National ban on the right to choose, period. Well, take it seriously, folks. Thats what theyre heading for. Hear me loud and clear, this will not happen on my watch. After giving him hell, harry truman style last night, an energized President Biden takes his message on the road, delivering a Strong Defense of freedom, democracy, and reproductive rights. Biden also shamed republicans for trying to bury the truth about january 6th. Two heroes of that day, former officers Michael Fanone and harry dunn join me tonight. Plus, as biden talks about saving democracy, whats trump up to . While his daughterinlaw is turning the rnc into the new family business, hes hosting a live action episode of the apprentice with hungarys antiimmigrant fearmonger, and would be Prime Minister for life viktor orban, only in this dystopian series, donald trump is the apprentice. But we begin tonight with the gloves off version of president joe biden, who used his state of the Union Address to Stand Up For Freedom and democracy at home and abroad. In what was likely his most important speech as he runs for reelection, biden was forceful and coherent. Opening with a riff on the u. S. Standing up to hitler in the 1940s and Ronald Reagan facing down the ussr, and then putting a primetime spotlight on reproductive rights, including calling out the Supreme Court to their faces for ending the federal right to abortion. Biden issued a wakeup call on the threats to democracy were facing, ripping the Republican Party over january 6th. While using frequent adlibs to draw battle lines with donald trump, whom he referred to 13 times during the speech as my predecessor. I see a future where defending democracy, you dont diminish it. I see a future restoring the right to choose and protect our freedoms, not take them away. I know it might not look like it, but i have been around a while. When you get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever. My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on core values that define america, honestly, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot, to give hate no safe harbor. Other people my age see it differently. I will always be president for all americans because i believe in america. The president energized dems in the chamber, amped them up really, so much so the reverend Raphael Warnock complimented biden afterward for preaching. Im a preacher, i know a sermon when i hear one. I heard one tonight. Its helpful to remember that biden, who was a senator for decades, was on his home turf. He enjoyed himself so much, he stayed until the lights went out, literally, taking husband time exiting the House Chamber as he caught up with lawmakers and chatted about policy. He also got a Standing Ovation and fist bump from United Autoworkers president Shawn Fain Emerging as a top surrogate for bidens reelection bid in michigan. Quite a split screen with the assembled republicans who were for the most part silly, obnoxious, performative. Like troy nehls, who wore without irony a shirt with trumps mugshot printed on it along with the words, never surrender. Even though the photo is of trump literally surrendering. As for Marjorie Taylor greene, lets say you cant elect your way to class or dignity. She put herself in violation of house rules by donning a Trump Campaign hat from his past failed election bid. The contrast with the other side couldnt be clearer, but the most damning split screen of all wasnt the maga clowns who were there but rather the ring master in florida, who spent the night fuming over bidens success by using snapchat filters to turn biden into a pinocchio and a dog. As if hes a petulant middle schooler with a phone and not enough homework. But the tomfoolery aside, the truly terrifying contrast has to do with what trump reportedly did today. Which was to meet with viktor orban, hungarys autocratic Prime Minister. The dictator play date was to occur at maralago, home of trump and quite possibly our national secrets. Or bon champions what he calls illiberal democracy. After losing his bid for reelection in 2002, he plotted a comeback that would insure he never lost again. Had he was elected again in 2010, he got to work quickly. His crackdown on the media and judiciary in the country, his loyalists rewrote the Hungarian Constitution and wrote hundreds of laws to keep his party in power and render elections no more than a formality. Trump has an affinity for men like orban and putin and kim jongun, its an infatuation he shares with the american right. Away we go. After cowing nearly every elected republican as of today, trump has now officially taken over the Republican National committee. With the installation of loyalist michael whatly, the former head of the North CarolinaRepublican Party and lara trump, Donald Trumps daughterinlaw. Whatly is a proud election denier, while lara claims Republican Voters want the rnc to pay her fatherinlaws massive legal bills. She could be right. After all, its a cult. Its also a viktor orban style playbook, seizing control of first a Major Political party and then any institution that stands in his way. We are now in a political reality where the age and experience of people like joe biden are viewed as a political liability. While cultlike fandom matters more. Have a listen to beth block, the rnc member who officially nominated lara trump this morning as she invokes nothing less than god all mighty in making her nomination of the new and unqualified leader. In a world where qualifications are often measured by titles and years of experience, we are reminded of a powerful truth. God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. Lara trump is the embodiment of this truth. Joining me now is tom nichols, staff writer for the atlantic. And michael beschloss. Thank you both for being here. Theres a combination of it being frightening and just deeply unserious. Last night, i thought that republicans put on a show that would have been embarrassing if middle schoolers did it. It wasnt dignified. It wasnt adult. It was silly. At the same time, it did also show that they truly have drunk the authoritarian koolaid. Theyre all Autocrat Enablers and sycophants and they wanted it to be displayed. Your thoughts. The word you left out is opportunists. Many are doing this because they like being in congress. I mean, look, George Santos showed up. You know, once they have been in the chamber, they dont want to go home. And if, you know, wearing silly tshirts and funky bow ties and flouting the house rules by wearing hats is what keeps you living in washington, thats what theyre going to do. But it is a weird doubleedged sword on the one hand, you say this is just a clown show. On the other hand, there are clowns with Flame Throwers are not funny. And so, you know, its both laughable but also deeply dangerous, and its damaging to our democracy to have that kind of spectacle in the peoples house. These used to be serious events. And theyre just not right now. Indeed. You wonder what the world is thinking when theyre watching. Im going to do something i dont normally do. Im going to play you to you. This is you when we were talking about what we were expecting. All biden needs to do, i think, is to make it clear, you know, yo, americans, a lot of people have risked and given their lives over centuries to protect your rights and to expand your rights. Are you willing to give all of that up by voting for a gambling opponent, someone who is an expresident , who loves dictators and wants dictatorship here . Michael, how did he do . I think he did great. Because see, this is the thing. What i was really worried about is you have a majority of the American People, i believe, and im optimistic about this, who Love Democracy. They dont want to give up their rights. They dont want someone arriving in their town square and sending their sister to a labor camp. I mean, thats the kind of thing that happens as the three of us know, under dictatorships. So on the issues, joe biden should actually have a fairly easy year. I believe in a definite majority of americans Love Democracy and hate dictatorship. At the same time, think of that speech last night, he showed vitality and all of the things we have been talking about. But he also unveiled position after position that are with an american majority, on things like Reproductive Health and tax rates for billionaires. Hes against helping them in the way they are right now, that 8. 2 rate he talked about. Ukraine, hes against a candidate, donald trump, who says to putin, under certain circumstances, do whatever the hell you want. Gun safety. So on paper, this should be an easy winnable race for joe biden, especially with an amazingly strong record over the last three years. What i was worried about until last night was that people would be distracted by the illusion and the untruth that joe biden is not able to be president , couldnt have that record unless you had this wisdom and skill over the last three years that comes from a half century working in a democracy. So to the extent that last night that truman esque performance dispelled those doubts, last night could be a turning point. I think it was. I think he definitely changed, i think, the perceptions, and hes pushed the media off their narrative of hes old and feeble. Clearly not. But and tom, i want to come back to you on this. What i have found remarkable, the other day, i treated myself to about ten straight minutes of listening to donald trump, just straight. And i was what was remarkable to me was how utterly poor joy. I did it so you dont have to. And what i found remarkable was how utterly incoherent he was. It sounded like his brain was mush. I said to my team, look, we have to play a little of it. I dont like playing donald trump much. Whats remarkable is the perception of biden is that hes old and feeble and his cognitives arent good. When he actually speaks, he sounds perfectly normal, vigorous, and he sounds in control. Let me let you listen to a little bit of donald trump. Im only going to make you listen to 35 seconds. This is an Incredible Group of people. So many celebrities that im not going to introduce any because im going to get myself in trouble if i do because ill leave out most of you. A tragic thing happened during the election, a tragedy, because you wouldnt have, think of all, all of the problems that you have today, i dont think you would have had any of them. Were a third world country at our borders and a third world country at our elections. And we have to stop that. Our cities are choking to death, our states are dying. And frankly, our country is dying. Right now, our country is known as a joke. Its a joke. Tom, not only is none of that even close to true, its ridiculous, honestly. I wonder what does one say about a country where adults listen to that and then listen to biden and say no, i want that. That is what should be the president. Thats how the president should sound. And those werent the worst clips you could have played. No, theyre not. There are much worse. You know, its been an unfair Double Standard against his opponents, where joe biden has to lay to rest the age issue. But donald trump never has to lay to rest the mental instability issue. That, you know, joe biden is old. Okay, we get it. Hes 81. He doesnt spring up the stairs like a man of 35. Donald trump is unhinged. You know, im not going to diagnose him, but theres clearly something wrong with the man. And the question, you know, that you raise, how do people look at that and say thats what i want, i think theres a couple answers. First, his base doesnt care. His base thinks of him the worst he is, the more they love him because they think of him as revenge on all of their other fellow voters, and the more uncomfortable he maks everyone, they think thats great because they dont care about passing legislation, protecting the country, who is holding the codes to 1500 Nuclear Weapons that are on station right now. They just dont care about that. The rest of the country, i think, says we have been seeing this guy on tv and hes kind of a weirdo and thats his act. Thats his schtick. And they either dont know or they wave it off. Its really disturbing how often youll have a conversation with something and bring up this behavior and theyll say i have never seen that, i dont know that, it didnt matter to me. I think its because thats just priced in. They think hes a tv character. And this is a tv show. And they forget that every single day, every morning, someone is going to hand that guy a little card that has the codes to Americas Nuclear arsenal on it. And theyre not thinking twice about that because it just doesnt impinge on that Reality Tv Mentality that too Many Americans have. And so, i come back to you, michael beschloss, because i cant find an analog for it. We have had president s who were venal, we had president s who were not super bright. We had all kinds of types of president s. We havent had this type. This type is a viktor orban who wants to literally do what viktor orban did, come back into office after having lost reelection, and then rewrite the constitution with the help of his project 2025 friends. They already have the playbook down. They want to follow Viktor Orbans model, change things about our laws and our constitution and judiciary so hell never lose again. He wants to do that because hes afraid of going to prison and because hes a child and because hes a narcissist, and because he cant admit he lost an election. People are willing to let him do it. I wonder if theres an analog for that anywhere in our history. The sad thing is there really isnt, joy. And tom, you know, can we think of a Major Party Nominee who has ever talked this way about being a dictator for a day . Or pitting the police and the u. S. Armed forces against this guys political enemies or suspending the constitution . This is way off anything we have seen in american history. And tom, you were talking about the tv show he was on for over a decade, which a lot of people saw, for a lot of time, that was a popular show. It had a Romanticized View of donald trump. Tough, effective businessman with a heart of gold. None of those things were true. But for people who were watching that week after week for over a decade, they were brainwashed to some extent, some were, in a way that were still suffering from. So all im saying is that its the job of the three of us and people who feel as we do to make sure that the real issues this year are discussed, and that is do americans want a dictatorship and give away your rights . No, americans dont. Do you want to agree with these crazy Policy Positions that we were just alluding to . The polls say that isnt the case either. So if donald trump loses or wins this year, its going to be because our system did not work, lets all make it work. Amen to that. Tom and michael, thank you, friends. And heres to what you said, michael. Hopefully that is what happens. Up next on the reidout, President Biden called out maga republicans hailing the violent January 6th Insurrectionists as heroes. Two real heroes of that day, Michael Fanone and harry dunn, join me next. Stay with us. Voices of people with cidp cidp disrupts. Cidp derails. Lets be honest. All cidp sucks voices of people with cidp but living with cidp doesnt have to. When you sign up at shiningthroughcidp. Com, youll find inspiration in real patient stories, helpful tips, reliable information, and more. Cidp can be tough. But finding hope just got a little easier. Sign up at shiningthroughcidp. Com. All be heard. Be hopeful. Be you. During last nights state of the Union Address, President Biden did not shy away from calling out republicans on the need to defend democracy at home and abroad. He highlighted the violent events of january 6th which took place in that very chamber where as the president described it, Trump Supporters placed a dagger to the heart of american democracy and then biden took donald trump and far right republicans to task for whitewashing those events. We must be honest. The threat to democracy must be defended. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about january 6th. I will not do that. This is a moment to speak the truth and not to bury the lies. Heres the simple truth. You cant love your country only when you win. Joining me now are two of the heroes of january 6th. Former d. C. Metropolitan Police OfficerMichael Fanone and former capitol Police Officer harry dunn, who by the way, is running for congress in maryland. Thank you for being here. Michael, i want to start with you. We have talked a lot about just you having to process kind of the events of that day in real time as things are still happening in that chamber. I wonder, if you watched the State Of The Union last night and what you made of it if you watched it, seeing