Come to light. Democrats were promising a new direction for the war, and to make their case theyd just nominated a decorated war veteran to be their nominee, a man whod been awarded the silver star, the bronze star, and three Purple Hearts for valor in combat. Thank you im im john kerry, and im reporting for duty senator john kerry made his Military Service in vietnam a central part of his campaign for president that year. In the weeks after he accepted the democratic nomination, kerry consistently led the incumbent, president george w. Bush, in the but then in august everything changed. In that was when these campaign ads startedca airing. I served with john kerry. I served with john kerry. John kerry has not been honest about what happened in vietnam. He is lying about his record. Its a central image of john kerrysl campaign, the candida literally wrapping his arms around his vietnam teammates. Now republicans are challenging kerrys war effort with a tv ad featuring other Vietnam Veterans none of whom served on kerrys boat, saying kerry did not help veteran. They were one of the most impactful and dishonest campaigns in president ial history. For weeks p the National News covered this story, comparing different accounts rof john di kerrys war record. Eventually it was revealed the swift vote stories of senator kerry did not o line up with official nerecord, but by that pointd, the damage had been don. Theee ads had aired across multiple swing states. President bush opened up a wide lead in the polls and kerrys Campaign Never recovered. The Phrase Swift Voting has since become a verb used to describe untrue and unfair political attacks. But the imfact of that ad, the impact of that campaign went well beyond electing george w. Bush and our political lexicon because the people behind that campaign continued to test Thei Boundaries Of American T Politi and o shape them for years to come. Among the top contributors to the Swift Campaign were people like bob perry, instrumental in turning the evangelical movement into a conservative base. Also harlan crow, a man thats been in the news recently because of his lavish patronage with Clarence Thomas that includes lavish Plane Flights and questionable real estate purchases. To the central players in the swift affair were these men, john oneal and they coauthored the book unfit for command. That would became the main force for the false and misleading accusations against senatormi kerry. John oneal became the director ofbe the most conservative movement most prominent antiislamen groups, the David HorowitzFreedom Center which focuses on allies to destroy american values. Jerome corse went onto become one ofen the leading Componentsf The Perther Conspiracy Which went to claim barack obama was not born in the United States. He later went onto become bureau chief for the foe wars. Of all the conservatives in the swift vote smear theres one man credit under being its mastermind. As new York Magazine puts it it was him who turned their fringe allegations into a Campaign Funded by millions of dollars in shadowy contributions. Where is chris today . Where is she . Well, hes running pretty much everything. Chris currently serves as Donald Trumps top political advisor. He has been described as the campaigns de facto campaign manager. He was the brains behind the Trump Campaigns efforts to smother ron desantis president ial campaign while it was still in its infancy. And now in addition to his prominent role on that Trump Campaign, hele has a new job, leading trumps takeover of the Republican National committee. According to the Washington Post e. Trumps team led by chr the Senior Leadership has been almost entirely replaced or reassigned while dozens of low ranking officials d including state directors were either fired or told to rep apply for their jobs. The firings were done by lacivida. One is lawyer christina bob, a lawyer for oan and an outspoken election denier. Christina bobb will now be the Republican Partys Senior Counsel for election integrity. Election integrity being the rights preferred vehicle for engaging ind Voter Intimidatio and claims of voter fraud. Those are some of the changes we know of at this moment, but what does it mean really quite practically that the guy behind the swift vote smears is now running another president ial campaign . New York Magazine suggests his pastaz filled with trickeries a lies provides a template how he will go after joe biden and the tms, not by attacking what is perceived as joe bidens weaknesses, but his strengths. Joining me now is michael sher of the Washington Post who reported that takeover and cohost of the weekend michael steele. Gentlemen, its greatic to have you here. Michael steel, let me ask you about the appointment of Chris Lacavita, and what do you think the Effect Will Beta on the tru campaign as we enter the general election . Its less a practical effect on the Trump Campaign, but the practical effect the Trump Campaign has on everything else. And it isn the shock and awe. It is the idea of creating damage that will come in short bursts and longer bursts that cannot be contained. It is an asymmetrical political game, which ive been telling folks these guys have been playing for the last six or seven years. And now it will come to fruition in this cycle because it all matterse right now. Itri all has to work right now because when they get the power back, thats how the rest is done. So lacavita going to the rnc is ag way to have him straddle tw universes, have his campaign diminished obviously because of law, but rements by also having his ear and his hands on the levers of power inside the Republican National committee to make sure that the money, the structure, the infrastructure, the e organization, and most essentially, which is what the firings were about, the personnel the people are doing exactly what the design is. And that design, again, asymmetrical, means that you dont know that its going to be the same tomorrow that it is today, and thats one of the strengths the swift voting showed and what weve seen from trump particularly in thisv election cycle. This is not 2016, folks, and its, not even 2020, trust me. Yeah, and i want to get back to that, but the importance of whats happening atha the rnc, michael, which you reported on. So hopefully today is the Blood Letting has been swift, and it has been s vicious, and it is effectively it sounds like trump at ally costs. I understand that from the perspective of donald trump and to some degree Chris Lacavita, but what about the Republican Party . Not everyone has the last name trump and what are the implications here for t other republicans running this year . I think theres two things to know, it is a far more competent campaign than we saw in either 2016 or 2020. Its top down, its organized. They have a plan, they know what theyre doing. Theres not the Personnel Turnover we solat least in the last cycles so far. They went through very smoothly. Chris with suzy wiles has been a key part of that. His or her a combatant, he wants to be in the fight and fighting hard i think youve seen in the style how hes taken over the rnc. Its normal for a nominee or presumptive nominee to take over the National Party at this point, but Chris Lacavita went in and cleared the house in a dramatic way, made a lot of people in the building upset. There is concern as you mentioned there about down ballot republicans having the same benefits. One of the things he did is hes Closing Community centers in some communities and reassigning that money and that effort to be more focused on trump. Now, lacavita Will Say Trump is at the top of the ticket. I think what we dont know is how its going to affect at the state level, and well see how the senate and House Campaigns come along with that. I want to talk about ending that early voting outreach, that seems like something you might not want to do, and yet its absolutely in, line with what republicans have been advocating under the sort of banner of donald trump for several years now. Michael, how much is that about h sorry, michael steel. Sorry, michael. Yeah, its all of that. Put everything behind winning the presidency. Okay, so youre going to let governors hang out, what about governorsut in purple states, wt about candidates in purple districts . How do they navigate ataxic candidate at the top of the ticket like donald trump, where you know that candidate is going to Needt Democratic and voters to support them, but now all the focus and emphasis is on trump. So whats do you think and who you think those candidates are going toe be talking about . And so it is it is a strategy about one person because thats how donald trump wants it to be. Thats why his daughterinlaw is running in the rnc. Thats why watly was picked to run the rnc. The other side of this scenario, folks,ce is that when trump los this election, all right, or if trump loses this election, youre going to have the same narrative around stolen election, riggedelection, and hell have the bodies in place to prosecute that case better and more effectively from that point forward, which he did not have the last time because oh, i dont know people actually the constitutional oath they took and their responsibility to the country to uphold the election results. And that got in the way. Trump has largely cleared the way. And the costy will be to the r and tobe candidates running acrs the country in various state races and statewide races to find the instruct they need to bend successful. Because if it aint about trump, it certainly wont be about them. Michael steele makes a great point when youre talking about election integrity, i said earlier that is about Voter Intimidation, but it is an Insurance Policy against a lost election, which is we can claim voter fraud and now he has the ambassadors, if you will, in place, Christina Bobb chief among them at the rnc. Can you give me what the election integritiy efforts on a practical matter might entail or the expectations Christina Bobb is going to be an effective general on that front. I think christina is going to be a fun person on that front. And shell be on tv a lot, speaking to the v base, and carrying the president s message. We know for three years now any election hes not performing well inti is a fraud. Up to the election day and after the election day. Upft to the Election Day Republicans feel they were just wiped out in questions of early voting, lots of changes about signature verification, changes about voter i. D. They want to re theres not much time left, but the rnc wants to go backbu in and relitigate that stuff. There was actually a lawsuit filed today in michigan in which the rnc is asking the state of michigan to clear their voter rolls because they say theres too manyvo old names on those voteres rolls. And interestingly they brought in a guy named charlie spieth, one of the most rrpted electiond lawyers, the guy behind jeb bushs super pac, mit romneys super pac. And hes being brought ipbecause they believe he actually knows how to h do this well. Whereas i think Christina Bobb shes wellknown among the base, good on tv, but i dont think shes going to be the legal mind behindga the scenes deciding ho to prosecute this. Cu i will leave Everybody Wita Quote from the new York Magazine analysis here. In 2016 Trumps Campaign was a totally shamca balk operation. By 2020 you had a more professional and now we get to see what happens when you bring in somens of thomost shrewd, calculating and ruthless operators in the party. An experiment on the national stage. The two michaels, thank you for your time tonight, guys. We have much more ahead tonight including how are you going to learn the moves for beyonces Texas Hold Em dance if Congress Bans tiktok . And what are the implications for American Politics if that Communication Line goes dead . First, the Fulton CountyDistrict Attorneys f sprawling election interference case just got a little more narrow. Were going tole Talk About Tha and what it means for donald trump with melissa redman, the former Fulton CountyDistrict Attorney coming up next. Ton cou attorney coming up next. Shipstation saves us so much time it makes it really easy and seamless pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and its ready to go our cost for shipping, were cut in half just like that go to shipstation tv and get 2 months free so, look, all i want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state. I just want to find 11,780 votes, just enough to overturn the georgia 2020 election results. That was the now notorious january 2021 phone call between President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary Of State brad raffensperger. Theres also a central part of the Sprawling Election Conspiracy case brought by the election fani willis. Today that case got a little less sprawling when judge mcafee dismissed 6 of the 41 counts citing lack of detail and one of the accounts is one that specifically calls out trump and his Chief Of Staff mark meadows for that january 2nd call to brad raffensperger. This doesnt mean trump is Out Of The Woods legally speaking. 35 of those 41 criminal counts are very much intact, but all of this is happening as we await judge mcafees ruling whether or not d. A. Willis will be disqualified from her own case. The judge has said he hopes to rule on that matter by friday. Melissa redman joins me now. A former Fulton CountyDeputy Aattorney and a professor at the Georgia School of law. Melissa, thank you so much for joining me tonight. I am really eager to get your professional opinion on whether these charges, these counts seemed overly broad or lacking definition in your mind when they were first charged . Does mcafees dismissal seem unusual to you . It is a bit unusual in that those are filed very often in criminal cases and so basically the defense has to show the crime has not been alleged with enough specificity for them to be put on notice for what they have to defend against. And so for these defenses, all of which involve solicitation of violation of the Oath Of Office by a public official, theres not enough information in the oath for the state to allege how a particular conduct violated a particular term of the oath. So officials in georgia have different oaths. And it just so happened the oath taken by the House Of Representatives and senators in georgia as well as the secretaries of state is very broad and alleges you will support the constitution of the state and the state of georgia, which means all the terms and articles they would have to show or put in the indictment each one of those asking for the alternate slate of electors to be appointed or for the folks to be found, which one of those clauses, that conduct violated such that these people were being asked about their terms of their Oath Of Office. You know far more about this than me, but it just seems like upholding the State Constitution would present election fraud, right, asking someone to find the votes to overturn the results of the election seems like asking someone to violate their Oath Of Office. But i am not a lawyer and ive not worked for the state of georgia, so i understand there are some legal underpinnings to all of that. I do wonder if you think d. A. Willis tenacious like few other people on the national stage. And i wonder if you think shes going to let these Go In The Name Of keeping this case already delayed and way laid, on track, or fight some of this with mcafee on these othe