, 2016, 2020, 2024. Everybody with some exceptions like liz cheney, but frankly i think whats striking is how few exceptions there are. The Party Leadership has rolled over. Lets not forget that Mitch Mcconnell has repeatedly done this when he actually could have done things to avert these outcomes. You know, in 2016 when he was warned about russian interference in the election, he tried to bury that. Most notably after january 6th if he had helped Support Impeachment in the senate after the house impeached donald trump, donald trump could not have been running for president again. So within days of a mob literally threatening the lives of Mitch Mcconnell and his colleagues, he faced a very fateful choice. If he had supported impeachment and tried to put his power behind that, donald trump would have been barred from ever seeking the presidency again. So that was really the defining choice for him, and he made obviously the choice of political expediency and survival in the Republican Party rather than putting any other interests forward. And so its very clarifying now. Donald trumps hold to the Republican Party today is actually stronger than it was in 2016 or even in 2020. Yeah. Because hes now turned the party into a wholly owned subsidiary of his own ambitions. Everybody understands that theyre going to have to fall in line, and even if that means sacrificing american interests, american allies, ukraine, and above all american democracy, that doesnt matter to them. And thats why its going to take a pretty Broad Coalition of people pushing against that. Its not just something joe biden is going to do on his own for a lot of reasons. Its going to have to be a large consolation of americans coming together and saying this is a risk we cannot take. A Second Trump Term would be much more dangerous and destabilizing than the first trump term because hes coming back for vengeance and coming back with an extreme group around him and plan to dismantle democrat tracey. Thats what this election is going to be about. Sarah, youve talked about this publicly. John kelly has talked about serving as a bit of a guardrail around the time that trump was tweeting about little rocket man on an issue as dire as nuclear war with north korea. Jim mattis quits over cause, over trumps decisions and jarring moves in the middle east. John bolton talked about trump with the Taliban At Camp David on 9 11. Former republican senator bob corker wanted to limit an american president s Nuclear Capabilities because of trump. He called the west wing either romper room or day care, i forget the adjective. Republicans who bore witness to trumps lack of fitness have some have come out and talked about that. Your warning is different, though. Your warning is that a second term would be worse. Explain. Well, i think that in the first term you had people of good character like john kelly, jim mattis, john bolton, the list goes on, who werent enabling him. They were pushing back on trumps worst instincts. But weve seen that trump has said that in a second term he wants to wipe out some of these Government Agencies and install trump loyalists who will carry out every demand of his. That means this will be filled with yes men and women who will not push back on him, and theyre going to be sycophants. So that is concerning to me that we would have a government staffed of people like that, not people. Good character because people of good character because competency and experience would not matter it would be about loyalty to trump. One of those people is one of those agencies is the intelligence community. And sue gordon was on this program this week. Here she is sort of entering territory that i think is uncomfortable for her, the political arena, political choices shes made. Here she is talking about exactly who trump is and the danger that he poses to the intelligence community. I think you have to look at what the person is saying they would do. One is saying he would lead, continue to lead america as a dreams. The other is saying, quote, i will be a dictator on day one. Yeah. Thats antithetical will to who we are. Disqualifying . Antithetical to who we are. Disqualifying . I believe in the American People. You believe they should will find It Disqualifying . I believe if they understand who we are the moment we have, the power they possess, and whats at stake, i think they can. Do you think they should . I think they all should make the choice for america. Sues voice is so important, and david, she speaks so reluctantly in sort of a political moment. But what shes i think calling on people to do is to connect a couple of dots. So well do that for her. Yeah. What shes saying is that its disqualifying if you want to be a dictator on day one. And i i said this last night, the difference and i think sarah helps us understand this in the most direct and clarifying way, but the difference between Trumps Campaign in 16 and 20, in 16 it was a mystery what kind of president he would be. People i think portfolioishly thought the office would sober him up. The first pbv on his desk would sober him up. People in government did. In 20 his failures were colossal in terms of keeping the country safe or acting like he cared that so many had died during such a deadly pandemic. Then of course january 6th where he incited an insurrection, cheered for the insurrectionists, endangered to mike pence, led to people like sarah leaving at the end of that business day. The 2024 candidacy is totally different. Yes. Its totally different. Its american carnage actualized. Its his american Carnage Inauguration speech with his hands on all the levers of power, promising, not lying about it, promising to rule as a, quote, dictator on day one. The threat is real. And what im about to say is referencing patriots in this movement. So i dont mean it as a criticism. But in 2024, to your point, you dont get to go halfway. The next statement is so therefore vote for joe biden. And what was missing in liz cheneys video, what was missing from nikki haleys comments, what was missing from sues comments is so therefore vote for joe biden. It takes an affirmative coalition to say this is not just a threat, so im asking you not to vote for donald trump, but im asking you to take action to vote against him and to vote for joe biden. And at some point the pull of patriotism has to be greater than the pull of partisanship. And it is a journey that we approach with grace, and we should because this is a hard moment for lifelong republicans. And everybodys been through that journey, you have, i have, and others have, as well. But this isnt 2016, as you said. Its not 2020. Its 2024, and we know the threat that is on our doorstep. And you dont get credit for going halfway. Im sorry. I dont mean to ding these patriots, but you dont get credit for going halfway. You dont save the country if you go halfway. You can yeah, so nikki haley, you dont get to fold back into the camp. You need to say if Donald Trumps greatest challenge to the country is his fitness and his lack of patriotism, then theres only one choice to, and its to vote for joe biden. Everybody else needs to fall in line with that movement. You know, ben rhodes, i should have stipulated this earlier, and i always ask democratic elected officials i asked adam schiff can only one Political Party protect the country from the threat currently posed by russia . And you know, the answer is sort of i hope so, right . Because republicans are rowing in the same direction messagewise at least. But it is an unfair thing to ask the Democratic Party, right, when it needs to mobilize every every last corner of the winning coalitions that president obama assembled twice and that President Joe Biden assembled once to also bring along the disaffected republicans. But to sort of where we started the future of our democracy depends on it. Tell me what the conversation sounds like and what that push and pull is like behind closed doors. Yeah, no, its tough because ill just be blunt about it, nicole, were in a situation where a lot of americans are upset. Theyre frustrated. They are frustrated with wars, theyre frustrated with the sense that were spending a lot of money on things like ukraine, never mind that that money is being spent in the United States to to buy the weapons that are given to the ukrainians. Theyre frustrated with an establishment that they feel like has not served them as well as they wanted to be served. And i think the tricky part for democrats is in defending democracy in some ways youre defending the established order of things. And that opens up the space for trump to be a populist. However, i think theres a way to do this. And you know, its been done in the past as recently as 2020 and in 2022, which is, look, i think if you look at the issue of russia, for instance, the polls are pretty clear that the American People do not want a president who leads nato, do not want a president who says to russia invade these countries, and frankly, the American People and the Majority Support the ukrainians. I think its important, though, that this not just be about a supplemental funding request for ukraine. Its about a values proposition. Does the United States stand for certain things at home and Around The World . Does the United States want to make itself endangered by opening the door to russia for this kind of invasion . And with trump, this isnt hypothetical anymore. We used to have a conversation, remember, about what does putin want from supporting trump . Well, now we see what hes getting. Donald trump is literally obstructing assistants to ukraine. If thats not made the quid pro quo clear i dont know what can. It used to be wed have debates on this program, like does putin think hes going to get sanctions from trump, hes already getting a return from donald trump saying russia, you can have at it, were going to walk away from the ukrainians and own the door to you. But thats not enough. I think there has to be another argument made. Its not just that donald trump poses a threat to democracy, its that donald trump only cares about himself. Hes not out there to stand up for people even in his own coalition, Working Class people upset over the cost of living. Thats not what he does as president. He looks out for his own interests. Wants to get investigations off his back. He wants to stay out of prison. He wants to maybe give another tax cut to his rich friends. This is not a populist looking to do something for other people. This is a populist looking to serve his own interests and harm other people, dismantle our democracy and make it just about himself. I think you can simultaneously make this argument and Sound The Alarm bells about america needing to stand for core values and not walk away from its role in the world that americans are rightly proud of. But also that this guy is a phony populist. There is not a guy that wants to stop delivering aid to ukraine because he wants to use that money to solve problems in this country. This is a guy whos doing it on behalf of putin because he thinks its in his own political interests. You have to make sure were making the whole argument here. Sarah, tim snyder who wrote the sort of Surprise Revenue runaway best seller on Tyranniar Tick Lated what ben tyranny articulated what bens talking about. I know what its like to be on the president s staff and go to events. Its amazing to see people who take the day off work, sometimes take their kids out of school to see an american president. What tim snyder somebody those people who are saying on the sidel