ruhle starts now. the biden campaign full on assault against donald trump. a new attack highlights his legal problems and calls them out is a convicted criminal. i speak with maryland governor wes moore. why he issued a pardon for giving thousands of marijuana convictions. the top doctor calls for tobacco style warning labels on social media. is urgent health alert as the 11th hour gets underway on this monday night. good monday evening once again. i am stephanie ruhle. we are 141 days away from the election and president biden's campaign is putting donald trump's criminal conviction and other legal problems front and center. >> in the courtroom, we see donald trump for who he is. he has been convicted of 34 felonies, found liable for sexual assault and committed financial fraud. joe biden has been working, lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share. this election is between a convicted criminal is only out for himself and a president who is fighting for your family. i am joe biden and i approve this message. >> that ad is part of a new $50 million push by the campaign. it could be a preview of how president biden will go after trump's criminal conviction in their first debate which is scheduled for just 10 days from now. the president is warning voters that if trump is elected, he could pick two more supreme court justices, and that would cement take conservative super majority on the highest court in the land for more than a generation. the warning came during a star- studded fundraiser in l.a. over the weekend and the president had plenty to say about the current state of the court. >> the idea that if he is reelected, he will appoint two more flags flying upside down -- i really mean it. >> could this be the scariest part of all of the? >> i think it is one of the scariest parts of it. the supreme court has never been as out of kilter as it is today. >> with that, let's get smarter with the help of arleta panel. my friend john allen is here. senior national politics report michelle's indoor and former new york prosecutors civil rights attorney charles coleman jr. this new ad is a lot more aggressive than what we have seen so far. why is a campaign making this choice and why now? >> i think there two messages that this campaign has to communicate. number 1, donald trump is unfit for the presidency. number 2, joe biden is working to get things done for the american public. that's their wording. it would be political malpractice for joe biden's campaign to leave donald trump's conviction on the table and not go after them. number 1, the biden base will be energized by that and it will get them excited. they have been waiting to see the candidate get a little tougher. and in order for joe biden to win over persuadable voters, he's going to have to make the case that donald trump's convictions in the criminal court and with the finding of liability for sexual assault or something independent voters make a decision on. it's not the only thing. the economy is number 1 according to voters of all categories and classes. this is part of the argument biden needs to sell to those persuadable voters that they do not want a convicted criminal in office. all the things he says in the ad and his campaign says are true but donald trump which makes it unusual for a political ad. >> yamiche comments titled character matters but donald trump's character has never mattered to any of his voters, not since that day he went down the escalator in trump tower. >> what is interesting is the biden campaign is trying to appeal to the persuadable voters. it's not about appealing to the people who were excited when donald trump came down the escalators and said a number of things that people found to be reprehensible about immigrants and other americans across the country. they are trying to get to the voters who are still looking at the race and saying i'm not sure how i will go with. psalm are so-called double heaters. people we have talked to who don't want to see a rematch. when you dig in with those voters, it comes down to, which do i like the least and is probably not the one i am pushing. you have president biden making the case about the economy not just the criminal convictions but talking about the idea that donald trump has been found liable for sexual assault and he had financial fraud in his background. tear at the character, not just the fact he's a -- will be a convicted felon when he is sentenced, but he has sold what they would consider to be the biden campaign/a businessman which is what you hear from voters who are interested in donald trump or who are undecided, donald trump is good with business. this is something i think to appeal to the people still on the fence even as we are getting closer to the election. >> i will make the correction for the. donald trump personally and professionally is not a good businessman. for certain business people, they believe he will provide them with policies that they like for their business. all of them know that he is not a successful business person. charles, you heard jimmy kimmel sat the end of that clip, this is the most important thing. he was talking about the supreme court where the president is urging people to understand that trump in a second term could choose two more supreme court justices that are conservative, giving them a super majority on the highest court in the land for a generation. can you help us understand what that would mean for our country? >> conservatives have figured out how to weaponize the supreme court and the judiciary to enact their agenda pretty much at every level. when you're talking about the heritage foundation project 2025 for example, the only way that has teeth, even if democrats seek to legislate against it is of the supreme court and other people on the bench will uphold that as law. if they will allow that to take place. when you talk about extending the already super majority of the conservatives on the supreme court, that's what that looks like. it becomes a weapon for the right to enact the agenda and remain ironclad regardless of what congress does. this is why it's so important. jimmy kimmel was right. what you are talking about is giving the teeth to the actual ideas, ideology of what we are seeing from the right and making it able to survive in a with his problematic. the supreme court tips further in a conservative way, we could be in big trouble. >> jon, the supreme court is not a kitchen table topic for most voters, but the impact of the supreme court that is that conservative for the foreseeable future is huge. how does the president get the american voter to understand at? >> this is an issue for the biden base. something i think those persuadable voters we have been talking about will pay less attention to. we heard hyperbole there from the president saying the supreme court is the most out of kilter it's ever been. we can think of some pretty terrible supreme court decisions whether dred scott and on and on. i think the president's point that whoever is elected president to have the opportunity to make one or more selections. we do not know what the future is for samuel alito or clarence thomas, both of them younger -- >> they will be fine. >> we don't know they will retire. we don't know if other justices could retire. it could be zero or could be nine. the point joe biden is making is salient with democratic voters which is they have seen what the supreme court has done since donald trump made his three appointments including the overturning of roe v. wade. many other decisions they don't like whether the bump stock ban mac that got overturned or you were talking about some pro- business decisions the court made. >> you did not cut me up. i interrupted you. one week from today is the second anniversary of the dobbs decision that obviously overturned roe. you have reporting on the biden campaign's plans on reproductive rights. what they will do going forward and what they will tell us. >> i got these exclusive details and the biden campaign leaning on this. going up into the dobbs anniversary and on that monday of the dobbs anniversary, we will see more than 30 evens across the country and battleground cities like detroit and philadelphia. they will have no it telling the personal stories of women who have had health crises related to abortion restrictions. they will hold in-person and online storytelling training. they will be reaching out to voters and volunteers and saying if you have a story where your life was put in danger or you have a striking thing that happened to you because of the abortion restriction, we want to hear from you and we want to train you how to talk to family members and communities about that issue. another thing we will hear is despite the fact that former president trump said let's leave abortion to the states but he said a bunch of other things. the biden campaign was if trump is elected he cannot be trusted and republicans will push for a national ban which is scary to a lot of people. i talked to a woman who had to leave the state of texas after the fetus she was carrying was had a birth defect. she is scared a federal ban could go into effect. her message will be to battleground states and women of feel like there's a in california or new york and she was hip trump is elected, you will not be saved because he could do something nationally. >> charles, let's go back to the supreme court. republican and byron donalds of florida is encouraging the supreme court to step in ski on trump's criminal conviction. can you explain to our audience into the congressman and former president trump into our viewers, that's not how any of this works. the supreme court does not tap in ski and fix this. >> i suppose there is possibly a reality that exists i can appreciate byron donalds going as hard as he can to become donald trump's vp pick but showing yourself as having no knowledge of how our actual government works is not the route i can support. this is not a starter anywhere. donald trump was convicted of criminal acts here in new york state in new york city in a local core. the supreme court is not just going to tap in this issue, absent a controversial question that deals with the constitution and has standing in a tree. none of those things are here. the parties have not appealed this to the supreme court. it would have to go through several appeals before it got to the supreme court. for anyone out there and wondering, this is not a partisan issue. jack smith tried to get the supreme court to jump the line earlier when we had conversations about the presidential immunity decision and the supreme court declined. that's not how it functions. this is not even something that generally speaking would fall under the purview of the supreme court absent an appeal which brought up an issue that would sit before them. again, while he may want to play nice with donald trump so he can gain favor to become as vp, none of this is how government functions and for him to be a member of the house of representatives and saying this is an embarrassment to government and how democracy is supposed to work. >> charles coleman, taking us to school. jon, something you mentioned a moment ago, we saw the court's impact one overruled the bump stock ban mac but you wrote that was always the plan of donald trump in the gun lobby. i think back to when he did something on bump stocks. so many said, maybe he's not beholden to the and orion something that could be good for most americans. explain this to us. >> it's important to go back to that moment. there was public outrage over the las vegas shooting and this device that allows a semiautomatic weapon to be converted into an automatic weapon or to fire like an automatic weapon. trump hat a choice and it was do-nothing and please the hard- core gun rights activists or to legislate in go through process that might've resulted not only in banning bump stocks permanently or for gun control legislation. every time i see a poll, the american public is in favor of more gun restrictions than we have and what trump chose was a third path. the one laid out by the national rifle association and what they said is use the atf to create a regulation that bans these bump stocks and the an array knew full well, in their statement they pointed to the question of does the semiautomatic rifle actually converted to an automatic rifle which clarence thomas cited in the majority opinion. they knew there was a good chance the supreme court, particularly one with more conservative justices on it would decide the bump stock ban by the executive branch through that regulation rather than legislation would get knocked down and that's what we saw happen. sometimes it takes a long time for a plant to come together but donald trump and the an array got it about seven years after the original tragedy. >> translation. trump was never going to stray from the an array. it's always great to see you all. a historic as pardon. governor moore is here to talk about his forgiveness of thousands of marijuana convictions. with just 10 days to go before the first presidential debate, we have no details on what to expect. the circus will not be coming to town. the 11th hour just getting underway. ing underway. the easiest ways to take better control of your diabetes. my blood sugar would suddenly spike or really go low out of nowhere. it was really scary. 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(announcer) dexcom g7 helps protect against highs and lows. call now! her uncle's unhappy. i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? 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. policymaking is powerful. if you look at the past, you see how policies have an intentionally deployed to hold back entire communities. we're talking about tools that have led to the mass incarceration of black men and boys. >> that right there is some very big news. maryland democratic governor wes moore this afternoon, he for gave 175,000 marijuana convictions in what is now the country's largest active clemency. governor moore joins me now. thank you for being here. this was a big decision. why did you do it and why now? >> because this is what fairness and justice looks like. we voted as a state that we would have a recreational cannabis market by over 70% that the state vote for this. over the past year and a half, we ruled out what many call the most not just equitable but the fairest cannabis rollout recreational cannabis rollout in the country where we have 174 new social equity licenses. new owners and distributors for this new market. i also know you cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if you do not deal with the consequences of criminalization. it is not fair and it does not work that we have a multibillion-dollar burgeoning industry around the country and we have people who cannot get student loans because of cannabis convictions. we have people who cannot get mortgages because of a misdemeanor cannabis conviction. i was with one person today, a gentleman who has a misdemeanor cannabis conviction from years ago who got a new job and fired on the second day because he could not pass a background check because he only thing he has on his record is a misdemeanor cannabis conviction. that is not fair. this was an important a not just for individuals and not just for families like his, but an important day for our state. a important to that says in maryland we do big things because we are not afraid to confront our past and not afraid to write our wrongs. this was an important statement. >> governor, let's talk about who gets convicted. a state report found in maryland, white people use marijuana more but black people are twice as likely to be arrested for it. how does over policing factor into this conversation? how does this happen? >> you know, i had handcuffs on my wrist when i was 11 years old because i grew up in communities that were over policed. we knew cannabis was used as a cudgel against particularly communities of color, black communities and it's not lost on anyone in the state of maryland that if you look at the 24 jurisdictions that makes up maryland, those 24, if you look at three of them, baltimore city, baltimore county, and prince george's county. three of the 24, those three made-up 50% of the cannabis convictions. three jurisdictions of 24. those three jurisdictions happen to be majority black and communities of color. this was not accidental what has happened. the truth is the war on drugs and how cannabis was used as a cudgel is something that has had disastrous impacts on communities of color for a very long time. if you want an economy that grows, if you want a gdp that floor issues, if you want a state that's competitive, have an economy that can be inclusive and the economy that is participatory and that means removing the barriers that stand in the way for people to be able to dissipate in the economy and that includes things like misdemeanor cannabis charges where people are held back for something that's no longer even a crime. these are the things people want to see from leaders. >> it's now legal in 24 states and the district of columbia. at this point, it's a widely accepted recreational drug. what do you say to the states i have not legalized it? why do you think they have not? >> i think for states i have not legalized it, i would say, listen to your people. listen to the people of your state. if you did what we did in maryland which is put it to the people, you will get a very similar reaction to what we got in our state were 70% of the state said we think they should be recreational. yes, we should decriminalize this because is no point in using resources nor law enforcement's time to be able to condemn nor arrest our way out of this larger challenge. i would say for the states that have not gone through this process, if you spend time and keep your ear to the ground and the center where the people are on this issue, you will get to a similar conclusion. we saw with the biden administration we recently the biden administration moved it from a schedule one to schedule three drug because it didn't make sense having cannabis in the same category as heroin and other synthetic drugs. it's not real or fair and i am proud the biden administration made a move on this and i'm hopeful other states can work to write these wrongs and make sure they are dealing with individuals who are dealing with these misdemeanor cannabis charges that shouldn't have to make every sentence a life sentence in the way we are addressing this. >> there's the argument that legalizing weed could offer a new source of tax revenue. you talked about the new licenses in the state. it was only one year ago you voted to legalize it in maryland but have you found these business opportunities have helped your economy? >> absolutely. i found not only has it been able to help the economy, it's been helpful in doing things like addressing the racial wealth gap. if you look at the racial wealth gap in maryland, the state of maryland had 8-1 when we came on board and we knew that was not because one group was working eigh