Skip to main content

tv   All In With Chris Hayes  MSNBC  June 18, 2024 5:00pm-6:00pm PDT

5:00 pm
president biden? biden has to come down to the south. at the end of the day you may not win louisiana today, but it is going to impact the rest of your campaign. it is going to bring life into your campaign because people are paying attention to what is happening here. we understand that that is a festival, but don't just play when there is a big festival. >> the south is winnable, i will repeat again. louisiana just had a two term democratic governor. the south is winnable. invest in the south, in the deep south. game gary chambers, think you. follow me on to talk. "all in with chris hayes" starts now. tonight on "all in" -- >> sir, could you state your name as well? >> yes, boris epshteyn. >> you have the right to remain silent and you also have the right to be represented by
5:01 pm
counsel. >> the first trump crime wave is still being processed. >> how concerned are you? >> tonight, alarming new evidence the next trump crime wave will be worse. >> ladies and gentlemen, it's very simple. victory or death. >> and move over dr. oz and kari lake. meet donald trump's new recruits to run your government. >> they didn't say that i spent the funds on strippers. >> but it was spent at a strip club. >> will they sell food at a strip club don't they? >> and the making of the trump myth. >> mia love, did you come up with the package? >> no. >> who did? >> gary. >> a new look at the reality show distortions that paved the way to the white house, when "all in" starts now. good evening from new york. i am chris hayes.
5:02 pm
in one of the most seismic stories of the past years, it is the rise and fall of what you might call the trump crime wave. the wave began in 2020 when, remember, donald trump was president and it is the backdrop of the pandemic and of course the george floyd protests and the police response to them. and of course then president trump also threw fuel on the fire at every opportunity. we saw an enormous spike in crime across red and blue states in small towns and big cities. the murder rate jumped by a record 30%. as you can see in this graph, violent crime overall was up more than 5% and over the past three years with president joe biden in the oval office, we have seen a huge nationwide decline in crime. the latest data even suggest the violent crime rate may have dropped another 15% in the first three months of 2024, compared to the same period last year. so the trend in crime is down,
5:03 pm
even with holes in the data from various cities. but the overall picture is clear. of course the trump crime wave is about much more than just the macro statistics. those are the most important for people of lived experience. it is also about the fact the man himself is a criminal, convicted of 34 felony counts in new york. a man who surrounds himself with criminals, bringing them onstage and even into the courtroom with him during trial. donald trump believes that following the rule of law, this is crucial, is for suckers. he has reviewed the republican party. top dogs should get away with everything and for all the talk about backing the blue, it is clear that when law enforcement is not under his control as it would be in sort of authoritarian enterprise, then it becomes the subject of suspicion and even insults. look at what happened at the pennsylvania state house earlier this month. democrats welcomed to capitol
5:04 pm
police officers who were injured by the violent pro- trump mob that was out for blood on january 6. remember donald trump praises the insurrectionists who beat the cops bloody as warriors and hostages who he promises to flee free from prison if reelected. so when these officers were introduced on the statehouse floor, listen to how republicans reacted before they were drowned out by the democrats. >> this morning it is with incredible honor and humility that for the first time on the floor of this house we are so thrilled to welcome former united states capitol police sergeant and former united states capitol police officer harry dunn. both of these men were present physically and verbally attacked, but bravely defended democracy in the united states capitol against rioters and insurrections on january 6,
5:05 pm
2021. they are traveling the nation and sharing their stories to raise awareness to the threats of democracy in our nation. sergeant -- please stand. welcome to the florida house. >> so pennsylvania republicans, you could've heard when she talked about threats to democracy. not only did they boo and cheer, they actually walked out according to several lawmakers were there before. again it does not stop there. whenever any parts of the machinery of law enforcement, state level or federal level, is brought to bear on donald trump and his followers, then those folks become the target of violent imitation intimidation and threats. last week a texas man was arrested and charged with threatening an fbi agent involved in the hunter biden investigation. to be clear because this headline you might've seen in
quote
5:06 pm
the periphery, this man was not a biden fan angry about the conviction of the president's son. no, rather he was a trump supporter angry about a slew of false claims about hunter biden and the 2020 election. you might say these are just the fringes and there is something to that, but it does go well beyond that. last month donald trump's allies and the media went on this crusade against joe biden's department of justice and the fbi. they took a totally standard part of the warranty used for the document search for mar-a- lago and they turned it into an assassination conspiracy theory. >> the biden administration authorizing the use of deadly force during the fbi raid on former president trump's mar-a- lago estate in august, 2022. >> they were actually thinking of using deadly force or it is on the table that it might be necessary at mar-a-lago? >> authorized armed agents to use deadly force in the mar-a-
5:07 pm
lago raid. that is insane. is there any justification for that? >> absolutely not. my mind is a prosecutor goes to, maybe they wanted the engagement of force. maybe they wanted to come in without fbi, without doj, without all of that, so that they could engage in deadly physical force. >> why is merrick garland prepping for a possible shootout? >> deadly force, does that mean joe biden was authorizing the fbi -- if it came to that and he resisted arrest, it would be okay to kill donald trump? >> that is what it seems. >> that is just a sample of the coverage. it got spun up as basically a biden assassination plot against donald trump and of course trump himself jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon. he blasted out a fundraising email trying to make money on it. breaking, biden's doj was authorized to shoot me. joe biden was locked and loaded, ready to take me out
5:08 pm
and put my family in danger. now as we have seen, as i just told you about the guy who was threatening the fbi agent, those words are obviously very dangerous, which is why special counsel jack smith asked the judge overseeing the documents case, a trump appointee, to bar trump for making statements that endanger law enforcement. in the second petition after the judge denied his first request, he writes the former presidents deceptive and inflammatory assertions irresponsibly put a target on the back of the fbi agents involved in this case, as trump well knows. now here's the thing. in response a group of 24 republican state attorneys general from across the country filed an amicus brief. again, this is a gag order petition in a florida court.
5:09 pm
an amicus brief supporting trump, calling jack smith's request, quote, presumptively unconstitutional. of course defending the bosses right to falsely accuse the fbi of assassination plot against him, tangentially endangering lives, is now what you do in the trump crime family. congressman dan goldman is a democrat from new york, serving on the oversight committee and he joins me now. you were a prosecutor as well. a lawyer. i have to say i was really brought up short by that amicus brief. i want to be clear, there are first amendment issues when you have a candidate involved in criminal trials, so there are things to worry about, but to have a who's who list of basically every attorney general in the country say it is important that donald trump be able to say these things about fbi agents when we have evidence that it really does put them in danger. >> let's take a look back at how extraordinary and unusual it is for states attorneys general to file an amicus brief
5:10 pm
in a federal district court. >> on a motion on a gag order. >> right. even if this were to go to an appeals court you still would not see state attorneys general's chiming in on something. what is clear is that this is a continuation of what house republicans have been doing. what all republican elected officials around the country including attorneys general, is they are trying to use their official position to assist donald trump's defense against these criminal cases and to help his campaign. the way they are trying to guess like the american public is by claiming joe biden is using what they call lawfare, which means he is politicizing the doj and then you get to the question of okay, if he is politicizing the doj, why would
5:11 pm
he charge his own son? so none of it makes sense, but it is this projection to try to disengage and offset their own efforts to abuse their authority, abuse their official authority for the benefit of, as you put so well and i was a mob prosecutor, the mob boss of the republican party. >> what is striking, and i want to come back to that conspiracy theory, but what is striking is to your point it is procedurally totally anomalous and bizarre. it never happens. also the hill is not he is innocent, which maybe you think he is. it is important for him to be able to go around saying these things about fbi agents that are obviously inflammatory. obvious incitement. >> and i thought what jack smith said in the special counsel, which is the critical line, is as trump well knows.
5:12 pm
because it is one thing if this is the first time you've done something like this and you may not understand how your words will be interpreted by your followers. we are so far past that. we have january 6. we have the guy who sent the bombs to other people. >> a man broke into the speaker of houses house and beat her husband almost to death. >> there was someone in ohio who attacked the fbi and had to be shot. so it is now crystal clear to donald trump, to all of his supporters, to steve bannon saying victory or death, that they know what reaction their words are going to have. they have no plausible deniability and that is why jack smith put that in there. donald trump knows when he attacks the fbi it is going to incite his followers to attack the fbi.
5:13 pm
and it is all part of the authoritarian playbook, because he wants to undermine accountability. he wants to undermine checks and balances, so he attacks the media. he attacks accountability, institutions, the fbi, the doj, the intelligence community. anybody who could call him out and expose his wrongdoing is someone who is subject to attack and the worst part about it, chris, it's not just him. >> that is so wild. >> you have people formerly with dignity and integrity who have stooped down to this level now. they are undermining their own authority in many ways, because those attorneys general work with law enforcement. he is undermining on law enforcement. >> one of the scariest aspects is what would this look like if the department of justice were back in the hands of donald trump. i want to redo a description of their vision from the department of justice. this is a coalition of 200
5:14 pm
groups. it is a blueprint for the next republican president. the doj has become a bloated bureaucracy with a critical corps of personnel who are infatuated with the perpetuation of a radical liberal agenda and defeat of perceived political enemies. it is essential that the next conservative administration place a high priority on reforming the doj. anything other than a top to bottom overhaul will further erode the trust of a significant portion of the american people and harm the fabric that holds together a constitutional republic. what do you think when you hear that? >> i get scared. i get scared for what is clearly an effort to effectively politicize and overtake our criminal system and the department of justice. i work in the department of justice for 10 years. i worked closely with fbi agents. the fbi, by the way, is notoriously a republican leaning institution. >> that it is just the bastion of woke libs.
5:15 pm
>> to their credit i didn't know what the politics were, because we checked our politics at the door when you are a career civil servant and career official. that is what donald trump doesn't like because he wants to make everything political. project 2025. i've joined a task force in congress now that is chaired by congressman jared huffman of california. it is stop project 2025, because this is all of trump's former senior executives who have now gone over to the heritage foundation and put together a 900 page playbook to take over american government, to create an authoritarian dictatorship that would do what they said at the doj in terms of getting rid of all nonpartisan career officials, eliminate the department of education. ban abortion. the list goes on. as to all of the efforts they
5:16 pm
are laying out in plain language as to how they are going to take down our democracy and we are going to continue to amplify some of this, because it is scary to think of what will happen to our country of donald trump becomes president. >> congressman dan goldman of new york, great to have you here. thank you very much. >> coming up, from conspiracy theorists to carpetbagging billionaires, the latest state of republican candidates running this november. that is next.
5:17 pm
our biggest challenge? uncertainty. hidden fees, surcharges... who knows what to expect! turn shipping to your advantage. keep it simple...with clear, upfront pricing. with usps ground advantage®. ♪♪
5:18 pm
sometimes jonah wrestles with falling asleep... ...so he takes zzzquil. the world's #1 sleep aid brand. and wakes up feeling like himself. get the rest to be your best with non-habit forming zzzquil. ♪ ♪ hi, i'm eileen. i live in vancouver, washington and i write mystery novels. as i was writing, i found that i just wasn't sharp and that doesn't work when you're writing a mystery and i knew i needed to do something so i started taking prevagen. i realized that i was much more clear, much sharper. i was remembering the details that i was supposed to. prevagen keeps my brain working right. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. san francisco's been
5:19 pm
through tough times. london breed led us through the pandemic, declaring an emergency before anyone else, saving thousands of lives. from growing up in the western addition housing projects to becoming mayor, london has never given up on the city that raised her. london is getting people off the streets and into care. london never gave up on me. i found a home, and my life is on the right track. london made it super easy for me to open my small business, by cutting city fees. and she's reinventing downtown to make our city vibrant again. she's building 82,000 new homes
5:20 pm
and helping first time homebuyers, just like us. and london's hiring hundreds of police officers, and arresting drug dealers. san francisco has been through difficult times, but our hard work is paying off. working together, we're building a better future for the city we all love. ad paid for by re-elect mayor london breed 2024. financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.
5:21 pm
it is another election cycle in the trump era and as in previous cycles the republican party is fielding a bunch of candidates we like to call freaks and geeks. it has been a feature of this era that the trump elements of the party have seized control of the grassroots level and in primary contests they have successfully elevated extreme candidates who are down light repellent to swing voters. whatever mojo trump has when he runs, which again he lost the popular vote twice, it has proven to not be replicated by his republicans down ballot. we saw this in 2022. remember there was supposed to be a massive red wave, but republicans didn't have candidates who could surf the wave. they fielded herschel walker, who like trump had no political
5:22 pm
experience and a reputation for serial dishonesty. when he was being honest he was rarely coherent. >> the other night i was watching this movie, watching this movie called fright night, freak night, some type of night. i don't know, but it was about vampires. vampires are cool people. i will tell you something i found out. i don't want to be a vampire anymore, i want to be a werewolf. >> then there was pennsylvania where the candidate was doug mastriano, pictured on the left at the rally at the capitol on january 6 before the violent insurrection. you can also see him in this photograph on the left in his confederate civil war uniform. then there was kari lake who ran for governor in arizona. a former tv news reporter who campaigned against the fake news media. she not only parroted trump's lies, she also subsequently claimed her own election was stolen and still does.
5:23 pm
in fact, lake, who has not been governor but inks she is aware that she won, she is on the ballot again this year. she is running for senate. she has been losing in every major poll taken in that race since february, which is to say republicans are doing the exact same thing again the cycle. notably minnesota where the take on any klobuchar, republicans have nominated royce white, a former nba player and info wars lover who has advanced conspiracy theories while reportedly managing 20 over $800,000 in child support and is now having to answer questions about why his campaign spent $1200 at a florida strip club. >> your claim is there were filings which said you spent campaign funds at a strip club, but they were incorrect. >> they didn't say i spent the funds at a strip club.
5:24 pm
they didn't say i spent the funds on strippers. >> but it was spent at a strip club. >> well, they sell food at the strip club don't they? >> so you spent the money on food at a strip club, is that more accurate? >> you seem unfamiliar with strip clubs and strip shows, so i will inform you, maybe you aren't informed, that they do have food at strip clubs. >> delicious. white has also rallied against the elite. he complained women have become to mouthy. you get the idea. but that is not an isolated incident. there is a republican candidate for governor of north carolina who spent years posting file things. from claiming the holocaust didn't happen to claiming that the black panther was put together by a satanic marxist to extract money from black people. robinson has ranted against women and abortion so many times
5:25 pm
that his democratic opponent stitched them together into one absolutely brilliant dad. >> we can pass a bill saying you can't have an abortion in north carolina. for me there is no compromise on abortion. it makes no difference to me why or how that child ended up in that womb. abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers. it is about killing a child because you are not responsible enough to keep your skirt down. it is not your body anymore. >> killing a child because you are not responsible enough to keep your skirt down. running for governor of north carolina. this dynamic is harming republicans everywhere including indiana where mike braun is now running for governor. he came prepared with his own pick for lieutenant governor, but the state party convention selected micah beckwith, a pentecostal pastor, podcaster and self-described christian
5:26 pm
nationalist whose only experience was an unsuccessful attempt to purge controversial books in his local library. he claimed that god had spoken to him and endorsed the rioters. >> a lot of people are freaking out over what they saw and i totally understand that, but i was in prayer this morning and you know what the lord told me? he said micah, he said, i sent those riots to washington. he said what you saw yesterday was my hand at work. >> it is always in the car, those videos, aren't they? michelle goldberg wrote recently in the new york times that party and sisters are free out that beckwith's candidacy gives an opening in a red state. it is the latest sign of a conflict splitting republican party nationwide. as activists demand ever greater levels of purity and belligerence. even when the party elites get
5:27 pm
the candidates they wanted, they tend not to be appreciably more palatable to mainstream voters. remember pennsylvania when they got tv dr. oz to run for senate even though his primary residence was across the river in new jersey? this year they are running david mccormick, another rich carpetbagger who spends most of his time at a $60 million mansion in connecticut bought with his hedge fund wealth and he is not alone. to challenge senator tammy baldwin in wisconsin, which is a swing state, republicans have selected the ceo of a utah- based bank who lives in a $7 million mansion in laguna beach california, not far from his office. he also took fire for defending claims about voting irregularities by suggesting residents of nursing homes are too close to death for their votes to count. all of this is a reminder of the weird paradox of the trump
5:28 pm
era that only trump gets away with being trump -like. for everyone else being outrageous and offensive, it does come with some political cost. for them gravity does exist and this has led republicans to pay tangible costs and lots of races over and over again. they should have a majority in the senate, honestly, with better candidates. this election so far is looking to be a similar story, but of course there is still the guy at the top of the ticket who has at last count 34 felony convictions and is running neck and neck with the incumbent president. i will talk about that next.
5:29 pm
5:30 pm
5:31 pm
>> i had 20 years of experience as an hr professional and i had reached a ceiling, so i enrolled in umgc. i would not be the person that i am today had it not been for the partnership with umgc.
5:32 pm
5:33 pm
president biden and donald trump are neck and neck in national polls. yet if you look at other races in the same states, down ballot democrats are doing much better than the incumbent president. biden trails trump by one point. a different polling average in the senate race shows bob casey up by five. in wisconsin, the presidential race is effectively tied, while democratic senator tammy baldwin leads by an average of eight points. in arizona biden is down by four points, while the democratic candidate leads kari lake by about six and while all of these races will tighten the coming months, there is a signal that seems clear. the question for the biden
5:34 pm
harris campaign is what they can do about it. david served as the campaign manager for the 2018 biden campaign. he currently hosts a podcast with kellyanne conway. margie is a veteran democratic pollster leading focus groups this cycle. they both join me now. let me ask you, david, for your theory on the gap. whether you think it is a real thing the polling is picking up on or some sort of mythological thing or people don't know the candidates yet. >> right. i will be interested to hear what margie has to say, but i think you see democratic senate candidates have coalesced the base more effectively. if you are an optimist on the democratic side you say, listen, a lot of these voters choosing bob casey and -- the biden campaign has a good sense of who those voters are.
5:35 pm
you can run a campaign to those letters. the flipside is the republican senate campaign, and you kind of went through the rogues gallery, which we have seen every election cycle. they have lost probably a dozen senate races they could've one with better candidates. they are underperforming trump. i think at the end of the day these races will close. most candidates will get 94 to 95% of the vote and the same on the democratic side. when you look at where biden is trailing and look at democratic candidates doing better, it is a source of optimism. you have to close the sale, but again in politics when you're running a campaign, you always like to have a delta like that. okay, we are underperforming other people in my party, but boy you know who they are. you know what issues are driving them and again i think a lot of this could potentially
5:36 pm
close in biden's favor if he has a strong debate. the most important 90 minutes of his political life and i think it comes out of over performing expectations, which i think are quite low. you can begin to see some of those voters come home who are right now choosing democratic senate candidates. >> margie, as someone working in battleground states as a pollster, i'm curious what you think? >> i do tons of focus groups and in every focus group we start out with something like what is a word or two about how you feel the country is going? what is going well and less well? almost every group, it doesn't matter what audience, what state, people say we are so divided. it feels terrible. i don't feel like i get along with my neighbor. people are driving more angry, something people say a lot. what that tells me and you see it when we talk about politics as well, that people are not
5:37 pm
looking for more trump. they are not saying, you know what i want, i want more anger in politics. i want people airing grievances from the past. you do not hear that in focus groups. they wanted to take down the temperature and i think that is why you see in all of these kinds of races and fantastical ways, republican candidates not able to re-create the sport that trump has had. i think the difference that you see in down ballot races and what is happening in the presidential level is in the presidential level you have people who are baking the cake. it is not going to move as they are getting introduced to candidates the way that some of these candidates have been and will continue to be, which is what makes things like the debates very important as people refine their opinions. the other pieces of optimism
5:38 pm
are few. if you look at these haters, there is a group that lots of people are tracking. people are unfavorable to biden and trump. those voters think that trump committed a crime. he is guilty and the majority of them according to the poll we released a couple of days ago think that he should drop out. this group that is a larger percentage in the cycle than in previous cycles, they do not support trump. they think trump is guilty of a crime and is not above the law and his convictions were fair. the other thing happening in the republican primary, can see that nikki haley dropped out a long time ago. and saw that there were republicans unhappy with their choice. >> the top of the ticket issue, david, it strikes me also that you have inheritances like interest rates are high right now and inflation has been an issue and people don't blame
5:39 pm
tammy baldwin for that. even though to be honest, joe biden has as much control as biden, particularly interest rates that are set by the fed. to the extent people have substantive things about the economy or that congressional candidates don't get that same blame. >> the buck stops here and i think particularly for the presidential level there is no doubt about that. you're starting to see the biden campaign layout a contrast and even the polls today show the question of who cares about people like you and your family? joe biden has an advantage over donald trump. super important. i remember in 2012 when we won a tough reelection with an improving and still weak economy, that is the question we centered on.
5:40 pm
if you are a teacher, a welder, a nurse, a retiree, obama gets you and romney never will. i think that is something very effective and can be again. these are just polls, not reality, but tammy baldwin being almost at 50 is super important. honestly what really matters is some of the poles you showed in wisconsin and other states in the race, the polling average is like 41-40. where is the other 19 going? will they not vote? and i think that the biden campaign probably in most battleground states likes who the undeclared voters are more than donald trump. it has coalesced more of his base, so that again is a reason for optimism. >> i would say if you can pass along a message, i think they should really lean into this
5:41 pm
trump tax idea about replacing everything with tariffs and jacking up prices by 400%. passing that along, i think that is a winner. david plouffe and margie omero, thank you both. appreciate it. >> thank you. scott coming up, how donald trump is still obsessed with the tv show that helped propel him to the presidency. preside. i do my own searching. it isn't efficient. use kayak. i can't trust anything else to do the job right. aaaaaaaahhhh! kayak. search one and done.
5:42 pm
5:43 pm
annika. i found the bomb. ok johann. there should be a blue wire and a yellow wire. cut the blue one. they're both blue! visionworks. see the difference.
5:44 pm
when anyone in this house wears white, it doesn't stay white for long. white? to soccer? i'm not gonna slide tackle. but now with tide oxi white, we can clean our white clothes without using bleach. it even works on colors. i slide tackled. i see that. tide oxi white. ♪♪ ♪♪ citi's industry leading global payments solutions help their clients move money
5:45 pm
around the world seamlessly in over 180 countries... and help a partner like the world food programme as they provide more than food to people in need. together, citi and the world food programme empower families across the globe. ♪♪ i don't think you know what
5:46 pm
you are here for. >> you're the one talking about day >> i think your fake eyelashes are messing up. >> hold on, order. >> i'm just curious, to better understand your ruling, if someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde bad guilt which body, that would not be engaging in personality right? >> what now? >> that exchange last month has taken on a life of its own. congresswoman crockett's phrase in response to a completely unprompted attack on her appearance has inspired numerous remixes and an official t-shirt. a fundraising email from the biden harris reelection campaign. this week on my podcast i sat down with jasmine crockett and got the back story behind the now iconic phrase. where did dad built come from?
5:47 pm
>> it came from my granny and if anyone knows anything about older black women, they say a lot of stuff. like they just don't care. so my granny was good for saying that someone was bad built. while she probably was my favorite person on the face of the planet and i miss her every single day and i can only imagine what she would think of me now, but it is amazing when you think about how important people like my grandma has been to my life and even when they are gone they are always still with you. so i have been able to share my granny with the whole world. no, that is something my granny used to say. >> we had an amazing wide- ranging conversation and jasmine crockett i think is one of the most fascinating members of congress.
5:48 pm
a former public defender. she attended the same college as supreme court justice amy coney barrett. you can listen to the full conversation by scanning the qr code you see on your screen with your phone or by searching why is this happening, wherever you get your podcasts. start your day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand.
5:49 pm
some days, you can feel like a spectator in your own life with chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start. and treatment is 4 times a year. in a survey, 91% of users wish they'd started sooner.
5:50 pm
so why wait? talk to your doctor. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. chronic migraine may still keep you from being there. why wait? talk to your doctor about botox®. and get in the picture. learn how abbvie can help you save. what if we don't get down in time to get a birthday gift for zoe? and get in the picture. don't panic. with etsy we can find the perfect gift, and send her a preview right away. thanks guys. [ surprised scream ] don't panic. gift easy with etsy. if you spit blood when you brush,
5:51 pm
it could be the start of a domino effect. new parodontax active gum repair breath freshener. clinically proven to help reverse the four signs of early gum disease. a new toothpaste from parodontax, the gum experts.
5:52 pm
ever heard the urban legend that come along for every rich guy in america for 100 years,
5:53 pm
the rich guy's car breaks down and a person stops to fix it and the samaritan finds his mortgage was paid off pie the rich guy? he told a version of this henry ford and told it about gates and donald trump. the difference is trump depended on stories like that. >> there you go, john and terrific. >> waiting a very long time >> this sounds like trouble >> i just want to know if the story is true or not. you were traveling to atlantic city and your limo broke down, husband and wife pulled up behind and the husband said i am going to help him out, helped out the limo and a week later the husband and wife received the deed to their house paid off was that a true story? >> it is true. it's true >> that ising awesome. >> that goes to show what type of plan he is. a great man. he believes in good karma. donald trump's entire adult
5:54 pm
life and career is an urban legend. there is no better example of that than the tv show we just watched there "the apprentice." a new book how apprentice and mark ber net took the world through the looking glass. what he ran on and his obsession with defunked reality show. joining me now is the author of the book. great to have you mere. >> thank you for having me. the quote on the back of the book, funny. trump, saying do you think i would have been president without "the apprentice," many say no. many smart people say no. apprentice paved way for the entire precedency. we were talking about rules being different for him. and the guy office a tv show for like 15 years about how amazing he was. >> he played a character.
5:55 pm
the character of donald trump on "the apprentice" that is why he is able to make the american public love him, attract crowds at rallies and make people think he is a good leader t. is about that but it is based on six interviews that i had with him starting in 2021 after he left the white house. gave me more access than any other journalist . >> i am only laughing because it is perfect. he wants to go back there. everyone would be happier, trump would be happier, i would be happy personally, the world would be better off. >> his family would be judges on a reality show. >> yes. >> but, really t is really important for people to read this book and hear in donald trump's words what he thinks is his accomplishments are and what he thinks he is capable of and how little he cares about governing. only cares about show nobs in
5:56 pm
terms of his accomplishments. from the week after the airing of the first season finally. they don't matter the day after. framed and bolted to the wall, something that seems to carry as much as the constitution if not more. this sheet of paper comes from america where the apprentice show. this is my whole life, he tuesday with a straight face and meant it. this is a former president of the united states looking back 20 years ago he has it in trump tower and in mar-a-lago a copy of it framed there. ratings are what drives him. audience is what is important to him. >> why was he -- how much of it was production and how much him? >> again, people forget this. the reason that he had the reason he could is because he
5:57 pm
was famous from tv. why did it work? >> it worked because he was funny on tv and say crazy things because on reality tv the more out ramous you are the better you do. the american public liked that. it is an act. playing a character. i think it is important, biden is going to the debates or the first debate for him to realize and a warning, trump is playing a character on a reality slow and can not look at him as a politician. >> is he a character in his own head? he let the mask slip. it is interesting. he says after i lost the election, trump says, these words come tumbling from his mouth almost against his own will and he is in surprise he catches himself off guard. i won the election then when they said we lost, looking pleased. >> donald trump knows he lost the election and the character that he plays that denies that the election is rigged is something that speaks to his
5:58 pm
base, gets good ratings, a lot of attention. he was confused in his story telling and he remembered clearly what happened when he was on the apprentice but struggled with events and clearly remembering what happened in the white house and his short term memory is shot. not as clear as previous memory when he was in show business. >> tell me more about that. >> i was with him for the day that his sister died. donald trump started speaking about his sift fleer present tense, did not cancel our meeting and he immediately started talking about his rating on the apprentice and how his sister loved the show. it probably was not true and started talking about the nft business he was launching. it is called apprentice in wonderland because it is an alternate reality. we are not living in the real world and it is important for people to get a handle on what we are going into. >> a lot in here where you talk
5:59 pm
about trump tower feels like gray gardens without the cats. >> it was desserted, deserted, quiet, issues of trump magazine, a publication that had not existed for years. he was conducting himself as an actor who no longer had cameras following him around >> when i read the line i thought about it. i should of had us make this graphic but people can google it. on the price is right there is the wheel, right? you only see one side of it. when you see the other side it is just 2x4 and wood put together and like all set furniture is like that. it looks fine from far away and up close. trump tower is like that. many people said it. it is shot. that is like the whole thing. it is exactly that. all of the price is right wheel. >> when you go on the set and the host is not there and audience is not there and see how old everything looks and out dated it looks that is what trump tower is like without the
6:00 pm
cameras, absolutely. >> he does not want it, he just wantses want -- wants to go back in time does he regret being president. >> he told me he would not of run for president if it was not for "apprentice" but he missed being on "apprentice" it is clear. >> can we get him a show? truman show him? give him something to do that is not this? >> the book is called "apprentice in wonderland" thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. that is my idea. that is "all in." alex wagner starts tonight. >> thanks to you at home for joining us. 12 years ago this week, then president barack obama signed one policy, one changing hundreds of thousands of lives, the policy of