country at large is not seeing what they are seeing. >> the thing they signed 2022 which does keep me a little hopeful is that there was something similar, a huge expectation of the big red wave, it didn't pan out. with the exception of carrie lake, everyone accepted it and then carrie lake sort of accepted it the problem is donald trump is a uniquely benevolent figure. when you rerun it, you may not end up in the same place. that is all in on this wednesday night. >> good evening, i want to start tonight by talking about the evolution of a lie. this is the pin tweet in the twitter account. sticking it to the top of the accounts page means they are proud of this. they do not want this to get lost in the shuffle of all of

their other posts. it shows video of biden watching a parachuting demonstration with other world leaders. and if you only saw the moments that they decided to post of this video, the video makes it look like biden is confused or wandering off, the caption, what is biden doing adds to that impression. if you watch a longer version of that same moment or you watch it from other angles, you can see that biden is clearly watching other pair shooters out of frame and giving them a thumbs-up. but rather than include that context, 90 minutes after they posted their video, the new york post reposted it. making him seem even more out of it. and of course, hours later the video got the fox news treatment . >> during a parachute demonstration, biden got dazed

and confused, how shocking and started to just wander off like that. as other leaders looked on in agony -- >> fox news, looked on in agony nevermind the fact that they are quoted on the record. the next morning, the story was the front page of the new york post. trumps campaign quick to push out the front page on its own accounts. it is a conservative echo chamber and doesn't seem to care what is echoing back and forth. the issue here is not just this one video. we have seen the same exact the cycle again and again. a misleading clip of biden making it look like he was reaching for a chair that wasn't actually there. the issue with that being that there was a chair there. he was just waiting to sit

until defense secretary was announced. as were others if you look at the actual not cropped video. this week, they are pushing a misleading clip of biden at a fundraiser claiming that biden freezes as obama grabs his arm and leads him off stage. they .0 in its own fact check, with the video actually shows is biden pausing amid cheers and applause before exiting the stage with obama but backs didn't stop trump posting the video himself complete with the caption is this really who you want to be our president? misleading photos and videos, not a new phenomenon. what is new is having the republican party and a media ecosystem in presumptive republican nominee for president all pushing those misleading videos but no regard for the facts. >> a part of a 90 minute rant.

trump of course also repeated the false claim that he won the 2020 election. implored supporters to be on the lookout for more fraud this time around. >> you want to watch it, you want to watch for the cheating. we have to guard the boat. >> we are not going to let them rig at the presidential election in 2024. >> this week liberal activists really secretly recorded audio of roger stone talking about what he sees as it trumps plan to challenge the election results this time around if trump loses. it was recorded without stones knowledge. he believes that the election was stolen to get him to talk about how he thinks that the election was stolen again.

>> in some states, at least this time when they do it, you have a lawyer and a judge his home phone number standing buys you can stop it. we may know preparations last time. none. >> after the 2020 election, they filed 62 lawsuits claiming the election had been stolen. one of the lawsuits, the other 61 lawsuits they failed miserably. this newly released cornerstone is and just trying to relitigate the failures and claim that the 2020 election is rigged, he isn't even just saying that it is quote unquote rigged, he is also saying that those false claims being taken to court will be much bigger

and better this time around. particularly now trumps daughter-in-law controls the rnc . remember >> the republican national committee raised $200 million and they didn't spend any of it to try to get cleaner elections. we now finally have control over that. don't be discouraged. we are going to win >> we reached for comments by the rolling stones saying that, quote, all of the integrity positions he mentioned are perfectly legal but that's not exactly a denial. with a misinformation ecosystem, how do we protect our democracy? >> helped leave the biden campaign's response to the barrage of bad faith election

lawsuits. this week bowers out with a brand-new book the tackles these very issues. it's called the unraveling, reflections on politics without ethics and democracy in crisis. the political combat., quote, political actors their response ability to demonstrate in the choices they make that politics can and should be an honorable and ethical calling. good politics can be played hard and passionately. not all of the limits are clear, not everyone agrees on the limits. however, there has to be agreement that there are in the midst of some kind. the political actors are accountable for confronting choices and accepting responsibility for choices they make. joining me know, bob bauer the personal attorney, former white

house counsel in obama administration. his new book, the unraveling, democracy in crisis what a title. congratulations on the book. thank you for being here. i am struck by the fact that in the book you describe yourself as having a warrior mentality. you also question whether winning at all costs is worth it. i wonder how you walk the fine line between those poles when you know that the other side they are not afraid to go low. >> not a partisan issue is a bipartisan issue of what kind of politics we are going to have whether it is going to be true or is going to be politics which i call antipolitics. that treats the adversary as an enemy. something to be basically shunted for one side. as he

pointed out in your opening, where there is no responsibility . releasing for some measure of honesty and fairness to the voters and politics around ethics is not democratic politics. i want to stress this. i think i and others in democratic campaigns have done this for quite some time i reject the premise that you can't compete hard that you can't be strong in your convictions, you can't be vigorous in your campaigns and at the same time run them ethically and win. i was at the obama campaign in 2008 and the president won. i was with the re-election campaign of president obama in 2012. he won. president biden in 2020, he won. victory is possible but the overall effect of politics

without ethics, irresponsible behavior for those who have those choices to make in government politics is something we have to be deeply concerned about. that is an issue for democrats as well as republicans. >> i want to talk a little bit about 2020 and how it applies to what you are looking for. summer 2020 you outline a multistep strategy in the summer in anticipation of trump questioning the result of the november election. i wonder when you realized you are going to need to execute on this plan. >> remember that former president trump made no bones about his belief that he couldn't possibly lose. as a matter of fact even claimed that he hadn't lost in the iowa caucuses. there is something fishy about that election as well. he flagged that as did others in his campaign circle. a lot of energy and effort went

into thinking through what sort of steps they might take to challenge the election to undermine the process beforehand or to challenge the process after. i write in my book about how much effort went into identifying, thousands of lawyer hours, thousands of pages and memos. not all of it came to pass but having said that, they did come to pass. trump and his campaign did not succeed at all. >> he is doing the same thing again, this time already saying that they will call into the 2024 election. it's interesting that you and i are talking tonight because i've become on the air there is a new fox news poll that shows him leading 50% to 48% nationally among registered

voters. that was the first time we had seen that this cycle. do you believe that team biden is prepared for the novel ways. the new ways that team trump has imagined once again democracy. >> i recount in the book how we prepared in 2020 and i can say that the preparations are just as exhausted if not more this time around. the effort here, i want to be very clear. the effort here is not just to prepare to protect a win, it's too prepared to protect a process. i will say at the same time that i am involved in this campaign and i am very involved in the campaign, i also work with republicans on initiatives that are meant to be bipartisan to support our elected officials . that is where the politics has to stop.

it has to stop at the point in which we are attacking the process that we all depend upon for the fulfillment of the process. for the fulfillment of democratic will. >> is much as you're clear about the fact that this is a bipartisan challenge euros a clear but the fact that when we talk about republicans, this is bigger than donald trump. you call for an egregious offense against norms. you also note that, quote, when another election-year vacancy developed on the death of ruth bader ginsburg he decided to rush the nomination ahead of voter choice only months off.'s argument that they had a, it somehow lost its force for them in 2020 but the nomination was theirs to make in the seat was theirs to fill. how corrosive was it? >> in my view, this is the kind

of step taken just to win to push through a result because you can push through that result that added together into all of those actions that are taken it really does have a long-term undermining affect not just on the way that the process should operate but the public loses faith. and at some point in the seeking their favor and seeking their voting to campaign, there is a limit, there is a limit to what responsible political actors will do in the same way that they have to hope that when trying to enact policies there is a limit. there have to be those limits. i'm convinced by the way that victory was possible adhering to those limits. >> you right in the unraveling about a moment after january

6th where you thought, quote, democratic life will go back to normal. that seems very quaint now. i'm sure you will agree, nothing feels normal. we're in the middle of what we keep calling the most consequential election of our lifetime. i just wanted to underline what it is that keeps you up at night. >> you have to worry about everything. we went through a period of very polarized politics. norms challenge, literally reputed in principle. and i do believe, however, if i can just strike an optimistic note, both democratic and republican that, yes, there are the republican party said donald trump commands that is prepared to challenge elections and prepared to say that the system is irredeemably corrupt but

some of them are quiet to think even if they will vote for republicans that we have to defend the democratic process. there is a form of democratic politics that is ethical and respectful of the voters and respectful, i've heard that from republicans and i believe that there is a large number, more than a majority that wants to stand up and defend the democratic process in the united states. is much as i worry at night, you've asked what i worry about and it's a fair amount, i have confidence that we are going to see the country of voters stand up for the process that is currently under such severe attack. >> the optimism that you've shared is in high demand. thank you for ending us there. the personal attorney, the author of the brand-new book the unraveling. thank you so much, bob.

>> thank you. donald trump's threat to cut funding, we are going to talk about that. the strengthening alliance between kim jong-un and vladimir putin was on full display today. that is of next. ci ' s financial expertise to help drive its growth and keep its supply chain moving, so more pet parents can get everything they need... right when they need it. keeping more pets, and families, happy. ♪♪ for the love of moving our clients forward. for the love of progress.

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these were the scenes outside of north korea's capital today where the red carpet was rolled out for a carefully choreographed parade of two dictators. for the first time in over two decades, putin and kim jong-un meet as part of a continued effort to strengthen the alliance with north korea. a welcome ceremony complete with goose stepping soldiers, thousands of north koreans lined the streets. his portrait and the russian flag plastered practically everywhere. but the climax of this high- profile trip is a defense agreement. it calls for russia and north korea to defend one another in the event of the aggression against either country. in other words, they back with

the new york times is calling one of the most visible awards, returned for dozens of ballistic missiles, north korea provided in recent months to support putin's war. while the details were not immediately clear, can work the strongest bond since the end of the cold war, last month six senior officials told nbc news that the biden administration is increasingly concerned about the alliance. the officials say the u.s. is also bracing for north korea to potentially take its most provocative military actions in a decade close to the u.s. presidential election, possibly at putin's urging. the timing could be designed. thank you so much for being with us, i wonder what you make

of this new agreement. it doesn't suggest that putin is in fact desperate. >> without question, putin is desperate. he would've not made this trip, first time he has been here in a quarter century. i am just up the street from where mr. putin was. that is by coincidence by the way i'm not trolling him, i just happen to be here. joking aside, answering -- it's very nerve-racking for people here in south korea as well. they have never been this close. it's literally a few years ago before putin invaded ukraine. one thing they cooperated on was trying to prevent an expansion of the nuclear weapons program. what the

security suggests is that now all of those bets are off and putin is not just trying to prevent it, he is trying to help them expand their arsenal that is a very dangerous new development that we are seeing in north korea. >> what does this mean for the ongoing fight against russia? the market means that putin will have more munitions, more weapons to kill ukrainians, it's that simple. the fact that he doesn't have those weapons underscores how desperate he is. a lot of chatter about how well the russian military is doing. there getting technology from countries like china but also countries from the west. that's disturbing.

i think last week they focus on that. but the very fact that he needs this pretty crude kinds of technology, the munitions, soviet era musicians -- ammunitions suggest that putin is running out. it is bad news for the ukrainians. >> i want you to help me understand this in the context of the 2024 election which is, we know what former president trump thinks of putin, we know what he thinks of kim jong-un. he has praised both of these leaders. if he were to be elected to a second term as these two nations are cozying up to one another, in part because they're both anti-west, anti- u.s., what does that mean for this country? >> i hope the american people remember just how crazy things got under mr. trump, when he

just reached out and putin was one of his closest allies and friends. he said it repeatedly for years and years and years. i am paraphrasing, but mr. trump, president trump said we fell in love. think about that, these two leaders were meeting today to threaten in a direct way, we are trying to help the ukrainians, let me tell you, our south korean allies here are extremely nervous about what they were seeing in north korea and they're very nervous that mr. trump has embraced both of these gentlemen. for allies in asia. i think we need to think about that hard before voting him back into office, i think it will create tremendous disruption with respect to our alliances. and even if not immediately, everybody will begin to hedge

their bets. that will remain a very unstable world that i don't think is in america's best interest. >> your level of concern that another u.s. adversary could in fact be planning in october? >> there's no doubt in my mind, there is no doubt in my mind that putin wants trump to win. and remember, he helped him. he stole emails and publish them. docs clinton to try to help them. this time around it is clear as day he wants to help them. if there's anything you can do before november, i suspect he will try to do it. whether it works or not, i don't know. there's no doubt in my mind that putin has the intention and the capability to try to help disrupt their elections. >> joining us from south korea,

vassar, stay safe and thank you so much for your time. coming up, the bizarre actions against a democratic collie, shining a light on the loss of civility. first, donald trump's plan -- more on that right after a quick break. as americans, there's one thing we can all agree on. the promise of our constitution

and the hope that liberty and justice is for all people. but here's the truth. attacks on our constitutional rights, yours and mine are greater than they've ever been. the right for all to vote. reproductive rights. the rights of immigrant families. the right to equal justice for black, brown and lgbtq+ folks. the time to act to protect our rights is now. that's why i'm hoping you'll join me today in supporting the american civil liberties union. it's easy to make a difference. just call or go online now and become an aclu guardian of liberty. all it takes is just $19 a month. only $0.63 a day. your monthly support will make you part of the movement to protect the rights of all people, including the fundamental right to vote. states are passing laws that would suppress the right to vote. we are going backwards. but the aclu can't do this important work without the support of people like you. you

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i will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate. i will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate. i will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate. >> as recently as last night, former president trump made the same terrifying promise, his promise to cut funding to schools with vaccine or mask mandate. think about the practicality of what donald trump is threatening here. all 50 states have some form of vaccine mandate on the books. trump is essentially saying he

would be prepared to cut federal support for every single public school district in this country. even in his beloved florida where ultraconservative ron desantis is governor, the health department says all children who attend florida schools, public or private are required to be immunized. why is this? you know, because vaccines work and have been accepted as a key component to keeping kids and families from getting sick. joining me know, health policy analysts hosts of mornings on series xm, two of my favorite people, thank you so much for being here. just to set the record straight, why are vaccines so important? >> let's take for example, measles. these are vaccines that are recommended by the cdc. it is required. to your point, there is no question about an mmr vaccine for sure. in college freshman, why does this matter? we have noticed places like ohio, florida justin 2024 at

significant outbreaks amongst unvaccinated children which by the way has resulted in one in three ending up in the hospital. 15% with meningitis were unvaccinated die. what we're talking about here, what are the thresholds for death and significant visibility if we don't abide by these commonsense vaccine mandates for retrain -- routine vaccinations. we are talking about risk of death. >> what we heard from the former president, i'm not accustomed to that level of message discipline that tells me that what he is saying is ginning up some portion of his base and actually working. it wasn't always a partisan hot button issue. how do we get here and why is it continuing to benefit donald trump? i think there is a portion of

the republican base of this moment, it is very much antiscience and anti-vaccine. donald trump has proven time and again that he will say anything regardless of the harm to people there was a loud applause, he will say anything to pander to the base that is anti-vaccine. this is a very dangerous president not just because of the reasons that dr. gupta laid out, but also because people need i feel like this election is so important because we really need to vote like our lives depend on it and if you're not basing your decisions on science, than issues like climate change, a future pandemic, those are things that are going to put the american people's lives in danger and we need serious

leadership to address those issues. >> so, dr. gupta, this is about life and death, what would it mean. >> one in three and up in the hospital, this is serious business. this is not abstract. also to the stakes, the cdc and the fda, under the wrong leadership if they appointed individuals that were enabling this, they could do some serious damage here. the cdc has the capability. they can introduce delays when it comes to this a booster shot, there are ways they can

manipulate the ways in which people receive vaccination guidelines and it goes to say, 35 states across the country have requirements on the meningitis vaccination. the other 15, including the republican the country recommends something for which it prevents a disease that has a 15% mortality rate. why are these things even recommended in the first place? >> you answered your own question. this seems like an outgrowth of the same energy which is as you know, not really about parental rights, what has parental rights become a proxy for? >> i think parental rights are effectively this libertarian wing of the right that doesn't one government involved in any decisions, in a moment where we have just gone through a global pandemic where millions of americans listen to anti- science rhetoric. they lost

their lives because they did not pay attention to the directives of the cdc of experts like dr. gupta and get vaccinated , wear a mask when we were told to do that, and i think we need to be very serious in this moment, donald trump's rhetoric is not only dangerous because of the impact on our democracy, but also on our safety. he has set himself, i don't even care about you i just want your votes. we have to remember at the end of the day as much as the political debate is entertainment, donald trump is not an entertainer. he once was but he cannot play act as president. he needs to take it seriously. i am certain that this will come about the debate where we will have the contrast between somebody who is leaving -- leading the country and somebody who has been involved in a performance as the role of president. >> dr. gupta, we often talk

about the trump hangover, even when he is not in power, there are still reminders everywhere of the effect that he had on public opinion and these attitudes about vaccines are just one example. >> absolutely. we saw pre-pandemic to now to build on that, there is been a 50% increase in the number of parents who think pre-pandemic to now that routine childhood vaccinations should be voluntary . just over the course of the last few years. the spillover effect is real. we're seeing this depth of expertise. the unwillingness to buy into expertise, what does that mean we have created an unsafe environment for people as they navigate their own health journey, they're going to rely on supplements because they don't believe in fda, so now we have a bunch of individuals were willing to take their own health care decisions leveraging the internet or leveraging their favorite podcast host and that is not where expertise is found. the challenge of expertise here is posing multiple challenges

but again, we have seen this over the last five years. >> a decline of expertise, what a treat to have an actual medical doctor with me. so good to see you on my tv. thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. still to come tonight, he helped bring donald trump's shady behavior to light. we are going to talk to him. started first, a truly weird story a partisan politics in 2024. some folks are calling it watergate. we will explain what is next. hi. i use febreze fade defy plug. and i use this. febreze has a microchip to control scent release so it smells first-day fresh for 50 days. 50 days!?

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one of the strangest mysteries in local american politics, it has finally been resolved. this is vermont state representative from a small town of bennington. for five months, representative carol has been tormented by an inexplicable daily phenomenon. every day he would arrive at the state capitol in burlington and hang up the totebag he use to carry his belongings to and from work. at the end of each day he would return to find his totebag was soaking wet. he cannot figure out why this is happening so he decided to set up his own sting operation. he bought a small surveillance camera and set it up across from the coat rack where he

hung his back. here you can see that he is checking to make sure that his bag is in fact dry. he ridges his arm into the bag and then he is going to walk away. then just seconds later the video captures a woman walking up to the bag and dumping a small plastic cup of liquid into the bag and walking away. that is mary morrissey who represents a different part of the same small town that he helps from. turns out the representative had been engaging in this bizarre drenching ritual for months. the local scandal has since rocketed to national attention with some social media users dubbing the controversy watergate. it is not entirely clear why she was dumping water on her colleagues bag over and over and over again the two lawmakers group in the same town and have known each other for years. representative carol claims that

she had been acting nasty toward him for months and would say demeaning things in front of other legislators. despite that, representative carol had planned to keep his secret sting video private. that was until he called and filed a public request. and released the footage and she has now publicly apologize. >> this is not reflective of my 28 years of service. >> representative carol was asked by the guardian newspaper if he accepts his colleagues apology, he says i guess i would have to say yes in the spirit of forgiveness, reluctantly. but if i had to be smart i would say her apology holds about as much water as my canvas bag. there is a lesson in all of

this somewhere. a lesson about the politics. a lesson about local journalism . a lesson in the durability of a proper totebag i don't know what the lesson is but it is certainly a reminder that we deserve better than cruelty and immaturity from our leaders. thanks gs. [ surprised scream ] don't panic. gift easy with etsy. so rich. so indulgent. it's indulgent moisture body wash for soft, smooth skin. bye-bye dry. hello glow! in just 14 days. indulge with olay body wash. ♪♪

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as donald trump tried to extort president zelenskyy and to digging up dirt on his political opponent, my brother listened on. shaken, alex came into my office. we reported the call together. i'm running for congress in virginia's seventh district because the threat remains. i'm running to stop authoritarians and extremists. i never thought politics would be in my future, but when i hear the call to serve, a answer. >> in 2019 lieutenant colonel eugene vindman along with his identical twin alexander spoken what would turn into the first impeachment of donald trump. both men and brothers were fired from their white house jobs at the national security council. last night colonel vindman won the primary race for virginia's seventh congressional district,

vanquishing the field of six contenders and he did it while leaning heavily on his messaging that a vote for him is a vote to protect democracy. joining me now is the democratic candidate for virginia's seventh district, retired colonel eugene vindman. the democracy message along with your campaign chest, the name recognition, really propelled you to this nomination. why do you believe that the message resonated with voters in your district and you plan to stick with that message as you move into the general? >> thank you for having me on tonight. last night was quite a whirlwind. i am still enjoying what was a resounding win for my campaign against a field of very capable local leaders and an impressive field and i thank each of them for running. to run is to serve. my message has been the democracy is at stake the

selection. we are at a crossroads and there will be a stark contrast in worldviews. on the one side there is hope. i came to this country as an immigrant. less than $800 between the five of us in our pocket and we built the american dream. on the other side is a party of extremists led by donald trump, a felon. that are interested in having politicians take away people's rights. politicians decide abortions. whether abortion is appropriate and banned books and burn books. that is a problem in this district, so my message will continue to be that democracy is at stake and so are all of our fundamental priorities. >> let's talk about the contours of the race. the district you are running and has been talked about as a flip possibility. your opponent is derek anderson.

is it who you wanted to go against in this race? >> he is exactly the kind of opponent that i anticipated coming out of a republican primary. and extremist. somebody that is interested in taking fundamental rights and freedoms away from people. look, the voters i have interacted with, and there have been thousands over the course of the last seven months that my team has talked to, they care about preserving the right to abortion, reproductive freedom. having safe, high quality public schools. these are things that maga extremists, which anderson represents, are interested in taking away. i spent 25 years in the army defending rights and freedoms. i swore an oath to the constitution and anybody who comes out of a republican primary these days swears an oath and fealty to just one man and that is donald trump. >> i'm old enough to remember when it was republicans who ran

on the idea of freedom. so wild to see the way in which they absolutely absconded on that principal. i have to ask a given where we started the show tonight, when you see putin and kim jong-un codifying their relationship, how do you take what is happening on the world stage and communicate to voters the stakes of this november's election from the president down the line? >> well the stakes could not be higher. there is a growth in authoritarian regimes around the world. democratic leaders are under fire. there seems to be this axis forming between putin and china and north korea and iran and you have a leader in donald trump, somebody that said, you know, putin can do whatever he wants to to nato countries. so he is propelling these regimes, these authoritarian

regimes and in fact he is attempting to emulate them with things like his plan 2025 and his attacks on fundamental rights and freedoms and that is what anderson represents and that is not in line with the values and interests of the voters in the seventh congressional district. why they were drawn to my campaign as they are interested in integrity, interested in moderation and interested in a government that will work for them. >> retired army lieutenant colonel eugene vindman, thank you for being with us. that is the show tonight. now it is time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening. >> good evening and i just managed to turn off my cell phone, just as you were turning to me. just in time. >> i love it. have a good night. >> read snoot was elected to the united states senate