of these next to someone firing a submachine gun you can't tell the difference. president biden releasing a statement calling on congress to ban bump stocks. >> [ inaudible ] this is our independence. >> bunch of the attention focused on what he said about his son's felony gun conviction. >> i'm extremely proud of my son, hunter. >> the president previously said he would not pardon his son. congressional pep rally of sorts for the likely gop nominee speaking to lobbyists behind closed doors. >> show of hands for anyone in the room who hung out with the felon today. >> i'm with them 1000%. there with me 1000%. >> i think it must be so humiliating for them. >> and, all of that happened in just one week. good evening. once again i am stephanie ruhle and we are now 144 days away from the election. this week, president biden was on the world stage meeting with allies as his son was found guilty on federal gun charges and donald trump return to washington where republicans who ran for their lives after january 6th welcomed him back with open arms. with that, hayes brown is here. msnbc columnist and editor. katie fenner, prize-winning reporter for the new york times. julian tech and comedian alex edelman. it is his first visit to the nightcap. welcome. let's talk about this week. donald trump had an absolute lovefest with republican leaders who seem to have forgotten or at least dismissed january 6. if you remember after that date, many republicans openly criticized him, wanted him to go away. i'm looking at mitch o'connell and lindsey graham, but now donald trump is back and he's not just a nominee. he is the party. can we just start with like let's just talk about that donald trump circle of life since january 6th and to this week, what is your take? >> is someone who talks to business and financial leaders, what i find stunning is that after saying they would never deal with donald trump again behind the scenes -- is not just the up front public staff in washington. it's the behind the scenes schmoozing usa right now from wall street reaching out to trump. i was in asia last week and again, you can see asian leaders, as well, beginning to pivot and adjust themselves to a world where trunk comes back in november. >> is that because you think business leaders are excited to have him back or they're just bracing themselves and they know they've got a decent chance he's going to be the guy and they don't want to be on his enemy list? >> i feel like business leaders are trying to make a compromise at this time are trying to figure out where to place their bets. on cnbc today, my calling has spoken to a lot of people that were in the business roundtable yesterday who came out and told andrew he sounded crazy, he was rambling. we're going to get more of the same. he wants to cut the corporate tax rate from 21% to 20%. companies don't pay taxes anyway. >> even before the corporate tax cut during the trump administration, none of them asked for 21%. 28% was their goal. >> so, there is a world in which i think one of the things xander said is that some of these people were inclined to support him because they're thinking about their pocketbooks more than their thinking about abortion rights, welfare for the country, democracy, which is not a surprise, but even they were disturbed by the trump they just met. >> the problem i have with that, and is reporting is so good but the fact that they are telling him, not just coming out and saying it, coming out on cameron saying we just saw the former president and we have a lot of concerns. the fact that they are making these moves behind closed doors, not being up front with it, i think that is as cowardly as the republicans in congress were willing to stand next to him in order to make sure they are on his good side should he win. >> this is what is crazy about that to me, that these ceos, who in theory should be among the most informed people in this country, right? they have thousands of employees. they run multibillion-dollar businesses and somehow, they were surprised that donald trump made no sense, was meandering and seemed to be lost? how on earth could they not know that? all you have to do is watch him speak. >> as degradation is -- because you thought he was at the bottom before, right? you thought there was no lower he could possibly go than where he's been and when you watch his speeches like i'm surprised when i watch his speeches because he's always been a rambler but now he's doug -- i thought he was on the concrete floor. now he's in china. he's gone through the other side and he looks terrible. >> he is up against this shatter about biden looking terrible and biden rambling as well so i think what is happening is a lot of people are screening out insane well, they both sound old so we will look at the questions of policies. >> the other thing is that he has been such a bully, and the people who -- >> i have to like how you pause and think. a bully. >> it's not just him. it's his allies. everyone in the republican party who is opposed him has been drummed out so viciously. liz cheney, those folks, it feels like they are gone. >> wartlike larry hogan today running for senate in maryland. trumps looking at him reportedly and trying to bring him in. hogan said justice is working after his conviction. >> he said you're dead meat larry hogan. >> i think a lot of business leaders are looking at the fact that trump is endorsing a number of republicans who are much more mainstream than in the past and thinking maybe if he can do that his policies won't be quite so crazy. >> that's wishful thinking because if he really was doing that he would come right out and say nikki haley's my vp. nikki haley continues to have support. she was out of the race for two months and still is some of those primary races she had 20% of the vote and there were all these people who have this notion that she is this george bush republican, and he's not embracing her. he humiliated her over and over again that she has embraced him. trout might say truck may be meandering but so is joe biden. let's talk about what we saw happen this week because the right is manufacturing the stories they're telling about joe biden. we saw it this week. the cropped video from the g7 suggesting that joe biden was lost in the field, speaking to a paratrooper. it was not true. we have a clip that i want to show. oh no, you know what? we have a clip of trump. sorry. they made up the fact that joe biden was lost at the g7 meandering through a field. it wasn't true. that headline made its way to the new york post all overwrite meeting video. all over fox news this morning. talking about donald trump who earlier this week i think he was in vegas was giving a speech and somehow went so off the rails talking about an electric boat and shark bites and we do have a clip of this. >> i say, what would happen if a boat sank from its weight and you were in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery is now underwater and there is a shark that is approximately 10 yards over there. by the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, do you notice that? i watched some guys justifying it today. they weren't really that angry. they bit off the young ladies like because of the fact that they were not hungry but misunderstood who she was. >> like for real, what in the holy hell is he saying? that is unedited. we keep hearing that joe biden , he is feeble. >> while you see, sharks have an electric current sense. it sounds like he's high, genuinely. this is like a college freshman is like okay, say you're in a boat then there's like a battery really far away so like because the battery is underwater the whole ocean is electrified. except the other side of the boat so do you jump in or take your chances with the shark or take your chances with the battery like it's insane. by the way, the comparison with joe biden is like policy. joe biden makes gaffes sometimes. sometimes he'll stumble, sometimes it's embarrassing. >> he also has a list. >> and he's always done that. it isn't new. >> not a list, a stutter. >> and he's worked with starters in their beautiful stories about it but like he never promises policy. he never proposes like a new system of governance are offers like a marijuana hypothetical. he doesn't go on these insane rants, so the equivalency for me is just nonexistent. >> in some ways, it is a real eddie that there is not as much coverages trumps features as there was a couple of years ago. >> basically joe biden is pushing up against the fact that as president of the united states is always going to be monitored by the press and everything he says is publicized. donald trump has the advantage of being able to pop up whenever he wants, throw out a couple of shark questions then disappear, which joe biden can't do. >> in the press are not covering it the way they were before. >> we criticized for not covering him as much and then before it was why are you giving donald trump wall-to- wall coverage? i think in 2016 he was still kind of rambling but he had a better grasp of what he was trying to convey at that time. >> there was a kind of negative charisma. a narrative, a manufactured narrative it was flawed in every way ethically, but at least it was going somewhere and as a comedian who appreciates improvising and riffing, part of me was like well, this guy is a maniac. he is a showman. he's playing on everybody's fears and really understands the fluid dynamics of what makes an audience work and now, he's lost something like give him a hook. get them out of here. >> i agree. >> there is a sense though that there is still a referendum on whether or not president biden is like in some way enfeebled, and so every possible gaffe that he may show in a negative edited light seems somehow newsworthy. if the viewer like this just in, trump, lunatic. people are like yeah, we know. >> today is his birthday, i believe, and if he wins he will become the oldest president in history and no one is talking about that. >> might interest them shaded this today actually on a social media post which was actually quite clever sign well, happy birthday, donald trump. we both know what it's like to be old, you know. >> but then do we have to go back to the start of the business community wants to lean on right now because the same business leaders you're talking to love to say he's feeble, he's incapable yet joe biden has a laundry list of policy accomplishments, and when you hear the policies donald trump wants to put forward -- what did we hear this week? let's get rid of the u.s. tax system and replace it with super tariffs. that is disastrous, so is all of this really just the business community hiding behind the fact with what they really want, which is to buy their way into the white house and have a bat phone into trump's office so they can get whatever they want and ensure they get the head of the ftc who is not lena con who is not going to question what's happening? >> i think it's a lot of that but there are two things where the rubber is going to hit the road with the business community in the next few months. one is what will happen to tariffs and in particular, to all of these factories they've been building in mexico and vietnam to try to get away from china. if you believe what the trump team is saying right now, they're going to put tariffs on those factors, too, and that's going to really hurt. the other big thing is debt because almost everything trump is talking about right now is going to increase the debt. >> republicans used to care about that. >> they did and in fact, it's pretty scary how unafraid they are right now by the size of the debt. >> i just want to add that i think what the business community is thinking about, consciously or not, is what is scarier to us or what is more appealing to us, having that access to the white house and are we arrogant enough to believe we can control donald trump, which we tried to do when he was president before. to think that can work again or are we more afraid of the idea that we could have a president who does not believe in the rule of law which at the end of the day, is what allowed america to be a great capitalist society, because we have rules. we believe in courts. we have order. that is what made america great place to do business and if you have a president is going to come in and say i don't like these rules. if a company makes me upset -- desantis and disney, but on a bigger scale, that's also scary so if you are looking at ceos, i think they are just waiting are we more afraid of what could happen or are we more tantalized by the opportunity to go in there and control the white house. >> and, they have no fears about things like abortion rights because none of that is ever going to affect them ever. anybody in the universe will ever need one will be all set. we are seeing republicans attack joe biden for his fitness. many of their attacks are made up. their latest attack has been that joe biden has politicized and weaponize to the doj. that was the whole argument around donald trump's conviction. this week, of course, hunter biden was found guilty and joe biden has very clearly said he would not pardon his son. he would not commute his sentence. how stark is this difference? how can republicans keep making this argument now that joe biden has really put it out there? >> you know, the funny thing is that it wasn't a difficult decision for me to vote for joe biden the first time around but when people released that -- somehow they got the transcripts of his messages back and forth with his son, like look at joe biden interacting is like a facebook messenger of his son in rehab and as soon as i read it, it was like this is a fundamentally decent guy. the way he talks about his son publicly, the way he treats his son publicly, it's someone who is a parent of a child of addiction. >> there are millions of those parents in this country. >> i think it's one of the most admirable things about him. i think it reflects on him really well. i think he handles it beautifully. it must be very difficult for him personally. >> republicans don't know what to do with that. oh, the doj is weaponized, they tried to dismiss the guilty verdict is like oh, they are just covering up the real biden crime family crimes that we've not found any real evidence of an cannot prove, but surely this guilty conviction is really just a mastermind scheme to prevent us from learning the truth about the bidens. the knots they twist themselves into to get around this discouragement since is really fascinating to watch. >> for years, fox news was like where is hunter and he stood there in the courtroom and accepted his sentence. could this end up being -- i'm not going to say a positive for president biden, but to your point, is this an opportunity for america to see the importance of decency? >> it's interesting to see how the evangelicals react because if you believe in punishment and serving time and then redemption and forgiveness when family loyalty, this is actually a pattern of behavior the evangelical church should be actually applauding and upholding. >> i've got a huge evangelical viewership. nobody is going anywhere. when we return, the supreme court makes another controversial decision on guns. two justices come under increased scrutiny again and later, president biden goes to hollywood, but does star power actually get out the vote? don't go anywhere. don't go anywhere. what is cirkul? cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul is your frosted treat with a sweet kick of confidence. cirkul is the effortless energy that gets you in the zone. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. norman, bad news... i never graduated from med school. what? -but the good news is... xfinity mobile just got even better! now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. i gotta get this deal... i know... faster wifi and savings? ...i don't want to miss that. that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? this story really matters. the supreme court today struck down a ban on bump stocks put in place after a shooting in las vegas at loss 58 people dead and over 400 wounded. when you guys look at how the court's ruling involving any of these cases on guns, he consistently comes down on the side of fewer restrictions. the epidemic from gun violence is a uniquely american problem. it has not gone away. it's only getting worse, so where do we go from here in terms of stopping gun violence? donald trump in the bump stock thing was something -- was one of the few things you heard all sorts of american say gosh, this was really something. it was a good idea. >> absolutely. the fact that this court could even take something that happened during the trump administration on guns and say that it's, unconstitutional and try to pretend like the law is not written in such a way that these weapons of mass killing do not fall under the correct category of submachine guns or machine guns for it to be regulated, that is wild. it was a completely ideological split and completely showcases how, on these matters, there is no debate. among the court's conservative members, it is what is it that will allow for the most -- the least amount of restriction when it comes to guns, period, and work backward from there. >> it is an ideological split but the other is on what kind of power the executive branch has. this is not the first decision i won't be the last decision where the supreme court weighs in on what an executive branch can do because remember the trump era bump stock decision was a decision by the justice department which originally said no, we can't unilaterally band bump stocks. we have to have congress pass a law. trump really wanted it, they found a way. but what the supreme court does not like is the idea that presidents and their administrations can basically make laws to factor through executive orders and other things, so they are saying no. no, who does that empower? theoretical it empowers congress, and the supreme court. the supreme court is giving itself a tremendous amount of power here in this ruling, and we are going to see it again and again and so if you really want gun reform you have to elect politicians. there are so many forces right now telling us it's important. it all comes down to legislation. >> on the issue is not strong guns comments around financial policy, antitrust policy, so many areas right now we are saying essentially power coming back from the agencies and into the supreme court and that's a really scary prospect if congress is unable, as you say, to do anything at all. >> you think this puts more pressure on congress to act because every poll out there, more and more americans want something done in terms of common sense gun safety. >> it feels like largely a bipartisan issue. >> and the powers of the nra have we can. >> you know what? if this is like a referendum on checks and balances like congress should -- yes, congress should pass a law. the answer to your question is yes. put more pressure on congress. look, i can understand it semantic based on the powers of the presidency or the second amendment but therefore, this thing that turns a gun into a submachine gun, something indistinguishable, like this semantic lo