The sun coming up 6 00 a. M. Its wednesday, august 28th. And we have a lot to get to this morning. Including special counsel jack smith trying to salvage the federal Election Interference case against donald trump. Filing a formal indictment against the former president. Were going to bring you excellent analysis in just a moment. Meanwhile, donald trump now says that he will debate Vice President Kamala Harris in two weeks, but the Harris Campaign still needs to be resolved. And well have more details about that the operation that rescued an israeli man who was held hostage by hamas for more than 300 days. That comes as israel launches a broad operation in the west bank with raids and air strikes in that territory. Im Jonathan Lemire along with u. S. Special correspondent for bbc news katty kay in this morning for joe, mika and willie. Well be joined by Symone Sanderstownsend, and mike barnicle, and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, you just saw her on way too early, ali vitali. Lo
I focus mainly on the prism. You call this a book also about the intellectual history of the trump era, a title some might consider to be a timely oxymoron but what do you mean by an intellectual history . Theres a lot of ways to imagine. Theres been a common exercise during the trump years of trying to find that one book from 1973 that anticipated everything or this one essay that saw it coming and ive done that myself but that isnt the kind of book i wanted to write. I wanted to grapple with the insiders and academics and journalists and how they were thinking about this moment in real time so maybe a better way to explain it is to think of it as a snapshot of an intellectual moment future historians can look at to get the sense of how we thought about trump in a moment. Its interesting you talk about books that oversimplify things, this is how we got here, this is how its happened. There was an increased interest in sales and in particular, novels with brave new world and postapocal
Guest i still think i very much see myself as a book critic. This book is just sort of an extension of that work, but these days i feel like im a political journalist also in many ways and just using books as a means to do that kind of work. Host also an author, obviously. This is your first book. Did you know you always wanted to write a book as a book critic or is that something you steered clear of . Guest i did not have a sense i wanted to necessarily be an author or write a book. Reading other peoples books was plenty for me and i worried a bit that if i went through the process of writing a book i would end up far too sympathetic to authors and ruin me for my day job, but i think its been useful to see what that side of the process is like and all of the work that goes into creating that finished product usually just get at the tail end host do you think it will change your approach at all as a book critic . I think it almost has to. I dont know how it will, though. I went to see
To you. I still see myself as a book critic. This book is gamma extension of that work but these days i feel like i am a political journalist and using books as a means to that kind of work. Or is that something you actually steered clear of it has to in some ways beyond just sympathy for so i hope that it will give me a better sense of the decisionmaking that goes into what a book covers and how many chapters. What is it that you do during the day then you read 150 books about the trump era it is a book about books like the book about coffee tables from seinfeld but i hope it simply uses books to try to understand a moment and get a snapshot of a moment so it could have been a lot of things. It could have been film, theater, fiction so its a book about this moment in america and civic life but what do you mean about the intellectual history . There are a lot of ways to imagine. It anticipated everything and ive done some of that myself, guilty but that isnt the kind of book i wanted t
Video. Good morning. Thank you for joining us what promises to be a promising round table discussion. Looking back on the 50th anniversary on the struggle to elect kenneth a. Gibson. Elected in june of 1970, it marked a turning buoyant for the black Freedom Movement that was part of a National Wave of black political organizing that couple nated in the election of black m mayors in cities like cleveland, gary, atlanta, and detroit from 1967 to 1974. The histories feel particularly vital now as blackled struggles against Police Violence and attempted murder of jacob black have sounded the clarity call for black liberation while raising familiar questions about the rules of electoral clicks in black freedom struggles. 50 years ago, gibsons landmark election came on the heels of the 1967 rebellion when the Police Beating of an unarmed black man named john smith marked an uprising. Smiths beating recalled countless Police Killing of black men in the city that had gone unpunished over the y