Things to you at home for joining us this hour. Really, really happy to have you here. Do you remember when the right wing freaked out about bud light . I mean they really freaked out about bud light. They were shooting bud light cans. They were hitting bud light cans with Baseball Bats point they were setting up towers of bud light cans to use as Target Practice at Republican Party lincoln day dinner is. The right was very, very, very upset about bud light. They were so mad. In Florida Republican Governor Ron Desantis got so excited about it he ordered an official Florida State investigation into bud light. In Congress House republicans started their own federal congressional investigation of bud light. They have spent the better part of a past year on this. No longer would everyone in the country see bud light as the beer that is slightly more flavorful than coors light but not quite as Flavorful As Miller Lite but the Bud Light Blue is kind of a pretty color and sometimes its on sale so sometimes you buy it even though youre not in love with it because no one is in the wooded and if you are drinking light beer and no one expected to be in love with that stuff anyway. Thats how we all used to think about bud light. But nearly a year of rightwing culture war no holds barred demagoguery against bud light, no longer would any self respecting rightwinger, would any selfrespecting republican by bud light because it was on the endcap and came with a frequency. Over the course of just under a year, bud light was transformed from a normal american thing you dont think much about into something very, very good, something we would shoot on sight. Former President Donald Trump of course jumped on board. Money does talk. Anheuserbusch now understands that. Said in a post promoting right wing boycotts of companies that were seen to be liberal or liberal semen or maybe if you squinted they might feel a little liberal but youre not sure why. Bud light, over the course of this past year, became a conservative target in a trump world bogeyman. Until donald trump did a total 180. Out of the blue he decided unilaterally to call off the rightwing jeremiad against bud light. He told all his followers to start Drinking Bud Light again. , quote, anheuserbusch is a Great American brand that deserves a second chance. Now what caused this radical u turn . What caused the former president to turn on a dime like this . The word dime is a help in this question because if you put that trump post back up there, the one where he says everybody should go back to Drinking Bud Light, look at the time and date stamp on that one. Make that part of it a little bigger. There we go. So keep that in mind. 3 30 p. M. On february 6, why is that when trump did his 180 degrees u turn on bud light . Well look what happened that same day. Lobbyist for anheuserbusch announces 10,000 a Plate Fundraiser for donald trump so at 9 47 a. M. The lobbyist for anheuserbusch announces a 10,000 a Plate Fundraiser for trump, 9 47 a. M. That same day at 3 30 p. M. , trump announces that he has changed his mind on bud light and conservatives should all drink bud light. That fundraiser was announced on february 6. It was actually held wednesday of last week but all anheuserbusch had to do was announced they were going to do the fundraiser to get trump to do what they wanted, to get trump to call off what had been a years long conservative culture war top line issue. Would you like the head of the Republican Party and the Republican Partys next nominee to be president of the United States to do something for you . Is there something you would like him to do for you or your company . Perhaps you would consider opening your checkbook and swindling your wrist. Because thats apparently what it took to end the great right wing Bud Light Freak Out of 2023 and 2024. 1 fundraiser. Thats how that one ended in fiasco. But now the help. Here comes the same process again. Last week, end of last week something happened in washington that almost never happens anymore. There was a vote in congress on a new piece of potential policy. Its real legislation that would actually do a thing. Its not just a Messaging Bill or some kind of stunt, which is mostly what we see out of the Republican Controlled Congress these days. This was an actual policy and its even on a somewhat controversial issue. Nevertheless, the vote on this bill last week in congress was 500, 500. This is a committee votes, the energy and Commerce Committee. Its a committee that is divided between democrats and republicans. Democrats and republicans these days do not agree that the sun rises in the east or that light beer is generally less tasty than normal beer. Republicans and democrats do not agree on anything but they took a vote on this new Legislation End of last week and it was 500, 500. That never happens. But this bill is moving. Its got unanimous support. Its on its way to the house floor for a final vote this week, day after tomorrow, after that 500 voting committee, this would obviously be expected to pass. This is a bill that has the support of the republican speaker of the house, mike johnson. It also, believe it or not, has the support of president joe biden, who says if indeed they pass this thing and it gets to his desk, he will sign it. Now this bill is on the issue of tiktok. Social media at and whatever you think of tick tock or whether you think of tiktok at all, there have been bipartisan concerns that have been expressed for a long time, that this very popular social media app could pose a National Security threat in the United States because of links between the company that owns tiktok and the chinese government. I say there are widespread concerns about this. These have been manifest already. In policy at lots of different levels, already if you are a federal Government Employee or contractor, if for work you have a phone or another device that belongs to the federal government, the federal government says you are not allowed to install tiktok on that device. In more than 30 states there are similar bands on Installing Tiktok on any device that longs to the state government. This bill that is racing through congress right now would effectively force tiktok off the market in the United States altogether, so it wouldnt just be for Government Employees, members of the military who would be forbidden from using it. It would basically mean that it wasnt downloadable in the United States anymore. This bill thats racing through congress would require app stores to remove tiktok so you cant download the app anymore. The only contingency would be if the company was sold to a firm that didnt have links to the chinese government, didnt have links to beijing. Barring the company that runs tiktok being sold, tiktok would effectively be off the market. Now as i said, this is a real policy. Its a matter of both concern and also some controversy, certainly. But politically this is one of the few things on which democrats and republicans broadly, not 100 , but broadly very much agree. As i said, it was a 500 voting the energy and Commerce Committee last week. Republicans and democrats who voted, voted yes. Nobody voted no. As i said, President Biden says he supports the bill and if it gets to his desk hell sign it. Lots and lots of democrats supporting lots of lots of republican support it. This has been a pretty bipartisan thing. And that includes donald trump. When trump was president in the summer of 2020, he tried to ban tiktok unilaterally, himself. He tried to force the company to be sold. He issued an Executive Order banning any american citizen from having any transaction with the company that owns take talk, which effectively wouldve banned the use of tiktok by anyone in the United States. He tried that. He did that in the summer of 2020. That Executive Order was eventually struck down by the courts which is why tiktok is not banned right now. But trump was very clear on this, he made a huge issue out of tiktok being evil and bad and dangerous, it had to be stopped, he was going to stop it. That was a stand. Until something happened. Do we have that Cash Register sound . Catching. Suddenly hes just made a total uturn. I wonder why. After personally trying to ban tiktok, after railing against it and playing mr. Tough guy against tiktok for years now, try them to shut down this app in the United States, from has just come out and said actually we shouldnt get rid of tiktok. That would be terrible. Tiktok has actually got a lot going for it. He said so online on thursday and now today he said it in an interview on cnbc. There are a lot of people on tiktok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on tiktok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users. They do a lot of good. Its a lot of good. Really. All of a sudden, why the change . , quote, some have noted that trump recently hosted jeff yes at his Maralago Club in florida. Yes is a billionaire investor in bight dance, the Parent Company of tiktok, and trump is seeking his support in the president ial race. So follow the bouncing coin, if you will. Step one, take very aggressive, very public position against Foreign Company. Step two, notice nearby man who has a 33 billion, 15 stake in that company. Step three, need money desperately. Step four, Announced Newsstands very much in favor of the same Foreign Company used to oppose while blinking ones eyelashes at the man you just noticed. Step five. Cash in. If you would like the head of the Republican Party and the Republican Partys next nominee to be president of the United States to do something for your company, open check, swivel wrist. Anything is possible. And if you dont believe me, take it from trumps own folks. This is the headline in newsweek right now. Steve bannon suggests donald trump has been bought. Steve bannon, former advisor to donald trump, suggested on saturday that the former president was paid off after a shift in his stance on tiktok. When even steve bannon was like, this guy appears to be for sale, steve bannon right now has been sentenced to prison for a massive steve bannon has been sentenced to prison and is out of prison while his appeal is pending. Steve bannon has been put upon charges, had to be pardoned by trump for an alleged massive fraud scheme. Steve bannon is going to be charged for that alleged massive fraud screen in new York State Court and steve bannon is like, seems a little transactional, i dont know. This guy appears to be for sale. If steve bannon is saying you appear to be a little friday, a little for sale, a little transactional, that means you have ceased to be subtle about it. And this is the part of the commercial where the very unsettled pitch man starts talking about what a big sale this is indeed. This is the part of the commercial where the guy starts saying things like everything must go, because the need for money here is real. On friday donald trump had to put up cash and collateral for a 91 million bond in the new york case in which he was found liable for repeatedly defaming ezine carroll by making what the court concluded were false claims that he had not sexually assaulted her. 91 million bond. That was friday. Two weeks from today he will have to put up cash and collateral for a bond that is closer to half 1 billion. In the case where his real estate business was found to have engaged in years and years of fraud. And weve been looking at that. I think the frame on that has been that this is a difficult and dangerous time for donald trump right now, but because of the position that hes in, that makes this a difficult and dangerous for us as a country right now, because hes got to put up bonds for over 500 million worth of Court Judgments right now within the next two weeks. Hes put up already just under 100 million of that, still another 400plus million to go very soon. He does not appear to have the cash and assets and collateral to pay for those bonds, to put up what he needs to put up for those bonds without considerable strain, if he even can cobble anything together to bolster those bonds in total. So he desperately needs money, i mean right now. That bond, the half billion dollar bond, thats two weeks from today and he needs that money. So urgently. Right now. While hes openly changing his publicly held, longheld, supposedly heartfelt Policy Positions and ways that appear to be just straight up responsiveness to [ Cash Register sounds ] financial incentives. On the bond he paid already and the huge one hes got to put up for within the next two weeks, there is no public transparency into who might be cosigning with him or otherwise underwriting these bonds. Somebody helping him put up the cash for collateral for these bonds. If so, what are they getting in exchange for their generosity . I mean we know the name of the Bonding Company that put up the 91 million bond for the E Jean Carroll case but we dont know if it was trump alone or trump and some helpers who put up the cash and collateral necessary to obtain that bond from the company. We have asked mr. Trump this evening if he will tell us if there were cosigners or anyone otherwise assisting him in obtaining that bond. We have not yet heard back from him. We will let you know if we do. But in National Security terms, this is a profoundly dangerous thing, regardless of what it means for him personally and politically. Its a dangerous thing for us as a country. I mean, think about if you needed to get a Security Clearance. For work, right . You wanted to get a Security Clearance. But when you applied for that clearance, the fbi did their Background Check on you and they became aware that you were in this much need of this much money, this urgently. If you were applying for a Security Clearance right now and the fbi found that two weeks from today you need to put up cash and collateral to secure almost a half billion dollars of a bond to pay your Court Judgments. Do you think you would get a Security Clearance . There is no chance you would ever be approved for even the lowest level Security Clearance, because the risk is just too obvious that you would be tempted to sell american secrets for this money that you so desperately need. Whether or not you are known to be a particularly transactional kind of person, theres no way that wouldnt be seen as a massive National Security risk. Last week politico was first to report that trump is about to start receiving classified Intelligence Briefings again. President ial candidates, Major Party Nominees always get these, at least they have historically. But no one has ever received a classified briefing as a president ial candidate while he or she was awaiting trial in Federal Court on multiple Felony Charges of violating the espionage act by deliberately mishandling classified material. And no, no one has ever received those kinds of briefings while they quick, need to come up with a half billion dollars worth of cash and collateral to put up bonds to pay their Court Judgments. Theres a lot going on in republican politics right now that is nothing weve ever seen before. Its underplaying it a bit but i mean, even not just when it comes to him, when it just comes to people in the trump world of republican politics. Trump advisor Peter Navarro has just today been told to report to Federal Prison next tuesday. A pro trump republican lawyer in michigan who tried to overturn the Election Results in that state, shes just had a Bench Warrant sworn out for her arrest in michigan after she refused to comply with court orders to appear in court to be fingerprinted and have a dna sample taken. There is a warrant out now for her arrest. In the swing state of wisconsin, pro trump republicans are going to try to recall republican republican speaker of the State Assembly to punish him for not overturning the wisconsin Election Results, to falsely claim that trump won when he in fact lost. That trump ever to get revenge on that particular edges later in wisconsin, that effort has already led to a trump pac and multiple republican wisconsin officials being referred for criminal prosecution but they are nevertheless going ahead with trying to remove him, trying to recall him in an Election Year when wisconsin is one of the most important swing states in the country. As recently as this weekend, trump rallies are still starting with a version of the National Anthem sung by people who are in prison for their role in the january 6 attack on congress to try to overthrow the election in washington. The big voice guy comes over the loudspeaker at the beginning of trumps riley and says please rise 40 horribly un and unfairly treated january 6 hostages and then they platy sound from the prison. Just tonight he said online that he would order the release of january 6 defendants as one of his first acts in office. There was a lot that is going on in republican politics right now, which is not the way things usually go in politics. Theres a lot of overlap between like crime and politics, prison and politics. But as politico. Com reports tonight on the, quote, bloodbath at the rnc with trumps people finally taking over as of this weekend, and now, as of today, they are Firing Dozens of people who work at the Republican National committee, with confirmation that there is no longer even an effort to stop the Republican National committee from being trumps personal legal offenses out of the Republican Party covers. We are in a place where the entire Republican Party apparatus is merging with trumps personal Legal Defense apparatus. And the way he has been behaving when it comes to being transactional at his time of most desperate financial need puts us, no matter how you think of trump, no matter whether you support him or not, no matter what you care about politics or not, it puts us, the American People, in a radically fragile place when it comes to what exactly is for sale in our country and from our government. Bud light and tiktok seem to have figured out very early on where exactly you insert the coins to receive your prize. But if anything is for sale, all right, if everything is for sale, what makes you think its going to stop with sin year and chinese Social Media Apps . Everything must go. Everything is for sale. Anybody who can pay can get what they want. You wonder why guys like this always want to undermine the rule of law, right . Right . Because there are places youd like to be. Farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. A rare, lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. Farxiga okay yall we got ten orders coming in. Big orders starting a business is never easy, but starting it eight months pregnant. 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He doesnt even have a mustache. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. You, the social media profile im about to show you is a little racy, i guess is the word. I dont know. Consider yourself forewarned. Its not pornographic but its kind of the idea that its going for. Youll see in a second why i need to show this to you but here it is. Let me introduce you to maga babe. Yeah its embarrassing, sorry. Maga babe claims to be, and i quote, Good Christian Girl from the south looking for a good christian man. Her online bio continues, quote, god, america, mommy and daddy, trump. Id love to unpack their but move on. Maga babes social Media Presence is exactly what youd expect from a description like that. Lots and lots of pro trump material, lots of antibiden stuff, antiimmigrant, anti trans stuff, thats her kind of thing. Starting in late january, our friend maggie babe wandered into some new kind of odd territory. That same account started posting highly edited videos of high profile democracy advocates in the United States. Maga babe claimed to have herself uncovered a secret plot to overthrow the government of hungary. Not exactly what youd expect from her in terms of her hobbies, right . Its hard enough to draw stuff on your chest into space. Who has time to get through all the Foreign Government plots to overthrow the hungarian dictator. Yeah. As we have now learned a new reporting from the new york times, this new interest in hungarian geopolitics from maga babe was the result of a several months long Dirty Tricks Operation that was aimed at smearing critics of hungarys authoritarian leader, victor orban. And as you may have guessed, maga babe is not a genuine account. Shocking, i know. As far as Cyber Security experts can figure out, its not a Good Christian Girl from the south. Its just a way for operatives running this pro Orban Campaign against orbans critics to inject their Disinformation Material into the Internet Bloodstream for their own reasons. Within hours of the maga babe account posting these crude videos, a pro victor orban news site in hungary picked it up and ran with it. They cited these videos as evidence of a liberal conspiracy to overthrow the hungarian government. The orban government then jumped on it immediately, too, expressing grave concern, saying these Maga Babe Videos pointed to possible crimes that needed to be investigated. Theyd get right on it. The way this stuff works is that it gets laundered, right . It doesnt have to be believable at any step of the process. It doesnt have to be real. It just has to be something that they can say is out there, right . And then authoritarian leaders like orban and his supporters, they grab onto this attack and they use it to go after or maybe even potentially criminalize their opponents. Heres another one. In the days after russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny was killed in an Arctic Prison in russia, a russian website that was made to look like a news outlet hosted what it claimed was a leaked Audio Recording of two highlevel u. S. State Department Officials discussing who should replace navalny as leader of the russian opposition. The implication of course was that theres no real russian opposition for Vladimir Putin and anybody in russia who supposed to putin must be part of an american front, must be part of what is, in effect, a u. S. Government creation. Like navalny wasnt a real resistance leader. He wasnt a real opposition figure. He was just a tool of the American Government and theyd pick a new one to replace him. This supposedly leaked audio was so obviously fake, it would fool exactly no one. A state Department Official told the daily beast, which broke the story, quote, in case the thick russian accent pretending to be u. S. Officials were not clear, yes we can confirm this audio is fake. But still, it doesnt have to appear to be all that real to launder it. You say its been cited here. You describe it here. You move it into another fake news site here. The russian successfully got this idea into circulation for a time. If you searched the names of the people in this story, the u. S. Government officials who were named as these opposing source of this leaked audio of the story, the hoax audio came up as results number two and number three on google. And if you clicked through to the quote, unquote news story, you would be taken to the site, the miami chronicle, which at first glance it might appear to be an actual florida new site. At one point it featured the tagline, florida news since 1937. But this chronicle has existed for less than a month and its created by russians. So is this very similar looking one. Not be famous New York Daily News but instead the new york news daily. Also heres another one, the chicago chronicle. That sounds like it could be a real paper. Its not. Or this one, The Dc Weekly. All of these different sites have the same mix of ai generated stories on rightwing hot button issues like crime and immigration plus a whole slew of stories advancing the line on the war in ukraine. Not long ago The Dc Weekly site posted an entirely made up story about ukraines president Vladimir Zelenskyy Spending Tens of millions of dollars on a pair of yachts. Yachts for himself. The story was total bull puppy but its perfectly designed to spread on social media as if it were for some real news site, which it is not. At least one republican member of congress and one republican senator then cited the fake yachts as a reason to oppose approving any more funding for ukraine. Republican senator jd vance, republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene. And while thats hilarious about them, in all seriousness, ukraine funding is still being blocked by republicans in congress. These very obvious russian fake news sites are proliferating right now, and again, theyre not sophisticated. You spend just a few seconds on one of these sites and you quickly realize this is not, say, a newspaper that has bringing you florida news since 1937. But these efforts do not have to be sophisticated to spread this information effectively. You just launder it. You just spread it around. You say youve seen it somewhere else. You get the government to comment on it. If you can just get it into the bloodstream, if you can just lend a sort of are of credibility to post flying by on any social media feed, mission accomplished. Joining us now is darren lindell. Hes codirector atkinson universitys media forensics hub, which uncovered the russian roots of The Dc Weekly site. Professor lindell, thank you very much for being here. I really appreciate having your time tonight. Thanks for having me, rachel. Its great to be here. That i explain any of that wrong or put the emphasis in the wrong place, or get it the wrong way around . No, you did a remarkably good job. This is a campaign weve been tracking for several months now that combines really old russian tactics dating back to the age of the kgb with new technology and frankly frightening ways that im afraid may have implications for 2024. Given that there are old tactics that work here and certainly theres an old strategy at work here, what is it about new technology that makes this more difficult to combat . Absolutely, in 2016, 2020, all we had to worry about was fake social media accounts but now we have to worry about fake systems, fake organizations, fake media outlets. These ai technology, large language models, they make disinformation cheaper to do at a scale that is a little intimidating. In terms of trying to build up resilience against this sort of stuff, i feel like the discussion over the next eight years in which these russian social media intervention to try to help get trump elected in 2016, i feel like the discourse around that has centered on the idea that people need to get smarter about discerning the original authorship and the quality of the material that theyre seeing online. People need to become more can discerning consumers of online information. The thing that i find particularly troubling, in your own work, is that what youre describing is information that is not sophisticated, that is not well done, that is not evolving to become unrecognizable as fake or as foreign disinformation. This is pretty crude stuff but its spreading very far and wide and quickly. Yeah, well come of the russians, the thing that they are good at is engaging with very specific communities in the u. S. And abroad, on both the left and the right and telling those communities what they want to hear, and lots of research over decades tells us that when people are being told what they want to hear, theyre going to believe it. And then what the russians do is pull people along to believe even more extreme versions of those things that they wanted to believe already. And thats exactly what theyre doing with this campaign. This campaign has targeted especially narratives around western support for ukraine and unfortunately theres a lot of communities who want to be critical of ukraine right now. Darren linville, codirector atkinson universitys media forensics hub. Professor linville, this is really, really important work and it means a lot that youre getting it out in a way that people can understand it. It makes people smarter about what theyre looking at and it gets us all to get our antenna up on this issue. For doing it and ask for doing it in a public facing way like this. Thanks, rachel. I hope thats true. Me, too. More news ahead. Stay with us. Ay with us. Its nothing, really. Its contagious. You can even spread it to other people. Mom, come here dont worry about it. Itll go away on its own no, it wont go away on its own. Its an infection. You need a prescription. Nail fungus is a contagious infection. At the first signs, show it to your doctor. And ask if jublia is right for you. Jublia is a Prescription Medicine used to treat toenail fungus. Its most common side effects include ingrown toenail, application site redness. Itching, swelling, burning or stinging, blisters and pain. Jublia is recognized by the apma. Most commercially insured patients may pay as little as 0 copay. Go to jubliarx. Com now to get started. With nurtec odt, i can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks, all in one. Dont take if allergic to nurtec. Allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. 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With nurtec odt, i can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks, all in one. Dont take if allergic to nurtec. Allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. Most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. Ask about nurtec odt. President biden had a good State Of The Union last week. Very well received. But of all the quotes and clips you might have heard from the State Of The Union, i think this one was probably underplayed. I partly blame myself in terms of it being underplayed that night, because i was helping anchor our coverage immediately after the address. There were so many things, so many moments in the speech that we kind of kept going back to and talking about. This one somehow kind of got lost in the shuffle. But when i woke up the next morning i thought, you know what, that moment from the speech, this when im about to play here, that should have been all over the place after that speech. That was a good move. Watch any of my Friends On The Other Side of the aisle want to put shopping Social Security on the chopping block, if anyone here tries to cut Social Security or medicare or raise the retirement age, i will stop you. I will stop you. If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or medicare, or raise the retirement age, he then goes off script. I will stop you. In going off script that way, he made a forceful point even more forceful. About protecting Social Security and medicare against republican plans to got them. And this is a Central Point that President Biden and the democrats would love to run on, right . The republicans want to cut Social Security and medicare. We the democrats, i President Biden, will stop you when you try to do it. They would love to run on this. Today former President Donald Trump did an interview with cnbc in which he was asked, quote, have you changed your outlook on how to handle entitlements, Social Security, medicare, medicaid, mr. President. To which frump responded, quote, theres a lot you could do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting. The Biden Campaign was quick to pounce on those comments. President biden tweeted a video of that exchange with the caption, quote, not on my watch. Trump campaign then went into Damage Control mode, claiming those comments were not really about cutting the entitlements. It was just about cutting waste and stuff. But as far as the two candidates for president are concerned, joe biden is delivering this clear message that we are not going to cut Social Security and medicare while trumpist turned the door open to questions about it today and while republicans continue to insist that we must cut those programs. And those questions are swirling in part because people who would likely staff a second trump administration, theyre all been very open about the fact that they really want to cut Social Security and medicare. Just this past month that Cpac One Former trump advisor one of the weirdest things ive ever had at cpac, said one of the most evil evil organizations in america is the a a party aarp, as in the American Association of retired people. One of the most evil organizations in america. Is the American Association of retired persons. Everybody knows them, obviously satanic. Social security and medicare are broadly popular in this country. Proposal to cut these programs are equally unpopular. And americans of all ages liked the idea of protecting our retirees and taking care of them, not blaming them for all the nations ills and calling them evil. Aside from abortion, this is one of the most potent political issues for democrats running against republican this year. But republicans cannot seem to stop themselves from salivating over the possibility of making these unpopular cuts. On the one hand, this is an important strategic issue for democrats versus republicans in this Election Year. On the other hand, it also sort of feels like a refreshing outbreak of normal politics in a year when Everything Else feels quite dystopian and likely are reading some bad novel about some of the country that lost their democracy. This feels like normal politics, normal politics that very much plays in the democrats favor. Joining us now is nbc news president ial historian michael biswas. Michael, its great to see you. Thanks for being here tonight. Thank you, rachel. Great to see you, always. I do feel like even though cutting Social Security and medicare is a terrible idea, i think and i think its terrible politics to propose them, i do feel like theres this little bit of sunshine around this issue for me because it does feel like a normal it feels like a outbreak of normal politics when Everything Else has been so radical and insane. It does. Here we are seeing the Republican Party and prorussia saying we should take money away from ukraine. Donald trumps positions in so many ways had nothing to do with most of the Republican Party for the last century. I feel exactly the same way. If you have to look at one theme that runs through almost every president ial election, back to maybe 1936, it is the democrats agree that the measure of a society is how well it takes care of its old, its sick, and its poor, and the republicans have always talked about cutting all these government programs, beginning with Social Security. Thats what Barry Goldwater said. It should be made voluntary. George w. Bush said lets privatize it. Ronald reagan in his first debate with jimmy carter, 1980, jimmy carter said you know, if we elect you, if our people elect you, governor reagan, were going to try to cut medicare, and reagan said oh there you go again, saying not in 1 million years, and as it turns out, reagan, once he became president , tried to cut medicare by 20 billion. So not only is this familiar, its a great idea for democrats to campaign as the party that will make sure the lives of those who need government are protected. Michael, i feel like over the course of my adult life, maybe before my adult life, my whole life on earth, i feel like there has been a conservative media discipline on this issue where everywhere from rightwing talk radio to washington think tanks to academic conservatives, they are relentless in making the case that Social Security is terrible, medicare is terrible, medicaid is terrible, they all need to be cut. Theres been 50 years of republican and conservative messaging against us. My feeling is that that hasnt done anything to change the wisdom of this as a political issue because it hasnt persuaded the American People and American Voters to go along with that, even though conservatives have been arguing for it for more than a generation. Absolutely, and thats how 2024 is different, because if trump is elected this fall, especially with the republican congress, for the first time in history, you could see lethal cuts to medicare and Social Security and other programs that people depend on. Dwight eisenhower in 1952, he had this rightwing brother in Washington State named edgar and edgar kept on writing him and calling to say ike, youve been president for three minutes, why havent you destroyed Social Security yet, and eisenhower writes in this letter, saying edgar, any Political Party in america that decides to destroy things like Social Security, thats the last you will ever hear of that Political Party. Im not sure trump and the republicans understand that quote. Nbc news president ial historian michael beschloss. Thank you for talking to me about this tonight. I knew that i wanted to look into the history of this. Of course id never known about that. That fantastic. Thank you, by the way, its great to see you. 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What you see here is an effigy of President Biden and attendees at the kansas Republican Party fundraiser are kicking the effigy of President Biden, or trying to kick it without falling down, and then finally you see this woman beating it on the head and face with a styrofoam club. Which is where the video ends. Again, this is a kansas state Republican Party fundraiser. The reaction in kansas to whatever that was at the Republican Party fundraiser has been interesting, has been sort of revealing about republican politics and kansas republican politics in particular. One kansas republican, a former state lawmaker, saying start i would say were better than that, but it doesnt appear were better than that. One past chair of the kansas Young Republicans calling the incident, quote, the logical extension of a cultlike mentality. Here is croissant ready, a republican trying to win back a local congressional seat, saying, quote, ridiculous thoughtless actions like this one distract from those trying to deliver solutions. For the record, the kansas Republican Party called the events, quote, unfortunate. Today the partys Executive Director gave an explanation to the kansas reflector news site, which has done great work on this incident. According to the state Party Executive director, the biden effigy was put up at the Party Fundraiser by, quote, Outside Exhibitor who had rented a booth at the event. A local Republican Party official says the biden mask on the dummy they were all hitting and kicking was start out regrettable. That person also said that nobody asked for donations or gave any money in order to hit or kick or foam that the mannequin of the president , or in some cases, to knock themselves down trying. Take it easy, kansas republicans. Maybe try not to hurt yourself. Even days after using. R most common side effects were nausea, indigestion and stomach pain. Talk to your doctor about nurtec today. luke this will be a gold mine of local intel. Just you wait. Talk to your doctor marci right. So, tell us about this Corn Festival . stylist 1 oooh you got your corn pudding. You got your corn chowder. marci so. Is it safe around here . stylist 2 sometimes. luke if a family of eight were to need a cold plunge, where would they find it . stylist 1 . And then they dip it in butter, then bam, it goes right in. stylist 2 . Really cute vampire bar. stylist 1 the reverend does like a blessing on the corn. luke donut shops. How far from here . marci no eyebrows . luke think of how light itll feel in the summer. Weve got to run. Eleven thousand more neighborhoods to go vo ding dong homesdotcom. My Mental Health was much better. But i struggled with uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia. Td can be caused by some Mental Health meds. 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On may 26 i will be at the historic and beloved town hall in provincetown, massachusetts, for a special event sponsored by provincetown bookshop. You can get information about how and where to buy tickets at the website. Thats it. Thanks for the indulgence. Ind. Iswe