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tv   Inside With Jen Psaki  MSNBC  May 26, 2024 9:00am-10:00am PDT

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looks like and shapes the future now. i think we absolutely need to have those voices in the room. when we do not, we have to ensure that we continue to be on an even playing field and fight for that number one spot and stand were america is. that is not possible my we do not provide for inclusion efforts across this country. >> thank you both. enjoy your holiday we can pick that will do it for me. i have been in the chair for ali velshi today and yesterday and i want to thank him and his amazing team for making my job look easier than it really is. thank you for watching "velshi." i'm charles coleman jr.. ali velshi will be back next weekend and you can catch up every saturday and sunday morning from 10:00 a.m.
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to noon eastern and catch me as a legal analyst right here on msnbc all week as we join all things from trial. for now, stay tuned because "inside with jen psaki" begins right now. right now. strategist tim miller are standing by to tell us why she did it. and where the party goes from here. we are reaching the beginning of the end for trump's criminal trial in york. the law firm -- for here into a deep dive into the closing c arguments. judge juan merchan's instructions will be crucial for the 12 men and women who deliver the verdict. retired judge is going to tell us what to watch for and later, nbc's favorite son lou russert on the loss of his dad.
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he traveled around the world and why john baynard told him to get the heck out of washington. of washington. so stop me if you've heard it before, republican speaks the truth about donald trump, donald trump smears, tags and belittles them, republican falls in line rather than face excommunication from the party. really, how many times at this point have we seen the movie? we saw it over and over again during the republican primary race in 2016. florida senator marco rubio called trump a quote, con artist, whose hijacking the conservative movement before getting behind him. now he basically is spending -- begging to be his running mate. ted cruz called trump a pathological liar your -- liar after trump attacked his wife and spread a conspiracy theory.
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but senator cruz was literally phone banking for trump. lindsey graham once called trump a race baiting xenophobic bigot and now, basically is trump's go to locke on capitol hill. j.d. vance once called trump americas hitler and that's going to be super awkward if trumped -- trump takes them for bp. we could fill a show with republican speaking out against trump and later that kissing the ring. we can add another name to the incredibly long and sad list. >> i put my priorities on a president who's going to have the backs of our allies. and hold our enemies to account. who would secure the border, no more excuses. a president who would support capitalism and freedom. a president who understands we need less debt, not more debt. trump has not been perfect on
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these policies, i have made that clear. many, many times. but biden has been a catastrophe. so i will be voting for trump. >> i can't pretend i'm completely surprised. as i said, we've seen the exact sequence of events so many times before and of course nikki haley was one of the many 2024 presidential campaign president -- candidates who said she would support trump in a court of law. but considering the attacks trump threat haley, it's something to behold. he referred to her as birdbrain, mocked her husband whose by the way serving overseas in the national guard. he said haley donors would be barred permanently from the maga camp and said he would not need haley's voters after she dropped out of the race. >> you are trying to unify the party. how do you bring nikki haley voters who say they don't want to now? how do you bring them back? >> they will all vote for me again.
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everybody. i'm not sure we need many. >> i'm not sure we are going to need many but not exactly political outrage going on. and don't forget nikki haley said lots of harsh, very true things i would note about donald trump, too. >> times change and so has trump. he's gotten more unstable and unhinged. if you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don't deserve a drivers license let alone being president of the united states. he's not qualified to be the president of the united states. it's not normal to spend $15 million in campaign contributions on personal court cases and it is not normal to call on russia to invade nato countries. there is no way the american people are going to vote for a convicted criminal. when he was trying to buddy up with putin. every time he was in the same room as him he got weak in the
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knees. >> many of the same politicians who publicly embrace trump, privately drought him. they know what a disaster he's been and will continue to be for our party. they are just too afraid to say it out loud. well i'm not afraid to say the hard truth out loud. i feel no need to kiss the ring. >> hard to and say that. a lot of her attacks conflict with her endorsement. i've been around politics a long time. believe me, i have seen my fair share of verbal domestics when the primary is wrapping up. i remember when hillary clinton -- even when joe biden joined the ticket as obama's running mate after suggesting during the primary that he wasn't ready for the job. but what we are witnessing right now with the republican party and donald trump is different. these are people who at one point said what they know to be true, we talked about moral
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bankruptcy and fundamental fitness and later kiss the ring for fear of political retribution. haley's endorsement is simply a brazen, shameless political calculation. it is the future political power, full stop, end of story. an attempt to stay in the good graces of donald trump and his base because ultimately, that is what it takes to stick around in today's republican party. that is what it tells us. no mistake, there's always another path for republicans but they rarely choose to take it. sarah matthews served as deputy press secretary, tim miller is a former republican strategist and is now host of the bull work podcast. they both join me now. tim, i will start with you. we talked about the key haley, and haley's future before. i just gave my rundown of what i think is going on here, but what am i missing and what is your take on what her calculation is >> yes, her talking about how she's going to tell the hard truths, and contrasting it with i'm going to vote for trump
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because he stands with our allies. it does not make any sense. and i don't think that she's trying to make it make sense. what is happening is pretty obvious. nikki haley wants the future of the republican party, she thinks -- worse than death it is what liz cheney is going through, where she is not welcome at republican events and fundraisers and republican hobnobbing. at sullivan's island in south carolina. she wants to run for office again whether it is 2028 or 2032, 2036, assuming we have election then. nikki haley knows if she doesn't, she will be persona non grata and if she votes for trump and gives mealymouthed half justified bs rationale for it, then her options will be open. that is all this is, about keeping her options open under republican politics. nothing more, nothing less. >> the allies thing struck me and watching it again, like
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that does not make any sense, that particular point. sarah, you were a haley supporter and talked about how you supported a number of things she said. you tweeted when she came out with her endorsement, the outcome was predictable and inevitable. is said to say that but i agree with you. i accepted long ago that 99% of politicians will choose personal ambitions over principles every single time. what is shocking however is nikki haley gains nothing from this but loses everything, the support she built during the primary enter dignity. it is interesting because you are a haley supporter. theirs is the percentage of people who separated -- supported hailey. this is her calculation in securing the base but what do you think of among other haley supporters in the republican base, what you think the response is going to be. not surprised, it turns them off, what is the response? >> what is interesting is that she clearly felt the need to endorse donald trump as a she's going to vote for him because she's holding out hope or 2028,
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that she can run again and she thinks she needs to win over the maga base and the thing is, i don't think the maccabees will ever accept her. she's criticized donald trump time and time again. it goes back to 2016 and she has flip-flopped numerous times on it. so i think that they have rejected her and then what is shocking though, is she did build the support in the 2024 primary among people like myself who are republicans, looking for an alternative, who may be necessarily aren't happy with joe biden but are turned off by donald trump and his lack of moral clarity and his actions on january 6th and things like that. and she was building momentum and really could have maybe in a post trump republican party been the leader. but instead, she chooses to kiss the ring, like every other republican seems to do. donald trump said it best, they always bend the knee and is just disappointing but not surprising. >> unfortunately. tim, one of the questions
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people ask a lot is, could she be on the ticket and i think that there's no way that happens because i can't imagine trump picks her. but she has a base of support among republicans, clearly. what is your take on that? what do you tell people when they ask you? >> really quick on her base of support, i don't think it is as it seems. nikki haley has supporters that love nikki haley and her politics. another group of people voting for her were people who didn't want donald trump to be the nominee and she was the last vessel standing. it might not be as big as it looks in her --. as for the vp i think, look, donald trump, the one thing he's never done is betray his megabase on something that is a core issue that matters to them. when i was at a rally in arizona, at this -- that i suffered through and steve bannon was on stage and suggested the establishment would make nikki haley the vp. the venom in that crowd of people around me, the screaming
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and cursing, i got a greater reaction than anything. nikki haley is a traitor. she is worse than a democrat. they would either -- former democrat that says. i can imagine donald trump picking -- to his core supporters. >> it seems hard to wrap your head around. she challenged him in the past so i don't know how much they would like that. some of our reporters have done some interviews with people on the street where they talk to people about haley supporters, about what it means for them, her support. let me play a quick clip of that. >> would you be interested -- disappointed if she endorsed trump? i don't really think she well. >> i will vote democrat, that is all there is to it. >> is one example. but it is an interesting question, whether these haley supporters look at her and say, she is supporting trump. now
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i'm going to support trump or whether they say, i never like to trump and that is why light -- why i like hailey. it is probably not monolithic but what should we expect? >> i agree with what tim said. are supporters were looking for a vessel and she happened to be the person at the end and people were really excited to see her challenge donald trump, especially how she ramped up attacks in the funeral -- view final months of her campaign. people are excited but at the end of the day, i don't know if i see the majority of those supporters following her toward trump. i think there will be a handful though of them, who are on the fence and by her going and saying that she's going to vote for donald trump it creates the structure for those kinds of republicans to follow her. and in an election that is decided on the margins, even if it is not the majority of those supporters having the few who might end up following her and supporting donald trump, could make the difference in some key
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battleground states. what i will say is that i never in any universe expected her to come out and endorse joe biden. that was never going to happen but i think she could have taken a page out of mike pence's book and declined to endorse trump. >> and held back clearly, the ambitions piece got the best of her. tim, as we all know, a lot of this outrage from the biden team, some of it may happen overtly, some of it may be conversations behind-the- scenes. what you think the campaign should be doing to reach some of the voters that may not be quite with biden yet, but are not following her lead, to go with trump? >> two things, one, recruit other surrogates from the trump administration. mark esper is going out there. the people around trump to go out there, some of them, maybe a few, put them on tv and show them at the convention, show that there are people like these voters. a spa -- as far as the message,
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if you look at the haley rubric, strong on nestled security, fiscally security -- conservative, joe biden can message to that and say i am for nato, our economy is improving and trump wants 10% tariff on everything. i will be a person that respects our conference nation, -- constitution, trump won't. it won't get all of them over the line but it is a message that could resonate. >> it is interesting how much overlap, not on everything but there is with haley and biden on the issues that are important to some voters. tim miller, sarah matthews, thank you for being with me on memorial day weekend. coming up, closing arguments, jury instructions and then the verdict. -- are standing by to break down the week ahead in donald trump's criminal trial. my guess is they have advice for the prosecution. i can't wait to hear it. we're back after a break. brea so, we switched to tide free & gentle. it cleans better, and doesn't leave
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after five weeks, 22 witnesses, countless exchanges and zero testimony from the former president himself, donald trump's new york criminal trial is coming to a close. in two days the prosecution and defense will give closing arguments. where they will make respective cases to the jury for the final time before deliberations began. over the past few weeks we have learned a lot about what trump. according to michael cohen the only guy other than trump himself who can testify to the heart of the case, trump directed cohen to make the hush money payment to silent stormy daniels. he approved reimbursement to cover up the nature of the payments and even signed most of the reimbursement checks and health. we don't need michael cohen to prove that, we can see for ourselves. but a big looming question leading into this week is, why did he mistress up -- misrepresent the payments? that will be key for the prosecution to answer before handing the case and fate of the former president over to
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the jury. so what else should we expect to hear from the prosecution during the closing arguments, and what should we expect from the defense? joining me now is our in-house law firm and that those who know a thing or two about crafting closing arguments. andrew, i'm going to start with you. what advice would you give to the prosecution heading into closing arguments? what do they need to do? >> i tell you what they need to do, there's no way i would give the device to josh stein glass, he's tried more cases than i have, that neil and us combine. he's a real pro. here's what i expect. i think first, you see a timeline with really letting the jury see from beginning to end, how all the evidence fits together and you are going to see that in a powerpoint form. where they lay out all of the hard evidence, the emails, phone records. than the sort of softer
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evidence, which is witnesses and show how it all fits together. second, they will address michael cohen. i think you will see them talk about all of the proof that was in place prior to his testimony to show how strong this case is. and then finally, i think they need to to argue the case about why it would be so ridiculous to think allen weisselberg and michael cohen, who clearly knew the scheme and orchestrated it, would have kept this from donald trump and there's a ton of reasons why it was in their interest to let them know, let him know what happened. it would be totally against their interest not to do so and there's lots of corroborating evidence including hope hicks who said it would be out of character for michael cohen to have kept this from him. indeed i think all the attacks on michael cohen, by the defense, will be flipped to say it is exactly why he wouldn't have done something like this out of generosity. he would've actually had 130,000 reasons to tell donald
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trump because he wanted to get repaid. >> that is a good point and i know you made that point before and it stuck with me. neil, do you have anything add to what andrew said and also what we expect from the defense, given what we have seen over the last couple of weeks, in their closing argument. >> the first thing i would say is it is significant we are finally at closing arguments after trump's repeated attempts to delay this, to stop the trial. even just a couple of days ago rushing to the court of appeals saying that the judge has to be recused for bias and stuff. all of that has been beaten back by the court of -- the appellate court in york. we finally get to closing arguments and what the defense is going to do is basically say this is not a case about donald trump, it is the case about michael cohen. you put michael cohen on trial, they will call him a liar and say he was convicted because he was a liar. that he is in it for his own ends, he's in it for ego because he's a lawyer for
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donald trump and the like. and the prosecution will say, picking up what andrew said, and i agree with it, that this is not just a case about michael cohen, it is a case about michael cohen plus. it is things like the hope hicks testimony that andrew referred to, but also handwritten notes that we have got and the checks that you flashed on the screen a moment ago, which picks up on paragraph 33 in the complaint. these are checks that donald trump himself signed and that shows knowledge of the scheme and at the end of the day, the trump defense is going to play, to get beyond a reasonable doubt, just getting a juror that says, i disagree because our system, that means you can put them in jail and the prosecution is going to say, this is common sense. we're talking about a guy, donald trump, who watched every penny. do you really think he would've been cool with all this money going out of his account without knowing it? you think he would reimburse
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$430,000, whatever the number is, without some knowledge about what was going on. of course not, so that is a common sense case and i suspect it is going to be successful. >> let me ask you in a jury instructions, most of us don't know a lot about before the last couple of weeks, it is important in this case. what are you looking for as we learn more about what the jury instructions are later this week? >> jury instructions are important, jen. but i actually think they're kind of not the story here. alvin bragg would not have brought the case if he was seeking a jury instruction that was not down the middle and i think here, i actually think most people should not worry about what the actual charge is because it is going to be the straightforward, what is called the standard jury charges. that the judge is going to give. yes, there's argument around
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the edges, and there's important charges. but none of this is controversial. it is what the judge is going to give, is straight law. there are some pieces that are useful, but i actually think it is one where the things to worry about, it is really like, will the jury, in many ways, is there a holdout juror that has made up their minds before they came in and, are jurors going to feel, because it is former president, that they hold the state to higher standard than proof beyond reasonable doubt, even unconsciously, that they feel there should be more is you have to rely both on direct evidence and circumstantial evidence. so i think those are the things that are unfocused on and how the arguments go, and the facts. but the law is straightforward here. that is a long way of fighting the hypothetical. something not to really worry about. >> thank you for using our burden on that, of the things
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we need to be experts on. andrew wiseman, neil, i will see you a lot this week. we will all see you a lot this week am uncertain. thank you for joining me. up next, what to expect this week with the former superior court judge and later, another -- another controversial flag flying outside. we're back after a quick rate. . we need to scale with customer demand... in real time. (jen) so we partner with verizon. their solution for us? a private 5g network. (ella) we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) now we're even smarter and ready for what's next. (vo) achieve enterprise intelligence. it's your vision, it's your verizon. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't.
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donald trump's trial is nearing the finish line in a downtown manhattan where the jury is set to hear closing arguments on tuesday. less dramatic it also important are the instructions that judge marchand will give the jury before they begin deliberations. typically the instructions direct the jury on how to apply the law. -- must be proven beyond reasonable doubt in order to reach a guilty verdict. it sounds and dane but very important in every place -- case including this one.
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to convict trump on the county facing the jury must believe that trump falsified business records with the intent to commit or conceal another crime. so the challenge is to distill a lot of legalese into clear and concise language so that the jury knows it ackley what they are doing when they decide whether or not to convict donald trump and as the "new york times" put it, quote, the outcome could very well turn on the substance of the instructions that jurors received. dolores is former superior court judge in california and joins me now. thank you for spending time with me on memorial day weekend. >> it is my pleasure. >> let me just start with the jury instructions. they may not be the most exciting part of the trial out there, you may have heard andrew wiseman's take in the previous segment but it is a put into understand. how do they apply, how do they help the jury apply the law to the evidence they have heard, and most of the people are not lawyers or from the judicial system, of course. >> my take on jury instructions is different from that of
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andrew wiseman. guilty verdicts are reversed, most quickly because of faulty jury instructions and who is it that gives the jury instructions? it is the judge, all the judge's fault if the conviction gets reversed because of the jury instructions. so the jury has two jobs, find the facts and also then apply the law. and in the jury instructions, there's talk about the circumstantial evidence, direct evidence, what to do when you go into the deliberation room, how you should keep an open mind. but the key elements on these instructions are the crimes that are charged against donald trump. now you recall that the judge, when going over the instructions with the lawyers, there were 12 different instructions, or issues that came up that the judge had to decide and of the 12, the judge did not make decisions on at least five of them. when all of that was done, the
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prosecution raised another six issues with jury instructions and, that was the defense raised six, prosecution raised three and the judge deferred on all of those until later. so these are really, really important in the weeds kinds of stuff that are going to go to the jurors. so think about this, you have 12 jurors and they are all laypeople. i include the two lawyers because they do civil cases. they don't do criminal cases. in this instance, these are people, the whole criminal system of reasonable doubt is new to them. so they are going to get these instructions that deal with the elements of the offenses that these lawyers and judge couldn't even agree upon and the judge is waiting to decide. then finally, this is just what toggles my mind. the judge is going to read the instructions eventually and there will be pages of them. and i have done this, when i presided over criminal cases.
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in new york apparently, the copies, written copies of the instructions do not go into the jury room. so the jurors are sitting there, taking all this information in and having to remember. they don't have the ability to do that, particularly when this kind of in the weeds kind of stuff. so it is my hope that of course, a copy of the instructions will go in to the jury deliberation room. i always did that when i presided over jury trials. and of the law of new york doesn't require it, i hope that there will be legislators in new york, or people in the judiciary who will make it a role. how can you possibly consider this without actually seeing the jury instructions in writing quite >> i saw that and also it struck me as a nonlawyer, how they will know what to do and how will they remember how to implement all of this. so let me ask you, the jury must believe in order to convict trump, that trump
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falsified business records with quote, intent to commit another crime, which is specific. according to the judge, the jury does not need to be unanimous about what the other crime was. what are you looking for in terms of how that is filled out in the jury instructions, to properly instruct them on how to consider this >> so that was one of the issues that came up when the jury instructions were being discussed. but you left out a word, that donald trump caused the documents to be falsified. so the issue, that was discussed is, what does caused mean that how does someone cause something to happen to somebody, tells us somebody to do it or can you caused a different way, that is another issue that is the judge considering part of the construct -- part of the instructions. then the intent, the intent to defraud. then the commission of crime. the defense wanted the jury to be unanimous on what the crimes were.
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so the prosecution says, no, no, the jury does not have to be unanimous. they can think there are different times. it could be election fraud, could be tax evasion. they don't have to be unanimous, they just have to believe there was some sort of crime that was going to be committed, or that donald trump aided or assisted in committing. all of this is going to be contained in the jury instructions. they have to have this stuff in writing so that they know exactly what to do in going forward, sitting there there to figure out if the elements of the crimes have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. i cannot emphasize enough, the jury instructions are critical to what is going to happen in this case. >> thank you so much for educating us and informing us. very you know is much as you do about how this works so i appreciate it as we are preparing to watch next week. coming up next, the list of supreme court justice's red flags keep growing. and luke russert on the late
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tim russert on his book, look for me there there. i've been looking for this conversation all week. we are back after this. this. (♪♪) try dietary supplements from voltaren, for healthy joints. oh, why leaffilter? it's well designed, efficient, i appreciate that. leaffilter's technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good, guaranteed. what more could you ask for? call 833.leaf.filter today, or visit leaffilter.com. only purple's gel flex grid passes the raw egg test. calno other mattress cradles your body and simultaneously supports your spine. memory foam doesn't come close. get your best sleep guaranteed. save up to $800 during our memorial day sale. visit purple.com or a store near you announcer what if you could whiten your teeth by simply brushing your teeth?
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supreme court justice samuel alito, we are getting a crash course on symbols of the far right. this week the "new york times" obtained photos of this flag
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outside of his summer home in jersey last year. it is called the pine tree flag . also known as the appeal to heaven flat. it dates back to the revolutionary war but in recent years it's become a symbol of christian nationalism. and ever since riders carried this flag during the january sixth insurrection, you can see it there there, it's become associated with stop the steal campaign. is also the same that speaker mike johnson, who made no secret of his affinity with christian nationalism has splayed outside his office. -- has been instrumental in shifting the supreme court, also flew the flag outside his home in maine. you see a pattern. it is well to say the least this flag would also lie outside of justice alito's summer home. as it did in july and september 2023. according to photos taken during that time. especially because in september a case called joseph w fisher versus the united states arrived at the supreme word.
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fisher is a january 6th rioter, asking the court to throw out one of his charges. obstructing an official proceeding, the certification of joe biden's 2020 election victory. the justices, including justice alito will be deciding on this case in coming weeks. the same justice alito who according to the "new york times" also displayed another symbol associated with the insurrection, upside down flag which was flown outside of his virginia home. you remember when the story broke last week, alito blamed his wife. it goes without saying the supreme court justice displaying a pirate and bull raises major ethical questions. on top of that, symbols were displayed as supreme word was taking up cases related to the insurrection. but wait, i'm not done, there's more. this week justice alito wrote the majority opinion in a crucial gerrymandering case which favored the gop over largely democratic black voters in south carolina. the ruling essentially erodes voting rights for minorities in
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this country and comes at the hands of adjustors who openly displayed symbols used by election denies. and it appears the irony was not lost on one other supreme court justice. justice elena kagan wrote the dissenting opinion and referred to quote, the upside down intent application of the law. which could have been, a subtle reference to her collie, justice alito. between the flags, that dispel support for the insurrection and to deny the results of the 2020 election and flaunt christian nationalism, it is becoming difficult to imagine that justice alito is working within the bounds of impartiality and nonpartisanship that governs the court. how can someone sworn to administer justice for all americans fly the flag of the far right movement that seeks to divide us? luke russert is standing by, for a conversation about his fantastic book that i read on the plane this week that details his grieving of his father and his trip after that. i have a lot to share and what i learned from it too.
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we will be back after this. thi '. (other money manager) how so? (fisher investments) we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client'' best interest. (fisher investments) so we don't sell any commission-based products. (other money manager) then how do you make money? (fisher investments) we have a simple management fee, structured so we do better when our clients do better. (other money manager) your clients really come first then, huh? (fisher investments) yes. we make them a top priority, by getting to know their finances, family, health, lifestyle and more. (other money manager) wow, maybe we are different. (fisher investments) at fisher investments, we're clearly different. switch to shopify and sell smarter at every stage of your business. take full control of your brand with your own custom store. scale faster with tools that let you manage every sale from every channel. and sell more with the best converting checkout on the planet. a lot more. take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify.
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as long as you pay your premiums, it's yours to keep. call for more information and the simple form you need to apply today. there's no obligation, and you'll receive a free beneficiary planner just for calling. if you are a consumer of news or lover of politics he probably know the story. you may even remember where you were when you found out. june 13th, 2008, tim russert, longtime legendary host of nbc's meet the press died suddenly from a heart attack. he was only 58 years old. his son luke was just 22 years old at the time.
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he just graduated from boston college. there he has, baby faced, when he had to face the sudden loss of his beloved father. luke also then spent eight years working at nbc news covering politics and covering capitol hill extensively. but then, he set out on his own and left a familiar path behind. he traveled to grieve and find purpose. that trip, which was supposed to last a few months, turned into what luke described as a three plus year odyssey across six continents to discover the world. he detailed the travels and life lessons he learned in a book called look at me there, grieving my father, finding myself. joining me is luke russert, now the host and creative director of msnbc live. a new version of his book is out on paper back with an afterward and i cannot recommend it enough. >> around the back -- around the world and back to the peacock. >> i read the book on the plane. i was emotional. people thinking, is she okay? it is a beautiful book and i
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was telling how i was too early to know your dad, i was too junior to be a quaint of -- point of contact at meet the press but it told me a lot of who he was as a human being and i enjoy that about the book. i am jealous of your travel. and of the things, i have lived in washington, too and one of the stories i loved is about the advice that former speaker gave you and you tell a great story about how he used to call you loudmouth. >> affectionately. >> affectionately and he brought you into his office and gave you advice, which was to get out of here. >> a wild story, i was capitol hill correspondent. he saw me and said i want to talk to you. i thought he was angry about coverage. i would thought i was going to be chewed out. i had a lot of baggage, the beginning of the freedom caucus and what it was. i go to his office and he said, what are you doing here rex i was like, you invited me. what are you doing here on capitol hill. you been here over seven years and act like you know the place
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. it is a transactional town, a very transactional building. people can be here to 10, 20, 30, 4050 years and they don't know this -- they don't know, why was i there there? could i have learned about something else? you may be served to get out of the bubble that you grew up in and that you've been in and see how america works, how the world works. give it some thought. and at that point for the last year i had been thinking, who am i beyond this name, beyond the company, should i see something else? and that was the nudge i needed. of john boehner, whose at the top of the hillside, is not all it's cracked up to be, maybe you should check out something else. >> it is such a perspective and you talk about in your book which i relate to, because -- not as awesome as your trip, but the perspective you gathered from traveling overseas. the world is big and small at the same time. you traveled everywhere. what perspective can you give
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on our country and what is going on? but the one thing that i truly do believe is that america is a very special place. for all of our problems, the fact that we have this experiment that is a multicultural democracy that we are all actively trying to participate in and preserve to the best of our abilities. the fact that we go into a country, engage in warfare and try to the best of our ability to build them back up, it does not always work out okay but our heart is in the right place. it is very significant but we learn when you travel around the world that you see three things. the biggest export we have is not necessarily all of our democratic values, it is hollywood. that is the biggest thing, hollywood and sports. number two, i think that people look at america for guidance, not in the sense of we want to do everything the u.s. tells us to do, but we do believe the u.s. has a good sensibility and things compared to china,
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compared to russia and other places. number three, and this is what i saw everywhere, no matter culture or faith, whatnot, people just want opportunity. they want opportunity for children, they want safety from themselves and most people are really nice. and they want to take care of you and will help you out. everywhere i traveled, did not experience any hate or dislike from being an american. and a lot of people may give comments here and there but nobody actively tried to hurt me because i'm an american. a lot of americans feel like they go out in the world and it is a big scary place but it is pretty kind and accommodating. >> that is heartwarming. one of the things your dad was known or in addition to being the cream of the crop of interviewers, and i mean that in a complimentary way, was really emphasizing hard work but also being in touch with what is happening in the country, which is sometimes lost on politics now. so many hours of television as we know. you have this as well. what is missing about what is happening in our country politically right now, that warrants coverage or attention? >> every single monday after
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meet the press, my father would call his dad and his sisters living in buffalo, one moved to texas, one moved to florida and he would say, what did your friends of the interview and what is heading through to you? often times the perspective is missed. it is easy when you are on the beltway, you get caught up in the scene, caught up in what is on social media. you forget politics is not life and dress -- life and death 24 seven. but i think there has been disconnected in the last few years of a lot of people thinking what is happening on main street airwaves is getting through when a lot of people get things from social media and the big scary thing for me, is that all the problems we may have in the media, all this aspirin against us, we at least have standards. we at least have to have some values that we uphold. a lot of the stuff on social media is coming from someone's basement and there is --. so i think about what my father with ink when bob woodward is
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on the same pedestal as someone who is reporting nonsensitive from their basement. that is a problem and the american public is grappling with how to deal with that. is just technology coming at a rapid clip. the more we talk about that, the more we are aware of that, it is important as it reflects the polling numbers. >> it is important to stay in touch with. i call it my mother-in-law test to lives in zanetti, ohio. i check with her and my father- in-law about how they digest things and consume things. >> what comes through in the beltway or new york, a lot of times may not cut through it all in the heartland and you have to be conscious of that. and my other thing my father told me, -- boaters are smart. voters are smarter than people give them credit for. the more we listen, the better off we are. >> it is such an important point. sometimes they are talking about issues we are not talking about in the beltway and it is important to pay attention because you miss with the
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actual story in the country is. >> inflation, inflation, inflation. >> the cost of living, cost of housing, people care about that. is a great pleasure to talk to you and great to have you as a colleague now. such an amazing book. i highly recommend it. look for me there there. >> -- >> we will leave that for another day. of that one thing to tell you about before we go today. i will be right back. back. in real time. (jen) so we partner with verizon. their solution for us? a private 5g network. (ella) we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) now we're even smarter and ready for what's next. (vo) achieve enterprise intelligence. it's your vision, it's your verizon. sup? -who are you? i'm your inner child. get in. listen, what you really need in life
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that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? that's going to do it for me today on this memorial day weekend. thank you for joining us today. we have a quick programming note about tomorrow. we will be on the air from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. eastern instead of the normal time slot because of the holiday. we have a lot to cover and we hope to see you there tomorrow. check us out on all social media platforms. for now, stay where you are because there is much more news coming up on msnbc. oh, there is no way he liked this, donald trump being booed by an unfriendly crowd last night.

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