It. And our Colleague Mehdi Hasan had an incredible guest on lost hour, i dont know if you saw it. I did, yes. He had the woman who was the first female fixed Wing Pilot from the afghan Air Force who eventually had to apply for asylum in our country because of the taliban hunting her. Her talking about seeing whats happening to her country, her fear for her family still in afghanistan right now, i mean, theres no word for it other than dire. I share your view that when mehdi finished his interview, it was remarkable to watch. May this have a better ending. Rachel, you have a good weekend and well see you monday. Thanks, ali. It is friday, friday the 13th. It may seem silly to say this but Joe Biden is still president of the united states. Perhaps you didnt know, but for months the Foam Pillow Guy was telling every poor, Sad Soul who would listen that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would resign after the fraud of the 2020 election was exposed. It didnt happen. The Foam Pillow Guys prediction, this here, if you will, it was wrong. As are all the Crazy Conspiracies Pushed By Trump and his lackeys no matter the subject. A good rule of thumb. If it comes from the mouth of Trump Or Rudy giuliani or a Foam Pillow ceo, dont trust it. Seems obvious. But sadly, too many of your fellow americans do trust what those hacks say and its gotten so bad that even some nonconspiracy theorist republicans cannot convince their base of the truth anymore. Dont kid yourself into believing thats why we lost. Its not. Its not. Youre wrong. Ill tell you openly. Youre wrong. Im not wrong. Yes, you are. I have plenty of proof. I have proof in arizona, pennsylvania, and georgia. Five different states . Yes. Hundreds of thousands of votes . Yes. Youre kidding yourself. There was fraud in the 2020 election. It came from Donald Trump. Hes The One who demanded that State Election officials, quote, find enough votes to change the results in states that he lost. Hes The One who pushed the Justice Department to question the election results. Hes The One who told the Big Lie over and over and over again. And as we have been documenting over the last several months, republicans are legislating off that lie. Disenfranchising voters as punishment for making their voices heard. The Constant Disinformation has infected and degraded every single republican and millions of regular unaffiliated americans too. Its seeping into all aspects of our lives. When i tweeted that we would be talking about this, some of you asked, why would we cover the lies and rantings of unhinged Conspiracy Theorists . Here is why. Because its Killing Americans and its wrecking our democracy, yours as much as everyone elses. The election lies, the covid lies, the economic lies. The lies hurt us as a nation. They weaken us and divide us more effectively than any foreign adversary could ever hope to do. Blocking people from voting makes the country lesser. Terrorizing people, threatening violence or, worse, carrying that violence out, makes this country lesser. Thats where we are today. Lies about a stolen election are what led to the Capitol Riot and officials are now worried about another attack. Just today the department of Homeland Security issued a new national terrorism advisory warning, quote, through the remainder of 2021, racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and antigovernment, antiauthority violent extremists will remain a national Threat Priority for the united states. According to the report, enforcement, law enforcement, is more concerned about continued and nonspecific calls for violence that are based on, quote, Conspiracy Theories on perceived Election Fraud and allowed reinstatement and responses to anticipated restrictions relating to the increasing covid cases. You know who gets briefed on dhs reports like these . Republicans in congress. Funny enough, they dont seem to care enough about those threats to stop the lies. They just keep on lying. In other countries, namely Russia And China, theyre exacerbating the problem. Today Cnn Published Details of new Intelligence Reports that indicate that russias efforts to interfere in our Elections Havent stopped. Theyre, quote, ongoing and evolving. Part of that evolution is folding republican lies about covid into their efforts. Republican lies are helping the russians destabilize america. Quote, there are some indications that moscow is now attempting to capitalize on the debate raging inside the u. S. Over vaccines and masking. Those lies are hurting us. A new Fox Policy finds 13 of americans never wear a mask in public. 17 have no plans to get vaccinated. Those seem like small percentages especially when compared with the 69 of americans who are still concerned about the pandemic and have been vaccinated. But that small group has an outsized influence because it includes people like Donald Trump and republican governors who are Fighting Mask mandates and demonizing medical professionals as Case Rates and hospitalizations soar to record levels. And by the way, 17 of americans is millions of americans. Millions of Unvaccinated Americans walking around among us without masks, potentially infecting others with a deadly virus including those of us who got the vaccine. Do we even need Russia And China to stoke Covid Divisions when one political party in this country is already doing that . Malign disinformation is rampant and is hurting us and is hurting our democracy. I dont know what to say anymore. Im literally running out of words to talk about this because its nuts and republicans just dont care. They continue to lie. And because their lies are believed by enough people, they stay in power, allowing them a platform to perpetuate those very same lies and legislate off of those lies. The republican party in america has an outsized influence over our democracy. The senate is split 50 50. But senate democrats represent 41 Million more people than senate republicans do. In the census data that we saw this week, we saw that the white population is declining for the first time in history in america, while the number of Multiracial Americans have more than doubled. People who identify as being of more than one race. Americans live in a country whose government is whiter and more conservative than its population and it could become more so. And instead of changing their policies or appealing to new demographics, republicans just lie. They lie to instill fear and mistrust. They lie to keep people on their side. And heres the thing. The lies do work. And as such, they have consequences. Unnecessary covid deaths are a consequence of those lies. The Capitol Insurrection was a consequence of those lies. The erosion of Voting Rights in defense of Election Integrity as a consequence of those lies. These are just three of the consequences. What lies down the line . What do we do about it . Us, us who dont believe the lies, who believe that Joe Biden won and that the vaccine works and we dont get our political prognostications from a Foam Pillow salesman. What do we do about it . Leading off our discussion tonight, Ben Rhodes, an msnbc political analyst. His new book is after the fall. Radley perry is chair of howard Universitys Department of political science. Ben collins is a senior political reporter for nbc news. Good evening to you all. Ben rhodes, im a little bit lost for what to think about this. There are no Policy Discussions anymore. There are no things where a democrat on one side debates a republican on another side about something that might be a reasonable matter for politicians to debate. Its lies versus truth these days. Yeah, well, ali, my old boss, Barack Obama, used to tell me that you can have differences of opinion for instance about how to deal with Climate Change. But how do you have a debate with someone who doesnt believe that Climate Change is real and manmade . I think the situation were living through is really existential to our democracy. And the book that you referenced that i wrote, it deals with authoritarianism, the competition between democracy and authoritarianism. Im often asked whats different in this Day And Age about the competition throughout history. The difference is technology and Social Media allows for putting 40 of this country into an entirely alternate reality where people could believe that vaccines dont work and masks dont work. People can believe that Donald Trump actually won the election. People can believe that Climate Change is not real or its not manmade. And thats what were contending with. This is not about differences of opinion about policy. Its about people living in an alternative reality. And i think what we have to get our arms around is how Social Media and technology has exacerbated the spread of Conspiracy Theories. When you have one major political party that is fine with that, that goes along with that, that actually fuels that, because it serves their own interests, we have a big problem. And were not going to get our arms around that problem until we get our arms around the platforms that spread Disinformation And Conspiracy theories, that allow for foreign actors like russia to come in and pour gasoline on the fires that have already been started by the right wing in this country. Until we get our arms around how technology is mass mobilizing and scaling up this alternative reality that a big chunk of our country lives in, were just not going to be able to have a healthy democracy and be able to deal with the big challenges of our time. Ben collins, it was one thing when these Conspiracy Theories floated around amongst people who got their information from places like facebook or, you know, your Crazy Uncle has views about the government or whatever the case is. But it has reached the point where it is affecting all of us, when people dont get their vaccines or dont want to wear a mask and they infect people and those people die, its not just a Conspiracy Theory Dwelling problem anymore. When people do not just the government or do not trust elections, it does actually become a problem for the rest of us and maybe we didnt take it as seriously as we should have when you were yelling at the top of your lungs about this a few years ago, but now here we all are, and what do we do . You know, it first starts with dealing with the reality we all have right now, which is were not having debates about taxes or this Infrastructure Bill or something like that. There is a large portion of this country that is dovetailing right now with the republican party, the mainstream of the republican party, that their there is some sort of shady cabal that is running the world secretly and its Overturning Elections and its putting shots inside you that either give you a microchip or make you sick over the course of a few years and theyre doing it to control the population or maybe theyre doing it to control the population of just white people. And that, you have to change the way we talk about politics and realize that this is actually happening right now. The conversations about politics are not these Dinner Table conversations that we used to have over the last 20 or 30 years. Its a different conversation. People really, truly believe that there is a secret new world order. This used to be Weekly World News stuff. The tenets of what a lot of people are Dog Whistling in the mainstream republican party right now. And you cant decouple these things, you cant decouple this ridiculous pillow conference, where people are saying the election was stolen by the chinese or maybe it wasnt the chinese. It all comes back to this one Dog Whistle that Donald Trump perfected over the last four or five years which is that the government cannot be trusted, end of story. They went after me, Donald Trump, theyre going after you eventually. This is a deep cynicism. You have to confront that cynicism and as Ben Rhodes just said, you have to confront the forces on Social Media that pushed those things to the front of your feed and then eventually to Real Life and Real Life policies. Professor perry, the attorney general, eric holder, was talking about this just today on msnbc, about the demographics and the way things are interpreted both by democrats and republicans right now. Lets just play what he had to say. And i would like to get your comment on the other side. There is no tension between fairness and democrats doing better. In fact if its fair, democrats will do far better. Democrats dont have to cheat. We dont have to gerrymander. Republicans do, in order to deal with a nation that is more diverse, that is younger, that is more urban, that is more suburban, and that people need to focus on, is less, less rural. Professor, we of course got the census numbers that probably didnt surprise you or me, but they are the silent thing that republicans are fighting against, the changing face of america, that theyre not reaching out to try to cater to but instead fighting against. Yes. [ inaudible ]. Democrats have tried over the last several decades to make it clear that they wanted to appeal to the new browning of america, the democrats that have been predicted long, whats confirmed with this new Census Report. What republicans have chosen to do, clearly, is chosen to avoid the inevitable and they have instead dug in their heels, holding on to a kind of whiteness from yesteryear, certainly from the 20th century. So whether its the vaccines, whether its the Big Lie, whether it is public education and gopled states, State Legislatures, what were seeing is a massive Disinformation Campaign by the republican party to ensure that people dont know the power that they have, and that the brown folks, asianamericans, pacific islanders, latinos, africanamericans, that make up much of the democratic coalition, that they have their power weakened in states where they tend to live the most here in the south. Ben rhodes, i want to just show you a poll from Politico And Morning consult. This was taken in june, about Donald Trump. Today theyre calling it the day of the reinstatement, when Donald Trump is supposed to be reinstated. Theyre looking at whether or not the country is going in the right or wrong track. 29 said very or somewhat likely. I think this is the wrong question, ill take this off, i think this graphic might be incorrect. There are a lot of republicans, about 30 of republicans who actually think Donald Trump might come back into office. He might run again in 2024 but thats not what the question is about. How do you capture them . How do you get into their World And Sort of say, i understand youre conservative for a lot of interesting reasons, you might like smaller government, you might want lower taxes, all this kind of stuff, but how do you get them into a normal conversation and get them away from this idea that theres going to be a reinstatement, that there was widespread fraud in the election . Republicans are not guiding them back to this conversation. Is there any room for democrats to do so . I think, ali, we have to recognize its incredibly difficult. The example i give is when we were in the white house, there were polls time and again that showed that a majority of republicans believed the Birther Conspiracy Theory, the racist Birther Conspiracy Theory that Barack Obama was not born in the united states, far too much. The mainstream political Media Kind of treated that as a comical aberration. No, they really believed that. Thats how Donald Trump became the nominee and how he ultimately became president. There have to be Policy Responses to these things over time. For instance, again, how does something that as ben rightly said was once in the supermarket tabloids, how is that reaching 30 to 40 of americans . Its because Social Media algorithms are written to prioritize sensationalist material that triggers people, triggers their emotions. Thats going to have to be a conversation about regulation of how those algorithms are written so youre not main lining conspiracies and disinformation to people. Weve been talking about the census. Whats happening here is the republican party cannot win a popular election in this country. They havent since 2004 when george w. Bush was elected. Theyre trying to use Disinformation Conspiracy theories to mobilize their base sufficiently. Here is the thing. It could work. It works in other countries. So unless we have a Policy Response that gets our arms around how you get theres always going to be a segment of the population that believes crazy things. The question is how do you shrink that, from 40 to 45 down to a number of people that is manageable and is not derailing our democracy. To me, yes, we have to show up in places, yes, we have to make our case, yes, you have to go into rural part of this country and try to make the case to people about what is facts on things like vaccines. But ultimately, if youre facilitating the Dissemination And Mainlining of Conspiracy Theories to people, theres only such you can do and we have to recognize it. I would like to see the mainstream media treat this more seriously and not treat republican lies as humorous. Professor perry, the thing is people look at the Census Report and they think of The Browning of america, they think of the people who form the democratic coalition and think its going to be okay. Its the opposite of okay, because gerrymandering, redistricting is going to begin, and republicans control far more districts, or far more states in which there is redistricting than democrats do. So rather than the country looking more like rather than washington looking more like what the country looks like right now, we will actually see in the next election it looking less so. Youre absolutely right. And that is because we have in america a problem, frankly, with voting in our local and State Elections. It is State Representatives and State Senators that draw Congressional District lines and the republican party controls most governors mansions and most of the State Legislatures. Yes, theyre going to gerrymander, racially gerrymander, partisan gerrymander, the districts that work in their favor. Of course if you are part of that browning of america coalition, its very likely those districts are not going to cater to your interests when it comes to policy that congressional members actually put forget. So the challenge for all of us is to make sure that the disinformation actually is mitigated. I actually think it is working, its already worked. Its worked primarily because those same State Legislatures and same governors of most of the states also have fought very hard to ensure we are no longer teaching civics, no longer teaching ethnic studies. We Cant Talk about women, we Cant Talk about gender, we Cant Talk about sexuality. We have generations of people now who simply dont know their own power, the power the constitution gives them in terms of their Citizenship Rights to exercise their freedoms in this country via the ballot box. We have to return to the importance of education and perhaps mandating Civic Education and ethnic studies and global history and affairs so that people can understand the world around them and then vote their interests accordingly. Ben collins, people did believe, a lot of people did believe this reinstatement day thing, it was silly because it meant Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would resign and somehow instead of the normal course of people who you know, the line of succession, somehow Donald Trump would be reinstated as president of the united states. Unless this happens in an hour and a half, its game over. Look, these people are getting more and more desperate. That is always the worry with this sort of thing. I will say that there have been days before this, people had already moved the date back, because they realized it was just like lindell saying this and mike lindell, even among the most die hard Qanon Trump supporters, is losing a lot of support recently. They realized it was just him saying this, there was nobody in Trumps Orbit saying this. The Dog Whistle is still out there. Donald trump is still kind of Dog Whistling that hes going to reinstated somehow, saying he might come back sooner than 2024 or something like that. The worry is not that sort of thing. The worry is the violence when people get desperate. Youre already seeing with qanon supporters, you could see it with others very soon. Gentlemen, thanks for helping us out this evening. Ben rhodes, ravi perry, ben collins, a pleasure to speak with you this evening. Coming up, delta is already wreaking havoc on the new School Year. For what you need. Hot dog or. Chicken . Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. So, you have diabetes, here are some easy rules. No sugar. No pizza. No foods you love. Stressed . No stress. Exercise. But no days off easy, no . No. No. No. No. But with Freestyle Libre 14 day, you can take the mystery out of your diabetes. Now you know. Sir, do you know what you want to order . Yes. Freestyle libre 14 day. Try it for free. We were alone when my husband had the heart attack. Yes. Hes the most important thing in my life. Im so lucky to get him back. Your Heart Isnt just yours. Protect it with bayer aspirin. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. Thats why i started medhaul. Citi launched the Impact Fund to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything ive got to my company, and my community. I got you. For the love of people. For the love of community. For the love of progress. Citi. [relaxed summer themed music playing] summer is a state of mind, you can visit anytime. Savor your summer with lincoln. The School Year was supposed to mark a return to normal for schoolchildren and teachers. But the Delta Variant and republican policies are working to stop that. In palm beach county, florida, just two days into the School Year, more than 400 students have been asked to quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus. According to tallahassee memorial Health Care, a child under 5 years old has died of covid, the first child to die there of the virus. Ron desantis is standing behind his Executive Order banning mask mandates in schools. More than 800 florida physicians are calling that decision reckless. In an open letter to Governor Desantis they write, quote, as the Virus Burns through florida, Health Care providers feel we are fighting this fire without any leadership. Whats heartbreaking and infuriating for us as doctors is watching children need littlely suffer while Governor Desantis rejects simple protections such as masks and vaccinations. In texas, Paris County became the latest Texas County to sue governor abbott, challenging his Mask Mandate Ban there and today a judge ruled in its favor. Earlier, dallas County Judge Clay jenkins issued this warning. If your child has a Heart Defect or something and needs an Icu Bed or more likely if they have covid and need an Icu Bed, we dont have one. Your child will have to wait for another child for die. Your child will wait for another child to die. Joining us, carly simon, Superintendent Of Schools in alucha county, florida, and dr. Peter hotez, welcome to both of you. Dr. Hotez, you and i have been talking for several weeks now about the threat of covid to children, something we didnt know as much about last year. But now things are different because last august, nobody had a vaccine. So whatever the threat was, kids were there were precautions taken as school, they were generally separated from people. Now were going back to school and some places like florida and texas are saying go back to school, as if its normal. You know that thats not really a good thing to do. Yeah, and ali, heres what happened. The Game Changer is the Delta Variant. And the Delta Variant is accelerating aggressively. And what were seeing now is like something weve never seen before. So whereas last year, the kids were generally escaping infection, now this is sweeping through communities. And unfortunately, Florida And Louisiana right now are the epicenter globally of this pandemic. So Florida And Louisiana are vying with botswana for the worlds highest rate of covid19. And whats happening is, this is creating a firestorm. So i dont know that kids are getting selectively infected, but whats happening is anyone who is unvaccinated is getting swept up in this firestorm including adolescents and kids. And thats why for the first time were seeing childrens hospitals get filled up with covid patients and even pediatric intensive care units, which is nothing weve ever seen before. And the thing that scares me, ali, schools are just starting to open now. So its only getting worse, the schools will act as a really serious accelerant now. The Florida Constitution says the state has a paramount duty to provide safe and high quality public schools, its one of the highest constitutional standards for public education in the nation. We hope and expect that our State Leaders will live up to that duty. As our School Board Chair has so aptly put it, better a loss of funding than a loss of lives. You and the School Board are on the same side of this, that protecting kids is your primary objective. Yes, of course. Were really dedicated to making sure that we have a Facetoface Option for our students. We know thats where were going to have the most impact on recovering from our Covid Slide associated with students having a challenging year last year. So we want them facetoface. And in order for us to do that, we need the masks. The masks will help us to prevent this and slow this, because we are seeing what was just shared, that its rapid. Tuesday was our first day of school. Wednesday, our second day of school, we had the highest positive covid rates for our students than we have had in our entire covid experience. And what were noticing and what were discussing internally is that what they are doing is, the families have covid, and its coming into our schools. Were not right now at this place where its totally being transferred at the school. But we know that we have a lot. So at this point, we have 530 something children who are quarantined. And were expecting by monday this number is going to become considerably higher. Dr. Hotez, apropos of the first conversation i had on the show this evening, one of the things that you said to me that has stuck with me is that there were always antivaxxers, there were always people who would be concerned about this. But you and i both shared a view, we were together the day the vaccines rolled out in december, and you and i both shared a view that as more people got it, the hesitancy would drop. You were not prepared to be up against republican governors and political people who had decided to align with antivaxxers. Yeah, i think this is the Game Changer, ali, is that for some reason, the republican party or the extreme right decided to adopt an antivaccine, antiscience platform. It started actually in 2015 in texas with the republican Tea Party and we started to see antivaccine political action committees under the banner of health freedom, medical freedom. Now its become mainstream across many parts of the gop and youre seeing these terms of freedom used all the time, health freedom, medical freedom, when in fact its denying freedom to many parents now who are afraid to send their kids to school because not enough kids are masked or vaccinated. You have received, superintendent, a letter from the education secretary, the federal education secretary, who has said, i want you to know that the u. S. Department of education stands by you. This is to several School Districts in florida. Theyre even saying that they will that youll be able to use affordable Care Act funds to pay educators if the governor Withholds Salaries in contravention of his mandate. What do you think is going to happen, how will this end . Will teachers end up doing what they have to do . Will the School Districts do what they have to do in contravention of what the governor is saying . As far as im concerned, im going to have to do what i have to do, and my staff will as well. I think where i am is, i would like to know what the governor is planning on doing. So weve gotten to this point where i look at the mass situation, and that conversation needs to somewhat come to an end. I mean, we have masks, we need these masks. I want to know what the governor is going to do to help us keep school in facetoface. We have a problem already, i told you we have 500 plus students who are quarantined. When theyre quarantined, that means theyre not in their class and getting instruction. So what is the governor going to do, other than have Emergency Meetings where they talk about penalties to School Districts who do what they need to do to protect their student body, their staff, and all of their workforce . These are weird teams. We thank you for the work youre doing, keeping those kids safe. Superintendent Carlee Simon of the Alachua County School District And Dr. Peter hotez. Coming up, Joe Manchin sounds like he will be a no on the Reconciliation Bill because of concerns over the federal deficit. The author of the Deficit Myth joins us to explain why Joe Manchin is wrong and that there are much bigger deficits he should be worried about. Im excited to talk about this. Stay with us. [ heavy breathing ] allergies with nasal congestion overwhelming you . Breathe more freely with powerful claritind. Claritind improves nasal airflow two times more than the leading Allergy Spray at hour one. [ Deep Inhale ] claritind. Get more airflow. Gillette proglide. Five blades and a Pivoting Flexball designed to get virtually every hair on the first stroke. So youre ready for the day with a fresh face for a fresh start. For a limited time get a 5th Cartridge free. That Delicious Scramble was microwaved . Get outta here. Everybodys a skeptic. Wright brothers . More like, yeah right, brothers get outta here its not crazy. Its a scramble. Just crack an egg. If you have this. 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Today, nine house democrats sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying, quote, we will not consider voting for the Budget Resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the house and is signed into law, end quote. The moderate democrats are reportedly concerned about the socalled Price Tag of the 3 Trillion Reconciliation Bill which includes childcare, universal prek, paid leave, medical leave, Health Care expansion, eyeglasses, things like that. Senator Joe Manchin raised the same concerns earlier this week, quote, millions of jobs remain unfilled across the country and rising Inflation Rates are now an unavoidable tax on the wages and income of every american. Given the current state of the economic recovery, it is simply irresponsible to continue spending at levels more suited to respond to a great depression or great recession, not an economy that is on the verge of overheating. So Joe Manchin is worried about the cost. There is a much higher cost he should be much more worried about or at least acknowledging in his calculation. Stephanie kelton is from stony Brook University and is the author of the Deficit Myth. Good to see you again. Joe manchin and others are missing a very big point. This is not spending for the sake of stimulating the economy. Its spending on things that should actually be spent. When you built the Highway System in america, the purpose that have was not stimulating the economy, it was to build a Highway System so people could get around. The things this Reconciliation Bill will address like eyeglasses and Dental Care for people who dont have it, like the cost of college tuition, its not the same thing as stimulating the economy. I agree with you completely. I dont think we should be thinking about the proposed 3. 5 trillion package as economic stimulus. Thats not what its about at all. As you say, the president was referring to it early on as part of the build back better agenda. This was an agenda aimed at making some really big and strategic investments in things like Health Care, in education, in elderly care, in infrastructure, and a broad range of things you just mentioned. I think youre exactly right, this isnt about stepping on the Gas Pedal and trying to juice the economy. This is about taking aim at many of the real deficits. You know, the deferred maintenance, the things weve long ignored in our economy, and attempting to make some investments that boost economic wellbeing. There is always this selective concern about deficits and debt. No republicans had it in 2017 when we had massive Tax Cuts that were supposed to result in everybody getting 4,000 extra, whatever the case is. But theres a disregard for the millions of hungry children in this country, the millions of people who cant afford a college education, the millions of people who cant get their Health Care the way they need to. And the long term economic costs of that, thats generational. That sticks around for decades, if you fail people on that front. Weve seen it with the child tax credit. You give people a little bit of money Up Front who actually need the money, and it immediately betters their circumstance and therefore enriches the economy. Yeah, i mean, thats a perfect example, because this is a single provision in a piece of legislation that congress passed this march. And just that single provision, the expansion of the child tax credit, is going to lift almost half of all the kids who are living in poverty in this country out of poverty. The problem is it was a temporary move. And what this next piece of legislation, the 3. 5 trillion thats being proposed, there is an effort to make that more important, to extend it up to five years. And so, you know, you look at an accomplishment like that, we just pulled almost half of all the kids living in this country out of poverty. Why on earth would we let them slide back in . Weve demonstrated how easy it was to pull half of them out. Why dont we turn our attention to the other half . And its pretty cheap, compared to the other things we do, pretty cheap. I guess my question is, the Inflation Cudgel is back. And people often use it with respect to if we have too much debt, the money will be worth less and well have inflation. The inflation were seeing today is real, Gas Prices are up 50 from where they were last year, none of which has anything to do with debt or deficits. Yes, absolutely right. What were experiencing are what ive been calling growing pains. We have just been through, and lets be real, were still going through it, right, this virus is not done with us. And so we have an economy, and im talking about a global economy that has experienced in different parts of the world at different times waves of the coronavirus that have led it to shutdowns, lockdowns, partial shutdowns, disruptions in the Supply Chain that allows us to manufacture and ship goods and services. We have held up remarkably well in light of all weve been through. Yes, inflation is running hot. Its moderating and i think were starting to make the adjustments that are necessary to bring the economy fully back online and to bring inflation back down to more normal levels. And were seeing it already begin to happen. I think were getting there. And i think youre right, were starting to see some republicans, many republicans, and many some democrats, get skittish in light of recent inflationary pressures. But youve got to keep in mind that so much of what is in this proposed 3. 5 trillion Spending Package actually helps mitigate inflationary pressures. Theres money there to build more semiconductors. Theres money there to help with Child Care so people can enter the Labor Market again. So what im saying is that you can actually spend money and reduce inflationary pressures. We shouldnt be thinking of all spending as something that necessarily pushes prices higher. A lot of what were proposing here or whats being proposed actually has the potential to build our economic capacity, increase productivity, and help reduce inflationary pressures. But we have this Builtin Reaction that when you give poor or low wealth people anything, its something our grandchildren will be paying for. Thanks for joining us tonight, stephanie kelton. Senator Chuck Grassley mounted a defense of Donald Trump in pressuring the Justice Department to support his lies about Election Fraud. Thats next. 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New parodontax active Gum Repair kills Plaque Bacteria at the Gum Line to help keep the Gum Seal tight. New parodontax active Gum Repair toothpaste. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of iowa is expected to run for an eighth term in 2022 when he will be 89 years old. Even though 64 of iowans think somebody else should run. The bipartisan Infrastructure Bill includes 4. 2 billion to repair iowas roads and bridges. Also this Week Grassley offered a shameful defense of what trump was doing in the runup to january 6, trying to corrupt the Department Of Justice to help them overturn the president ial election. This country has had to deal with Democrats Obsession with destroying trump for much too long. In the process, i fear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have done and will do lasting damage to our political system. The president has every right to discuss ideas and strategies with his closest advisers. The president , whether that president is democratic or republican, should feel unrestrained to bring ideas to his closest staff for robust discussion. For robust discussion. Joining us now is former democratic congress woman, running for senate in iowa in 2022. That was, that was you know, there are times i was saying to the team producing the show, that theres times in the past when you look at Chuck Grassley who see him as an elder statesman, midwestern in a way but normal. To show unrestrained robust discussion, that was not what Donald Trump was doing when he was talking to rosen and donohue. It was telling them to say that the election was corrupt. Exactly right. You know, when i watched that this week i just, you know, he has done a lot lately. Senator grassley, that i have been concerned with, with not voting for the commission to investigate 1 6. He is not the guy i remember watching growing up. I grew up in iowa, where we Hat Democrat Tom harken and republican Chuck Grassley and they went to the u. S. Senate and you know, i would not agree with what everyone was doing. You knee they still at least had iowas back. When i have been watching him well the last few years, he is not the same guy i remember. How he is acting is quite frankly giving up on democracy and quite frankly our country and thats not who i thousand he was who i thought he was, and its why we are going to beat him. You do not get to say the words on the floor of the u. S. Senate, defend a president who was trying to stay in office after he lost an election and expect to get reelected in a state like iowa. We are going to win the race. We need you with us. Go to abby finkenauer. Com and join us. When he says the stuff he says like that, its different from the republicans that come out and completely lie about it. Its the lying light. Or the encouraging of trumplight. How does it play in iowa . When you talk to people, because i do know that folks in iowa, sometimes have not been on one side of the political divide and the other. There are conservative democrats that voted republicans, and how does it go over, this Chuck Grassley stuff that is happening . Yeah, so, as i have been traveling the state, we have been talking about what happened on 1 6 and the fact that Senator Grassley is somebody that should have known better and pushed back against the lies and not only did not push back that led to the day where i watched my friends and my former colleagues get attacked in real time by a violent mob that was Fed Misinformation and lies, he not only, again, he pushed the conspiracies himself. And when we talk about that, the folks that come up to me afterwards, they have tears in their eyes and they are going, what happened to the guy . How did he he become this . And you know, i dont have answers for that. I dont know why he has decided to give up on democracy like this. But i will tell you, we will defeat him. Because again, you do not get to talk about democracy in the way he has. You do not get to subvert it the way he has and decide that you are going to keep getting reelected, this is not how it works not when we flipped congressional seats and won statewide in three races for democrats and we will do it again in this mid term and we will make sure that we hold Anybody Accountable who, again, cant even stand up for democracy and do the basics of their job that they are supposed to do as a u. S. Srpt. Polling by fox indicates that 56 of people are in favor of that. Only 38 are opposed. Real money going in to iowa. Somehow he made the right political decision on that one. Given how polarized how america is getting and look, what is it like being a democrat running for office . What is the environment . Folks are happy that we have a president that did what he said he was going to do. We heard trump go around the state for years and talk about a infrastructure package. Never did it. And here Joe Biden comes in, and he gets it done. Thats noticed. And its noticed because of the families like The One that i grew up in. My dad was a union pipe fitter, welder. And he would be gone months at a time trying to provide a good life for our family and put food on the table. And i remember where there was months where he was not gone and we would actually have the name of his Business Agent memorized, where we had to make sure that we picked up the phone when it rang because that meant he had a job and now we are talking about good paying jobs across the you know can. That means something. Abby finkenauer, thank you for joining us, a member of congress and running for the Iowa Senate in 2022. We will be right back. Yes, please neuriva. Think bigger. Someone once told me, that i should get used to people staring. So i did. Its okay, you can stare. 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Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Introducing xfinity rewards. Our very own way of thanking you just for being with us. Enjoy rewards like Movie Night specials. Xfinity mobile benefits. And exclusive experiences, like the chance to win tickets to see watch what happens live. Hey its me. The longer youve been with us. The more rewards you can get. Like sharpening your Cooking Skills with a top chef. Join for free on the Xfinity App and watch all the rewards float in. Our thanks. Your rewards. All right, that is tonights last word, tomorrow, im going to be talking to two texas democrats whos fighter against Voter Suppression has landed them on the Receiving End of civil arrest warrants. State representatives are among the group who fled the state to break Quorum And Block republicans from pushing through voting legislation. They will join me tomorrow, assuming that is they are not under arrest. The 11th Hour with Brian Williams begins right now. And good evening once again, 206 of the biden administration. As we come on the air, thousands of u. S. Troops are on their way to afghanistan to help evacuate american and afghan civilians facing potential threats to their security. That mission as taliban accelerates their assault on the capitol. On the ground in afghanistan again tonight. Reporter tonight, the taliban is firmly in