Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20190906

Ak47s, will have to sell them to the government. The proposal to curb gun violence being met with predictions of more violence. Youre talking about going and taking peoples guns away from them. There is going to be a lot of violence. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Where a hurricane goes is a matter of life or death. For those in the path, those who are just outside of it, almost nothing matter morse than that, and its a core function of government to figure out where disaster is likely to strike and to let its citizens know to protect and take care of people in the path of the storm. Peoples lives depend on it. Billions of dollars rest on it. The stakes here are as high as they can possibly be. Just ask the people in the bahamas right now how much it matters where the track of a storm goes. While dorian moves along the southeast coast and brings destruction and danger, the most powerful person in the country, whose job it is to protect americans is obsessively tweeting about, talking about in public and apparently in private doctoring images of something that happened last week to make himself look better. Obsessively, convulsively. I mean, if anyone did what the president is doing in your workplace, in your classroom, in your friend circle, you would say what the heck is wrong with you. What is wrong with you . It all started on sunday when the president tweeted that alabama was one of the states that will most likely be hit harder than anticipated. After that the National Weather service 20 minutes later corrected him, gently tweeting alabama will not see any impacts from dorian, which is an important fact for the people of alabama to know, and for the National Weather service to tell them. And since that moment the president has seemingly spent most of his time as the hurricane has moved through bahamas and up the coast and its affecting americans right now, trying to prove he was right. To the utterly ridiculous lengths of sitting in the oval office delivering what he called an update on the hurricane, not only showing a storm track from last week, but one that included a sharpie bubble falsely extending the hurricane track into alabama. And the thing is he is still not leaving it alone, tweeting about it repeatedly since then, and again, and again, and again, and again. None of which changes the fact that his tweet on sunday was typical spl wrong. Its not just that he made a mistake, he now has to try to alter reality of the world around to save face. He has to do something from suborning perjury from other people in the federal government to lie to us all collectively. Look, kevin mcaleenan, he is the acting head of the department of Homeland Security. Acting, of course, because so many folks managing this disaster acting, because patiently the president cant be bothered to nominate people for top government posts. Noaa, which is the National Oceanic and atmospheric administration, they will not respond to correct trumps alabama nonsense either. And just hours ago the president roped in his Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser into the whole lie. Rear admiral peter brown released this statement saying he briefed trump on the, quote, Spaghetti Models that showed possible impacts outside the cone of impact including alabama, yada, yada, yada, yada. My god, all for the president. This clearly deficient and unfit individual who is acting out his unfitness constantly in matters of genuine serious high stakes with and this is important no one reining him in. It was a year ago today that someone inside the administration had an idea to write an oped in the New York Times anonymously to say dont worry, folks. Were saving you from this guy. I dont know. Maybe there is stuff they have saved us from. But from the outside it doesnt look like anyone is saving us from this person. Hes acting in way that is unhindered by any restraint. Inside the white house theyre claiming theyre saving us while publicly there has been no republican lawmaker other than justin amash, now independent, not coincidentally, who has stud up against the president. Many are heading for exits, a dozen house members, not including two who decided to leave office before their term expired. Five retirements from texas alone. Three of the five in highly competitive districts. Just for good measure, one of those 14 retirements congresswoman susan brooks of indiana is the republican partys recruitment chief for house candidates heading into 2020. Whatever the stated reason for all those republican retirements, it sure doesnt look like they have much faith in republicans regaining power in the house next election. Theyre making the calculation that theyre staying in the minority. So with useless anonymous promises about who is saving us from this president and no republican lawmakers to really slow him down, the question remains, i guess, it falls to the democrats. And what are the democrats going to do to stop this madness when they come back next week . For more on that, im joined by congresswoman mary gay scanlon of pennsylvania. She is the vice chair of the house Judiciary Committee. She cowrote in july quote why were moving forward with impeachment. I want to put that to the side for a second. The question of impeachment which is constitutionally specified as requiring the president of high crimes and misdemeanors and just ask you the question how do you assess the president s fitness for his position, his fitness for the position as this hurricane is here in the u. S. And he is acting in this way . Well, i think it raise as question of his duty to the country, not to make up his own reality. Drawing a bone spur on the map of a hurricane doesnt make it any different than what the facts are. What is the plan when the House Democrats come back . Well, you know, we have been moving along a path of trying to get the underlying information from the Mueller Report. Nobody other than the attorney general and mr. Mueller and a couple of people in the white house have seen the entire Mueller Report yet. We havent seen most of the statements and underlying evidence there. So we have been pursuing, you know, over the course of the recess enforcing subpoenas to get that information and to get some of the witnesses in who weve been denied access to by the white house. So thats one prong of it. The other prong is looking at the allegations of what are potentially high crimes and misdemeanors. What is the time frame here . You know, were in a situation right now where its very apparent there is no one in the white house checking the president. I dont think hed be able to act like this if he were. We know of all the departures, the place is hollowed out. Theyre scraping the bottom of the barrel for staff. Everyone is acting. It does feel to a lot of people that we keep rolling the dice and getting lucky. There is some urgency here of making some kind of case about whether this is the person who should be constitutionally entrusted with taking care of the laws are faithfully executed. Sure. And thats, you know, where the Judiciary Committee and several of the other committees have been pressing forward. I mean we are dealing with a really unique situation here where we have an administration that has decided to throw the balance of powers between the three branches of government and all historic case law out the window. We have an administration who has said were not going to cooperate with congress. And in the past instead of having discussions about well, are you entitled to this document or that document or is there a rational basis for this, were being told were not going to show you anything. Is that unprecedented . Yes. Absolutely. I guess my question is what powers do you have other than resorting to the courts, right . You have the power of the purse, but you struck this deal to fund the government through the next election. You have no leverage on that whatsoever. He can tell you to go, you know, buzz off and redirect 3. 6 billion into building his wall, which you explicitly did not fund. What is your leverage to fulfill your constitutional role to stop him from doing these things . Well, i mean, thats where these investigations are proceeding. We have gone to the courts. He doesnt control everybody. I mean, hes got his enablers, who are still, you know, working with him. It really does feel quite extraordinary that, you know, we have so many people who are willing to say or not willing to say that the emperor has no clothes. I mean, you talked about some of the conduct that is just completely beyond the pale, and the fact that people in his administration and outside his Administration Still keep trying to justify what is completely unjustifiable. Its really quite extraordinary. Here is my interpretation and many peoples interpretation of the action of House Democrats since taking over the gavel is that the House Democratic caucus doesnt think the president is good. They think he is bad. They think he is unfit. They think he may be dangerous, but they dont see it essentially as a kind of National Emergency in which every day goes by, there is a sort of ticking clock towards some kind of long tail risk landing in all of our lives. My sense from the House Democratic leadership is yes, hes bad. Yes, were going to be thorough. Were going to go through the process. The constitution is the constitution. The courts are the courts. Were not jack bauer racing against some clock. There are a lot of people thinking the situation is jack bauer racing against a clock. What do you say to that . I agree its jack bauer racing against the clock. A lot of us ran because we were so disturbed what we were seeing coming out of d. C. I think one of the issues here is, okay, we are dealing with the constitution. Its not supposed to be easy to impeach someone. What were engaging in right now we have a lot of allegations of conduct against the president , which if proven would cute high crimes and misdemeanors. I mean, the founders talked about things such as being under the influence of another country. Right. They talked about getting elected through broybry or other false means. They talked about using your office for personal profit. And they talked about abuse of power. Not a crime, but abusing your constitutional powers, and the example they used was offering pardons to people to your subordinates to get them to do illegal acts or to obstruct investigations. So basically, this president is ticking all the boxes in terms of what the framers of our constitution thought were impeachable offenses, but the job of congress is we have to have the goods to move forward. God bless us if were able to clear the president of some of this conduct. But right now its kind of this situation where someone is arrested because there is information justifying an arrest, but we cant bring this thing to trial until we have the evidence. Weve got a situation where weve got an outofcontrol administration that is not obeying the rules. So weve got congress and the courts working together to say no, you have to do this. Now, if he is going to defy two branches of government, we end up in a different play, congresswoman mary gay scanlon, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Joining me now the discuss the exodus of so many republicans in the house, Michael Steele and msnbc political analyst norm ornstein, coauthor of one nation after trump. Michael, what do you make of the retirements . Well, there are a number of things that are roiling beneath the surface here, starting with the fact that it aint fun being in the minority that is one of the key elements here, particularly if you were part of the big wave of 2010 and youve enjoyed that majority status since that time. To then lose it really puts a lot of pressure on you to sort of stay committed to the game. And so folks, particularly when you look at someone like congressman sensenbrenner from wisconsin that shocked everyone just kind of stepping aside, that gets to point two, running the risk of not only trying to get back the house with what youve got, but then losing some of that and putting a lot of pressure in seats like wisconsin and utah, for example, which are on the bubble. And a lot of these other states, chris, youre looking at alabama. And places like that, republicans arent necessarily going to lose a congressional seat in alabama, but it does put pressure on the system. Do you norm, youve been chronicling this era and age and the surreality of everyone pretending things are going along. The sharpie moment is such a dumb, dumb moment. It signals to me there is no one stopping him, and there is no one minding the store. And this is the most serious thing a government does is give its citizens information about a storm, and no one can stop him from doing that. What does it mean for how bound we are all are by the guardrails . Ive never seen anything quite like this before, chris. There has been no pushback at all on corruption, maladministration, lies and Everything Else we have seen from any republican in the house or senate. And what i believe at this point, this is not a traditional Political Party that weve been used to in the past. Its more like a cult. Its not a party of philosophy anymore. Its a party of theology. Its a cult of personality. And if people stay, if they dont speak up, then theyre going to have to swallow hard day after day. Look at all of these members from places like tennessee which are having money taken away from military bases to pay for the vanity project of a trump wall, or the money taken way from Disaster Relief at this point. Look at lamar alexander, who is leaving. You cant say he fears a primary. You cant say that he needs the lobbying clients. He doesnt want to be shunned by all of the people around him, his friends, his colleagues, the people on fox news and elsewhere. And so they swallow hard until some of them decide they just dont want the take it anymore. There was this, quote from justin amash. Obviously amash is sort of outside the tent now so there is some degree to which he has incentive to say this. There are a lot of republicans out there who are saying these things privately but they are not saying it publicly. And i think thats a problem for our country when people arent allowed to speak out. Do you think its true . Its absolutely true. And its a huge problem. And justin amash is an example of what happens currently inside that cult of personality. If you buck the personality, if you go up against the man, youre going to have the system come down and condemn you, because they dont want that wrath to fall on them. They dont want their names to appear in a tweet. They dont want to be red lined in the sense that theyre going to be, you know, challenged in a primary. So they behave. And the country i think suffers from that. And the leadership in the party is feckless in that regard. And i think something to the point if real quick on the last point about those bases and other locations that are being hit by trumps decision to withdraw money. Youll be surprised to find out how much people dont mind that. They support that because the wall is the bigger goal. Its the bigger cause. And damn it, if that means we shut down the base for three days out of the week, then thats what well do. The best example is Mitch Mcconnells own kentucky has a military base that had a middle School Construction project. Presumably, they need the middle school, which is why they appropriated the money. Maybe they dont. Maybe it was a ridiculous boondoggle. But presumably they need a middle school there, and there are parents on a base who want to send their kids to gnaw middle school, and thats not going to happen. That normal sort of truck and barter that happens between a white house and its congressional allies, the fact that that is gone, it does feel as we enter into this session that there is its all sort of stripped bare at this point. It absolutely has been. And i would take it even further, because there are some of these areas doing basic oversight in the senate about horrible things that have happened in government. Ill go back to lamar alexander, who in the past we would have seen as a statesman, chairing the health education, labor and pensions committee. No hearings on the child separation and the department of health and Human Services which has run some of these terrible places, and of course private entities including private prisons who are making money off of this. Nothing on the outrages in the department of education on Student Loans or private colleges and universities, voting for confirmation for people who have lied to the senate and are clearly corrupt. This goes even beyond swallowing hard when a base gets closed for a few days. It is a total abdication of moral authority and responsibility by an entire Political Party. Michael steele and norm ornstein, thank you so much. Thanks. I. Up next, devastation in the bahamas has Hurricane Dorian churns north along the coast of the u. S. The very latest, next. By the strolle s [ growl ] good boy. Hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Know whos on your network and control who shouldnt be with xfinity xfi. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Hurricane dorian is grinding its way up the southeast coast, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Right now the eye of the storm hugging the coast of South Carolina. Earlier today, this storm weakened to a category 2. Still the National Hurricane center expects lifethreatening storm surges and dangerous winds around parts of the coast of north and South Carolina. Thats charleston, South Carolina youre seeing there, as well as potential flash flooding. It was the bahamas that took the full brunt of the hurricanes force, leaving behind an unfolding humanitarian disaster. The death toll now 23. The Health Minister says they expect that number to rise. Joining me now from the bahamas, nbc news correspondent morgan chesky. Morgan, how are things there . Chris, its tough to put into words. We had a chance to witness some of that devastation firsthand today. The airport at Marsh Harbour, which is on abaco island, which took the brunt of dorian when it made its way through the northern bahamas, finally opened the airport today, and we were able to land there. And the first thing you see upon walking off are dozens and dozens of people gathered outside with simply nowhere else to go, trying to find a way off the island that they tell us no longer has anything left for them because their homes were taken away as well as all of their possessions. We made our way into the short drive into town. Part of the roads still underwater. And we encountered a clinic there, which was a shelter when dorian hit, saving the lives of countless people. But its now become a public Gathering Place of sorts where several hundred people were outside like those at the airport with nowhere else to go. And i had a chance to speak to one family. And when i asked them what they could use the most, this is what one mother had to say. Now there is no more Marsh Harbour. Nothing . Nothing. I house gone, everything gone. No clothes to wear, no food to eat, no water to bathe. And we have just now confirmed that that death toll has increased to 30 people now. As you mentioned, that number could still be going up. Everyone i spoke to there in Marsh Harbour says a lot of the relief that has been talked about has yet to make its way into the remote area theres simply because of the extent of the devastation that dorian has brought that portion of the island, where the wind gusts were more than 200 miles an hour. Meanwhile, on neighboring grand bahama, the big issue there, chris, flooding with at least 50 of the homes damaged or destroyed as a result of that storm surge combined with incredibly intense rains as dorian stalled over that part of the island. Chris . Morgan chesky in the bahamas, thank you for that reporting. I want to turn to former fema administrator craig fugate. Craig, the situation in the bahamas looks extremely dire, particularly in abaco. What do you see as the most important priorities right now, and do you think the government there has the capacity to make sure that real genuine humanitarian disaster doesnt set in now . Well, the Bahamian National management is coordinating a lot of things. First priority is going to be search and rescue, recovery of those that we lost and still reaching those areas and start getting supplies in there. And i think this thing we got to remember. This is the bahamian led response. The United States has already set the u. S. Agency for International Development office of foreign Disaster Assistance a Disaster Response team to work with the bahamian government as resources, teams are starting to flow in the area. But as you just heard, until you can get into, you cant get much of a response going. Thats going to be the first priority, get back on to the islands, search and rescue recovery, and the immediate supplies that are going to be needed to start stabilizing those islands. Whats the most important thing for folks to half . I imagine its clean water is the first thing and shelter, and then getting power back up . Yeah. But i think the other thing is the most important thing is neighbors helping neighbors. All across these island, most of the initial help and response is just bahamians helping each other. Right. So youre going to go from that once you get everybody rescued is the basic things of safe drinking water, shelter, start looking at what its going to take to get infrastructure back online. I wont be surprised that there may be decisions made for some people to relocate to family on other islands, just given the devastation thats there. You know, were in the living through the front edge of an era of increasingly extreme weather and climate disaster and climate crisis. Are we Getting Better as a sort of civilization at dealing with Disaster Preparedness and rescue and rebuilding . Nope. Were not . No. We tend to build back the way it was. We tend to plan for what were capable of and then we hope its not that bad. Climate change, you can talk about it all you want to. I think we need to be talking about how were adapting our communities, our systems, and our infrastructure for what is already happened and is happening now. What would that adaptation look like . What do you mean by that . Well, in the states, the big thing here is makeing sure our building codes reflect the increasing impacts, that we look at our flood problem not as defined by insurance rate maps, but what could flood. Were seeing rainfall events in the u. S. Tropical and nontropical that a lot of the flooding isnt even in the areas designated as high risk flood zones by fema. We need to get it out of our heads looking at the last 100 years in historical events is preparing us for whats happening. It seems like every couple of week, every couple of month, every couple of years, were having recordsetting events which means we have no recorded history of looking backwards is not preparing us. Thats a really, really, really important point. Craig fugate, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Coming up, a gun buyback proposal and the threat of violence in its wake. That story next. Oh, wow. You two are going to have such a great trip. Thanks to you, we will. 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How do you address the fears that the government is going to take away assault rifles as you call them if youre talking about buybacks and banning . So i want to be really clear that thats exactly what were going to do. Americans will who own ar15s, ak47s will have to sell them to the government. In the wake of the latest mass shooting in his home state of texas, president ial candidate beto orourke has been out front very explicitly making the case for a mandatory purchase by the government of every military style weapon in the country, a position we should note that is supported somewhat remarkably by 46 of the country, almost half the population. In response, some conservatives have argued that you cant do that because if you try to implement that policy, lawabiding good guy with a gun gunowners will resort to violence en masse. So this is what youre calling for is civil war. What youre calling for is an incitement to violence. Its something that i wouldnt want to live here when that happened, would you . Youre talking about going and taking peoples guns away from them. There is going to be a lot of violence. They lived without them for many years during the ban. Im not living without guns. To get to why this debate is so strange and so different from some other policy areas, at some level, the threat of violence does loom over all of it all the time. Joining me now, lach school of law adam winkler, author of gunfight the battle over the right to bear arms in america. Adam, i want to start with what the constitution does and doesnt allow in terms of policy floated. I know some of this is yet to be determined by the Supreme Court. But what is your understanding of what the law and the constitution allows visavis Something Like what beto orourke is proposing . Well, a mandatory Gun Buyback Program of military style rifles may well be constitutional. It really depends on whether a ban on those particular weapons would itself be constitutionally permissible. Weve seen those bans enacted in a number of places, a number of states and city, and courts to date have generally upheld such laws. If those laws are constitutionally permissible, it would likely be permissible to have a mandatory Gun Buyback Program for those types of weapons. I think a mandatory gun buyback of handguns which the Supreme Court said are weapons are constitutionally protected would be likely unconstitutional. So the constitution the Supreme Court jurisprudence on this and scalias controlling opinion in that that revolutionized the way the court deals with it, he specifically does say there are bans on certain kinds of weapons that are going to pass constitutional muster . Thats right. The nra has been selling awes story about the unconstitutionality of virtually any kind of gun control for a long time. The truth of the matter is weve always had gun control in america. Maybe not particularly good gun control, but it goes all the way back to the founding fathers. Even Justice Scalia in the founder opinion said clearly there is plenty of room for gun control under the Second Amendment. There is another policy being floated and then i want to talk about this idea of violence. The idea of license, that cory booker and others have proposed. And the polling on this is somewhat remarkable to me, given the facts of how this works that a license to purchase a gun, 82 yes, 16 no. Thats a very wide majority. What is your sense of the legality or constitutionality or feasibility of that . I think theres no doubt that a Licensing Program would be constitutionally permissible. The founders had their own kind of gun registration back this the founding era. If you had a militarystyle rifle or a weapon that you needed to have to serve in the militia, those weapons would be registered and put on government roles. And even most gun rights advocates who are attune to the law and the Second Amendment jurisprudence admit that a licensing scheme is likely constitutional, and indeed in new york today you have a licensing system. If you want to have a gun in your home you have to get a permanent to do it. You have a right to marry under the constitution, but you still have to get a license to exercise that right. Thats a great point. Finally on this, there are different arguments people make for what the Second Amendment is about. But one of them is that its fundamentally about denying the state of monopoly on violence. Its about essentially having the ability to wage war if possible, protect ones liberty against the violent incursions of the state if it comes to that thats what i think you see expressed in people saying look, if you try to take guns and mandatory buyback, people will use those guns violently to pushback against this government. Was that idea behind the Second Amendment . Is that what was being conceived of when its put in the document . Absolutely not. Look, the founders were trying to create a government, not sow the seeds for that governments destruction. And in fact, when there were armed rebellions like the whiskey rebellion in pennsylvania under the administration of george washington, washington himself went into battle and fought to quell that rebellion. The idea of the Second Amendment as the Supreme Court said in the heller case is about protecting your right of selfdefense, your right of personal protection. It is not a right to rise up and revolt against the government. All right, adam winkler, thank you for being with me tonight. Learned a lot. Thank you. Still ahead, the trolling of mike pence on his whistle stop tour in europe. But first, tonights thing 1, thing 2, next. I got a very, very small loan from my father. You gotta start somewhere. Im a reporter for the New York Times. The when, the where bank statements, tax returns, its out, dozens of copy records of deeds and reports. 1995 showed that he was bleeding money. Go through it all, understand it all holy sh number by number, brick by brick. Thats when we realized. Thats fraud. I built this empire and i did it by myself. O ozempic® oh oh thats fraud. announcer people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of onceweekly ozempic®. In a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7 and maintained it. Oh under 7 . announcer and you may lose weight. In the same oneyear study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. 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Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. I discovered the potential with ozempic®. Oh oh oh ozempic® announcer if eligible, you may pay as little as 25 per prescription. Ask your Health Care Provider today about onceweekly ozempic®. Thing 1 tonight. One of the accomplishments President Trump is most proud of is his appointment of federal judges. One nominee the president might want back is matthew peterson, who frump nominated to the u. S. District court for the District Of Columbia back in 2017. Peterson made it as far as a hearing in front of the senate Judiciary Committee, but it only took a few questions from republican senator john kennedy for it to become apparent that maybe peterson wasnt cut out to be a judge. Have you ever tried a jury trial . I have not. Civil . No. Criminal . No. Bench . No. State or federal court . I have not. Have you ever tried taking a deposition by yourself . I believe no. Okay. Have you ever argued a motion in state court . I have not. Have you ever argued a motion in federal court . No. As a trial judge, youre obviously going to have witnesses. Yes. Can you tell me what the standard is . Senator kennedy, i dont have that readily at my disposal. But i would be happy to take a closer look at that. Okay. That is not something that ive had to contend with. Just for the record, do you know what a motion in limine is . I would probably not be able to give you a good definition right here at the table. Peterson withdrew from consideration following that debacle and returned to his day job on the federal Election Commission. You might think that kind of public embarrassment would make it tough to find a new job, but you would be wrong, and thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. Introducing the first of its kind lexus ux and ux f sport. Also available in hybrid all wheel drive. Lease the 2019 ux 200 for 329 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Matthew peterson failed as a trump judicial nominee, but he still had a very important job as a member of the federal Election Commission where he was tasked with helping to maintain fair, transparent elections. Peterson was appointed twice, twice served as the bodys chairman in 2010 and 2016. But after 11 years in the job, peterson announced last week he was resigning from the already shorthanded commission, leaving the fec unable to conduct the most fundamental aspects of its mandate, including processing complaints of election malfeasance. And what kind of opportunity would cause someone who spent the last decade at the fec to cripple the agency with their exit . Reportedly theyll be part of a law firm. It doesnt mean much to most people, but a Washington Post report from 2016 described the firms specialty, as, quote, helping wealthy donors, corporations and Political Action committees influence elections, often in secret. Thats right. Matthew peterson, the failed judicial nominee essentially shut down the fec heading into the 2020 election to join a law firm that specializes in helping rich people and corporations influence elections in secret. Very cool. Hopefully for petersons sake, his new job does not require him to go anywhere near a courtroom. Have you ever tried taking a deposition by yourself . I dont believe no. Okay. Have you ever argued a motion in state court . I have not. Have you ever argued a motion in federal court . No. I must admit. I had a few good tricks to help hide my bladder leak pad. Like the old tunic tug. You know it, right . But i dont have to, with always discreet. I couldnt believe the difference. Its less bulky. And it really protects. Watch this. The super absorbent core turns liquid and odor to gel, and locks it away. So i have nothing to hide. Always discreet. For bladder leaks. Every curve, every innovation, every feeling. A product of mastery. 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How could it get any better than this . Dad, i just caught a goldfish theres no goldfish in this lake. Whoa its pure gold. Were gonna be rich. Were gonna be rich it only gets better when you switch and save with geico. Right now Vice President mike pence is in the air on his way back from what was a pretty rough week abroad. The Vice President s journey began in poland, where he was taking his boss place at a world war ii commemoration. The president needed to stay home, you will recall so, he could monitor Hurricane Dorian and squeeze in not one, but two rounds of golf. Pence went to ireland on monday where he had meetings in dublin, but decided to stay on the opposite side of the island at trumps property in doonbeg, reportedly at the president s behest, which made for some very awkward explaining. Democrats have criticized you today for staying at the trump property in doonbeg. They say youre enriching the president. Whats your response to that criticism . Its wonderful to be back in ireland. It was important for me. Before our original trip plan to at least spend one night in doonbeg. And i understand political attacks by democrats, but if you have a chance to get to doonbeg, you find its a fairly small place, and the opportunity to stay at Trump National in doonbeg to accommodate the unique footprint that comes with our security detail and other personnel made it logical. Vice president then found himself in hot water with the irish after he praised the uks new Prime Minister Boris Johnson and breast, both very unpopular on the emerald isle, prompting this headline from an oped in the irish times. Ill just let you read it. Ouch. The next stop was iceland, where our notoriously antigay Vice President was greeted first by a row of not so subtle rainbow pride flag, and then by the icelandic president and first lady, both wearing pride bracelets. And just when it seems like things could not get any worse for pence, he arrived in london for a meeting with the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is also having a mindboggling terrible week full of brexit chaos, and he managed to change the subject long enough to have a go at pence about meat. Its still the case, you know, the United States, the people of the United States of america dont eat any british lamb or beef or haggis. Yeah, they dont eat any haggis. So weird. Good luck getting americans interested in eating sheep intestin intestines. The Vice President is now finally on his way back to the u. S. , expected to land in d. C. Around midnight. But i dont think his relief will last too long. Just wait until he finds out what almost happened to alabama when he was gone. Humira patients, you inspire us. The way you triumph over adversity. And live your lives. Thats why we redesigned humira. We wanted to make the experience better for you. 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Last night we got seven hours of detailed policy discussion on the most pressing civilizational issue of our time, climate change, from the Democratic Party candidates, highlighting the most important issue is debated by one party and one party alone, not the other. There is a shocking gap between the level of policy command, knowledge and details, things that used to be taken for granted among all the Democratic Candidates versus the president of the United States who seems obsessed with trying to prove that Hurricane Dorian was headed for alabama. It is striking when you enter the universe of the democratic primary from the universe of american politics at the moment, theres a warp thing that happens to you. This isnt a thing that just used to be part of democrats. I watched republicans have policy conversations. Theres only one place in america where this is happening right now. Yeah. The bad news is, it was seven hours. I dont know how many people watched seven hours. The good news is, even if you watched part of it, you got a sense that these were serious candidates, serious leaders who understood this issue, that felt very strongly about having detailed plans to deal with it. Frankly, that they are intellectually sound in terms of respecting science and knowing public policy. It is such a stark contrast to the sharpie show in the oval office that it is startling. I wish more voters would tune in just long enough to get a sense of the strength of the field of the Democratic Candidates who we have this year. Were going to do a Climate Forum in a few weeks and a climate special as well. One thing also that comes through is the centrality of this issue in this primary in the Democratic Party. Its almost as important as what gets filled in in the policy. We saw trump raise immigration in his primary. We are watching climate achieve a new level here. I think its a win in part for washington governor jay inslee. This was the top of his agenda. There are people who stole some of his lines. Kamala harris stole openly a retort to up with of President Trumps lines that Wind Turbines cause cancer. She said they cause jobs. Theres a higher priority on climate change. We are affecting the environment. The science is solid on this. I think the challenge is it that as were trying to have these policy discussions which are necessary, were also trying to figure out who voters like the most. Watching the cnn forum and i did not watch all seven hours. I watched as much as i could. I have a life. Even watching the forum, it was hard to make a comparison between the candidates. One of the things we try to do when we interview the candidates is ask them one of the same question, why should the American People elect you president . What i needed was for the exact same question in the exact same words to be asked to everybody. Otherwise, you have candidates who are going for sound bites and moments and retorts. There were several. As a voter, if im a democrat and im trying to figure out who has the best ideas on climate change, i know who moved me the most, i know who had the biggest gaffs. Im not sure how to compare them when it comes to not presence, not politicking but policy on how to save the world. Theres a question there, senator, which is about how much that itself matters. How much do the policy details matter . One thing im struck by is joe biden has had a stable lead from when he announced to now. Theres tremendous amounts of respect and affection for him among democratic primary voters, for him personally and for his adjacentsy to obama. When you talk about political communication, he is not the best, of a lot of people. That does not seem to be his strength. What do you think of his ability to communicate policy . I think he struggles when he gets on defense. Since he is the frontrunner and has been the stable frontrunner from day one, he is going to be on defense. I think he will have to learn how to pivot and stay true to the message he wants to deliver. We have to be bold. We have to reestablish our leadership in the world on this issue. Thats what trump has done in my opinion, one of the most immoral acts was walking away from the paris accord. Joe biden does have a good point and people do understand that he is going to have the kind of resume that gives him credibility on the world stage instain tn instantly. Theres this thing thats true in terms of his resume. Theres this thing happening in the campaign where its like theres joe biden and you know he is joe biden. So he projects something because he is a wellknown figure and a fixture. If you were to do a blind taste test, which is not a thing that can happen, but to your point about the message versus the messenger and ask people, are they listening to what these people are saying and what their plans are . Is it like, i know that guy and i want that guy, which may be enough . Joe biden made the point about American Leadership around the world. Other candidates made the same point. At least thats a consensus in the field. Did you see avengers . Yes. Joe biden is Robert Downey junior. They are all super heroes. He is Robert Downey junior. He says things that may be off. He does things off. But he is bankable. If theres one thing that the democratic leadership is terrified of, its losing to donald trump in 2020. Democratic voters, too. If they cannot pull this off in 2020, there will be heads rolling in the democratic leadership. Democratic voters are saying, this is it a layup. What do you mean we couldnt win . At this point, its a little more about who can we who is going to be best for top billing right now . I think theres a combination of a layup and we are panicked we will screw it up. Those things end up in weird ways about what that means in terms of who people feel safe with or who they dont feel safe with. Sometimes i think their intention with each other. Thanks for joining us. Tomorrow night, we are live in front of a live studio audience. Its our third and final for now live show. We have a great hour planned. I have been loving thche ining. We hope you tune in. Thats all for this evening. Good evening. As you head into your third one, are you thinking, its been hard, are you thinking, darn, its the last one, cant we plan more of these . Yes. I love doing it. I have neither built an airplane nor fly one, its easy to fly one than build one. It was hard to get a new thing up on the air. It was stressful. Once its up, the ratio to stress enjoyment tips in the right direction. Its rewarding. I like you on tv no matter what you are doing. Those live shows, to my mind as a viewer, have been just the coolest thing you have done. Thank you. I hope you keep doing it. I hope so, too. Thanks for joining us. Big show for