Welcome to The Beat, im ari melber. But we begin with Breaking News in politics. Former republican Vice President and Defense Secretary Dick cheney is backing Kamala Harris. That marks one of her most high Ranking Republican endorsements in this campaign probably the most iconic. Dick cheney is an Arch Conservative Hawk and a gop icon, a fixture running republican administrations as chief of Staff And War policy as Defense Sect and Vice President and during 9 11 and the wars in afghanistan and iraq. Those were stints that made him a Fire Brand Folk hero on the right and loathed by most prominent washington democrats. And indeed this news right now tonight would have been unheard ever 10 or 15 years ago and cheney is far from a never trumper. He endorsed Donald Trump in 2018. This also completes the Cheney Family unusual evolution and it did not come during the actual four years of trumps presidency, his governing priorities and his mistakes, it came over whether were a democracy or a C
still wrong. i thought this was really powerful moment. this is something that his campaign has wanted. they knew they would be confronted about january 6th. they knew they would be confronted about what the former president has said. and they wanted pence to directly address the issue to voters which obviously, he did. i will tell you after 2020 when i was in iowa, i heard from a lot of people saying pence didn t do his job. that he should have not certified the election. and we are on the ground now in iowa and voters are really receptive to him. it is interesting to see if the strategy works. we will see if that changes polling. because right now the former president is very far ahead and far ahead on frund raising. although new numbers from ron desantis are impressive. they are impressive numbers. $20 million in the second quarter for the desantis campaign. you have to keep in mind, this is not quarter two numbers, the entire quarter. he only announced in late may. you are lo