Transcripts For MSNBC 2023 White House Correspondents Dinner 20240706

Daily shows roy wood jr. And before the speeches over the next couple of hours, were going to cover the biggest stories driving the week. Setting the stage for our coverage, and of course of this iconic d. C. Event. That also includes mike pence testifying before the special counsel reinjury, to e. Jean carroll trial, newly incriminating sound that could come up in the future lawsuits against fox, the firing of Tucker Carlson, the ethical lapses of Clarence Thomas, neil gorsuch, and the conservatives on the Supreme Court. But lets talk about some of the characters who are certain to play a prominent role at tonights event, perhaps in the remarks as well. This week President Biden officially kicked off his Reelection Campaign. In his First Campaign ad, biden cast himself as a warrior, fighting for the freedom of the American People. Part of the president strategy here is to frame the gop as a quote, extreme movements bent on overturning fair elections, restricting access to abortion, and undermining americas economic security. But, were already starting to see some familiar issues creep up for biden, his age, and his less than desirable polling numbers. Donald trump staring down a much different set of troubles though. This week the twice impeached, now indicted ex President Phone himself onew yor facing charges stemming from an alleged assault. That is from the 1990s. Writer e. Jean carroll allege that trump raped her in a Manhattan Department store. She is now suing him for battery and for defamation, after he claimed she made it up. Down in washington, trumps legal woes continue to mount, mike pence appeared this week before the federal grand jury, investigating Donald Trumps trumps troubles come on the eve of a possible Inflection Point in the 2024 gop primary. Sources tell nbc news that Florida Governor ron desantis is poised to join the race as soon as mid may. But desantis comes with his own legal baggage, this week disney sued ron desantis, accusing him of waging a quote Relentless Campaign to weaponize a Government Power over the company. Now, how all of this actually impacts the 2024 race is still to be determined, but this is sure. Roy wood junior has plenty of material to work with tonight. Cant wait to see what he says. Lets discuss this now with Michelle Goldberg, a columnist for the new New York Times and nbc political analyst, and really john fast a Special Correspondent of for vanity fair. Its great to have both of you with us to start off our special coverage of this dinner, tonight melia start with you. Before we get into the 2024 news, and theres a lot of it, give me your thoughts about tonights dinner. The importance of it, the significance of it, what are you hoping to hear and see from the speakers . Well, you know, i think that the most important thing that will happen tonight is that we will have some camaraderie between different people. Well have you know, people on the right, people on the left more you have those journalists speak to each other, and also well remind people about whats happened with evan, who has been im wearing a free evan button tonight because he is being held in a russian prison right now. So i do think more than ever, Press Freedom is a big issue and anything we can do to celebrate the free press is really important. Of course Evan Gershkovich is the Wall Street Journal reporter who covers for several weeks. Unjustly. According to the u. S. State department and to everyone else here in the media world. Michelle, what would you like to see at tonights Correspondents Dinner . To mollys point, it is a fun night, obviously the backdrop is often serious, its about the First Amendment, the right to be able to roast and make fun of people in power, including people in the media. But there is also the fun part of it. Ive always thought that the white house Correspondents Dinner is a little bit gross, you actually dont want to see this kind of Extreme Chemainus and coziness, i think, between the press and the politicians that theyre supposed to cover. That said, this is a bit of a rare time to normality in that it is no longer a president who talks about the press as the enemy of the people, there is at least some sort of common set of values and common humanity between the two groups, and then, i think people are going to be eagerly watching joe biden, because as you said, he is Just Announced his reelection, Chief Concern among people who wish the Democratic Party well, i guess and people who wish it will, is joe bidens age. It gives every single one of his public appearances an extra drama of whether or not he can be, when hes on, he could be. Great he can put those worries tibet. Like he did at the state of the union, like he did when he made that surprise visit to kyiv. But it also means that his stumbles gets attention as well. Yeah, we should know as we see live pictures of people arriving, including the White House Press secretary the president and the first lady have met with the family of Evan Gershkovich as well as the family of Brittney Griner. Well talk about that tonight, and obviously the importance of what has happened to them and others throughout the evening. But molly, lets pivot to some of the news from this week, and it has been quite a week of news. You know, lets start with a big announcement that joe biden is running for reelection, the focus of his First Campaign ad being what i think a lot of people anticipated it to be, freedom. You had a top democratic poll start telling new york magazine, freedom has been testing a very very strongly, pointing out that it was a major theme for democrats in 2022 and getting to the midterms to go their favor. And now it appeared to be a winning message. Is the president correct to make it a central focus of his Reelection Campaign . Are we still facing the same threat in 2024 as we did with donald trump in 2016 . I think this works really well for him. Remember, biden has had a number of really good elections. Hes had 2020, first he had the primary where he lost those two first primary states, and then went on and was able to sweep it, and then he won in 2020, he won in 2022 really, the party over delivered. Hes had good instincts, right . Like he said freedom you remember he said, im going to focus on freedom, im going to focus on democracy, and there was a lot of reporting, a lot of Opinion Pieces where people are saying thats ridiculous, dont do that, nobody cares about that, all anyone cares what is inflation. But it turned out that biden actually had very good political instincts, and it actually was true, and people did care about that. He really did over deliver in those primaries. So, i do think, look. I mean, it definitely ages an issue, but its not necessarily an issue if hes running against a 76yearold donald trump, or 77yearold donald trump. I think its much more of an issue if hes running against a desantis, who i think more and more were seeing he will not be running. Michelle biden who we know just arrived there into the hotel in washington d. C. With the first lady as well as Kamala Harris and the second gentleman, hes already won one of the endorsements of his former competitor, senator Bernie Sanders. I would say a pretty significant endorsement, because it represents a strong wing of the Democratic Party, the Progressive Left he is facing primary challenges, i wouldnt say serious, but challenges from robert f. Kennedy junior and Mary Williamson at this point. How much mind should the president be giving to his competition at this point . I dont think he has to worry about a Mary Williamson, or Robert Kennedy junior. I guess you have to worry if one of them decides to run a Third Party Campaign in the general, because its going to be such a close election, almost no matter what that either one of them could potentially act as a spoiler for the ballots. But, joe biden is going to be the nominee, and i think that the sanders endorsement is no accident. To go back to what molly said about instincts, one thing that hes been very very good i is bringing the party together. Its not punching the left, which is what moderate democrats in the past have but to make all parts of the party feel respected and heard, so that Bernie Sanders doesnt feel like hes selling out by endorsing joe biden, because the Bernie Sanders wing of the party has gotten a lot of this administration. Michelle, molly, stick around. Weve got a lot more to discuss throughout the course of the next several hours. Here of course as we mentioned, a live shot of the white house Correspondents Dinner getting underway in washington. As we mentioned, the president and the first lady have arrived, so to have the Vice President and her husband, the second gentleman. After the break, mike pence speaks with a grand jury investigating were going to break that down. Stay with. Us the white house has personnel changes, and then youre right oh theyre just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. There this administration is not sinking. 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Just this week, he had a federal appears court reject on all trumps attempt to block the enforcement of that order. Joining me now is the lead investigator for the house january 6th select committee. Its great to have you with us tim. If you had the chance to question mike pence, what would you have asked him about the days leading up to january 6th . We had a long outline prepared to go for an examination of the Vice President. He unfortunately did not want to cooperate with the select committee i would start with his lived experience on the day. Of january 6th itself he had a very heated Phone Conversation with the president that weve heard about secondhand but i would want to hear chapter and verse have that conversation ensued. Then i want to hear him talk about his harrowing experience at the capitol. He was evacuated from the senate floor, it was within 40 feet of rioters. He was making phone calls to try to get the National Guard deployed from a hiding place in the basement of the capital. Hes a real victim. I think jack smith wisely will develop that and hear about his minute to minute, tiktok account of what happened on january 6th. Do you think given how loyal he was to donald trump and how much he publicly defended the president , that he would give an honest account of what happened that day . Or an account that could potentially be damning to the former president , that he served, and was so loyal to, and continues to remain loyal to . Yes. Look, i think he, like a lot of other strong supporters of President Trump, did the right thing when there was a when democracy was sort of that issue. That all of the witnesses that the select committee Called Were Trump loyalists. They also did the right thing in the moment, when they were challenged before january 6th and on that day. Then again when they were questioned about a select committee. I have every reason to believe that mike pence will troll the truth when hes under oath in the grand jury. He will provide information that is very directly relevant, and frankly makes a criminal case against the former president even stronger. Speaking of that, obviously, you are the lead invested data for the january six committee. Famously tried to get pence to testify, as you said earlier. In some ways, is the special counsel investigation picking up where you left off . Yeah. In some ways, theyre going to get access to stuff that we didnt get. They have a hammer of sorts to compel testimony that congress doesnt have. And in a Criminal Grand Jury investigation, if there is a Privilege Assertion or rejection to a subpoena, that is immediately litigated by the chief judge of the district in which the grand jury sets. Then it goes immediately on a motion to stay the District Court order to the court of appeals. We didnt have the ability to move quickly through Privilege Assertions and adjudications. We had to go through a civil process. Which lawyers representing witnesses knew would take too long, because we were on a timeframe and we would expire. So jack smith, and his team, or wisely pushing back against meritless privilege searches. Judges are agreeing with them, and are forcing some witnesses that would not answer certain questions to go under oath. That ideally, for jack smith, gets him the extra five or 10 that we could not get. He will get. I think that likely makes the prospect of a criminal indictment even more likely. Do you get the sense that this investigation, and i know you dont have any inside information, maybe you do, but you get a sense that this investigation, based on what youre seeing in the public, is nearing an end . Usually, again, youre the expert here. Usually the principal players tend to be interviewed during the final stages of the probe, when they built the case from the bottom up. Yeah, yes, thats exactly right. I was a u. S. Attorney for years before i worked for the select committee. The prosecutorial playbook is, before you interview the most important witnesses, you want to interview everyone else to help inform the questions that you will frame to those important witnesses. Mike pences win is one. Hes arguably the most significant, most directly impacted player in all of this. And if they have now put him in the grand jury, that does suggest that the fact gathering portion of this investigation is nearing a conclusion. Then its just a matter of and evaluation of the possible charges, the drafting of an indictment, the consideration inside of the department, as to whether or not the criminal case will be brought. Tim heaphy, its a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time in and put. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Another live look at the Washington Hilton, after the break. We talk about e. Jean carroll testifying on the stand against donald trump. Dont go anywhere. Nywhere. Look at you, your hair is so white, they tried to punch me at a trump rally. Cool [laughter] cool [laughter weve stripped all over this mountain. I love it when he strips for me. I strip on sick days. Breathe right instantly relieves nighttime nasal congestion. Daytime, too. Helping you breathe easier for up to 12 hours. Breathe right. Strip on. The thought of getting screened for colon cancer made me queasy. But now ive found a way thats right for me. Feels more easy. My doc and i agreed. I pick the time. Todays a good day. I screened with cologuard and did it my way cologuard is a oneofa kind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for cologuard. 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Were going to discuss that in this segment. E. Jean carroll alleges that donald trump assaulted her in a Dressing Room at a new York Department store in the mid 1990s. She told jurors that the manhattan federal court, quote, i am here because trump raped me. Carol said on the stand that she hasnt had a romantic relationship or sex since the incident. Saying, through tears, quote, i found it impossible to believe that i could meet someone who is possible to even fall in love, or have dinner and smile. Carol, who first went public with her story in 2019 is suing trump for battery over the alleged rape, and for defamation over his claims that she lied about it. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and even denied having met carol. Its recently as this week he took to his Social Media Platform to call it all a scam and a witch hunt. More than 20 women have accused donald trump of Sexual Misconduct six the mid 70s, few of which have versus resulted in legal action. Trump denies all of the allegations made against him. My panel is back with me, and also joining the conversation is david henderson, civil rights attorney, former prosecutor, and a cnbc contributor. Michelle, ill start with you. Trumps lawyer in this case, joe tacopina, didnt hold back on thursday. He even pressed carroll about why she didnt scream to ask for help. What do you make of his line of questioning . Well, i mean, look, obviously this is why people dont come forward. This is likely why e. Jean carroll didnt come forward at the time. Including, by why someone like her wouldnt scream for help. Or expect to be believed. I also think theres this grotesque full circle here. Was in many ways a reaction to trumps election. You had all these women who are so angry, they felt so demeaned integrated that unable to affect the president ial situation, they looked around in their lives for injustice, sexual injustices that they maybe could correct. You have this huge outpouring of passion. That led e. Jean carroll to finally come forward. Now we are back to a place where she is being questioned as if metoo never happened. The same questions that inspired this movement in the first place. David, the federal judge in this case, judge lewis kaplan, called out trump for his social media posts on the case. Calling it a scam any witch hunt. Again, this came after the judge specifically told both parties to, quote, refrain from making any statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest. Does this go beyond offensive behavior to possible obstruction of justice, given the fact he was a former president , he still has a massive following, and people can read between the lines and see that is intimidation . A man, the basic answer is yes. It absolutely positively does. Part of the reason that President Trump does these types of things though, is because he understands how the legal system actually works and understands the low likelihood that there will be serious consequences for him. Especially compared to the possible outcome of this trial. Theres a bigger issue here than just talking about witnesses, and trying to intimidate people. It goes back to the question you asked that first. If you look at the statistics on how often women experience sexual violence, we know those people have come forward because the courts are being overrun with cases of women being assaulted. Behavior like this just makes it that much more difficult for people to come forward, because people have a hard time when its an average joe, let alone someone whos rich, powerful, and famous. And will use that platform specifically to try to prevent justice. So let me ask you, as a former prosecutor, how strong is e. Jean carrolls case . Thats always a difficult question to answer, because i have found that juries are very, very harsh on people who come forward to talk about having been sexually assaulted. You have to keep in mind, first, i will say, if it was my witness, i wouldve been proud of how she did on the stand. This case rarely turns on the Witness Testimony though. Or the person who experience Sexual Assault. Normally it turns on the ability of the lawyers to paint a full picture of everything that happened. With that respect, the other women who are going to come forward to support her testimony are critical. You just told the jury can understand the difference between how these cases work on tv, versus how they work in real life. Ill say this also, ayman. At work ive tried dozens of these cases, ive worked on hundreds, ive never had a case where someone screamed. I had cases where third parties intervene to help the person who is being assaulted. It just doesnt work that way in real life. Molly, joyce vance, a regular on the show, a friend of the show, wrote in an nbc oped, quote, the weakness here isnt in her story, it is our societys failure to protect victims of Sexual Assault from secondary victimization. I thought that was a very powerful and poignant summary of where this trial stands, and specifically, where e. Jean carroll fits in all of this. Yeah, i think thats absolutely true. Remember, e. Jean is, you know, shes a writer. Shes a public person. She has been on television. She is having a much easier time. She is much more prepared to testify than just a normal person who has never had to take this kind of public fire. I think its really kind of heartbreaking. There are so many allegations, and then we have e. Jean being treated like a criminal by joe tacopina. In just a really brutal crossexamination. I think that ultimately, again, we dont know what the jurys going to decide. But it was cruel, and it was misogyny stick. I think, you know, the reality is that there is a lot of misogyny in this case. Theres a lot of misogyny in supporting of multiple allegations. And saying it doesnt even matter. You see that with trump supporters, saying, that is sort of bakedin. Yeah, you know michelle, to both of those points that we heard, and to put a finer point on it, it is often the survivors who lose the most when they come forward with these stories. With their stories. Carroll says she was fired at her job from l magazine. She received floods of hate online, even to this day. She received a lot in the mail after she came forward with her story. She is still being victimized, even though she is the victim here. Right, thats one of the biggest myths, not just about this case, but about so many Sexual Assault victims. The idea that theres anything in it for you in coming forward, the idea that it is anyway helpful or beneficial for you, or that women do this because they want. God knows what people think what they want. There is such a cost for women who decide that they are going to come forward. Again, we see it over and over again. The me too movement, i thought, made some progress into creating Public Awareness of what women go through when they try to go public about a Sexual Assault allegation. But in a lot of ways, we are right back where we were. All right panel, surround weve got a lot more to discuss, one subject that is sure to come up at the white house Correspondents Dinner, you know it, Tucker Carlsons far. We have more on that. Next on that next by the looks of him, hes been roasting nonstop for the next past seven years. Historically, the president usually performs of the course once dinner, but i think for all of us when i say that he is down too much bombing this month. G this month. From big cities, to small towns, and on main streets across the us, youll find pnc bank. 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All right, youre looking at a live picture there at the Washington Hilton, were gonna bring in the best of the white house Correspondents Dinner once it gets underway. Of course, the big news this week, dividend might not have gone to trial, but the information that came out from the lawsuit has shaken the foundation of the network, as we saw this week, foxs top talent, Tucker Carlson, parted ways with a network. According to the New York Times, the Tipping Point for executives, well, it might have been private messages revealed during the dominion suit, Discovery Process that contained what the paper called quote, highly offensive and crude remarks by carlson. The Wall Street Journal reports that carlson even called a city near executive at the company, the sea word. I after former producer Abby Grossman filed a lawsuit against Tucker Carlson and other Network Executives accusing them of running quote a Work Environment that subjugate women based on vile, sexist stereotypes. Grossberg sat down with my colleague Nicole Wallace earlier this week to discuss those claims that she made in her lawsuit. Here she is detailing her very first day on carlsons team. There are literally pictures like this big of nancy pelosi in a bathing suit in europe plastered all over. There was even one of my Computer Screen for the temporary computer i had to use, and i had to take it down just to work. Within a few days i was called into justin office with Alex Mccaskill who is a senior producer as well, and asked if maria was having an affair with Kevin Mccarthy. It was just i was shocked. I couldnt even believe it, i was floored. Now fox has disputed all of Abby Grossbergs claims, and carlson has yet to publicly comment on the case. This week, the ex producer and her attorney also shared more damning recorded conversations that she saved during her time in the network, like this clip, in which ted cruz tells Fox Host Maria borrow his plot to steal the 2020 election days before january 6th. I think that the country deserves to have a credible assessments of these claims and what the evidence shows and the mechanism to try to force that is denying certification on the sixth. And after audio from that call was shared, whos pushback on twitter, writing at the phone call included statements that he repeated in public around the same time. Grossberg says that she has at least 90 recordings in total. My panel is back with me to discuss this and more. Michelle, ill get your thoughts. You know, this rip carlsons departure from fox, he had according to various outlets, the dominion case, Abby Grossberg lawsuits, those recordings, they all seem to play a large role in the Networks Decision to part ways. What do you think . I mean, to be honest, i still find this a little bit mysterious. The idea that somebody at fox news was shocked that Tucker Carlson is a vulgar misogynists. So, i still dont think that we know exactly what it was that caused them to take this move im very curious to see what else there was that might come out in the Abbey Grossberg lawsuit, i mean similarly, god bless Abe Grossberg for going public with the stuff, but at the same time, really, she was shocked to find misogyny on Tucker Carlsons show . There is there is also been reporting that Rupert Murdoch was upset about Tucker Carlsons of the january 6th insurgents, or the january 6th insurrectionists, but again, this is all been going on in plain sight for years and years, and im glad they finally decided that he was more trouble than hes worth. But, i still think its mysterious what it was that finally pushed them over the line. Yeah, and molly, im kind of with michelle in this one. It seems very odd given his comments that were made publicly that they would be very surprised by what was said at work. Certainly what grossberg it describes. Do you think that carlson is behind the scenes behavior were really a shock to Fox Executives . I dont know how they would be. I mean, hes the same guy on the air that he is behind the scenes. I mean, the misogyny is a feature, not a bog. So, i dont quite understand i dont think were getting the whole story, certainly there were redacted text we didnt see, i just think you should not take fox news at their word, as weve seen before. But remember, they did pay a lot of money because the bill oreilly settlements, and they were able to replace below really quite seamlessly, so i think its possible that the thinking was, we dont want to pay for any more lawsuits and we know that we can sub someone else out there. Remember the five had been doing quite well, so even though tucker was sort of the ratings getter, there were other shows that were starting to give him a run. So i do think that might have also been an issue. But again, i still think were getting the whole story. You know, david, lets talk with a lawsuits here. Certainly the grossberg lawsuit. She has two pending cases against fox, one for allegedly telling her to mislead the dominion lawyers, one for alleged gender discrimination. And lets talk about that second one for a moment. Her lawyer told Nicole Wallace that grossberg has a quote, uniquely strong case based on the evidence that has been collected. Based on what youve heard or seen, or read so far, what is your assessment of these cases . Ayman, ill go back to the fact that she said that shes got 90 recordings. Am i guess is she didnt Start Recording on day one. Those are just the recordings. They didnt say anything but the statements or the rest of the culture that theyre spreading their. My thought is that based on what weve seen so far, they realized hey, we have to shut this down as soon as we can, because heres the way that companies tend to look at these cases, and ive worked on a lot of these cases. It comes down to basic business decisions. Is it better to try to get this resolved early, because normally the fallout in terms the way things look cost more than a lawsuit costs. Were sitting here talking about someones statement that they made, and i think sometimes what happens is, youve got so many abusive statements being saint made so often, people become numb to how it looks, but litigation is storytelling. Trials are storytelling. Eventually someone stetson says, i dont think youll realize just how bad this looks on paper, and how bad its going to sound, and thats when people tend to resolve these matters. Ive gotta say, she knows that interview with Nicole Wallace was incredible. There was just bombshell after bombshell, she was very composed, her description revelations, michelle, that audio that she had, that some of which she shared with msnbc, i want to play you more of that. Here is senator ted cruz telling Maria Bartiromo during a January 2nd 2023 interview, a scheme to deny certification on january the 6th, and then set up an electoral commission. Watch. Who is deciding who gets inaugurated . It would be the results of that commission, and what they find and if they found credible evidence of fraud that undermines confidence in the electoral results, they would report on that. And look, cruz made similar comments or arguments in his public comments, but his new information shows us the, i would argue, the behind the scenes planning of this highly coordinated and choreographed coup. What do you make of his plan and the fact that folks at fox seem to be in on it . Well, i actually think that this in some ways seems a little bit exculpatory for bartiromo and the argument is that she was to really believe this stuff. You know, she is being spun in this way. She is being told that these ridiculous schemes have some sort of plausibility, and maybe shes goal enough to go at it with it. What i think is interesting is just the utter cynicism of ted cruz as he spins this out as a possibility. The idea that there is going to be some commission that is going to choose the next president . Its ludicrous. But i think he was really complicit in misleading fox and viewers of what is yeah, possible at that point. Doing it on social media and internally at fox. Michelle goldberg, molly don fast, david henderson, thanks to the three of you for starting off our special coverage tonight. Comedian roy wood jr. , says he plans to roast Clarence Thomas at the Correspondents Dinner tonight. After that were gonna get into the latest ethical lapses of the u. S. 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But theres new reporting from bloomberg that reveals the Supreme Court heard a 25 Million Dollar Copyright Case back in 2005, involving a firm called metric holdings ink, which was owned by parent company, Trammell Crow residential. The crow in that company name, you guessed it, it refers to harlan crow. Now, were learning the ethical lapses extend beyond Clarence Thomas. Political reports that a property neil gorsuch had been struggling to sell for years was bought by the Chief Executive of one of the countrys biggest law firms, greenberg trautwig, the sale went down just nine days after the Senate Confirmed gorsuchs Lifetime Appointment to the bench. That law firm has since been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the Supreme Court. Joining me now is noah bookbinder, the president and Chief Executive officer of crew, which is citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. And a formal federal corruption prosecutor. Noah, its great to have you with us. The hits keep on coming. We should first say that harlan pros Office Released a Statement Saying that the crow find the family at the time had a non controlled interest in Trammell Crow residential company. And that harlan crow had no knowledge of the case. I guess, my question is, even if that were true, just talk about how this and the Gorsuch Property Sale affect the courts credibility. Put things into perspective for us here. The Supreme Court decides some of the most important issues that affect americans every day. So, its really crucial that they avoid, even the appearance of conflicts of interest. In a case like this, and with the Clarence Thomas case, its almost hard to know where to begin. This was a situation where a justice at the Supreme Court was getting lavish vacations paid for, regularly, by the same person. That same person, this billionaire, harlan crow, purchased real estate from Clarence Thomas. Clarence thomass mother is still living there, rent free. None of this was disclosed to the American People. Its the kind of thing that is hard to imagine regular americans ever being in this position. So when they look at Clarence Thomas, you know, taking these gifts. Having these financial transactions, not disclosing them, its really hard for americans to have faith that the court is making decisions for the right reasons. The justices are not being influenced. Once you start getting into trying to explain it away by saying, well, this company that was involved in this case and was owned by the guy whos doing all these favors for Clarence Thomas, that guy doesnt have a controlling interest. And he didnt know about the case. It is so far beyond, you know, the place where it would affect how americans view the court, that its not where we would ever want to be Supreme Court justice. Yeah, i feel like theyre trying to get off on a technicality, so to speak. If he didnt know about it, but his former people involved in his form did. It seems like that is a technicality. And youre talking about the perception of ethics. I think about the Chief Justice in all of this, because, you know, were facing this i would argue a concerning pattern of these justices, conservative justices, making serious ethical lapses. And yet, you have the Chief Justice, john roberts, also a conservative, a man who has longer as someone who deeply cares about the legitimacy of the court. Saying, this week, declining an invitation to testify at the Senate Judiciary hearing on the Supreme Court ethics. Or trying to bring a little transparency to the court. What do you think is going on here . I think what chief Justice Roberts is essentially saying, is trust us. Weve got this under control. Hes saying that he doesnt need to come in and testify before the Senate Judiciary committee, which is trying to do a little oversight of the Supreme Court. Which essentially has nobody looking over it. Generally what the Supreme Court does is, if there are ethical issues, the justices are supposed to decide them for themselves. Theyre supposed to say, no, no, its okay, i didnt do anything wrong. I can keep doing what im doing. What chief Justice Roberts is saying, by declining to submit to any kind of oversight, and by the justices coming forward with this statement of, essentially, they sent to the Senate Judiciary committee a statement of their ethical principles. Which essentially just three states current rules and practices. Essentiaand says weve got this. These revelations involving Clarence Thomas, and the newest revelations involving justice gorsuch, showed that they do not have this. That the Current System is not working. And there need to be roles. They need to be enforceable rules. There needs to be somebody doing oversight at this court. And right now, chief Justice Roberts doesnt seem to be getting that message. That is not going to restore credibility of this court in front of the American People. Yeah, i was gonna say, if the court wants to regain the trust of the american public, it is time for lawmakers to play hardball and try to bring some oversight to the court, if the court cannot do so itself. Noah bookbinder, its always a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time and your insights. I greatly appreciate it. Great to be here. President biden will be speaking at the white house Correspondents Dinner soon. Were gonna bring those comments to you live when they start. Our special coverage continues after a quick break. Er. Now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. And where its going. dock worker right on time. vo robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. foreman nice work. vo and retailers can get ahead of the Fashion Trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. With a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. 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Learn how abbvie could help you save. Good evening everyone and welcome to msnbcs special come tonight were gonna bring you remarks from president joe biden, and comedian roy wood jr. Live. There should be starting soon, so until the festivities get underway, let us discuss what is arguably the biggest fight on the hill this week. Something that is bound to come up into night speeches. And that is the debt limit. We are beginning to see the consequences of Kevin Mccarthys shaky win to the speakers capital. This week at the gop to house passed a bill to finally raised the long contested debt ceiling, but republicans shouldnt be celebrating. It is a Messaging Bill that has no chance of ever making it into law. So, lets see what was inside this Messaging Bill. It is dubbed the limit save grow act, the bill would lift the federal boring limit by 1. 5 trillion dollars, or through march 31st. But it comes the long list of Trick Strings of talks. Federal discretionary spending. Killing joe Biden Student pet cancellation g joe Biden Student pe adding new Work Requirements for medicaid recipients, look, the list goes on and on and on. These radical measures would be catastrophic to millions of americans. The economy at large. This is not my take on it, that is according to a lot of economists. Slashing measures of bidens Inflation Reduction Act would Rollback Jobs that legislation created, it would weaken domestic supply chains, and ultimately it would raced household costs. But its also going to cause a lot of issues for republicans themselves. First of all, Kevin Mccarthy, he barely got the votes needed to actually get this bill through. And heres whats even worse about it. Were learning that he made conflicting promises to different factions of his party in order to get the job done. He told the concerned mainstream gop members to ignore the substance of the measure, and that it is simply a symbolic victory to get to the Negotiating Table with the president. And then of course, he turned around and promised the farright base that this bill is more of a floor than a ceiling, and that he will oppose any agreements that does not include all of the original provisions he promised. It is impossible to do these two things at the same time. You dont have to be a politician to know that. Democrats were surely want nothing to do with this hostage meeting Kevin Mccarthy could soon find himself in quite a bind with his own party. And sadly, the u. S. Economy is on the line. Joining me now is democratic congresswoman of minnesota, shes a member of the house budget committee. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. I want to get your reaction to Kevin Mccarthys moves here. Raising the debt ceiling is supposed to be a rudimentary process, and you said this bill would force families into economic depression. I want you expand on that for our viewers. Talk us through whats at stake if congress and President Biden do not come to an agreement soon. Well thank you eamonn for having me. I think there are two quick things that you alluded to that most americans should understand. One, we have an obligation to raise the debt ceiling because this ends up helping pay for the bills that we already oh, right . So its necessary for us to raise the debt ceiling. Weve done this over many years without having any Strings Attached to it. So republicans, including mccarthy himself, have agreed to it during the trump presidency, they have done so the last two years with the Biden Administration, so when the president says we are not negotiating on this, he has a right to do that. The second thing that people need to understand, is that when you say this is a Messaging Bill, there are a lot of Messaging Bills that people passed, and usually that is what the American People might want or might be of value to you. The substance should matter. The fact that he is saying we should ignore the substance in a Messaging Bill tells you just how dangerous that is. This is going to have a devastating impact for so many families. We know that there are a lot of families that have economic anxiety when it comes to things like scott having access to childcare, the cost of housing, the cost of food, veterans and that needs support, when we talk about cuts to discretionary spending, those are the programs that republicans have put forth to cut in there Messaging Bill. And now theyre trying to backtrack and say no, we are not messing with veterans benefits, no, were not taking food out of childrens mouth, we are not going to cause economic hardships for families. But, the details are in the pudding. We see the bill, everyone is talking about it, everyone can go and read what a 22 cut would actually mean, and how devastating that could be, and i just love the fact that they are going to be stuck in this place where theyre going to be strangled with their own words. So, i never want to ask you to speak on behalf of republicans, but certainly try to put your self in those shoes. What is their endgame here . Help us understand what you think theyre trying to do. Is it simply to play hostage with the American Economy, to write to try and rally their own Political Base . It is really hard to understand. We talk about them being the chaos caucus, the chaos conference, republicans often would like to have cultural wars instead of actually addressing the kind of Economic Issues that they might say they might be interested in addressing, and we see when we ask them for an actual plan, that people can work with. This is what they put in front of the American People. I dont understand why they want to hold the American Economy and the Global Economy hostage, by refusing to adjust to have a clean bill that raises the debt ceiling, and then come back and negotiate a budget when were having those budget conversations, which is often what you normally do. Mccarthy i think is struggling in what it means to be a leader, most of us knew that he was a coward and would try to give everybody whatever it is they were asking for because he doesnt have a backbone, he doesnt really have policy he is not known for having policy ideas that people can coalesce around. He is no nancy pelosi, so we are able to actually see him put that in front of the American People in a very chaotic and comedic way. Let me ask you politically here, in terms of how the democrats message against this chaos from republicans. The reports that your party is preparing perhaps to hammer republicans on the Campaign Trail over this legislation. Basically it using the same strategy that democrats used to drink 2018 midterms. You certainly made a recall, you had democrats going after swing see republicans who are pushing to re repeal obamacare and tax cuts that would affect millions of americans. Do you think that kind of play to pressure vulnerable republicans should work now . Certainly. We have republicans on the record that say they care about safety and this bill that they put forth, they jeopardize oil safety by cutting of the number of hours that could be available for regulations. They talk about caring about our children, and their safety, and the opportunities that could be afforded to them, but they are making sure that children dont have access to programs like snap or childcare, or even bell grants that are supposed to help vulnerable communities, low income communities, have access to higher education. These are people who are talking about the cost of living increasing and being unbearable for a lot of people, but theyre cutting a lot of the programs that help people with housing. They talk about caring about our veterans, they wrapped themselves around the flag, and theyre cutting benefits to veterans. Weve seen them do their little videos on tiktok and instagram, and facebook, talking about how no, were not doing this. But the American People can see it, because its actually in the bill that everyones talking about, and we have to make sure that again, we allow them to hang themselves with their words in their actions. Congress men, before you go, ive gotta ask you about tonight. Why are you not at the white house Correspondents Dinner . You and i are the only ones working to washington, it seems. I had a conflict. I was able to go last year, i had a blast, i look forward to going there in the coming years, but unfortunately, i was unable to make it. I had other commitments earlier tonights, and its fun to be here with you, i might check out the their loss is our game, congressman. Im so glad to have you on the show, we thank you for making time for us. Likewise, thank you for having me. Take care. Next, the terrible legacy of Tucker Carlson, plus we are keeping our eyes on the white house Correspondents Dinner and we will bring you the speech is the moment they begin. Dont go anywhere. Mister president , thank you for being here. Thank you for having me here. 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Whether it was spreading the great replacement theory, calling White Supremacy a hoax, or a sexist attack against prominent women of color like prominent women of color, like aoc. He poisoned the political discourse in this country, his undeniable influence, harmful as it maybe is not just limited to fox and its viewers, listen to what former producer happy grossberg told my colleague, Nicole Wallace, just this week. It was a combination of ratings and power and manipulating the audience. And manipulating also the political system. There was an aspect of, i can pick who the House Speaker is, i can pick who the press, the United States is, or the republican candidate is going to be. Tucker carlson helped shape the inner workings of the Republican Party, and many Congressional Republicans may not feel like they have lost a key ally, certainly a platform or a boys. As paul cain in the Washington Post put, said quote, not since the late radio host, Rush Limbaugh, and his ditto had scored to the top of conservative radio in the 1990s has one use personality held such sway on a congressional caucus. Lets bring in my next guest for this conversation, angela is the president for media matters, a progressive Watchdog Group that has covered Tucker Carlson for years. And kyle spencer, actor of raising them right, the untold story of americas ultraconservative youth movement, and its plot for power. It is great to have both of you with us. Put this in context for us, how good is his exit, not for fox, but for the broader Republican Party . This is the same person who House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy gave exclusive access to the unreleased january 6th footage, other politicians who are nervous about what ted cruz, or what Tucker Carlson was doing like ted cruz, and outside of donald trump i probably would say that hes the most influential conservative voice in this country. Completely. I think it is very important to understand that. It was just getting to the point where he was too big to fail. So when Russia Limbaugh died, it is worth keeping in mind that in 2022, it is the first election in a quarter century when Rush Limbaugh was not in the country. That is how significant he was, not just in the rightwing media landscape, but also because what that echoed shaver is able to do, which is shape policy, culture, day to the lives of people. It is so big. He tried to top that, he and fox news, what tucker did was that he stepped into it and he sort of pulled things from various factions of the rightwing media and he had that Agenda Setting power. You saw it play out time and again not just in getting Permission Structure is the things that used to be on the fringes and more mainstream like great replacement theory, but also setting narratives and messaging for the Republican Party in the lead up to the midterms in 2022 he gave this big thing in august saying that the message has got to be prime. You can see in realtime all of the ads from congressional candidates. Fox newss coverage increasing their coverage during that time period. After the election in 2022, everything started to reflect what tucker was advocating on his show. That is the power that is at stake here. We were just talking about his influence among politicians and the narrative. But you and i have spoken before about the rise of the young Ultra Conservative Movement in this country. How much influence did Tucker Carlson have with those Young Conservatives and what does it mean now for the movement over all of his voices not platformed on fox . Will he still reach them . Thank you so much for having me. Yes, Tucker Carlson is a very important part of the conservative, arch conservative ecosystem. He is one of the many faces of this body. This large multi tangible body. He has very close ties with Young Conservatives. Hes very tight with charlie curve. He is great friends with candace owens. What we see with him is that he has to set the stage for a lot of these younger actors. And really given them permission to be vitriolic and to be traumatizing in many ways to his viewers. Its important to understand that hes not alone actor. That the Conservative Movement is a Conservative Making Machine and hes been at the top of the heat but there are a bunch of celebrities that have been trained, funded, dressed, and coached. And they are ready to step in. Whether or not he is able to find another platform, he likely will, we are being overly optimistic. We think that Tucker Carlsons ending is the ending of these types of celebrities who spread a message. Which by the way is not just Tucker Carlsons message, the message he spreads, the chaos he spreads, the anger he spreads is integral to the Conservative Movement, the modern Conservative Movements activities. They have to have enraged people in order to push their agenda on two americans. Angela, speaking of the platform and where he goes next, and what he does, his competitors, foxes competitors and the right wing media, like the daily wire, former fox host, and the blaze, they suggested that theyd offered him a role on their networks. Reportedly approaching carlson for a deal. But is there any place that he can go where he would have the same level of influence . We saw what happened to folks like bill oreilly, and meghan kelly. Even after their exits from fox, they may have an audience but nowhere close to what they had at fox. Yeah. Tucker carlson cannot do anywhere else what he did with fox news. Because in made him powerful and influential, it wasnt just the time slot, it was the wraparound that fox news provided. The ability to operationalize that segment. That power into the Fox News Landscape and reverberate through the echo chamber. Even if you go somewhere as a bigger audience. Lets be real, he did have 3 million viewers. But the 15th largest radio host has like 1 million viewers. So viewership alone is not a reflection of power and influence when we are talking about the rightwing media. So you need that network to be able to implement an operation. He will have influence and be able to leapfrog some stuff into the larger conversation. Hes still asked destructive and a horrible voice. But his ability to marshal forces really, the only threat that could actually the only thing that he still has power over in the near future is going to be fox news itself. He could damage, fox sports about it. I was going to say i saw someone do the math with the millions of followers that he has all he needs 500,000 followers a month paying 5 a month to make 30 million a year. So if his motivation was money, he certainly has that. It may not be about money, and maybe about influence. Yeah, i could definitely see that. I can see his motivation being that. I would like to know what you think about tuckers eventual replacement at fox. Who do you think that might be . Do you think fox would want to rain in some of the worst aspects of his influence or do you worry whoever will replace him will be even more extreme based on the trend weve seen in the last several years . I think the person who will replace him will probably stay very much in his wheelhouse. The types of agendas that he pushess replacement theory, this idea that he shouldnt be in ukraine, the idea on tiktok, that is very important Talking Points for a very well funded Conservative Movement. The person that will take his place will continue to push those Talking Points. Those are similar, we hear those across the board. He is the one that sends this message and speaks of them in the most rage inducing way. But we have parties, we have actors all over the conservative tv, media sphere sending these very same messages. I suspect that they will find somebody who can continue to push the agenda. We always want to remember that Tucker Carlson is not alone entity. He works within a very important body of conservatives who are pushing an agenda and creating this kind of chaos and anger and resentment and victimhood feeling that he does it is very important and the next person replaces him will do the same thing because it is integral to the movement to have unsatisfied angry people because that is how they get to the pools. Angela, really quickly, we are almost out of time. What is the message that was sent to other people like sean hannity and Laura Ingraham . Because at the end of the day they are peddling so many of the same narratives of not different tones but seeing narratives that Tucker Carlson was. I think the message was at least for them, play ball, start being a team player. That used to be foxs number one rule that you do not attack or criticize inside of it. So it was get in line, and get on board with whatever the fox agenda is. I think that is keeping message. The other is that we can do anything that we want. There is not anybody here that is bigger than the boss and that is the murdaugh. I think that is a big takeaway for everyone and it will create a lot of uneasiness with fox right now. I will say what they saw is that the murdochs dont care if we hate them, they dont care if we think that they are liars, and they dont care if we think they are doing shoddy news. What they do not want to be humiliated by their employees and that is what Tucker Carlson did. He humiliated them and that is when they said you are out and you do not understand whos in charge here. A powerful point. Thank you to the both of you very much. Greatly appreciated. As we mentioned, President Biden officially announced his Reelection Bid this week. The correspondent dinner, our panel will debate his big 2024 announcement. Stay with us. These people have been so hard on you, which i dont get. Ever since youve come into Office Things are already looking up. Gas is up, rent is up, everything. 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From the Network America relies on. Alex mateo, hey hows business . Great. You know that loan has really worked wonders. Thats what u. S. Bank is for. And youre growing in california . Yup, socal, norcal. Monterey . All day. A branch in ventura . Thats for sureah. Atms in fresno . Fresyes. Encinitas . Yes, indeedus. Anaheim . Big time. More guacamole . Im on a rollay. How about you . Im just visiting. U. S. Bank. Ranked 1 in Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking in california by j. D. Power. That evening and welcome back in just a few minutes, President Biden, comedian roy wood junior going to speak at the white house Correspondents Dinner as we countdown to those remarks, we will take a look at one of the main stories that is bound to be a focus of tonights festivities. This week, President Biden made his Reelection Campaign official, in his first out, biden doubled down on his 2020 Campaign Theme declaring we are still in a battle for the soul of america. Here is how the New York Times, david brooks, framed the stakes of the next election. The contest between biden and trumpism is less democrat versus republican or liberal versus conservative than it is between and essentially moral vision and an essentially a moral one. A contest between decency and its opposite. Lets bring in my allstar panel that will be with me throughout the night, josh johnson, a Stand Up Comedian and writer for the daily show. Danielle moodie, host of the afc daily podcast, and cohost of the democracyish and the new abnormal and a former Speech Writer for president obama, and host of the show on sirius xm and msnbc. It is great of all four of you with us. I see that you are the only one dressed for the part tonight. Were you planning on going and didnt get a ticket like last year, or you didnt plan on going . Im using this to audition for fox news 8 pm open slot. Thats why im doing this. Im not even here for the white house Correspondents Dinner. Im just here to talk like Tucker Carlsen the entire time. No, i didnt get an invite back this year but i prefer to be with you on this great panel in this room right now. That is why im wearing the boat tie. I am happy to be here. We have connections at fox, will make sure that we get a copy of your audition tape. Before we get to the news, i do want to get to the correspondence there. What are you hoping to hear tonight . What is the tone of the message, or the precedent that the message the tone of the message that the president strikes tonight . I think you will hear something similar to what you heard last year from joe biden. He was a lot shorter than some other speakers had been. I think in any kind of speech, shorter is always better. So it is not a problem. I think youre going to want to, these things have a bit of a format. Going to start off with something that is more self deprecated, might get a couple of jobs and towards the middle or the end. He will make fun of some of the media personalities, maybe some of the celebrities that are there. But i think the other big thing that is so striking to me about joe biden just by rebutting the image that republicans are trying to paint is somebody who cannot do the job and doesnt know where he is half the time. He wins by just getting up there and having fun. So i think that is probably what we are going to see quite a bit of. All right, give me your comedic chops here. What are you looking forward with tonights dinner . You know, roy is fantastic. Roy is one of my favorite comedians. Hes absolutely incredible. I know hes going to be not only hilarious, but insightful. I do not want i know this is going to sound weird from a comedian, but i dont want biden to be too funny. Whenever you are like an actual elected official, and you are just cracking jokes hard, it does make everybody in the room nervous. You know what i mean . If somebody is like i have like yeah, a bit off putting. I was going to say, it must be tough when you are competing with people like president obama, who obviously has a very strong command. He used it to his advantage. We will get a bit more into this style. But let me get your take on some of the news here, ive got to ask you about how President Biden is framing his Reelection Bid as the battle of the soul for our nation. As i mentioned, david brooks made the case for it in this philosophical sense. Do you think that he will be a winning strategy, or do you think you need something your fresh, so to speak . I think President Bidens Announcement Video opens the very first images of the january 6th attack. I couldnt applaud that more. The gop wants to put that in the rearview mirror. This is the first attack since the war when the british attacked us. They have to own. In this is a gop attack. Recent polls showed 51 of republicans now being not as terrorism, but as an act of patriotism. Yes, half of the gop, more than half if you did in a positive light. It is freedom versus fascism. Now that theyve embraced violence that has become truly a fascist movement. I dont think that it is just maga anymore when you talk about freedom, north dakota on monday, the enacted a new ban on abortion. That is not the maga wing, that is a gop wing. Its like instead of saying here is my religion, i will jam it down your throat, and take your freedoms away. The entire gop wants to do that across the nation. The entire gop wants to ban books. The Compassion Versus Cruelty is very important. It is democracy versus a top rusty and i think that President Biden did a great job in that video and they will complete the job on policy. It is to protect our freedom, and we will get the job done on policy. Danielle, talk to me about the freedom messaging. It is a major theme in the ad, the gop long considering themselves as the party of freedom individual liberty, but as biden has pointed out, they are actually out the party that bans books, restricts with women can do with their bodies. They are the ones going after freedom of businesses, the Freedom Of Speech of businesses like in florida with ron desantis. What do you make of how democrats have flipped the script on republicans . Or is that the republicans own making . They need to do this more, because for the past several decades they have seated words like patriotism, and we see what theyve done with it. Theyve twisted it, and to make freedom look like something that is akin with Walking Around with an ar15, or being able to fire it off in your front yard. So i think that democrats right now, as we head into 2024 they need to claim these words that theyve allowed this party to take over and manipulate, and destroy, and demean. I think in that message that the president put out in his Reelection Campaign, it was very clear. This is what i stand for. We are about democracy, moving this country forward. Youre either on the side of, good or on the side of evil. Its very simple. Not to mention the party of Law And Order is now the party of trying to overthrow an election by force and violence. Panel, please stick around, we have a lot more to stick around. As we mentioned, the very latest evidence that americans are rejecting maga extremism. Here is a look at the Washington Hilton as we take a look at the white house Correspondents Dinner. No one is prouder to put this Birth Certificate matter to rest than donald. And that is because you can finally get back to focusing On The Issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing . What really happened in roswell . And where are biggie and tupac . Detect this living with hiv, i learned i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. Thats why i switched to dovato. 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We are Just Moments Away from the main event. President bidens remarks at the white house Correspondents Dinner and we are ready to bring them to you at the moment they begin. Until then, some new nbc news polling to share with you. It shows the spectacular unpopularity of Donald Trumps Maga Movement. Just 24 of americans have positive views of maga, 45 of you it negatively. Contrast that with the black lives Matter Movement which enjoys support from 38 of americans. And support for the Maga Movement is an even strong amongst republicans. Only 52 of selfdescribed gop voters do you maga positively. My panel is back with me. Daniel, i will take you first here. If support from the among republicans wasnt bad enough, the nbc news poll find that maga has only a 12 Paper Ability Rating among independent voters. That is critical if republicans want to win the white house, or even control of the senate in 2024. Considering this is trumps entire brand, and identity, what does it mean for them . And means that they are going to continue to steal elections. It means that they are going to do what they have been doing, which is go ahead and suppress the vote, as a way to be able to vote, to look for ways to kick people off of the voter registration. Theyve been in this movement that has been a policy driven insurrection for the last since the Insurrection We Saw on january 2021. Its been a Policy Insurrection that theyve been waging. Frankly theyve been winning in a lot of areas where you have seen policies turn around that allow people the ability to vote. Things like silencing, and banning womens reproductive rights, banning peoples voices, erasing history. This is what this republican armenia wants. So they do not really care, i dont think about independents and their voices. They dont really care because if they did they would put out policies that people actually want to vote for. What do you make of how trump has not taken over the Republican Party, and how democrats fight against that. Hes the guy who wants to fight trumpism, he feet a donald trump, but weve seen donald trump growing since 2020. I think the distinction between maga and the regular gop is now a false narrative. I think anyone who left the gops maga and the gop itself is an antidemocratic movement. Like daniel was saying, they are not going to change their policy. They are just going to change their tactics which is make it harder to vote for young people. They dont allow you to use college i. D. Because they know that younger people go towards democrats. Doing whatever they can to disenfranchise those. I think that the gop is all the same movement. It is rightwing, right national at its core, it is fascist at its core, it is antidemocratic, and i dont think that democrats should be making a big argument of how there are great republicans. I think that the good ones have left the party to be frank, there are a few left but they are along for the maga ride. Heres the thing, david. The Republican Party, which i agree with dina is in the longer the traditional Republican Party of our fathers and grandfathers, they still have a noticeably higher Approval Rating than the Maga Movement. 33 to 24 . I find that surprising because i think many people effectively view the two as this same thing nowadays. I think that many democrats, as dean pointed out, you maga and the Republican Party as the same thing. I think that there is a lot of good factual reasons for that. But in a different universe, i think there are a lot of republicans who use the distinction that they have in between maga and themselves as a way to say i do not like donald trump, i dont support who he is as a person, i think hes a terrible guy, but im going to vote for him. Ive talked to people like that and i end up saying if you really dislike him, one thing that you could do is not vote for him. But for some reason that connection doesnt quite get made. So i think despite the unpopularity of maga, i guess im a bit of a downer here. Democrat should take donald trump as a real threat to win the presidency. He has never been popular, people have always disliked his conduct, and somehow there has been a Critical Mass of americans who have overlooked it and he is either one next to the electoral college, or come very close. I wouldnt be surprised if it happens again in this election. It will be a tough fight. You have some in the gop suggesting that donald trump is his endless scandals, its unhinged rhetoric, they have forever doomed his electoral prospects. He only won last time because of the electoral college, not because of the popular vote. The former president s underlying ideas though, they still resonate with voters and you have got folks like ron desantis appearing to think a little bit this way. That trump is done, but trumpism is the future, and they will carry the mantle. Do you think its realistic . I do think that trumpism is becoming kind of like the rocky movie is where it is like, all right there is the first one, loses. Second one, winds. Then there is going to be this back and forth for quite a while. You are going to get all the way to trumpism where you are like, there is no way, come on, please. Hes so old. How . No one should be doing this. All right guys, stick around, we have a lot more to discuss. President biden, comedian roy wood junior are speaking soon at the Correspondents Dinner. Stay with us. Hillary will have to raise new sums of money. Shes going to get that money. Shes gonna get all of the money. If lawn care were easy, everyone would do it. As well as trugreen does it. Trugreens online tools help ensure your custom treatment works to deliver a greener, healthier lawn guaranteed. Its time to trust your experts at trugreen. Go online today all right, President Biden is set to take the stage and just a couple moments of the white house Correspondents Dinner. If we are talking 2024, we cannot let the hour go by without zeroing in on none other than ron desantis, his white house chances have taken a massive hit in just a couple of weeks. Less than a year after gop megadonor, can griffin, funded his Reelection Campaign to the tune of 5 million, hes already reportedly questioning whether to back him again. Another major desantis donor has chosen to put his Financial Support on hold, and to complete the trifecta, billionaire has ruled out any further donations accusing desantis of not returning his phone calls. Man brutal. We will bring back my panel. Danielle, one of those maga donors, i mentioned new york billionaire, told the washington examiner, why would i support somebody to become president of the United States that doesnt return my call . What do you make of these donors all pulling back within a couple weeks of each other right in the time if desantis needs to get into the race, needs to build momentum . I think when rhonda scent is made his trip to capitol hill he kind of showcase that he is not likable. A lot of the quote, unquote stars within the maga gop, they didnt want to have anything to do with him. I think ron desantis lives in this florida bubble where he only takes comments from people that he likes, he does not do oppositional breaths. So i dont think he is a likable person. Unfortunately, when it comes to the presidency, in order to get people to open up their wallets who need to be likable. I think that ron desantis is finding out that yeah, maybe he should do better. But the reality is we are still really early in this race and so he does have the opportunity to turn his room stick around. The day after he won reelection back in november the New York Post had desantis on their front page calling him the quote, future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nomination. Is the future looking more like the past at this point . And what do you hear about the dinner about desantis tonight . Its not looking great. I think the more that you dove into desantis, the more you realize hes not really a politician. He is a cultural crusader. He is someone who is an excellent like as a comedian i have to give him props for being an excellent troll. He doesnt really pass legislation that is improving the lives of people. He sort of fights demons and ghosts that dont really exist all to win political points with people that are going to dissipate before he even catches and on them. And my man eats like, apparently, i dont know, i wasnt there, but apparently he eats putting with his fingers. If someone does not mention that at the Correspondents Dinner, that is so insane. That sounds like what the two oldest candidate should be doing and this is what my man is doing. Ive got to say that i did see some putting being served at the white house Correspondents Dinner. I did catch a glimpse of that. I do have a feeling it could have been chocolate mousse, but we will see how it gets worked into the dinner tonight. Ive got to ask you about desantis trying to flex a bit of Foreign Policy chops. He was in israel this week, i guess that is something a governor who wants to become president in this country has to do or wants to do touting his idea on Foreign Policy. But as the Washington Post reports, he basically copied trumps approach, blasting the nuclear deal, praising the decision to move the u. S. Embassy to jerusalem, not demonstrating any nuance to what is happening there. Why would voters for desantis support him if hes just copying donald trump and offering nothing new . Why settle for some sort of off brand cola when you could just have a real coke . Hes like the article of the gop right now. Remember, the only thing i want to say is that there are billionaires that desantis is not calling them back. If you are a billionaire, and you call me, i will call you back. But is there a bigger issue here that there are billionaires deciding who they are going to throw their millions behind . Something so fundamentally wrong with our system, back to desantis, i dont see anyone going for a knock off. Ron desantiss best chance at donald trump not only gets indicted but gets thrown into a prison cell and is sitting there and maybe some people go, you know what . Adding 38 or 50 counts against you might not be a good luck going into the general election. Thats it. You have got to hope the democratic candidate that i love, like we are going to move on. The gop is like we are going to love this guy even more. That tells you a lot about the gop. If, it nbc news is reporting that desantiss donors unpopular also sounding the alarm saying that he is in sore need of a Strategy Change of his to have any chance of defeating trump for the nomination. Theyre basically getting tired of his obsession over culture wars, which he continues to double down on. Yeah, i think the problem with this is that you can take up the advisers but the fish rots from the head. And i think the thing about desantis is that he is so obviously a dork, and hes obviously wanting us to think hes a jock. And i think that i was very strange, they are making a second dune movie. This is a great time to be and only has to do is own that. But i think instead, he has the weird top gun ad from before, and this is apparently working in florida but i just dont see this ultimately, he has to be comfortable in his own skin. I think that is just an important thing for any president ial candidate. And he seems so uncomfortable right now. Andidate and he seems so uncomfor all k around the big shoes about us or msnbc special coverage of the white house Correspondents Dinner continues after a quick break President Biden said to speak at the top of the hour, dont go anywhere. Anywhere. With flonase, allergies dont have to be scary. Spray Flonase Sensimist daily for nondrowsy, long lasting relief in a scentfree, gentle mist. psst psst flonase. All good. These are the camper scouts. Earning their eco badge. Theyre sharing this fedex electric vehicle and franks sustainable camping store with their global scout community. Good thing frank uses fedex to help him expand his reach and make earth a priority. Sam was 8 when we got him. 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Psst psst all good good evening everyone and welcome to msnbc special coverage of the white house Correspondents Dinner in just a few moments President Biden will take to the stage to speak, after that the daily shows roy junior will host privately everyone in the room. I want to say a lot of people, not in the room as well. At its heart the annual dinners about celebrating the First Amendment and honoring the journalists who hold our nations most powerful officials accountable. To the citizens who elected them, thats bring in my panel for the hour josh johnson to Stand Up Comedian and writer for the daily show, daniel moody host of the work of daily and cohost democracyish podcast is also the cohost of the new abnormal podcast. David laid a former Speech Writer for obama of series xm and msnbc daily communist and he hosts a replacement for Tucker Carlson on fox by the end of this hour. We will let you know if we get that call in from the control room. Thank you. I look forward to that, i wont be holding my breath but i look forward to that. Talk to me dean, you know thing it to about writing jokes thats what they tell me, what do you [laughter] it starts now and goes for the whole hour. I was there last year the ticket last year the advent President Biden was when he came out, like most president s made fun of himself which is really how you started this event, self deprecating, no one likes to, then you turn your target to others, and that the end he talked about the First Amendment, he made fun of trump he made fun of fox news, the look on a serious note in all those years donald trump wasnt there said something, that was a rejection of the idea that in america you can make fun of the president to their face, and i perform comedy and other nations where you can do that. Where your act is going to end, if you walk the leader of that country, or you will never be allowed back into that country, literally. Also important for President Biden to come back last year and he laughed, laughing at trevor noahs joke mocking him, had no problem with it, thats such a great thing. I expect to see that, a little less weaponization of comedy obama was the king of using comedy as a weapon he slayed people i think biden will be more of a mix of mocking himself, some people in the room. Ted lasso kind of way. Danielle, what is your take on the white house Correspondents Dinner, or talking to Michelle Goldberg earlier in the evening and she had an interesting take which she was a little bit uncomfortable with the chemainus of the nations media that is supposed to hold those powerful politicians to account in the same room being chummy with one another. I mean it is an interesting event right, at the core of it it is a celebration of the First Amendment, you are able to make jokes as dean said to the face of the president of the United States and you know that nothing is gonna happen to, you wont have conclude retribution right as donald trump loves to use that word but there is something that is off putting, i saw her earlier and i thought i agree with her because there is a revolving door that happens with the media and politicians, you want to be nice enough so that they want to come on your shows but you want to ask the tough question and there is a bit of give intake here, but i think it is an important event just to lift up the power of the media and the importance of the First Amendment. Josh, what are you most looking forward to tonight . Just watching roy, watching roy be funding watching so many people the thing thats so hard about shows like this is that not only is it not like a comedy club, this is a huge space, people have been creating some of the tables are turned around, its one of those things where you can be funny here, you are actually crushingit particular areas where you dont see a lot of comedy. Listen, josh, you worked with roy on the daily show what is the process alike take us to his mindset if you will on an evening like this. Just as a comic, as a professional and everything i think that he is sharp, he is always witty, hes an incredibly phony human being on top of his writing and everything so i think he has his plans and in mine and a beautiful notions towards what comedy does for people in a way good laugh brings people together and i think that we are lucky that we get to watch him. David the real, if you will toast of the night is the First Amendment as dean and danielle pointed out, but we are seeing Freedom Of Speech in this country slowly eroding i think when you start seeing books being banned, when you start seeing the kind of rhetoric that is being used against the media from the years of donald trump that it is the enemy of the state, we know that jurors in this country has been attacked, news organizations have been attack you look at what elon musk is doing with twitter, one can make the argument that the Freedom Of Speech in this country is eroding. Yes i think that is exactly right, the frightening thing right now, there are plenty of frightening things to choose right now, but one of them is the idea freedoms threads which is a bedrock principle of this countrys been flipped on its head and then weaponized, so you have people like rhonda scent is pretending to be a champagne of Freedom Of Speech would actually going after books that might include some subjects that either he disagrees with or just some dam random person at a pga disagrees with. Its not just that, you saw texas and North Carolina recently taking aim at their own University System of this is what makes america economically successful under the guise of freedom as you should fronted dismantled the very things that make us of prospers and successful country. So i think there is both the better the government cannot abridge speech but also this idea of what is speech for and are we tough enough, are we confident enough to have people say things that we dont agree with or have things that people that are rooted in facts and analysis every now and then. I know the crazy thought. The confidence that dean talked about the idea to sit there and someone makes fun of you, and trevor noah made fun of joe biden about inflation, and im sure that is something he didnt want to be reminded of at that moment, but you take, it you take the joke, that is important, it demonstrates a confidence in who we are that some of these thinner skinned politicians do not have. We have been given, as we say in washington, the two minute warning to the president speech, they have been running behind time not surprising, we expect the president to take to the podium in perhaps two minutes or under two minutes we will bring those comments live as he begins them. Danielle, i wanted you to weigh in on this conversation about Freedom Of Speech in this country i mean this if to say by any stretch of the imagination, by organizations that monitor it that freedom streets in this country is constantly under attack. I mean it is, we are the dangerous Inflection Point in this country right now where you cant look at what happened in his earlier today you cant even go down to your neighbors door and asked him not to be firing off an ar15 without being shot. There is our freedoms are being infringed upon in so many different ways and the idea that if it wasnt joe biden, donald trump had gone a second term if you are writing about him that he is threatening your organizations there are pipe bombs that were sent to people that donald trump doesnt like, there are a bomb threats called into media outlets, weve never seen things like this in this country since donald trump came down that escalator in 2016, so it is incredibly important, and to think about curriculums being changed, to think about University Tenure being withdrawn because of people exercising their free speech, so it begs the question what kind of country do the republicans want and that is the decision that they will have to make, that were gonna have to make as a country in 2024. Dean were talking about freedom we talked about earlier in the night but the truth is on the white house Correspondents Dinner supposed to be bipartisan, perhaps even nonpartisan as you mention its a celebration of one of americas founding principles but as you were saying earlier the Republican Party is no longer the party of freedom in this country. Know there is a time where republicans would say we want small governments and less regulation now theyve change they embrace as a party weaponization of government look at rhonda scent is, hes used the power of the government to punish disney for daring, for the executives daring to announcing the twotime elected democratic prosecutor because Andrew Warren said hes wont prosecute we have republicans in this role who are banning abortions, books, black history gays but they tell us theyre about freedom, is the ultimate gaslighting going on, its deeply dangerous and i i dont know how we reach people in the middle to make it clear that we are not saying this is a hyperbolic or to get clicks or to get attention this is a warning it is right and front of us the gop is telling us what they will do another using the power of government to do it. It is deeply concerning if you believe in freedom. Josh is a convenient and as a writer of want to get your thoughts on this from your Vantage Point in the riders room as a Stand Up Comedian do you ever have you ever in the last couple of Years Experience an erosion of freedom . How do you thread that needle between your constant desire to push boundaries, test the limits but also the debate items ranging on in this country . I mean, i agree with a lot of what the panelists saying especially as a comedian its terrifying the idea that Freedom Of Speech could be under attack because a Freedom Of Speech is under attack and will have a job and im frankly not good at anything else,. This is it it has to pan out, if its not this i dont know what ill be doing, it was trader joes performances, i enjoyed it, i had a great time but this is really fun. I hope to keep continue to do it. Is there anything off limits tonight, when you are speaking to this audience, josh, is there a joke that you would not do or is there a joke that you would intentionally do because it is that room . I think of the comedians you have spoken of who have done the oscar Ricky Gervais who makes a point of roasting hollywood to hollywoods face. I think this is your opportunity this is where you get to say whatever it is you want to say, whatever has been on your mind that i think it would be a waste not to do it, like i said earlier, ive been pulling for Something Like putting fingers on rhonda scent is in a long time, something ive been looking forward to if there was a pull to bed and i would put all my money on it, you know . Dean what a value as someone who writes jokes is there anything that is off limits for you tonight,. Also performed jokes eamonn, why do you demeaning me, i am a Stand Up Comedian im just not a fulltime standup comedian. Yes i write and i tell jokes i just cant tell you seriously without bogota. This vote high is classy its appropriate i want you to know that. Eamonn, when you are in that room you know theyre somebody whos flipping through the channels and well see you in the boat tie and think you are watching fox on the science guy youre definitely not the science guy dont give yourself that much credit, buddy can i just have my audition working here, if you dont know roy junior goes his specials after tonight on youtube, he delivers these jokes that are pushing the envelope there about race and poverty he doesnt waver he is not working hard its just calm, very lax unassuming but he is making really great point and he is a lawyer areas, hes a phenomenal comedian i have the pleasure to introduce him a few times at my show. I think they are comics will write jokes intentionally, i was here when Michelle Wulf was there 2019, i think she wanted to do that i think she wants to push them to make them uncomfortable i think the best comedy is stuff that is funny but make sure uncomfortable roy can do that but he does not sue calmly its not at all trying he is smiling about being playful and a puppy dog about it but he is killing you at the same time. David, your thoughts on this is in a room like this is there anything that is off limits that you say . Actually, david im gonna put a pause on that the president is about to take the podium, lets listen in. Thank you pam for that introduction, let me stand a serious note, jill, camilla doug and i and the members of our administration are here to send a message that the country and quite frankly to the world, the free press is a pillar, the pillar of a free society. Not the enemy. Thomas jefferson wrote [applause] , if you were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government i should not hesitate to prefer the latter. To have to heavens parents bella, michael and sister daniel as ive told you in person we, not just me all stand with you. Everyone who has reported in russia to shed light on the darkness, that you all and skate from years ago, absolute courage. A handwritten letter to the president from his family he wrote i am not losing hope. In an interview they said one of the american qualities that we observed is to be optimistic. That is where we stand right now. To the entire family everyone in this hall stands with you. We are working every day to secure the release. Looking at opportunities and tools to bring him home, we keep the face. We also keep the faith for austin. Austin dies his mom is here tonight. She knows through several conversation conversations with me and my senior staff, we are not giving up. As i told you at this dinner last year, as i told you in the oval office you raised an incredible son, when he was a kid he was an evil scout a big brother. A porn protector a u. S. Marine three tours and a iraq and afghanistan, austin, austin was a future lawyer feel. As a consequence of austin showing the world the cost of war, he has been attained in syria for nearly 11 years. Its simply wrong, its outrageous and we are not ceasing our efforts to get him, find him, bring him home. Tonight. Tonight are messages this journalism is not a crime. Heaven and austin should be released immediately along with every other american that is wrongfully detained abroad. Paul whelan, he has been in russia for more than four years whose brave sister i met with and whose family has never quit fighting for paul and i promise you neither will i, and neither will this administration until we get him home. And there are other americans being held in iran, venezuela, their stories might not make headlines or hashtags but every day, every day there family looks at that empty chair at the kitchen table, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays without them, the pain of living in limbo in a sense is almost worse than the pain of losing a child and watching ive been and teacher, the stress of not knowing, the sorrow of uncertainty i want them in their families to know jill and i understand, we see them. They are not forgotten and i promise you i am working like help to get them home. As a nation we will never give up on hope, things can get better, things can turn, things can change. Tonight, unlike last year, Brittney Griner is here with her wife cheryl. Brittani, where are you, kid . Stand up, come on i love this woman. I love you, brittani. This time last year we were praying for you britney was hoping that you knew how hard we were fighting for your release. Its great to have you home and boy i cant wait to see you back on the court kid, remember your promise i get to bring my granddaughter to come and see you. Because of our unrelenting efforts weve brought home dozens of hostages and wrongful detainees detainees from wand, of venezuela, across the world. We are doing everything we can to prevent these cases from occurring in the first place. For example, the state department added the threat of the tension as a new risk indicator to his travel advisers, to go along with the threat of kidnapping, the war in america where the threats are highest abroad i also recently signed an executive order, increasing the consequences for criminal groups and terrorists who engage in the practice of treating human beings as bargaining chips, political pawns. Just two days ago mind michigan announced the first sanctions punishing individuals in russia, iran when we above all, across government, experts were working day and night to bring our fellow americans home, much of which as you all know, we can talk about concerned that it will backfire. My commitment, my commitment is to bring them home, just to know year commitment is to being the freest press and thats what we honor tonight. This is not hyperbole you make it possible you make it fossil for ordinary citizens to question authority and even to laugh at Authority Without fear or intimidation, thats what makes this nation strong, so tonight, let us show ourselves and the world are strength. Not just by the example of our power but the power of our example. Folks, i know a lot has changed in the press ive had a lot of conversations with a lot of you, this is not your fathers press room from 20 years ago. Im serious, you will know it better than i do, but still, it is absolutely consequential and essential after all i believe in the First Amendment not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it what . A lot of with this dinner sums up my first two years in office, ill talk for ten minutes ten zero questions and cheerfully walk away. Yes, i know i Just Announced my Reelection Campaign, some of you, some of you scooped it out and announced it in a video, but really we really all fought in your hearts that i blurted it out didnt you . Thats right and look, i get that age is completely a reasonable issue, its on everybodys mind, and everyone, by everyone i mean the New York Times, headline, bidens advanced age is a big issue trumps however is not, that was a new york time i apologize, i love that guy. I should do an interview with him you might think i dont like Rupert Murdoch, thats simply not true how can i does like a guy who makes me look like harry styles . Call me old, i call being seasoned, you sam ancient i say im wise, you see him over the hill, don lemon would say thats a man in his prime. Folks warner will be back here again proving i havent learned a dam thing, i want everybody to have fun tonight, but please be safe, if you find yourselves exist sorted and confused if youre drunk or your Marjorie Taylor greene. Thank you for hosting, i love and pr. Because they whisper in the mic like i do, but not everybody likes npr, elon musk tweeted that it should be defunded, the best way to make it go away its for elon musk to buy it. , thats more true than you think, anyway this dinner is one of the two great traditions in washington, the other one is underestimating me and camilla. The truth is, we really have a lot to be proud of vaccinated the nation transformed the economy, earned a story gladys later victories and midterm results both the job is in finish, i mean, it is finished for tucker olson, what are you moving about right now, you think that is not reasonable . Give me a break just give me a break, look like they say dont compare me to the almighty compared to the alternative we added 12 million jobs that is just counting the lawyers that defended the president , had ron desantis, i had ron desantis jokes ready but mickey mouse beat the hell out of me and got to it first, look, can be too rough on the guy, afters reelection as governor he was asked if he had a mandate, he said hill no im straight, im straight. Ill give you time to think that one through. Thats really good you got it . Yall keep saying that my proven rate is 42 but i think you dont know this, Kevin Mccarthy called me and said joe, what the health is your secret . Im not even kidding about that one. The speaker trying to claim a big win this week, but the last time the republic voted on something that hapless it took 15 tries. Now is good. , its great that cable news is here tonight msnbc, nbc universal. Fox news owned by dominion voting systems. Last year your favorite fox News Reporter werent able to attend because they were fully vaccinated and boosted, this year 7 Million Dollar settlement they are here because they couldnt say no to a free meal. And hell, id call fox honest, fair and truthful but then i could be sued for defamation. Its nothing compared to what they do to me. Look, i hope the Fox News Team finds its funny, my goal is to make them laugh as hard as cnn with the settlement, but then again cnn was like wow they actually have 700 and 87 million . Wow,. Folks i go where people are, the daily show, roy is a great guy, he once dubbed me the jayz of delaware, dont have that look on your face, you did,. Tonight he asked me to keep it short. Even offered me ten bucks if i kept it under ten minutes, thats a switch the president being offered hush money. Look im gonna leave the jokes to the pros, but let me conclude on a generally serious note was roy was born in birmingham, alabama he graduated from a great hbcu. He started in journalism to follow the footsteps of his father, during black History Month this year i hosted the screening of the movie teal, the story of emmett till and his mother is a story of a familys promise and loss and a nations reckoning with hate violence and abuse of power, the story that was seared in our memories, in our conscious that nations conscience when mrs. Till insisted that an open casket for her murdered and maimed 14yearold son be the means by which he was transported she said let the people see what i have seen, the reason we all saw what she saw was because of another hero in the story of the black press. Thats a fact,. Jet magazine, the chicago defenders, another black radio newspapers were unflinching and brave and making sure america saw what she saw. And i mean it,. , ida b. Wells, ida b. Wells one said and i quote the way to write wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon the wrongs, turn the light of truth upon the wrong that is the sacred view on my view, that sacred charge of the free press, and i mean that. Thats what someone we still miss so much, who we honor posthumously, gwen eiffel. She was among the very best and we talked about that the table, she moderated my first debate for Vice President and was a trusted voice for millions of americans, when understood the louder the noise the more it took all of us to cut to the noise to get to the truth. The truth matters. As i said last year at this dinner, a poison is running through our democracy, and parts of the extreme press, truth buried by lies and lies living honest truth, lies told for profit and power, lies of conspiracy and malice repeated over and over again, designed to generate a cycle of anger, hate and even violence, a cycle that emboldens history to be buried books to be banned. Children and families to be attacked by the state. And the rule of law and our rights and freedoms to be stripped away. Our elected representatives of the people are expelled from state houses for standing for the people. I made clear that we know in our bones and you know it to, our democracy remains at risk. Ive also made it clear, as ive seen throughout my life, it is within our power, each and every one of us to preserve our democracy. We can, we must, we will. Id like to make a toast, if i had a glass, my grandfather said if you ever make a toast without liquor you have to hold it in your left hand. Dont think im kidding, im not. Im probably the only irish of matt who hasnt had a drink in his life. Id like to make a toast, seriously, if this Inflection Point in history, let us commit we will be a nation that will embrace light over darkness, truth over lies, and finally, finally, finally restore the soul of the nation. Here here,. Here,. Ladies and gentlemen, can i give you that . Yes. Im going to turn us over to roy, roy the porn is yours, i will be fine with your jokes but i am not sure about breakthrough. Its all yours, zero. [applause] thank you mister president , i think. It is now my great pleasure to introduce the headliner for the night roy wood junior. He is a correspondent for the daily show who just had a killer week as guest host, but roy doesnt just play a fake journalist on tv, that degree from florida a m university isnt broadcast journalism and while pursuing comedy roy spent 13 years in morning radio in birmingham, alabama at the same station where his father a pioneering radio journalist once worked. With alford or ado lets give it up for roy wood junior. [applause] youll give it up for dark brandon im happy to be here, real quick mister president you left some of your classified documents over here, dont give them to him i will keep them in the safe place. Happy to be here though, happy to be here. Very happy to be here. Its a pleasure to be here amongst our countrys greatest leaders, distinguished media organizations both Property Brothers and dr. Fauci. If you see fauci take a picture with him that is your new booster shot. But you look good, ive been watching, looking around, you dress nice have the nice threads, jewelry glistening, looks like everybody had that settlement from fox news. Thats all i have to say about that, because im not going to have dominion on my as. I love dominion let me just say now my favorite voting machine is dominion voting machines. When i go to the polls i make sure it is a dominion machine that i use, if your election needs the truth put dominion in your booth im not going to get sued, there are three people you dont want to get sued, dominion, cardi b or gwyneth paltrow, you are going to lose. But i like to thank camera kyiv and the White House Correspondents Association for having me. Thank you. Im well aware that not everybody in this room knows why unless just address the elephant in the room, i know what it is half this room things im keen and thompson. Other half thinks im louis armstrong, President Biden thinks im the daddy on family matters. Nonetheless, im happy to be here at this event amongst government officials who speak to msnbc former government officials who work at msnbc and future government officials who currently work at msnbc, and often overlooked purpose of tonights dinner, serious business, the overlooked purpose of tonights dinner is to award scholarships to students who have shown great achievement in journalism, thats right. These brave young souls are the future of the industry, and i would like to stop right now and congratulate tonights top scholarship recipients, george santos. Oh yeah, george couldnt be here today hes auditioning for rupauls drag race. Thats my bad, hes a good look to you george, sashay away. Speaking of drag queens, kinley stop with the grooming stuff can you stop talking about that drag queens are not at a school to groom your kids. Stop and even if they were, most of them kids are going to get shot in schools, its not a problem. Dont grown past legislation. Do you think booze are going to bother me, im like Mitch Mcconnell i dont have so. Tumultuous time medial, we have layoffs everywhere. Buzzfeed news, npr axios Washington Post espn, paramount global right now is considering offers from tyler perry to purchase b. E. T. , thats all but it is out there these companies are so broke they are giving b. E. T. Backed black. Which by the way is not what we met when we said black people want reparations, we meant cash, and we will want it in Harriet Tubman 20. But tonight we are all unified and one thing and that is scandal. Scandals, the scandals have been devouring careers this year, the untouchable Tucker Carlson is out of a job, yes, some people celebrated. But the tucker staff i want you to know that i know what youre feeling i work at the daily show so i do have been blindsided by the sudden departure of the host of a fake news program. Tucker got called up, got caught up like duke from friendship, Text Messages that i dont know what bendable browsers about, watching a couple of times, they said its like bmx but for white people. Suggested is power for white people, no Tucker Carlsons power for white people, know thats white power, you know what, never mind, dont worry about that. We have to get tucker back on the air mister president because right now theyre millions of americans who dont know why they hate you. Fox claimed dominion conspired with the democrats to rig the election, the democrats should be flattered that they thought that yall were smart enough to rig an election. When its to be the world wolf. But its not over for you fox news you still have more bad news coming down the pipe thats smart voting machine is coming up, they are coming for you and they want more money than dominion let me sit right now my favorite voting machine is the smart mattered voting machine, if you want the truth put smartmatic in your booth, but i think its fair that we should give credit where credit is due Tucker Carlson is the first host to get fired from fox news for something that is only partially about how he treats women. Thats progress, he shattered the ceiling. Speaking of don lemon is out of a job. [laughter] don lemon, my dog, don lemon. Donna lemon released a Statement Saying he got fired from cnn. Then, cnn released a Statement Saying that they offered donna meeting. They had to part ways because don lemon cant even report a story about don lemon. [laughter] i still think that don deserves more, cnn. Its messed up. How fun is it that you work in the news and watch on the news that you got fired from the news. [laughter] not lemon is now the most obnoxious guy in the history of cnn. Thats not fair. Even Jeffrey Toobin is looking at don lemon, like [laughter] letting don go was the wrong move. You should not let him go, not this soon, cnn. Don was fine when yall he shouldve cut off his liquor. You dont fire your host after the first couple of scandals. Let the candles stack up. You need to get ratings. Yes, not lemon was a diva, and he said a couple of but thats a promotion at fox news. [laughter] but i ultimately understand why cnn did what they did. I get it. Its about morals. There should be no place on air for someone who speaks with wild disregard, and does not consider the blow back to their coworkers, or their company. Thankfully, cnn has taken steps in the right direction to get rid of don lemon, and theyve now given us a show to Charles Barkley. Charles barkleys cohost gayle king, we say good luck. I think its gonna be a good show. The whole show is gonna be Charles Barkley saying something crazy, and gayle king looking into the camera, Charles Charles [laughter] scandals. Thats what connects us. So many scandals. The king of scandals, president donald trump, just for a moment, can we just all acknowledge, can we just ill be honest and just say that the trump arrest didnt hit like we thought it was gonna hit. Were so desensitized to scandals that when trump arrested the trump arrest was a hot brownie that you make for hours. This doesnt feel like justice. Let me try one of the georgia arraignment thats got some kick to it. Fans followed to many trump scandals to keep up, keeping up with trump scandals like watching star wars movies. You gotta watch the third one to understand the first one, then you need to watch the second one because you have the fifth one. Trump is the only politician whose scandals got spinoffs on this nicholas. Disney plus. But the trump arrest made everybody question what they believe. You thought you lean one way politically, and then everybody started waffling with trump. They put republicans between a rock and a hard place. Donald trump got locked up, and for years, all ive been saying for years, weve gotta get tough on crime. Trump got arrested. We meant black crime [laughter] same thing with the liberals, too. Liberals are all confused that trump got arrested. We got to abolish prison, trump got arrested. Bring back [laughter] i dont know about yall, but for me, the easiest scandal to follow was the trump documents scandal. That was the one that was easy to follow. It was simple. It was supposed to be in the white house, that aint. In the media, yall do your jobs. Yall jumped on that story as soon as trump document story came down, everybody was down at maralago, reporting live about the documents. And then, we found out joe biden had documents, too, and it was like, oh, its not a big deal. [laughter] so, i got no documents. Mike pence had some documents. Oh, look, a chinese spy balloon. When you look at that . [laughter] [bell ringing] [applause] well done media. Happy to be here, very happy to be here. [laughter] if there is one person that could use a scandal, it is ron desantis. That boy is just running around just passing every controversial law he can think of, thinking thats gonna activate voters. Thats not how you activate voters in this country, ron. Everybody know how you do politics. This is america. We dont pass laws. You make the promise to voters, and then you dont do it. Thats what the great leaders in this room understand. You know how to make things not happen. The only thing ron desantis has done that i got to give him credit for, this boy got people riled up over stuff they cant understand. They dont know what Critical Race Theory is. Yet, these people riled up about something that they cant even define, like crypto, or nfts. Ask any republican that is anti crt, ask any republican trying to explain crt, they sound like a democrat trying to explain the charges against trump. [laughter] its bad everywhere we gotta stop it. We gotta stop it. We got the files. We got files. Well be right back. Im Rachel Maddow. I have filed. [laughter] Rachel Maddow get them files on i think republicans, yall would be surprised, if youll just be real about what crt is, youll be surprised some black folks might meet you halfway. But you gotta tell the truth. You cant lie to black people, call it what it is. Anti crt policies are an attack on black history and an attempt to erase the contributions of black people from the history. [applause] thats what it is. You are trying to erase black people, and a lot of black people wouldnt mind some of that erasure, as long as that black person is Clarence Thomas. [laughter] billionaire named harlan crow, flying glance thomas all over the world on unreported trips, like an Instagram Model taking class. To the maldives and the beaches, and paid for moms house, he paid for Clarence Thomass mamas house. I gotta give it up to billionaires. Billionaires, yall yall always come up with something new to buy. Like, just when you think of everything you could buy on earth, a billionaire would come up with a new thing. I would buy space rockets, he bought twitter. And he bought a Supreme Court justice. Do you understand how rich you have to be to buy a Supreme Court a black one, on top of that . There is only two in stock [laughter] and harlan crow owns half the inventory. [laughter] we can all see Clarence Thomas, but he belongs to billionaire harlan crow. And thats what an nfts. [laughter] [applause] [laughter] everybodys got some scandals, though. Despite the challenging time to live in, i look around this room and i sleepy pull that are hardworking. Many of you, i dont even think you should be working that hard. We should be inspired by the events and friends. They rioted when their retirement age went up two years to 64. They rioted because they didnt want to work until 64. Meanwhile, in america, we have an 80 year old man begging us for four more years of work. [laughter] [applause] begging, backing, begging. [applause] let me finish the job. Lets not a campaign slogan, thats a plea. Let me finish it let me finish it. [laughter] i do wish you the best of luck on the Campaign Trail, mister president. [laughter] youve got a lot of things that youre gonna have to navigate, a lot of hurdles. In fact, quite a few scandals. We know about the documents. We know about the laptops. But theres been no scandal more damaging in the scandal of, is joe biden awake . [laughter] say what you want about our president , but when he wakes up from that nap, work gets them. [laughter] he might infrastructure bill, student loan forgiveness, did we free britney griner, free britney griner. [laughter] but i think the most insulting scandal to fall to the feet of the Biden Administration was placed at the feet of our madam Vice President , the scandal of what does kamala do . Which is a disrespectful question. Thats a disrespectful question because nobody ever asked that question to the Vice President until a woman got the job. [applause] i dont know what mike pence did. The only thing i knew about mike pence is that hes really good at playing hide and seek at the capitol. [laughter] you gotta be crafty to catch mike pence and that capital building. He knew all the nooks and crannies. [laughter] dont put the camera on her on mike pence joke, dont do that. Theyre trying to set you up, madam Vice President. At the end of the day, as Vice President , the only thing you have to do is just be better than dick cheney. Thats the bottom, just be better than dick cheney. They made a documentary about dick cheney. Now, i dont know much about the job of Vice President , but i do know is they can make a documentary about your time as Vice President , you, Vice President , incorrectly. [laughter] and if the vps job is really just waiting to step in to save the country in case of emergency, then the job of Vice President is a perfect job for a black woman. Shouldnt be, but it is. And whatever you do accomplish, whatever you do accomplish, all youre gonna do is just give a man credit for. Anything you do, immigration stuff, get all this bank in, and youve got the internet down there, you are taking care of all this stuff, theyre just gonna give a man credit for what youve done. By the way, mister president , which of it being the first woman Vice President of color. I dont even know how you did that part. [applause] wonderful job. Happy to be here. [laughter] but, tonight, tonight is all about, yall. The journalists, the defenders of free speech, the people who showed through through the world through different mediums, through television, through print, through radio, through whatever china legacy on tiktok. [laughter] but the industry that covers all of these scandals isnt immune to some stuff. The issue of good media is that most people cant afford that. All the essential and fair no ones reporting is all stuck behind the paywall. People cant afford food, not healthy food, they cant afford an education. They cant afford to pay for the truth. You can buy conspiracy theory, but at least you can afford im gonna let you, alex jones and i understand that we have to put the stuff behind the pay wall because greeting the truth is important. People cant afford the truth, but you all can afford to go find the truth for free. The work we do is journalists is important. Its essential. Its dangerous. I was on the frontlines with black tunes in vietnam. I was in a south african right the civil war and rhodesia, and from zimbabwe, my father came back home and cofounded the action black network because they wanted to tell black stories. And American Urban Radio Networks now, theyve been doing it 50 years, and thats part of what my father wanted to build, you know . [applause] and i know it was hard because, you know, black that these love telling me when something was difficult. They were shooting at me, but i never dropped my tape recorder. My daddy tell war stories like brian williams. [laughter] all right, okay, lets hope they didnt laugh at some that journalism cause, that stretch with of the matter. It also calls the journalists, it can even cost to your freedom. I thought about the Wall Street Journal sitting in the russian president as we speak on espionage charges, which espionage charges, by the way, that is the foreign equivalent of saying someone the description. There are journalists imprisoned all over the world simply for doing their job. And we need to defend brave journalists. Most National Stories in this country at some point where first a local story. [applause] and those stories are championed by reporters and outlets that many of them have now folded. If we can figure out a way to pay local reporters, and as a country, were only left with that many more blind spots charlotte to where the bulls happening. [applause] you hear about all these newsrooms getting cuts, thats in every article being sent to me the last few months. The newsroom is getting cut, youre cutting people, youre cutting budgets, but you never hear about the multi Million Dollar executives would using their salaries. How do we fix this . I dont know. I am a comedian. Its not my job to have the solution, yall. But local reporting is very important. My mother is here tonight. [applause]