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tv   All In With Chris Hayes  MSNBC  February 2, 2024 12:00am-1:00am PST

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so, this month, let's remember where we have been and recognize that our only way forward is by marching together. and please make sure to tune in sunday at nine pm right here on msnbc streaming also on peacock msnbc correspondent for mainly the civil rights attorney and friends of the show, charles forman for a very special broadcast. the last man in america, the road to 2024. you do not want to miss it. and, on that note, i wish you all a very good night. i appreciate you being here. for all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you again tomorrow. ou. >> tonight on all in. he is used, $15 million of his
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campaign fund on legal fees. >> donald trump takes the money and runs. >> trump was pushing them to do that. he wanted to be named the presumptive nominee. >> tonight, how trump has effectively destroyed his own political party, up and down the ticket. then -- >> this is a dangerous moment in the middle east. >> the latest on the possible u.s. military response as the republican front runner avoids the issue. >> if you were there today would you -- >> it wouldn't have happened if i were in the white house. >> republican infighting over border security. which one will win out? >> -- [inaudible] >> the podcast are from texas under pressure. >> i'm right no, as you know, in a very tough reelection race in texas. one of the democrats seeking to lose joins me when all in starts right now.
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good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. we got a news today that confirmed something that we kind of knew already, which is the republican party doesn't really exist anymore as an institution. it has essentially cannibalized by donald trump, subsumed into maga. with profound implications both for republicans and for the american democratic system as a whole, and as evidence of this everywhere you look. like a new revelation that the republican national committee and fundraising has left it with a paltry $8 million on hand. not exactly the word chest. democrats have nearly three times as much. even the top rnc member will said we're not in a strong position as we like to be. currently fundraising is below what we had hoped. also reporting trump world is unhappy with the state of affairs at the rnc and they are looking to install maga loyalist at the top, something steve bannon advocated earlier this week when he called for the ouster of party chair ronna romney mcdaniel. >> why is running danielle, they don't want to accuse they understand their kabul ball. what in the hell was rnc doing?
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[applause] the guilty of a mortal sin against this republic, and that scene is not going to go away until she is removed as the chairman of the rnc. [applause] i'm tired of the happy talk. you know why she's got to take a line of credit? because you cut her off. right? i said not another penny, none another 25 bucks or 50 bucks a month, not one cent until they are gone. >> okay let's be clear here. the idea that steve bannon -- is solely responsible for the foh pitiful fundraising in the committee is laughable. that's not it. but it does remain true that the maga movement has had it with the rnc, which is ironic for a number of reasons. first of all because chair rnc chair is so pro maga, she tried to pressure nikki haley to drop out, only for trump to stab mcdaniel in the back so he
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could play the dictator and say that he should stay in the race. trump of all people is partially responsible for the rnc's financial woes. because his super pacs are hoovering up all of the small dollar donations so he can use them to play his tens of millions of dollars in legal bills. to be clear, it is always the case, to some extent, the presidential candidate in their movement controls the purse strings of their party in the election year. but trump is on another level. as he subsumes the public and party in his own party of one. you can see the trickle down effect as the republican party destroys itself like a snake eating its own tale. a lot of the problems become trump himself is a conspiracy obsessed maniac cultivates the most ranged characteristics in his die hard policies. in michigan the state republican party voted to fire its head, kristina karamo, or later this month, and replace her with pete hoekstra, a former republican -- she's the election denying conspiracy theorist who ran to be in michigan's secretary of state in 2022. >> to have an intimate relationship with people who are demonically possessed -- as the person opens themselves up
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to possession. didn't demonic possession is real. i don't know all the details of it, but i would surmise that the say licentiousness in our culture is a lot of spiritual things that can go wrong. >> she didn't win that race in 2022, thankfully, and you can see why republicans decided they don't want her running the show anymore. here's the thing. she's refusing to step down. and it's now splitting its party in half. in fact, the rnc had a big meeting today with representatives from across the nation, and michigan republicans did not have a seat at the table because caramel refuses to step down and had the reins to hoekstra. in fact, both of them showed up today, each showing they are in charge of the michigan republican party and neither one was officially recognized by the rnc. we are just happens in politics all the time. but it's not just michigan. this is a trend. in arizona you've got the field maga gubernatorial candidate -- now involved in a convoluted few that has pushed out that
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states republican chairman jeff dewitt, and depending on who you, asked a bit do it either tried to bribe lake to stay out of this upcoming senate race where he's the victim of an elaborate steal from lake to oust him from the position so that she can claim total control of the state party. now there's a new head of arizona republican party, a so- called election integrity activist who worked on trump's 2020 campaign. although her election to party chair was not -- the new york times reported that it was delayed over the motion to ban the use of electronic tabulators. -- but we're not done. the robber can party is run by who was really criminally indicted in the role of trump's fake elector scheme. but hold the holding the -- in the caucus next week, because of some complicated infighting, nikki haley would be on the primary ballot, donald trump would be competing in the caucus. but caucus is the one awarding delegates, which means a little context is rigged in his favor, which is the whole point of them concocting this entire enterprise. because the situation was reversed, trump would be
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railing. he would want everyone to know that the contest was being stolen. when he called things rigged, that is an aspiration. it's not moral condemnation. he wants things to be rigged in his favor. that is his model. everything is rigged and should be rigged in his favor. i am pretty sure, to be fair, he would win a fully fair unrig the republican primary. that said, it's hard to disentangle the current mess from trump and his power grab. we complete control of the maga movement has the entire party apparatus. this isn't just some backroom politics of the rnc in the republican party. this is donald trump's vision for the entire country. to ban the fabric of reality and the american experiment and its political system to his will. the current broken state of the republican party you see, now run by cranks whose only qualification is their ability and his vision for the whole u. s. government. justin mcintosh is a democratic strategist who served as an adviser to the hillary campaign. sarah longwell is a publisher from the bulwark. they join me now. someone who has been in and around republican politics for a long time, sometimes you'll see weird party fight crop up. those happen in democratic party sometimes but the full
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nuttiness, again, in states that are gonna be really crucial to the election i don't think i've ever seen anything like it. >> here's what's crazy. back before donald trump took everything over, he was the crank. he was the head crank in charge. and he was surrounded by lots of other cranks. but the voters wanted him, and normal republicans issued him and wanted to walk away from him. but what happened in the last seven years is a total in bursts of that, but right now donald trump is surrounded by people like susie wildes and chris mcafee there and has real people around him that he has attacked the rest of the party with lunatics and cranks who's only qualification, this is sort of 5. 2, this is the reason the brain drain is the litmus test, the qualifications necessary now to be in the party apparatus is are you the most mega? are you the most loyal to trump? and people who are willing to be in the kari lake in the vein of total sycophant to trump these are the people who are rising to the top but they don't have real skill. they are not capable of
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learning. they're not capable of making things happen. and so weirdly now trump controls the money, he controls the center of gravity, and he is populated by this pygmy colony of we are those who do nothing but support him. >> there's also a rigged charge. you are veteran of the 2015 contested primary in the democratic party which was very contested in many ways. lots of frustration about, was the dnc being a neutral arbiter? they have had two contests. there was a move of ronna mcdaniel getting on air to be you need to drop. out there was move for resolution. not even pretending any neutrality. again, this is the vision that he has for all politics. heads i win tails you lose. >> absolutely. you can see how he has reshaped just about every aspect of the electoral system. the voters are different now. the local officials are different, the candidates are different. but almost nowhere is it more stuck than in the party apparatus itself. if you make your litmus test as fealty to an unhinged racist weirdo guess what kind of people you get? that's what is top to bottom down. at some point, donald trump is so new and different, but you can trace this back to new gingrich only out water, sowing the seeds that would eventually get you the kind of racist
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unhinged autocrat that donald trump is. i think with the republicans didn't necessarily lay the groundwork for is that he such a grifter. i don't think that they thought somebody like that would come in and scoop up all their small dollars for his own legal fees. >> that's the thing. the money. one of the things, sarah, parties have gotten weaker overtime. partly that is because they can only raise -- money and citizens united -- super pacs canaries unlimited amounts of money. good infrastructure. both parties have left financial relevance. but it's also like there is 1 to 1 decision happening here. i think rnc, if i'm not mistaken, $80 million last year? and trump had 50 illegal fees. i mean, those dollars, it is a fixed part. there's a certain amount of small dollar republican conservative donors, assert amount of money that's gonna come flowing in. and right now 50 million, yoik, in legal fees. >> i guess it is and is about to get worse. he's gonna be in court the
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entire time they're trying to raise money to run races. doldrums not the only person in the republican party. they have senator aces. they have down ballot races. there's a lot of other people who are hoping for that money. that's what's been so crazy to me about the republican party. in a healthy political environment, they would be upset with him about this, about draining resources for the betterment of the party. that's always been the thing about donald trump. he doesn't care about those republican party. unless he cares about the republican party, the more desperately they are trying to help him and whatever they can for him only to the detriment of the party and any kind of principle or meaning fall ideological places, the thing that they want to do, it's just all about trump and they're not gonna have a platform, then i can be able to raise money for senate candidates, they're just gonna go all in on trump, and it's the whole republican party. republicans have nobody to blame but themselves because they let this happen. they could've stood up 1 million different times in 1 million different ways. they chose not to, and that's why we're here. >> to sara's point, you know, as a veteran of campaigns and
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politics, resources really do matter. they matter more the lower down you get. when you talk about presidential points, people with high recognition, the marginal dollar amounts and when you're talking about the contested house race, it matters a lot. and again, he's going to face more legal troubles this year. he's already got $83 million he's got to give to e. jean carroll, more from new york, and paying his lawyers in the one thing he's gotten great had a small dollar donors off his
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legal fees. that's going to psych up even more of that money. >> that's his strategy. his strategy is to use every bit of legal liability that he has to raise a small dollar donations. you're absolutely right about how important that is lower down the ballot. if you had $10 to send to a political candidate, send it to a state legislative race.
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it will matter. it's a drop in a bucket for a presidential. he's just siphoning off everything that would possibly be able to help rebuild the republican party. and when he steps off of the state, he's gonna make sure that it's an absolute abject wasteland. >> one thing that the -- and that will have implications for down-ballot. it's a legit argument based on data, and irrational one.
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if anyone's listening, or of the people she needs to persuade or listening, what can i do? i do?
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>> something amazing happened on capitol hill yesterday. in the midst of an election year and deep divisions, a bipartisan majority in the
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house passed a tax bill, a compromise that gives each party something it wants. democrats get an expansion of the child tax credit, scaled back from the version passed in 2021. legislation would give eligible families an average tax cut of $680, and lift as many as -- children out of poverty in one year. a big priority for them. you will never guess what republicans wanted in exchange. a bunch of tax cuts for businesses and corporations. they got it. as bloomberg explains, the they will increase tax breaks, interest on business loans and investment in equipment. boeing, general motors, amazon, microsoft, and apple are among the companies that stand to benefit. this is sort of a perfect illustration of the priorities of the two parties and the material interests they pursue. democrats are like please, just a few hundred dollars a month for families with kids. and republicans responded, okay, if you give tax breaks for some of the wealthiest countries in the world, we can get to a deal. but the compromise worked. at least in the house. it may not hold in the senate. >> [inaudible] we'll check before the election means he could be reelected and then we won't extend the 27th -- >> at least he's being honest about it. we don't want to do any good because it might help biden.
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but in front of his colleagues more important to reelect donald trump then literally to put more money in working families pockets. or even in the coffers of big businesses. for this will be a test for trump's republican party. where they destroy it ideal for physical purposes, or sees the opportunity to actually get something done? right now that very same question is hanging over another bipartisan deal that has been teetering on the edge of collapse. you probably heard about this one. after months of intense negotiations, the bipartisan group of sanders hammered out and greenland on the border. it is pretty much a clear win for republican policy priorities. a deal would, as far as i know, be impose reimpose new limits and standards on peoples seeking asylum in the united states, it will speed up the processing of those asylum claims, and make it harder for migrants to appeal if they
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rejected. the department of homeland security will give new authority to close the border to the number of -- passing certain threshold. so it's a little unclear how to get that. you have two senators who are desperately begging in every venue that for their colleagues to support what they say is like an enormous win, the best deal they're gonna get. >> this is a historic moment, to reform the border in a way that would give tools to the next president they don't have today and lessen the flow to take pressure off people in texas and arizona and. the democrats will not give us, will not give us anything close to this if we have to get 60 votes to united states senate in a republican majority. we have a unique opportunity here, and the timing is right to do this. >> this is our moment to say let's do as much as we can to get as much as we can to get done. this has a big change and that's what americans are
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crying for. >> immigration advocates who don't like the deal at all are worried about it. again, we don't have -- yet but they're not just like, it is untrue, they got a win. once again what's going to happen? while the problem is donald trump and his insatiable thirst for another term in the white house. trump and his allies want to use the crisis at the border and the real human lives on each side of the political tool. so what they're going to try to do is kill the deal so the border remains, as they say, crisis, and they can attack president joe biden on the campaign trail. >> there is zero chance i will support this horrible open borders betrayal of america. it's not going to happen. i would rather have no bill than a bad bill. a bad bill you can't have. that's what's happening in the house. >> donald trump -- just gave me
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three. it's funny to even think about. as usual, trump's lackeys and congress are lining up to do his bidding. speaker mike johnson are calling the deal we had on arrival. two bipartisan compromises in each house, the border and taxes, and republican faces an interesting task. what do they actually care about, and what do they just like to talk about? i will make a prediction. i think to gonna kill the border deal because they like to talk about immigration, the politics of the border, and they love beating up on democrats and immigrants. but they don't actually care about the substance, the policy. look at what happened the last time the unified government. remember? the first half of donald trump's term, what did they do? oh wait, yeah, nothing. it didn't build the wall. they didn't stem the flow of
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migrants. they did nothing when they had unified control. what did they do? what did they get done? they enacted, again, massive tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals. underneath all the rhetoric, cutting taxes for businesses, corporations, and rich people, it's the single policy focus, the only thing, the only thing they are actually invested in getting done. so my prediction is that they find a way to pass the tax bill, that it will pass, and the border bill will hit the cutting room floor. we'll see if i'm wrong. l see i to duckduckgo on all your devie
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>> i'm right now, as you know, in a very tough reelection race in texas. the democrats shocked schumer has made clear i'm's number one target, the democrats intend to spend over 100 million dollars to defeat me in texas. we just had a poll last week that showed it as a one-point race and yet we can expect michigan not to spend any money to defend me >> i'm sitting in a glass house throwing stones. that guy really likes the sound of his own voice. last night ted cruz ran for reelection, he sweated out a
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narrow victory in less than three points. you think that would be a wake up call for the texas senator to laser focus on constituents. but instead just over two years after his now victory he tried to jet off to cancun during the worst disaster in his state had seen in a long time, who killed over 250 people. recently as emts reduced himself to being a part-time senator and nearly full-time podcaster. get this. last week he posted five different episodes. five different podcast episodes. he's a senator. he's now facing another real reelection challenge. as you heard, he's not getting the subordinates from fellow republicans. he's running in the democratic race against texas state -- gutierrez and others. he previously served under president obama. for that reason nfl linebacker and fourth generation -- could
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have you. here >> thanks for having me. >> okay, people might think this is weird, but i'm not tell, you i think it's weird for u.s. senator to do five podcasts a week. >> no, that's right. it's very time consuming. when i appear on a podcast it takes time. but being the host? normally that's three a week. that's news for me that he's up to five. he's not -- >> i think at some level which i think you've been helpful, you really want to do -- no shade. but you may be giving him a hand. >> that's what he wants to do. we're talking about negotiations in the senate right now. you never see him a part of those negotiations. rolling up his sleeves and figure out a compromise on how to move the legislation forward. he goes on podcasts. >> in fact about this border story, that you will have a lot to say about, you have been critical of the handling of this president, joe biden, at the border. your mind three texas democrats who voted to defend the presidents family. he said your -- would provide a pathway to citizenship for dreamers, serve resources to border patrol. so you've been trying to work on something like this. the senate compromise doesn't even have some of the stuff in here. there is no -- all day. i know we don't have paper and yet, but when we support that
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legislation -- >> we haven't gotten all the details, but from what we are seeing it looks like an attempt to deal with asylum system that's broken. and the certain standards that have to be said in terms of what the threshold is. but listen, ted cruz is not gonna be part of any of this. and he said, in a senate hearing leaked out against a lunch meeting, he's worried about the politics, not the policy, the politics. that's where the cynicism comes in. that's something texans are so sick of. >> i think he said privately and probably publicly, and i think there was a caucus lunch they had after the deal was struck, and after trump won new hampshire mcconnell paused for a change, he didn't say this but we want the crisis to keep going. i guess it makes me wonder. maybe they don't think it's -- i just find it pretty wild. to me it's a defining issue about the nature of the different senators. lankford is a conservative dude in a neighboring state of oklahoma. he is not a -- he's running around, guys, we've got, it let's do. it >> also for texas for a border state in so there's probably no state that needs to be addressed more. >> the vast majority of crossings are happening in texas. >> over 300,000 in december. you think that texas senator would say i want to respond to this and find a way legislatively. but he's just looking for the
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next election and keep podcasting. >> one of the issues i think will be very clear difference between -- if you are to win the nomination, i think any democrat against ted cruz on the issue of abortion is strongly in favor of supreme court's dobbs decision, firmly opposed to abortion. so let me just play a little bit of your campaign ad because i think it highlights the message that you are other democrats, not just in taxes are gonna be running on this year. take a look >> women in the state appears real. texas abortion ban is a threat to their lives, to all of our freedoms, so that's why i'm running for senate, to end the abortion ban, because in texas we stand up for freedom. >> your state has a restrictive ban, and it was at the front edge of that law. do you think abortion rights referendum statewide would win? -- >> i think it would. i don't think -- we'll let us do that. >> they never have. >> but what's happening in texas is a tragedy. it really is. but we are seeing a water total ban on abortion looks like, which is a mother of two, 13 pregnancy, it goes to the emergency room for, time sir doctor says she needs a medically necessary abortion.
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she asked her state to get that care close to home and these don't only say no, they say we're gonna prosecute your doctor, your hospital. you're going to be subject to the law in this state. you have county saying you can't drive through our county. you can't drive through our roads to access an abortion. i'm a fourth generation texas, i went to baylor, i know who we are. we believe in freedom. and this is not freedom. this is not who we are. that's why we have to make sure the folks know the only way we can fix this is by beating ted cruz and quantifying at the federal level roe v. wade. are states not gonna do it, but we can do it at the federal level. we can restore this right. >> the president had a rally where he said he promised to do that, and there's been a push and pull about cleary clarity on the message from democrats. you can't angry in the bell overall. the court is what it is. but do you think there's unanimity across all aspects of the democratic party, for all of without you running with contested swing races in the house, in senate races and the top of the ticket? >> there should be because we have to. we passed and last congress a couple of times that of protection act which would codify roe. we couldn't get to the senate that we had 50 votes. on the senate we would have to get -- because we have to restore these rights. i'm a voting rights lawyer as well before i came to congress. we have to go back i think and solidify some of these foundational rights that have been eroded but i what i think is a rogue supreme court and also close years of inaction. >> final question for you. do you think you can go talk to folks in texas about this biden economy or this economy? >> i come from a family where my mom was public school teacher. we were kind of, the prey when you go to the store. i know what families have been facing. but i also know who's fighting to lower your costs. who wants to expand the child
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tax credit. who wants to lawyer health care costs. ted cruz voted against that. who are they looking out for? who are we looking out for? we want to lower your costs. we want to make life more affordable. we want to give you a chance to chase your version of the american dream. >> congressman colin all right, that primary will be in march if i'm not mistaken. we'll be watching it all right and come by anytime in new york. >> coming up don trump tries to punt one of the biggest problems the president has to address, hoping everyone forgets that he was president once. i was there. i remember. there. i remember.
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>> the president had a rally where he said he promised to do that, and there's been a push and pull about cleary clarity on the message from democrats. you can't angry in the bell overall. the court is what it is. but do you think there's unanimity across all aspects of the democratic party, for all of without you running with contested swing races in the house, in senate races and the top of the ticket? >> there should be because we have to. we passed and last congress a couple of times that of protection act which would codify roe. we couldn't get to the senate that we had 50 votes. on the senate we would have to get -- because we have to restore these rights. i'm a voting rights lawyer as well before i came to congress. we have to go back i think and solidify some of these foundational rights that have been eroded but i what i think is a rogue supreme court and also close years of inaction. >> final question for you. do you think you can go talk to folks in texas about this biden economy or this economy? >> i come from a family where my mom was public school
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teacher. we were kind of, the prey when you go to the store. i know what families have been facing. but i also know who's fighting to lower your costs. who wants to expand the child tax credit. who wants to lawyer health care costs. ted cruz voted against that. who are they looking out for? who are we looking out for? we want to lower your costs. we want to make life more affordable. we want to give you a chance to chase your version of the american dream. >> congressman colin all right, that primary will be in march if i'm not mistaken. we'll be watching it all right and come by anytime in new york. >> coming up don trump tries to punt one of the biggest problems the president has to address, hoping everyone forgets that he was president once. i was there. i remember. i was there. i remember.
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♪oh what a good time we will have♪ ♪you... can make it happen...♪ ♪♪ try dietary supplements from voltaren for healthy joints. >> this is a dangerous moment in the middle east. we will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region. but we will take all necessary actions to defend the united states, our interests, and our people. and we will respond when we choose, where we choose, and how we choose. >> secretary of defense lloyd austin held his first press conference on the situation and middle east, echoing the white house, promising response to the attacks that killed three american shoulders in jordan last weekend. his first time at the podium after revealing his prostate
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cancer diagnosis. he apologized for hiding his condition even after having been hospitalized. >> i want to be crystal clear. we did not handle this right, and i did not handle this right. i should've told the president about my cancer diagnosis. i should have also told my team and the american public. and i take full responsibility. i apologize to my teammates and to the american people. >> often took some tough questions about his decision to keep his diagnosis a secret and also about use u. s. support for israel's continued intensive in gaza. >> you told israelis that they have to protect civilian lives in gaza. since that speech, 12, 000 more palestinians have been killed. there are now 27, 000 killed. why are still supporting this war? >> we are starting to see the israelis shift their stance and change their approach to a more focused and more controlled is probably not the right world but focused effort, focused on a discreet set of objectives.
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president biden today was focused on another an executive order to freeze any assets of israeli settlers. 300 palestinians have been killed, much of the violence has come from settlers who have seized properties, and intimidated residents to leaving their villages outright. netanyahu government, which is politically aligned with the settler movement downplays the violence. action after the shooting death of an american teen who is visiting the west bank last month, witnesses say he was shot by a settler. this is domestic political challenge for biden. the support for the israel war, appears to be hurting him significantly with young voters. it shows him up to polling, it is definitely hurting him with muslim and arab american voters as evidence when he made a campaign stop today in michigan. the arab american community also refused to meet with biden's campaign team last weekend an economist poll last month showed that 50% of people who voted for biden in 2020 believe israel is committing genocide against palestinians civilians. that's 50% of his voters.
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it is clear that israel has warned gaza it is currently the biggest policy of the campaign season. what is incredible is a manners or most certainly going to face off against biden has said nothing of substance about this. in fact, as we saw yesterday, he just deflects questions about it out right. >> if you are in the white house today -- >> it wouldn't have happened if i were in the white house. we would've never had this attack, you would've never had the attack on its, really would've never had the attack on ukraine, you would not have had inflation that was destroying our country. >> nothing would've happened, and therefore i have no position, therefore you can just protect whatever you want on to me. see how that works. there was a time in american politics not long ago and the leading candidate -- when something happened, they would host a press call with their campaigns policy expert. they would put out a policy paper and a statement, they
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might even make a speech. because a big part of campaigning for public service and the presidency used to be having a position on major policy questions. not for donald trump. there is literally no position, zero position whatsoever from him on the gaza war. here is the thing, and we don't have to guess what his policy as president would be, because it was actually the white house. house. there's actual records in the middle east. a reminder of what that is, next.
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>> iran will insist on an even better deal than they made with obama. i terminated that deal. i terminated that deal. and we move the capital of israel to jerusalem. that is for the evangelicals, and go on golan heights. so we've done a lot. >> that is for the evangelicals -- donald trump avoids taking a policy position on what is happening in the middle east now. he wasn't shy when he was actioning the white house.
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those four years, trump was squarely aligned with the most right wing forces in israeli politics. move the u. s. embassy to jerusalem, as they wanted. he ripped up the iran deal which is the highest priority for the right wing government of israel. he recognized the contest to go on that part of israel. those are all priorities of the israeli prime minister who called in his, quote, dear friend donald. the u. s. national security council is now the co-host and coauthor of the upcoming book, democracy or else, how to save america in ten easy steps. i would want to talk to you because i was talking about this, at the current trajectory of american foreign policy under biden. that it cannot go on like this. it is causing real damage politically, and strategically, and it is crazy to me that in the midst of the campaign, there's just no question about what the policy of the other guy's or would be. >> it is funny to your listening to you talk, back in the day, it would be an entirely different era of
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politics. when we are running up against john mccain. trump does have his record, and he cut funding to the palestinians, he brokered the deals where the u. s. gave huge concessions to autocrats and the region in exchange for normalizing relations with israel. in the case of the uae's deal with the israelis, it was basically a human charm deal between the u. s. and the uae. those deals mean the palestinians feel completely forgotten about and left behind, because now they were normalized with relations to israel, and they felt forgotten. the palestinians did. they felt forgotten. but because netanyahu told him
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that they had been forgotten. trump certainly poured out on the fire. >> yeah. a lot of stuff went into that. stuffing powder into the powderkeg over that period of time. i want to just -- this is a nerdy point but i will just go with it here. just so that people don't think i am crazy, he works on the o a campaign and no 12. it really was a thing. you are running for office. and you got this little committee that we'll have real experts on the politics of things and they will be like, all of this work look at done, what are those positions? what do we think on this? there will be members, i'm not crazy about this, this was a real thing that used to happen in american political campaigns. >> all the time. 2008, when russia invaded
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georgia, the up ended the campaign the entire weekend of the next couple of weeks were taken over by conversations about foreign policy getting experts on the phone, it was an important substantive debate about how obama viewed the world and responded to these things. you are right, this, case trump won't say anything about it except never would have happened if i was president. i think that he also once said that the civil war would've never happened if he would've been president. been president. maybe we take that with a grain of salt. >> right. it is wild how much the political class press would have freaked out of barack obama in 2008 said i don't know what to tell you, they never would have invaded georgia file ready was president. like, i think it is smart politically, precisely for the political reasons that would be
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identified. that polling number to me was pretty shocking that 50%. 50% of biden voters believe that israel is committing genocide in gaza. purely as a political issue with your own voters. that is a pretty intense red flag. and trump and the republicans are smart enough to recognize why say anything when this is such a brutal issue for the democratic coalition? >> yes. trump is smart when it comes to politics. he knows that the hard right pro israel evangelicals will never vote for biden. they will always be with him. he knows the progressive lesson is upset with biden and he also knows that there is the tucker carlson right which is more america first. why would we intervene overseas. they hate this war, they think that lindsey graham is crazy, they will just sit silently. you see what you want to see. >> this gets back to this norm and rules of running for president. having this. because one of the things that happened was everyone wanted to do that. the whole point, right, you never want to take a position on everything when you are running for office. that is contentious because it is easier not to, right? the whole point of the mechanics of what it campaign used to be, with trump unilaterally destroyed, it
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would force politicians to do exactly that. >> they didn't have a platform in 2020. he is running as a blank slate and they see, i guess four years in office. with economic sentiment that is carried over that they feel like they've benefited from in the trump years. but he is running on nothing now. >> david freeman, the trump ambassador to israel, which again, personnel is politics. he said look, no time to the united states put any handcuffs or limitation on israel's ability to respond. you know very well that it particularly informed policy would be under the trump administration. i don't think that it is at all -- >> listen. i think if you don't like when joe biden is doing with respect to gaza right now, you would hate what donald trump would be doing. there's absolutely no consideration for human rights. i think he would get the netanyahu carte blanche to conduct any military campaign
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said he wanted and there would be no pressure on him to worry about civilian casualties. it would be terrible. there's just one bipartisan point that i want to make which is that you hear all of this talk against iran, and that is always code for revenge, or some sort of military campaign. no one is that they're making a case for diplomacy. since the periods of time when we saw the attacks on u. s. forces, in iraq and syria, you either stop or slow down when the u. s. and iran were engaged in either directly or through some other country. that is how we keep diplomacy i. >> totally agree.ep diplomacy i. thank you very much and that is all in on this thursday night. thank you, my friend. we're going to start this hour with breaking news. "the new york times" is reporting trump's former finance chief,