Nothing officially from the u. S. Government. We will continue to follow that story. Rachel, canoe around for a couple days. Thank you. Seven years ago our own chris hayes wrote much of conservative is a con and the movement is the marks. Now it is far more important than this. With trump at the top, it is the entire movement. This week former white house strategist steve bannon became the latest trump associate to be taken into custody when the chinese owned yacht on which he was sunbathing was boarded by agents. He gave tens of millions of dollars to a private fund which existed, bannon claimed to finance construction of the border wall. Federal prosecutors said that the real purpose of that fund called we build the wall was to cover the luxury lifestyle of bannon and the other departments. Now, depending on how you count it and in honor of conservatives, we shall count conservatively tonight. He is the seventh trump adviser to be arrested, face charges, plead guilty or be convicted of a crime since donald trump took office. The seventh. As the New York TimesMichelle Goldberg writes, quote, the truth is that we build the wall is what trumps private enterprise looks like, a gaudy scam that monetizes grievance. It is a scam that speaks to a much larger problem with the gop in its base. Conservative operatives view the rights rank and file with utter contempt as little more than a collection of fools to be taken advantage of. Con men see their marks. Msnbc steve bannon notes many prominent republican voices, newt gingrich, mike huckleby, et al, have created lucrative mailing lists used for highly dubious purposes. Existed mostly to pad the pockets of the consultants who ran them. It is not about their beliefs. It is about their bottom line, that while previous Republican Administration had their share of those trying to profit and those willing to break the law to serve the political interests of the president , the Trump Administration is unique. Look at another example just from this week. It was revealed that the Senate Intelligence committee made criminal referrals of donald trump jr. , jared kushner, steve bannon, eric prince and sam klovis to federal prosecutors in 2019, passing they long their suspicions that these trump linked officials may have misled the committee during their testimonies. The large number of people in district contact with this president often for years who are revealed to be out and out fraudsters or possible criminals just keeps growing. As former bush official writes, this level of criminality surrounding a president is unparalleled. The president was asked yesterday about the criminal syndicate of sort that hangs around him. Respectfully, sir, it is not just steve bannon. Its roger stone, michael cohen. Its rick gates, Paul Manafort, michael cohen. Whats it say about your judgment these are the kind of people you are affiliated with . Well, i have no idea. How did these people get into trumps inner circle . Trump has no idea. I should note we cutoff the sound bite because the president then went on into a lie about the obama administration. There is no need to amplify those lies. But trump made an effort to brand himself as the president of law and order. Look at the people he surrounds himself with. Look at him. Robert mueller detailed nearly a dozen potential instances of obstruction of justice by trump during the russia investigation. Trump paid 2 million in fines and closed his Family Foundation after admitting that it had used donations to pay campaign and business expenses, some personal expenses, too. The prosecutors in that case are still investigating trumps banking and tax conduct. Federal prosecutors in new york, the ones that bring charges that are bringing charges against steve bannon are looking at alleged fraud by trumps inaugural committee. Then there is the Manhattan District Attorney which is investigating trumps tax records. In fact, just breaking tonight a federal Appeals Court has refused to give trump immediate relief to stop his Accounting Records from being turned over to a new york state grand jury, instead scheduling arguments for september 1st over whether the subpoena of trumps records should be paused. Now, that filing followed an earlier ruling by u. S. District judge Victor Marrero who denied trumps request to put his decision dismissing the lawsuit on hold to allow the president s legal team time to appeal. Trumps associates are literal con men, grifters and base criminals. Trump himself is using the power of the presidency to block details about his own alleged criminal conduct from coming to light. The length, the breadth and the depth of this con is allconsuming. And that is what separates the trump world con from all the other conservative con jobs that came before. This con has consumed the Republican Party. Republicans dont stand up to trump. They dont stop him. They dont excomukt him. Their silence is a tacit acceptance of his con and the cons of his associates. A tacit acceptance their base conservatives can be duped again and again and again. The Republican Party is now becoming one big con, no longer representing conservative ideals or values but representing and defending one con man and the cons around him. Michelle goldberg writes the social philosopher eric haufer wrote that in america every Mass Movement ends up as a racket, a cult or a corporation. Trumpism reversed this. The racquet came first. Neil, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. This becomes hard to process after a while. The degree and depth of stuff, and then you have to read it on a whole new thing, we build the wall. Its not even complicated high level, highly sophisticated con stuff. They opened a page, a crowd funding page, took money, said they were going to spend it on the wall, didnt quite happen that way. Absolutely, ali. As i listened to you i was so glad you started the show this way about two things, con men and criminals because chris hayes was exactly right when he wrote that about what the Republican Party had become some years ago, really a con. And what the bannon episode shows is really that at its height. I mean, what bannon has done here is not a bug, its a feature of the modern Republican Party. Its the whole strategy to pretend, oh, this is for you. Were doing this for the American People. Were building this wall. Right. And meanwhile secretly theyre lining their pockets. And Hillary Clinton might have used the word deplorable, but its these folks who are really treating the American People as deplorables. So thats on the comment side. And on the lawlessness side absolutely, ali. So glad you quoted paul whos a very strong republican lawyer. Theres a culture of criminality around trump and his inner circle, and its not just, you know, steve bannon who was the president s chief strategist, Paul Manafort whos been jailed who was the president s campaign manager. Rick gates, his Deputy Campaign manager. It was roger stone, trumps close political confidant. It was michael cohen, his personal lawyer. I mean michael flynn, the president S National Security advisor. Its like who around the president hasnt been indicted at this point . Right. You say its not a bug, its a feature. In the beginning when these things would happened trump tried to throw them understand the bus. Now were on the seventh and eighth as you counted theres no space between the president and all of these people. Exactly. And jiem not sure ive named them all. I think there are others, and this week we really learned and you referred to this at the top of your show. The new york prosecutors both federal and state have been investigating trump personal because trump went and evidently tried to deduct his 100,000 in payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as a business expense. So federal prosecutors were investigating that as the state ones were. The federal prosecution after bill barr mysteriously disappeared, but the state one did not. And the president has been subpoenaed, and the Supreme Court said, yeah, mr. President , it looks like youve got to turn that information over. And just yesterday a federal judge in new york said, yeah, mr. President , youve got to turn that information over. And the president is trying through these desperate appeals today to try and stop that. But this is the rule of law asserting itself, had the genius of our founders, the state prosecutors coming and saying not so fast, you dont get to styly styly stymie us this time. We want this information and were going to get a court order to do it. The next election may solve this issue or it may not, but lawrence was talking with joe biden in may during a last word town hall in which a viewer asked joe biden as president how he would handle this. Lets listen to the exchange. From edward in ohio, and this is for Vice President biden. Sir, if you were to win the election would you be willing to commit to not pulling the president forward in giving donald trump a pardon under the pretense of healing the nation . In other words, are you willing to commit t the law . Absolutely, yes. I commit. Hes talking about not pulling a president forward. He wants a commitment that joe biden is going to pursue continue to pursue donald trump and his associates and his family and his businesses and his foundation. What does that look like to you . Well, i think Vice President biden is absolutely right to say nobody should be above the law, and hes also right to not commit in advance to some prosecutorial or non pros cueatorial strategy. The whole fault of trump is that he uses the Justice Department as his personal army to go after his enemies and to benefit his friends, doling out pardons and commutations and the like. And that is a sin. Anyone who worked at the Justice Department, that is the last thing you do. So when trump said lock her up and all that stuff in 2016 it was reprehensible, and im so glad to see Vice President biden who understands the traditions of our Justice Department, understands the american tradition of the rule of law not trying to pull those stunts. And yeah, you can probably get some votes that way, but i think people like biden understand the presidency is not worth that. We dont cheat that way. We dont like just diminish our great institutions by trying to tarnish them by saying were going to use this to go after our political enemies. I mean, thats what russia does, and thats why i suspect donald trump writes love letters to putin and came out this week wrote a love letter basically saying i so respect you, mr. Putin, and stuff like that. You know, thats not the way an american president should behave. I mentioned in the intro to this more reporting on the Senate Intelligence committee. Just want to are read you some of this. The Intelligence Committee reserved its harshest allegations for bannon and private security contractor eric prince saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators, a potential felony. Thats reporting from the washington post. So im trying to put this whole net together of corruption, lawlessness, grifters, conmen and liars. It all sort of blends together at some point. Yes, and i think there, ali, you buried the lead of that report. Because that was a report by the republican led Senate Intelligence committee, and it said donald trump knew and discussed those stolen democratic emails in the 2016 points, that he knew that had been discussed with the russians. And this committee rejected the idea whether trump said as he said to prosecutors i didnt remember my conversations with rau roger stone. They said, no, despite trumps recollection the committee assesses that trump did in fact speak with stone about wikileaks and members of his campaign about stones access to wikileaks. So it is a direct repudiation by the Senate RepublicanIntelligence Committee about trumps own story when it comes to the russians. Every time its about russia and trump there are lies. There are lies with stone, there are lies with trump, lies with flynn, person after person. And finally i think were starting to get to the bottom of it. That senate report, by the way, is 966 pages long. Steve bannon in typical form after being arrested came out and made a statement. Lets listen to it. Look, what i said yesterday this fiasco is a total political hit job. Im not going to back down. This is a political hit job. Everybody knows i love a fight. This was to stop and intimidate people that want to talk about the wall. This is to stop and intimidate people that have president trumps back on building the wall. Neal katyal, as a lawyer its not much of a defense. I didnt hear a defense, and i think if im steve bannon id be particularly worried because three others were indicted. And i suspect they will flip or someone will, and then the question is will bannon flip, and who will bannon flip on . His former boss perhaps. Neal, good to see you as always. A complicated block to get through with a lot of moving parts. Neal katyal, a former acting United States solicitorgeneral. Coming up, if youre feeling hopeful the system is working after that discussion, dont. At least not yet because none other than former president barack obama is warning democracy itself is on the ballot in this election and its your responsibility to fix it. Well talk about that next. It. Well talk about that next it cog for colon cancer, dont wait. Because when caught early, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of colon cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Im on it. Thats a step in the right direction. All right, we opened the show tonight talking about how checks and balances are however slowly and imperfectly still working. What happens if donald trump is reelected in 75 days, in the bill barr run Justice Department, in our federal courts, in the Supreme Court, if donald trump gets four more years of his nominees confirmed . That is what is at stake as laid out by many of the speakers at the Democratic National convention including a stark warning that has never, ever been uttered by a former president against an incumbent president. Let me be as honest and clear as i possibly can. Donald trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is. Donald trump hasnt grown into the job because he cant. And the consequences of that failure are severe. If we have any hope of ending this chaos we have got to vote for joe biden like our lives depend on it. Im also asking you to believe in your own ability to embrace your own responsibility as citizens, to make sure that the basic tenants of our democracy endure. Because thats whats at stake right now, our democracy. Joining us now is ben rhodes president obama. And ben, there were a lot of people speaking in the last few days who made part of that point that barack obama made and that is they cant actually stop you, you can actually vote. They can make it difficult, make you despondent, cast doubt on the whole thing, but what they cant actually do is stop you from voting. They can make it hard, but they cant do it. Thats right, ali. And the republican strategy, the donald trump strategy is to prevent people from voting, is to engage in the systematic Voter Suppression tactics that theyve used for years to try to make it harder for people of color to vote, people in poorer communities to vote. And now we have this unprecedented assault on the Postal Service. Part of what i think obamas do their best when theyre speaking is they tell you the truth of whats happening. I think everybody can sense on some level this is fundamentally undemocratic president seeking to change our democracy. And frankly no matter what cynicism or apathy trump is trying to engender in people dont listen to it and get out there and vote. How successful do you think the effort was to convey people to people the importance of their agency, their ability to make the decision, their ability to overcome any obstacles put in their way to vote . Well, i think that if you look at the convention, you know, having worked on several Democratic Conventions the entire convention is supposed to tell a story about in this case what is the problem with the person whos currently in the office. What are the stakes in the election, and why should you choose our candidate, in this case joe biden. And i think the campaign was incredibly successful in laying out in stark terms the stakes, but in a way people already know what the stakes are because theyre living through it with covid, and i think what Michelle Obama did so well with her line it is what it is she didnt have to go through the litany of trump scandals or the ten things people have been outraged of over the course of the last week. People know intuitively this guy is not up to it, and theyre living that reality right now. She laid it out and said it is what it is, you know it. What that extra step is convincing people dont succumb to the apathy, dont succumb to t