Story. Rachel, scanoe around for a couple days. You have a great weekend. Seven years ago, our own chris hayes wrote much of Movement Conservatism is a con and the base are the marks. That observation was true at the time but the con is not just most of conservatism anymore. With trump at the top, its the entire movement. This week, former white house strategist steve bannon became the latest trump associate to be taken into custody when the chineseowned yacht on which he was sunbathing was boarded by u. S. Postal service agents. Bannon was accused of defrauding people who gave tens of millions of dollars to a private fund, which existed, bannon claimed, to finance construction of the border wall. Federal prosecutors said the real purpose of that fund, called we build the wall, was to cover the luxury lifestyle of bannon and the other defendants. Depending on how you count it, and in honor of conservatives, we shall count conservatively, steve bannon is now the seventh former trump adviser to be arrested, face charges, or be convicted of a crime since donald trump took office. The seventh. As the New York TimesMichelle Goldberg writes, quote, the truth is we build the wall is what trumpist private enterprise looks like, a gaudy scam that monetizes grievance. Its a scam that speaks to a much larger problem with the gop and its base. As little more than a collection of fools to be taken advantage of. Conmen see their marks. Msnbcs steve bannon, spelled differently and no relations, notes, many prominent republican voices, newt gingrich, mike huckabee, et al. , have created lucrative mailing lists used for highly dubious purposes. Similarly the rise of the Tea Party Led to the creation of scam pacs that targeted conservative donors. Its not about their beliefs. Its about their bottom line. Now, while previous republican administrations had their share of those who were trying to personally 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, erik prince, and sam clovis to federal prosecutors in 2019. Pass aloing along their suspici that these trumplinked officials may have misled the committee during their testimonies. The large number of people in direct contact with this president , often for years, would are revealed to be outandout fraudsters or possible criminals just keeps growing. As former bush official paul rosen swag 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, its not just steve bannon. Its roger stone. Its michael flynn. Its rick gates, paul manafort, michael cohen. Whats it say about your judgment that these are the kind of people well, i have no idea how did all these people get into trumps inner circle . Trump has no idea, none at all. I should note that we cut off the sound bite because the president then went on to a lie, actually a lot of lies about the obama administration. Theres no need to amplify those lies. But trump has 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, in the new York Attorney generals office, 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 also looking at alleged fraud by trumps inaugural committee. And 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. The gop has been taken over by the trump con. Republicans dont stand up to trump. They dont stop him. They dont excommunicate him. Their silence is a tacit acceptance of his con and the cons of his associates, a tacit acceptance that their base, conservatives, can be duped again and again and again. Party officials have had years to stop it, and theyve barely tried. 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 hoffer wrote in that in america, every Mass Movement ends up as a racket, a kults, or a corporation. Trumpism reversed this. The racket came first. Leading off our discussion tonight is neal katyal, former acting sliolicitor general. Thank you for being with us. This becomes hard to process after a while. The degree and the depth of stuff, and then you have to read in on a whole new thing, the we build the wall. Its not even complicated, highlevel, highly sophisticated con stuff. They opened a page, a crowdfunding page, took money, said they were going to spend it on the wall. Didnt quite happen that way. Absolutely, ali. As i listened to, i was so glad you started the show this wade about two things, con men and criminals because, you know, 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 their 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. And so thats on the comments side. And on the lawlessness side, absolutely, ali. I was so glad you quoted paul rosen zieg who is 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. It was paul manafort, whos been jailed, who was the president s campaign manager. It was rick gates, his Deputy Campaign manager. It was roger stone, trumps close political confidant. It was michael cohen, his personal lawyer. You know, michael flynn, the president S National Security adviser. Its like who around the president hasnt been indicted at this point . Right. As you say, its not a bug. Its a feature. In the beginning when these things would happen, trump tried to throw them under the bus. Ity dont really know them. Im not really close. But now that were on the seventh or eighth depending on how you count it, and you just enumerated them. You just named them all. There is no space between the president and all of these people. Exactly, and im not sure ive named them all. I think there were others. And indeed this week we really learned and you just started to refer to this at the top of your show. The new york prosecutors, both federal and state, have been investigating donald trump personally because trump went and evidently tried to deduct his 130,000 in payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as a business expense, and so new york 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 had been subpoenaed, and the Supreme Court said, yeah, mr. President , it looked like you got to turn that information over. And just yesterday a federal judge in new york said, yeah, mr. President , you 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. Its the genius of our founders. Its the state prosecutors coming and saying, not so fast. You dont get to stymie us this time. We want this information, and were going to get a court order to do it. Neal, let me ask you about what happens next because time is short before the next election, and the next election may solve this issue, or it may not. But lawrence was talking he was 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 a president ford and giving donald trump a pardon under the pretense of healing the nation . In other words, are you willing to commit to the american ideal that no one is above the law . Absolutely yes. I commit. Hes talking about not pulling a president ford. 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 bidens absolutely right to say nobody should be above the law, and hes also right to not commit in advance to some prosecutorial or nonprosecutorial strategy. I mean 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. That is you know, 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 diminish our great institutions and 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 as 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 out of the Senate Intelligence committee. I just want to read you some of this. The Intelligence Committee, one person said, reserved its harshest allegations for the president s former chief strategist, steve bannon, former Campaign Chair sam clovis and erik prince saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators, a potential felony. Thats reporting from the washington post. So i just im trying to put this whole net together of corruption, lawlessness, grifters, con men and liars. It all sort of blends together at some point. Yes. And i think there, ali, you buried the lede of that Senate Report because that was a report by the republicanled Senate Intelligence committee, and it said that donald trump knew and discussed those stolen democratic emails in the 2016 points, that he knew that that had been discussed with the russians. And they rejected this committee rejected the idea when trump said, as he said to prosecutors, i didnt remember my conversations with roger stone. They said, no, despite trumps recollection, the committee assesses that trump did, in fact, speak with stone about wikileaks and with 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. The bottom line here is every time its about russia and trump, there are lies. There are lies with stone. There are lies with trump. There are lies with flynn, person after person. 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. The timing is exquisite. I am 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 other defendants were indicted. And the first thing federal prosecutors do is go and try and get those to flip on the bigger fish here, which is steve bannon. 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. It was a complicated block to get through with a lot of moving parts and we appreciate you helping us make it clear. Coming up, if youre feeling hopeful that the system is working after that discussion, dont, at least not yet because none other than former president barack obama is warning that democracy itself is on the ballot in this election, and its your responsibility to fix it. Well talk about that next. Roten to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you dont. [grunting noise] ill take that. Woohoo 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. With nutrients to support immune health. Ensure max protein. They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. 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. Im on it. Where Everybody Knows someyour name ant to go and theyre always glad you came applebees. Now thats eating good in the neighborhood. 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. 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 barrrun Justice Department, in our federal courts, in the Supreme Court, if donald trump gets four more years of his nominees confirmed . In our elections where russia has interfered once with impunity and is interfering again right now. 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 a 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 tenets of our democracy endure because thats whats at stake right now our democracy. Joining us now is ben rhodes. Hes a former deputy National Security adviser to president obama. Hes an msnbc political analyst. 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. They can make you despondent. They can cast doubt upon the whole thing, but what they cant actually do is stop you from voting. They can make it hard, but they cant do it. Yeah, thats right, yeah. Thats right, ali. And the republican strategy, the donald trump strategy is to prevent people from voting, is to engage in the systemic Voter Suppression tactics that they have used for years to try to make it harder for people and now we have this assault on the post office. Part of what the obamas do the best when they are speaking is they tell you the truth about whats happening. And everybody can sense this is a fundamentally president. But they always try to leave you with a sense of agency, that you have power that cannot be taken away from you and frankly no matter what cynicism or apathy trump is trying to even gender in people, dont listen to it and get out and vote. How successful do you think the effort was to convey 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 who is 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 that the campaign in the convention was incredibly successful at 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 is she didnt have to go through the litany of trump scandals. People know that this guy is not up to it and theyre living that reality right now. And she just laid it out and said, look, it is what it is. You know it. You arent just the partisans democrats. It is a lot of maybe trump voters who know on some level this guy is not up to the job. But the extra step is convincing people. Dont succumb to the apathy and the fear. You have to figure out a way to vote. There are different ways of doing it. Now i dont think it closes the deal because what has to happen is people have to get out and register people to vote. People have to communicate. Here is how you vote by mail. Here is your polling sites. A lot of work has to be done. I think if everybody, i think, you know, who looks at this impartially right now would suggest if there is a free and Fair Election, joe biden will win. But the objective of the Democratic Party is so ensure this is a free and Fair Election and that will involve a lot of voter. A lot of prominent 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 an economy that will strength 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 republicans, on conservatives, on people who are a little bit disaffected by donald trump but arent in love with joe biden. I think first of all you are trying to reach that narrow space of voters that might still be on the fence. But Something Else is happening because at every convention, they make this 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. You know what . Probably after the election we will go back to disagreeing about a lot of things, about the size of government or the nature of foreign policy. But i think what the convention conveyed with all those speakers and what they said is this isnt normal. You know this isnt normal. And we cant afford to take the risk of four more years of this. I think the collective weight of those speakers delivered that message well. Ben, good to see you, my friend. Thank you for joining me. Ben rhodes is a former deputy National Security adviser 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, then maybe not too much. Thats next. There she is. Turbocharged, right . Yes it is. Jim, could you uh kick the tires . Oh yes. Can you change the color inside the car . Oh sure. How about blue . Thats more cyan but. Jump in the back seat, jim. Act like my kids. How much longer . Exactly how they sound. Its got massaging seats too, right . Oh yeahhhhh. Oh yeahhhhh. Visit the mercedesbenz summer event or shop online at participating dealers. Get 0 apr financing up to 36 months on select new and certified preowned models. Oh. Oh, darn wha let me help. Here we go. Lift and push and push there. Its up there. Oh, boy. Hey joshie. Wrinkles send the wrong message. Help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. Hey bud. Hey, pop pop so you wont get caught with wrinkles again. [woman laughs] toim releasing a plan to save lives in the months ahead. Irus. We need to increase federal support for testing, doubling the number of drivethru testing sites. We absolutely need a clear message from the very top of our federal government that Everyone Needs to wear a mask in public. Every single Frontline Worker should have the personal protective equipment that they need to be safe. We need to support schools and childcare programs so parents, if and when they can return to work, are confident that their children will be safe and cared for. And finally, we need to protect the populations most at risk our seniors, vulnerable populations with preexisting conditions. We need real plans, real guidelines, with uniform nationwide standards. Its a simple proposition folks, were all in this together. We gotta fight this together. Well emerge from this stronger because we did it together. Im joe biden and i approve this message. I got it all from you im always pushing through i know well make it to the finish line i know youre waiting on the other side im like you ondemand glucose monitoring. Because theyre always on. Another lifechanging technology from abbott. So you dont wait for life. You live it. The post office is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations election mail security and on time. We are very, 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 postmaster general, louis dejoy. His appearance today was meant to give louis dejoy a friendlier forum before the fierce grilling he will get before House Democrats in the Oversight Committee on monday. He could not provide a detailed plan for how he would ensure every mailin ballot will arrive in time to be counted. He also acknowledged his operational changes are cause ing delays. He also admitted he had not considered the impact of delayed prescriptions or paychecks on veterans, seniors or working families. Imagine that. The guy who runs the post office just didnt think about it. While dejoy suspended additional changes earlier this week, today he refused to suspend the changes that have already been made. Ranking democrat on the committee pressed dejoy on whether he was suspending other measures that postal workers complained slowed delivery. Are you suspending your policy eliminating extra trips, yes or no . No. First of all, the policy was not to limit extra trips. Are you eliminating overtime . Senator, we never eliminated overtime. Its been curtailed significantly is what i understand. It has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team. Okay. So there might be splitting hairs there. His policy changes effectively have limited overtime. The document circulated beginning in july stresses that late or extra trips are no longer authorized or accepted. Carriers must begin, leave on time. Black and white, there it is. While dejoy testified this morning, six states in the District Of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the postmaster general and the Postal Service alleging the cutbacks and restructuring efforts were unlawful and designed to impede efforts to conduct free and Fair Elections. Joining us now is the executive editor of the american prospect. David, thank you for being with us. There is 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. You have win so clearly about the fact that its not meant to do what fedex does or what ups does in the same way that state prisons are not supposed to be as profitable as nor profit prisons. And some people dont believe they should be in the profit making business. But the post office wasnt designed to be a competitor of those agencies. Right. It has a universal serviceman date, in fact, to deliver six days a week to every mailbox in the United States no matter where it is. And, 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 hassin talked about today, if there is only one machine left for sorting and it breaks down, then you have a real problem. And maybe that makes it and it did break down. It did, in fact, break down, thats right. Maybe that makes sense in a Business Management kind of sense. You are lean and mean and doing logistics but when it is 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 taking out sorting machines. Theyre not really clear. A machine that sorts 35,000 pieces of mail in a sort period of time. If you are trying to save money, why would you dismantle the machine . Thats right. The machine is already paid for so i dont really understand what the money saving portion of that is to consolidate. I guess because theyre making money on 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. I mean, thats just the bottom line. Right. So by taking manpower out of the agency, it caused a demonstrably obvious deleterious effect. If you look at senator peters put out a chart and it showed that in the middle of july on time 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 that didnt really study it, didnt really know, didnt think it would have this kind of effect. 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 of mnuchin. Did you discuss those changes or their impact with the president or anyone at the white house . And remind you you are 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 discussion and negotiating the note, i told him im working on a plan, but i never discussed the changes that i made. I just said im working on a plan. David, what is 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. We had testimony yesterday with the congressional progressive caucus with david williams, who is the former vice chair of the Postal Service board of governors. He testified that mnuchin was very interested in operational changes to how the post office 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 lap test there. And, you know, if you know you are bringing in someone who, you know, has a Business Management, logistics style you know that will be disruptive. You also know it is 100 days before the election when he got in, a little over 100. And you know it is 75 days now and you see the effects. I think that 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. David, good to see you. Thank you. The author of the new book, life in the age of corporate power. Thank you. Coming up, america got to meet some of the partys brightest stars including mayor Robert Garcia who is leading his city through the pandemic while dealing with unimaginable loss in his own family. He will join us with a very personal message to donald trump it didnt have to be this way. Hey, can i. Hold on one second. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. Safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him hes here. Hes right here. Hi hi. Hey thats totally him. Its him thats totally the guy. Safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. vo through our love promise, subaru and our retailers safe drivers do save 40 . Are proud to be replanting 500,000 trees. In areas devastated by wildfires. Subaru. More than a car company. Always have been. And always will be. Never letting anything get in my way. Not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. And certainly not arthritis. New voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. And it can help you too. Feel the joy of movement with voltaren. You can adjust youriggest sacomfort on both sides. Eep your sleep number setting. Feel the joy of movement can it help me fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet but 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. And now, all beds are on sale. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, free premium delivery when you add a base. Ends monday. To learn more, go to sleepnumber. Com. Give light and the people will find a way. That quote from ella baker is how joe biden began his speech last night. A fitting reflection of where we are as a country under president trump, who, as joe biden puts it, as cloaked america in darkness, a deadly darkness because donald trump has failed repeatedly to save lives, to follow scientific advice and to 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 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 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 you are being sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But i have learned two things. First, your loved one may have left this earth but they will never leave your heart. They will always be with you. You will 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 the 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 the mayor of long beach, california. He was sworn in by Kamala Harris, who accepted the democratic Vice President ial nomination this week. In the last month, mayor garcia lost both his mother and his stepfather to coronavirus. His mother was a Health Care Worker in the front lines in the battle against the virus. Here is part of what mayor garcia told the country. 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. Good to see you. Thank you for being is 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 that you have been involved in, you have been involved in the campaign, you are 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 that has lost someone due to covid19. It was an incredibly powerful moment. My brother and i felt like that was the 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 tough few weeks. I think to lose both my mom and my step dad has been really hard. But it also has renewed a sense of doing the right thing, following their values and moving forward and sharing their story and their amazing legacy from this country and as an immigrant family what they have contributed to this country. One of the things you did, by the way, in their memories, you started up a Scholarship Fund at your alma mater California State University in long beach to help students in health care with a focus on helping women and immigrants. There is a page right now on beach funder. You have raised almost 50,000 when last we took this picture. This is in honor of your mother. Absolutely. My mom immigrated to the u. S. When i was five years old. We were poor, didnt have a lot of money. She cleaned houses, worked in shops and finally became a Health Care Worker for almost 30 years. She absolutely loved her job and loved her country. Was the most careful person, always wore ppe, always did the right thing. She taught us to give back and to love this country. She loved her job and she loved this community. Becoming a citizen was so important for her and she always told me and my brother that we would never be able to give back to our country what our country has given to us. Thats what i learned from her. Her and greg were really great people. And i want to make sure through that scholarship and just remembering her life that other immigrants have the same shot that she had and that i had to citizenship and that they remember that these Health Care Workers like my mom are on 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 a presidency that was born on racism and still continues to practice that . Well, i was inspired to see us represented. I came to the u. S. Just as a kid, and my whole family are immigrants. We were spanish speakers. We learned english. I remember standing in long lines getting cheated from immigration lawyers. Being an immigrant is hard. We came to this country for a better life. Thats what immigrants come to this country for. One thing i have learned over time is while through my family immigrants are here. They just want to improve their life. They want to take care of their family. Every single immigrant thats in this country took the same shot that i did when i was a young kid. I became a u. S. Citizen at 21 years old, became a teacher. Got elected mayor of my community and my hometown, all of which would not be possible had i not had the honor of becoming a citizen. We have dreamers. We have people that were my students in my classes that 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. 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, what to expect next week when the Republican Party renominates donald trump. Thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. Patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. Ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. Tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath, cough, or chest pain. Before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Be in your moment. Ask your doctor about ibrance. Be in your moment. Find your getupandgo. Find pants that arent sweats. Find your friends. Find your sense of wander. Find the world is new, again. At chevy wed like to take you there. Now during the chevy open road sales event, get up to 15 of msrp cash back on select 2020 models. Thats over fiftyseven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. Its time to find new roads, again. Start your day with secret. Secret stops sweat 3x more than ordinary antiperspirants. With secret, youre unstoppable. No sweat try it and love it or get your money back. I appreciate what makes each person unique. Thats why i like liberty mutual. They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Almost done. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The freestyle libre 14 managday system. Etes can be hard. A continuous glucose monitor. Makes it easy. Easy to check your glucose without fingersticks, and easy to share your data with your doctor. And for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 14 day system, is also covered by medicare. Ask your doctor for a prescription. You can do it without fingersticks. Learn more at freestylelibre. Us welcome to camp tonsafun on xfinity its summer camp, but in your living room. Learn how to draw with a minions expert. How to build an indoor Obstacle Course plus. Whatever shes doing. And me, jade cattapreta. The host of es the soup camp tonsafun. Its like summer camp, but minus the poison ivy. Unless you own poison ivy. In which case, why . Just say summer camp into your xfinity voice remote to join. This is our moment, this is our mission. History will 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 in a saw Kamala Harris accept the democratic nomination for Vice President , becoming the first blackwoman to do so in history. Democrats made their case for a more empathetic and exclusive country in stark contrast to Donald Trumps american carnage vision. Today trump called it, quote, the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in american history. Joining us is zerlina maxwell, senior director at sirius xm rad radio. Even if you dont like democrats or youre not a democrat, its quite a stretch to call that dark, angry and gloomy. There were serious moments in it but it was generally speaking an empathetic thing. It didnt feel policy heavy. It felt like a bit of a dark, negative was not what it was. Not at all. If anyone saw braden last night bravely try 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 theres a strategy. If you have an obstacle, here is how i worked to overcome obstacles in my life. Thats such a powerful connection and anecdote about joe biden but there are so many stories about joe biden like that. Its a clear contrast with what youre seeing coming from the white house, coming from the donald trump in his administration, frankly, that implements policies that are cruel towards communities of color and, frankly, marginalize 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 coun y critiques but there not be a lot of policy, but i think it is about decency between all people and what 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. Next week the republicans are going to have to do this. 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. But in this case theres just a long list of failures, criminality, cronyism, replenishing the swamp that theyre going to have to make really good for america for four nights. 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. So until that happens, there wont be an effective solution to covid19. 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. I think that there is no world in which 176,000 dead americans in 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. Ive got less than ament b i but you and i talked at the front end of Kamala Harris being nominated, 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 seeing a black woman in that position for the First Time Ever was amazingand the reason why is because its not just superficial level representation, its the fact that shes going to bring her perspective having lived her entire life in a black girls body. That makes your experience and perspective very different. Unfortunately we do not treat white men and white women just like we treat black ones so shes going to have a unique perspective and she is tough enough to push for those communities that for so long have been left out of the oval office. Thank you for your unique perspective, my friend. Zerlina maxwell. That is tonights last word. Weve got great show lined up. I hope youll join us. 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. Joe biden rallies a nation, and the first ever Pandemic Convention is a stunning success. Tonight biden insider ron clain on what his candidate accomplished this week and what democrats need to do to win. Then the trump gang. New shocking details on the scam prosecutors say steve bannon ran to dupe trump voters out of their money. Plus, our new