I dont know. Well have to see. Well have to try to declassify, right . As president , i could have declassified them. Now i cant. Donald trump indicted for his mishandling of classified documents will reportedly receive Intelligence Briefings as the nominee of his party. That decision apparently coming from President Biden himself. Well discuss. Also tonight, President Bidens state of the Union Address. He needs to convince americans that his very real accomplishments have made their lives better while trying to close the Enthusiasm Gap with trump with trump well discuss with trump transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg who will join me. Plus, will nikki haley supporters drink the maga koolaid, or does biden have a chance to win them over . We begin tonight with the state of the president ial race, on state of the union night. Were now just two hours away from President Bidens final state of the Union Address before the president ial election. It is an annual tradition that in a president ial year also amounts to a sitting president s biggest audience before which he can make a pitch for reelection, talking about what his administration has accomplished and what more can be accomplished if the American People agree to give the president a second term. There are other president ial traditions, things president s do not by law but rather by custom, which brings us to a different president. Harry s. Truman, our 33rd president. In 1945, he had been Vice President for just 82 days when fourterm president Franklin Roosevelt died and he suddenly inherited the presidency in the midst of the second world war. Truman learned quickly that he had been kept in the dark about some pretty important things like the manhattan project, development of the atomic bomb. He was told about that 12 days into the job. So in 1952, truman began the courtesy of allowing Intelligence Briefings for Party President ial nominees. He pledged that any future Commander In Chief wouldnt get thrown into the deep end of the pool the way he had been. Now, in a normal world with normal president ial candidates, that makes a lot of sense, right . But 72 years later, our 46th president , joe biden, has an opponent who has been indicted four times, including 41 criminal charges regarding his handling of Classified Information. In his speech later tonight, biden will draw a clear contrast between himself and donald trump, including the many, many ways donald trump was unfit for office the first time, and even more unfit to return to the white house. But according to politico, despite the fact that the president plans to make that point about unfitness tonight, the Biden Administration intends to extend that truman tradition and courtesy of Offering Cand DdIntelligence Briefings to donald trump. Notice that it would mark the first time an administration has volunteered to share Classified Information with a candidate who is facing criminal charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. Which is completely illogical for many obvious reasons. But especially so because just two weeks into his own presidency and one month after donald trump incited an insurrection, President Biden barred trump from the briefings that are normally extended to former president s. Citing his erratic behavior. The New York Times noted that the move was the first time that a former president had been cut out of the briefings. The briefings are offered on a regular basis to jimmy carter, bill clinton, george w. Bush, and barack obama. Now im telling you all of this because it is an unfortunate reality of where we are right now. Donald trump, who was clearly not capable of handling americas secrets to the point that hes being criminally indicted over it will get access to at least some National Security information, both because the current president is a normal guy, a traditionalist who behaved like a normal president and because a uforically enthusiastic base of maga voters want trump back in the white house so he can be a dictator. And you know, have the party in those same supporters pay off his massive legal dents and maybe with the help of foreign dictators, who knows. Its a bizarre reality to say the least, which highlights the other challenge President Biden faces with tonights state of the union. Call it the facts versus the vibe. Trump has nothing to show for his presidency, except that giant, enormous tax cut for the super rich plus 1 Million People killed by covid on his watch, and the economy that cratered because of it. But the maga faithful and nearly every elected republican are all in for another round of that poison beer, serve it to us cold, serve it warm, we dont care, we just want more, more, more, yay, chaos. President biden on the other hand is dealing with the opposite problem. He will speak tonight from a position of vulnerability. A successful Domestic Policy president who faces a Democratic Base that ranges from super enthusiastic to mildly enthusiastic centrists who will crawl over broken glass to keep trump out of the white house, to really, really disappointed, even angry progressives who hate bidens Middle East Policy, and in some cases do not want to vote for him at all. And again, biden does have tangible achievements. You cannot argue with that. Hes overseen an historically rebounding economy after an unprecedented Public Health crisis. He got a major Infrastructure Law passed. Hes held together nato, which has grown since his last state of the union. Sweden has just become a member. Swedens Prime Minister will be a guest at tonights speech. You can expect President Biden to highlight that. While his opponent donald trump says he will cut off nato countries that dont pay their fair share and let putin do, and i quote, whatever the hell putin wants to do to our allies. Donald trump is an autocratic nightmare with no accomplishments, a rabid cult of a fan club and no business being anywhere near the white house. President biden has accomplishments and facts. But the vibes are off. Call it the intractable reality of American Politics in 2024. Joining me now, claire mccaskill, former senator from missouri, msnbc political analyst and cohost of the msnbc podcast, how to win 2024. Michael beschloss, nbc news president ial historian. Jamelle bouie, New York TimesOpinion Columnist and cohost of the unclear and present danger podcast, and ben rhodes, former deputy National Security adviser, msnbc political contributor and cohost of the Pod Save The World podcast. Thank you all for being here. Nomally, there have so many different ways i would go at this. Historian first, ladies first, Jamelle Bouie is our newest friend of the show, but im going to switch it up and go to you, ben, because that news kind of dropped like an anvil on us on our president ial show meeting today, that donald trump will actually get these National Security briefings. How does that read to you . Can i hope and dream that maybe this is just a way to catch him sharing those National Security briefings . Maybe theyll give him wrong information and see if he sends it to putin so they can catch him. What is happening . Well, i think, joy, you spoke to the awkwardness of this. Joe biden a president who follows norms. But thats difficult when youre dealing with someone in donald trump who literally is a Wrecking Ball through any norms. So theres kind ofasymmetry. Biden wants to go by the book, but you cant have faith the person youre dealing with goes by the book. I wouldnt say receiving briefings isnt the same as making a determination about whats in the briefings. The u. S. Intelligence community in my experience of a consumer of intelligence for eight years can provide kind of wave top analysis. Heres what we see is going on in ukraine. Heres the status of whats going on in gaza. And they can share information in ways that frankly totally obscures sensitive sources, sensitive operations, and i would imagine that donald trump is going to be getting, and again, im not saying this with inside knowledge, but theres a cliff notes version that you can get. And then theres the version that has the underlying Source Material that you would be worried of donald trump announcing at a rally or sharing with a friend at maralago or sharing with a russian agent who has infiltrated maralago at a wedding or something. So i would expect that this is probably going to be fairly basic information that is shared. If not, i would actually have real concerns because we have no indication that this person can keep a secret for the time between when he reads something and when he next opens his mouth. Michael, just talk about the sort of historical weirdness of all this. We have never had an indicted president ial nominee, certainly 91 counts and four indictments, Sexual Assault adjudication. You could go on and on. This piece is weird because part of the job that President Biden has to do tonight is make the case that donald trump is completely hes fit for president in a way that contrasts with Donald Trumps unfitness. Let me read you, im going to read a little bit of the excerpts of what we got. He says my lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined america. Honestly, decency, dignity, equality, to give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Some other people my age, a little dig there, see a different story, a story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. People know at least something in the National Security realm is going to be shared with that person. Your thoughts. Yeah, joe biden studied history when he was in school, and he knows enough to know that we have never seen anything like this in the history of american president s. As you well know, joy. When before, every nominee of a major party all the way back to the 18th century have we ever heard a president saying that he wanted to be a dictator for a day or would entertain the idea of suspending the constitution, or tomorrow, donald trump is going to be meeting with someone he has cited as a model, the dictator of hungary. If you needed anything to demonstrate that whatever caution joe biden suggests tonight about his opponent is true, take a look at who his guest at maralago is going to be tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, and claire, it contrasts with the guests who will be in the room tonight. I mean, youre going to see highlighted people who have dealt with the issue of abortion and ivf. Youre going to see sort of, because thats part of what you do at the state of the union. The guests indicate kind of what youre trying to convey. Talk a little bit about what you expect to hear from President Biden tonight, what you think would be most helpful to hear. I honestly dont think what he says is as important as how he says it. Hes got to be feisty and aggressive. Hes got to be leaning in with real strength, not just about his accomplishments but about how great this country is. And thats where his optimism and his aspirational side can kick in and remind americans what its like to have a leader who thinks we are a good country instead of somebody who wants to convince everyone that our country sucks. Which is Trumps Campaign slogan. You know, america is terrible. Dont we hate america . And all of its institutions. Its been terrible except for those four years it was great. Exactly. Listen, i dont think he should let him have the Intelligence Briefings because i think he has to take it to this guy and denying him the Intelligence Briefings would be one way to send a signal, were not going to put up with somebody who steals our countrys secrets and refuses to turn them over and tries to hide them from the law. So i dont think he should. And orban, you know, do we need to say anything more . Youre going to be down at a club, joy, where you have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to walk in the door. Gilded toilets and all that, and theyre going to have a guy in who decimated the free press, who decimated private business, who absolutely changed the democracy to the point that he controls everything. And who is full of corruption. And thats who donald trump wants to hang out with at his fancy golf club. It is quite a contrast to the women who are going to be there tonight demonstrating to this country that their health care is really being jeopardized by an extreme position of the republican party. And Jamelle Bouie, talk about the challenge tonight. Because the briefings thing i think sort of brings forward for me that joe biden sort of constitutionally small c constitutionally unsuited to the job of combat. In a sense that hes not a combative politician which makes it ironic you have a lot of maga voters who are calling him some sort of unhinged woke super liberal radical. Because hes just so unradical that hes just going to do the traditional thing of doing the briefings. Hes not going to name trump by name, hell glance at him but not really hit him that way. In this moment what do you make of that as a strategy, that hes still going to be the centrist mildmannered fighter . I am not sure that its the optimal strategy for the simple reason i think its very important for biden in particular but democrats to be explicit about the criticisms and attacks theyre making on their opponent. Theres temptation to thing everyone knows everything about poll. Theres plenty of polling to show that people dont necessarily associate donald trump for example with the end of roe v. Wade. They dont necessarily think about january 6th anymore when they think donald trump. Those are things you have to remind voters of. You have to tell voters of this thing over and over again. To understand the sort of the notion that youre not going to mention the guy, im not going to mention this dude, i think its worthwhile to be explicit about it. The reason why i need to be reelected is because donald trump overturned roe v. Wade. Its obviously not the most accurate way to render it, but thats sort of effectively the message you want to send. And you need people to hear those words. Donald trump ended roe v. Wade. Thats kind of the key thing voters need to take away. Im not sure that being oblique about it is necessarily effective. And i think that the notion that theres something unbecoming about being explicit and not being aggressive is a relic of an older style of politics that may not necessarily apply in 2024. Right, and is there a history, michael, our buddy historian, hes our official Show Historian at this point, is there a history, the state of the union can use whatever they want, theres no laws attached. This is the last one before the campaign. Is there a history of anyone taking the state of the union and saying this is probably my biggest audience going to get this year and im going to hit my opponent square in the face . Not in the way that you see in a convention speech. For instance, harry truman, who i think joe biden is trying to resemble this year, not only in the comeback but also the feistiness at his convention, he was directly confronting people who were saying he and his running mate were going to lose and he begins the speech by saying senator barkley and i will win this election and make those republicans like it, dont you forget that. I dont think were going to hear anything like that tonight, but there doesnt need to be false drama. This is a night that in many ways is like 1860. The country was about to be destroyed by the evil institution of slavery, and a civil war, and the breaking up of the union. Or 1941, when fdr was facing down hitler and mussolini and the imperial japanese, and domestic people in this country who wanted a fascist system themselves. So all biden needs to do, i think, is to make it clear, you know, americans, a lot of people have risked and given their lives over centuries to protect your rights and to expand your rights. Are you willing to give all of that up by voting for a gambling opponent, someone who is an expresident , who loves dictators and wants dictatorship here. And you talk about false drama. There could be real drama. This is adam schiff when he won his primary in california. I want you to listen to what happened. This is my wife, eve. I want to [ Crowd Chanting ] so ben, im going to go to you first. The previous state of the union speech, you had Marjorie Taylor greene doing her silliness. Biden handled the rightwing heckling brilliantly last time. They started cheering, he said, cheer, get up. And that was on a Domestic Policy issue where i think hes strong. On this issue if there are some protests, what does he do . That is part of his core we