Hello, im down, jordan and doha, with a quick reminder, the top stories here on al jazeera ukraine says russia has attacked its main ports in odessa. Less than 24 hours off the 2 warring sides, signed a deal to release grain exports from ukraine. Southern ports keeps says its air Defense System shot down to marseilles, while 2 others hit the port. The kremlin denies the claims, but the u. S. Secretary of state is also blaming moscow, saying the attack cast doubt on how committed the russians are. 2 fridays deal. Adam fisher reports ah proven head until june, signed with just enters after moscow signed an agreement with keith till i was sensual greed shipments to leave odessa. The key black seat port came under fire. Ah, residents cleaning for the lights and cleanser smoke clearly visible across the city. The Ukrainian Military says to rush in caliber cruise missiles, hit buildings at the port, and its air defenses brought down to others by her no significant damage was close to the port infrastructure. The pump station was hey, caught fire in the fire was taken out in the attorney in foreign ministry, has called the attack caught a spit in the face of turkey. And the United Nations which helped broker the shipping agreement. While the president has condemned it. It said misled the whole young shaw this after turkey and the you and said yesterday that they know how to negotiate with russia and insure security. A green corridor for the export of ukrainian grain, and not even 24 hours had passed before the grain terminals. The territory of odessa and the ports were struck in russia was quick to deny the attack to turkey, who helped broken the deal less than 24 hours had passed since un secretary general. Antonio gutierrez praised the deal to open ukrainian ports to commercial food exports. As a beacon of hope, a deal to clear the way for the shipment of millions of tons of ukrainian green. Some russian exports of green and fertilizer held up by the war. Ukraine is one of the Worlds Largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower, oil. The rushes invasion and located its ports, halted shipments a hold on that is exposed countries around the world, especially in africa and the middle east to the threat of a food crisis. I think the other factor here is that there are a lot of the neighboring countries, asia, for example, which russia has fairly good relationships with. And thats, those are exactly the countries that have really been suffering from the increase in grain prices brought prices, things like that. So i dont think russia wants to make itself look like the bad guy on the block, emmy this week. Russia announced it was broadening the scope of its military operation in ukraine. That suggest piece is a long way off. What remains is the specter of a global food crisis that could cause unrest in other countries. Allen, fisher, ill just either ukraine. The World Health Organization has declared the monkey box outbreak, a Global Health emergency. Its the highest allergic, an issue. More than 16000 cases of the virus have been reported across more than 70 countries. We have an outbreak that has spread around the would rapidly through new mod itself, transmission about which we understand truly to and which meets the criteria in the International Health regulations. For all of these reasons, i have decided that the global monkey pox outbreak re presents a public cold emergency of international concern. The libyan governments facing more turmoil after 2 days of fighting between the arm groups and tripoli. At least 16 people were killed in clashes involving members of a special unit and the president ial guard into nicea hundreds of protest has rallied in the capital against mondays plan. Constitutional referendum. It gives president chi side more powers, remove some checks on his leadership, and reduces the role of the judiciary critics. Theres another step towards one man rule. International human Rights Groups are appealing to sri lanka, me, president rhonda wickham, a singer to order Security Forces to stop using force on protests. Hundreds of troops cleared their main protest camp on friday at times, violently shlang because in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades. But those were the headlines. The news continues here now just here after the bottom line station. Thanks for watching. Bye for now. Ah hi, im Steve Clements and i have a question. How can donald trump and trump ism still have a grip on so many americans, even as investigations, pain him as a leader who wanted himself to storm the u. S. Capital and stop the peaceful transfer of power. Lets get to the bottom line. Ah, this week the congressional hearings into the events of january, 6, 2021, wrap up their summer session. That was the day that hundreds of supporters of lumber president donald trump, stormed congress in a last ditch effort to prevent his own Vice President mike pence from certifying joe bidens election as President Biden had one. But that hadnt stopped trump from claiming that the election was stolen and from encouraging his supporters to fight to overturn the result till this day. There are millions of americans out there who insist that donald trump one. They still attend his political rallies across the country, and he still has a grip on the Republican Party. And he might even run for president again. But does all this mean that americans no longer believe in their own institutions and democratic processes . Doesnt matter anymore or is winning. The only thing that matters. Today were talking with a former republican political strategist who had a front row seat inside american politics for more than a decade. He is tim miller and hes just come out with a new book on his experiences. Why we did it a travelogue from the republican road to hell. Tim, thank you so much for joining us. I dont think theres a book on politics that ive read recently that reminds me more of george or wells animal form of people who feel self entitled to go in and really detach themselves from the outcomes of that you write in your book that 1st Line American never would have gotten into this mess if it werent for me and my friends tell us why. Thanks me, steve. The political culture in washington, but particularly in republican washington. Busy we would surely over the period about the 20 years that i write about became increasingly nihilistic increasingly focused only on winning over losing, increasingly unconcerned about, you know, maintaining the, our democratic norms about governing for all voters. Not just the people that voted for you and, and slowly over time i think theres nihilistic attitude. Both inflamed the base voters that we were that we are campaigning to and set the stage for somebody like donald trump, who was much better at all of this than the nerdy d, v political staffers to come and to channel the anger and the grievances of the Republican Voters and take over the party and thats exactly what he did. And i think that everything that we saw on january 6th could have been predicted, of course, in 2008 the, our actions, you know, over that 14 year period. You know, very much lead directly to it. Because we essentially created a republican electorate that, that decided that they believe that this was necessary because they were made to believe that their fellow americans were evil. And that winning was more important than, than protecting the american institutions the american way of life. You know, i want our audience to try to have a leap of faith here and understand something that you wrote in the beginning. The book is one of the most interesting beginnings because youre very interest. Spect, if youre very honest, your writing is very wrong and you talk about yourself in the ca, gray, you ran with as being political killers, that you were not really worried about principles or the health of democracy or, or, you know, who is the better candidate. You were out there to go for the juggler and to win, and i think thats an important dimension because i think as we talked you today and you are so reasonable and you come to a point of introspection in this, that usually people who come out of jail or recently indicted do like Michael Cohen or something, but i, i just want people to understand the, the, the real tension out there among some of the people youre writing about and about your own history. Yeah, i was, i like everyone gets into politics almost everyone with a little bit of earnestness. Right. I, you know, i bought in the young person, into the shining city on the hill, and can bis this god, the version of america, the republicans were selling and your individual liberty and importance of that and free people. So i got into politics with, with some earnestness, but very quickly, you know, in washington, if you want to succeed, you have to become good at the game. Politics are going to succeed on the power on the campaign side, which is where i came out and event and slowly, beneficially, very fast. You know, i determined that being a political hit man, being good at tearing down the left, being good at dropping, you know, negative pieces of information in the media. You know, being good at the way the ball and mark was more important than then actually telling the truth and, and actually getting candidates elected that were concerned about serving the public 1st. And so, you know, this was the culture that was created and it was, im just going to, i was pretty good. Pretty good at a weighty one line or right i was really going to delivering a negative attack. And, and so you just start to not think about it and think about the ramifications and i just have regrets about that. Because if you look at the politicians now, you know all of these things and i criticized about political cultural lead to trump is still true on steroids. You know, if youre a ted cruz or a Marjorie Taylor green, you know, you get more benefit from trolling and being mean and, and coming up with a funny tweet, you know, then you do from saying, okay, whats the solution that we can, we can get to you know, how can we alleviate peoples problems and, and you know, that is, i think the obvious endpoint of the culture that we created. So you go through the thing of talking to friends about why they werent able to see what you saw. And you believe that donald trump was deeply dangerous to the United States in his democracy. Im just interested, as you look at this, you know, and you talk to these friends what, what was going on in their mind . How have you organized them . What, why are they not where you are either hateful reasons, and i kind of lay out in the book, a little bit of a field guide all of their different rationalization. Some of them are, are defensible, i think of wrong. You know, there are people that decide that they know that its better to be on the inside billing side, right. Dodging things, the right direction. If i leave a crazy burden, going to replace me. You know, theres some people who are middle aged kids are going to college. I could miss my career. What else am i going to do . You know, how am i going to change my life . That its that easy. I think thats true. You know, then there are more selfish reasons, right . Obviously, money power. But the thing that surprised me the most, that i think was, was evident in my conversational caroline. We have 7 hours drinking tequila trying to get to the truth about this. And finally i just consider, is there anything that really drives you that is positive about the Trump Administration . And she thinks out of her 2nd and shes like, no, its really all negative. I just, im so sick of the liberals drive in their prius is and wagging their finger at me and drinking their coffee. A lot of other papers, straws and im thinking of this is crazy. I, you know, i dont like a paper straw, but who cares why, why you can vote for donald trump or this. But i think something that i just didnt realize is, is what i felt was this game with his performative. Were going to attack the democrats and say theyre socialists and evil. A lot of my colleagues internalized and really come to either believe it or use it as a justification for their actions. You know, there was one person interviewed who said to me, you know, tim, i just the way that the world left is that had their so crazy that left me no choice. But to go along with donald trump on just a few things that i agree with them on. I know that these dangers, i know that hes an idiot, but i have to do this because ive been, i felt like no choice that really, that is and thats a deeply broke in mindset and a concerning mindset. And i fear that, that it is much broader than i, than i had realized before. I start doing these interviews, im just interested in, you know, the question of whether or not youre documenting on, right, which is a kind of obsession which you call it in a slight going off. The tracks with donald trump is something you also see on the political left. I know thats not your job in this book, but you have a lot of experience with those on the left. Yeah, my friend liz smith has a book out right now. And so you can bring her on the left, she has the ability to the guys are but heres the, heres my assessment. Theres been some concerning similarities and some important differences on the similarities in this culture of demon ization that i talked about about how every day, you know, theres this complicit mutually beneficial relationship between political and media where every day you have to give something to me about oh here, the crazy thing the republicans did today are, heres the crazy thing, this, this random conservative preachers that in tennessee today, eventually, you know, you had that radical eyes and she bought radicalize his daughters and thinking that the old, the right is so evil that maybe we have to do anti democratic stuff in order to keep them out of power. I do worry a little bit about that happening on the left, obama to credit when he sort of emerged. You know, 8, it was really about unity. It was about racial unity, relatives, and boosted unity. I worry the next democratic obama would not be about unity, but would be about divisiveness, and, and the decker make the powder keg in our culture worse. So i worry about that a little bit less. I think theres some important differences. I think that liberal media is much more policy oriented and less orient around that. Weve kind of nihilistic trolling. Then you see and conservative media. I think that the democratic voting base is just different categorically is much more diverse, both regionally diverse, but also more diverse by education level experience. And i think that korea has created some antibodies among kind of the left coalition. That makes it less likely to say all in lock step, were going to go behind a strong man who wants to beat the other side. You know, because the people as that are part of the job i and goals and have much more you know, a diverse viewpoints. So i, so i think that theres some concerns. But some or differences want to show you this poll that we have. Its so my mom at the university and it kind of measures what americans think about whether or not they are political system is basically sound. And what a report says from 1980, that number is falling from, from basically america be, you know, thinking their system is basically sound from 62 percent. Then to about 36 percent. If you want to be generous today. And thats a staggering drop that thing. Overwhelmingly, most americans across all parties dont trust the system therein. And i guess my question is, youve been in this, is there anything that gives you hope that thats the number that can be turned around or are we, you know, basically, as you said on and ill stick course, no matter what, were still on the road to hell and the subtitle no, this is not an optimistic book. Really. It leaves people in that in a place that of negative i think i have a negative short term view of all this. I think it on the left, theres some legitimate concerns about the system. This is another key difference. Right now were dealing with what is essentially a tyranny of the minority where, where the republicans won the popular vote one time in the 21st century. And yet control the supreme court. You know, have a strangle hold on the senate because of the imbalance. And i think that a lot of democrats are becoming very frustrated with that system. I think for good reasons that on the republican side, you have the voters are being lied to. And being told that theres massive voter fraud. And i actually in sympathetic to the voters who continue to be told that theres the front that there are countries being stolen from them. What do you expect them to think . So in order to change this trajectory, that once we need Republican Leaders to be more responsible, stop lying to their own builders. And we need structural change in the way our democracy works to make people feel more more confident that it could, that it can. It works for them and its just hard to see either of those 2 happening in the short term, you know, maybe in the medium term, i think hopefully the a young, the younger generation. You know, these are the core animating features of their activism. But, but i think that were in for a little bit of a rocky road in the meantime. Im just interested in what made you so different to look at donald trump as someone you are not ready to sign on to. When nearly everyone else you worked with either got out of the business or became an acolyte of his. Yeah. All 2 things, i think the one, the big self criticism is i would have said to myself and 2012 is that you need to actually listen to the voters in republic and republican politics and what they care about, what theyre mad about. Because a lot of what youre doing is really compartmentalizing and youre, youre wanting the party to move to a place that you want it to go. But not that the voters want to go in order to mollify them. Youre feeding them, read, read about a bunch of b, s cultural or nonsense. And i think they had to party maybe tried to address their legitimate grievances about that forever. Wars for example, about, about their community thing. How it out because of trade. You know, maybe they would have turn to someone like trump is there felt like theyre being hurt, maybe not. But i think that thats something that was worth trying that we didnt do, you know, and then, and then when the party goes awry, right . When, when we get overthrown by people who demand that the, the culture war issues are put to the forefront. I think that the main thing that separated me from my, my colleagues is 2 things. One is, i just was too far over my personal lines. And i dont know exactly what was, what made me that way. Maybe my mother. But its just kinda too far over my personal lives. I think another part of that is being a gay person with a family. I think that my capacity for entity was greater than some of i. And so my colleagues, i think that like Donald Trumps cruelty really hit me in more of a personal place where they came from more of a place of privilege where more of a place of not that im not privilege but you know, did that they werent impacted by it in any, in any real way. And so it became easy burned to compartmentalize his, his cruelty because it didnt affect that didnt affect their families but only affected other people out there in the country. And. And so i think that, that i was in the hallway saved by the fact that i was gay and had that sort of broader view. You know, you name now aims. You talk to real people in this book and there are 3 women that you sort of tell stories about in this, and that you talk to elise, the phonic whos now very prominent member of congress, very big from supporter, didnt start out that way, you know, took on list jeannie and the role she had a list of farrah, warmer communications, direct to the white house work for mike pence, and also the secretary defense. And the 3rd is carolyn ren, who is also a big part of the trump operating machine, particularly in the finance area. Can you just in a short form, tell us about the journey of the 3 women, all of whom you knew for a considerable period of time that went through different somersaults and who they became. Yeah, so this shows you how little this is about policy and how much is that personal integrity and wound right. This book is alyssa barrel was the most conservative out of the 3 women by a wide margin. And you know, if you just look at the reviews of the policy checklist, but she was the one who said enough, you know, she went along with trump a little too far for my taste way too far too. I to be honest. But at, during the start to feel stuff before january 6, she quit and shes, and shes stuck with it and i can not support someone who is going to undermine or democracy like this. And so i kind of explore what was the difference and what are the difference between these 3 women and, and basically it comes down to the least define. It was just blinded by ambition, just extremely moderate. But she saw her path of how it was through trump, and that she could overthrow this chaney was much more conservative than her. You know, as long as she went along with these nonsense conspiracies. And so her friends who interviewed are like what happened to her and i, and i tell them its an uncomfortable truth. What happened to her is that is it is that she decided that she needed to live for power. And the power was more important to her than these other traits. Whereas alissa, you know, i think with able to kind of step back and have a broader view because she didnt have that same opportunity or the same interest that will be did. Shes able to see, i dont want my kids to judge me for being part of this term being complicit in this. And i care more about, you know, about doing the right thing that i do about one more rung up the ladder. And you know, i think caroline is a little bit in a different category because shes been really sucked in by the trunk cult and a lot of ways. And so i think the lesson from these 3 stories i try to get at is that in order to pull people away from trump, we have to talk to them about things that are not just a policy checklist. Its about these broader values and broader principles. Are there ways that we can, you know, look at our own integrity and look at our own choices and make choices that, that, that in the future arent as arent as dangerous. And i think this is the only kind of optimistic model that i present for that. And shes a really a start contracts from a lease. In particular, were right near the end of the leaf, this phase of the january 6 hearings. And if we learned anything from those hearings, in my view, it is that the distance between the present, the United States and what was going on amongst those protestors who rated and attacked us capital was neil that the president was actually storm the capital with them according to reports from, from those hearings. Im interested in what you think about this moment because i think the nightmare. Some people have is we can have all of this play out. We can see people who may have lied or, or fudge the truth. We may have had direct president ial and white house involved in helping to stir to this up. And to, you know, in the cases it could have led to the greater numbers of depths than we already had there. And the american, at least one big part of the American Public might not care. They may still want donald trump as the leader of this country. Im just interested in your thoughts on that. Yes, this is where we come back is a good leadership and choices do matter. I beg, history is contingent, is this stuff is not inevitable. And when you know were learning more from the january 6 committee, but it was clear in the downs complicit in this. Im in the 8 of january 6, Lindsey Graham admitted it, you know, Mitch Mcconnell admitted it. And so these guys had the courage to vote to convent in the senate on the 2nd impeachment. Then we wouldnt be here anymore. And right away the Republican Party would be in a better, better position. You know, they could have just been ready to move under ron de santis, or mike comes or whoever. And so i just think that this is such like what were learning just reveals these questions that are in the heart of projecting our democracy are about, about individual integrity, individual choices and, and separating ourselves from this really kind of debased like tribal culture, of washed in dc and recognizing that, you know, sometimes you have to take some short term Political Risk to do the right thing to make change. Look at what just happened in the u. K. How they over through boris johnson. That is what is required here. And the only people unfortunately can do it, or the Republican Leaders and i think to put this on, voters is wrong. Like a lot of a lot of the voters believe it. They believe january 6th. Theyve been lied to. And so we dont exactly know what they would think about our democracy. If leaders had stood up and done the right. Now, you know, remind our audience, you know, donald trump did tweet out on in mid december. Be there, you know, will be wild for knowledge. Essentially, or at least for stirring up of the the mix. But it just just raises this interesting question as we look forward to the solvency of the system as we look forward to the next thing. Is there a place in the Republican Party any more for people like yourself for this genie and adam kinsey or other people that were part of what you put together in the Lincoln Project with Steve Schmidt and others people. And i dont even know if youre still friends with the folks, but you helped drive at least a big portion of the never trump republican movement. Is that movement . Have any future or is it, has it fizzled out . Yeah. I did. Republican voters against trump, which is a different thing, i can project that, you know, product. Okay, were all allies in an effort to, to stop the algebra one. No, i dont. Right now i dont think theres a place that ever covers the Republican Party. Maybe there will be in the future for some, for some of us. But, you know, i left a party in november. I think that there is, has to be abroad pro Democracy Coalition right now that extends from people who are more to the left of us. And i think tell us have to be, are, are demonstrating that were willing to make sacrifices for that on various policy. Things that help people on the left are as well, you know, in order to deal with the grave threat. And, and i think that into my point about alyssa and elise, this is not about policy differences right now. Like this is about, are you willing to go along and continue humoring a madman who wanted to end our democracy in and put in place donald trump talk or see are you not . And if youre not than right now, even if you disagree with your maintenance and policies, your part of the joe biden coalition, and thats my view and, and maybe thatll change when down terms of the stage. I dont have a crystal ball that, that now for now, i just, i think it was genie and adam kids are the last stand. And unfortunately shes about to lose her primary and hes going to retire from congress. And unfortunately, we might have to fight the site again into in 2024. Trump runs again as it seems like he will. Well, tim miller, former republican strategist, an author of why we did it a travelogue from the republican road to hell, really appreciate your candor. And thanks for being with us today, steve. So whats the bottom line . American democracy is going through one of its strangest periods ever. Millions of americans simply dont believe the joe biden is the president. If you ask them for proof, they dont have any, but theyve got that gut feeling, conspiracies fly around, and no 2 americans can agree on anything, whether its immigration, abortion, sexuality, and identity. You name it, it doesnt even matter if the january 6 Commission Finds it, donald trump failed to uphold the constitution and was willing to do just about anything to stay in power. Folks have already made up their minds, end of discussion, and things are not going to get much better. The enablers that my guess talks about are ready for the next gravy train, whether its the trump train or any other populous candidate. The promise is to pull the country back from moderates and progressives in todays america, winning elections is whats important not uniting or healing the country way. Let me be clear that isnt the way things should be, but its where we are now. Americas democracy may be hanging on by only a few threads, and thats the bottom line ah. On counting the cost, once the Economic Impact of europe, extreme weather conditions and developing nations, getting the funds needed to make the transition to renewables across have returned to the skies. But is the demand for a new plane. On the rise, counting the cost on al jazeera, for half a century indigo, die is old by movable. What can i still . What did the last ticket . Yeah, and others in Northern Nigeria have watched helplessly as a business struggle and being cups. Dissipated cloth, making technology has changed over time, but not at this di petes yeah. Income and its the same thats met some of the products uncompetitive. The dumping of chemically treated fabrics. Yeah. Like in most african markets is a major source of concern for local producers. There is widespread concern but so even the few kids that remain also have to close bringing an end more than 500 years history. Ah