Way, quote, by thursday morning it was clear that mr. Trump had no intention of conceding that he was wrong about alabama. At a tweet at 6 39 a. M. , the president accused of media of not giving the hurricane the attention it deserves. And they said the president sco harms way and the president is focused on covering up a mistake he made. This is part of a pattern of two trump phenomenons, lying and doubling down. The Washington Post is out with a piece chronicling other low points in the trump administrations war on truth t began on day one of his presidency when trump sent his press secretary out to defend his claims about the inaugural crowd size. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period, both in person and around the globe. That was how trumps posttruth presidency started and the administration would later go on to tweet doctored video in order to support trumps punishment of journalists and convene a commission to back up trumps baseless claims that widespread voter fraud of the 2016 election cost him the popular vote. This crisis afforded another conversation and its one that has been whispered in a few rare instances. The president has not yet has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence he needs to demonstrate to be successful. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and count nance of telling it like it is when its just actually reckless, outrageous and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else, it is dangerous to a democracy. Dangerous to a democracy is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Former democratic congresswoman Donna Edwards joins us. Former assistant director for counterintelligence at the fbi, Frank Figliuzzi is back. With us from the New York Times chief White House Correspondent peter baker. At the tame rick stengel, former managing editor of time mack scene who worked with machines state department. Plus, executive editor from bloom opinion, tim obrien. Tim, i will start with you because you have been chronicling donald trump the liar longer than all of us together. But as someone who worked in the white house and state department, there are still moments like the president holding up a doctored image of a storm path that continue to rattle and shake whats left of our norms. You know, i dont think its just about lying. Lying is an outcome of other things that trouble the president of the United States. For all of his blusters, hes a deeply insecure man and there are certain things that trigger him around that. His wealth, his intelligence and on and on. And what happened i think with alabama is he made a mistake that another person might have made, and had he been secure, had he about confident in who he is, he would have simply said, im sorry, i wish well for the people of alabama. Lets move on. I made a mistake. Then abc called him out on it and he doubled down. P then he got in this tug of war, on a whole range of subjects, for 70 of the 73 years of his life, youre rig of im youre wrong. He cant do that because inside of himself he knows hes not competent, he knows hes not informed, hes aware hes an ignorant person. Whats happening now is hes on an international stage. Hes never occupied the spotlight in quite this way. And everything thats led up to this moment, weve talked about this before, the way hes been insulated in the past from the consequences of his own mistakes, first by wealth and then celebrity and now the presidency. Hes never had to learn how to analyze himself and grow. Instead what he does is simply digs in. I think theres been sort of a range of issues that weve seen already that he hasnt let go. Comey came up in the midst of all of this. I think jim comey is wrong when he says its narcissism. I think this is more about insecurity and a psychological, troubled psychology. And not one of us is capable of diagnosing anybody. Peter baker, your colleague annie karni was on this show yesterday as this story was beginning to break open. She mentioned some of the small things he lies about, the president saying that he never called tim Cook Tim Apple when he had done exactly that on tape. We looked back at an interview we did with rick reilly, who wrote a book about trump who lies and cheats about golf. But i know for your body of journalism, not just your current capacity but you have been in moscow, you covered the middle east, and i think more alarming than false statements about the weather and size of crowds are faltrumps false cla like meeting kim jongun and theres no longer, quote, a Nuclear Threat from north korea. A threat that didnt age well after north korea fired off a series of missile tests just in the last few months. Claims trump dismissed them as very standard, even as his intelligence officials expressed alarm. There was also the killing of the Washington Post reporter jamal khashoggi. Trumps cia blamed saudi arabias crown prince. Trump allegedly gave him a pass. We are going to leave nothing uncovered. With that being said, the king firmly denied any knowledge of it. He didnt really know, maybe i dont want to get into his mind but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows . We will try getting to the bottom of it very soon. But his was a flat denial. Finally, the break with reality heard around the world, trumps acceptance of Vladimir Putins denial that russian interferes in our election. They said they think its russia. I have president putin. He just said its not russia. I will say this, i dont see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. Peter baker . Look, every president to some extent creates a narrative for their career for their presidency oh, come on no, let me finish, what you dont see is a president whose nar tifb is so impervious to outside facts. What donald trump does is create his own reality. Anthony scaramucci, before he broke with President Trump said he creates his reality distortion field around him. He bends reality to suit his own need, his own desires, his own points of view. If other people say alabama is not in the storm range and he said it is, its going to be in the storm range as long as he has anything to say about it. You played several examples where hes not willing to listen to other peoples analysis, other peoples facts, other peoples information because hes already decided in his own mind what he wants the story to be. And its impervious to the sort of outside opinions. Very rarely do you see him ever back off. I was stunned about a week or so ago, the only time i could remember in recent months that where the president actually backed off, he said Melania Trump knew kim jongun well and thought highly of him. The white house was forced to put out a statement saying actually she hasnt met him. But he felt she knew him. That was his statement. And that justified his statement. And thats how President Trump operates. If he feels like something is true, then its true. Tim obrien knows this better than anybody. In depositions for your lawsuit he said he felt his worth was higher than tim reported in his book and the fact he felt that way made it so. Tim, peter is right. Listen, i think the value of people that have been around other administrations is the capacity to compare trump to that which is normal. But i wonder if thats the wrong exercise with trump . I wonder if we should be comparing him to other people who are delusional instead of other president s who were normal . I dont think you can compare him to another president in the modern era. People brought up the lawsuit. The interesting thing about this lawsuit is he sued me on things i could demonstrably prove to be correct and they were. It wasnt in his strategic interest to sue a New York Times report irther that would me free representation and my book publisher gave me representation as well. Yes, we had you on with him. Yes. And liz smith, a congresswoman from texas said, you know honey, the only thing you need to know about donald trump is hes a 7yearold who never grew old. And thats a pretty good working way to understand where hes coming from. Because kids when they get into a fight dont think about whats good in the long term. How should they constructively work their way out of this to get to a good resolution . What he thinks is theres a thing in front of me now, i dont like it, im going to strangle it to the ground. Even if its not in my selfinterest to do this. Thats why i keep doubling down on this bonkers claims about alabama. Frank figliuzzi, what i keep thinking about when we see the president with his hand on an image doctored by a black sharpie is so that was a lie that was brought to light because the president held it. All of the things that he does on tape are lies that we know about because he does them on tape. What do you think the sort of scope of the iceberg is underwater . What is happening behind the scenes . To understand how dangerous this could become, and may have already become, i think, nicolle, its important to view the lies through the proper lens. Trump is lying not because the truth is inconsistent with how we view him but rather the truth is inconsistent with how he wants to be viewed and how he wishes things were. So hes manufacturing an illusion. The illusion on the National Security side is simply that we have no serious adversaries, everything is fine, nothing to see here. Im the savior of the world, kind of a demagogue, not unlike kim jongun. Ive got things under control. Anything contrary to that is a problem. How will that mast afest itself, as you say kind of below the surface on the National Security realm and with our allies . I will give you a quick antidote. I bought a house one time in a great neighborhood, i did my homework and i noticed quickly after i moved in, nobody was locking their doors, people were leaving cars unlocked, front doors, scooters, bikes, mopeds on the lawns. When i started ask people why, they said we dont have a crime problem here. Everything is fine here. This is an incredibly safe street. Within a short amount of time, the bad guys who had been robbing homes and breaking into cars a few blocks away realized theres a street that never locks doors and they took advantage and things started disappearing out of garages and cars. Whats my point . Our adversaries are looking at this and saying no ones locking their doors at the United States. The president think theres no problem. Hes projecting this illusion of no problem. North korea is a friend. Russia is a friend. All good. Saudi crown prince didnt kill anybody. When that happens you get exploited, and the truth bites you in the rear end and it hurts badly. Donna edwards, there is a truth that hurts pretty badly, im told, when the president focuses on it. This is from peters colleague michael crowley, who writes in todays the New York Times, President Trump heads into the closing months of the year before he faces reelection without a clear policy agenda and with an uphill path at achieving any major accomplishments before he faces voters. As official washington returns to work, it is unclear if mr. Trump tends to focus his time and attention on his policy goals or whether he will step into a full bore campaign mode, escalating attacks on his political rivals perfect and spurning traditional governance. Whats your money on, donna . Look, im not spending my money on donald trump. But if theres any indication if this week is any indication of where the president is headed, hes going to continue to be in this muck of madeup stories that are the result of his incompetence or his ego or his incoherence. So i think that going in to as Congress Comes back into session, there are real tlipgs that have to be done but things that could have been on the president s agenda like lower Prescription Drug costs, rebuilding the nations infrastructure, all of those sings are set aside because the president isnt able to focus really for 30 seconds on something thats really important to the American People. When i look at this with alabama, what i see is the president who sometimes lies because its inconvenient and doesnt match his truth, but sometimes these lies actually have real consequences. Alabama could have if they paid attention to the president might have started moving resources. People get afraid, theyre calling friends and families in the carolinas and along the coast to make sure theyre okay. And so we shouldnt just dismiss these things as though theyre not important. And i want to laugh at the sharpie too but unfortunately for the American People, the time for this president and laughing is really over. And i dont see him accomplishing anything from now until the end of this next part of the congressional session. Rick . Yes, theres a lot to process here. I have to say i agree with donna in a sense the sharpiegate is sort of comical. When you told the liz smith story, it made me think of harry and the purple crayon, the 4yearold boy who created his own reality with a purple crayon. Thats essentially what donald trump does. But frank was saying also this idea that the president of the United States all told the truth, not beholden to the truth, that gives permission to World Leaders all over the planet, egalitarians do not tell the truth. The way the president s word is gold that we used to parse every word in a sentence every president used to say and their spokes people. It held people to a higher standard. My whole book about disinformation, donald trump is the disinformationist in chief. Hes the leading cause of disinformation coming from one person on a global stage. Its really incredible and influences every place down and it makes the truth something that people question. The other point about what the russians do is not so much they want you to believe what theyre saying, they want you to disbelieve everybody else and thats what trump does too. Were joined by my friend al roker. I have to say, al, you were on this store bringing because it started as a weather story. This did not start as a trump story or political story, it started as something that alarmed you because it was Bad Information about a storm. Yes, and that was the problem. I remember looking and seeing a picture of him being briefed with the actual graphic in the white house on the 29th. It was there. And then to see that, it was like wait. The fact of the matter is, look, whatever you want to say about what he did or didnt do, the fact is people go to what they consider their trusted sources, National Weather service from alabama said no, this is not a problem. So they knew where to go. I dont think people made decisions based on what the president said. And lets hope just now he has tweeted for the fifth time today, we had hoped to move on to cover the storm and weather to cover people in the United States but he has, since weve been on the air, tweeted a fifth time today about alabama. So how about some real news . Heres the deal. And this is an interesting storm in that its been very slow moving and its given the good news is its giving people time to prepare. Unfortunately for our friends in the bahamas, the thing sat on top of them 51 hours. But this is starting to pick up speed. Its a category 2 storm 55 miles southeast of myrtle beach, strong a strong category 2 moving northnortheast at 8. What we talked about nicolle yesterday, worried about tornadoes, we have tornado watches and tornado warnings going on not just along the coast but inland as well. As we told you, just because you dont live on the coast, do not think that you are out of the woods because this is still a powerful storm that is going to be affecting this area for the next 24 hours. Heres the track right now. It takes it along the coast, may have a landfall late tonight, early tomorrow along wilmington and then maybe moorhead city possibly, Cape Hatteras by friday morning. Still category 2, 100mileperhour winds. Then rockets off, moves off the coast by friday and were still talking about it. There are Tropical Storm watches for new england. So we could see some wet weather, some very heavy winds and strong storm surge. In fact myrtle beach today, wind gusts up to 85 miles per hour. Weve already seen some sustained wind gusts of 100 miles per hour. A storm surge five to eight feet, rainfall 10 to 15 inches. The storm continues making its way up the coast and then wilmington, tonight and into tomorrow morning, your winds 60 to 95 miles per hour. Storm surge of 47 feet, rainfall 8 to 12 inches and then from Cape Hatteras early friday morning, we may see landfall there and it continues to make its way to the northeast. Look at this, late friday into saturday, long island, cape cod, 35 to 55mileperhour winds, periods of heavy rain and minor coastal flooding. But the big deal still, nicolle, is storm surge where you have the preponderance of deaths and tornadoes to worry about as it makes its way up the coast. The dangerous thing about the tornadoes is theyre rainwrapped, it will be at night and people will not see them. They will spin up very quickly. It is a powerful storm and the people still need to pay heed to their local officials. Those folks that they trust to give them the right information, and they need to worry about coastal flooding as well. Its just a category 2 but that can there can be a lot of damage done with that. I hate everything about the storm. Im so sad for the people of bahamas but i love seeing your face every day, my friend. Thank you for spending time with us. When we come back, how Donald Trumps mendacity traveled to chaos on the world stage. New reporting of trumps impact of ignorance and stability in the middle east and beyond. And also ahead, donald trump plans to announce u. S. P military families will be taking their children on their next deployment, he might have explaining to do of robbing the military of funds to build day care facilities and schools, all so he could build his wall. Biden seeks to laugh it off, explaining to Stephen Colbert he gets the big things right. A new poll voters show by and large they accept his explanation. 247, its not just easy. Its havingjeromebettis onyourflagfootballteam easy. Go get em, bus ohhhh [laughing] cmon bus, cmon hey, wait, wait, wait hey man, i got your flag i got your flag, man i got your flag its geico easy. With licensed agents available 24 7. 49 nothing woo donald trump churns on the world stage ranged from disastrous, think helsinki to rude, think pushing aside the leader of montenegro, a nato ally to cringeworthy, think well last week when he offered this unusual message to poland on the anniversary of world war ii. I just want to congratulate poland. Its a great country with great people. We also have many polish people in our country. It could be 8 million. We love our polish friends. Donald trumps big Foreign Policy plays includele forays into two parts of the world where his touch is anything but golden, north korea in the middle east, trumps constant sucking up to kim jongun, north koreas murderous dictator is not working out for the United States as pointed out by gop strategist rick tyler. He notes how his record on north korea compares to his predecessors, zero, the number of missiles fired over japan compared to president obama. Two, the number of missiles kim fired over japan under trump. Now kim has solidfuel mobile rockets. You know why . Trump is a little pony dictators like the ride for the fun of it. End quote. And then the matter of the middle east, news the middle east envoy is departing for any achievable progress on a peace plan there. New York Magazine is out with a report on the u. S. israeli relationship. They conclude this about trumps determination to mention the iran deal. Quote, trumps withdrawal from the deal compounded by tevents f riept months has revived fears, not just israel can take military action against iran, but also all of the parties can stumble into a conflict out of hubris, miscalculation or ignorance. Joining our merry band, ron klain, former chief of staff for Vice President s al gore and joe biden and now adviser to former Vice President joe bidens campaign. I want to start with peter baker because this reporting from his colleagues is i think one of the most in depth looks, goes back to my old boss george w. Bushs conversations and inside the rooms, if you will, in those highlevel meetings at the israelis on the topic of iran and potential military strike goes inside the pros and cons, if you will, the former president obamas approach to keeping secret the initial negotiations with iran over that nuclear deal from the israelis. And then to this very this view that seems to be held by a lot of former intelligence folks that whether he wants war or not, donald trump sort of ignorance combined with incompetence may result in a strike in iran, whether we want it or not. Yes, look, i think one thing this story reminds you of is how much we dont know. How much in the american israeli conversation is still shrouded in secrecy and mystery going back years. And how close we had come at various moments to a much bigger conflict in the middle east than we already have right now. Israel, of course, is striking hezbollah in lebanon but this augers from a much larger conflict, much dangerous one. Iran is a formidable foe and if it became open warfare that would involve potential American Forces as well, thats a very different thing. You correctly said in your intro there donald trump may not want this. Thats one thing thats pretty interesting about this president , as bellicose as he is, as much as he exudes hostility towards countries like iran, he actually is not as interested in pulling the trigger as you would think. A couple months ago or month ago, i guess, he pulled back on that strike against iran when they downed an american surveillance plane, said he didnt want to cause casualties he was told would be caused. I think thats a real interesting dichotomy within his administration. He doesnt want to be involved in these foreign entanglements as part of his political message in the 2016 campaign and yet because he pulled out of the nuclear deal t. S, it set the s for a slippery slope, even though thats not what he wants. Ron klain, its a great piece of reporting and includes this quote, President Trump cannot expect to be unpredictable and expect others to be predictable. Thats from zarif, irans foreign minister. He said in august unpredictability will lead to future unpredictability and unpredictability is chaotic. As you all know, this is a part of the world where chaos is, as peters saying and this piece points out, chaos and unpredictability and often lead to pretty tragic results. Yes, trump is pretty much practicing the inverse Teddy Roosevelt doctrine, he speaks very loudly and is reluctant to use the stick. Carries a small stick . Small stick. And as a result we are seeing behavior we will see from the iranians, increasingly aggressive behavior from the iranians, seeing kim jongun fire missiles over japan and our ability as a world leader to contain hot spots is decreased by trump not only not showing resolve but coddling these leaders and making bellicose statements. The most interesting event over past three years is there hasnt been many interesting world events and trump had a break of not facing a crisis. But the toll is mounting here. Things are getting worse in iran, north korea, trade war getting out of control. How donald trump will deal with it when the bell finally rings, thats a very scary thing. Frank figliuzzi, you sort of pulled the curtain back on how folks in counterintelligence profile certain figures. I asked former brennan this question and others in the intel community, how would you profile donald trump . Yeah, i think it is helpful to think in those terms. Lets pretend, as many people would choose to, hes not the president of the United States, hes the leader of some other nation. How would we assess that . So first we spent the first plok talking about how he has to craft the truth and shape it so it fits his narrative, his image of himself. One of the things successors would focus on is his continual evidence both verbally and writing to himself in the third person. This is troubling on many levels. He will say things like donald j. Trump is hereby saying this. He doesnt say im saying this. And that is kind of it goes back to the first block, shaping things so hes something more powerful than human. Hes disembodying, hes distancing himself from reality and referring to himself almost as another entity. Where do we see that . We see that in places like north korea. Kim jongun and his predecessors all in the eyes of their citizens, are viewed as kind of demagogue. Somebody that could never be wrong because theyre god like. Someone who can never be criticized because theyre always right. The problem with that, with someone who has to be always right, even when theyre wrong, is that you lose the relevance and credibility amongst our allies and our adversaries view you as easily manipulated and as you giving them license to do whatever they wish. We are seeing that play out with putin and north korea. Frank, i guess back to some of the questions i had for you in the first block f. Had you to ask me from the outside who nailed the profile of donald trump the best, it would be the saudis who put a picture of him up on the side of a hotel, they did the dancing. He touched the orb. Then lo and behold when khashoggi ends up slaughtered, Donald Trumps on the front lawn saying no, no, dont believe gina haspel. Dont believe what you see. Dont believe what you hear. I believe rogue killers. In plain view the quid, the pro and the quo are right there. Do they have to think very hard to profile donald trump . No, hes easily manipulated by courting him and stroking the ego. We see that with state visits. We see the red carpet rolled out. We see it with north korea. Think about how often trump mentions those lovely letters, beautiful letters coming from kim jongun. Those are ego strokers. Kim jongun figured him out and as a result has been able to fire off missile after missile without any retribution. Its a very simple equation with him, stroke the ego, you get what you want. Rick stengel, heaven forbid we should end up in a military crisis with iran, i think well be combing through this the New York Times magazine piece, all of us, to understand the history not just under donald trump but under president obama, how that relationship how the sort of tectonic plates pressed hard. Maybe it was reported in the piece as a divide between the cheney camp and push camp in terms of how far to go. But what do you make of all of the buckets of sleeping as yet realized crises on the horizon on the Foreign Policy front for this white house . Well, i agree with rons point. Weve been blessed in a way to not have a crisis but the problem is donald trump was like the boy who throws his hat over the wall, hes creating something that will eventually become a crisis. Like hes not bellicose as peter said. He doesnt necessarily want to shoot missiles. But putting himself in a situation with iran, for example, where it becomes this tit for tat. And as a guy who is so insecure and has to double down on everything, he cant at the end of the day go over and talk to them, i have to do something. And be an oldfashioned government person. Part of the reason we did all of these things and everything is a stepbystep process is so you didnt get in a position you had to do something you didnt want to do. Hes constanting getting himself into this situation of doing something he doesnt want to do because of this cavernous insecurity. We should somehow be able to test people for being insecure and only elect secure people to office. Insecure people are the worst people to govern and we have the most insecure person in the universe in the oval office. I think the guy whos running for president talking about the size of his hands probably was a real tipoff about the insecurity thing. Im not even going to go there. As a table, we will say it told us gals everything we needed to know. Frank figliuzzi and peter breaker, thank you both for spending some time with us. After the break, headlines from around the country that tells the story. Donald trump raiding the military budget for his big, beautiful wall. 9. 95 at my age . 9. 95 . No way. 9. 95 . Thats impossible. Hi, im jonathan, a manager here at Colonial PennLife Insurance company, to tell you it is possible. If youre age 50 to 85, you can get Life Insurance with options starting at just 9. 95 a month. Okay, jonathan, im listening. Tell me more. Just 9. 95 a month for Colonial Penns number one most popular whole Life Insurance plan. There are no Health Questions to answer and there are no medical exams to take. Your acceptance is guaranteed. Guaranteed acceptance . I like guarantees. Keep going. And with this plan, your rate is locked in for your lifetime, so it will never go up. 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Source said, quote, the Department Said it was holding often on over 400 million in funding for construction productions open the island including Power Substation and National Guard readiness center. Puerto rico is the only nonmexico entity paying for trumps cheap campaign promise. In all the diversions will impact 23 states. So today millions of people across the country woke up to local headlines like this, ones that get specific on how trumps wall would affect them in their communities. That includes pivotal swing states, 17 million from a Florida Air Force base, 8 million from a wisconsin military project and the list goes on and on and on. Donna and the team is back. Donna, we pored over this local coverage and its really staggering. Donald trump seems to be in such a defensive crouch with the loudest elements of his base that he may very well be sabotaging his own political prospects in the states where hes robbing from military spending, things like day care facilities for the children of american men and women who serve in the armed forces, stealing from funding for schools to pay for a wall he shut down the government over and still didnt get funding from congress for. Thats right. And it actually goes deeper than that because in addition to the fact meez military projects many of these projects actually take years before they make their way up the list from military construction. Some of them are for construction needs that happen as a result of natural disasters. And then others of them really mean local jobs. So when you lose 8 million here or 38 million there, thats also about the local jobs that come with the construction project on these military facilities which are of on tten center of gravity for Economic Development in an area or region and certainly within states. So i think this is a real problem. Individual members of congress, i know when i represented joint base andrews and ft. Mead, i fought for the msg Construction Projects because they were important to the facilities but also important for the local economy. And members coming back next week into congress are going to be faced with having to look down the line and say where are we going to get this money to do this . And they need to start congress has to start reinforcing its constitutional role with the power of the purse. They cannot continue and allow the president to jump over their constitutional responsibility. You know, this sort of makes me wonder, and we stopped asking the question, oh, where are the republicans . Theyre all zombies. But this may wake some of those zombies up because im old enough to remember how important earmarks and pork barrel spending. People having military pride. There are a handful of things that members of congress probably think should still be sacred. And im guessing for these republicans coming back next week, these may be among the things they thought even donald trump wont bleep with. You know, this is now things are going to come home to roost by everyone who stood on the sidelines and thought they could have a frictionfree inconsequential Trump Presidency that wouldnt affect their own constituents or way theyre living. And all of these public legislators will get phone call theres their own constituents who dont want to see these projects leave their districts, first and foremost. As donna pointed out, trumps also subverting the constitution to do this. Hes pursuing a wall that will not take out the goals he made for it. Hes waging a trade war with china thats also illinformed and that will cause higherpriced goods for. Whom live in those same districts where the projects are disappearing. The phones will ripping off the hook and i hope that finally makes the people who thought they didnt have to speak out against donald trump realize the worst kind of consequence that will land on them now will be an electoral consequence. You advised joe biden. Did joe biden think it was a mistake for the house not to proceed with impeachment . This is textbook abuse of power. When the Southern District of new york describes you as an unindicted coconspirator and nothing happens, when bob mueller finds ten acts of criminal injustice of others and nothing happens, if im donald trump i will continue to abuse my power and commit crimes because no one will do anything. Look, i think House Democrats are doing something. Theyre conducting investigations, issuing subpoenas, going to court, going through a process to build the case against President Trump, as they should be. Theyre putting it together and i think were seeing new steps taken almost every day. Should they have done that the day he was named an unindicted coconspirator . I think they just took control of congress this year. They didnt have the power before. Theyre getting there and building the case. I hope they do it quickly and forcefully. The problem we have is we have a commander in chief who cares more about his Political Base than military bases and hes taking money from our armed forces to do something thats a political stunt. As tim alluded to, there will be political consequences not just for President Trump as there should be, but you put up a graph that said republican senators, north carolina, arizona, colorado in particular, that will see big cuts in projects in their states. I am going to tell you, that will be an issue in 2020. Lets put that back up for our friends who may be listening on the radio. This is senator tom tillis, i dont have my glass pz, anyone with better eyes than mine, mitch mcconnell, cory gardner and some of trumps closest buddies had big cuts, did 80 million, 30, 62 and 8 million respectively. And this is a question of constitutionali constitutionality separation of towers. I remember having to go talk to the appropriators of Senate Foreign relations nitti and they would say mr. Stengel, we inappropriated 1. 97 on paper cl clips and then wave a finger at you, you guys have to carry this out. They know its their brafrms power. They dont like the executive branch to make decisions overwilling to what they appropriated. That goes beyond party and may electrify some of those republicans. Are you holding your breath . Im holding my breath, yeah. Sfwh im done holding my breath. I would be dead by now. After the break, biden laughs it off. Voters do the same . In the last few weeks you confused New Hampshire for vermont, said Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in the late 70s, ensure us im not going nuts. Followup question, are you going nuts . Look, the reason i came on the jimmy what other people went through. The essence of it was absolutely true. The fact that i said i was Vice President well, in one case i was Vice President elect, the other case i was a senator. Okay. Im not sure thats relevant. But i dont get wrong things li like, you know, we should lock kids up in cages at the border. I mean, i dont, you know donna m. Taylor is back. Donna, my question for you is there does seem to be a whole lot more latitude given to joe biden by voters as reflected by all of the polls. I think hes at 42 in the most recent round of the national polls. There is a growing divide among sort of the donor class and those who see them constantly talk about the performance deficit. You know, i think theres a lot of talk that goes on, on our shows and things about this. Voters just dont care. I mean they believe the Vice President. They think that hes an honorable man. They think that he is you know, in the case of the medals that hes talking about other service and courage. Its not about himself or embellishing himself. I think that, you know, we can talk about this all day long, but voters simply dont care. And i ask, every time i run into somebody on the street, in the hair salon, anywhere i ask them about this and they throw their hands up and they say, what are you talking about . Joe bidens a good guy. I put those two halves out there because that is whats out there in the biden reporting. What donna said is 100 true. And i would go further. Not only do they not care about joe bidens gafs, their anger is directed at the media for covering them. Theres a lot of, i think, sort of feeling that the media is going to do to joe biden what people fooe fe people feel like the media did to hillary clinton. This has such emotional layers. Pr prepolling, theyre turning it on the media for creating something around which they feel is nothing when youre looking at running against donald trump. This has been kind of the but her emails of 2020. Joe biden is my friend, my candidate. Almost everyone agrees, a decent guy, a good guy. The soldier in question in the medal story told the Washington Post he did give me a medal. He looked me in the eye. Said i knew he understood. I knew he understood, yeah. When you have a president as hateful, as mean, as self centered as donald trump, the idea that joe biden is a decent guy who cares about people, who did go to the middle east and pin a medal on a soldier even if he got some of the details around the story wrong, shows kind of the core character of the man. In a character versus character battle, joe biden versus donald trump, i know who most of the American People are going to vote for. Not taking anything away, i agree with what donna and ron are saying, but let me just put out there a point of view articulated from some of the other campaigns. Elizabeth warren doesnt mix up details, beto orourke is out there, getting more of the specifics right. Does a rising tide lift all boats . Does the whole field benefit by cutting each other some slack or is this something that should continue to get attention . I think it should continue to get attention because facts matter and expertise matters. Elizabeth warrens assent in the polls because people recognize her as someone who does her homework, informed in a deep way on issues. Joe biden, i dont think its only about gafs. When he was questioned about his record, opposing the iraq war on npr, he misrepresented what his position was. That is a pure problem and cant be forgiven for that. Voters clearly are right now. Whether or not theyll continue to do that is a real danger to his campaign. We said that trump sort of gets this forgiveness wand from members of his own party and others because hes riding on top of a strong economy. Joe biden is getting a forgiveness wand right now because people see it as the most desirable alternative to donald trump. To be fair, i think its more than that. He grieved in the Public Square the trangic death of his wife ad young son. Its more than just hes better than trump. Ill let you respond. But let me just say i think hes on a deeper reservoir than hes better than trump. I think hes on the obama reservoir. Fair. Number of things help him. I think the issue there could be more depth there than im giving it credit for. What im raising is, how long does the forgiveness aura around him last . I think the problem with joe biden here in these situations is i dont think its going to go away. This is part of how he rolls. First of all, every candidate makes mistakes when they tell stories. All of them. All thechl m do. So do a lot of cable hosts. So do a lot of cable hosts. He did vote for the war in iraq. He said it was a mistake and he has talked about what he did to end the war in iraq and how he worked with president obama to bring our troops home. The difference is between he and donald trump, when he makes a mistake, will own up to it, apologize and try to make it better. That is a big difference. When somebody made a mistake, my mother would say his hearts in the right place. Bidens heart is in the right place. What youre talking about is, is there a competence gap . What you want ideally in a candidate is someone whose heart is in the right place and super, hyper competent, right . What people worry about with bidesen maybe hes not the latter. People worry about with mrs. Warren maybe shes competent but doesnt have the heart. We have to sneak in a break. 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Use this valuable guide to record your Important Information and give helpful direction about your final wishes to your loved ones. And its yours free. Its our way of saying thank you just for calling. So call now. My thanks to my guests and most of all to you. Mtp daily with chuck todd starts right now. If its thursday, dorian slams the carolina coast with high winds, flooding rain and tornadoes. Reporters on the ground. Well have the latest on the storm track. Big 5 00 p. M. Update. Plus the story of the Trump Presidency summed up in one little line. Its the true indelible mark of this administration. Sadly. And the call is coming from inside the house. More than 60 calls, actually. We tot