Best selling author louis russert gets tonight last word, The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle starts now. Tonight, my exclusive interview with senator mitt romney. My wing of the party is like a chicken wing. What else he said about the Republican Party, its presumptive nominees, multiple criminal cases, and the biggest threats facing our country right now. Plus, the stage is set for not one but two president ial debates, how both candidates are already taunting one another, and what it could mean for the highstakes 2024 race, as The 11th Hour gets underway on this wednesday night. Good evening once again, i am Stephanie Ruhle, back in New York City and we are now 174 days away from the election. This morning President Biden came out swinging, State Of The Union style. He challenged donald trump to not one, but two president ial debates while also taunting him about his new york criminal trial. From agreed immediately and asked for more debates, our own Peter Alexander has more. Tonight, the stage is set for the first tb convert confrontation in more than three years. The agreement punctuating a dizzying day of dealmaking. The president posting this video responding to weeks of pressure from mr. Trump for debate. Donald trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then he hasnt shown up for debate, now hes acting like he wants to debate me again. Make my day. Reporter the president taunting him thats kept them in court four days a week. Lets pick the dates, donald. I hear youre free on wednesdays. There are traditionally three debates, the president offering two, mr. Trump who refused all of the primary debates quickly saying yes and pushing for more, writing, im ready and willing to debate crooked joe, i would strongly recommend more than two debates and for excitement purposes a very large venue. Just tell me when, ill be there. Within hours a pair of debate dates were set, one in late june and another in september. Meanwhile, this all comes the same day we got good news about the economy. All three major u. S. Stock indices, closed at record highs, and if youre saying the market is not the economy, i got a good news. This came after the latest Government Data show that inflation which is plaguing all of us slowed down in the month of april. With that, lets get smarter with our leadoff panel tonight. Special correspondent for vanity fair and an msnbc contributor, peter baker joins us. Chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. What do we know about why bidens campaign made this move now, and why a debate in june 3 months earlier than usual. A few months earlier than usual, we will have a debate for the first time in a president ial year before either of the nominees are actually nominees. Were not going to have the conventions until later this summer, this is something weve never seen before, traditionally, its the candidate who is weakest to watch the debate. Both candidates, wanted the debate because both of them are weak in their own ways. Neither of them has cracked 50 , neither has a lead above the margin of error and both of them have a desire to change the subject. For trump, changing the suspect after his Hush Money Trial by the time the debate happens he may be a convicted felon and he loved to talk about anything other than that. Provide and he loved to talk about anything but his weakness in the polls the fact that hes not beating the guy who made, he like to get on stage with him and show that he can make this debate not a referendum on joe biden but a referendum on donald trump. Molly, whats your take . President bryden going dark brandon, Making The Video saying, i hear youre free wednesday, the only day hes not in court, make my day. What you think of the strategy . I often think that works for him, the bravado. The big loser here is the commission on president ial debates. Because they have hosted debates for a long time. And thats the precedent, now, what i heard from biden camp they also told politico was that they felt that the commission on president ial debates was unable to keep trump from talking over biden. That they didnt mute his mike, that they were not able to enforce the rules. I think they are hoping that a news venue will be able to enforce the rules with donald trump, we have seen that many places have trouble enforcing the rules when it comes to donald trump. But well see. Youve led me to the next question perfectly. I want to remind people of what the 2020 showdowns looks like. And why its important that we need to have rules, watch this. Im not here to callout his lies, Everybody Knows hes a liar. I just want to make sure, i want to make sure. I, god, i want to make sure mr. President , can you let them finish . He doesnt know how to do that. We have a higher deficit, we have the highest trade deficit, china aid your lunch, joe. Mr. President , your campaign agreed to both sides would get two minute answers uninterrupted. Your side agreed to it, why dont you observe what your campaign agreed to as a ground rule, okay . He never keeps his word. That was a rhetorical question. You mean the laptop is now a run another russia, russia, russia hoax . Thats exactly. Thats exactly, gentlemen, i want to say on the issue of race. Here we go again with russia. Were going to continue. Im not going to ask the question because the question is, would you shut up, man . Gentlemen . This is so unpresident ial. For those of you who are old enough to remember, take me away. There are people looking at that saying what are we going to learn . We already know everything there is to know about these candidates. Why are those people wrong . What are these things going to look like . Youre right to point out that this is the First Campaign weve had in our lifetime where the candidates are universally known in a way that weve never seen before. In the past when youve had an incumbent president running, it was the job of the incumbent to define the challenger before he could divine himself, thats not happening here. We know who these guys are. The real test is for each of them to make it about the other candidates. Americans have shown theyre not thrilled with this choice, theyre not thrilled with either of their candidates. Democrats arent thrilled with biden, republicans arent filled with trump, each of them needs to say to the voters, you may not like me but that other guy on stage sitting next to me right now, he is a disaster for the country. Thats the challenge, how do you make it a referendum about the other guy rather than yourself you mark what does trump think hes going to get out of this . Debates are about policy. Donald trump does not talk policy. He likes to do rallies, with a teleprompter, with a loving fan base. Donald trump loves performance. He thinks that this, more performance, even in the tweets or whatever it is, whatever Social Media Platform he uses to communicate, he said that he wanted to have more of them, wanted to have a bigger venue. Hes a performer, he tends to think that whatever he does, as long as its a performance, helps him. We got into this whole candidate trump versus defendant trump situation where he felt that giving little talks before he goes into the trial is somehow helpful to him. I dont necessarily think its true but it does play well with his base, and thats all, trump has only ever cared about his base which is why hes been unable to grow the electorate. For a long time we thought we were getting done, now were getting two, what are the chances were going to get another one added, closer to the election day when traditionally we see the debates . We should be careful to assume were getting two. Its very possible something blows up between now and june 27th. A fight over the rules, trump may say he wants a debate but maybe he changes his mind and said i dont like the moderators or the rules theyve imposed and he decides to blow it up. Hes done that before. He did not debate, as you pointed out, during the primaries, not even a single time. Its not 100 sure we get these two but its possible we get another one after that, whats interesting is theyre doing them so early because the election starts early. The second one, the last one, is now scheduled for september 10th. Thats right around the time the voting actually begins, early in person voting begins earlier than we had, election day isnt an election to anymore, its an election several weeks and in effect theyre moving up the debate schedule because the voting is moving up as well. All right, thank you so much, he brings up a good point. Who knows if there will be a debate. This is the same guy who wants to testify. That aint happening, thank you both for starting us off. When we come back, my exclusive keynote conversation with republican senator mitt romney. We get into his farewell from congress, the dysfunction in the gop, the november election, and a lot more. You do not want to miss it. The 11th hour, a very special edition just getting underway on a wednesday night. Sday nigh will all will hi, im janice, and i lost 172 pounds on golo. When i was a teenager i had some severe trauma in my life and i turned to food for comfort. A friend told me that i was the only one holding me back from being as beautiful on the outside as i am the inside. Once i saw golo was working, i felt this rush, i just had to keep going. A lot of people think no pain no gain, but with golo it is so easy. When i look in the mirror, i dont even recognize myself. The world has changed a lot since and mitt romney ran for president 12 years ago. With his final year in the United States and it almost be fought behind him, hes ready to talk about all of it. I sat down with senator romney for an exclusive keynote conversation about his final year in congress, and his thoughts on what comes next for our country. Watch this. You only have a few months left in this position, not a lot of time to get stuff done but there is still a host of issues plaguing our country, what are the things youre most worried about . A lot of politicians spend their time talking about things that sound good to the folks back home but have no impact on the future of the country. But, the big things that we have to be dealing with, the amount of debt we have, its getting to be a problem, the emergence of china as a great powder, if not the great power, the climate, we talk about things, that wont actually deal with the climate, and the big one, artificial intelligent, a. I. Is changing the world. Its as big a destructor of Nuclear Power was. How are we going to deal with it . These are things we are finally going to if the future is as bright for our kids as it has been for us. The only way we do that is to Work Together. You are leaving congress along with another of colleagues who are known for creating bipartisan solutions. But right now, rising prominent voices even on the right are condemning working together. Isnt working together what youre supposed to do . Why has it become a bad thing . Given the way that Government Works in order for someone to become law, requires republicans and democrats to agree. Thats, thats to become law, its like, well, thats not going to solve the deficit if we dont create law. Were not going to fix the border if we dont have law, were not going to deal with the changes of that climate, all these things have to have people Work Together. I know its nice to go back home, fire up the base and get everybody to say, hes a real fighter, but if that fighter isnt willing to work with people across the aisle, that fighter isnt going to get anything done and there are too many people today who dont recognize we need to do some things right now, because not doing something could end up being perilous down the road. President biden ran as a bipartisan president , hes worked with you on a number of things and gotten a lot done, infrastructure, The Chips Act, lower healthcare costs. The list goes on, but the country remains polarized and getting more divided. If he were to have a second term, do you think there is something he could do to actually bring people back together . Because hes got a lot of policies under his belt that hes done for the country and worked with you. The way to bring people together is not just to give a good speech. Nice as that is. The way to get people together is to tell them the truth. To let them know what the challenges are that youre concerned about and how youre going to deal with them. President biden isnt just getting a good speech, Infrastructure Law is now the law, The Chips Act is bringing jobs back, bringing manufacturing back. Those arent speeches. There is no question that President Biden accomplished a number of things. But in politics very few people care about what youve done. They care about what youre going to do. And right now there are a couple of things that are very much on peoples minds. The fact that things cost more than they did before. Inflation is still there. People and the prices are going to go down, no, when you beat Inflation Prices dont go down. They just stabilize and theyre getting stabilized but the fact that people are paying more is a concern. And the border. People have been screaming about the border for all 3 1 2 years joe biden has been president. Hes not done anything to solve the problem of the border. Thats a huge issue for President Trump, i cant understand why President Biden didnt tackle this from the beginning. What has Congress Done . Its congress who sets the laws. The republicans have put forward our plan, the house put out a border plan, and thats what congress did. The president said that wasnt acceptable, then they began working at a bipartisan basis. But this was not a problem when President Trump was president. The border has been a problem for years, sir, and a plan was just put together and it was donald trump who is not currently in office who blocked it. He blocked the plan in part because he wants to keep this issue hot and alive but dont forget, when he was president he did a lot of things that sounded pretty ugly but we didnt have anywhere near the number of people that have come into the country illegally as we have under President Biden, thats something he should have done everything in his power, frankly, take actions that maybe the courts would have stopped, then hed have a better argument saying, Congress Needed to act, but he never did that. As a result the American People are saying, i want Something Else. But it doesnt matter what you did in the past, it matters what happens now, and right now, President Biden, with congress, put together something and it was donald trump who blocked it. He can say to the American People heres what im doing, now. If donald trump were to be elected, do you think theres anything he would do to bring people together . I dont know that thats his ambition, to bring people together. Im not sure exactly what it is he hopes to do. If he gets a second term. Maybe in a second term hell be thinking less about appealing to the base and may be having a legacy of some kind. I dont know. As we listen to the campaign so far its basically saying, i won in 2020, which he didnt, and trying to get other people to say the same thing. Taking on social issues, cultural issues, making a big deal of that. Thats what his campaign is focused on, and of course, the border. Thats an issue thats worked for him back in 2016, he expected to work for him again, if, id be all over that. Instead he served as a President Trump on a silver platter. But of course, now, he is addressing the border and trump is blocking it. I want to tell you about court foreignpolicy, you know about it. There now are people in your party who are expressing views that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. When you think about support for ukraine, even the idea that people somehow have similar views of the likes of Vladimir Putin. What is your take on that, where did it come from . Its disorienting. To someone like me its unimaginable. That in the party of Ronald Reagan and George W Bush and john mccain and others that we would see a Growing Isolationism within our party. I think it flows in part from talk tv, talk radio, the Tucker Carlson of the world. Never heard of him. That say outrageous things and the base says, exactly. So, many in our party have followed that populist streak which is, stop worrying about the rest of the world, just worry about whats going on here. What theyre forgetting is that we are connected to the rest of the world, that our economy is connected to the rest of the world, that if we had had that attitude then, germany wouldve ended up ruling the world. Were involved in the world out of our own Self Interest and i laugh at the phrase america first. I know it typically means isolationism, but really, america is putting ourselves first when were involved in the world, when we stop bad people. If Vladimir Putin goes, not just for ukraine but decides to go into poland, then were involved in conflict with our sons and daughters going to war, or we could walk away from nato in which case putin is going to keep on going. How about a world where china and russia control the world, and we have our own island. Thats not a world where americans are going to be safe or prosperous. Were safe and prosperous when the