welcome to the beat. i m ari melber. we are tracking several stories tonight, including another supreme court ethics scandal, tying gop appointee samuel alito to another billionaire on a fishing trip. we ll get into that later. it s a big story. but our news program begins tonight with not only the criminal trial of donald trump, now slated to begin on august 14th buck the broader ongoing threat of right wing individual lantyism and authoritarianism. tonight we begin with a special report on that very challenge, and trump s efforts to hijack the criminal justice system that now is trying to potentially hold him accountable. we re talking about a range of actions that has prompted already fear of violence over the violent rhetoric and whether that could turn to action. we re about one week out from the federal arraignment that trump did try to prevent. we remember he was forced to sit silently in that miami courtroom. outside cameras showed a very small crowd. the scene was
that s troubling if that is indeed the case. neil: and we don t know whether that s the case, but what mark esper was telling us, there was an easy time you could have shot down the balloon, they call it a weather balloon, more than gathering temperatures for people, but this is a shot right now over the skies of north carolina, you guessed it, by the map and the map of the united states, that s the last stop before you get to the atlantic ocean and then, what happens is anyone s guess. a lot of people say we shoot it down to see what the technology because lost in the sauce is how big this thing is typically six times of a traditional weather balloon and that it s gone very, very far. some say propelled by wind, others say by things far more advanced which is why some want to take at that look at it. we ll be exploring that with among others, chuck hagel, the former secretary, and mark green, he ll weigh in and many, many more. we re not done with this issue. the impact what
Believe propaganda or sign on to authoritarian violence as a political plan, as a kind of movement they re affiliated with, but still look at, are they going to end up in prison or not? because if their team doesn t take over forever and install this would be permanent government, they might actually have to have consequences. consider that more than 1,000 criminal cases now, as mentioned in the january 6th probe, have had a real deterrent effect on those who might have considered violence on behalf of trump. that s how one expert on extremism explained this outcome to the new york times recently. donald trump s threat was in the open. it was building for a long time. you re watching the news. i bet you re old enough to remember people laughing it all off in 2015. or people saying trump s liberal critics were exaggerating and overreacting in 2016. or maybe you remember 2017 when people told us some lectured america has guardrails for this,
Doesn t take over, and that we can maintain a rules-based international system in the face of chinese aggression in many places. not just because of this balloon. so, that s what i want to see, is what is the broader plan and by the way, the administration does have a broader plan for dealing with china and that s what i think is most important issue. neil: well, maybe he has to spell out that plan to your point, sir. yeah. neil: i did ask because he did cancel antony blinken s appearance in china and some people say on both sides of the aisle that would have been an opportunity for the secretary of state to get in china s face about this and other, you know, provocations. what do you think? yeah, well two things, first of all, he does sort of have a clear plan and we re building alliances all over the place. i mean, the claude to get japan, australia and india to work with us which they have done, japan and australia in particular have beefed up their defenses in an effort to be i