A special Labor Day edition. Enjoy the 5 00 p. M. Hour, ari. I was going to say, nicolle, it doesnt feel right being here 5 00 to 6 00. Doesnt feel right. But at least i got to see you. Yeah, have a great show. Its a great time. I was happy to come in early. Youre now here early. Its great to get to see more of you. Absolutely. And have a great rest of the Labor Day with you and yours. Welcome to the beat, everyone. Im ari melber. It is Labor Day but theres a lot going on in the world, on the campaign. The news doesnt stop. I can tell you Vice President harris is on the campaign trail. You see here the preparation with President Biden. Theyll be campaigning on this Labor Day holiday. We can also show you them arriving. This was moments ago. So were going to bring this event to you here in this 5 00 p. M. Eastern hour. As i mentioned, theres kamala i should say with the president. But i mentioned with my colleague Nicolle Wallace were here in the 5 00 p. M. Hour. Were going to bring you these two, the president and Vice President , campaigning together here, First Time since the dnc, big deal, were going to bring that to you live this hour. We think its about three to five minutes away if you want a rough estimate. Now, i can tell you harris was in detroit. She delivered a big speech surrounded by Union Leaders and tried to contrast her and the biden Administration Record with Donald Trump and hit the former president over his policies. So intends to pull us back, including back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize. He appointed Union Busters to the national labor Relations Board. [ boos ] and he supported socalled right to work laws. We fight for a future where every worker has the freedom to organize. [ cheers and applause ] and one Union Member spoke about project 2025 and its effect on union workers. Trump said he was going to protect our jobs and then lost nearly 300,000 jobs on his watch. With the project 2025 agenda it would give him power to go after the right to organize and it would try to dismantle our unions and then make life even more expensive for us. The race is also kicking into gear. We know the general election traditionally starts after Labor Day. This year quite different with a more recent nominee in Kamala Harris. But total it all up and you have just nine weeks till the actual election day. Early voting begins in some states as soon as september 20th. Thats minnesota and virginia. Ten days after that first trump debate. You can see everything coming down the pike. There are signs that trump is also still struggling to adjust to his new opponent and hes on defense over several issues. As the post puts it with little chance of improving his Standing Quote Trumping advisers say the only option is damaging hers. The bulk of Tv Spending by the campaigns and their allies were attacks on harris. It is a busy Labor Day start to the general election. Biden and harris coming out moments away, well bring you that, but we are joined now by vanity fairs Molly Jong Fast and professor of politics and journalist at morgan State U Jason johnson. Welcome to both of you. Jason, what do you see on this Labor Day . What i see is the democrats laboring across the country. You have obviously harris and Joe Biden are campaigning together. You have Tim Walz and his wife are in minnesota and wisconsin. You have Doug Emhoff down in virginia. But for some Reason Gonld Trump and j. D. Vance have no scheduled events on Labor Day. Seems like two campaigns going in very different directions on a key weekend that at least in Political Science terms is the real beginning of the campaign. And lolly, weve heard a lot about interviews. It is a tradition to have a sort of joint interview with a running mate. And the harriswalz campaign, their ticket did that heading into this weekend. Some people may have heard about it. It was with Dana Bash on cnn. Some may not have caught the whole thing. Were just going to play one part of it here, relatively new, where harris again hits this key theme about wanting to turn the page from trump. We have had in the former President Someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is diminishing the Character And Strength of who we are as americans. I think people are ready to turn the page on that. Molly, your thoughts, a, on sort of the down the middle i dont want to say Centrist But Sort of traditional Campaigning Messaging she was doing in that interview, number one. And number two, what weve learned since then is that it on the channel that it aired, a competitor, full disclosure, whatever, fine, they had absolutely huge interest in the interview, which i mention as a political fact. They had more than quadrupled what would be the typical audience there. About 6 Million people. Which means just like we saw at the dnc there seems to be an awareness of when she and walz do things, people are checking it out at the very least. Whether they vote for them we dont know yet. Yeah. This is the really interesting thing about harris. She doesnt need to just run as antitrump. People are interested in her as her. And you see that from the money shes raised, from the volunteers, from the sort of army of people who are Voter Registration numbers are crazy. That these are proof shes actually popular as herself. And so what shes doing, which i think is very smart, is shes sticking to policy. For example, what were seeing with Labor Day, right . Donald trump has never been a Labor President , and many parts of the Republican Party have really organized against labor, like thinking of right to work laws. So you really do have a democrat democrats really can run on labor and run on unions and support for unions. And youll remember biden actually marched with the union. So this is a good way to sort of show not only to be antitrump but to show what harris can do. Jason. Yeah. Ive always thought the importance of that interview, to be perfectly candid, was more for the Acela Corridor Media elite than what actual voters care about. Because as molly said, the voters are hearing what they want to hear from harris because every time she and Tim Walz are on the air the ratingsing skyrocket. Theyre filling up stadiums. And thats not just about ego. Thats about men and women, young people, old people, all races, all colors and creeds saying hey, i am interested. And once somebodys interested selling them on your policy is much, much easier. I think whats going to be interesting going forward is what happens when harris does, say, a Press Conference with a bunch of random questions . I know shell be fine obviously because shes been sitting Vice President of the united states. But as she moves from the sort of insurgent new candidate into the traditional candidate over the last eight to nine weeks its going to be very interesting to see how that may change how specific her policies and how specifically her Policy Presentations get even as theyre still building at rallies, registering voters and quite frankly recently expanding the electoral map if they think they can win with. Yeah. And both of you mentioned sort of the context of Labor Day. Which is a day off for many americans. Not a day off for politics and the news. And the Trumpwalz Ticket Sort of taking a Back Seat. Harris not only campaigning but going out with President Biden. Its also a fitting day to look at what Donald Trump has said recently when hes talking to his sort of Billionaire Allies because him and musk got themselves sort of in trouble on their conversation recently in talking about labor crackdowns. Take a listen. I mean, i look at what you do, you walk in, you just say, you want to quit . They go on strike. I wont mention the name of the company. But they go on strike and you say thats okay, youre all gone. Youre all gone. So every one of you is gone. Jason, thats actually a kind of textbook violation, theres already been a complaint filed about it. Of course whether you can hold a company responsible for a politicians sort of unhelpful banter if you want to call it that remains to be seen. But i thought it was a fitting piece of sound here for Labor Day. What do you see there in that contrast . Jason. I mean, there is no greater contrast, there is no greater Water And Oil than a guy who came to prominence over the last 10 to 15 years by firing people. Labor day is supposed to be the day where we talk about labor getting together and organizing against corporate forces in order to give regular people more rights. The man became famous saying i dont care how good you did if i have some particular pique of the day i can get rid of you. And bragging about it and laughing about it with a person who is quite arguably for all the companies hes run the most famous acquisition he has recently theres ain person alive, not a Tech Reporter alive who will say hes run this company better. I think that shows how out of touch Donald Trump is. Maybe this was okaye was never the Popular Vote winner, maybe its okay to have this kind of brash obnoxious Antiworker Attitude in 2016. Its not where americans are now. Its not where postcovid americans are now. And it just shows that he doesnt really know how to connect with people. Maybe that works with elon musk. Its not going to work with somebody in the middle of michigan. And molly, we have in the corner of the screen the preview shot. Weve seen Biden And Harris arrive there. They havent of course yet taken the stage. Were going to bring people this live Labor Day rally. But im curious if you want to reflect on the politics of them rejoining. On the one hand by all accounts they have, Biden And Harris, a great Governing Relationship and she navigated the difficult period for the administration when there was the question about whether he would stay in the race or not. She navigated it, you know, with great aplomb. But politically you cant avoid the fact that the whole reason shes the nominee is that many people in the democratic party decided biden was not anymore the best possible choice for the future. Which is not to say that there wasnt a lot of thank you Joe Signs at the dnc or that there are states where he can be helpful. So im curious what you see here in what is fundamentally a political dance theyre doing as they come out Today And Campaign in certain places where its helpful while she still tries to strike her own identity. Yeah. I mean, look, we have seen before President S not endorse their Vice President s at great perl. Weve seen that happen and the candidates have lost. And what i think biden did which was really excellent was there was this Threeweek Period where he was sort of came to his own decision and then he was able to fully endorse her. And even when you would talk to people at the campaign they would say he says if you want to honor me make her win. And that is a really great message because remember, he didnt step down because he wasnt a good governor. I mean, he was good at governing but hes the oldest peshs to have ever run for president. Right . Hes 81 years old. And he couldnt do the campaign. And by The Way, now republicans have run on age and mental acuity. Well, now theyre running the oldest person to ever run for president. Which i think is pretty interesting. Yeah. That again is a big part of the shift. Molly and jason, i want to thank both of you. Let me tell folks whats coming up here as part of our special Labor Day programming. Ill be with you here over the course of these next two hours. We have the pittsburgh rally. And when they step on stage, the president and Vice President , well bring it to you live. We also have a lot of other stuff cooking. Kamala harris leaning into her prosecutor cred. Well have a breakdown on that. And Eric Holder. Wise words from him as we think about the campaign trail. Thats coming up. And by The End of the Hour Music Rock Star Phoebe bridgers on a team for womens rights in music and beyond. Thats coming up. Nd thats coming up hidden fees, surcharges. Who knows what to expect Turn Shipping to your advantage. Keep it simple. With clear, upfront pricing. With usps ground advantage. Instead of trying the latest Weight Loss Fad join over 5 Million people with usps ground advantage. 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Oo this is a good book title. When he was living in a what were watching there is senator casey, as we are taking in the politics of this Labor Day. President biden and Vice President harris will be speaking there in pittsburgh. We think i mentioned earlier could be a couple minutes, could be a few minutes longer than that based on the evolving speaking schedule. But when Biden And Harris speak we will bring it to you live. As for our special coverage right now we want to turn to how harris is leaning into her experience as a prosecutor and often trying to build the Campaign Theme of d. A. Versus defendant. Now i want to take you back to something that is newly interesting to a lot of people. In 2019 during the 2020 Campaign Cycle we went to philadelphia. A big important place in the politics of the Electoral College right now. And Kamala Harris spoke about criminal justice reform. With something different. Former inmates and people who have been in the incarcerated community and their Family Members. And we discussed how she said she wants to change a failed and broken system. The system is woefully inadequate in preparing incarcerated individuals to reenter society in any meaningful way other than subsistence living. Yeah. You did excellent work in california in making sure higher education was available in every prison. Mmhmm. What other things will you do as president to ensure that people can can get above that Razor Wire Ceiling that most of our reentry efforts limit them to . Yeah. And theres a lot to be done. But i will also connect it with what we need to do immediately when folks are released. Because weve got to not only ban the box, weve got to end the federal bans on federal support going to folks for everything from snap to College Loans and Student Loans to housing. All these bans make the education we can offer meaningless if when people come out they dont have access to the resources that help everybody else actual go on to those paths for employment and higher education. So within the incarcerated population there is its not only the work ive done in the past as you said around education and the partnership that needs to go into it. But also i truly Cannot Underemphasize enough the need for real resources going into mental health. And treatment. You know, i look at issues like childhood trauma. The number of children that we have growing up with trauma because lets be clear, poverty is traumainducing. Being exposed to violence is traumainducing. And when we dont have those interventions they normally lead to what we end up seeing in the incarcerated population. And we have not ever had any real intervention. And so if were going to help people get on their feet when they get out, that has to be a big part of it. In addition, it has to be about getting people on the pathway toward the jobs that need to be filled. And so that means having the education that is about getting that certificate and not just woodshop, im so sick of these programs that im just sick of it, honestly. Im sorry. But i mean, literally if you go you know, its about the quality. Its not just saying theres going to be training because we all know that training that usually happens in jails and prisons is nothing compared to the jobs that need to be filled and that pay enough for people to have a quality of