cnn primetime with abby philips starts right now. objectively american democracy is in perilous condition. the nation's politics are poisoned. truth has become optional. instead of desired or even required. the republic has of course always faced threats to it even before rupert murdoch. but so much of the current state of our democracy can be traced back to the beast of his creation. good evening everyone. i'm abby philip. rupert murdoch is stepping down as ceo of fox news tonight. his legacy is outrage porn. partisan red meat. stoking relentless culture wars. but it all started with what you could argue is a noble vision to create a center right news network to elevate more perspectives that aren't based in gotham or in washington. but instead, stoking division seemed to become murdoch's mission. so did power and so did the money. fox became a mouth piece for republican administrations, a mouth piece really for donald trump and eventually a vehicle for his baseless conspiracies. it is important to illustrate a small taste of this mission, 25 years in the making. >> white supremacy. that's the problem. this is a hoax. >> we keep marrying other species and othere ethnics. >> are you suffering from the dementia right now? >> pure genes. the swedes have pure genes. finland, the finns have a pure society. in america we marry everybody. >> asian people are not liberal by nature. they're usually more industrious and hard working. >> you are a muslim. why did you write a book about the founder of christianity? >> say you are a cocaine dealer and you kind of look like one a little bit. >> for you kids watching at home santa is white but this person is just arguing maybe we should also have a black santa. santa is what he is. >> what precisely is diversity or strength? >> i have something in common with obama and i don't know what the big deal is. he is a half-rican anyway. >> a pound? a terrorist fist jab? >> you grew up on tacos correct? >> no i did not. no. >> catholics write letters and muslims stab you with letter openers. >> not all muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are muslims. >> many americans including this one believe barack obama's emotional attachment to the muslim world has hurt the u.s.a. thfrjs guy should go back to burning the taxpayer incense to whatever pagan deity he is worshiping because it is not jesus. >> won't remove her from the foreign relations committee why? because she thinks so little of america? who is she representing? because it isn't america. >> maybe tomorrow he says he is going to transition to a woman. better yet maybe a black woman. maybe even better a half black half pacific islander. something like that. >> slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government. >> how did we wind up with a country in which feminists do science? >> there's got to be some down side to having a woman president right? something. something that may not fit with that office, correct? >> hum. i'm going to say no, bill >> i used to think women just shouldn't be able to vote. now i think at least liberal women should not be able to hold office >> i am telling you to shut up. but anyway. >> you shut up. know your role and shut your mouth. >> i'm sure he'll be happy to hear that. thank you. >> i saw some evil laughter. >> evil. >> evil laughter. >> no. what is evil laughter? >> just the way her face contorted. >> michelle obama is so, like the duchess when she speaks. >> kind of annoying that way. >> she is. >> she needs to drop a few. >> bill is the average american here. i'm president obama. this is the way i feel. i feel like president obama is just saying, you know what? i've got the $3.5 trillion budget that we're doing. un? >> the biggest myth of all time is that sweat shops are bad. >> halloween is a liberal holiday. >> come on. >> we're teaching our children to beg for something to free. >> the war on christmas is a global struggle. the fact it began spotlighting companies that refused to say the words merry christmas. >> i am tolerant all for free speech and free right just not on december 25th. >> as far as torture goes at least in this controlled experiment to me this seemed like a pretty efficient mechanism to get someone to talk and still have them alive and healthy within minutes. >> woke m & ms have returned. >> if you want to marry a turtle you can. >> clearly nickleodeon is pushing a global warming agenda. >> we asked why there is violence in our schools but systematically removed god from our schools. should we be so surprised schools would become a place of carnage? >> if the feds had not stripped us of our natural rights to keep ourselves safe by keeping and bearing arms, 911 would never have happened. >> ploesive developments in the murder of dnc staffer, if true could become one of the biggest scandals in american history and could mean rich could have been murdered under very suspicious circumstances. >> this virus should be compared to the flu because at worst, at worst, worst case scenario it could be the flu. >> this was not and is not a pandemic. >> we like the fact that there is a lot of cases in low risk populations because that is exactly how we'll get herd immunity. >> the mrna covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. no one should get them. no one should get boosted. >> look right there. the same workers who stayed behind and now wheeling out the sues cases that were under that rectangular table there. the footage appears to show poll workers pulling ballots out of suitcases after they told poll monitors to go home. >> we talked about the dominion software. i know there were voting irregularities. >> that is where the fraud took place where they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist. >> dominion voting systems with you have described it with algorithms in which were designed to be inaccurate rather than to be a secure system >> i can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on dominion starting with the fact it was created to produce altered voting results in venezuela for hugo chavez. >> we have a machine, the dominion machine that is filled with holes as swiss cheese. and was developed to steal elections. and being used in the states that are involved. >> that is fox news, 25 years of it. of course those last few clips are lies and they cost fox more than $700 million. you can cherry pick any outlet's blunders, mistakes, embarrassments but the difference here is that what you saw are not anomalies. they are features. not a bug. one of their tricks of the trade is repetition daily even hourly. if you say the talking point consistently enough, americans become addicted to the outrage. in fact, in the case of january 6th people blindly believed those talking points. they acted on them and many of those defendants have testified in court before being sent to prison that that was the case. asked in a recent deposition whether the rationale for allowing the lies to spread on his platform was, quote, not red or blue but green, murdoch replied, correct. now, in recent years it has been reported murdoch has been tour yous with trump. it makes sense. his network repeated these lies and it hit the king maker in his pocketbook. but murdoch sowed that fabric and rewarded the loudest voices in the room and accelerated the idea if someone called out a lie and called it a lie you are a liberal stooge, a hack, not to be trusted. you are woke. whatever that means. and there is no doubt that it's working for his bottom line at least. the question is tonight, at what cost? at what cost to america? and at what cost to all of us? joining me now is conservative lawyer george conway, cnn's political commentator anna navarro and staff writer for "the washington post" sarah ellison. george, what has been the cost of this? >> the cost is you have a large segment of the population that is detached from reality, detached from facts. if you try to present them with evidence or facts they will turn it off. they will stop listening. they will simply spew the opposite and they are addicted to hearing what they want to hear whether it is true or not. we saw that with fox's experience that led to fox's payment of the settlement where sometimes they would tell the truth on fox and they'd get blow back and realized they couldn't do that so they kept putting on sidney powell and rudy guiliani even though they knew that as the e-mails that were produced in discovery showed, they are peddling laws. >> is it getting worse? you all are both former republicans and, you know -- >> i am still a registered one. >> still a republican. i imagine you've been on fox news. do you think it is getting worse? >> i have the distinct honor of never having been on fox news, never having been invited and never will i go to fox news. i think it is a cess pool of conspiracy theories and lies. what is the cost to america? the cost of our democracy, the cost to civility. it is the cost to truth. and fact. the amount of people in this country who absolutely believe conspiracy series and you talk about the last few clips being true, no. we just saw the baddies and oldies of fox news for six full minutes including conspiracy theories against the rich. that cost them money too. remember the one about obama not being born in this country? that conspiracy theory? and what that has done to america? the rise of racism? the promotion of crt as some sort of evil thing going on that was threatening children. the homophobia against lgbtq. it's been, the cost has been more division. more lies. less facts. it's been a c echl ss pool over and over but successful. for rupert murdoch. the measure is financial success. >> what is your view on that? i mean, as just pointed out it cost them money. the dominion lawsuit cost them money. it may not even be over yet. how does that factor in? >> i think some of that is the cost of doing business when you are in the business of promoting -- we were talking about what they were saying during the aftermath of the 2020 election what we learned from all of those documents that came out from the dominion lawsuit is that they had to respect their audience. they didn't want to lose their audience. one of their headlines was they were fearful that if they told the truth they would lose their audience. this is an element of rupert murdoch sort of creating a viewership that wanted his product and then he had to chase that viewership. and down the $787 million settle. so it did come back to bite him but it sort of is reaping what he sowed. >> the consequences are so significant for this country. do any of you have a sense that this succession plan the son coming into power is going to change anything for fox? >> why would it? >> he has been training under his father all of these years in the same way rupert murdoch trained under his father. you have to look at what rupert murdoch has done. we talk about this country. it is also the united kingdom, also australia. this is a guy who took a small little paper in australia and has turned it into a worldwide news conglomerate including not just fox, right? but a bastian like "the wall street journal" which is supposed to be held to a different standard let's say than fox news. i think when it comes to counting dollars and correspondence the amount that they pay to dominion that is chump change to what they earned and why would they change it? >> murdoch in his own words doesn't even like trump. but they're so in bed with this he almost can't get out of the bed he's made for himself. >> right. essentially they were like selling drugs. the drugs were lies. they addicted an audience to it and they can't stop. that is the interesting question. i was an m & a lawyer in a prior life, litigator, and one of the things, it is family controlled, public company because of the dual shared stock structure. the murdochs have a disproportionate share of the voting control. which the patriarch of such a family passes on or passes the baton there is often a management vacuum and some of the members of the family want to sell and the company could get sold. the question is who is going to buy it? the problem is whoever buys it is going to want a return on their investment. and even -- they are not going to want to destroy the franchise. they are going to have economic incentives to keep it going. the thing that might stop them, the media environment is changing, how news is distributed. and, also, the fox population, the viewership is kind of aging out. >> he is 92 but seems to be in full control of his faculties and i suspect -- >> what are your views on that? >> i think that one thing that is very clear is that rupert murdoch's sons, now lockland is the one involved. the one not as conservative has already left the company. lockland already said we are not going to change the market position of fox news because he does not want to drive his father's company into the ground. i think there is a real risk in changing the political position of fox. he doesn't want to do that politically or a business perspective. i think the other lawsuits out there, smart-matic still has a lawsuit against fox. the points we've been making which is that no one is really running fox. the audience is running fox. >> that's an interesting point. before we go this is in murdoch's letter to his staff. he says most of the media is in cahoots with the yeates peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth. very rich. >> there are some things that have to stick in our craw particularly those of us who were not born with silver spoons in our mouth like donald trump and rupert murdoch when they turn around and call other people the elite. >> psychological projection. the highest form. >> thank you all so much for joining us tonight. coming up next for us the government is about to shut down in a week and congress is believe it or not going home. they are taking an early weekend even. we'll speak to a republican in the middle of all of this chaos. plus the ukrainian president gets a cold shoulder from some on capitol hill as he pleads for more money. this as he learns that one of his nato allies is pulling arms. , will it help lower my glucose? 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>> first of all, abby, i am here in washington, d.c. and i will be here all weekend. i will be working with others to try to reach that agreement that will keep the government open. i don't believe the government will shut down in eight days. i think we will have a plan. we will pass a bill without any democrat support. we will move forward to make sure americans have confidence in government and understand we are keeping this government open and funded. >> earlier this week so folks understand you voted again with the defense spending bill which is a part of the process but today you did switch your vote to a yes. you seem to have been satisfied with what the speaker put on the table but your colleagues are not. at this point why not reach across the aisle to democrats to make a deal? a deal by the way that would pass the house and maybe pass the senate as well. >> so the bill that was on the floor today was the defense appropriations bill. it was a procedural vote. i voted against it because several of my colleagues wanted the numbers for all 12 appropriations bills to see how this could fit in. we got those numbers yesterday. we changed our votes. some other members objected to ukraine funding and a few other things. they voted no today. i think it is important to realize that the senate hasn't passed on the floor of the house. many appropriations bills. the house passed one and we're looking at passing a few more on saturday. i believe members will be called back for that vote on saturday. the resolution is a number democrats put on the floor last year so this year's appropriations were passed last year. every republican voted against that bill because the number was so high and the continuing resolution would continue that spending level. a lot of republicans including myself are against that spending level. >> so you are not willing to work with democrats even if it means avoiding a shutdown? >> i am absolutely willing to work with democrats. they are not willing to work with me. the bottom line is we can't keep spending the amount of money we are spending. this country is going broke. we will have $2 trillion of debt the highest amount ever in this country's history this year. we can't keep going at that rate. that is why i think it is so important people come together and find ways to cut spending so we can get in a manageable area for debt. >> when speaker mccarthy left the floor today he was visibly frustrated and criticized the far right flank of your conference for wanting to, quote, just burn the place down. what is your view of that? who is burning the place down? >> i think kevin was probably very frustrated and was speaking out. one i don't think it is a great idea for the speaker to do that because he has to go back to those people and try to get their votes for the next bill. i do think we have a difference in our conference over the importance of def sit spending and creating more national debt and the speaker's job is to bring people together and find a way to move bills forward. i am confident that will happen in the next week. >> do you understand his frustration? he seems to be saying i am putting all of the things it sound like you want on the table and some members, definitely some members in the conference are saying, we won't vote for any continuing resolution at all >> i don't think that is the case. i think those members are saying we're not going to vote for a continuing resolution at this number. when kevin mccarthy was running for speaker, he told the freedom caucus members that he would be willing to write appropriations bills at the $1.471 trillion number. he has now moved that number out significantly as a result of his negotiations with the president for the debt ceiling bill. you can't promise a group of people two different things and then expect not to have the check come due some day. right now is the time when the check is coming due. i still think we'll be able to work through those issues, reach a compromise, and make sure we keep government open. >> all right. the clock is absolutely ticking now for you and your colleagues on the hill. congressman ken buck, thank you. >> thank you. up next a new york >> before we go tonight, we are hours away from yet another deadline before the automakers strike gets even more intense. the union chief says he will order more critical plans to shut down if the big three automakers don't approve their offers. cnn, of course will, be all over. that is it for me. cnn prime time. cnn tonight with laura coates starts right now. hey, laura. >> hey, abby. icu. good evening, everyone. i'm laura coates. welcome to cnn tonight. look, this is the real life succession tonight, everyone. the inside story of murdaugh republican reacts to the president's decision to give work permits to nearly half a million migrants as the border crisis explodes. plus the outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs says donald trump did not want wounded veterans at events. the new revelations ahead. announcer: try tide power pods with 85% more tide in every pod. who needs that much more tide? 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(vo) the all-new subaru crosstrek wilderness. adventure on the edge. that's why comcast business de is launching theal. mobile made free event. with our business internet, new and existing customers can get one year of unlimited mobile for free. it's our best internet. powered by the next generation 10g network and with 99.9% reliability. plus one line of free mobile for an entire year. it's the mobile made free event-happening now. get started for just $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get one free line of unlimited mobile. comcast business, powering possibilities. tonight reaction is pouring in to president biden's decision to offer work permits and temporary legal status to half a million migrants. this move is in large part a reaction to the pressure he is facing from blue states including new york. you heard the governor on this show last night. >> 41% of the people in our shelters today are from venezuela. they are literally from around the world. west africa, south and central america. they are coming from all over but we have to let the word out when you come to new york we're not going to have more hotel rooms. we don't have capacity. we have to message properly that we're at our limit. if you are going to leave your country go somewhere else but the smarter thing is to apply for asylum before you leave your country and then you'll have a different experience when you arrive. >> joining me now is congresswoman nicole a republican from new york. thanks for joining us tonight. >> good evening. >> governor hochul last night in that interview also called on you and your colleagues, your republican colleagues from the state of new york to do something about comprehensive immigration reform, which is i think you would agree at the heart of this problem. why isn't that happening? >> we've done quite a bit. we voted already to secure the border to stem the flow, increase the number of visas. i introduced legislation that would allow for a number of different type of visa category numbers to increase. we've also supported expanding the number of judges to hear the cases quicker. we know half to two-thirds of the individuals claiming asylum are denied when they get to court because they don't have legitimate cases. the reality is we don't have a partner in the senate willing to support any of our legislation and haven't done any of their own. >> what you are pointing out are all parts of this but the overall immigration system is broken. that is why when people talk about cree hencive reform that is not happening. >> no. it hasn't happened when the democrats controlled either. the problem is this. our president decided to put in place executive orders that allowed this unsustainable flow to occur. i and my office have helped hundreds of immigrants who followed the rules and have done everything right and been stuck in bureaucracy, gain citizenship, green cards, and work authorization. right now the policy the president put in place allows for those individuals who are coming over the border today to get appointments and be heard prior to the people who have been waiting in line. that is wrong. i actually have somebody who work authorization lost their work authorization because it ended and now they are saying they have to wait 16 months to get it renewed. the policy the president put out yesterday would put all of these individuals ahead of that constituent who has been here working, following the rules, and doing everything right. it is an unsustainable flow we have to stop at the border if we are going to address the backlog in the system. the mayor and governor keep incentivizing people to come to new york. hochul says one thing on your show yesterday but quite frankly sent an invitation to people from around the world to come to new york and get free services. free housing. free education. free college tuition. she even wants section 8 housing. that was one of the requests of the president. >> are you referring to just for clarity, are you referring to new york's right to shelter that, you know, the leaders of new york, mayor and perhaps the governor would say requires that they provide shelter to these migrants? >> so it doesn't actually. the right to shelter decree passed in 1979, a court decree intended for homeless new yorkers, never intended as the governor finally alluded to last night. she admitted it was never intended for everybody on the planet who would come to new york city. in fact, it is illogical to think that would apply to 8 billion people on the planet should they come to new york city. that is why we are in the situation we're in right now. because the mayor has misinterpreted that right to shelter law and insisted that these individuals had to be housed. do you know what happened in my district? they took away an assisted living from our senior citizens, literally kicked out senior citizens in march and then turned around this organization and cut a deal with the city to house migrants there. how is that fair or right? >> i think the mayor argued this morning he can't just decide to not enforce the right to shelter. it has to go through a legal process. i do want to ask you speaking of the mayor here, he said in the past that he thinks this issue could destroy new york city without drastic federal intervention. you saw president biden was in the city this week. he met with the governor, governor hochul. he didn't meet with adams. what do you think is going on there? is that relationship where it needs to be in order to get to a resolution thon problem? >> i think it is disappointing the president came to new york city and didn't even go to see any of these facilities. the roosevelt hotel which the mayor wanted him to go visit was the site where they already had dozens of arrests. these individuals actually committed crime in our city and that is a problem in itself. the problem really is that it is unsustainable and that is why i say the mayor opened this can of worms. he should have not done this and should have allowed groups outside groups to sue him if he wanted and then go to court. what i'll say is this. the reality is that federal solution is necessary. that is why we passed a border security bill to stem the flow. i am open to working on issues of increasing visas so we can track who is coming in and out of our country. people can come as my parents did to this country and have opportunity and pursue a better life but we need to know who is coming in and out of this country. in a post 911 world of all places new york should be concerned that there are 1.6 million individuals that have come in the country. we don't know who they are, where they are, what their intentions are in addition to the 6 million encountered at the border and made their way throughout the country including new york. i would say to my colleagues senator schumer, work with us. we have a solution that we've passed to secure the border. you may want to see other aspects, work authorization, you know, let's come together. but the senate has to pass something in order for us to do that and reconcile our differences. i think this is the right opportunity for republicans and democrats to come together but if we don't stem the flow the system will continue to be inundated and we'll continue going through this every month until we actually stop the flow and deal with the backlog we have currently. >> it will be interesting to see if there is any movement on this because i think both parties now agree it is a crisis level all over the country not just at the border. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley revealing his fears about nuclear weapons when it comes to donald trump and what he fears if trump is elected again, next. travel. there is nothing like it dancing is my passion. but with my moderate-to-severe eczema, it hasn't been easy. now, i'm staying ahead of it. dupixent helps heal your skin from within. so, you can clearer skin and noticeably less itch serious allergic reactions can occur, that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pains, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your healthcare provider. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. no matter where life takes you, biktarvy can go with you. talk to your healthcare provider today. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervive nerve relief from the world's number one nerve care company. nervive contains ala to relieve nerve aches, and b-complex vitamins to fortify healthy nerves. try nervive. and, try nervive pain relieving roll-on. captain luis avila a u.s. soldier severely wounded by an i.e.d. explosion september 2011 in afghanistan uses music therapy. captain avila will now join the joint service quartet in singing "god bless america." >> that was a moving moment during a welcome ceremony for the chairman of the joint chiefs mark milley back in 2019 but it turns out that it may have been the initial moment that chairman milley gained insight into the former president donald trump's view of members of the military. according to a stunning new profile in the atlantic following wounded army captain luis avila's rendition of "god bless america" trump walked over to congratulate and embrace him but moments after that the former president told chairman milley, quote, why do you bring people like that here? no one wants to see that. the wounded. never let avila appear in public again, trump told milley. joining me now is editor-in-chief of the atlantic jeffery gold the author of that profile. "the patriot" how general mark milley protected the constitution from donald trump. that moment, jeffery, is a searing moment just recounted on paper. but what was it like to hear milley recount that to you? >> i am not going to say how he reacted to all these things or what we talked about specifically but there were a lot of witnesses to that and i think it's true that for mark milley like a lot of people who worked in and around that administration it was a gradual, for some not so gradual process of learning about the character and proclivities of the former president. i think that was a moment that was deeply unnatural for american military leaders not just mark milley because they venerate veterans and combat survivors like captain avila. they have a universal respect and admiration and sympathy of generals. the idea you would hide them is, it runs, it is repugnant and runs counter to their instincts. >> then again trump is still the same person who told john mccain, you know, he is not a hero because he was pa pastor >> i don't think mark milley when he came in 2019 thought he was dealing with mr. rogers but the interesting thing about the progression, by the way it took until lafayette square the next year for mark milley to fully understand what he is dealing with here. you know, in terms of the president. very, very hard thing for him to do because that is the commander-in-chief. >> one of the things you note in this piece is that trump picked milley because he thought he looked like a general. he is a big guy. he's got a general's face. >> yes. >> square. big eyebrows. what is he really like? how did that factor into whether they were able to be compatible? >> we know people that covered trump know he always has this line. that guy looks out of central casting. right? he casts people for roles. he doesn't interview them per se, that you look like a secretary of state. you look like a chairman of the joint chiefs. what he didn't understand beneath that tank like bill, was a princeton educated historian. not only that what he didn't understand and this is wrt relationship fell apart as it did with a lot of other people, jim mattis and john kelly, other generals who came in because maybe in part they looked the part. what he didn't understand was mark milley was committed to the principle that the military reports in essence to the constitution. not to the president of the united states. he didn't understand these guys who have risen in the ranks to general have their own code of conduct and ethics and behavior that ran counter to what trump thought maybe based on what he saw in movies, how he thought he should act. and so it was a clash almost from the beginning. as it was with a lot of other people that trump hired. >> ultimately and some anecdotes we'll talk about next that is the central conflict that erupts between the election and january 6th. >> exactly. >> stand by. coming up next why milley thinks that a second trump term could threaten his freedom. ♪ i jusust want to lie motionless in a chair! ♪ booking.com, booking.yeah ♪ ♪ she runs and plays like a puppy again. his #2s are perfect! he's a brand new dog, all in less than a year. when people switch their dog's food from kibble to the farmer's dog, they often say that it feels like magic. but there's no magic involved. 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