Winds are walling up in communities preparing for a storm surge and potential tornadoes. Alt least three people in the United States have died just in the midst of preparing for this storm. The bahamas struggling to recover from that devastation thats been reported all week, 20 people there now dead. But in the midst of all this and this is serious stuff as hundreds of thousands of americans already are dealing in situations where theyre scared, where theyre worried, where they dont have power, where there are lifethreatening conditions. Were told by ore own u. S. Government it is fitting perhaps for 2019 to sigh what the president is focused on, continuing to double down and depend false and phony claims in which he made a mistake, by the way, in which anyone could have corrected when he said the storm was in alabamas path. There were six tweets on it today. This happened after donald trump punked himself theres no other way to describe it when he apparently used a black sharpie to show what you see there, a doctor ed path of the storm. There are petty coverups oven basically massaging his own ego and all of this is a split screen contrast for an error what you see right here. Donald trumps state of mind, obsessed with his own alabama error on twitter as america and other parts of the caribbean deal with this very still serious storm. That is a portrait. We want to turn now to the right side of the screen. The factual side. Cs bill karins guides us through so many of these situations. What do we know . We havent had hurricane conditions anywhere on land since the storm left the bahamas. We had Tropical Storm conditions in florida, georgia, South Carolina, but we havent had hurricane conditions. Theres a big difference. Thats when you get the Power Outages and trees down. The eye where all of the powerful winds are approaching areas near wrightsville beach. Winds at 110 miles an hour. Thats nothing to sneeze at. Its a strong hurricane. A little higher and it would be a category 3 major. The problem weve had all day long, the outer bands, this has been producing numerous tornadoes. Its in eastern North Carolina. Weve had 11 tornadoes, significant damage done to a bunch of structures. No injuries or fatalities thankfully. Thats just from the eye, not the outer band. If you time this out, it goes past the wilmington area. At least a pork of the eye will go through this beach area from about 9 00 p. M. To about midnight. And then by 2 00, 3 00 a. M. , the potential land hal, morehead beach, atlantic city, North Carolina. You wake up and it should be near cape hatteras, the buxton area, and heading out to sea. As far as the biggest impacts, we have one more high tide psych goal through later on tonight and well have to watch out for the potential of heavy rain and flooding. Possibility of winds up to 100 miles an hour. If this is going to be in the lower 48 a big deal thats going to require people to be out without power and storm surge issues, everything is going to happen in the next 18 hours because were done with this by about noon tomorrow. Understood. Hopefully most of the devastation is over. Bill karins, our viewers have come to rely on you. Thank you as always. Appreciate it. We mentioned the president s state of mind. What is he focused on during as we said its cost americans lives and the bahamas lives. Hes tweeting this false claim he thought alabama could have been in the storms path. He tried to back that up a number of ways. He shared the potential routes. As you see, that map was a week old and out of date when trump made his erroneous claim the storm would hit alabama. On sunday he was focused on moderating the storm. He said if anything on this graph causes confusion, ignore the entire product. He got into this mess by doubling down on the map with the extra line that appeared to be drawn in sharpie, someone using a sharpie in the oval office that was designed to try to edit what you see on the white line to say the black line somehow meant trump was right all along. Again, i cant report for you confirmation. We dont have oval office swrid owe and the white house wont really say much. We dont know if it wasnt the president , who else would have done it . Sometimes in these selfinflicted gaffes, you get a blame game going, but we do know its technically illegal to put out false weather reports. What about the dhs, department of Homeland Security . Theyre putting out questions on the map back to the white house. It was something that should have been a nonissue that he made into an issue. Donald trump wasnt mad our surprised about it. He didnt say hed make an effort to track down the culprit either. The map looks like it was altered with a sharpie. I dont know, i dont know, i dont know. Good evening to both of you. Hi, ari. Sam, this is a lighter story, so i go to you first. Not because youre a lightweight but because you have a familiarity with these issues. I know in listening to you on the radio you mix the serious with the absurd. What does it say against the backdrop of the serious that we just report and we got our weather facts from bill karins that is the stay state of mind of the president of the United States when people say theyre not surprised. Is that not good enough . Should we be more surprised . Should we be disappointed . Well, yeah. I think we should be disappointed. We should be nervous, frankly. I have no idea what it says about his state of mind, but its not great. Theres Something Else going on here, but i would never credit donald trump with some type of grand strategy. I dont know how much we could contribute to it being thoughtful tactics. If you listen to the right wing radio, you talk about it as the media going after him for a gaffe. Theres a lot of things that up in of us are talking about that are going on right now that i think, you know, if youre a staffer for donald trump, youre thinking that maybe this is not a necessarily i mean they wouldnt have chosen this, but since its there, its not necessarily the worst thing to talk about. Youve got to keep in mind on one hand, Donald Trumps making these gaffes, but all this week, the presumptive frontrunner of the party has made major gaffes themselves, so when theyre thinking about the campaign, which, of course, they are, maybe theyre thinking, lets keep it on less substantial things and keep it in the gaffe realm because we dont necessarily have a deficit. Theres always that balance. I think its a fair point to consider. As you say, its deliberate. Juanita, i dont want to turn this discussion into a tees of what else is in the broad kaflt tonight, but we have a special report tonight on the way the president is gutting loans and trying to protect abusive financial lenders. Its something they probably dont want on the air. We try to cover a lot of things here, yet, juanita, we know the president doesnt like to be humiliated but he seems to have selfowned it here. Take a look at the way its playing out at late night. This is the real chart that did not include alabama and this is what trump showed us today. Dont get me wrong. Im impressed donald trump can locate alabama on map, but still. Look at this. I mean after this, i have to wonder if his High School Report Card was legit. It looks like it was altered with a sharpie. I dont know, i dont know, i dont know. Oh, he did it. Juanita, what youll notice is most of those clips of late night jokes didnt evolve a lot of writing or addition. It was sort of showing people watching a comedy show, this is the president. And thats exactly what it is. This is the president who just cant seem to fathom using the words we got it wrong. He will do anything to save face. He will do anything to protect his ego, even if it means force feeding this false information to the American Public. What i think should be alarming to most people is that he is continuously pressing this message. At one point, sure, it can be as a distraction, but in reality its because he believes it. He really wants to driving this home. We should all be alarmed by it because i believe this is the same approach that look. By the end of the day. Trump is the commander in chief. He controls the military forces. Hes the one in the situation room. And his approach to this is probably mirrored in other situations. Hes doubling down and force feeding this to americans when americans lives are at risk right now. Sam, thats the part thats really bizarre. I dont know how much you follow bill karins who was on just before you. Hes not into what you might call political tweets or sassy tweets, if you know the term. Yes. Hes a less sassy tweet than you, as far as i know. Take a look at his role as meteorologist. He writes to the president , sorry, today is not about you. We have a billiondollar weather disaster in South Carolina and North Carolina. Where does that fit in apart from any other political analysis, its hard for donald trump to watch something thats about the serious act of governing and dealing with hardship and not inserting himself. Look. Weve seen him do this many times before. Some things that had less consequence like, you know, the inaugural attendance. And then there are you know, theres a host of other things where hes just simply lied about stuff and then refused to back down off it. I think you know, the question is really like how much will this ultimately hurt him with the American Public . For a lot of us, yeah, this seems to be par for the course. And, of course, in this instance, you know, theres a real danger that people could be in jeopardy because they actually listened to the president and take him seriously or literally as it were, but, you know, i think it speaks volumes that it is politicizing people like weathermen and meteorologists in that respect. And so i think maybe it will have some greater impact beyond this. Its genuinely bizarre though. Sam and juanita, my thanks to both of you. Were going to take a break and come back in just 30 seconds. We have Donald Trumps new plan, taking disaster money to pay for the border wall. Roger stone has agreed to testify as a government witness at that big trial. And later a former fbi agent who spent years infiltrating white supremacist groups is here and tonight my interview with Salman Rushdie. Well be back in 30 seconds. 4 donald trump wants americans to pay for the border wall and today were learning the pentagon is directing 40 million designed for devastation recovery from hurricane maria. Hes taking money from military projects all over the country. Today even Donald Trumps allies over at fox news are saying, well, theres at least one obvious problem for him politically which is this is all drawing clear attention to how he broke a promise and theyre saying he should have never promised mexico would fund the wall. Trump raised Elementary Schools for the wall. Hes right. He should have never said mexico is going to pay for the wall. I think he did initially think he was going to find a way for mexico to pay for it, but as we know, that did not work. Congressman Anthony Brown joins me. Two military projects there are being canceled to help fund this wall. First, given your role in that local representation aspect before we get to everything else, is this good for your constituents . Is it good for maryland . No, ari. Its three. Bad for my constituents, bad for maryland, and bad for the country. You have a world war iiera building thats dilapidatedilap. Instead weve got families whose children will be on a waitlist and theyre going to spend 10,000 more per child per family because donald trump wants a wall. It impacts morral and impacts military readiness. Sometimes what we have to do is hold officials accountable, take them at their word even if they lie a lot. I want to pay foryour response the president , then candidate trumps claims about who would pay for the wall. Take a look. Believe me, mexicos paying for the wall, okay . Thats it. If i win, if i become president , mexico will pay for the wall. By the way, mexico will pay for the wall. They will pay for the wall. That i can tell you. Mexicos going to pay for the wall. They dont know it yet. Theyre starting to have a very good idea. Be thats oklahoma. Mexico will be paying for the wall, and theyll be happy to do it. Are democrats going to hammer that aspect of it . What hes taking the money from, you just spoke to that, but what likes to be one of the most famous broken promises in modern american history. No, were absolutely going to do that because mexico is not paying for your the wall. Its the american taxpayers, but i think its important to put a face on who is paying for it. It is that family with a child who no longer has military child care. It is that special forces unit in europe who no longer has a facility to support their important and most often dangerous mission. Its the residents and servicemembers in puerto rico. You mentioned this in the opening. Who are not going to have a Power Generation plant that was destroyed in hurricane maria, restored with that funding. Thats whos paying for it. Thats the face of the people impacted by the president s misleading statement throughout his campaign. While i have you, i also want to ask you. On immigration, as you you know, a lot of controversy and backtracking about people in the United States waiting for health care sometimes with lifethreatening conditions. Aclu is now filing lawsuits against the president. They protect deportation and what they call risk of death. The administrations action, they argue, is unconscionable and also illegal. Your view of that suit and what do your democrats in congress tend to do about this issue. Right. Congress is going to stay vigilant on whether its the military issue or immigrant issue. We also know interest there are many lawsuits against this administration ranking from the border wall to a recent case on the Citizenship Question and now on health care and immigration. So those battles need to happen in the courts, but its not a substitute for the work that congress has to do. So whether were using our oversight role, appropriations, and weve got appropriations coming up this month in september as we pass a bunt. Weve got to use all the tools available to make sure were holding this administration acaughtable. Congressman brown. Thank you. Ahead, theres a hearing on White Supremacies today. We have an fbi agent with us tonight. Also my special report tonight on how donald trump is not only profiting off the presidency, but the way the swamp is growing and affecting American Consumers. But first a new setback for roger stones trial. His wing man ready to testify against him. That important mueller story is next. I planned each charted course each careful step along the byway much more much more than this i did it my way vo the most awarded network gives you more. Like one of our latest phones for free when you switch to unlimited. Thats verizon. I need all the breaks as athat i can get. Or, at liberty butchemel. Cut. Liberty mu. Line . Cut. 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The kids and i want to build our own crab shack. Ahhh, youre finally building that outdoor kitchen. Yup with room for the whole gang. See how investing with a j. P. Morgan advisor can help you. Visit your local chase branch. New developments in the pending case from robert mueller. The witness is named andrew miller. Now, he fought a mueller subpoena for a year and hes worked for stone for about a decade including him during the Democratic Convention during a time trump was running. Millers testimony rounds out the plan to use him to argue that stone knew what he was doing when he allegedly obstructed the Mueller Probe and tampered with witnesses. He was arrested on a sevenaccount indictment. There was one count of witness tampering and now confirmed witness andy caret ico. Mr. Stone has pled not guilty. I am joined by john flannery. Good to see you. Good to see you. Here we are. This is a reminder to everyone that cases take time. Mueller has closed up shop. Some of his targets are in jail like mr. Cohen and mr. Manafort what does it tell you that the prosecutors who have continued muellers work have zeroed in on these two witnesses, mr. Miller whos left loan and mr. Caretco who some may remember . They indict him not by name but person one and person two. You had an Interesting Exchange with mr. Coursey in the past telling truthing about his lies and the lies were, you toe, to get the senate and the house off what really happened there which is communications and how they were made with wikileaks and they could have been as it is pate and known when the trench of documents were going to come down. Caretco is in a position to have actually had assange whos now sitting in the london tower as a guest on his show and were waiting until next year for assange to come to america. So we have stone who in the past said he would like to have assange testify for him. But he has another witness he can use. He could have mr. Trump come forward im sure he would like that. Im sure in terms of caretco, our job is not just to cover the negative and theres a lot of teddive on mr. Stone but what the defense counsel can do. Theyll be able to try to show a kind ofry did usness and silliness in the same way we sometimes hear the defendant said words that sounded bad, but they werent serious, they werent knowing, they werent serious. They were jokes. Listen to what mr. Kritco told me when i pressed him, why was this happening . Why was roger lying about this. Now that its over do, you have any idea why it was important for roger to blame you for something mueller found involving coursey . You know its a conundrum inside a riddle inside a rubiks cube. I have no idea why he would do that. If he told the truth, i wouldnt be here today. None of us. I dmoenl why he went before the house intel committee. He could have invoked the fifth. There was no ready to do it. Dont you think mr. Stones lawyers will have some argument on their side to say it wasnt serious and to go after these witnesses including credico . I think it was better to have credico look like the player. To go with coursey brought it closer to stone. I think he was a sacrifice. Thats the way these people operate. Coursey was in communication supposedly with credico to have access to assange, which appears to have been establishes by other means. You talk about, you know, is this all a joke. The trouble with that theory of defense is that there are so many communications and so many questions, and i do wonder if the cohen conversation that he overheard between stone and trump will find its way in as a similar act or part of an action. Which thats a big interesting one. My last question for you is do you think roger stone would take the stand and should he . I wouldnt put him on the stand. Ill tell you why. In every case, civil and criminal, when you put the client on the stand, they make real things that are questionable. If the theory this this case is to beat up the government and show theres nothing here, what they should do is keep him off the stand and say, oh, they didnt show their case, particularly witnesses who have been on both sides of these issues at different times. Youre right. Thats a damaging thing for a jury to hear. You know, birds of a feather flock together. John flannery knows his way around these kinds of trials. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Nice to have you. Coming up, something i promised you tonight. A special report on what lobbyists are getting out of the Trump Administration afternoon spending big at his own doral resort, and later, the fbi who infiltrated White Supremacy groups is here. And later another special interview. What a show tonight. Salman rushdie on trump and truth. His first time here. Thats coming up. 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Congress is already probing into donald trump pushing his own Florida Hotel to host the next g7 summit. Another in a spring of examples for trump to profit off his government job. Industry groups have been following his lead. Tonight we focus on an industry thats gotten quite a bit less attention than others these days. Payday lenders. Their lobbyists have spent millions of dollars at trumps resorts sending tabs to him featuring steaks, shrimp, and things at the bar and champagne that costs 18 a glass. Maybe to use the phrase its like partying like bill barr, which is what you do to impress President Trump. Let me walk you through this. The very month before these lobbyists convention at doral, a trump official running a key Protections Bureau gutted regulations that protect consumers, that protect most americans from potential abuse by these same payday lenders. The Trump Administration also backing lenders in a lawsuit gunning for many of those same protection rules. Now, this is all about how these companies, financial institutions, target vulnerable lower income people who are desperate to get money fast. When we say money in time, we mean money when you need it. Put up to 10,000 in your bank account by tomorrow based on trusting you with no security of any kind, just a cigsignatur where money really does grow on trees. But it doesnt grow on trees. You can say it falls on trees along with very heavy burdens for paying that money back which is why you may remember Elizabeth Warren proposed a plan to protect this kind of abuse and then President Trump embraced it. Millions of American Families are hemorrhaging money right now today and tomorrow and next week on tricks and traps and credit products. Were going to fix that. The Consumer ProtectionFinancial Bureau will be a watchdog for the American Consumer charged with enforcing the toughest financial protections in history. Now, that was the bureau that president obama tasked warren to run. Republican senators, though, blocked her nomination, which actually in a footnote to history freed up her time to run for office where she defeated a republican senator and paved the way for her current president ial campaign. As a side note its one Mitch Mcconnell strategy that totally fakfired on him. In the meantime you have these policies that the Trump Administration is trying to limit the bureau to continue this work that warren and obama said was so vital to protect so many americans. This borrower has no colors. They prey on states red and blue, theyve set off debt cycles for most consumers. 80 roll over and force new costs on the borrowers. 20 states have made the abusive paydays illegal but 20 million merns get caught up in them and it goes back to the lenders to the tune of 5 billion. Big picture, this is a classic test of whether the law protects you regardless of how much money you have. Warren has a view. She argued these lenders should not loan out what they know people cannot afford to pay back. The argument is theyre using their financial power to trap you potentially in loan fees that are larger than the original loans that people even ask for. Like so many americans, preacher mary love knows what its like to be tight on cash, so when she started to fall behind on her rent, she went for a quick fix. Things quickly spiraled out of control. She said she couldnt rew e pay the loan because the interest right was too high for her. On a 400 loan she paid 1,240 alone. Thats not fair. The experts are taking advantage of people who sometimes dont. This is the key part. This is what makes payday loans so dangerous. Even a small what they call principal with this high Interest Rate adds up quickly. Because the hidden costs are tricks, counting weeks instead of years, people get confused. This is a trick that democratic congresswoman katie porter was illustrated when she picked President Trumps pick for this. If you could ballpark a loan for a term of two weeks with a 20 origination fee and a rate of 10 per 100, that is 10 ballpark what is the apr . And im telling you that the apr is that a no . Its a math exercise. Honey when am i. Youre claiming my time. I take that as a no, you cannot do the calculation. A no that you cant do the calculation. That little moment went viral because the question exposes the problem. If the experts or trumps appointee cant even say how these loans work, then maybe its not fair to trap people in them and then threaten them with bankruptcy for something lenders shouldnt have pushed in the first place. Now, this Protection Bureau is supposed to control that kind of abuse. Under the obama director it got results taking 40 million a week from the financial interests and plowing toward consumers. Thats a figure that absolutely crashed by over 90 now that trumps director is in charge. The difference there, well, it ooh over 40 million. Thats what these payday lenders are celebrating at trumps resort. Whats a Million Dollars in fees and an 18 glass of sparking wine to the millions these groups are saving getting earnings back as donald trump is protecting them. This is a sorry scene. This is simply millionaires extracting money from poorest americans from tricky loans that shouldnt have been offered in the first place. Thats what the swamp looks like when it has no shame. Now up ahead, we have more in tonights show, including this growing White Supremacy violence crisis. A former fbi agent who infiltrated some of these groups is here with me. And then later we promised you something were excited about, Salman Rushdie makes his debut on the beat. Those who need to. Move. And roar. And ride. Up, down, over. Powering through. This seat is for those that get down in it. 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Well, moo i next guest has special insights into this. Mike durman is a former f bbi. He said 40 of the cases theyre investigating relate to race or religion. This is an exclusive interview. Mike german is here. His new book is called disrupt. So great to have you. Lets get right into this. What is important to understand about this growing threat . Well, i thinkty most important thing to understand at this moment is that the u. S. Department of justice doesnt even know how many people White Supremacists kill each year, and thats because they have through a matter of policy deprioritized the investigation and prosecution of white supremacist crimes for decades now, and its really important that congress is now taking these steps and having a number of hearings to try and understand what it is we havent been looking at over the last couple of decades. So how do we know what we know . For example, im going to show folks from the data we do have, the rise in some of these incidents. You have this 35 increase in what they call right wingextremistrelated killings. Thats adl. Youre saying the government hasnt caught up with that kind of tracking . Right. The government does not keep an official count, so its they rely on private groups like the Defamation League and some academic institutions like the Stark Program at university of marylands extreme crime databasing, and they do as good a job as they can, but they can only identify a crime if the police have already identified it as a crime or the media has identified it as a crime related to white supremacist violence. We have to understand half of it today goes unsouled. That means 40 of the murders in the United States goes unsolved. Because the Justice Department has this policy of depryor tiedsing it, we dont know how much violence is related to these groups. What did you learn . What drove these people . Was it a turning point they could never turn back . It was a very complex movement is one of the things i under. There were a lot of different groups that might have the same goal of a racially pure white ethnic society, but they have different ideologies, philosophies, and even theologies that justify the behavior, and theres an awful lot of friction between them and discontent between them where they dont get along with each other, and a lot of the violence involved in these groups is intergroup violence. The other thing i learned about and i think understand better than a lot of other researchers is the association between white supremacist violence and state violence. You know, we have to understand that these ideologies arent some fringe element of our society. They were actually founding principles of our country that justified slavery, justified european colonization, justified the genocide of indigenous people, and really up until just recently, justified jim crow laws and systematic racial discrimination. So its really only in our recent history that weve even enshrined civil rights in law in a way that would suppress these ideologies. Yeah. Its well laid out. Its a serious problem. Youve got a lot of experience on it. The book, while sad, is hopefully a timely part of the solution. I should mention again for folks interested. Disrupt, discredit, divide, how the new n ew fbi damages democr. Well take a break. When we return, Salman Rushdie, not afraid to speak his mind. Im going to get into his book when we come back. Along the byway much more much more than this i did it my way vo the most awarded network gives you more. Like one of our latest phones for free when you switch to unlimited. Thats verizon. Before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. Now no fruit is forbidden. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday, allnight protection. Can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn . Make ice. 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Ask your doctor about trulicity. [horn honks] man this is what i feel like when i wear regular shoes, cramped and uncomfortable. We can arrange a little upgrade. Which is why i wear skechers. Wide fit shoes. They have extra room throughout. Theyre like a luxury ride for my feet. Try skechers wide fit shoes. Tyou wouldnt accepty from any one else. T. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. America often feels more divided than ever, and many turn to music, culture, art and literature at these times, not only to escape from our realities, but even to better understand reality. There may be few better to answer all of those kind of questions than my very best guest who is out with a brandnew book exploring the world of don quixote set in the middle of a troubling american landscape that may be familiar to people watching right now. This is Salman Rushdie, winner of the man booker prize. The new book is quichote. So glad to have you here on the beat. Thank you, delighted to be here. What were you thinking of in politics and culture in writing the book this way. The novel i wrote before took place almost entirely in new york city, and when i finished it, i thought next time get out of town, you know. I really wanted to do something which was a more panoramic look at america, not just something written from my hometown. By accident, i chanced to read again the cervantes novel don quixote and it made me think the narration of that character would be a very helpful guide to what is going on. The thing about him, my character as well as cervantes character, they have a kind of sweetness to them. They have a kind of innocence and optimism to them. And i thought if i could take this kind of holy fool, this innocent optimistic man, this dreamer and send him out across a country that may not be having its most optimistic moments, that contrast would be i hope illuminating. I want to read a passage from your book that interests us, frankly, because it could be about politics, but ill let you explain it. You write it was the age of anything can happen, he reminded himself. There were no rules anymore. It was no longer possible to predict the weather or the likelihood of war or the outcome of elections. Anything could happen. What are you getting at there . I do think were living in this strange moment and not just in america, also in britain. Also in india. These three countries that ive spent my life thinking about, in all of them its as if the rules of the game have decayed. So nobody we dont know anymore how things work or why things work. Why do things happen the way they do. The unexpected happens every day. Things that you have thought impossible a couple of years ago are now everyday reality, you know. You can i mean, to make a political point, you can have a president who wants to bomb hurricanes with nuclear weapons. Thats something which if i presented that idea to a publisher for a short story they would have said thats really not convincing. Think of something more plausible. So implausible things are now everyday reality. And i think its for a lot of people bewildering to live in this world where there are no rules, you know. Yeah. And nobody knows what the new shape of the world will be. Well, you say that we have those conversations at a more humble level. Were not writing literature here. But as we put together the stories in the news rundown, as they call it, sometimes, yes, it does feel like well, thats thats absurd. No, way, thats whats happening. Something else serious in the book is the plot line deals with the opioid crisis. Yes. How important is that in your understanding of American Culture today . Well, i think its a testimony in many ways to the breakdown of some of these values that ive been talking about. Also to the kind of loneliness of america. People many people leading very isolated lives and seeking succor in these kinds of drug. I had myself in my own life a couple of close people who died from opioid abuse. And so its for me its kind of personal, including my youngest sister about 12 years ago had at a very young age, 45, had a heart attack. And it was clear afterwards that opioid abuse had been really the major cause of that. So ive been following that, digging into that story for a while now, you know. I mean, for a decade. Its only now that i felt ready to write about it. Thats very striking, and its something that affects so many peoples lives and that as you know is of course still a stigma about even discussing. Exactly. That you lost someone. And people, all kinds of People Struggle with that. On the politics, you mention comedy, i think literature, i think also cartoons. Yes. Can sometimes go deeper and even be a little tougher. Go ahead. Some people have said these days that satire is dead because reality is weirder than satire. But actually, i think im grateful to tv comedians, to late night hosts because i think sometimes their comedy lets them go deeper into the matter and actually cut deeper and be more truthful in some ways. Im hoping that comedy for me is also a vehicle towards the truth. Well, you mention the truth. I think thats a fitting place for my final question. I want to read again from the book, which we mention is fiction, but you write about a wholly imaginary chief executive who was obsessed by cable news, who pandered to a white supremacist base. And if people know anything about you, i think it would be you take no prisoners. Youre not afraid of political intimidation to be sure, and you have an incisive mind. I wonder, what do you think is still fully not understood or is worth reckoning about this real life President Donald Trump . Well, i think the one thing that i think that what mr. Trump is doing here that is similar to whats happening in britain and even whats happening in india is in all three place, leaders are inventing a mythology of a false past, a kind of golden age, you know, that if we could only get back to, that everything would be good. You know, make America Great again. You want to ask when exactly was that . Was it last week . Was it before slavery was abolished . Was it before the Civil Rights Movement . Was it before women had the vote . When was America Great in the way we should get back to . The myth of the the golden age is always a myth. Boris johnson right now in britain is trying to sell the idea of a golden age of england that could be restored if only all these inconvenient farmers would go away. Mr. Modi in india is trying to sell the idea of an ancient golden hindu age which has been ruined by the president and muslims. All three are doing the same thing. Theyre inventing history in order to justify the actions of president s, and i think thats dangerous. Its a profound point, and its also illustrative of the fact that if your Campaign Promise is nostalgia, you never have to be called on it because youre not running on anything real to begin with. Exactly. Youve given us a lot to think about, Salman Rushdie. Thank you so much. Again mentioning the book, quichotte is out now. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And that does it for tonights show. I think we had a lot. I will mention tomorrow, we have a very special guest who is making headlines and says if they win, donald trump wont even get to run for president. Well explain more tomorrow at 6 00 p. M. If you tune in. Thanks for watching. Hardball is up next. Good evening. Welcome to hardball. Im Steve Kornacki in for chris matthews. Hurricane dorian is continuing its sweep up the northern seaboard tonight after grazing georgia, the storm is now bearing down along the carolinas with a possible landfall over the vulnerable outer banks of North Carolina tomorrow. In South Carolina, dorian knocked out power for 250,000 residents. Rising floodwaters submerged streets in charleston where the eye of the sto