that is tonight's last word. "the 11th hour" with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, a high-stakes trip. president biden arrives for the g7 at a key point in wars abroad. plus, republicans hold attorney general merrick garland in contempt. as the gop turns up its attacks on the biden it in a station. and back in d.c., trumps message for republicans on capitol hill as the 11th hour gets underway on this wednesday night. a good evening once again, i am stephanie ruhle. we are now 146 days away from the election. get your calendar out, mark it with a sharpie. one more day down. after a brief stop in wilmington following his son, hunters, criminal conviction, president biden landed in italy for the g7 summit. biden is off the campaign trail. the 2024 election is front and center with allies worried about what a second trump term could mean. gabe gutierrez has more. >> reporter: tonight president biden landing in italy for a high-stakes summit with a focus on the war in ukraine. a russian missile strike killed nine people and injured another 21, including two children. the white house announcing president biden will sign a bilateral security agreement pledging long-term defense cooperation. this as russian warships arrived in a show of force off the coast of cuba, 90 miles from the u.s. the pentagon sent ships and aircraft to track them, but said they don't pose a threat. the g7 summit will bring together leading democracies. president biden is looking to shore up alliances. just days ago in european parliamentary elections hard right and populist parties scored a clear victory. also weighing on the president, the felony conviction of hunter biden. today the white house press secretary did not rule out the president commuting hunter biden sentence which could erase or reduce prison time but would not expunge the conviction. a white house official later telling nbc news that any talk of commutation was premature. hunter biden's tax trial could expose no information about foreign business dealings. >> meanwhile back on the republican-controlled house of representatives narrowly voted to hold attorney general merrick garland in contempt of congress over his refusal to release audio of president biden's interview with special counsel robert mueller. we have a lot to cover, so let's get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel. special correspondent for vanity fair and a msnbc contributor. and a former democratic new york congressman, my friend, max rose. let's start with the g7. there is concern from european allies about what the world, what the united states would look like if we had a second donald trump term. however, they are so worried about us, shouldn't we be worried about them? this past weekend there were a host of elections in europe and the far right had a sweep. >> they should be worried about us. we are worried about us, too. we live here and we are worried. one thing you can say about europe is they have coalition governments. your president doesn't have the same kind of power. they have multiple parties. many parties can be in power or percentages of them can be in power. i don't think it is quite the same as what happens in the states when a party really comes into power. but certainly they are worried and we are all really worried. the fundamentals of democracy. you have a guy running as an autocrat and that is pretty scary. one of his favorite things to talk about is ending nato. >> max is giving a face. i have something to say. >> that is just my face. >> european allies are looking at the same polls we are. can they see how well trump is doing? how does president biden reassure them? reassure our allies? reassure ukraine, we've got your back? >> i think the fact that he has beaten him once before. he should point to the fact that since 2016 most of the time when trump's agenda is on the ballot, the vast majority of the time he has lost. there is of course one audience in which trump has resounding popularity and that is amongst republican primary voters. that is mostly irrelevant when it comes to a general election and look, the biden campaign is pointing to one fact. that is that as election day gets closer or election month, people begin to wake up to the true stakes of the selection and to trumps rule -- real craziness. they are shifting to biden in a dramatic way. >> and a new topic, the house contempt vote of a.g. garland. what do they hope to get from this? besides a big show? >> we talk about politics and how important politics were. i think this is one of those things that is a strange moment for the gop right now. on the one hand they are talking about how the legal system, you know, merrick garland is corrupt and bad and has to be taken down, but on the other hand, this is the same doj that just convicted hunter biden, who they wanted convicted for a long time, with the help of a special counsel that was appointed originally by trump in the first place. this is all part of them trying to kind of make the justice system part of this selection. attacking it as being corrupt. attacking it as being not reliable, but this whole thing, take my word for it. there was one republican member of congress out of ohio who did not vote for this contempt vote today and he is a former prosecutor. he said i'm not going to do this because we have to at one point stand up about what this is supposed to be about. which is these people who have these jobs, respect what they are doing and believe in them. the attacks on our system, very cynical attacks designed for the base. the question is just how far they will go for it and how long they can balance on the edge they are on. it is bad when trump's gets convicted, but goodwin hunter does. bad, but also good. like it is very hard for them to figure out a unified message. >> you were in congress and voted told trump cabinet members in contempt. what is the standard for this vote? >> it is a very serious tool that congress has that can carry extraordinarily serious consequences. we see this with steve bannon and the contempt vote in and around that. the challenge here, the problem here is that congressional republicans are not treating this seriously. because what the allegation is, they need to hear the video or see the video. for something they already have the transcript for and this infringes on executive privilege. now the administration that has the authority to carry out the consequences of a contempt vote is the justice department, of which the attorney general obviously runs, so this is going nowhere. this is a symbolic vote. they know it is symbolic. what they are looking for here is some way they can elevate joe biden to where donald trump was when he committed egregious acts against the constitution and they can't find anything. so now they are flailing and it is pitiful. >> doesn't that make it more embarrassing? >> that ship has sailed. look at hunter. they literally would say the same thing if the case went the other way. hunter biden is proven guilty and the jury comes back and they say this shows that the system is being weaponized against us. what do you think they would say if the jury came back and said he was innocent? this shows that the jury system will come out against donald trump in one way and another way against hunter. they have no idea what they are doing because the facts are not on their side and they are constantly appealing to this extremist base that is massively different. >> or they are trying to create kellyanne conway's favorite term, alternative facts, which reminder are just lies. let's talk about hunter biden because a week ago he told nbc news, the president said he would not pardon his son if convicted, but today the white house would not rule out commuting his sentence. what is your take on that? >> i hope they won't commute his sentence. i think joe biden has a chance to stand up for the rule of law and say the law is the law no matter who it is. no matter if it is trump or biden. remember part of the dangerousness is that it tears down important institutions of our democracy. there is an opportunity to say that the jury found him guilty. this is how it is supposed to work, end of story. >> president biden is returning to the u.s. with less than two weeks to go for the first presidential debate. what is your advice for the president? >> the president doesn't need my advice. >> trust me. all i think we all are thinking supporters of the president as well as folks in the middle, still independent and trying to figure out who they will vote for. just relax, man. you've got this. this is the one individual who has beaten donald trump and as long as you bring what you brought in the last election i think it will be a resounding success. >> or the fire we saw at the state of the union. >> there is another sort of political standard reality, which is that incumbent presidents often do bad in their first debates. >> but they are both incumbent presidents. >> i guess. one has been president for the last four years and one has not. >> but always biden does much better because there has been so much media that paints him as this doddering fool. every time he gets up there people are like oh my god, he is amazing. so he does benefit from that. >> i think the campaign making this move, it is all about a reset. they do think the more they get trump and biden on the same stage, it is better for biden. something i always think about in my mind. how many debates of a been to and think the guy is going to wipe the floor with him and these incumbent presidents have a hard time. what that means for the president, it is just something i'm thinking about. >> i was going to say look, the weakness of donald trump that we think about here is because he is so disciplined with these talking points over and over and over again, there is nothing beneath that. >> right, there is no policy. >> nothing at all and particularly now as joe biden can stand up enormous policy achievements to say nothing of the fact that he literally rescued the economy. the second that you push donald trump past those talking points and taglines he looks weak. >> there are no policies in trump's talking points, no push back and now we will see an unfiltered donald trump. unfiltered donald trump today is more unfiltered than ever before. it's hard to even follow what he is saying. i do want to talk about this, though, because the gop keeps pushing president biden's age as an issue even though donald trump is almost exactly the same age. they are also getting help from some tv stations owned by right- wing broadcasters sinclair and i want you to watch this. >> the wall street journal calling in to rest in the mental fitness of president joe biden. >> the wall street journal is calling into question the mental fitness of president joe biden. >> calling it the west in the mental fitness of president joe biden. >> the issue could be an election decider. >> the issue could be an election decider. >> the issue could be an election decider. >> they are on script. how dangerous is this? >> pretty dangerous. that purple suit, bowtie combination one guy had. what we are trying to do is create a pathway for new journalists into our business and learn how to do it right. the wall street journal story that the sinclair broadcast is referencing, i know reporters who worked on this story. there is a lot of nuance. when it gets pulled into the sinclair broadcast version of this, this is, as a reporter, it makes me annoyed. this is taking the ideals of our business which is to give everybody all the facts, tell them everything there is and it pretends it is doing that and pushes this other thing out there. it is very dangerous considering how voters watch and rely on local news. this is why they do this. >> also many voters have a natural instinct or concern about the presidents age and right-wing media is supercharging the concern. >> i will push back on that wall street journal story. >> i had a feeling you would. >> you and i are friends. the only person on the record was kevin mccarthy who also said privately one thing, publicly another thing. he said biden was actually really sharp. then anonymous sourcing. >> sure. again -- >> i am just saying day >> you do a good job. >> don't tell me that when you go to dinner parties or gas stations or school fairs, people are talking. >> right, but that's all they have. it is hillary's email. all they have is that he is old. >> but this is the responsibility of the biden campaign to push back on this idea and it is a very easy thing to do and i think they are doing it. let him be him. get him out and relaxed and then message that. i think everyone eventually learns about politics and you can't push people to change what they are thinking about. you can't say i know that is here, i know you are but what am i, shift to something else. you have to take what they are thinking had on and you are seeing that with the biden campaign messaging. once they put money behind it you can't replace money in this business. >> isn't that why this debate could be a huge win? because they can cherry pick the sand say he is shuffling, he is feeble. when he is standing against donald trump and if he knocks it out of the park like he did the last state of the union, how can you possibly say this guy is too old? >> absolutely because the american people will also come face-to-face with the fact that donald trump is not just old. when they see that they certainly do not want someone as dumb as him and as crazy as him back in the white house and that is what this debate is going to be all about. it's going to be about intelligence. >> people feel like a lot of americans aren't engaged in the election yet. people on the democratic side specifically are like when will this kickoff and start for real and the hope is maybe this debate will do that because democrats feel like if people are really paying attention, that is good for them. right now while people aren't -- >> that's unprecedented, before a convention. it is a great move. >> i know we will be watching. thank you all for starting us off tonight. when we returned, trump is going to capitol hill tomorrow for the first time since this happened. now he is returning to talk election strategy with republicans. it is like i can't believe it. and later, we got news on inflation today, but is it enough to get the fed to lower rates? 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