Of them just off the golf course. Many of them had a wineglass in hand. Some of them brought their kids. Many were not wearing masks. The president was played into the room to a recording of hail to the chief. Again, it was less a News Conference than it was a list of grievances, a dizzying slew of demonstrably false claims, including his latest version of how well he says the nation is doing while in the grip of a pandemic. Its going to disappear. In the United States, more than 80 of jurisdictions report declining cases. Were doing very well. You dont hear that too often from the media, but were doing very well. The reality is we are very close to 5 million coronavirus cases. Thats about the populations of the cities of houston and chicago combined. Over 161,000 people have died as of this friday night. Trump then rather stunningly said this about Health Insurance and preexisting conditions, already part of obamacare, which of course the president s trying to end. Over the next two weeks, ill be pursuing a major executive order requiring Health Insurance companies to cover all preexisting conditions for all customers. This has never been done before. Today the Labor Department reported the economy recovered nearly 2 million lost jobs. Unemployment now just over 10 . Were still in the grips of a cataclysmic downturn, the worst of the modern era. Many economists say the nation has a long way to go before its anywhere close to recovered from the shock of the pandemic and related lockdowns. Congressional democrats and the white house are at a stalemate over another round of coronavirus relief. Tonight trump blamed democrats for the talks collapsing while signaling hes ready to move ahead with executive orders, which hes promised before, using powers no one is sure he has. If democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, i will act under my authority as president to get americans the relief they need. And what were talking about is deferring the payroll tax for a period of months till the end of the year, and i can extend it at a certain period. Hopefully i will be here to do the job. Were going to enhance Unemployment Benefits through the end of the year. So Unemployment Benefits will be thats a big one will be brought out to the end of the year. And deferred student loan payments and forgive interest until further notice. So students who are paying Student Loans and in many cases theyre not even allowed to go back into their colleges. Extend the eviction moratorium. We will be extending that so people arent evicted. Not their fault. Are you concerned about the legality of these executive orders . No, not at all. No. Somebody well, you always get sued. Everybody h everything you do, you get sued. All of that, what you just heard, is tba. Lets fastforward, however. Here is how the event ended. Mr. President , you said that the pandemic is disappearing, but we lost 6,000 americans this week, and just in this room, you have dozens of people who are not following the guidelines in new jersey, which say [ audience booing ] youre wrong on that, because its a political activity. They have exceptions. Political activity, and its also a peaceful protest. So when you have and as you know [ cheers and applause ] you know, a number of and, to me, they look like they pretty much all have masks on. So thats about how that went. Earlier today we learned the u. S. Intelligence community believes russias trying to help trumps campaign. They in turn are trying to warn the public. A top intelligence official has released publicly what hes told lawmakers behind closed doors about other countries efforts to influence our 2020 election. The statement from the office of the director of National Intelligence says russia is, quote, using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President biden. Some kremlinlinked actors are also seeking to boost President Trumps candidacy on social media and russian television. It says china, quote, prefers that President Trump, whom beijing sees as unpredictable, does not win reelection. And about iran, they seek to undermine u. S. Democratic instituti institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of our 2020 elections. Here is how the president reacted to this report. The last person russia wants to see in office is donald trump because nobodys been tougher on russia than i have ever. Thats not what i dont care what anybody says. China would love us to have an election where donald trump lost to sleepy joe biden. They would dream they would own our country. If joe biden was president , china would own our country. Iran would love to see iran would love to see me not be president. If i didnt win the election in 2016, our country would now be maybe it would be over by now, but in war with north korea. Again, thats along the lines of how that went. Here for our leadoff discussion on a busy friday night, susan page, usa today Washington Bureau chief. Jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and pentagon, former chief counsel to house intel. And dr. Anne rimoin, professor of epidemiology at ucla where she runs the universitys center for global and immigrant health, specializing in emerging infectious diseases. Susan page, i need your overall reaction to this event today with country club guests making up the cheering section in the back. Again, you could hear people coughing occasionally. You could hear the occasional child in the background. The president portrayed himself to be the first president to protect preexisting conditions. And heres the New York Times take from the duo of carney and haberman. Away from gridlock in washington, trump puts on a show for his club. The president held what was billed as a News Conference, but there was almost no news. He again said the virus would disappear, and his audience seemed at times less the nation than his golf club members. Susan, over to you. So i think its distressing. I think the attitude toward a reporter asking a legitimate question was distressing. But i guess i think the bigger question is does this serve the president s purpose, which is to get reelected in november . And i would say this does not serve his purposes, his reelection purposes, because it does not portray him as focused on the issue that Americans Care about, which is this pandemic and its cost and its repercussions, and not identifying himself with what millions of americans are feeling, which is under stress, under fire, under siege, looking for leadership to help them get to the next place, a better place. So i think this may this is the kind of event that we think President Trump likes, gets him energized. Im not sure its one that is actually in his selfinterest. Meantime, jeremy bash, the house, we are told, is on fire. Absent a president in the fight, its a uniquely helpless feeling, isnt it, for the remaining few of us troubled by the idea that russia is actively engaged in a president ial election less than 90 days away. Who do we is there someone in Customer Service that, again, the small subset of us who still care about such things, who do we see about this . Yeah, where do we go to get our apology or our outrage, or our determination to protect Americas National security because, brian, russia got a fantastic return on their investment in 2016. Just think, i mean President Trump nearly pulled america out of nato, which would have certainly unraveled the Transatlantic Alliance that has kept europe and the United States free and kept russian aggression in check. Russian officials and their Intelligence Services paid bounties to the taliban to attack american forces. And of course the u. S. Didnt do anything about it. Trump didnt do anything about it, and russia has paid no price. And so russia has gotten a phenomenal return on their investment, and so it does not surprise me at all that they are engaged once again to denigrate President Trumps opponent in the election, joe biden, who of course is leading President Trump in the polls. And trumps response is, this is all a hoax. Theres nothing to see here. And, in fact, i would argue hes tacitly welcoming it because hes been on the phone with putin several times over the last several months, and not once has he confronted him over these intelligence reports, which were no doubt briefed to him before they were made public today, brian. Dr. Anne rimoin, the president said again today out loud and on camera, its disappearing. Its going to disappear. What does a Public Health official like yourself how do you process that . How do you continue to process that . And how should we treat such things spoken out loud by the president . Brian, you know, were coming again to this issue of disinformation, wishful thinking, and a lot of just rhetoric thats getting in the way of real science and Public Health. How does a Public Health person deal with this kind of information . You handle it by looking straight ahead at the facts and remembering the only way through this pandemic is exactly that, through it. And so what that means is that we all have to double down now. We have to do all the things that weve been talking about, and we have to remember with all of these events ongoing, we have sturgis, we have schools opening, we have so many things to think about. We have to be able to forgo present pleasure for future greater gain. That is going to be the theme of everything i say today. We all want to get back to life. We cant until we get the amount of virus that we have circulating right now down. Jeremy bash, dr. Rimoin dawes remind us that the backdrop for this and all discussions is an ongoing pandemic. Our friend clint watts, formerly of the fbi, has said for years on the subject of antivaxing and the social media you see on that subject, its a very cheap and easy investment for russia. Its based on an old theory that a sick enemy is easier to fight. Well, here we are, and i know neither you nor i is a pandemic specialist. But doctors who are argue that were in for a hell of a fight when there is a vaccine getting to that threshold, that percentage of americans willing to take it, and the russians will be in that fight stride for stride. No question, and intelligence has shown according to reports that the russians are trying to actually steal our vaccination research. But i think at a broader level, brian, i mean look at whats going on. Weve got foreign interference clearly outlined by this statement from the director of National Intelligence today, and youve got the president trying to discount the lawfully cast ballots of americans who are voting by mail. And he even says he wants to postpone election day, and we may not know the outcome of the election, he says, for days, weeks or years. If thats not an echo of fascism, no need for an election here because were in a crisis, i dont know what is. So i think these two things, foreign interference and the president s frankly fascist instincts to discount americans ability to vote and to discount the or to undermine the ability of our democracy to operate, these are very dangerous times, and i think were going to have to see a major turnout on election day in order to dispel any sense that the election is in doubt. So, susan page, you are a thoughtful person for a living. Give us the through line between Election Security, the russians, attacking Election Security in our own country. We hear it from the president. And the treatment of this virus thus far. So its all disruption. You know, and President Trump as a candidate in 2016 promised disruption. That was part of his appeal, and thats what we have. We have this most disruptive time. We had an election during the civil war. None of us were around for that. I think that was probably a pretty disruptive time. But i agree that i think this feels like a very a very perilous time for america. 88 days to the election. That is both not very much time and an extraordinary amount of time for things to happen, to go wrong, to go right, for people to get engaged. The electorate seems extremely interested in this election. It looks like we might have what we would always like to have, which is heavy turnout. But imagine if we had an election like we did in 2000 where its really close. We turn to the Supreme Court, a divided Supreme Court decides it. The reaction of America Today would not be the reaction of america in 2000, which was to accept the results. We would have a different situation if we had Something Like that happen in 88 days. Terrific point. Scary point but absolutely spoton. Anne rimoin, here in the new york metropolitan area, we had Governor Cuomo of new york today say he will allow schools to open in the fall. And were going to talk more about this later in the hour. But to be fair, thats the minimum. He is the governor of the state. He is letting it happen, but he knows these, in some cases, life or death decisions have to happen at the local level. Brian, youre absolutely right. You know, heres the thing. Theres no zerorisk situation here. But what new york is able to do is to consider opening schools because they have reached such a low threshold of disease, theyre able to really bring this to the table and bring this to communities to decide what to do. You know, most schools in the United States would not reach that benchmark of less than 5 community transmission. So were really not here, but it is a very complicated decision for everyone, because it really isnt just about the kids who are really suffering right now from not being in school, but we also have to have everything in place for the teachers, the bus drivers, the people in the cafeteria, the custodial staff, the people the children come home to. Nobody lives in a vacuum. So this is a very big decision, and the communities are really going to have to weigh the risk benefit and what matters and what they can do, and what they can put into place to protect everybody as best they can. We are much obliged to our big three after the week weve had to stick around with us late on a friday night. Susan page, jeremy bash, dr. Anne rimoin, our thanks for helping us along the way. And coming up, what does dr. Birx Tell Community leaders in covid hot spots . Up next, well talk to a georgia mayor who is actually on one of those calls. And later, the strange and bizarre and ultimately sad story of kanye west. His candidacy for president seems more serious only when you consider a lawyer for trump is also trying to get kanye on a ballot to siphon votes away from joe biden. Well talk about it with our guest tonight. The 11th hour just getting under way on a friday evening. Alright, everyone, we made it. My job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. So were using a speakerphone in the store. Is that a good idea . One of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. Youre looking for a grout brush, this is garth, did he ask for your help . No, no. No. We all see it. We all see it. He has blue hair. Okay. Blue. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Keep it coming. You dont know him. When you bundle with us. Weve always put safety first. And we always will. For people. For the future. And there has never been a summer when its mattered more. Wherever you go, summer safely. Get 0 apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers. Now theres skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months after just 2 doses. Skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs. Or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. Nothing is everything. Ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. And, look, let me say it this way. You look at our infection rate, we are probably in the left situation in the country right now, as incredible as that is. So if anybody can open schools, we can open schools. So that much is true. New york, a former epicenter, continues to have one of the lowest infection rates in the country though as we said at the top of the broadcast lets say it again and plainly its one thing for the governor to say he will allow schools to open. Its quite another for all the local districts who now have a huge call to make. This gets very complicated in current hotspot states like georgia, which, quote, reported its largest singleday increase in confirmed covid19 deaths since the start of the pandemic just today. Some School Districts in georgia have delayed their reopening due to the spike in cases. We are happy to have with us tonight lynn deutsche, mayor of dunwoody georgia just outside atlanta. Madam mayor, thank you very much for being with us. Whats it like to be on one of these calls with dr. Birx for starters . We dont get to hear them. Wish we could. It is a matter of Public Health. Is she candid with you guys . Shes been very candid, and what ive noticed in the most recent calls is that shes been much more firm about what she would like to see local and state governments do if their cases are continuing to grow. And so weve seen some of the oh, okay. Go ahead. Closing bars is just an example of something she said on this past weeks calls. On schools, which is, again, a huge responsibility, huge for public officials, intensely personal for parents and teachers and all their families, weve seen some of the georgia schools open, kids slammed back into quarantine after positive cases. Are you ready to reopen . Well, my city doesnt control the School System, and our School System has delayed inperson learning. Its virtual only till the middle of the september. But i think these are really good questions. Dr. Birx on our call this week mentioned that my county, dekalb county, may have plateaued and is actually stabilizing. And i think thats a good sign. But theres a lot to consider, and i expect that well hear more from the Metro Atlanta systems in the next few weeks about how and if they plan to open facetoface. We have a lot of work to do here in Metro Atlanta particularly and in some of the Rural Counties in georgia where our cases have been going the wrong way and our infection rate is continuing to grow. And so to get schools opened safely, we need the goal of buckling back up a little bit as a community and as a state so that we can reopen the schools and keep them open. Tell us about testing. If i needed or wanted a test tonight in dunwoody, georgia, could i find one . And whats the average wait time for the results these days . So it is very difficult to get a reservation for a test, and up until a couple of weeks ago, our local Health Department was openly permitting people to arrive at a test site without an appointment. They began discouraging that. My daughter was tested last week, and her test results took four days. But i have still after a while of having better results across the metro area, im hearing more and more from my constituents that they are waiting weeks for their results, which doesnt do anybody any good. Which of course renders yeah, i was just going to say renders all the results moot anyway and reverses the purpose of testing. Well, were thinking of you. Best of luck to you. We realize these have to be baby steps because youre in the thick of the fight there, mayor lynn deutsche, dunwoody, georgia. Thank you very much. Enjoy your weekend if possible. Coming up for us here, kanye west reveals the motive behind his reportedly Republican Partybacked run for the white house. The forbes reporter who spoke to kanye along with jason johnson. Both join us when we come back. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness 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. You cant always stop for a fingerstick. Betes from allstate. With the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you dont have to. 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Our schools, in a struggle to safely reopen, needing money for masks and ppe, and to ensure social distancing. And the costs to our economy, to our state budget . Mounting every day. We need to provide revenues now, to solve the problems we know are coming. I like kanye very much. No, i have nothing to do with him getting on the ballot. Well have to see what happens. Well see if he gets on the ballot, but im not involved. Kanye west is apparently getting help from the Trump Campaign in his president ial bid. Nbc news has learned, quote, republicans in at least four states are helping him gain ballot access. And in an interview with forbes reporter randall lane, who joins us in just a moment, quote, the billionaire rap superstar indicated that he was in fact running to siphon votes from the Presumptive Democratic nominee, joe biden. With us tonight to talk about all of it and its troubling detail, jason johnson, veteran journalist and contributor over at the grio and a professor at morgan state university. Also randall lane, chief content officer of forbes media. Happens to be editor of forbes magazine, who interviewed kanye west again this week. Randall, id like to begin with you. What did he say to you about this race for president . Well, you know, obviously its become a bigger deal. I think what happened, once you know, once he was eligible for the ballot, all of a sudden this went from kind of a sideshow to potentially be the jill stein of 2020. This was a text interview. I talked to him on the phone for about four hours last month. I followed up by text to ask him about these reports, including the one you just mentioned. And i pointed out to him that he cant win. You know, he said he was running to win. And i said, you know, you cant win. He said hes walking. Hes walking to win. And, again, i point out he couldnt win. Hes not going to be on the ballot. To get 270 votes, theres no chance for him to win, and thus hes going to be a spoiler and siphon votes from joe biden, and his text was, i cant argue with i wont argue with you, which i took as, you know, a sign. He could have denied it, but hes talking about running to win. He even texted last night, im running to win. He cant win and acknowledges that hes going to hurt biden more than trump. Well, jason, my friend, this is where we come to you. Im going to play for you a bit of congressman clyburn, as personally responsible as any other individual not named joe biden, for the fact that joe biden is about to take the nomination of his party. Well listen to the congressman. Well talk to you on the other side. Africanamericans most especially know what this campaign is all about. Theyve seen these kind of tactics before. We fell victim to it when we didnt know where it was coming from and what was going on. We now know, and we are not going to make that mistake again. Jason, heres a fact. Kanye west is battling and managing and living with Mental Illness, full stop. Right. So whats this all about . Well, brian, look, im like a lot of people. I vacillate between rage at kanyes foolishness and an immense amount of sympathy because i like his wife and several other people, you know, it doesnt take a psychologist to say this guy looks like hes hurting. But if you step back for a second, this is an old school trick. You go back about ten years in south carolina. You remember alvin green who republicans backed into order to knock out a democratic challenger to jim demint. This is an old trick of the Republican Party. You find sort of noname, nonpolitically affiliated black people, throw a lot of money to weaken the democratic candidate. I think the difference is in alvin green, he ended up winning and jim demint took over because jim demint was a powerful guy anyway. I dont see kanye west being that much of a threat. I dont know who is going to brave covid and Voter Suppression from the Republican Party to vote for the late registration guy. But the republicans seem to think at least paying attention to this will somehow distract away from people realizing that joe biden might be a better candidate than donald trump. Well, jason, what does this mean for kanye west . He has had, as no one needs to remind any of us in this conversation, something of an empire that includes but is not limited to music and clothing. He is attached to an empire even larger than that. What does this do to him and his name . You know, i think his brand has been damaged probably since his last two albums and life of pablo. If you want to see someone who has gone from a great height to little or no respect, its like kanye, Michael Jackson years before he finally passed away. Theres not a lot of people who think kanye west is a serious candidate. A lot of people dont even necessarily think hes a serious musician anymore even as he goes around and has these sort of religious festivals. What i think is dangerous, the one legitimate danger is this, if he starts to spend money or republicans start to spend money on his behalf, if kanye west starts doing commercials in michigan, in wisconsin, and talking about, you know, criminal justice issues, if kanye west starts running around saying, you know what . Theres really no difference between joe biden and donald trump. What have you got to lose . If he becomes a voice for disenchanted, disenfranchised black voters, again, as a political scientist, i can tell you, for most black people in america, its not a choice between trump and biden, its a choice between biden and staying home. If kanye can convince people to stay home, then donald trump has won and hes been an effective surrogate. Again, randall, bears repeating, kanye west is living with and battling and managing Mental Illness, as we said, full stop. What has he talked to you what has he said to you about the subject of Mental Illness . Listen, kanye west is somebody who is very he you know, weve talked about it in detail. He considers it a gift. And while he considers his bipolar disorder a gift, he does not consider himself somebody who is handicapped. This is somebody who you could talk about whether hes as high as he was in music, but he has the second bestselling sneaker in america, the easy sneakeyeez that made him a billionaire. Here is somebody who is accustomed to going into new areas and being successful. He attributes that to a lot of creativity from bipolar disorder. This is somebody who acknowledges it but doesnt see it as a weakness and doesnt let people tell him he cant do that. Thats what i think some of the people around him are having to deal with is somebody who is not used to anybody telling him what to do. Well stay on it. Were grateful for having both of you gentlemen here to talk about it. Great pleasure. Thank you. Coming up for us tonight, donald trump said hes been doing the job like nobody could, like nobody would. So we had to hear from Steve Schmidt, and we will after this. When you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. But when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. So, when you get a check. You can deposit it from here. And you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. You can detect suspicious activity on your account from here. And you can pay your friends back from here. So when someone asks you, wheres your bank . You can tell them heres my bank. Or heres my bank. Or, heres my bank. Because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. So visit chase. Com mobile. These last three months, i have been wondering about the future in many ways. Im not the only one going through this. Some of my dearest friends, their businesses are still closed. Theres always peaks and valleys. Even through this pandemic, were all in a valley at this moment. But the one thing you can always know is that theres a peak on the way. Is that theres a peak on the way. I had moderatetoseveres rheumatoid arthritis. Ive always been the ringleader had a zest for life. Flash forward, then ra kept me from the important things. And what my doctor said surprised me. She said my joint pain could mean permanent joint damage. And enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop that joint damage. Ask about enbrel so you can get back to being your true self. Enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and Blood Disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. Tell your doctor if youve been someplace where fungal infections are common. Or if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores have had hepatitis b, have been treated for Heart Failure or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Visit enbrel. Com to see how your joint damage could progress. Enbrel fda approved for over 20 years. Weve done a good job. I think were actually we are going to be in two, three, four weeks, by the time we next speak, i think were going to be in very good shape. Trump fact checker daniel dale pointed out today that interview was one month ago on july 7th. Today a frequent guest of ours, dr. Michael osterholm, and neal cash kari, who serves as president of the Federal Reserve bank up in the twin cities wrote an oped in the New York Times, calling for state by state lockdowns to save lives and fix our economy. They write, quote, if we arent willing to take this action, millions more cases with many more deaths are likely before a vaccine might be available. In addition, the economic recovery will be much slower with far more business failures and high unemployment for the next year or two. There wont be a robust economic recovery until we get control of the virus. Back with us tonight, Steve Schmidt, veteran political strategist who led the mccain 08 campaign, has since left the Republican Party and was among the founders of the lincoln project, dedicated to the defeat of trump and trumpism. Steve, before we begin our discussion, i want to play for you some of what cnns hot mic overheard the president saying. He comes into the ballroom, addresses the folks there, guests at his country club. Then after we hear this, they waited for the playing of hail to the chief and he stepped to the microphone. So here is the hot mic. Hello, everybody. Hello, everybody. Thank you. So were going to do a press conference, and i thought you were here. You might as well come in and see. Youll get to meet the fake news tonight. [ cheers and applause ] youll get to see what i have to go through. So, steve, were at a country club in new jersey, people just in off the golf course. Some folks brought a glass of wine. Some folks brought their kids. Some folks brought both. The last bit of that quote from the president is youll get to see what i have to go through. Lets contrast that against the fact that we have over 160,000 souls gone from our population and our lives, and were losing roughly 1,000 people a day. Its a typically despicable statement from donald trump, brian, one that once again demonstrates his complete unfitness for the office of president of the United States. We have, as you mentioned, 160,000 dead americans and a shattered economy. There are more americans unemployed on this date, on this august 7th, than there has ever been on any other august 7th in the history of the United States, and donald trump is out there bragging about how great the economy is, standing in front of a room of people who pay 350,000 for memberships in the golf club. Its just outrageously out of touch, but it points out to this larger dynamic of whats happening politically. The walls are closing in on donald trump. The number of people in the country that identify as republicans is collapsing, and at the same time, the intensity of what remains is going up. But his world is shrinking, and across the country what youre seeing in states like georgia and texas that have voted republican for a generation, youre seeing very, very close races as joe biden is assembling one of the broadest electoral coalitions in american history. It includes americans of all races and creeds and religiouns and id yol jis, who look at this travesty, who look at the most kpiincompetent and inept president. There has never been an american moment where somebody was tasked with responsibilities to protect the country that has failed as badly as donald trump has. So as we get into september, were going to see the next stage of this begin to begin to unravel. And the tragedy is just beginning. Were going to see hundreds of thousands of dead americans by the time this is over. Anybody with kids who are supposed to be in school understands if theyre going back, it will be for a week or two before the schools are shut down. We know that the mortgage and the eviction rates, the mortgage crisis thats coming is going to dwarf anything that happened in the great recession. So were at the precipice of great economic tragedy and more death and more tragedy from the wreckage that the most incompetent person ever to sit behind the resolute desk has ever been. And once again we saw tonight also, brian, that trump just conceives of himself as the biggest victim in america. That grievance and victimhood is the highoctane fuel of trumpism, and you see that dimension of his character play out once again. Just an aggrieved, brittle man. Steve, let me fit a break in. When we come back, i want to talk to you about what i said to jeremy bash is this uniquely hopeless feeling of knowing the role russia is playing in our election process and the question, who do we see about that . Well do that when we come back. 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Serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred. As have certain cancers, including lymphoma, and tears in the stomach or intestines, and changes in lab results. Your doctor should monitor your bloodwork. Tell your doctor about any infections. And if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. Take on ra talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief. Rinvoq. Make it your mission. If you cant afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. If you cant afford your medicine, puts its customers a wiin charge . Rier well, the good news gets shared. And it gets rated 1 for customer satisfaction. But dont just take our word for it. Take theirs. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. Still with us for our conversation is Steve Schmidt, and without delay, well get right into the topic of russia. Steve, what do we do about this, as ive called it, uniquely helpless feeling . We know that we have almost an invisible candidate, an invisible force in an election less than 90 days from now. The boss we would usually look to to defend all of us from it is the recipient of it, and weve never had anything like it in our history, say nothing of the fact that russia cant believe were saying this has friends in the u. S. Senate who are helping russia disseminate their talking points here. There are three issues, brian, that are an emergency for this country to deal with, and the only people left to deal with it are the voters, are the American People, american citizens who have to rise up and repudiate this. And there are three specific aspects. Number one, this is the first president in the history of the country who has left the United States undefended against a hostile foreign powers attack, and it is an attack, an attack on american sovereignty, on our elections process, the peaceful transition of power that has gone on in this country since 1797. Thats what our inheritance is as americans, and we are here for a short time to be stewards of it, to make the Union Stronger and to hand it off to our kids and our grandkids, and that any president that would abet a hostile foreign power doing that is horrendous. Secondly, the russians have bounties on the heads of american soldiers in afghanistan. Some have been killed. Bounties have been paid. The president of the United States has refused to confront the russians about it. Lastly, we literally have the term would have been useful idiots if the cold war. Those were naive people either by sins of commission or omission who would do the work of the soviet union. So we see now useful idiots in the United States senate that are passing off to the American People information thats incepted russian Intelligence Services to undermine faith in the american system and democracy in the elections process. Weve never seen anything like it in the entire history of the country. So Lindsey Graham whos involved in it, ron johnson whos involved in it, these men are unfit to serve in the United States senate. They have utterly violated their constitutional oaths, and its particularly egregious for Lindsey Graham, who serves as a colonel in the air force reserve. Weve never seen such faithlessness to the ideas and ideals of the country and to the solemn oath that the countrys most senior elected officials take for the honor of being able to preserve and protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. They have failed when it was their moment to be friends of liberty. I asked a partner of yours at the lincoln project, stuart spencer, last night on this broadcast in plain english why your ads are better than the democrats own ads against trump. His answer surprised me, was very quick, but it makes a lot of sense. You have no client. You have no one to run it past. You guys seem fueled on just the passion and anger of whats become of what was your party. We all share a belief that the country faces a real threat from donald trump, and we all believe this is the most important election the countrys faced since 1864. When we see what trump is doing, hes acting from a position of weakness, the deployment of militarized federal agents without badges, i. D. S, stuffing people into white vans. The assault on the election process. The shenanigans that are going on at the post office. His constant questioning the legitimacy of the election should he not win. His threats that he wont leave office. Weve never seen conduct like this from an american president. Its fundamentally ill liberal. He has an autocratic fetish. Weve seen this administration assault the rule of law. Weve seen these pardons and corruption that beggar the imagination. So much is at stake in this next election. What we should all understand in this country is that our freedoms, our democracy, it was all so much more fragile than we ever could have imagined and that these institutions were not designed to be frontally assaulted by the president of the United States, the highest executive officer in the land, whos charged with fulfilling the founders mandate to faithfully execute the laws of the land. And we just see a president who has checked out completely at every level, who is mentally, morally, and intellectually unfit for the job, and is a real threat to the future of this country. And hes put this country into a tailspin of decline and weakness the likes of which weve not seen ever in american history. Reminder to our viewers, the new book by stuart stevens, steves partner, is just out and available for sale. I happen to know mr. Schmidt consumed it in a matter of hours. Our thanks to Steve Schmidt on a friday night for spending some time with us. Thank you, steve. Thank you, brian. Coming up, the effort to protect a genuine American Institution that is in genuine danger. To severe psoriasis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident. Cut is that good . No you were talking about allstate and. I just. When i. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Last thing before we go here tonight is the clear and present danger to the u. S. Postal service. For all of our lives in this country, mail delivery has been something of a sacred trust. Ask any Service Member getting or receiving or sending, rather, mail from deployment overseas. The u. S. Postal service employs 633,000 americans. Of that number, 97,000 are veterans. They once wore the uniform of this country and now wear the uniform of the postal service. Just today about the boss, while hes being looked into by congressional democrats, the trumpappointed postmaster general, who has presided over delivery delays due to costcutting, blew up his whole Management Team in a resor reorganization. That virginia democratic congressman Gerry Connolly that was on with us this week called a deliberate sabotage of the postal service. Of course, just in time for mailin balloting that the president undermines every day. Well, against that backdrop, we offer you this, a new effort to rally support for our mail carriers and their employer. How about that . Along with that fantastic 1959 recording of the alabama sacred harp singers, that was from people for the american way. Founded in 1981 by norman lear, who just happened to have celebrated his 98th birthday. And that indeed will take us off the air tonight and for this week. With our thanks for watching, on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc