you cannot tell. president biden releasing a statement, calling on congress to ban. president biden at the g7 summit in italy today. >> ukraine and the u.s. since our independence. >> with much of the attention focused on what he said about his son hunter's felony gun conviction. >> i am extremely proud of my son hunter. he has overcome an addiction. >> had said he would not pardon his son but tonight he went further. >> do you plan on your son's sentence? >> a congressional pep rally for the likely gop nominee speaking to lawmakers behind closed doors. >> it is a show of hands for anyone in the room who hung out with a felon today. >> i am with them 1000%. they are with me 1000%. >> i think it must be so humiliating for them. >> and all of that happens in just one week. good evening, once again. i am stephanie 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. donald trump returned to washington where republicans who ran for their lives after january 6th welcomed him back with open arms. with that, let's bring in our nightcap. prize winning reporter for the new york times. at large for the financial times and alex adelman, 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 seemed to have forgotten or at least dismissed january 6. if you remember after that date, many republicans, wanted him to go away. i am looking at you, mitch mcconnell and lindsey graham. now donald trump is back and he is now not just the nominee. he is the party. can we just start with let's talk about donald trump circle of life since january 6th and to this week, what is your take? >> someone who business leaders and financial leaders, what i find just summing is that after saying they would never deal with donald trump again, behind- the-scenes, it's not just the public stuff in washington, it's that the behind-the-scenes right now from wall street reaching out to trump and i was in asia last week and again, you can see asian leaders as well beginning to hit it and adjust themselves to a world where trump comes back in november. >> is that because you think business leaders are excited to have them back? >> they know they've got a decent chance. they don't want to be on his enemy list. >> popular business leaders are making -- they are trying to make a compromise at this time. trying to figure where to put their bets. my colleague, he had spoken to a lot of the people who were in the meeting. >> at the mrs. right. you came out and told andrew he sounded crazy, he was rambling. this was, we can get more the same. from 21% to 20%. >> companies do not pay. >> hold on. even before the corporate tax cut, none of them asked for 21%. 28% was their goal. he's going i'm going to go even lower. >> there is a world in which i think one of the things andrew said was some of these people were inclined to support him because they are thinking about their pocketbooks more than they are thinking about abortion rights, welfare for the country, democracy. which is not a surprise. even they were disturbed by the trump that they just met. >> the problem that i have with that, the reporting is so good but the fact that they are telling and not coming out and saying it on camera and saying you know what? we just saw the former president and we have a lot of concerns, actually. the fact that they are making these moves behind closed doors and not being up front with it, i think that is as cowardly as the republicans in congress who are willing to stand next to him in order to make sure they are on his good side should he win. >> this is what is lazy about that to me. these ceo who, in theory, should be among the most informed people in this country, right? they have thousands and thousands of employees. multibillion-dollar businesses and somehow, they were surprised that donald trump made no sense, was meandering and seems to be lost. how on earth could they not know that? all you have to do is watch them speak? >> you thought he was at the bottom before. there was no lower that he could possibly go and where he's been. i am surprised when i watch the speeches. he has always been a rambler but now, i thought he was at a concrete floor. he is in china. he is completely come through the other side and he looks terrible. >> he is up against this about biden looking terrible and biden as well. i think what is happening is a lot of people are screening out and saying they are both sounding really old. we will look at the questions of policies. >> the other thing, he's been such a bully and the people. >> i would like you to pause. >> i guess i was wondering whether or not to say the word effective because it's not just him, its allies. think about everyone in the republican party. they have been drugged out so viciously. those folks, it feels like they are gone. >> larry hogan today running. trump is looking at endorsing reportedly and i tried to bring after said justice is working after his conviction. >> and the campaign leaders was like your campaign is over, you are dead meat, larry hogan. now they are realizing maybe not. nice i think they are looking at the fact that trump is endorsing a number of republicans with much more mainstream than in the past and thinking maybe you can do that, maybe his policies will not be quite so. >> that is wishful thinking because if he was really doing that, he would come right out and say nikki haley is my vp. nikki haley continues to have support. she was out of the race for two months and some of the primary races he had 20% of the. there are always people who had this notion. she is this george bush republican and not embracing her. over and over again and she has endorsed him. i want to go back to the point that you made. people are saying trump might be meandering but so is joe biden. let's talk about what we saw happen this week because the right is manufacturing. the stories that telling about joe biden. beside this week. the video from the g7 suggesting that joe biden was lost in the field, speaking to a paratrooper. it was not even true. we have a clip that i want to show. >> we have a clip of donald trump. sorry. >> yes, correct. >> made up the fact that joe biden was lost at the g7. meandering through a field, it was not true. i have i made it way to the new york post. all of her right wing media. it is oliver fox news this morning, yet none of them were talking about donald trump who earlier this week, i think he was in vegas, with giving a speech and somehow went so far off the rails talking about an electric boat and shark bites. we do have a clip of this, watch this. >> i say what would happen if the boat sank and you are 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, and you notice that? i watched some guys justifying it today. they were not really that angry. they bid up young ladies leg because of the fact that they were not hungry but they misunderstood she was. >> for real. what is he saying? that was unedited. yet we keep hearing that joe biden is people. >> sharks have an electric current sense. >> that is not what he was talking about. it sounds like he is high. >> okay, say you are on about. and then there is like a battery really far away. the ocean is electrified. do you accept the other side of the boat? you jump in and take your chances with the battery. it is insane to hear him. >> the comparison with joe biden is like trump will offer policy. joe biden makes. sometimes will stumble. sometimes it is embarrassing but. he has always done that. always. >> not a list, a stutter. >> he has worked with starters and their beautiful stories. he never promises policy. he never proposes a new system of governance or offers a marijuana hypothetical. he does not go on these insane rants. the equivalency for me is nonexistent. >> in some ways it's a real pity that there is not more coverage as there were four years ago. four years ago, people saw him unedited. >> it's not because. >> basically, joe biden is pushing up against the fact that as president of the united states, he's always going to be monitored and everything. donald trump has a huge advantage of being able to pop up whenever he wants, throw out a couple of sharp westerns and then disappear which joe biden cannot do. and covering of the way they were before. >> we criticize networks for not covering it up much and then it was the reverse before of why are you giving donald trump wall-to-wall coverage? >> we did with them. >> i think in 2016, he was new. he was novel but he was also more on point than he is now. yes, things saying were still rambling out but had eight better grasp of what he was trying to communicate at that time. it was more dangerous. >> having a negative charisma to it. there was a narrative. it was flawed and pretty much every way. at least he was going somewhere. as a comedian who appreciates, this guy is a maniac. he is playing on everybody's ears and he really understands the dynamics of what makes an audience work. now, he is. we will give them a hook, get them out of here. >> but i agree. there is a sense, though, that there is still a referendum on whether or not president biden is. every bit in every possible that can be shown seems somehow newsworthy. if you are like this just in. trump is a lunatic. we know. >> today is his birthday, i believe. if he wins, he will become the oldest president in history in the course of his term and no one is talking about that. >> we are right now. it's on a social media post which is actually quite hyper. happy birthday, donald. we both know what is like to be old. it's not a factor. we can get on. don't we have to go back to this narrative that the business community wants to lean on right now because the same business leaders you are talking to want to say he is feeble, he is incapable. joe biden has a laundry list of policy accomplishments and we hear the policies that donald trump wants to put forward. when we hear this week wesley let's get rid of the u.s. tax system and replace it retires. that is disastrous. is all of this really just a business community hiding behind the fact with what they really want? which is to buy their way into the white house and have it in donald trump's office so they can get whatever they want and ensure they get ahead of the ftc that is not being a con is not a question what's happening in the world. >> i think it's a lot of that. i do not know two things where in the next six months. one is what are you what is going to happen to tariffs and in particular, all of these factories they have been building in mexico, like that, vietnam, to try to get away from china and if you believe what was saying right now, they're going to slap tariffs on those factories too. that's going to really hurt. the other big thing is that because almost everything trump is talking about right now is going to increase. >> republicans used to care about that. >> they did. in fact, it is scary how unskilled they are right now of the size of the debt that keeps expanding and expanding. >> i just want to add. i think that what the business community is thinking about whether it is conscious or not is what is scarier to us? what is more appealing to us? having access to the white house, are we airing it enough to believe that we can control donald trump which we tried to do when he was president before? do we think that i could possibly work again? or are we more afraid of the idea that we would 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 capital of society because we have rules we believe in courts, banquet, order. that is what made america a great place to do business. if you have a president is going to come in and say i do not like these rules. if a company makes me upset, desantis and disney put on a bigger scale, that is also scary. if you are looking at ceos, guys like, i think they are. are we more afraid of what could happen or are we more tantalized for the opportunity to go in there and control the white house? >> they have no fears about things like abortion rights because none of those things are ever going to affect them. >> steve short is not getting an abortion anytime soon. >> anybody in the universe you could ever need one will be all set. >> we are seeing republicans that attach joe biden for his fitness. many of their attacks are made up. their latest attack has been that joe biden has politicized and weaponized the doj. that was a little argument around donald trump's conviction. in this we, of course, hunter biden is found guilty and joe biden has very clearly said he would not pardon his son. how start is this difference? how can republicans keep making this argument now that joe biden has really put it out there? >> the funny thing is that i was in a difficult decision to vote for joe biden the first time around but when people released that some of the transcripts of his messages back and forth with his son and they were like look at joe biden interacting. it was like a facebook messenger of his son in rehab. as soon as i read it i was like he is a fundamentally decent guy. the way he talks about his son publicly, the way he treats his son publicly is someone -- a parent of a child with addiction. >> has millions of his parents in this country. >> is one of the admiral things about them. i think it reflects on him really well. i think he handles it beautifully. it must be very difficult. >> republicans don't know what to do with that. they have that the doj is weaponized. they tried to dismiss the guilty verdict as they are just covering up the real biden family crimes that we have not found any real evidence of and cannot prove surely, this guilty conviction is really just a mastermind scheme to prevent us from learning the truth. they twist himself into the around this cognitive distance is really fascinating to watch. >> for four years, fox news has been where is hunter? and he stood there in a courtroom by his family and he has accepted his sentence. could this end up being -- i'm not saying a positive for president biden but to your point, is this an opportunity for america to see the importance of decency? >> the evangelicals react to this because if you believe in punishment and serving time and the redemption and forgiveness and family loyalty, this is actually behavior that the evangelical church would be applauding and uploading. >> a huge evangelical viewership. nobody is going anywhere. when we return, the supreme court makes another controversial decision on guns. >> two of the justices come under increased scrutiny yet again. later, president biden goes to hollywood. does star power actually get up the votes? when "the nightcap" in the 11th hour continues. do not go anywhere. anywhere. about botox®. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they even start. it's the #1 prescribed branded chronic migraine treatment. so far, more than 5 million botox® treatments have been given to over eight hundred and fifty thousand chronic migraine patients. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. in a survey, 92% of current users said they wish they'd talked to their doctor and started botox® sooner. so, ask your doctor if botox® is right for you. learn how abbvie could help you save on botox®. 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(roommate) i did. of this story really matters. the supreme court today struck down a ban on bump stocks that was put in place after the shooting in las vegas that left 58 people dead and over 400 wounded. okay. when you guys look at how the court's ruling, involving any of these cases on guns, it consistently comes down on the side of fewer restrictions. the epidemic from gun violence is a uniquely american problem. it is not gone away. it is only getting worse. where do we go from here in terms of stopping gun violence? it was one of the few things that you heard all sorts of americans say. this was at least something. it was a good idea. >> the fact that this court can even take something that happened during the trump administration to say no, completely unconstitutional. can try to pretend like the law is not written in such a way that these weapons of mass killing do not fall under the direct category of machine guns for it to be properly regulated. that is wild. and it was completely ideological split and i think that it just showcases how on these matters, there is no real debate amongst members. what is it that will allow for the least amount of restriction when it comes to guns and work backwards from there? >> it is an ideological split in two ways. one on guns but the other is on what kind of power that branch has. this is not the first decision and will not be the last where the supreme court weighs in on. what can an executive branch do? there remember the trump era was a decision by the justice department which initially said no, we cannot. we have to have congress. trump really wanted it. they found a way. for the supreme court does not like is the idea that presidents and their administrations can basically make laws executive orders and other things that they are saying no. who does that empower? it empowers congress, which theoretically is completely dysfunctional and. then, it really empowers the supreme court. the supreme court is giving itself a tremendous amount of power here in this ruling and were going to see it again and again. if you really want gun reform, you have to elect. >> there is so many voices telling us that elections are important and this is just another one. if you want to have one, you have to take away the power from the executive branch and it all comes down the legislation. >> it's not just, it's around environmental policy, financial policy, antitrust policy. >> so many errors right now, you are seeing essentially coming back from the agencies and back into supreme court. frankly, that is the really scary prospect if congress is unable to, as you say, do anything at all. >> do 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. >> feels like largely a bipartisan issue. >> the power has weakened. >> do you know what? if this is on checks and balances, yes. the answer to your question is yes. it's what the people want. it's what the trump administration want in the biden demons