Nothing officially from the u. S. Government. We will continue to follow that story. Rachel, canoe around for a couple days. Thank you. Seven years ago our own chris hayes wrote much of conservative is a con and the movement is the marks. Now it is far more important than this. With trump at the top, it is the entire movement. This week former white house strategist steve bannon became the latest trump associate to be taken into custody when the chinese owned yacht on which he was sunbathing was boarded by agents. He gave tens of millions of dollars to a private fund which existed, bannon claimed to finance construction of the border wall. Federal prosecutors said that the real purpose of that fund called we build the wall was to cover the luxury lifestyle of bannon and the other departments. Now, depending on how you count it and in honor of conservatives, we shall count conservatively tonight. He is the seventh trump adviser to be arrested, face charges, plead guilty or be convicted of a crime since donald trump took office. The seventh. As the New York TimesMichelle Goldberg writes, quote, the truth is that we build the wall is what trumps private enterprise looks like, a gaudy scam that monetizes grievance. It is a scam that speaks to a much larger problem with the gop in its base. Conservative operatives view the rights rank and file with utter contempt as little more than a collection of fools to be taken advantage of. Con men see their marks. Msnbc steve bannon notes many prominent republican voices, newt gingrich, mike huckleby, et al, have created lucrative mailing lists used for highly dubious purposes. Existed mostly to pad the pockets of the consultants who ran them. It is not about their beliefs. It is about their bottom line, that while previous Republican Administration had their share of those trying to profit and those willing to break the law to serve the political interests of the president , the Trump Administration is unique. Look at another example just from this week. It was revealed that the Senate Intelligence committee made criminal referrals of donald trump jr. , jared kushner, steve bannon, eric prince and sam klovis to federal prosecutors in 2019, passing they long their suspicions that these trump linked officials may have misled the committee during their testimonies. The large number of people in district contact with this president often for years who are revealed to be out and out fraudsters or possible criminals just keeps growing. As former bush official writes, this level of criminality surrounding a president is unparalleled. The president was asked yesterday about the criminal syndicate of sort that hangs around him. Respectfully, sir, it is not just steve bannon. Its roger stone, michael cohen. Its rick gates, Paul Manafort, michael cohen. Whats it say about your judgment these are the kind of people you are affiliated with . Well, i have no idea. How did these people get into trumps inner circle . Trump has no idea. I should note we cutoff the sound bite because the president then went on into a lie about the obama administration. There is no need to amplify those lies. But trump made an effort to brand himself as the president of law and order. Look at the people he surrounds himself with. Look at him. Robert mueller detailed nearly a dozen potential instances of obstruction of justice by trump during the russia investigation. Trump paid 2 million in fines and closed his Family Foundation after admitting that it had used donations to pay campaign and business expenses, some personal expenses, too. The prosecutors in that case are still investigating trumps banking and tax conduct. Federal prosecutors in new york, the ones that bring charges that are bringing charges against steve bannon are looking at alleged fraud by trumps inaugural committee. Then there is the Manhattan District Attorney which is investigating trumps tax records. In fact, just breaking tonight a federal Appeals Court has refused to give trump immediate relief to stop his Accounting Records from being turned over to a new york state grand jury, instead scheduling arguments for september 1st over whether the subpoena of trumps records should be paused. Now, that filing followed an earlier ruling by u. S. District judge Victor Marrero who denied trumps request to put his decision dismissing the lawsuit on hold to allow the president s legal team time to appeal. Trumps associates are literal con men, grifters and base criminals. Trump himself is using the power of the presidency to block details about his own alleged criminal conduct from coming to light. The length, the breadth and the depth of this con is allconsuming. And that is what separates the trump world con from all the other conservative con jobs that came before. This con has consumed the Republican Party. Republicans dont stand up to trump. They dont stop him. They dont excomukt him. Their silence is a tacit acceptance of his con and the cons of his associates. A tacit acceptance their base conservatives can be duped again and again and again. The Republican Party is now becoming one big con, no longer representing conservative ideals or values but representing and defending one con man and the cons around him. Michelle goldberg writes the social philosopher eric haufer wrote that in america every Mass Movement ends up as a racket, a cult or a corporation. Trumpism reversed this. The racquet came first. Neil, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. This becomes hard to process after a while. The degree and depth of stuff, and then you have to read it on a whole new thing, we build the wall. Its not even complicated high level, highly sophisticated con stuff. They opened a page, a crowd funding page, took money, said they were going to spend it on the wall, didnt quite happen that way. Absolutely, ali. As i listened to you i was so glad you started the show this way about two things, con men and criminals because chris hayes was exactly right when he wrote that about what the Republican Party had become some years ago, really a con. And what the bannon episode shows is really that at its height. I mean, what bannon has done here is not a bug, its a feature of the modern Republican Party. Its the whole strategy to pretend, oh, this is for you. Were doing this for the American People. Were building this wall. Right. And meanwhile secretly theyre lining their pockets. And Hillary Clinton might have used the word deplorable, but its these folks who are really treating the American People as deplorables. So thats on the comment side. And on the lawlessness side absolutely, ali. So glad you quoted paul whos a very strong republican lawyer. Theres a culture of criminality around trump and his inner circle, and its not just, you know, steve bannon who was the president s chief strategist, Paul Manafort whos been jailed who was the president s campaign manager. Rick gates, his Deputy Campaign manager. It was roger stone, trumps close political confidant. It was michael cohen, his personal lawyer. I mean michael flynn, the president S National Security advisor. Its like who around the president hasnt been indicted at this point . Right. You say its not a bug, its a feature. In the beginning when these things would happened trump tried to throw them understand the bus. Now were on the seventh and eighth as you counted theres no space between the president and all of these people. Exactly. And jiem not sure ive named them all. I think there are others, and this week we really learned and you referred to this at the top of your show. The new york prosecutors both federal and state have been investigating trump personal because trump went and evidently tried to deduct his 100,000 in payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as a business expense. So federal prosecutors were investigating that as the state ones were. The federal prosecution after bill barr mysteriously disappeared, but the state one did not. And the president has been subpoenaed, and the Supreme Court said, yeah, mr. President , it looks like youve got to turn that information over. And just yesterday a federal judge in new york said, yeah, mr. President , youve got to turn that information over. And the president is trying through these desperate appeals today to try and stop that. But this is the rule of law asserting itself, had the genius of our founders, the state prosecutors coming and saying not so fast, you dont get to styly styly stymie us this time. We want this information and were going to get a court order to do it. The next election may solve this issue or it may not, but lawrence was talking with joe biden in may during a last word town hall in which a viewer asked joe biden as president how he would handle this. Lets listen to the exchange. From edward in ohio, and this is for Vice President biden. Sir, if you were to win the election would you be willing to commit to not pulling the president forward in giving donald trump a pardon under the pretense of healing the nation . In other words, are you willing to commit t the law . Absolutely, yes. I commit. Hes talking about not pulling a president forward. He wants a commitment that joe biden is going to pursue continue to pursue donald trump and his associates and his family and his businesses and his foundation. What does that look like to you . Well, i think Vice President biden is absolutely right to say nobody should be above the law, and hes also right to not commit in advance to some prosecutorial or non pros cueatorial strategy. The whole fault of trump is that he uses the Justice Department as his personal army to go after his enemies and to benefit his friends, doling out pardons and commutations and the like. And that is a sin. Anyone who worked at the Justice Department, that is the last thing you do. So when trump said lock her up and all that stuff in 2016 it was reprehensible, and im so glad to see Vice President biden who understands the traditions of our Justice Department, understands the american tradition of the rule of law not trying to pull those stunts. And yeah, you can probably get some votes that way, but i think people like biden understand the presidency is not worth that. We dont cheat that way. We dont like just diminish our great institutions by trying to tarnish them by saying were going to use this to go after our political enemies. I mean, thats what russia does, and thats why i suspect donald trump writes love letters to putin and came out this week wrote a love letter basically saying i so respect you, mr. Putin, and stuff like that. You know, thats not the way an american president should behave. I mentioned in the intro to this more reporting on the Senate Intelligence committee. Just want to are read you some of this. The Intelligence Committee reserved its harshest allegations for bannon and private security contractor eric prince saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators, a potential felony. Thats reporting from the washington post. So im trying to put this whole net together of corruption, lawlessness, grifters, conmen and liars. It all sort of blends together at some point. Yes, and i think there, ali, you buried the lead of that report. Because that was a report by the republican led Senate Intelligence committee, and it said donald trump knew and discussed those stolen democratic emails in the 2016 points, that he knew that had been discussed with the russians. And this committee rejected the idea whether trump said as he said to prosecutors i didnt remember my conversations with rau roger stone. They said, no, despite trumps recollection the committee assesses that trump did in fact speak with stone about wikileaks and members of his campaign about stones access to wikileaks. So it is a direct repudiation by the Senate RepublicanIntelligence Committee about trumps own story when it comes to the russians. Every time its about russia and trump there are lies. There are lies with stone, there are lies with trump, lies with flynn, person after person. And finally i think were starting to get to the bottom of it. That senate report, by the way, is 966 pages long. Steve bannon in typical form after being arrested came out and made a statement. Lets listen to it. Look, what i said yesterday this fiasco is a total political hit job. Im not going to back down. This is a political hit job. Everybody knows i love a fight. This was to stop and intimidate people that want to talk about the wall. This is to stop and intimidate people that have president trumps back on building the wall. Neal katyal, as a lawyer its not much of a defense. I didnt hear a defense, and i think if im steve bannon id be particularly worried because three others were indicted. And i suspect they will flip or someone will, and then the question is will bannon flip, and who will bannon flip on . His former boss perhaps. Neal, good to see you as always. A complicated block to get through with a lot of moving parts. Neal katyal, a former acting United States solicitorgeneral. Coming up, if youre feeling hopeful the system is working after that discussion, dont. At least not yet because none other than former president barack obama is warning democracy itself is on the ballot in this election and its your responsibility to fix it. Well talk about that next. It. Well talk about that next it cog for colon cancer, dont wait. Because when caught early, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of colon cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Im on it. Thats a step in the right direction. All right, we opened the show tonight talking about how checks and balances are however slowly and imperfectly still working. What happens if donald trump is reelected in 75 days, in the bill barr run Justice Department, in our federal courts, in the Supreme Court, if donald trump gets four more years of his nominees confirmed . That is what is at stake as laid out by many of the speakers at the Democratic National convention including a stark warning that has never, ever been uttered by a former president against an incumbent president. Let me be as honest and clear as i possibly can. Donald trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is. Donald trump hasnt grown into the job because he cant. And the consequences of that failure are severe. If we have any hope of ending this chaos we have got to vote for joe biden like our lives depend on it. Im also asking you to believe in your own ability to embrace your own responsibility as citizens, to make sure that the basic tenants of our democracy endure. Because thats whats at stake right now, our democracy. Joining us now is ben rhodes president obama. And ben, there were a lot of people speaking in the last few days who made part of that point that barack obama made and that is they cant actually stop you, you can actually vote. They can make it difficult, make you despondent, cast doubt on the whole thing, but what they cant actually do is stop you from voting. They can make it hard, but they cant do it. Thats right, ali. And the republican strategy, the donald trump strategy is to prevent people from voting, is to engage in the systematic Voter Suppression tactics that theyve used for years to try to make it harder for people of color to vote, people in poorer communities to vote. And now we have this unprecedented assault on the Postal Service. Part of what i think obamas do their best when theyre speaking is they tell you the truth of whats happening. I think everybody can sense on some level this is fundamentally undemocratic president seeking to change our democracy. And frankly no matter what cynicism or apathy trump is trying to engender in people dont listen to it and get out there and vote. How successful do you think the effort was to convey people to people the importance of their agency, their ability to make the decision, their ability to overcome any obstacles put in their way to vote . Well, i think that if you look at the convention, you know, having worked on several Democratic Conventions the entire convention is supposed to tell a story about in this case what is the problem with the person whos currently in the office. What are the stakes in the election, and why should you choose our candidate, in this case joe biden. And i think the campaign was incredibly successful in laying out in stark terms the stakes, but in a way people already know what the stakes are because theyre living through it with covid, and i think what Michelle Obama did so well with her line it is what it is she didnt have to go through the litany of trump scandals or the ten things people have been outraged of over the course of the last week. People know intuitively this guy is not up to it, and theyre living that reality right now. She laid it out and said it is what it is, you know it. What that extra step is convincing people dont succumb to the apathy, dont succumb to the fear. You have to do this. You have to figure out a way to vote, there are different ways of doing it. I dont think it closed the deal, though, ali, because what has to happen is people have to get out and register people to vote. People have to communicate. Heres how you vote by mail, heres your polling sites. A lot of work has to be done. I think everybody who looks at this impartially right now would suggest if theres a free and nar election joe biden would win. But the objective of the Democratic Party which is an unusual one in American History is to ensure this is free and fair election, and thats going to involve a lot of Voter Education between now and election day. A number of prom independent republicans spoke at the convention. Lets just play a little of that. Joe biden is a man for our times, times that call for all of us to take off our partisan hats and put our nation first for ourselves and of course for our children. Donald trump has no clue how to run a business let alone an economy. Joe biden, on the other hand, has a plan that will strengthen our economy for working people and Small Business owners. For me the choice is simple. Im with joe. With joe biden in the white house you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries. Ben, what kind of impact do you think that has on centrists, on republicans, on conservatives, on people who are a little bit disaffected, maybe a lot disaffected with donald trump but maybe arent in love with joe biden . Well, i think first of all youre trying to reach that narrow slice of voters who might still be on the fence, more persuadable. Every convention, you know, the republicans try to out the democrats, the democrats try to out republicans to make a message. I think what those voices said and the scale of the number of republicans who in some way were part of this convention either in endorsements or in speeches, it was meant to convey this is an emergency. And you know what, probably after the election were going to go back to disagreeing about a lot of things. About the size of government or the nature of economic or foreign policy. But i think what the convention conveyed with all those speakers and what they said is that this isnt normal. And again, you out there, americans you know this isnt normal. And we cant afford to take the risk of four more years of this. And i think the collective weight of those speakers delivered that message well. Ben, good to see you, my friend. Thank you for joining me. A former deputy National Security advisor to president obama. Coming up, how confident should you feel that your Postal Service is prepared to handle the predicted Record Number of votes cast by mail this year . If you listen to todays Senate Hearing with trumps post master general maybe not too much. Thats next. General maybe not th thats next. Audible is my roadtrip companion. Its kind of my quiet, alone time. Audible is a routine for me. Its like a fun night school for adults. I could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. I never was interested in historical fiction before, but im obsessed with it now. There are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i dont have time to read, mean i might as well listen. If i want to catch up on the news or history or learn whats going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. Because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. I think theres like 180 books in my, in my library now. It changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. Its true, its so true. To start your free 30day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. burke oh, just puttering, tinkering. Whatcha working on. L, commemorating bizarre mishaps that farmers has seen and covered. Had a little extra time on my hands lately. neighbor and that . burke oh, this . Just an app ive been working on. Its called signal from farmers, and it could save you up to fifteen percent on your auto insurance. Simply sign up, drive and save. But im sure whatever youve been working on is equally impressive. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum what if i sleep hot . Or cold . Of the year on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. No problem, with temperature balancing you can sleep better together. Can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable will it help me keep up with mom . You got this. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. Its our weekend special. Save 500 on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Plus, free premium delivery when you add a base. Ends monday. To learn more, go to sleepnumber. Com. The Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations election mail securely and on time. We are very comfortable that we will achieve this mission. Well, if only it were that easy to have confidence in Donald Trumps big donor who has become post master general lewis dejoy. It was meant to give him a friendlier forum before the fierce grilling hes going to get before House Democrats monday. He could not provide a detailed plan how he would ensure every mail in ballot would arrive in time to be counted. And he acknowledged his operational changes are causing disruptions in delivery but claimed they were solely to change cost. Today he refused to reverse the changes that have already been made including replacing mailboxes that have been removed or reassembling Mail Processing machines. Including limiting over time. Are you suspending your policy eliminating extra trips, yes or no . No. First of all, the policy was not to eliminate extra trips. It was to mitigate extra trips. Are you limiting over time or is that being suspended right now and people work overtime if necessary to move mail out efficiently every single day . We never eliminated over time. Its been curtailed significantly is what i understand. Its not been curtailed by me or the leadership team. Okay, so there might be a little splitting hairs going on there. Internal postal documents obtained by nbc news shows how his postal changes effectively have limited over time. The document circulated in july stresses late or extra trips are no longer authorized or accepted. Carriers must begin, leave and return on time and, quote, no additional transportation will be authorized to dispatch mail, end quote. Black and white, there it is. While dejoy testified this morning six states in the District Of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the post master general and Postal Service alleging the cut backs were unlawful and designed to impede efforts to conduct free and fair elections, as axios reported. Joining us now the executive editor of the american prospect. There are a lot of things going on here not the least of which is that republicans have been demonizing the Postal Service for years on the basis that its got a failed business model. And you have written so cleatly about the fact that its not meant to do what fedex does or what ups does in the same way that prisons are not state prisons are not supposed to be as profitable as for profit prisons and they do different things. And some people dont believe Public Schools or hospitals should even be in the business. It predates them and have has a different and important mandate. Right, it has a universal servicem service mandate to deliver six days a week to a mailbox in the United States no matter where it is. So you need some redundancy in that system in order to ensure that you can get that mail to its intended target every day save for sundays. So when you get rid of every sorting machine but one in the state of New Hampshire as senator hassen talked about today, if theres only one machine left for sorting and it breaks down then you have a real problem. And maybe that makes sense it did break down. It did, in fact, break down. Thats right. So maybe it makes sense in a Business Management kind of sense, youre lean and mean and doing just in time logistics, but when its the mail you have a different mandate and you have to honor that. But as you understand from covering businesses, businesses often replace human labor with cheaper mechanical labor. For some reason were even taking out the mechanical labor here. Were taking out sorting machiness. A machine that sorts 35,000 pieces of mail in a short period of time. If youre trying to save money why would you dismantle a machine . Well, thats absolutely right. And the machine is already paid for. So i dont even really understand what the money saving portion of that is to consa consolidate. I guess because theyre making money selling the parts for scrap or something. Look, if you cant perform your job function because you cant give enough overtime then you lack staff. Thats the bottom line. By taking man power out of the agency it caused a demonstrably obviously deleterious effect. Senator peters put out a chart and it showed in the middle of july ontime delivery dropped precipitously. And, you know, dejoy was trying to blame this on the pandemic, but, you know, we started the pandemic in march. It was only in july when you see this dip thats being shown right there. So this excuse that this is about covid19 just doesnt add up. So one of the questions here, dejoy was sort of trying to paint a picture of a guy didnt really study, wasnt sure, did want think it would have this kind of effect. I guess the more important question is whether or not he was appointed to this position for this purpose, to be disruptive of the Postal Service, and whether or not that discussion was had with either trump or mnuchin. Gary peters asked him about that today. Lets listen to that exchange. Did you discuss those changes or their potential impact on the november election with the president or anyone at the white house . And remind you youre under oath. I have never spoken to the president about the Postal Service other than to congratulate me when i accepted the position. Did you speak or discuss any of these changes with secretary mnuchin . During the during the discussion and negotiating the note i told them im working on a plan, but i never discussed the changes i just said im working on a plan. David, whats your sense of motivation here . It seemed a little less than believable that dejoy didnt really think through the implications of some of the things he was doing. Yeah, that was a very long pause when he was asked about mnuchin. And we had testimony yesterday at the congressional progressive caucus with David Williams whos the former vice chair of the Postal Service board of governors. And he testified that mnuchin was very interested in who would be the next post master general. Very interested in operational changes to how the Postal Service runs. This is one agency trying to tell another agency in the federal government what to do. And so i thought dejoy just didnt pass the laugh test there. And, you know, if you know youre bringing in someone who has a Business Management logistic style you know thats going to be disruptive. And you also know that its 100 days before the election when he got it, and oioknow its 75 days and you see the effects. I think its very likely that mnuchin played a role here on behalf of the administration, and we need to get to the bottom of that. I suspect House Democrats will ask dejoy about that, and, you know, yesterday at the hearing ted lou, for example, said mnuchin should testify. Katie porter a democrat said she hopes dejoy comes prepared because shes certainly going to. The author of the new book, monopolized, life in the age of corporate power. Coming up at this weeks Democratic Convention america got to meet some of the partys brightest stars including mayor garcia leading his city through the pandemic while dealing with unimaginable loss in his own family. Going to join us with a very personal message to donald trump. It didnt have to be this way. D trump. It didnt have to be this way. Balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoohoo great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. Hthat cannot be extinguished. S to stir that fire, university of phoenix is awarding up to one Million Dollars in scholarships through september. See what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix. Edu. Give light and the people will find a way. That quote from civil rights icon ella baker is how joe biden began his speech last night accepting the democratic nomination for president. A fitting description how we are under a country with president trump. Donald trump has failed repeatedly to save lives, it follow scientific advice and put the wellbeing of americans before his ego. As of tonight 176,257 people have died in the United States to coronavirus. With more than 5. 6 million confirmed cases, and 1,118 deaths reported today. Tonight hundreds of people marching in new york city and other cities in a mass memorial for the 176,000 lives lost. 176,257 shattered and grieving families. While many of the people who have survived coronavirus are dealing with longterm and in some cases extremely debilitating health effects. Last night joe biden promised to end what he called this season of darkness. He laid out his plan to address the pandemic, but he also spoke to a nation in pain based on his own understanding of the grief of losing someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens up in the middle of your chest and you feel like youre being sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But ive learned two things. First, your loved one may have left this earth but theyll never leave your heart. Theyll always be with you. Youll always hear them. And second, i found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose. One of those people who knows that pain and grief is a democratic rising star Robert Garcia, the mayor of Long Beach California who was introduced to most of america at this weeks convention. He made history in 2014 as the first openly gay and the first latino to become mayor of long beach, california. And he was sworn in with another person of history, Kamala Harris who accepted the Vice President ial nomination this week. In the last month mayor garcia lost both his mother and stepfather to coronavirus. His mother was a Health Care Worker in the front lines in the battle against the virus. Heres what he told the country during the Democratic Convention. Were facing the biggest economic and Health Crisis in generations because our president didnt and still doesnt have a plan. And you know what . You deserve more than the constant chaos that donald trump delivers. Joining us now is mayor Robert Garcia of long beach, california. Mayor garcia, good to see you. Thank you for being with us tonight. I have to ask you about what joe biden said about finding purpose in helping you deal with your grief because youve got a lot of it. Your mother was 61 years old when she died. Two weeks later your stepfather died at the age of 58, so young. In the middle of these efforts youve been involved in, youve been involved in the campaign, youre dealing with your city and how it deals with coronavirus. Talk to me about your own grief in this. Well, first, thank you. And what the Vice President said last night hit me right in the gut. And i felt like he was talking directly at me and at everyone else across the country who has lost someone to covid19. It was an incredibly powerful moment. My brother and i felt like that was a president talking to a country that was mourning, and certainly far and above what anything the current president has done. So we were very grateful. Its been a very tough few weeks. I think to lose both my mom and my step dad has been really hard, but it also has its renewed a sense of doing the right thing, following their values and moving forward and sharing their story, their amazing legacy from this country and as an immigrant family what theyve contributed to this country. One of the things you did, by the way, in their memories you started up a scholarship fund, your alma mater California State University in long beach, to help students in health care with a focus on helping women and immigrants. In fact, theres the page right now. Youve raised almost 50,000 when last we took this picture. This was in honor of your mother. They came here, we were poor, didnt have a lot of money. She worked odd end jobs, cleaned houses, worked in clift shops and finally became a Health Care Worker as a medical assistant for almost 30 years. Always wore ppe, always did the right thing. And the one thing she taught us was to give back and love this country. And she loved her job and loved this community. Becoming a citizen was so important for her. And she always told me and my brother wed never be able to give back to our country what our country has given to us. Thats what i learned from her. I want to make through that scholarship and through just remembering her life that other immigrants have the same shot that she had and that i had to citizenship and remember that these Health Care Workers like my homon the front lines and they need our help. What did you think as an immigrant watching as a child of immigrants watching the convention in which so much focus was put on immigrants and the role they have played in building this country in the midst of an administration and presidency borne on racism and disdain for immigrants and still continues to practice that . It was inspiring to see us represented. My whole family are immigrants. We were spanish speakers. We learned english. I remember standing in long lines being cheated by immigration lawyers. And one thing that ive learnedy family immigrants arelives, they want to take care of their family. And every single immigrant in my opinion in this country deserve the same shot as i did. I became a u. S. Citizen at 21 years old, became a teacher, got elected mayor in the community of my hometown. All of that would not have been possible had i not gotten the honor of becoming a citizen of this country. We have dreamers, my students in my classes just want an opportunity. And im very, very proud that Vice President biden and Kamala Harris have talked about Immigration Reform and putting forward a real immigration plan and path to citizenship within the first few weeks of their administration. Mayor garcia, good to meet you and im glad the country got to meet you this week. Mayor Robert Garcia of long beach, california. Look forward to talking to you again, sir. Coming up Zerlina Maxwell gets the last word and the first word what to expect next week when the Republican Party renominates donald trump. When the Republican Party renominates donald trump i should get a quote. Do it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Its kind of my quiet, alone time. Audible is a routine for me. Its like a fun night school for adults. I could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. I never was interested in historical fiction before, but im obsessed with it now. There are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i dont have time to read, mean i might as well listen. If i want to catch up on the news or history or learn whats going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. Because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. I think theres like 180 books in my, in my library now. It changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. Its true, its so true. To start your free 30day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. So when it comes to screening for colon cancer, dont wait. Because when caught early, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of colon cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Im on it. Thats a step in the right direction. This is our moment. This is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of american darkness began here, tonight as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation. And this is a battle we will win, and well do it together. That was Vice President joe biden accepting the nomination for president of the United States last night in a week that saw senator Kamala Harris accept the democratic nomination for Vice President , becoming the first black woman to do so in history. Democrats made their case for a more empathetic and inclusive country in stark contrast to Donald Trumps american carnage vision. That is not, of course, how donald trump saw it. Today trump called it, quote, the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American History. Joining us now, Zerlina Maxwell, the senior director of progressive programming at sirius xm radio, also the author of, the end of white politics how to heal our liberal divide. Even if you dont like democrats or youre not a democrat, its quite a stretch to call that dark, angry and gloomy. There were some serious moments in it, but it was generally speaking an empathetic thing. In fact, there was some criticism on social media that it didnt feel policyheavy. It felt like a bit of a kumbaya thing. Dark, angry and negative is not really what it was. Not at all, and, you know, to be clear, if anybody saw brayden last night bravely trying to get the words out, being inspired by his meeting with the Vice President , who also struggles with speaking and a stutter and telling him, you know, theres a strategy. If you have an obstacle, heres how i worked to overcome obstacles in my life, and thats such a powerful connection and anecdote about joe biden. But there are so many stories like joe biden like that, and its a clear contrast with what youre seeing coming from the white house, coming from donald trump and his administration frankly that implements policies that cruel towards communities of color and frankly marginalized people. Everybody remembers the infamous moment where donald trump made fun of somebody who was differently abled as opposed to the biden case, where youre taking someone aside and giving them inspiration. And thats, i think, something that is not partisan, so on the policy end, i understand why there are critiques about there not being a lot of specifics in terms of policy, particularly on Reproductive Health care. But i do think that this is a contest between decency and dignity for all people. Right. And whatever the other side of that coin is, which is what weve been living through for the past four years. Well, thats the complexity of it, right . Because next week the republicans are going to have to do this. And as i said to rachel at the top of the hour, it will be a little bit like putting lipstick on a pig. Thats problematic because there have been many years in this country where republicans could proudly hold a convention and trumpet certain successes. But in this case theres just a long list of failures, criminality, cronyism, replenishing the swamp that theyre going to have to make look really good for america for four nights. Well, look, donald trump is essentially running commercials right now saying that you should be afraid of joe bidens america. Im sorry, but we are in quarantine. There has been an economic collapse as a result of his failures on covid19. He still is not believing in the science and the scientists, and so until that happens, there wont be an effective solution to covid19. And so what is he going to stand up there and say . I guess he just has to pretend like everything is okay when it is so clearly not. And i think that there is no world in which 176,000 dead americans in less than a years time is a success for a president. So lets see what they pull together next week in terms of their message and the American People and voters will be able to compare. But i dont think that there is much of a comparison there because i do see this as a contest between decency and the other side of that, which i think is cruelty and brutality towards people and committing acts of harm towards them when that is just the opposite of what we would want in a leader, an effective leader, particularly in an emergency. Zerlina, ive got less than a minute, but you and i talked at the front end of Kamala Harris being nominated, her accepting that nomination that night, that historic night. That was something. That was the most amazing thing that has happened in the past few years, and not on a partisan level. For me as a black woman yeah. Seeing a black woman in that position for the First Time Ever was amazing. And the reason why is because its not just superficiallevel representation. Its the fact that shes going to bring her perspective, having lived her entire life in a black girls body. And that makes your experience and your perspective very different because unfortunately we do not treat white men or white women just like we treat black ones. And so shes going to have a unique perspective and certainly to get to that level, she is tough enough to push for those communities that for so long have been left out of the oval office. Zerlina, thank you for your unique perspective that you always bring to us. Thank you for joining us tonight. That is tonights last word. Im going to see you tomorrow morning and every weekend morning starting at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on msnbc. Weve got a great show lined up. I hope youll join us. The 11th hour with Brian Williams begins right now. And good evening once again. Day 1,308 of the Trump Administration. 74 days now until our president ial election. It is another number that is making news at this hour on a friday night. Tonight a new projection from the folks at the university of washington says nearly 310,000 americans will be dead by december 1st. Right now that death toll is over 176,000 with over 5. 6 million known infections in our country. Today donald trump had little to say about the virus or its toll,