[ applause ] vice president harris has dedicated her life to public service. I know, i know that she loves our country. And i know that she will be a president for all americans. As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our constitution, i am honored to join her in this urgent cause. And there you have it. The democrats doing their coalition building with maybe the most unlikely pairing in recent history. Vice president kamala harris and liz cheney, even dick cheney, father of liz cheney, the man still vilified by democrats for his bullish defense of the iraq war as vice president. He, too, will vote for kamala harris. Meaning liz cheney, dick cheney, and aoc are all voting for the same presidential candidate. These are bizarre times, folks, just to say the least. But maybe just maybe this is the avenger style coalition needed to defeat the american thanos that is donald trump. Joining me now is jelani cobb, staff writer for the new yorker and dean of the columbia university school of journalism. Charlie sykes, msnbc contributor, and juanita tolliver, msnbc political analyst, host of crooked media's what a day podcast, and author of the upcoming book a more perfect party. Thank you all for being here. I am going to go to you first, you jelani. This is actually a pretty momentous thing we're seeing happen in the democratic party. And that they are coalescing the old guard of the republican party, at least the part of the old guard that has the courage to step forward. That's not all of them. Some of them do not have said courage. The ones who are willing to step out there and make a claim for american democracy, plus progressives like aoc, who actually wedded themselves to joe biden's really progressive agenda as president for the most part. And kamala harris, who comes from the san francisco prosecutor's office to the attorney general's office to the united states senate to the vice presidency with the full and active and eager support of black women who propelled her into that position and who is sort of the multiracial coalition candidate in her own life. It is extraordinary. It's extraordinary history, jelani. It really is. It really is. So, i think there are a couple things that are significant here. One is the fact that when you go back to the history sorry, my daughter is a little upset in the background. You might hear that. We love a baby on the show. You can put her on camera. Trust me, we love a baby. One of the significant things here though is the location. The location, the founding of the republican party. Now, i think that goes to the point that she's advertising a big tenlt. We want people who are reasonable, who recognize the threat that donald trump presents, et cetera. But go back and think about the circumstances that the republican party was founded under. And that's where you see the real historical resonance. That party came together as a kind of wild amalgam of people who were free soilers. People who were former whigs, which was a political party that basically collapsed because of sectionalism, even people from the old american party, also known as the knownothings. Those people came together, they had less in common than probably any other political organization you can think of, except for the fact that they recognized a common threat. They realized under the banner of free soil, free labor, free men, that slavery had become the defining issue and threatened to tear the country apart. So that significance of being there in repen, wisconsin, really anchors and relays the point they're making about the threat they see to american democracy right now. It just makes it even more sort of poetic, charlie. As somebody who you came from the old, you know, in some ways disappeared republican party. But the fragments of it are standing up. And you know, look, from a policy point of view, some of us were very deeply against the iraq war are no fans of the cheneys, but i give her tremendous credit as i do adam kinzinger and other people i have no policy, but they have courage. Mitt romney has tried to hold his party together. He doesn't have the courage to endorse kamala harris. That lady does. What does it mean for a party that feels like it's dying under donald trump's boot for that woman to stand up and say i'm with her? and you're there, by the way. I want to note that charlie is at this event. Yeah. Yes, i'm right here in wisconsin. And you know what, you can't overlook the symbolism of having this event here in rippon, wisconsin. In 1854 by the way, i love jelani cobb's history of all this. Because that was a moment of real moral clarity for american politics and the republican party was born from that split and that sense of moral clarity. And it really does feel that this is another moment like that. And you could really sense, and we met with her and a group of former republicans, met with the vice president, with congresswoman cheney and they were very aware of the symbolic significance of having this event here at the birthplace of the republican party. I have to say that don't i mean, i don't want to overlook the outreach of the harris campaign to liz cheney and to wavering republicans because there is a sliver of more traditional republicans who i think are soft supporters and have to ask themselves do they want four more years of donald trump? does donald trump represent the values of this party? it is actually rather extraordinary to think about what we are seeing here and the willingness of the democrats and the harris campaign to create a big tent that right now they're saying we are willing to have a big tent. We're willing to not relitigate things that happened half a decade ago or a decade ago, and we're making common cos. You saw that rather dramatically here in wisconsin. Indeed, juanita, let's talk about this from a democratic strategy point of view. Because the risk in this kind of a play is that the base of the party has a tissue rejection against people like the cheneys or the adam kinzinger who they remember their policy positions. And then the question is, do you lose any base voters by saying we want to welcome really conservative republicans in? these are not middle of the road republicans. These are rightwing republicans, and saying we want them in the tent. So there is that question of what's the risk value proposition, and what is the gain? it is very hard, i think for viewers of the show, i think you need to understand, as an old campaign person, it is really hard for democrats to ever get a majority of white voters to vote for a democrat. That has not happened overall in a presidential race since the 1960s. It doesn't happen. And so what democrats are not fighting for is a majority of white voters. They're fighting for 50% of white women voters and that is a kind, even when a white woman was on the ticket, hillary clinton, they didn't get 50. So can you just diagnose for us what are the chances that a play like this gets democrats to 50% of white women voters and gets them to about the 43% of white male voters, just tick it up to those numbers, what are the chances someone like liz cheney can do that? it's a tall order for just one republican, joy, but the reality is she is not alone. And this event is not alone because remember, the parade of republicans who crossed the stage at the democratic convention. This kitchen outreach has been sustained and the only reason i think the coalition of democratic supporters who have long been with the party is accepting it, because it's coming under the banner of survival. Honestly, i feel like this coalition should say brought to you by donald trump because the threat he presents, it's so wide reaching that people see it and understand the need to band together against it. But that would only be possible with someone like him at the top of the ticket who has come after individuals' rights, who has been convicted of 34 felony counts, who has attempted to overturn the will of the voters. That is what sets the table for this, but when you talk about who might feel alienated, i can't help but think about back to the convention, the push by palestinian americans to get a palestinian speaker on that stage, and they were told no, while we had a parade of republicans come across that stage delivering a message of unity. So that is one place where i could see some friction coming out of this, and i will be watching to see how the harris campaign continues their outreach across this range of support, because they can't afford to lose anyone. And i say that understanding that in a state like wisconsin, it's still polling within the margin of error, much like all of the swing states. And so it's about this expansive outreach under the banner of survival while still tending to the home base. It is like whacamole. We're going to go on a whole history reverie, because i want to touch on first for our audience to go there is a new poll out that shows that the arab and muslim vote is now tied. That has not been the case for a long time. Arab and muslim voters had become primarily democrats, having used to being a republican constituency, john zogby, an excellent pollster, one of the best, 42/41, trending a tiny bit toward trump, and another thing in that poll that showed something pretty extraordinary that goes to what juanita said, that had there been a palestinian american speaker, a large plurality of those voters tell mr. Zogby that they would have, more than half of arab americans, said they would have been more likely to support vice president harris had the dnc allowed a palestinian american speaker. I want to put a pin on that for a moment. On the point juanita was just making, this coalition cobbling means they're trying to pull all these pieces together. The palestinian american and arab american piece is not holding necessarily, so you do have now tim walz speaking to the muslim american coalition today. That's the other thing happening at this time. He's out speaking to that constituency trying to grab them and pull them in. Talk about the risk assessment part of this. For democrats, they have to keep this whole coalition together, and the threat we're facing is project 2025 and unleashed donald trump, unleashed police, unleashed death penalty, the things he's threatening to do are so catastrophic, his seizure of the federal government is so risky, that's why peel are putting up with it. So i think one of the most interesting things right now would be to get a glance at what keith ellison's cell phone looks like, because you know, he's the most prominent potentially most prominent muslim, among the most prominent muslims in the democratic party. I'm sure he's getting questions about how to position themselves especially being in minnesota. The other part of this that i think is significant is i think people did not anticipate that vote breaking down the way that it has in michigan. I had a sense of this because i had been in dialogue with several palestinian activists and journalists who had been reporting from there, and they were saying look, this thing is going to be close between those two, and it's also going to be a third element here which is strong support for jill stein. In that community as well. Far above the national average. So what people are essentially doing is looking at donald trump's pledge to ban muslims and his attempt to ban muslims and counterbalancing that with what they see as the execution of the war in gaza with the blessings of the white house, through support military arms and so on. So in that way, it literally looks like a wash between those two candidates. It's really tough. Charlie, i want to go back to you before we run out of time to get one more sense of the vibes. We don't have alex wagner, our vibes correspondent, with us, so you're now our vibes correspondent of record, sir. What are the vibes and what are the kind of people that are in that crowd? is it a lot of republicans, a lot of dems? who are you talking to? well, i do think it's a moderate group. There are democrats here, there are some of the soft republicans here. And i just want to sort of emphasize the symbolism, again, of this event. I think what this event shows is that for a lot of voters, and i think the harris campaign and liz cheney are making this point. This is not a choice between right and left, liberal and conservative, democrat or republican. It's a moral decision about our constitutional order and about whether or not we're going to put country over party. It was very interesting that they really have embraced that particular message, and essentially saying let's set aside our political and idealogical differences for, as juanita said, the survival mode. This is a fivealarm fire for america. And we ought to rise to the occasion and not let the traditional idealogical differences get in the way of recognizing the importance of this moment. Because it's all on the line over the next 30plus days. You have said a mouthful, sir, and that's absolutely true. It is democracy or not. It is not even right and left anymore. That is the only way a coalition this broad that's got the cheneys and aoc in it could possibly be happening. Jelani cobb, charlie sykes, juanita tolliver, thank you all very much. Coming up, more on jack smith's damning trump filing and how trump's illegal and dangerous actions from 2020 speaking to the risk to democracy, are rearing their ugly head again ahead of this year's november election. The reidout continues after this. Dout continues after this when did i call leaffilter? when i saw my gutters overflowing onto my porch. Leaffilter is a permanent gutter solution, so, you never have to worry about costly damage from clogged gutters again. It's the easiest call you can make. Call 833. Leaf. Filter today, or visit leaffilter. Com. Millions have lost weight with noom. Like lauren, who found the perfect companion to her glp1 journey. Now i've gotten in the routine of noom, i'm hopeful that taking glp1s won't be a forever thing. Get noom glp1, now available at noom. Com. Yesterday's bombshell filing from special counsel jack smith lays out stunning new details about donald trump's plan to undermine the 2020 election at all costs. Among its revelations, trump privately told advisers he would simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and any winner was projected. And after trump was told that rudy giuliani would not be able to prove his false fraud allegations in court, he said the details don't matter. Also, trump and his allies often just made up statistics about voter fraud, quote, from whole cloth. Smith wrote that when it came to trump and his coconspirators claims about noncitizen voters, the conspirators started with the allegation that 36,000 noncitizens voted in arizona. Five days later it was beyond credulity that a few hundred thousand didn't vote. The reality is about 250,000 days after that, the assertion was then 32,000. And ultimately, the conspirators landed right back where they started at 36,000, a false figure that they never verified or corroborated. But perhaps what's even more alarming is that it sure seems like trump is ready to do all the things that jack smith is accusing him of all over again with the 2024 election. A lot of these new details sound pretty identical to what trump has been saying for months now as he preemptively lays the groundwork to once again dispute the results, making absurd claims about how this election will be rigged and democrats are cheating. New reporting from nbc's vaughn hillyard highlights that this year trump and his campaign have cited more than a dozen examples of socalled election interference activities by americans to claim the upcoming election is being unfairly manipulated despite having no evidence. Joining me now is the aforementioned nbc correspondent vaughn hillyard. Okay, what are the new allegations of socalled cheating? we have seen donald trump coopt terms like fake news or collusion. Any word that's ever used against him, he takes it and uses it to his own advantage. Over the last few months, he's consistently been throwing out that word not only around the criminal indictments, the e. Jean carroll defamation ruling, the civil fraud ruling, he called all these things election interference and also suggested the fact that secret service one week ago told him they did not have the resources to hold an outdoor rally. He said that was election interference. He said google, again, there's nothing to this, but he google is causing bad stories about him to pop up and only good stories about kamala harris to pop up. He said that is election interference. His spokesperson said the release of the apprentice which paints a not so great image of donald trump in his ury life, they're calling that election interference. Yet, there's not a single evidence of cheating and no specific allegation, i went to the campaign, no specific allegation of any domestic actor of any american one month from the election engaging in any illegal activity. We say that's important because as you noted four years ago it was at a rally before the 2020 election, donald trump said the words, it's a rigged election. It's the only way we're going to lose. He's doing the same thing now. You said it, he's foreshadowing. You spent a lot of time at these rallies talking to trump voters. We got some sound that i want to play now because the thing that's frightening about it is it has become a real article of faith among trump's voting base that there is no way he can lose unless there is some fraud or cheating. That's core to how he got people to sack the capitol. Let's play a little bit of this. In november, if the results come back and they say he didn't win the election i won't believe that. I honestly will not believe that. I bet 100% the people here will not believe that. I think that's an impossibility. You would have zero reason to believe that i have zero reason to believe. There's no way he can lose the election in a free and fair election right now. What if the results do come out that way and show that? you won't believe it but the reason i won't believe it is because they keep pressing mailin ballots. I cannot tell you how many times i have also heard this when i just listen to interviews you have done and that we have seen other people do. This idea that mailin ballots are going to come in and steal the election. It is a belief system among them. As you know, you cannot have a democracy if a certain percentage of people don't believe the results. Exactly. On a human level, hearing so many people saying already before votes have been cast, that was back in april, i have had conversations for months that are just like that. We can take the rest of your show, because there is a segment of the population that takes donald trump's words and their parrot them. When he says election interference, time and again i hear from his supporters, election interference, election interference. Just today in colorado, a former county clerk was sentenced to nine years in prison for essentially election interference, right? and this is the part, though, that where are we going one month from now? i don't know. What is another january 6th looking like? i don't know, but there is a segment of the population, not a majority, but there is a heavy potent minority of the american population that believes the last election was taken, joe biden and kamala harris shouldn't be in office, and that is the concerning part. We go into this november, it is not just donald trump's words and the concern over how donald trump could use his power but the power that the american citizens have and they don't believe in the basis of our elections. And when jd vance cannot say that donald trump lost the last election, and when he is also pushing that and when r