Trumps niece. Im talking too freely, but you know, the change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying, holy [ bleep ]. But hes appealing to the base what theyre doing to the kids at the border. Maryanne trump also said about her brother, all he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None. And his base, i mean, my god, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this. How do democrats counterprogram the rnc . Joining me now is chief of staff to Vice President nominee Kamala Harris, Senior Adviser to the Biden Campaign and author of moving forward. It is great to see you, especially in this new role. Welcome. Thank you so much, jonathan. So good to see you as well. Thanks for having me. Thank you. So as i ask the question, how are you going to counterprogram the rnc . Are you going to do that . Usually, you know, the campaign of the other side stays dark while the other one has its convention. Well, first, let me just step back to last thursday night, what the nation saw during the Democratic Convention from joe biden. You saw a leader, you saw a president ial address. And honestly, frankly, its something we havent seen in three and a half years. You saw a leader meet the moment. Joe biden met the moment. He laid out what the crises were in this country but not just laid that out, he also offered up solutions. And something that we saw as a nation is that a joe biden and Kamala Harris ticket will aggressively tackle covid19 and also make sure that we get the economy back on track. So what were going to see in the next 72, 71 days, its the same thing from donald trump that weve seen before, someone who is going to not really speak to the severity of covid19, hes not going to talk about the economy. I mean, he probably wont even mention covid19, to be quite honest. Meanwhile, more than 170,000 americans have died. And this is it, this is donald trump. Hes someone who is going to sit on his hands and do absolutely nothing. So thats what were going to see. We are going to continue to remind the American People that joe biden and Kamala Harris are ready to lead, as we saw last week, and we also saw their enthusiasm for that ticket in the past 10 days. And the American People want change. Thats what they want, and theyre ready for change. But, karine, i want to go back to my original question. I get what youre doing in the next 70 days, but when it comes to the next four days of the Republican Convention, does the biden harris ticket plan to counterprogram, go toe to toe with the Trump Convention as it rolls out . I think were going to be doing what weve been doing, showing contrast. Showing contrast as to what the Donald Trump Campaign or Donald Trump Administration has not done, has not been leaders, has historically in governing has failed governing, but how joe bid sk biden and Kamala Harris are going to be leaders in this moment. They are going to be laying out their plans as joe biden has been doing in the last couple months. This is what the American People want. They want compassion and empathy to come back to the white house. I think thats what we laid out the last couple of days during last week of the convention. Were just going to continue doing that. Were going to continue to show the contrast and speak to the American People. That is our plan. Do you worry, though . Word has come out that the president plans to speak every night of the Convention Next week. Given what you were talking about in terms of making the contrast, are you worried that the biden harris ticket wont be able to break through because not only is the president at his own convention, but hes going to use every night to speak directly to the American People . Look, i think the reason why donald trump is going to be at his convention every night is because he doesnt really have the unifying message that we had. Its not surprising this is what he does. He likes to show this reality tv of himself, of a presidency, and doesnt have really many people to come out and speak on his behalf to validate his presidency. He hasnt even laid out what hes going to do the next four years if he were to get reelected. If you look at our convention, it was diverse. We talked about real issues that matter to the American People. You saw energy. As you mentioned at the top of the show, you saw republicans, democrats, progressives, and thats what our convention was about. It was about uniting america. Thats not what donald trump is going to do. As we know, its going to be hatefilled, its going to be division. Thats all he knows. That is the playbook that he has had since 2016, so theres not going to be anything new there. Its going to be actually the same old, same old, same old. How do you bring the country together . Thats what americans want to hear. How are you actually going to bring about change . Thats what americans want to hear. Hes not going to do that. What were going to do is the job weve been doing the last couple of months, which is continue to show the contrast, continue to call him out on his lack of leadership, especially with covid19 and the economy. One thing, the abc news ipsos poll that has come out shows that the convention seems to have worked, at least, in the responding to this poll. Vice president biden, the democratic nominee, has jumped five points since the last pol , at 45 , and the same thing holds true for the Vice President ial nominee Kamala Harris who was at 35 in the last poll and is now up to 41 . Can you keep that momentum going when the rnc is next week and the cavalcade of hate were going to see in the next four days . Look, jonathan, the energy we have seen with the biden harris ticket has been tremendous. In the first 48 hours after joe biden named Kamala Harris, we raised 48 million in 48 hours. That is tremendous. The energy is there. And we are so proud to see this ticket and what theyre laying out for the future. And so thats what we have on our side. We have energy, we have enthusiasm. And another thing, just looking at the numbers for a second, we were able the campaign was able to catch up from 100 million gap that we saw with cash on hand, and what we have been able to do is that because of that, were able to put the Trump Campaign on defense in states that they won in 2016. Now, i want to be clear, were not going to take this for granted. Were going to continue to fight, were going to reach out to key constituencies, we have to continue to build that coalition, its going to take everything to win, but we feel really good about how we look as a Campaign Going into september. And the convention brought people together. All you had to do was watch it last week and you saw the energy and the diversity that came together, and you saw a president , as i said at the beginning, Vice President joe biden, lay out what his vision is for the country. You saw Kamala Harris lay out what their vision, their shared values was for the country. Thats what americans want. They want change. They want out of this mess that donald trump has put us in. Karine, two things before you go, were running out of time. One, you mentioned the 48 million raised since Kamala Harris was named on the ticket, but also since the convention, the ticket has raised 70 million, so that gets to the point you were making about how you closed the monetary gap with the president. I want to show this clip real quickly from the interview that the ticket did with abc and have you talk about it briefly on the other side. President trump has referred to you as nasty, a sort of madwoman, a disaster, the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the u. S. Senate. How do you define what you hear from the president . Listen, i really i think that there is so much about what comes out of Donald Trumps mouth that is designed to distract the American People from what he is doing every day that is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American People. And incompetence. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, karine, real quickly, the mysogeny in that comment from the president coupled with the racism weve already heard come from this president , how are you going to deal with that in the 71 days Going Forward . Let me first say that senator harris answered that question with such tact and grace. Also, we have to learn from listening to the person who said that, right, which is donald trump who, as you said, disregards women of color, he disregards black people, people of color. This is what he does. And, honestly, whats nasty about all of this is his record, his record on the Global Pandemic to the economy, and what he has lacked the ability to do is to lead. And that is this is what he does, right . Its an old playbook, but this time around it is not working because we saw it in 2016. This is what hes going to continue to do, but the polling shows the American Public is not happy. They are tired, especially of his leadership on covid19, and now we just have to continue to lay that out, lay out that contrast, speak to the American People and do our jobs that we are doing as a campaign in building that coalition and, like i said, speaking to those key constituencies. Karine jeanpierre, thank you for being on the show. I know this will not be your last time on the show. Thank you very much. Nice to see you. Thanks to you. Coming up, the latest on the post Office Scandal and the shock be number of votes that have already been rejected this year. You have to stick around for this one. Coming up next. K around for this one coming up next allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. With safe, convenient service. Were here for you tech well come right to you. Upbeat music tech youll get a text when were on our way. Tech before we arrive, just leave your keys on the dash. Well replace your windshield with safe, nocontact service. Upbeat music tech and thats service you can trust when you need it the most. Upbeat music tech schedule at safelite. Com. Upbeat music singers safelite repair, safelite replace. How dare you refer to this as a sham bill. The only sham here is the patriotism you continue to espouse while we stand here in defense of the u. S. Postal service and you disrupt services. Were here to save the Postal Service because it is being sabotaged by a desperate president in order to cheat in the 2020 election. Our message is simple. Protect the Postal Service. The house passed a bill giving 25 billion of emergency funding to the u. S. Postal service. The bill comes amid growing fears that the Postal Service is being maligned in an effort to interrupt mailin voting for the november election. Mit more than 550,000 primary absentee ballots have already been rejected this year, significantly up from the 318,000plus ballots rejected in 2016. The uptake is particularly alarming as millions more voters plan to vote by mail this november due to the coronavirus pandemic. Joining me now, vanita gupta, president and ceo on the leaders conference of human and civil rights. And anita jayapal. Thank you both for joining me this morning. You sent out a tweet about a hearing that the congressional caucus had last week about the Postal Service. You wrote, our hearing on the sabotage of usps was stunning. It revealed the blatant corruption of this administration and their complete disregard for our democracy. It demonstrated that theyll always put their power and profits over the ingwithbeing of people. There will be accountability. What question do you want the postmaster general dejoy to answer . This included a hearing of david williams, who is the former Inspector General of the usps also on the board of governors. I believe he was the vice chair of the board of governors of the Postal Service. He was appointed by trump, and he has served multiple administrations over the past couple decades. What he said was, number one, he was in the room for dejoys job interview. He could not understand how this job could have been given to dejoy who did not have the experience. He said that other people in the room were putting the answers into dejoys mouth because he didnt know the answers. He had a tiny bit of very narrow logistics experience, but it was insufficient to actually get the job. Hes a mega donor to donald trump and he has enormous amounts of stock in companies that benefit from the privatizing of the Postal Service. So this is corruption through and through. And he pointed out that the Postal Service is a 250yearold organization. Dejoy was on the job for five weeks and started implementing these sweeping changes, and hes obviously implementing the agenda of this president. So on every account from the mail sorting machines being taken out to the slowing of mail to the denial of overtime to postal workers so they can deliver ballots, this is an enormous corruption of our democracy. Congressman jayapal, you mentioned sweeping changes. I want to play this clip of dejoy before the senate on friday. Take a listen. Are you limiting overtime, or is that being suspended right now and people will work overtime if necessary to move the mail out every single day . Senator, we never eliminated overtime. Its been curtailed significantly, is what i understand. Its not been curtailed by me or the leadership team. Will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed since you became postmaster general . Will any of those come back . There is no intention to do that. They are not needed, sir. Congresswoman jayapal, i would see tweets from the president saying, quote, unquote, the postmaster is lying. From everything youve seen about the postmaster, do you think he was lying or telling the truth about anything last week . I didnt see the whole testimony, so maybe there was one small area where he was telling the truth, but he was certainly lying or is incompetent to be running the post office. Either one is unacceptable. The reality is we had almost half of our sorting machines in the seattletacoma area removed, almost half. Now postal workers are starting to put some of them back on their own because theyre so outraged. And the idea that he is not occcurtailing overtime is absolutely not true. Someone in that service is curtailing overtime, and i think he lied before the committee. Its inconceivable that these changes would be happening without direction from the top. And weve seen this over and over again, jonathan, where people in the Trump Administration just lie. They come out and they lie, and the only reason is they have personal corrupt interests at stake and its all about making money for themselves. And lets not forget that dejoy made a max contribution to Kevin Mccarthy just before he was appointed. He is a he is just an emissary of the president to do whatever the president wants, and the president has already told us that what he wants to do is make sure that nobody can vote by mail, even though it is so safe and the mit study, as i said in my hearing with bill barr, has shown that over the past 20 years, over 250 million mailin ballots have been sent in, and the fraud rate i is. 0006 , so extremely safe and necessary in a pandemic. Vanita, let me bring you into this conversation, and on that point about the safety of mailin voting, but i want you to react from that story by npr about the high numbers of absentee ballots that have been rejected so far. Yeah, so there is a the npr story is obviously deeply concerning, but the good news is that the primaries were a wakeup call for Election Officials around the country, and since the primaries, a number of states have adjusted their rules, mostly through litigation and litigation remains very alive. But states like georgia and florida and iowa have changed the rules by which signature mismatching laws can prevent people from having their absentee ballots counted. So one of the key things, though, is that voters are empowered to be able to track their ballots in the states. Its why everyone across the board is saying vote early. Get your absentee ballot early, get it now, fill it out carefully, check it twice and then send it back the way your state requires. Go to vote. Org. It explains all the different ways in each state that you can do this. Voters should actually feel empowered to track their ballot and make sure it has been received and counted. Then in the worstcase scenario, if they are unable to track it this way, then vote early in person. So the message, the key message here is vote early. There are a lot of advocates and lawyers that are working to make sure every single ballot is counted and working to make sure that states actually ensure that we dont see these high numbers of rejected absentee ballots which predominantly hit folks of color. But Voter Empowerment in this election is perhaps more important than ever, and voting early is going to be a key component of success for this election. Vanita, youve given great advice to our viewers. Go to voter. Org, and i would also recommend voters to the lower righthand corner of your screen where it says plan your vote, and vanita says to plan and vote early. Vanita and congresswoman j jayapal, thank you for being here. Next, we folk on uscus on af voters that go too often ignored. Keep it right here. Ignored. Keep it right here i am totally blind. And non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. Itcan it help with snoring . 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She writes, she felt it prudent to have conversations in order to protect herself. She never believed much of what she heard, including her sister. She said donald trump paid someone to take an s. A. T. Test for him. Those with questions about who dave shapiro is, why the president paid someone to take the s. A. T. We have more am joy after the break. Am joy after the break. From chicken of the sea, comes new wild catch. Premium, readytoeat fillet pieces of albacore tuna, or alaskan salmon, or ahi yellowfin with just water and sea salt. New wild catch from chicken of the sea. Enjoy the catch of the day any day. New wild catch from chicken of the sea. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. Book two separate qualifying stays and earn a free night. The open road is open again. And wherever youre headed, Choice Hotels is there. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. Just over at the present years ago, i joined the military where firing me for being who i am wasnt just possible, it was policy. Now in 2020, it is unlawful in america to fire someone because of who they are or who they love. The very ring on my finger, a wedding we celebrated here where im standing, reflects how this country can change. Love makes my marriage real. But political courage made it possible, including that of joe biden, who stepped out ahead even of this party when he said that Marriage Equality ought to be the law of the land. Lgbtq voters are a key votin 10 of the democratic electorate. More than 40 of lgbtq voted for democrats in 2016. But not near as many are enthused for a biden vote than the community. Perhaps because the community has not forgotten Bernie Sanders spotty record for gay rights. Two years earlier he voted to cut off funds for schools teaching students of homosexuality. Bernie sanders has a strong record when it comes to gay rights. Back in 2017, Kamala Harris was the attorney general of california when a federal Appeals Court allowed samesex marriages in the state to go forward. I have the attorney general on the phone right here. You must start the marriages immediately. These marriages are legitimate, they are legal and its going to continue, and its about time. But her record as californias top prosecutor isnt spotless, especially when it comes to the rights of transgender people. As an example, harris defended the denial of medical care to transgender people in prison, a position she has since distanced herself from. Some trans activists who were skeptical of harris now say they support her, like jessica ross, who says she believes harris has held herself accountable. Still, for many lgbtq voters, the decision about whether to support biden harris 2020 remains complicated. So heres the question. How does the Democratic Party bolster enthusiasm for this ticket when neither their candidates nor their records seem to spark at the primaries . Joining me now to discuss the lgbtq vote are kate sasan, isa mills, and brandon wolff, lgbtq activist and pulse nightclub shooting survivor. Thank you all very much for being here this morning. Thanks, jonathan. Brandon, let me start with you, because i know i said in the intro that senator Bernie Sanders had a bulk of the support of the lgbtq vote, but you had another horse in that race. You supported who . I supported senator Elizabeth Warren in the primary. And why senator warren as opposed to bernie or even biden, harris or any of the other people . Mayor pete, even. Well, my support for senator warren and her lgbtq platform was really rooted in two different places. First of all, she put our voices at the table, and she didnt do so in a way that was simply an attempt to check political boxes, but she did it in a way that said she fundamentally understood that as a female gender white woman, she couldnt imagine what it was like to be lgbtq. She sat down with us, asked about the complications were facing and what help we needed. Because she chose to listen and learn, she didnt create some narrow lgbtq plan that pigeonholed us into a policy proposal. She coordinated an lgbtq perspective into every single one of her plans, whether it was housing, criminal justice reform, and she understood that marginalized communities faced the same struggles as others, just with inequality heepd aped top as a multiplier. Thats really what im looking at right now, biden harris versus trump pence. Which of those men are going to listen to our struggles . Which of those men in january 2021 are going to sit at the desk of the oval office and understand that we need policies, not performances. When i put that contrast in that way, the choice seems very clear. Its got to be joe biden by a mile. Kate, i bring you into this conversation. You write for the 19th. You wrote a piece sort of outlining the issues that the lgbtq people have with the biden harris ticket. I want to put this up from out magazine. He wrote, i believe that people can evolve but i dont believe that harris has or will. It was not that long ago that as attorney general of california, harris argued in court that trans people should not have access to certain necessary care and that sex work should be criminalized because it fa sill tats the spread of hiv, and that early parole for people locked up in californias unconstitutionally overcrowded prisons would jeopardize a critical source of free labor for the state. From your reporting within the lgbtq plus community, has the community started to shift from being, for lack of a better word, antibiden, anti biden harris, to shift over to where chase is now who says it must be biden harris. I dont think there is any question about whether lgbtq will fall over themselves to vote for donald trump. By and large this Community Feels the election is life or death. The Trump Administration has been so targeted in their attacks, especially toward transgender people, that there is no doubt about the need to get out and vote. I think the question here is, are lgbtq voters who are historically not just voters but activists a lot of times when it comes to voting going to really rally their communities around getting out the vote of their friends or will they hold their noses to vote. That is a really key distinction in this election. You never want to be some of the voters voting against the other candidate. Theyre excited about this ticket, and i think there are really mixed reactions to the biden harris ticket. Thats interesting the way you put it, whether its a distinction between getting out and being enthusiastic and rallying to vote versus going to the voting booth, holding your nose and voting. It reminded me of what i would hear from africanamerican voters when they were waiting for joe biden to pick his running mate and saying, if its not a black woman, that will determine whether i rally around people, get people to vote or just go vote, and thats the only thing that i do. Iesha, to that point, should the Biden Harris Campaign be concerned that lgbtqplus voters might not be as enthusiastic as they need them to be to vote in 2020 . Well, jonathan, let me just not think about the strategy for the Biden Harris Campaign but speak to what lgbtq voters should be thinking about glards to this election. Hands down, biden harris will be far better for us as people than trump. There is not a Decision Point here. Whether youre tepid about the two of them or not, our lives are at stake and it is consequential that we show up in ernest to get rid of the guy thats currently in the white house. That just goes without saying. If we remember 2016 and how we got ourselves into this mess, we had a similar situation where the conversation constantly circled around whether people were enthusiastic about hillary clinton. Did folks actually like her . Were we holding our noses to go and vote for her be it africanamerican men or whatever the conversation of the day was about. We saw where that got us. The idea that we even have a choice to disengage or engage less than we otherwise would is not a choice, in my opinion. So for all of us in the Lgbtq Community, i would remind you that the stakes are high and we have to show up. The second thing is we like to critique our candidates and look at their record, and that is extremely important. Also given where i have been situated in this movement have been on the side of the honor and privilege of moving things forward. Surely biden, who has been around 44 years, has a record. Kamala has a record. The question is, when they get elected, what are we going to do in the first 100 days as a community to hold them accountable to hiring even more recordbreaking numbers of lgbtq people into the administration that obama did, and he made history with those numbers. Who are we getting in cabinet seats . What policies in the agencies are we going to be able to advance to support lgbtq people . We also should be thinking about our agency and our power as a movement to force their hand and hold them accountable for changes we need to see. I would say Everybody Needs to show up and vote. That shouldnt even be a conversation about whether were bored or not, and secondly, what are we going to do when they get into office to make sure we are driving forward the advancements our Community Needs . Aisha, what you said is reflective of Yvette Nicole brown said on the show yesterday when she basically said you need to have them in office, and once they are in office, thats when you really get to push and hold them accountable, because at least you know then you have somebody who is actually going to listen to what you have to say. Brandon, President Trump retweeted a tweet from Richard Grinnell who was with chair of the longtime republicans, and you can see on the screen, President Trump made history for lgbt americans, and nobody knows that better than rick grinnell. This is from the lob cg cabin republicans, but he has also called donald trump the most progay president in history. Its total garbage. You dont get to be a leader of the Lgbtq Community and leave large chunks of them out. We dont have to guess what kind of President Donald Trump is for lgbtq americans. We dont have to believe Richard Grinnell on how donald trump will treat lgbtq americans. We already know because weve seen the policies in action. This is a president who fired thousands of transgender people who made the incredible sacrifice for the u. S. Military. This is a president that said samesex couples should be barred from adopting children. This is a president that four months after the shooting at pulse nightclub tried to rip nondiscriminating republicans, lgbtq folks, from going to see a doctor. To aishas point, there is really no choice here, there is no binary, there is no decision to engage or disengage. We have an amateur fascist in the white house who has lgbtq folks squarely in his crosshairs, and our fight today is to wrestle the country back out of his greedy, corrupt hands on november 3rd, because quite frankly, there may be no democracy left once hes done with it. Kate, i want to get you to answer basically the same question that i had in mind when Yvette Nicole brown said what she said yesterday that progressives would have the ear of the administration if its biden harris. Do you think the lgbtqplus community believes they will be heard if the biden harris ticket becomes the Biden Harris Administration . I think to an extent, yes. We saw throughout the convention a lot of lgbtq people, speakers, saying this is the most proequality ticket that weve ever had. And that is really absolutely true. When we saw obama run in 2008, in 2012, we didnt have, you know, a president or a president running who supported Marriage Equality. And so things have really moved. Its absolutely true that this is the most coequality ticket that weve had, and we saw a speech on the last night of the convention from biden where he wasnt talking about lgbtq people, and all of twitter, all the lgbtq people were commenting, and they werent commenting on whether or not there were mention of lgbtq issues, they were talking about how well they did at the convention. I think thats really significant, because youre no longer looking to say, did they check all the boxes of mentioning trans people, of mentioning queer people. Youre really looking to see, okay, are they presenting well . And thats a huge shift, because i think the assumption now is that the administration, this administration, would for sure prioritize queer people in office. Aisha, let me give you the last word. React to what kate just said. Lets also be reminded that queer people, lgbtq people, we are also women, we are also black. We are latin x. We have a range of issues. Some of us are poor, we are domestic workers. I also just want to remind us that for our community, we are not necessarily singular issue voters. So Marriage Equality is a law of the land. That was a big issue that i was a leader around. We ultimately won. We need to preserve it, but moving forward our lives holistically matter. We want health care. We are dealing with covid, our schools are horrible, there are so many things that affect us. So as we think about this ticket, as we as a Community Think about how this administration will support us, all of us at our kitchen also considering every other issue that affects our lives and the biden harris ticket is the only ticket, the only administration to be that is going to support the vast majority of americans. That is the only thing that matters in this conversation. With that, we have to leave it there, thank you for having this really important conversation. The mother of all never trump mega panels will tell us if the word republican still has any significance. Has any sie tech when youve got auto glass damage. Safelite can come to you. Tech and youll get a text when were on our way. Tech just leave your keys on the dash and well replace your windshield with safe, nocontact service. Tech schedule at safelite. Com. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Techand your car. , were committed to taking care of you tech well fix it right with nocontact service you can trust. Tech so if you have auto glass damage, stay safe with safelite. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. The Qanon Movement appears to be gaining a lot of followers. Can you talk about what you think about that and what you have to say to people who are following this movement right now . I dont know much about the movement understand they like me very much which i appreciate. Ive heard these are people who love our country. You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. And good morning and welcome back to a. M. Joy. Im jonathan capehart. Donald trump has remained on brand throughout his presidency, praising the viral Conspiracy Theory qanon on thursday after he called White Supremacists marching in charlottesville very fine people. But Donald Trumps tendency to fan the flame of White Supremacy has become emblematic of a bigger problem for the Republican Party that seeming lost its way. Donald trump is the antithesis of the values traditionally touted as the core of the Republican Party and his absence of principles is a reality that trumps very own sister admitted in a new secret audio released late last night by the Washington Post. The down fall was more apparent at the Democratic Convention this week when multiple republicans like collin powell, and john kasich made pairappears in support of joe biden. Ideals many revered republican president s like dwight d. Eisenhower, ronald reagan, and the bushes sought to project as the cornerstone of the Republican Party. But in the attainment of power, the Republican Party readily traded in those core values and not only embraced but became the unconventionism, lack of decency and hatred spewed by donald trump. On the eve of the Republican National convention is the grand old party at all redeemable or has it permanently morphed into the party of trump. Joining me now is stuart stevens, whit ayres, elise jordan, msnbc political analyst and former rnc chairman, Michael Steele, david jolly, msnbc political contributor, and tom nichols, opinion columnist at usa today. This is a huge panel, a mega panel. Stuart stevens, i have to start with you, i want to thank you for this book. I have it right here. And i want to read to the audience who might not have a chance to read it, in this one paragraph, you crystallized the thesis of your argument here. You write, how do you abandon deeply held beliefs about character, personal responsibility, Foreign Policy and the National Debt in a matter of months . You dont. Those beliefs were deeply held. In the end, the Republican Party rallied behind donald trump because if that was the deal needed to regain power, what was the problem . Because it had always been about power. The rest, the principles, the values, it was all a lie. Stuart stevens, im still im halfway through your book and for me as, you know, someone who is left of center, i found it breathtaking not in what youre revealing, but in the validation for what i long sort of sensed and thought as a democrat, that what the republicans were up to. Talk about why you felt it was important to cop to what youve been doing as a senior republican well, former republican, i suppose. Its not a book i ever thought i would write. But its a book ultimately i felt like i had to write. I think a lot of people were wrong about donald trump in 2016, but it was hard to find anyone who was more wrong than me. And looking back, its because i didnt want to believe this about the party i had worked for all these years. You cant really sustain that. Its a simple fact, the Republican Party is the party that endorses roy moores and attacks john bolton. How did this happen . Thats how i started to write this book. I wanted to go back and look at something i thought was impossible. I looked at the history of the party and i think its clear theres always been two sides to the party, eisenhower and mccarthy side. As someone who worked for george bush in 1999, we were confident that our view of the party was the dominant view, we were on the right side of history. We were the dominant gene and the other was recesssive. Now i have to conclude that i was wrong. We were the recesssive gene and the party has become very openly, unlike anything weve seen in modern history, a like grievance party. You were the chairman of the Republican National committee. You were the chairman that, like it or not viewers, Michael Steele successfully ushered in republican dominance of the house, retaking of the house from democrats in 2010. But i would argue, steele, the Republican Party you worked for as chairman is not the Republican Party thats there now, is it . Yeah, i think thats exactly right. It is not. To stuarts point, there have always been for quite some time threads, however, that have been woven into the fabric of the party, that, you know, while we have promoted and pushed policies as we did back in the 50s and 60s around civil rights, as we did under eisenhower and then of course under reagan in the 1980s about, you know, a broader relationship with the Global Community and, you know, peace, truth, strength, all those things and some of the domestic policies, there was always this thread that was also a part of the narrative. And we and that thread came from those moments from the goldwater period, nixon and his deal that we cut with white segregationists in order to win the presidency in 1968. We know it now as the southern strategy which is one of the reasons why one of the first acts that i committed, one of the first speeches i gave was to declare being aware of this thread that this was not the way we were going to go. That the southern strategy would no longer be the dominant thread, the dominant thought within the party. And so we had to work with tea party, we had to work with all of these factions in order to cobble together success and hold that eisenhower, reagan, bush coalition together. After i left, all hell broke loose and they put out this autopsy which donald trump crapped on the day he came down the escalator and not one person in the party said a thing. In that moment, that told me everything that from here on out, they were going to they were going to rely on that instinct because of the greed, cutting the money deal, and the power. As i wrote at the time about that autopsy that youre talking about, chairman steele, i said you do write autopsies about dead things. So whit ayres, if i remember correctly, were you a part of the team that wrote the autopsy . I was not a part of the team that wrote it, but i was very supportivi supportive of it and i wrote a book trying to amplify some of the messages. I part ways with my friend stuart on his argument about dominant and recesssive. If you look at the people whom the republicans have nominated this century, george w. Bush, john mccain, mitt romney, and donald trump. Which one doesnt fit with those four . In my career, ive worked for senators marco rubio, governors, no one would argue that trumpism is a dominant gene with any of those people. So i think theres still a lot of hope left for resurrecting the Republican Party and well have to see how the trump era ends before we know how to do that. Wait a second, whit. Youre talking about senator rubio, marco rubio of florida. But he is fully under enthrall to President Trump. You dont think that the Republican Party is no more and that it is indeed the trump party which has completely abandoned all of its principles . Marco rubio took the lead on enforcing sanctions against russia. He was the chairman of the Intelligence Committee that just put out a highly critical report about russia and the interaction with our politics in 2016. No, i think there are plenty of people who have a very different perspective who will still be around, i hope, after the 2020 election, as long as we dont go out and run campaigns against all of those who will be the core of resurrecting the Republican Party. Well, when it came time to show some separation between himself and the president , senator rubio did not vote to convict the president when it came time to do so. David jolly, you were a former member of congress. Youre no longer there. Are you even still a republican . No, im a registered independent. I want to pick up on the conversation with whit. That is the tension. You have some of those voices that tow more traditionally, but they have turned around and endorsed donald trump and even when they offer criticism, they refuse to name donald trump by name. One of the reasons i left is i realized i can never trust these colleagues again because their personal reputations are in tatters. Look, the Republican Party today is an association of largely white populists within angry, antigovernment grievance agenda with little nod towards policy. The last time we had a real flirtation with consecutive republican policy was the early days of bush 43 around education and lowering tax rates for everybody. But to michaels point about trump kind of turning the corner on everything, i disagree. I served in the house before donald trump but after the tea party wave. Two incidents that i will never forget that led to my break with the party, one under john boehner, within a period of ten days we added 500 billion of debt with no way to pay for it. I remember asking the ways and means chairman, how are we going to pay for this . He said, were not going to talk about it. I voted against a bill i cosponsored because of that. And i asked a leadership candidate, where are we going to do something on immigration . Tell me that and we have my vote. He said, can you imagine what the American People would do if we passed an immigration bill. That was in 2013, 2014, 2015, before donald trump. The corner had been turned before trump came down the escalator in my personal experience. Elise jordan, did the republicans turn a corner before donald trump but after the tea party . I think there was some pretty Disturbing Trends that had always been there, but that someone like myself looked aside. I worked for president george w. Bush and he really, you know, went after 9 11, went out of his way to say, lets not hate monger against the followers of islam. He spoke at the naacp. He was rooted in his belief that every american child deserved equal education and ousted the Senate Majority leader who was quite effective over comments he made about strum thurmond. You have republicans who led and tried to put the dirtiness in the past, but then you have donald trump who eagerly resurrects every dirty element of the past. And so, no, i dont necessarily think that it wasnt always there to some extent. I just think that for me, it was easy when you had leaders who didnt believe that, to not believe that it ever was there. Tom nichols, you are a Senior Adviser to the Lincoln Project which, you know, its sole purpose is to take it to President Trump and to really create a decision, a binary decision, youre either for america or youre for donald trump. Why is it so important for you and the Lincoln Project to be so out there and stark in your opposition to President Trump . Some of this has to do with the discussion that weve been having in between whit and stuart. The problem is that by the 90s, there wasnt a Republican Party, there were several republican parties. And my personal guild is, stuart was in mississippi, i was in massachusetts. I didnt Pay Attention to those other republican parties. I was surrounded by people like william cohen, i had grown up with ed brook, i worked for john heinz of pennsylvania who today would have no home in the Republican Party. And we didnt want to think about how the party was coming apart. Its now dominated by donald trump and by people who have bent the knee to donald trump. Once you do that, once you betray the constitution, theres no coming back. It does no good for marco rubio to allow he got a little bit rubio got a little bit of positive spin for saying he allowed the report to come out, as if this were a favor to the American People, and then he betrayed it by attacking the report of his own committee. The party has the president has, i think, is a binary choice because at this point, you know, any other choice really is almost inexplicable to me. This isnt a 1996 where youre picking between bill clinton and bob dole. This is a time for choosing. But also, there has to be a voice raised and a vote cast against the enablers. Were all former were either current or former republicans. We have a sentimental attachment to the Republican Party. We all loved old yeller, but at some point you have to take him behind the barn and put him down. Wow, thats an analogy. Lets talk about the convention because it kicks off tomorrow. Its going to be four days of what i anticipate to be ugliness and dark, grim talk. We know now that the president plans to speak to the nation every night during the convention. Whit, you are the you are the pollster ive been reading you for years. Will a convention along the lines of what ive just outlined and what i think we could pretty much expect, will that work for the president in terms of pulling support and being successful in november . Jonathan, what will work is for the convention to give people a sense of hope that we have a well thought out strategy and plan for getting on top of this pandemic. We will never get our economy going again, we will never get our schools open until we start controlling the pandemic rather than the pandemic controlling us. So that is what would be most effective. Im not suggesting youre going to hear that. But what would be most effective is a compelling argument that gives people hope that we know how to get out of this pandemic. Michael steele, do you have any hope that thats what were actually going to hear out of the Republican Convention . Hell no. That aint happening. Come on . Donald trump is speaking every night. What do you think donald trump is going to say every night . Hes going to pivot. Hell pivot. Pivot to what, elise . Exactly, elise. Its just come on, people. Can we stop pretending that this is going to be a Republican National convention. This is Donald Trumps reality tv moment. This is going to be every night just heaps and gobs of praise and nothing the last three years, nothing bad has happened and covid19 is chinas fault. Its not anyone elses, but chinas. The way it spread the way it did is because the governors in blue states didnt listen to donald trump. Thats what this is going to be about. And i think its important to step back and go to the first part of the conversation we had. The piece that was written in the atlantic, history will judge the complicit has a whole at the beginning of the talks about collaborators. And the one thing that i took away from that is that we a lot of folks are kind of looking at this a little bit ass backwards. This isnt about the Republican Party and donald trump and, you know, all of that going in this direction. You really need to stop and ask yourself, why is whit ayres and elise jordan and rick wilson and so many others, you have members of congress and so forth, why are they where they are . Why have they stepped away . Why are they not collaborating . Because thats the question for a lot of us. And its because fundamentally we believe in something. We believe in something other than one man. Were about something other than one man. And were willing to speak to the country about something other than one man, and those are the values, principles and ideals that brought us into this party in the first place. Ive been a republican for over 40 years. Since 1976. Ill be damned if im going to see that ground to donald trump who is not now nor has he ever been a republican who is not now nor ever been a conservative. You want to play this game that donald trump is like you, youre stupid. Youre being played. Youre getting punked. Whats so bad about it is youre complicit in your own punking. And those who have said im not doing that because thats not me, understand why. We refuse to collaborate. David jolly, again, you were a former member of conversation. Did you have conversations then while a member or have you had conversations since leaving with folks who are still republican, still at the capitol, about why theyre still there, why theyre still in the party and why, to use chairman steeles word, why are they remaining silent and being complicit in trashing the values of the party and putting the nation at risk . Jonathan, its been an interesting journey to watch. In december of 2015, i took to the house floor and called on donald trump to drop off the race. This was immediately following his proposal for a muslim ban. I could see the party, my colleagues distance from me at that point. They thought i was foolish or doing that. They saw the strength in donald trump. They expressed private remorse over some of his activities and then what you saw was and in the words of one colleague, theyre keeping their head down and trying to stay out of the way. As they saw donald trump complete the full takeover of the party, weve seen what weve seen, which is the public embrace by otherwise traditional, down the line republicans of donald trump. Its what i said earlier, its one of the many reasons i left is because i realized those are not colleagues i could ever serve again with. And so the question is, could there be another Republican Party after trump . Well, the broader question is, after this generation of Republican Leaders might we see one because i dont believe a Republican Party under in generation of Republican Leaders, my former colleagues, is one that can be trusted even after a trump presidency. One of the things in terms of whether people remain silent or they actually speak up, an opportunity could provide itself present itself tonight because take a look at this tweet from kaylee mcen enny. News conference at 6 00 p. M. Tonight concerning a major therapeutic breakthrough on the im not even going to say it because its racist. Secretary azar and dr. Hawn will be in attendance. What on earth could he possibly say at 6 00 p. M. Tonight about a therapeutic whatever that should garner National Attention . You know, i would absolutely love nothing more than if tonight donald trump could stand at the podium and announce that, yes, theres a miracle cure for coronavirus. Do i think thats going to happen . No. I think its going to be more of the same of Jared Kushner ordering over a million test that is are sitting at the uae embassy right now to the sum of millions and millions of dollars and that its just going to be another road of nonsense. And so tonight lets hope for the best. But given that this administration has failed completely when it has come to managing and containing this pandemic, were likely going to see theatrics that are not backed up by science. Its incredibly sad for the over 170,000 men and women who have died in this pandemic and all of their suffering Family Members. Tom, the fact that the president of the United States is embracing qanon, what does that say about leave aside the party because its now just the trump party. But what does it say that now conspiracy theorists are not only being embraced by the president of the United States, but one could be coming to congress after this election . The first thing to understand is that donald trump doesnt understand anything. He couldnt careless what q is, what its about, what power it has. You just whether its going to elect members of congress. All he heard is that they like him and in his hyper narcissistic transactional brain, thats good enough. And that gets back to the root of the problem that weve all been discussing, that the test for donald trump, no matter how crazy, no matter how hideous, no matter how awful it is, is it good for me . Is it somebody that feeds my narcissistic problem and theres an entire party of people who have said, thats what it takes to remain in the emerald city, thats what it takes to not have to get beaten and go home, then i will do that, no matter how destructive it is to the constitution, no matter how much i have to betray my country, if telling donald trump that q is a there are good people in q and they love him and let him run with that instead of commenting on it or opposing him, thats what theyre going to do. The Republican Party has lost its mind at this point. I just want to say, im tired of the you know, david jolly put this well. The people who say, well, quietly or off the record, if you dont say it publicly, if youre an elected official and you think your job is to say things quietly, then youre in the wrong job. You cant do this publicly, then get out of town and, you know, stop trying to gain some kind of cred for the things youre saying quietly. Stuart stevens, let me end with you, with this question, given what youve written in this terrific book and what youve said on this air, if the biden harris ticket becomes the Biden Harris Administration, how long after the election will the gop pivot back to those principles they so readily abandoned with the election of donald trump . I dont think theres going to be any pivot. I think its they have to lose. Weve proven over the last few years, theres no line donald trump or the party can cross that will make republicans stand up for what is a as tom said, their oath. Theyre going to have to lose. Whats going to happen to the Republican Party nationally is what happened to the Republican Party in california, we went to the Republican Party party in third place now. Thats whats going to happen. Of americans 15 years and order, the majority are nonwhite. And the odds are, theyre going to turn 18 and still be nonwhite. And its a death sentence. I think were in for a period of center lift government and there is a need for a center right party and some more rooted in reality and rooted in some sort of moral structure and comprehensive theory of government will emerge. I dont think its going to be soon. Its like the subprime mortgage crisis, it could take a little bit longer, but theres no future for the party that now is on the wrong side of a cultural war with nascar. How bad do you have to be if thats your base and youre on the wrong side . Thats the future of the party. Stuart stevens, whit ayres, david jolly, and tom nichols, thank you very much. Elise jordan and Michael Steele are sticking around. Donald trumps immigration policies are so cruel theyve alienated his own family. Thats next. Tech well come right to you. Upbeat music tech youll get a text when were on our way. Tech before we arrive, just leave your keys on the dash. Well replace your windshield with safe, nocontact service. Upbeat music tech and thats service you can trust when you need it the most. Upbeat music tech schedule at safelite. Com. Upbeat music singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500 coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. Theyre off. In the kentucky derby. Rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. He scores stanley cup champions touchdown only mahomes. The big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. You know in the change of stories, a lack of preparation, the lying, the [ bleep ] but hes appealing to the base. What theyre doing with the kids at the border even Donald Trumps sister, retired federal judge mary trump barry finds his border policy appalling. The recordings were First Published by the Washington Post which says under new york law, it is legal to tape a conversation with the consent of one party. Joining me now is nbc correspondent Jacob Soboroff author of separated. Thank you very much for being here. Before we start our conversation, i want to read this statement from President Trump about his sister being secretly recorded. He writes, every day is Something Else. Who cares. I miss my brother and ill work hard for the American People. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before. I just wanted to put that out there so people would know that the president responded to that recording. But, jacob, from your perspective, especially what not only President Trumps sister, but a former federal judge, what she had to say about whats happening at the border, your reaction . First, good to be with you, jonathan. Its nice to see you. My reaction was i think the same as a lot of people, it is incredible to see that the sister of the president of the United States who perpetrated what physicians for human rights, the Nobel Peace PrizeWinning Organization called torture, she sees it the same way many of us do, exactly for what it was. And mary trump said she wrote her book because of the familys separation policy and what it did. It wasnt just torture in the words of physicians for human rights, but it was government sanctioned child abuse in the words of American Academy of pediatrics. Ms. Barry, who was a judge, sees it from that perspective, having dealt with immigration cases, the cruelty for exactly what it was. If i want to hit people to an exclusive you had on thursday that was breathtaking. Trump cabinet officials voted in 2018, white house meeting, to separate migrant children, say officials. If we dont enforce this, its the end of our country we know it. Stephen miller, according to officials president at a white house meeting. Youve been covering this story for the very beginning. Again, your reaction to finding out yet another piece of this puzzle . Whats particular fascinating, jonathan, about the exclusive that we reported on late last week is that this event, the show of hands, literally, meeting in the white house situation room that Stephen Miller called for to move forward with widescale family separations and there were family separations that had happened at that point, happened at the exact moment that President Trumps sister was telling her niece about how reprehensible that she felt the policy was. And what we uncovered by talking to two people in this room, Senior Administration officials, not just Senior Administration officials, but cabinetlevel officials including secretary of state mike pompeo, john bolton, alex azar invited to the meeting as the secretary of health and human services, Stephen Miller said it was unamerican not to move forward with the family separation policy. Kirstj Kirstjen Nielsen kept her hand down. But there was opposition that this would cause children to have a century of suffering. And they moved forward with the policy anyway with the stroke of secretary nielsens pen. Its unbelievable to me having covered it, seen it with my own eyes that this is ultimately the Inflection Point right there in the white house situation room where basically it was put your hands up or down whether or not were going to move forward with this thing. And Stephen Miller was successful in they moved forward with the zero tolerance policy. And you write in the story, any moral argument about immigration fell on death ears. Incredible reporting in this book. Jacob soboroff, thank you very much for being here. Thanks. Donald trumps chief of staff reacts to the bombshell recordings of trumps sister. More a. M. Joy coming up. But i know what time it is. [whispering] its Grilled Cheese oclock. Ive never met the judge. I was at the funeral the other day, i was hoping to meet her there. She didnt show up for her brothers funeral and the president that i have the privilege of serving is not the one thats being described on a 15hour, i guess is what im reading, secret tape. What Family Member tapes another Family Member for 15 hours secretly . White house chief of staff mark meadows dismissed the secret audio in which his bosss sister said her brother had, quote, no principles among other things. Barry was taped by her niece, mary trump, in conversations in 2018 and 2019. The Washington Post published some of those recordings last night. Elsewhere on the air waves nancy pelosi weighed in. Its heartbreaking to think that a Family Member of the president of the United States would have that view of him. Calls everything a hoax which is just a projection of what he is, a hoax and this is further evidence of his in authenticity and lack of integrity. Joining me now, my league, Michele Norris and back with us, Michael Steele and elise jordan. After hearing that statement from mark meadows on the sunday shows, i keep thinking, thanksgiving dinner in the trump house is going to be lit. Well, possibly. Lets just say from the outstart, the family lost they buried one of their brothers this week. I dont agree with this president nor his policies but i offer condolences because losing a sibling can feel like losing an appendage. And another sibling, its revealed that she said these very unvarnished things about her brother which are not surprising because they comport with so much of what weve seen and heard over his administration. Families are really complicated. Most people know that. But in this case apparently she felt comfortable enough with her niece to share this and its interesting that she has not stepped forward to rebuke this in the time that this has surfaced. Shes letting it hang out there so we understand this. But i will say one last thing. In trumps response, he said that every day is Something Else. And thats actually something i agree with, a statement from him. Every day there is Something Else and all of this including the statement from judge barry is a distraction that takes us away from the things we should focusing on, competency, cruelty, corruption, collusion and quite possibly the questions about the accuracy of the vote count in november. Elise, the thing that stood out to me about mark meadows statement is the fact that she pushed the president s sister under the bus by noting offhand that he didnt meet her. I guess she decided not to show up at her own brothers funeral. There was Something Else that came out in a white house statement about the secret recording where they refer to Mary Ann Barry as, quote, an elderly relative. What do you make of the fact that the white house seems to be going to war for lack of a better description, with the president s sister . Are you kidding me . Donald trump has herald his sister on so many occasions for being a judge of renowned and hes not going to be able to distance himself from his sisters, even though of course hell try to. One other thing i would like to just i have to pick a bone with that mark meadows said was criticizing the secret recording, who would record a Family Member. If you read the book, you kind of get why she might have a secret recording of any of her aunts and uncles because they cheated her out of hundreds of millions of dollars in a nasty family inheritance suit. And she never really had recourse from that. So when you look at everything that happens, revenge comes. It might be best served cold, but it eventually comes. And i think thats what mary trump has decided that putting country over family and disregarding the lies and telling the truth is much more important of a service to the American Public. Chairman steele, i want to shift gears here. Have you listen to what chad wolf had to say about voting. Watch this. Has the president discussed with you deploying any of your Law Enforcement agents to serve as poll watchers . No, absolutely. He has not. Thats not what we do at the department of homeland security. We have Law Enforcement authorities and Law Enforcement officers at the department. We have express authorities given to us by congress and this is not one of them. We do a lot of protection across the country, through a lot of different circumstances including portland and other cities, but this is not a mission for the department of homeland security. Chairman steele, am i wrong in not feeling terribly confident in the acting secretary and his promises that no, no, no, dont worry . No, i dont think you should be confident in his words there. Going back about a month ago, who were all of these Law Enforcement officials without badges and insignias who were out there jacking up folks in Lafayette Park and other places around the country . So this is a serious issue that needs to be discussed out in the open, put as much light on it as possible simply because we know that this election is going to go through it by any and every means necessary that donald trump can think of. There is a reason why this reporting, jonathan, is already out here. Reporters arent making this up. They have sources that are telling them what the schema is, what the plan is, what the thinking is in parts of this administration. That there will be Law Enforcement type style individuals who will show up at certain polling places on election day. We as citizens need to be concerned about and as much light as we can put on that now, we can be prepared for what will come. This is the reason why i asked chairman steele this question. Have a listen to what President Trump said to sean hannity on thursday on fox. Have a listen. Were going to have everything, were going to have sheriffs and were going to have Law Enforcement and were going to have hopefully u. S. Attorneys and were going to have everybody, attorneys general. Michele norris, that to me, just to hear the president of the United States say that there are going to be sheriffs and Law Enforcement at polling places chills the blood. Is it the question is, is he talking about accuracy, making sure people can have access to the polls, or is he talking about intimidation . I leave it to the viewer to figure out what hes possibly talking about. To contextualize what Michael Steele just said, we have to look at what happened in 2016 and project what we possibly are facing in 2020. We know that there was interference in the 2016 election. We know that many of the election systems were hacked. We know that there are projected problems with mailin and absentee voting because of the slowdowns at the u. S. Postal service. Instead of taking steps to produce more accuracy, what were hearing is the language of intimidation which goes directly to the heart of american democracy. Democracy is on the ballot in november and im tempted to say in october. The election this year is really an october event because of the way we now have to think about voting early. Elise, yesterday, this is also along the lines of voting, yesterday the house was in session and passed a bill to help the post office. Have a listen to how mark meadows the chief of staff characterized it. The 25 billion largely messing bi messaging bill has nothing to do with voting, it has everything to do with a political statement. The speaker said she wasnt willing to do anything piecemeal, yet we have a piecemeal legislation on saturday. Why didnt she do support for Small Businesses . Why didnt she come in and do money for education and day care . I mean, elise, all those things the chief of staff is talking about, the house already did, its called the hero. E. R. O act and they passed it in may and sitting in the senate. Why wont they move on this . Well, jonathan, when youre a senator and you get a vacation until midseptember during a pandemic that is killing upwards of 170,000 americans, you dont get much done. And thats why mark meadows pointed out its not going to go anywhere. But i think there should be pressure put on republicans to act and to keep this country running and functioning in the middle of a pandemic. And i understand that we all like to go home and spend time in his districts, but its absolutely ridiculous that Mitch Mcconnell isnt calling his senate back into session earlier. Michael steele, final word to you, at 6 00 p. M. , the president of the United States is going to be saying something about a therapeutic advance or whatever. What are you expecting from him . You know, ill go back with what was mentioned earlier. Im hoping that it is something and i believe elise made this point, that is, you know, important and will move us closer to getting ahead of this virus. My concern in the truth lies more in the fact that this is going to be an opportunity for the president to begin to showcase himself in sort of the leadup to the convention, to show that how engaged and how important he is to solving this issue. And i think americans will just shake their head. I think theyve stopped relying on the president to come forward with anything real. The scientists are telling us, theres no miracle cure thats going to get announced at the end of august, people. It aint happening. All right . And so this is just really more part of the reality tv dog and pony show which is why, you know, from the Postal Service to the process of voting itself, its so important that americans if youve never gotten off your behind to engage in the process of voting before, if you arent motivated to do that now, then i dont know what will. Becau because, folks, this is the crucible moment where the citizens have a responsibility to take control of the government they want. Our government is made up of people, us, we the people, not donald trump, not institutions, not mark meadows, not Mitch Mcconnell. Call the senate back. Lets get the nations Business Done in the middle of this and not lets do this sort of, guess what im dangling behind my back and showing it a little bit here and showing a little bit there. So i think well just see what happens and we can hope for the best. But weve been there before. Michael steele, Michele Norris, elise jordan, thank you very much for coming on the show today. Thanks. Up next, a very special who won the week. We made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and mike. An army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. Plan matters more than ever. Unitedhealthcare Medicare Advantage plans have so much to take advantage of. See a doctor from the comfort and safety of home with zero copay. Call today to get more of the care you need. Weave weve reached that time of o the week again. Who won the week . This week was already won four days ago, so this week, there was no competition. Last time i sat in this chair, i had the pleasure of hosting a panel of five of the 122 black or multiracial black women running for congress this cycle. One of those won by a landslide on tuesday. Heres what she had to say about her plan for americas future. Joining me now is that person. The democratic candidate for floridas 18th congressional district. Pam keith. Welcome back to the show. Congratulations. Thank you so much, jonathan. Its such a pleasure to be here. A delight. So, i said in this script that you won overwhelmingly. Theres overwhelming and then theres by how much you won by. How much did you win by . I won 80 of the vote. Wait. Say that again. 80 . You got 80 of the vote. We saw you there talking and standing in the back of a pick up truck. We heard part of your message. Why do you think your message resonated so overwhelmingly . Well, i think part of it is that im a very straight talking person and i always start with, whats going on with you and your life . How do i make sure that when im speaking to voters, im speaking about the things that are going on in their life. Yes, i like to tell my story. I like to tell them my plan, but my plans are irrelevant if they dont match up with the people are actually experiencing and that is how i began this process in politics. To start always talking to people about whats on their minds, in their lives, their future, and thats why they responded so positively. And i built a track record of doing that. And so im so pleased. You know, i thought we were in a strong position that i couldnt have anticipated 80 . Could not. What were your internal polls showing you . Internal polls. I know theyre expensive, but if you had one, what were you internal polls showing you at the time. Well, at the time, showing that i had a 35 you know, you know, of the people that both myself and my opponent, there were a lot of people who didnt know either one of us. I ran for the seat in 2018 and i did not have the big money. All i had was grass roots organizing. All i had was this team of amazing, engaged volunteers that just went all over the district. I gave so many speeches. So many town halls and gave out cards at the county fair and so all i really had was the grass roots with me. And i didnt know what ld look like when my opponent and i both started to spend on commercials and things like that. Well, pamela keith, congressional candidate, you, too, will find out in 71 days whether you have won the election. Real fast, whats that website again . Pamkeithfl. Com. Keith like keith richard. Pam keith of florida. Thank you so much for coming back to the show. Congratulations again. Thank you so much. And that is our show for today. Thank you for watching and i hope to see you one day soon. Next up, alex whit has the latest, including new details on the dangers of the Conspiracy Theorys. S of the Conspiracy Theorys. So you only pay for what you need . I should get a quote. Do it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. With safe, convenient service. Were here for you tech well come right to you. Upbeat music tech youll get a text when were on our way. Tech before we arrive, just leave your keys on the dash. Well replace your windshield with safe, nocontact service. Upbeat music tech and thats service you can trust when you need it the most. Upbeat music tech schedule at safelite. Com. Upbeat music singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Shingles doesnt care. 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Shingles doesnt care. Turns out its mostly water. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. Daughter slurping dont pay for water. Pay for clean. Its got to be tide. Its just about high noon here in the east. 9 00 a. M. Out west. Welcome to all of you. Trump family drama goes public. The president s sister recorded saying he has no principles. But does the president s character matter to voters . The qanon threat. A former fbi assistant director is going to tell me what troubles him most about the group. Countermessage. How biden and harris plan to contrast trumps week with the Republican National convention. And what was she like in the way back . College classmates of Kamala Harris will talk to me, but we begin to bombshell secret recordings of trumps sister sharply criticizing him. She spoke with the president s niece, mary trump, for hours. I believe it was 15 in total back across 2018 and 2019. Apparently, unaware she was recorded, but she was saying things like this