people were not just conservative, black people always have been conservative minded, but more black people voted conservatively. and lyndon johnson, then you go down that road, and now we are where we are. >> that was byron donalds suggesting there were positive aspects to jim crow. he joins me tonight. plus, president biden is in normandy on the 80th anniversary of d.-day, delivering a stark warning about the state of democracy. and the grandson of a key member of the black panther party, david hilliard, is pushing back against a video of hilliard saying allegedly that he supports trump, saying it is misleading. and that grandson joins me later. but we begin tonight with the 80th anniversary of d-day, the day some 156,000 allied soldiers arrived on the beaches of normandy, charging head on into nazi gun fire, land mines, and barbed wire. pushing the occupying nazi era germans out of normandy and then out of the rest of france. the invasion marked a definitive turning point during world war ii. the youngest survivors are now in their late 90s and 100s. here they are arriving back to the now free beaches of normandy. one of them is 99-year-old ben miller who was a 19-year-old medic, carried to normandy by glider. he returned to normandy for the first time since the war, meeting locals including a woman who was there on d-day. >> see how they recover through it all and being so kind to us. >> this value of alliances marked an american era, something president biden stressed as he addressed the 180 surviving veterans. >> we're living in a time where democracy is more at risk across the world than any point since the end of world war ii, since these beaches were stormed in 1944. now we have to ask ourselves, will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? will we stand for freedom, will we defend democracy, stand together? my answer is yes and only can be yes. >> biden was joined by dignitaries and heads of state including french president emmanuel macron and ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, who shared an emotional moment with the u.s. veteran in normandy. >> savior of the people. >> in case you didn't catch that, the veteran called zelenskyy the savior of the people, as the two men embraced. zelenskyy replied no, no, you. you saved europe. it's all quite the presidential contrast. biden's rousing defense of democracy calling for solidarity with ukraine, versus donald trump, who wants to be an autocrat. who never would have given a speech like the one biden gave today because trump doesn't believe in democracy. he reportedly called americans who died in war losers and suckers. his contempt for military service matched only by his contempt for our democratic institutions. in fact, as biden honors our veterans, donald trump who when it was his turn to serve our country, cited bone spurs. telling sean hannity hat he will try to prosecute his political opponents if elected to a second term. >> people are claiming you want retribution. people are claiming you want what has happened to you done to democrats. would you do that ever? >> look, what's happened to me has never happened in this country before. and it has to stop because -- >> wait a minute, i want to hear that again. it has to stop. >> it does have to stop. based on what they have done, i would have every right to go after them. >> trump is the guy disparaging veterans and instead embracing fascism. he is a modern day version of charles lindbergh, the famous nazi sympathizing aviator who fought to keep the united states out of the second world war. he's publicly embraced russia which was part of the soviet union is our ally in world war i only to break with the u.s. over the question its leader josef stalin should be allowed to swallow as much of eastern europe as he pleased. russia is now ruled by vladimir putin, a fan of stalin and a ussr nostalgic whose appetite for imperialism may extend beyond swallowing ukraine. trump and putin have a lot in common. big believers in the stalinist ethos. it's why the same world fears a second trump presidency. it's why biden is lauding our veterans while warning democracy is at risk. we know history repeats itself, and we now know democracy is fragile. it's been 80 years sin the allied invasion of normandy and the average age of veterans hovers at 100. you realize today could be the last time a u.s. president honors the sacrifices of these veterans. it is the generation that fought but will soon be lost, replaced by a different generation that sees things quite differently, which is why today is a wake-up call, if the world is willing to listen. i'm joined now by isaac, national political reporter for "the washington post" and author of "finish what we started" and ruth ben-ghiat, new york university professor of history and author of "strong men, mussolini to the president." and appropriate panel for today. i want to start with you, isaac. talk about the way that european leaders are thinking about today, this anniversary, and the coming election. >> well, with a lot of apprehension for what the election means for the future of the trans-atlantic alliance. our reporting has been that trump has shared privately this secret plan that he's been touting for how he would end the war in ukraine, which pretty much boils down to pressuring ukraine to cede territory to russia. which zelenskyy has said he wouldn't accept. but there's also no indication that putin would settle for that, that his ambitions go far beyond that. and it's so the choice as far as on our ballot, as far as the future for how this war would be handled and u.s. support for ukraine couldn't be starker. >> is this peace plan, supposed peace plan, is it different materially from what paul manafort was pitching back during the 2016 election? we know in 2014, russia invaded and occupied crimea, and there was a similar plan being pushed by paul manafort to essentially hand crimea and the donbas, the eastern part of ukraine, over to russia. is this plan, is your reporting that this is any different? >> basically, we're talking about those same plans. you know, there is a reality that's developing where just as a military reality, the chances that ukraine can regain all of that territory looks pretty far, but also, if you were to have just everyone put down your weapons where you are today, that doesn't match up with those orders either. even drawing an armistice line is not a simple exercise. >> there's a tremendous irony for those like me who are fascinated by history that today's stalin who yearned for their era of the old soviet union that was gobbling up parts of the european continent, vladimir putin. donald trump is not our, you know, he's not a version of an american president from that era. he's not an eisenhower or truman. he sides with that guy, with putin. and there is a growing right-wing fascist movement of a '30s ilk that has been reborn in europe and in america. talk about that. >> yeah, because today, biden warned of the dangers of isolationism, but actually, the way i see it is -- excuse me -- that isolationism implies neutrality, but team trump is team putin. and it's team xi jinping and team north korea. and that's why they want to get out of nato and tommy tuberville is blaming nato, but there's no access 2.0 formally, it's just loose alliances of these awful autocrats, china, and russia. but that's the side trump is on. and we should be very -- we should be very conscious of that. >> let me read a little bit of this piece from the atlantic that has gotten a lot of ink. it says what europe fears. a second term is all but inevitable. the anxiety is massive. the reality has left politicians and diplomats across europe honing theories of trump ego management to some, the volatility represents a great threat. others think trump's ego could make him easy to manipulate. isaac, on one hand, our european leaders are also saying we could just buy him off? >> well, right. trump for all this talk of pulling out of nato has also been clear what he's trying to get out of that is for european allies to spend more on their own defense. there is a reasonable intellectual foreign policy geostrategic debate to have about that and it has gotten results. european allies have been spending more, and recognizing that the u.s. commitment might not be there, are trying to invest in their military industrial base to take on more of that burden of support in ukraine. >> there's also the historical parallels, you can't stop them. back during the transition from jimmy carter to ronald reagan, there was a secret deal made to free iranian hostages, free american hostages held by iran, but soon to be vice president and former head of the cia george herbert walker bush and others conspired to essentially hold those hostages longer, to have them held longer so they could be released shortly after reagan was inaugurated. it was a very ugly deal. and now, it appears that donald trump is either doing that by saying he could free evan gershkovich who has been held in russia, "wall street journal" reporter, and he's saying i could have him released almost immediately. he hasn't said anything about paul whelan who was taken in 2018 when he was president. it's either one or the other. he's either just saying that as schtick, or he's making a call out to putin. let me play the call out he made to putin in 2016, when he asked for something vis-a-vis hillary clinton. here he is. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. >> not long after that, russia hacked into the dnc and rnc, and put her emails into the public eye. is there any reporting on which it is, is he just doing schtick or asking for putin's help in exchange for this man's freedom? >> we don't have any reporting that there's some kind of back channel communication between trump and putin ongoing about evan gershkovich. for the longest time, trump was not addressing gershkovich at all. his silence was really conspicuous in contrast to basically all other u.s. politicians and he was eventually about the one-year anniversary called on that, and asked directly about it repeatedly, and then he finally called for the release, and then turned it into this thing about how putin would do it for him and not for biden. >> it's odd he never mentioned paul whelan who was taken during his presidency. ruth, talk about what it would mean to the world if the u.s. became prey to what we do see in other countries where you have autoocracies pop up. if it happened here, how would that materially change the world? >> well, the world would become just much, you know, more unsafe place because the people who trump is backing are imperialists who are warmongers, who won't stop at anything. and the thing about the way autocrats wage war, which is so dangerous, is because they don't care about their people. and they don't have to answer to parliament or the press. they just treat their people as cannon fodder, and they truly only care about themselves. that's one of the sad things about populations that suffer under autocrats, because the militaries just get used like cannon fodder. so you know, but d-day is an interesting thing. as you went over in your monologue, it was a tide that turned for the war, and it led to the liberation of france. but in germany, it was a day that, you know, was a huge setback for the germans, and they lost a lot of their superiority in air defense and naval strategy, the destruction of u-boat ports, and it led to german military officials becoming so disaffected with hitler's mania and his belief he knew all the answers and of course he had absolute power, that shortly after that was when you had the plot to assassinate hitler by german military officials. so d-day is also ushering in this lesson about what happens when somebody has absolute power and has all the -- thinks they have all the answers in a time of war. >> yeah, and it's a helpful reminder that adolf hitler went to jail before he was then elected to lead germany. thank you so much to isaac and ruth. up nebs on "the reidout," byron donalds is saying the media has twisted his words, so we asked him to come on and explain what he meant. he'll join me next. l join me net missing out on the things you love because of asthma? 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we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. some recent comments by florida congressman byron donald have been condemned by hakeem jeffries, the congressional black caucus, the chairman of the democratic national comidy, jaime harrison, and the president of the naacp, derrick johnson, just to name a few. in those comments at an event designed to help republican outreach to black voters in philadelphia. congressman donalds made what certainly seemed like positive comments about the jim crow era and he claims his critics are missing the context of what he said, so here's the context. >> i grew up with my mom. my dad and my mom, things didn't work out. as an adult, i look at my father and i say, bro, i don't know what happened. you're my father and i love you. i don't know what happened. i wasn't there. but i'm going to tell you this. growing up, the one thing i knew i wanted to do, and this is not about my father, this is about what i wanted to do, is i wanted to be a father to my sons. and so one of the things that's actually happening in our culture, which you're now starting to see in our politics is the reinvigoration of black families with younger black men and black women. and that is also helping to breed the revival of a black middle class in america. you see, during jim crow, during jim crow, the black family was together. during jim crow, more black people were not just conservative, black people always have been conservative minded, but more black people voted conservatively. and then lyndon johnson, and then you go down that road and we are where we are. what's happened in america the last ten years and i say this as my contemporaries you're starting to see more black people be married and in homes, raising kids. when you're home with your wife raising your kids, and then you look at the world, you're saying time-out. this does not look right. how can i get something to my kids, it goes back to the conversation of generational wealth. generational wealth. >> i am joined now by florida republican congressman byron donalds. thank you for being here. we played that lengthy segment, what you posted on your social media. the part of what you said that people take issue with is this line. you see during jim crow, during jim crow, the black family was together. during jim crow, more black people were not just conservative. black people have always been conservative minded but black people voted conservatively. it's that during jim crow, the black family was together. that's what people have taken issue with. what are they missing? >> frankly, what's really happened is that you have, you know, democrats and you have the biden campaign and some in the media want to twist my words for political purposes. the overarching issue is talking just about black families and why you're seeing a trend of black people leaning towards republicans in this election cycle and probably in electional cycles to come. part of that is when you're raising families, raising kids, et cetera, you're thinking of all the public policy issues, all of the economic issues, and it's leading people to have divergence in political thoughts. that was the only point. the stuff that comes up about jim crow and twisting my words saying i was being nostalgic or jim crow was good for black people, that's all political spin. it's a lie. it's gaslighting and that's truly unfortunate. >> here's the challenge, congressman. you started out talking about your family, talking about your mom, talking about being raised. and you on your own brought up jim crow. in fact, you said jim crow three times for emphasis. it wasn't the media or the democrats or gaslighters who brought up jim crow. it was you. you brought up jim crow. so why did you use jim crow specifically as your reference? you did that, no one else did that, you did it. >> i did. we were having a conversation just talking, black people in philadelphia. but if you're going to use the chronological timeline of america before the great society and lyndon johnson's time period, you had unfortunately the jim crow era in america. during that time period, the marriage rates of black americans was significantly higher than any other time since then in american history. so it is a divergence if you're talking about marriage rates in the black community. they have plummeted. what we have seen recently in america, which is a very good thing we should all celebrate is marriage rates in the black community are rising again. that's good for black families. that's definitely good for black children. it's something i want to see, i'm sure you want to see it as well. >> let's talk abo