i mean, elon musk is a perfect example of that. i think if i were worth hundreds of billions of dollars and made spaceships i probably wouldn t be hanging around in the gutters of twitter but it seems everybody is addicted to that, but when you look at legislation, and that s how we used to judge presidents, that s how we used to judge politicians do they get things done? joe biden did exactly what he said he was going to do, and this is not a campaign speech for joe biden. i mean, you re talking about a guy that believes, and we re going to go to sleep now, in regular order believes that madisonian democracy is beautiful, the house takes up something, they debate it. the senate takes up something, they debate it. they negotiate, they go to the president. he or she signs it. it becomes law, right? washington used to be about that instead of outrageous press
i think people are dug in. must be so frustrating for joe biden. this is his issue. he thinks, you know, it s his job to save america from this brick of perhaps mortal danger to our democracy, defeated trump at the polls in 2020. here he is at this midterm election looking over the brick again. it s obviously frustrating. i have to say, one of the painful things for me watching this speech was to think back to trump, to biden s inauguration, and to think fixing this problem, this division in the country, that was what joe biden was elected for, and two years later, it s hard to say that we re in a better place than we were. david, let me ask you this question, though, and i think maybe it s social media. maybe it s just the nature of politics that people go around trying to own, you know, the libs or do anything that will grab a headline.
the end are going to serve their oath. joining us now, congressional investigations reporter for the washington post, jackie alemany, she is an msnbc contributor, and jackie, you have a new report on these e nails, what more can you tell us about them? i want to dispute something you ended with, david. it s not just trump who has flouted the enormous of democracy, but these lawyers, john eastman, the fringy lawyers that were surrounding trump and helping him in his efforts to overturn the results of the election in the last few months of his presidency had reason to believe at least publicly that justice clarence thomas was going to be sympathetic to their cause. remember in december of 2020, thomas along with alito issued a brief statement after the audacious texas lawsuit was filed, calling to ultimately throw out the results of the
you know, what president biden said was an important message, but other than those democratic voters who are already part of his base and going to turn out for him, it s not really going to resonate just because of the message on the economy, and i wish that he would do a better job of connecting how important it is that our democratic institutions are strong for the overall health of the american economy. the american capitalism thrives because we are known for having free and fair elections. if that goes away in the world, maybe the investment flow is not going to be as good in this country, and investors can find other places. i think there needs to be a little bit more of a connection to how democracy impacts the ordinary americans life. you look at polls and the growing number of people who support an authoritarian leader who doesn t have to worry about the constraints of elections or the constraints of congress, i mean, those polls are out there. those numbers are growing. a
if those people win, it will be more of a focus. the stakes in arizona, the stakes in wisconsin just couldn t be higher. yeah. i mean, we all look at the senate races but when you look at this, and the governor s races, if you re looking for fair and free elections, that s actually on the ballot in wisconsin and arizona specifically. you know, it used to be the issues, right, joe, and it still is, we have this other layer of protecting democracy on top of that, and making sure elections remain free and fair, and that is something that we also an extra layer we have to contend with. adrienne elrod, david ignatius, thank you as well. the federal reserve raises interest rates again. steve rattner joins us with a look at what it means for the u.s. economy and the fight against inflation and what might be ahead. plus, white house chief of staff ron klain joins us on the