keep, i hope those students always remember that they are loved. thank you for staying up late. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. four years ago or now? it wasn't even close. >> the greatest confidence gameo ever played. >> voters believe they were better off during trump's term than bidens. >> from crime to p'the economy and beyond. now a political party led by a criminal is conning america. then. are working you for a felon. a felon! >> the maga scandal machine and

today's contempt vote for the attorney general. and today's senate push to do something about the crisis in the supreme court with ethics. >> the highest court in the land should not and cannot have the lowest ethical standards. >> when all in starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. as we approach the first debate. it is clear, crystal clear, trump and the republican pitch to voters is fundamentally a con job. i mean that in the most literal sense. con job comes from confidence men who swindled with their confidence. right now, that false bravado is the defining feature of donald trump's attempt to win back the oval office. remember, this is the man who tried to destroy our constitutional republic live on national television and who

utterly failed in overseeing the one national crisis he had to guide the nation through the pandemic. and yet, trump and his surrogates are telling voter to ask themselves the question. are you getter off than you were four years ago? >> they can't run on are you better off than you were four years ago. i don't think joe biden wecould run on the question of that. >> that's the one question he is praying he never hears. >> you know, people are saying to themselves, were we better off four years ago or now and it wasn't even close. >> that by the way was off from the past week. we have been run ago series here because the events of four years ago were so disruptive and shocking, unprecedented and traumatic i think a lot of people, i would say most people partly myself included have just blocked it out. and again, i get it.

i don't want to think about sitting inside trying to home school my kids or attending a zoom shiva for my dearly departed uncle or the indelible images of packed hospitals and the dying saying good-bye to their loved ones on ipads and the fact post people don't want to think too much about 2020 is enormous for the republicans attempting to pull off this con job. their aim is to magically replace your memories to distract you from the fact that four years ago we were living in the midst of disaster. >> the country has reached another sobering milestone in the coronavirus pandemic ro surpassing 2 million cases and this warning sign, hospitalizations are surging in many states. >> we are going to start our rallies back up now. we have had a question run at rallies. i don't think there has been an

empty seat. we are going to arizona. >> reporter: texas andarizona among nine states reporting a jump in hospitalizations. the best indicater. >> we are doing a physical comeback. the jobs numbering were fantastic. >> still, one-and-a-half million people >>filed for unemployment benefits last week. almost 43 million since the pandemic began. >> i think the economy next year will be maybe the best it has ever been. you can already see it with the stock market how it is going oi up. >> reporter: a huge sell-off on wall street amid new concerns about the continuing spread of covid-19. the dow plunging more than 1800 points. the biggest drop in three months. >> and very important time in our country. a lot of things are happening and when it ends up, it will end up good for everybody. >> there is growing concern that relaxing restrictions is causing major increase ins

covid-19 cases. >> crwe need to protect lives. but all the lives are precious. not just the people who have been infected by covid. but also the people who are being driven to this because of the lockdown. >> here is what is happening in some of those places that have done a total shutdown. their poverty rate is going up. what are people going to do if n they don't have jobs to go to, to earn a living to take care of their families? that's the main reason. all of these scare tactics, they won't work this time around. they will not work. >> i should note one week after herman cane made that appearance, he attended donald trump's indoor rally. and by the end of june, he was hospitalized with covid. and he died on july ed30th at t age of 74. naturally, every time we do one of these segments, i find that i looking back at four years ago, brings on a lot of emotion.

most people divide recent history into the before times and the after times. myself included. a e lot of us feel nostalgia fo the before times and that is what donald trump and his allies are using to build their lie about what happened really happened. that has been their project and it has been unnervingly effective so far. four years ago in june of 2020 while we were living through the trauma of the pandemic, donald trump's approval rating was 43%. now in a new poll, 47% say they approve. they are the margin 7%of the entire election. and they are accomplishing that swing. that omcon job through flat-out lies about what has really happened. take a listen to missouri senator josh hawley doing this today. >> he is going shthe run on his record from four years ago ur versus biden's right now. we have the new numbers out.

gas under president biden up 55%. groceries, 40%. wages down 3%. that's before we get to crime. that is before we get to the border. >> okay, so, sorry josh, wages are up. average hourly earnings are up 17%. from may 2020 to 2024. wages have crucially out-paced inflation for the past 13 months. crime is way down. look at what has happened with the homicide rate. in th2020, when donald trump wa president, he ushered in under his presidency the largest ever one year jump spiking 30%. by 2023, the homicide rate had tumbled 19%. to 5.3 homicides per hundred thousand people. new data shows the rate continues to drop off dramatically. down about 26% in the first quarter of 2024 from the same

time period last year. gas prices are i will admit overall higher than they were in the summer of 2020. why were they low then? no one was traveling anywhere. okay? when there were refrigerator trucks full of cadavers? yeah, the gas prices were low. and they piked up in the early part of the biden administration. the war in ukraine. but they have been trending in the right direction and continue to fall as the summer travel season heats up. grocery prices are coming down. not just with inflation which ch cooled to 3.3% today. but retailers are actually now slashing prices on thousands of items. again, they spiked in the wake of the pandemic like they did everywhere in the world. but erthey are on the right trajectory now. all of this is happening under the incumbent of joe biden. and we are not losing thousandst of americans a day to the

deadly pandemic. we do not live in a nation in the throes of constant disorder. we were living through the televised murder of george floyd and the protest and police response that followed while president trump called for sending in troops. >> across the country, what started as peaceful gatherings, protesting the death of george floyd devolved into destruction. from new york where police and protesters squared off in the streets to portland where the mayor issued a state of emergency and a city curfew. >> the nation erupted into scenes of chaos. violence. and widespread destruction into the early morning hours. in some of the neigh's biggest e cities, the night spirals out of control early. >> we have just had to run about a block. fired at with rubber bullets. my camera man has been hit. we have seen tear gas being used. this is what it looks like.

>> whoa. >> can you hear us? >> are you okay? >> we are surrounded by police. you really saw the way that they dealt with my camera men. they are quite violent. and they do not care who they are targeting at the moment. >> we tahave to dominate the streets. you can't let that happen and we are doing it with compassion if you think about it. we are dominateing the street with compassion. >> all that happened under the watch of president donald trump. we cannot say or hear that enough. if he returns to power, i'm telling you, it is a safe bet we will return to trauma and chaos. well, we have a democratic strategist here, professor of rice university. and they both join me now. doug, i wanted to talk to you because in some ways history and recent history is part of what is being contested in this

campaign. the legacy of that first trump year, trump term and particularly of 2020. the four years ago in the famous formulation. as a historian, how do you see it? >> i think january 6th was such a seminally vent. for the days after that, it seemed like trump was toast. that everybody was furious. but lo and behold, suddenly mitch mcconnell came urback to trump and lindsey graham. and they sort of built this coalition and what is it? it is really anti-federal government. that is what trump alrepresentst now. that is why we are seeing the american flag upside down by ow conservative justice. and biden is trying to be part of a tradition president's club of all the other presidents you saw on june 6th go to exactly

where ronald reagan is. rand trump is the anti-federal government. anger over covid. and that people still feel that their lives became popsy turning point i have and they will funnish whoever the sitting incumbent is. numbers on the economy are good. we are much better off. he has shown great leadership. but communicating that to the o people when there is this much frenzy on social media and hatred toward the federal ra government. it is an uphill battle for biden to get reelected. >> i was thinking about 2010. the 2010 elections in which of course, democrats got a wash. the tea party uprising. and a lot of that was there was something a little similar happening there. people were frustrated with ther aftermath of the financial crisis that had been ushered in

by the republican party. democrats were the incumbent party. it was just sort of ata classic we don't like the status quo e because things were bad and they were. but the reason they were bad was because of what had been passed on. there is something similar here. it was not the doing of joe biden. they had to fix that. and people still feel frustrated with the pace that has happened. >> it is interesting. you bring up what happened in 2010. i think about the history of the democratic party. to clean up the mess of the republican party. as democrats clean up that an mess, they have to message against republicans as if they were not the party that led us straight into this. donald trump was saying you could drink bleach to cure covid while having super

spreader events. four years ago, hapeople were watching what you just put in a montage. we were watching that every day for 24 hours. then trying to figure out who we were going to vote for when it comes to the president to get us out of this. policy takes a very long time. the global economy is strong. the enregulated corporations. this debate coming up, president biden will have to figure out how to message that as well as the surrogates and the people talking about this between now and election day so people understand how they are not feeling this even though these historic members are bringing us back to a place that the american people really

want to be. >> doug, i think the before times nostalgia is a powerful force. and there is another thing in play here. my view of trump was always this was a person who was so unsuited to the job above all else. it would be the worst possible response. and then covid happened and that was borne out. a lot of people think 2020 is a mulligan. it was a meteor that hit from earth and they blocked out the degree of insanity in the crisis management that happened that year and i wonder if you think it is possible to remind b them or people are so resistant to thinking about it. >> i think you can. and it will be imperative that p joe biden reminds people. during the upcoming debate with

trump. but trump has gone through so many legal jeopardy moments and years have gone by. and we are running it on television all the time. and you have the 34 felony convictions request. even when that happens, democrats said don't rub that in trump's face. of course you have to. you have to call him a felon. biden has struggled with messages in the sense with this economy that has been building. he called it a transitory pain we are having. then biden-nomics. our economy is doing well. yes i feel your pain. but he has to be the happy warrior like fdr. i pyfelt that when he was in france s talking about freedom and democracy. other times he gets in a

defensive crouch. and you can't be gerald ford with whip inflation now buttons. jimmy carter. presidents get reelected with a sense of victory and optimism and better times are yet to come. obama against romney had the killing of osama bin laden which gave him the foreign policy credential that people understood. the revenge of the 9/11 disaster. >> you have two individuals, in some ways, donald trump is the recent past. and i do wonder whether because the last four years have been so traumatic and disruptive, there is a part of people want to go back in time. that tois part of the allure. >> yeah. i think people want to go back in time where they felt there

was more certainty. with covid, the pandemic, there was such uncertainty. the racial unrest. then chwe saw january 6th. so hindsight is 2020. and for some reason, some people feel as though they were better under donald trump. and that wasn't the case. but again, i think we have to make sure that president biden and i hope his campaign is listening. he simplifies his message. he has always been the comforter right next to president obama. being that president and p talking about the ways not only has he gotten folks out of this but he will continue to do so. along can a congress and a senate. >> thank you both. coming ouup, the hunter bid narrative backfires on republicans so now they are going after the attorney general instead. that's next. the attorney general instead. that's next.

donald trump and his henchmen in congress have chased joe biden's only living son hunter biden in a bad faith effort to use him to go after his father. but yesterday, hunter biden got convicted in federal court. the scandal machine that house republicans have built is out of fuel. now republicans are demanding that attorney general merrick garland release the audio tape of president biden's interview with special counsel robert herr who republicans have the

entire transcript of the interview and voted to hold the attorney general in contempt? it was mainly a party line vote. just one republican voting no. congressman, what was this all about? >> well, good evening. good to be with you, chris. it is a sad state of affairs here in washington dc. as extreme house republicans have once again found a way to weaponnize what are very constitutional and serious weighty tools the congress has at its disposal. in this case, as you articulated, they pursued a baseless contempt resolution against the attorney general by way of background. the attorney general fully complied with the requests made by the united states congress. the department of justice produced over 90,000 pages of documents with respect to this

particular inquiry. more than the entire department of justice provided during the course of the trump administration and produced the transcript itself of the president's conversation with the special council. the reasons house republicans offered for purposes of their request for the audio were clearly a smoke screen for a political exercise. they wanted to use them for a campaign commercial. the president evoked executive privilege and republicans in the house know that to be the case, but they proceeded anyway. it is shameful and disgraceful and we'll have to see what comes next. >> two things i want to note

here. representative david joyce of ohio, the republican who voted against it said as a former prosecutor i cannot support a resolution that would further politicize the judicial system. enough is off in. second of all, i just want to make sure i have the events here right. merrick garland appoints a special council to investigate the president. the man he appoint is a republican who is a donald trump appointee in the justice department. this individual asked for an interview with the president voluntarily complies with for nine hours despite the fact that donald trump never gave an interview to robert muller. he uses parts of that interview to take political shots of him in the opening introduction. they released the full transcript and all of this is deemed like what?

partisan? how far can you possibly go? the answer is nowhere. there is nothing you can do. >> yeah. that is the question. and it is an open question. you articulated the time line well. i would offer two amendments. one, this attorney general produced the special council's report in full. i remember very well being on your program five years ago. as we dealt with the former attorney general. in this case, the special council testified in front of congress. in front of my committee as did the attorney general as recently as last week. this is a farce. they have no interest in pursuing real solutions to pressing challenges we face as a country. and prefer to spend their time

on these political games. >> this is the new york times reporting on trump. he changed his mind about the political value of doing so now. in a meeting last year, trump said republicans need today be careful because it would make people view the president as a caring father. so, they spend years chasing this guy to the ends of the earth. >> they successfully,let be clear, they basically successfully cajole this investigation to start. the prosecution happens and now it is like, we got to light a new fire. that one is burned out. >> look, in their view, is circus must continue and their message is not resonating with the american people. and so, as a result, they will continue pursuing political retribution. this is not the first time.

they pursued seven, eight different impeachment resolutions against a variety of different cabinet officials. they impeached secretary mayorkas. that was dispensed with in the senate without a trial. i have no doubt that these games will continue for some time. hope springs eternal that perhaps some in the republican caucus will do what representative joyce did today. and join us in getting more of the buzz of the house. >> thank you for your time. >> thank you. up next, what just happened in the senate when democrats tried to introduce ethics to the supreme court next. the supreme court next. before apoquel chewable for allergic itch. giving dogs pills was a battle of wits. oh, maria, i'm wise to your foolish game.

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the whole country will be able to understand. immediately. we want a $50 gift ban for the supreme court justices. they make $300,000 a year. pay for your own lunch and your own vacation. >> seems sensible. amid the swirling scandals over the right wing supreme court, democrats have started actively pushing for binding ethics legislation in the house. like a bill that would limit the justices, all the justices no matter who appointed them, to the same gift rules that got members of congress and federal employees. in the senate, democrats asked for unanimous consent to pass a binding ethics package for the court. it was blocked by the top republican on the senate judiciary committee lindsey

graham. joining me now is jeff merkley of oregon arguing why the ethics package should pass. good to have you on. first, just tell me, what would the ethics package that has been proposed that republicans blocked tonight, what would it do? >> it is so straightforward, chris. it simply says that they would have to have a binding code of ethics at least as strong as the house or senate has. it apply to the executive branch and other judges and members of the house and senate applies to the supremes as well. >> so that means like, what they were talking about, you can't take $100,000 vacation gifts. you couldn't do it as a u.s. senator or a mid level engineer at the department of the interior. and you couldn't do it as any other federal judge. >> it is just phenomenal. because think of what this list

of guests looks like. it is a megayacht trips. indonesia, twice for family members. helicopter flights. you name it. 6million plus dollars of gifts over the last 20 years. here's the scenario. for an average person, let's say you are hauled into court. somebody sues you and you find out the person suing you has been going on fishing trips to alaska with the judge. would you think you are getting a fair shake of justice in that situation? the answer is absolutely not. that is a profoundly corrupted court. and that is what we have today. >> i think republicans say this is all partisan. the reason you are doing this is because you don't like the rulings of the court or the ideology of the court. so you are trying to attack the court's legitimacy so erode its power for purely ideological

and partisan reasons. >> certainly if republicans want this court to have the force that comes with integrity, and respect of the american people, then they should be the first ones to step forward and clean up this mess. because it is in fact a mess. and certainly, i believe that these justices on the right trained to deliver power on a plate to corporations in america are deeply, profoundly warping the constitution. in favor of corporations. against consumers. but this issue of accepting mass effigies from people who have issues before the court? that stands on its own. >> i want to read you something samuel alito said last summer in an interview with the wall

street journal to a lawyer and a writer there. he said i know this is a controversial view. but i'm willing to say it, he says. no provision in the constitution gives congress the authority to regulate the supreme court. period. what do you think of that? >> well it is called legislation and that power is given to congress. it gives the ability to put a code of ethics on the executive branch. yes, the president can veto it but we can override that veto. there is a sense of the constitution actually settled very little. there were massive decisions made by congress to decide how the judiciary would be structured and run. so absolutely, that doesn't pass any sort of common sense. >> final question. the question of having the chief justice come before the

senate. he is basically blown off an inquiry from the chair of the judiciary committee who reached out to him. samuel alito said i'm not recusing myself. they are like, you are not the boss of us and we don't have to listen to anything you say. is that a tolerable equalibrium? >> it is not. it undermines a key institute in our country in which we need a sense of respect for it. a sense that it delivers the balls and strikes, justice roberts once said during his nomination hearings. right now, we are not getting balls or strikes. we are getting profound conflict of interest. that is really sad to hear

this. here's the thing. justice roberts in running this court, he has to recognize he is failing in his responsibility to run this court in a fashion which delivers fairness and a sense of integrity. >> senator jeff, thank you very much. we'll be right back. >> thank you. l be right back. >> thank you.

the repositories of authorities, the fairness of the game. is doubted by large majorities

of americans. a lot of that has to do with stagnating wages in the middle but you see that playing out in both trump's closing message and railing against pharmaceutical companies and bernie sanders' message from the beginning. >> it has been almost a decade since my brief flirtation with internet immortality. the bernie sandwiches incident. there was a video game created out of that. in my defense it had been a very long day and we did so many msnbc shows that year at jd's tavern at manchester, new hampshire. directly in my line of sight was howard fineman sitting in a booth about to take a bite from a huge pastrami sandwich. he was there with us at all of those political moments on every primary and convention. everything in between going back more than 20 years. he was a near constant presence

on msnbc. his career spanned seven presidents. >> you confess your weak spot up front, then you turn it into a vir why virtue. as you say, you cannot out flamboyant donald trump. you cannot be more in many cays many ways irresponsible than donald trump. >> one former colleague said he was a force of nature who knew everybody in washington dc. i was so saddened to learn that howard died today. the age of 75 after a long battle with cancer. i knew him well. i knew him to be both exceedingly clever and kind. he was always a match. and he had this reporter bravado that they don't make much anymore. our thoughts are with the fineman family tonight including his sonic who is a senior producer here at msnbc. we are all going to miss him.

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it has been 250 days since the october 7th attacked and 100 israeli hostages remain in gaza. president biden, the u.n. security council and the goths of qatar and egypt are still pushing for a negotiated cease fire that would release all the remains hostages but the fate of that deal remains unclear. so far, about 120 hostages have been returned to israel alive. that includes 116 released as part of the brief pause in fighting that happened last

november as well as the four who were rescued in a military operation last weekend that also left nearly 300 palestinians dead. according to the gaza health ministry. since the conflict began, family members of hostages have urged benjamin netanyahu to come to an agreement. and now, one of the groups has written an open letter to american jewish organizations asking their help to press netanyahu to end the war. and accept the deal on the table saying israelis are being held hostage. we are all hostage to bibi's actions. he is risking the lives of our soldiers and hostages and endangering us all. we have a spokesman for the hostages. three of his relatives were released in the initial swap

last year. but his uncle remains in captivity where he recently turned 79. he joins me now. it is really an honor to have you and i want to thank you for joining us. i want to start by asking you how your family is doing. how those who have been released in november are coping. how you are coping with your uncle's continued absence. >> thank you for having me. my family members are trying to cope. we are still waiting for abraham to come back. and until he comes back, nothing can start moving into heals or recooperating phase. so day by day. a lot of families are feeling the sway.

and, we are waiting for this issue to be resolved. and it has been taking so long. it's amazing. >> there are two arguments about a cease fire deal. one is that hamas won't accept one on the terms that israel would find acceptable. and the head of the military commander wants to keep the war going. the other is that it is not worth a deal prematurely before eradicating hamas. what is your demand, your request on this negotiation? >> a cease fire.

first and foremost. this is like when there was a cease fire, hostages came back. they happen here and there. they are not the solution to the problem of 120 people still kept in captivity. you know. during seven months of military operation, israel succeeded in reliesing seven hostages alive. the pace of one hostage a month. eight months even. so, 120 hostages. ten year's time. the hostages have no time. the sanitary conditions are nonexistent. their health is deteriorating by the day. and, physical and mental. and we must find a way to bring them back home as soon as

possible. these are not only young people. these are elderly people. grandfathers, parents, uncles. people taken from their beds at 7:00 a.m. on a saturday. in their pajamas and barefoot sometimes. >> in the u.s. one of the things that people, there has been kind of a joining of the notion of the war and the justness of it and doing it on behalf of the hostages. in people feel that the war is on behalf of the hostages and many people think that those who are calling for cease fire are betraying them or forgetting about them. and you where this open letter that argued the opposite.

i want to hear your argument to them. as a family member. >> sure. first, again, a cease fire. why? the thing that endangers the hostages, the most right now, ids bombing. this has been october 8th ongoing. where my nine-year-old cousin's son was asked during an interview after he spent 49 days in gaza captivity. he was asked what do you feel most about your grandfather still being there? without hesitation, the answer, the idf bombing endangers the hostages and the idf bombing we know about 14 hostages that were killed either by direct hit by the idf, or after a nine

year attack with their attackers needed to evacuate this space. they kill them. so the military operation endangers the hostages. seven hostages out. 14 dead. and the whole military maneuver is not getting, is not beneficial for the hostages at all. it is not helping them on the contrary. it is gets them further and further away from the hostages. further and further away from getting reunited with their loved ones. because we know the conditions for the hostage exchange or the prisoners exchange or what everyone calls this, getting them back home, is first cease

fire. and by waging this war from day one, the israel government is only taken us apart. keeping us further and further apart in the beginning it was northern gaza. and rafah. and just getting further and further apart from a solution to this problem. because, the solution should start with a cease fire. >> your uncle, 79 years old, still held by hamas in gaza. i can't thank you enough for making a little time for us. we are thinking of you and your family. >> thank you very much. and we pray for the safe return of all of the hostages as soon

as possible. this is a humanitarian issue. this is not a political issue. people are trying to make this a political issue. especially the government trying to make this political no. this is a humanitarian crisis. and everything should be done to get them back as soon as possible. >> that is all in. alex wagner starts now. in. alex wagner starts now. right now. >> 20 days, it's unbelievable where we are thank you, my friend, as always. so i want to start with asterry that in any other universe would have nothing to do with politics or anything approximating, but in the post-trump era this kind of news has become a sort of conservative litmus test with potentially disastrous consequences for the health and