do it all on the network made for streaming, and bring on the good stuff. good evening, and welcome to msnbc's special coverage of the first night of the 2024

republican national convention in milwaukee, wisconsin. i'm rachel maddow, joined here at msnbc headquarters by my colleagues joy reid and nicolle wallace and jen psaki and ari melber. we have chris hayes under a desk here somewhere. on days like this when it can be difficult to wrap your head around all of the news that will just not stop unfolding, we know you have every choice in the urld about where to watch the news tonight, so we're grateful to have you here with us. let's start with some of the day's biggest developments. just after 3:00 eastern this afternoon, republican nominee donald trump announced online that he had chosen ohio senator jd vance to be his vice presidential running mate. jd vance is 39 years old, he has held political office for less than two years before which he was best known for writing his autobiography. senator vance was famously a harsh trump critic in 2016 when trump first ran for president. jd vance at the time, again

then, famous just as an author, called trump reprehensible, called his policies immoral and adsiren, and even wondering if trump was, and i'm quoting here literally, america's hitler. nevertheless, vance has worked very hard to earn this vice presidential nod. he has become one of donald trump's most vociferous defenders and especially an eager promoter of the lie that donald trump secretly won the 2020 election. the announcement of the jd vance pick came today just moments before trump was formally nominated as the republican party's presidential nominee. that was done by a roll call of state delegates in downtown milwaukee. trump needed 1,215 delegates to secure the nomination. he crossed over that numerical threshold with the delegates from florida, which were announced from the floor by his

sons, two sons, a daughter, son's girlfriend there. it was the blond one, eric, who made the announcement. the assembled delegates later nominated jd vance as the vice presidential pick by acclimation, so now we have official republican nominees. florida was also the source of the other big news of the day. the judge overseeing the federal prosecution of former president trump for hoarding and hiding classified documents at his private florida club dismissed the whole case against trump today. she has been slow walking this case for months. but today, she tossed the whole thing out. she went on an opinion from supreme court justice clarence thomas in the high court's trump immunity ruling, in that statement from justice thomas, he said that he thought federal special counsel jack smith did not have a legitimate appointment to his position as

special counsel. needless to say this is a minority, some might even say fringe view in the judiciary, but clarence thomas articulated it as part of the immunity ruling, and judge aileen cannon who was herself appointed by donald trump just at the very end of his term in office, she today seized on that and used it as her reason to throw out the whole case. now, this is not a final decision. the special counsel jack smith says that he will appeal today's ruling. and again, the idea that special counsels don't really exist, that it's not a real thing that the justice department can do is not at all a mainstream view in the judiciary, so we shall see. before a few weeks ago, it wasn't a mainstream view in the judiciary that presidents were immune from doing anything they want to do in office no matter how big the crime. this is the latest confirmation

the classified documents case will get nowhere near trial before the election. you knee that with an exclamation point as of today. meanwhile, the republican national convention is under way in milwaukee, and it is of course under heightened scrut and security as the convention kicks off just 48 hours after an assassination attempt against donald trump at a rally in pennsylvania. a senior law enforcement official telling nbc news the fbi has now accessed the phone, the cell phone of the alleged shooter. a preliminary analysis of the phone has apparently not helped the fbi determine the motive for shooting at trump. while trump did sustain an injury to his ear in this assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed. a firefighter who according to his family threw himself onto his wife and two daughters to shield them from the gunfire. in that way, he very much died a

hero. president biden used a rare oval office address last night to denounce political violence and call for unity and calm and to express his thoughts and prayers for the two additional rallygoers who were hospitalized with injuries after this attack. this afternoon, president biden sat down for an exclusive interview with nbc news' lester holt. we're going to bring you that interview right here in just a couple hours. but any one of these things would be a massive stop everybody in their tracks news event. it just so happens that it's all of them all at once. with no break for any of us. joy, let me start with you. let me ask you to weigh in on any of those things. i also have been thinking, i haven't talked with you in person. we have been texting. since the assassination attempt of trump on saturday, that obviously is going to loom large not only in this news cycle and election but in american history. as we are now a couple days out

from that, do you feel like the conversation around that is getting more responsible, less responsible? >> i think it depends on what audience, obviously. there's still a lot of conspiracy theories, doubts, things going on around what happened. i have to say, i actually experienced that breaking news while i was at a wonderful thing called blur con, the black nerds of which i am one. i like to think of myself as their princess. so i'm at blur con, we were just chilling, going to one of the food trucks and doing that. that's when it started to pop into everybody's phones. and so i had a chance to actually talk to a lot of people in real time and to get sort of people's first instant reaction and then of course, more reactions have been coming. i always talk whether it's the official people or civilians. whether it's civilians or officials and on top of it, the news today out of miami about what judge aileen cannon did. i will say that the kind of universal kind of reaction that

i'm getting whether it's civilians or professionals is really a deep concern. and lack of confidence in not us at this table or us at msnbc but us as the media writ large. and a fear that what's going to happen now is that the republican party will do what they do. they're in the middle of a campaign. the convention started today. but the media will acquiesce to trying to convince people that the things they have been experiencing for the last five, six years didn't happen. that the greatest purveyor and promoter of political violence really, you know, since anyone can remember, since george wallace, i think, that we just haven't experienced that kind of open, you know, sort of

incitement of violence, it's not something we're used to anymore in american politics. then we had to get used to that being a thing. and people are concerned and expressing concern that we won't be the guardians of memory. and that we will allow donald trump as he is, you know, bathed in the glory and grandeur of his party to rewrite himself as both a hero and a victim, that people who are the most vulnerable to not just the things he's done but the things he's promising to do, and that that will then happen without a guardian saying, wait, stop, and that the media will acquiesce to this rewrite, and the people i have been talking to don't accept the rewrite. they still remember that this person said, get them out, i'll pay your legal fees. they still remember republicans like marjorie taylor greene had ads where they had long guns and were firing at pictures of nancy

pelosi and have been promoting the idea that the democrats, the left, the liberals, it will be peaceful, said the heritage foundation leader, if the left allows it. people haven't forgotten those threats and they don't want us to forget them either. >> at the same time, donald trump, for all the using the idea of victimization as a trope, he's legitimately a victim of this attempt. i was looking back at history, looking at previous political violence in our country, and all of the presidential candidates and indeed presidents who have been shot at and, you know, we had four presidents assassinated. we had an incredible history of political violence in this country, but one thing that's true over time when you look back at that whole string, going all the way back to the 1800s, is that the motive of the person committing the violence is never relevant. >> very true. >> the act of violence itself ends politics, turns it over into crime, and makes the views and the motivations of the shooter irrelevant.

everybody in politics no matter where you are idealogically, must unite around the idea that violence is unacceptable. it's unacceptable both when it comes to targeted stuff like this, but it's also unacceptable when you try to incite that as a way of getting things you want that you can't get through political means. it's trues in terms of violent rhetoric, it's true in orientation toward the idea of confrontation with your fellow americans and of course it's true in some sort of insane event like we saw on saturday in pennsylvania. and i just feel like it is a very -- obviously, we're all very grateful president trump was not more seriously hurt. we're all absolutely shattered by the fact that somebody was killed. people were put in the hospital, very seriously hurt. but i'm hoping that the one positive thing that can come out of this is some sobriety around the idea of violence in politics being no freaking joke. and nothing that anybody should play with ever.

and you're right, you can't be ahistorical about it. we need to think of it as a spectrum while beal real about the risks of this to everybody. violence is very unpredictable. once it's part of your political system, you never know which direction it's going to go. nobody can harness it in one direction only. >> and just quickly, you know, the one time i have ever been afraid doing this job, honestly, was in 2016, in cleveland. when men, because it's an open carry state, ohio, were pacing in front of our position with long guns, with ar-15s, in a way to menace us, as we were in our outdoor po their firearms. and i think about the people who have tried to vote in arizona, when men with long guns were standing outside of those polling places to send them a message, if you don't vote the right way, i'm here with this gun. so the idea of political violence that we have been

nursing really since then is so dangerous. it's so dangerous that you cannot avoid the consequences of it even if you're one of the people promoting it. >> that's right, and the political system collapses under the threat of violence because that is the end of politics and the beginning just of the use of force. >> i didn't know if we were going to read this reel, but as long as we're going there, i will say this. i have worked on half a dozen campaigns and i have never needed any sort of security from the other side. i worked on republican campaigns and i was never under any threat, verbal or physical, from any of the opposing campaigns. since i have had this job, covering the trump movement, everyone that goes to rallies, from every news organization, has security. most people who are in the public arena rely on security to protect their families. and a post-paul pelosi moment, you thought some circuit might trip and break. it didn't. they mocked him. they made fun of him and the circumstances around his attack. in a post, gabby giffords

america, you thought we might have a real consns. >> in a post steve scalise moment. >> and nothing has changed the conversation. it is sack and sad that trump was targeted. it's an epic tragedy. my parents go to trump rallies. it's a tragedy someone who was there to support their candidate died protecting their family. there is not nothing that could be done. there's something that can be done. there can be loud platformed condemnation of the violence and it doesn't come from across the idealogical spectrum. >> i will say in this moment i also feel like in talking about it being like is this going to be a different type of moment, is there going to be an outbreak of sobriety? part of that means being forgiving and soft hearted toward people who have done the wrong thing in the past who now want to do the right thing. one of the things that has happened in the wake of some of these violence incidents, some

people say i have used violent rhetoric in the past that i will not use again. that ought to be encouraged. we're going to see a little bit of that in the clip they released already from president biden speaking with lester holt, talking about language he's used in terms of targeting trump and whether or not that could have been misconstrued by anybody. part of the idea here about this being a different type of moment is that we should experience some growth as a nation. and that there should be self reflection by everybody in the public arena. but that doesn't mean we have to give up being clear eyed about the magnitude of the threats and where they're coming from. >> exactly, and we all will talk about the clip of president biden and him being asked about language he used, using targeted and using language that's around gun violence which is certainly not what he meant in that moment but it's important to think about your words. i also will say, donald trump just selected somebody for his vice presidential running mate who tweeted this, today is not

just some isolated incident and this is after, of course, the tragedy that happened on saturday. the central premise of the biden campaign is president donald trump is an authoritarian fascist who has to be stopped. the rhetoric led to donald trump's attempted assassination. we always need to give people a bridge to do the right thing and maybe this is a moment for that, but that is the person who has just joined the ticket with donald trump. it's important not to forget that either. >> i think, you know, the choice of jd vance had not been announced when jd vance tweeted that out. and so there was still a possibility, if we were going to have like a change of course here as a country, once he said democrats did this, democrats, the word there, led directly to is the phrase he used there, once he said that and blamed it in a partisan way like that, there was an option in the republican party and in the trump campaign to then not pick jd vance. >> let's heed joy's warning, let's not memory hole who trump

is. it's probably why he picked him. >> probably helped him. >> i mean -- i don't know. ari. >> i would just add that there's why did this happen is a question that could be answered slowly through an investigation. or for a lot of people, it doesn't matter and we have referred to people who had a take in an hour or two that was political, which means they're outing themselves. i would think that applies to some people on the right who wanted to immediately politicize this, and also has applied to some statements i have seen from people on the left who rushed to look at this as caused by something, but from an investigative perspective, we don't have motive yet. law enforcement has been on it for several days. they have the phone and they don't feel in a position to tell us the phone has revealed motive. we have clues that are isolated so he's a registered republican, but he made other types of political donations and we don't have the full contesh on that. i do think it's important to remember that what you said is true historically, most low

level assassinations do not matter much to motive over time. it would matter if somebody was working in concert with a larger organization or a foreign entity or an espionage asset. then it matters because it's an act of war, but what you said, lone wolf attacks which use political violence which often represent to mental illness or other kook adtutes may not matter. and the other vantage point is, why does this happen so much in america? and there's a security failure question for the secret service, which has not so far been very forthcoming. and this is a massive failure. someone tried to shoot a former president in the head. and he almost got shot right in the middle of the head and he almost got murdered and that could be any protectee. vance joins the list of protectees today. the president is a protectee. so that's bad, and we live in a society with ready and easy access to weapons of war and mass violence weapons.

and whether or not that fits into the threat matrix which we have seen because we have all lived through so many shootings. so people, whatever their politics who are trying to immediately tell you they have it figured out and know the why, they're way ahead of the investigators. that's not how investigations work. people who only want to talk about one aspect but not the secret serve, not weapons of war and violence. that's something, because securing these perimeters and buildings matters more and is harder here than when the president goes to many other countries where there are far less guns. i think we have to really be careful, and i understand what everyone is saying, but we have to be careful, all of us as a nation, to say are we talking about the facts and the incident that we never want to happen again, or are people using the language of facts and motive and other things before we have the facts? >> to the point you made, rachel, tonight on the dais will be lieutenant governor mark robinson of north carolina,

whose most infamous quote recently is some people need killing. >> when he was talking about his political opponents. >> the left. you're going to also have on the stage marjorie taylor greene, who in her political ads shot a gatlin gun metaphorically at democrats. you have somebody called amber rose who is kanye west's ex-girlfriend who said her reason for supporting trump is he makes her feel safe. he's like her protector despite the fact he is somebody whoseler been adjudicated as having sexuala assaulted a woman. charlie kirk who has been open about saying things like get them out of my country. get them out of my country. and about people of color who are immigrants. this dais doesn't say to me that this party wants to make a change. are the pins that these members wore of an ar-15, are those coming off?

i don't know. it might be a good idea. but i don't have faith that they will. and so i think the question we'll now see, donald trump says he wants to talk about unity, but unify around what? what is it that we're asked to unify around? because it's not they're poisoning the souls of our country. i don't think that's something to unify around or camps for migrants. i will await and be open minded to see if there is a change. >> our friend chris hayes is standing by. chris. >> yeah, i like everyone i think has this sort of spiraling dark black feeling at the news of the ex-president being shot at, almost assassinated. also, just what a horrible -- just a horrible thing to happen, a horrible thing to happen to those people attending the rally, and like, a kind of violence both to him and his family and the people that were there, but also to the civic fabric, which to me remains more important to preserve than ever, which is just the fact that we

are engaged in this great environment to resolve social conflict nonviolently and with each other as fellow equal citizens, meeting as equals in the plain of a democratic nation, and if that sounds highfalutin or also abstract, it's really the thing. all those people at the rally and us, we're all in this project together we're calling america. we're trying to figure things out. we have a lot of differences and figuring them out without resorting to violence is the thing, it is the project. and it feels very perilously threatened in a way that's truly terrifying and i do hope that we sort of double down on that civic creed, like, liberal democracy, all of us encountering each other as equals across conflict, deep conflict, i mean real, real differences, that we can have that and preserve that thing that allows us to meet on that plain as equals without the horror of what we saw in butler, pennsylvania, on saturday.

>> yeah, and thank you for that, chris. that's exactly, the fragility that the ambition of the american experiment, but also the fragility of it, and very, very strongly shaken right now. joining us right now is senator chris murphy, democrat of connecticut. senator murphy, i'm glad you were able to take a few minutes to join us tonight. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> i'm not going to insist that you join in this conversation that we're having in terms of reaction to what happens on saturday night. i would love to hear your thoughts. i would also love to hear your reaction to this selection of senator vance, one of your senate colleagues as trump's vice presidential running mate. >> i think your conversation, first of all, has been really important and what you said at the jump was the most important. the only reaction that matters here is one in which both parties denounce the use of violence in our politics. it just wasn't that long ago when transitions of power in civilizations happened through violence, where you advanced your own economic, social, or

political interests through violence. we have made just a fantastic transition as a world over the course of the last 2,000 years in which much less of that happens but it all sits on a knife' edge and you can use a peaceful civilization. you can lose the reliance on peaceful transitions of power if you let it become normalized. listen, i just worry we know exactly who donald trump is. we can wish that he is going to use this week in order to change. he has an opportunity to do that. the worst act of political violence in this country's recent history is january 6th. and just two weeks ago, just a week ago, donald trump was celebrating the people who attacked our capitol, promising to pardon the people who tried to kill me and others who were trying to do the people's work and certify joe biden's victory. i'll keep my fingers crossed that donald trump will renounce violence this week. i just think i know donald trump, i don't think he will do

it. i know jd vance and exactly why he was picked by donald trump. jd vance is a believer in a national abortion ban, no exceptions for rape and incest. it is absolutely the agenda of this party to strip away from women the ability to have access to reproductive health care. jd vance is a believer that donald trump won the 2020 election. he's a believer in those conspiracy theories. over and over again, he has proven that he's going to line up with the president's plan to cut taxes for the rich, to deny elections when they don't turn out well for republicans and to take away from women the right to a safe and legal abortion. so just wasn't surprising to me that jd vance was the pick today. >> can i ask how you would characterize senator vance's time in washington so far? he's only been in public office, only been a senator for a year and a half. he won in 2022, was sworn in january of 2023, and we're only halfway through 2024 now. in that year and a half, what

have you observed, what have you come to believe about him just watching him as a senator? >> well, i think he exists to be trump's primary lieutenant in the u.s. senate. what trump is looking for is blind loyalty. he's not looking for people who are going to serve the country, not looking for people who are going to lift up the plate of the middle class or the poor. he's looking for people who will do for him what michael pence would not do. michael pence would not steal the election from joe biden. would not end american democracy at trump's request. he is now picking a vice president who has pledged 100% loyalty to the cult of donald trump. i have also seen jd vance act in a way that is really just dismissive of democracy. he's one of the republican senators who routinely stops us from being able to approve appointees to the department of justice because he does not want

the department of justice to do its work if the work is investigating republicans. so i have seen a dismissiveness about democracy, i have seen a blind complete loyalty to donald trump and i think those are the things that ultimately made him an attractive pick. >> one of the things that has been sort of circulating today about senator vance in his recent remarks. not something ancient history, but within the past year, he said that suggested that a president shouldn't have to follow court orders, supreme court rulings. talked about the famous quote of the chief justice has issued his ruling, now let him enforce it. are you worried that senator vance is proposing a sort of procedural radicalism, saying he would do what donald trump wanted mike pence to do, suggesting that trump shouldn't follow court orders, shouldn't even follow supreme court rulings. there's an argument that's been

made, i don't think senator vance is a very high-profile figure yet. so i'm not sure how well this has translated broadly to the public, but that argument has been made about him that he's proposing a form of procedural radicalism for trump that is more radical than even trump has suggested in the past. do you subscribe to that? >> so, there is a plan written down on paper to transition american democracy to autocracy. there is a very mainstream element of the republican party and trump's infrastructure that is very thoughtful about how they're going to end democratic norms. jd vance is part of that infrastructure. he has been fairly public in his antipathy for democracy. there's just a dominant strain in the republican party, and some of the sort of thin intellectual veneer that covers trumpism, that jd vance is a big

part of that simply believes that democracy is antiquated, that it doesn't work any longer. that we would be better off if we just had one person in charge and the rest of us were stripped of our rights, and that we put men back in charge, that we created this nation in a new cloak of christian nationalism. that's where jd vance comes from. and he talks a good game, but if you're really listening to him, he is being picked in part because he is going to help shape this transition away from democratic norms, this transition to a white patriarchal christian dominated nation, something that's very different than the nation that many of us have thought we have been a part of this many years. >> of all the supposed short list contenders that donald trump was considering for vice president, senator vance certainly, i think, widely viewed as the most radical

choice on the terms you laid out. senator chris murphy, thank you for your time tonight. a pleasure to have you with us. >> thanks. all right, we're just getting going with our coverage of the republican national convention, starting its first night in milwaukee. we'll have a closer look at jd vance, speaking with a reporter who has covered him extensively. lots to cover from milwaukee including from the rnc stage tonight. stay with us. if you have chronic kidney disease you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with farxiga. because there are places you'd like to be. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections,

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madam chair, it is a great honor to move that jd vance be nominated by acclimation by this republican national convention as its candidate for the office of vice president of the united states of america. >> so donald trump turns 78 years old last month. because of that and because he already was president once, his choice of running mate is a very overt bid to shape the republican party's future.

the runners-up for his running mate were north dakota governor doug burgum. he's 67 years old. the other was senator marco rubio of the great state of florida. he's 53 years old. but the guy trump ultimately tapped to be his running mate, the junior u.s. senator from ohio, jd vance, is very junior. he's only 39 years old. he will turn 40 next month. vance was also widely considered to be the most radical choice among all the candidates trump was reportedly considering, at least in terms of his policy positions and his idealogical commitments and alignments. let's bring in chris hayes who has been following trump's decision to pick ohio senator vance as his vice presidential running mate. i understand you have a guest. >> i do. and it's interesting what you said about the sort of radical nature. i think when you look at those three finalists, burgum, rubio, and jd vance, there's some political arguments in the short term for each of them, particularly i think burgum and

rubio. rubio obviously has a lot of experience in the united states senate. he's run for president before. he's a very gifted politician, and he also would be a historic pick, the first latino to serve as vice president, the first on a ticket. doug burgum is someone who has a wealth of executive experience, built this company, was a governor as well. and you could imagine sort of stepping into the role. vance is neither of those things. what he does bring is a kind of idealogical vision. let's bring in "new york times" political correspondent michael bender who has been covering the veepstakes on the republican side and as someone who has been covering this choice, what do you think this signals? what do you think tipped it over to being vance? >> most immediately for trump, a signal that he sees vance as his clearest way to win in november. and that the way trump sees the way to do that is exactly how he did it in 2016. by winning these, you know, breaking the blue wall once again. michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania. and selecting someone from that

region who trump sees as an effective messenger to get that done. and obviously, pretty big signals about what trump sees as the future of the republican party. >> you know, there's regional component here. we should note that vance is new to electoral politics. he's only run in one race. and he underperformed other republicans in that race. it was a weird year in a lot of ways but this is not someone with a long record as a politician, as a public communicator in that role. >> yeah, that's absolutely right. i mean, he has a longer record of being anti-tump really than pro-trump, and there are other contenders, marco rubio in particular, who has known trump and worked with trump for much longer. but trump spent really the past year talking about wanting a running mate who would help him

govern in office, someone who could step in and be a president if called upon. vance doesn't seem to fit those as much as some of the other contenders do. we should note it's really been in the last few weeks that trump's public statements had shifted on this, and added in addition to governor he wants someone who can help him win. what i attribute that to is trump has some room to run here right now. biden is in a major crisis on his side of this race. trump's poll numbers have been pretty good for a while. and to me, this is a very political pick for trump, and doubling down on how he knows and how he has won before. >> all right, michael bender who is a political correspondent for "the new york times." he's been tracking this veep conversation. thank you, michael. >> thank you. you know, rachel, one more note, and you noted this before

have done the 2020 coup, which of course is the thing that fundamentally is the reason that donald trump needs a new running mate, because his previous running mate and the man who served him as vice president refused to end the constitutional republic, to topple it or attempt to topple it. jd vance is on the record as saying yes, he's given an interview on a sunday show where he said, yes, i would have voted -- i would have done exactly what president trump wanted mike pence to do, and quote, didn't have the guts to do, and i would have done that and let congress, quote, fight it out. so on that litmus test, he's on the record. >> yeah, and chris, it's not an esoteric point. oh, if we could time travel and you could replace mike pence and be there in 2021, i mean, we're going to talk about this later on, but the lead story in "the new york times" this weekend on saturday before the shooting happened in pennsylvania on saturday night was about the

plans by the republican party, by the rnc, by groups like the heritage foundation that are working so closely with the trump campaign, to make sure there are no certified election results. to make sure that republican election officials at every level and every state in the country feel empowered to refuse to certify the elections. and hopefully for that to result in there being states that don't have certified electors. the whole reason to do that is to make sure that we don't end up having an election that is decided by the vote but we instead have an election that is decided by some sort of fight of some kind in washington. in congress. and jd vance will be a united states senator when that happens but he's also picked as the running mate, having made the pledge that he would be the one to make sure that it succeeded in washington if they did it again. it's not backward looking at all. it's forward looking in terms of

what we're expecting a few months from now. >> i could not agree more, and i think the degree of emphasis and zeal that jd vance brought to that answer and other things he's said about firing every midlevel bureaucrat in the civil service and defying the supreme court when it rules it down because he knows that would not be lawful, he knows quite well. yale law graduate knows you can't fire every, quote, midlevel bureaucrat in the federal government. he urged donald trump he should defy the supreme court if that happens. there's a very clear zealous and extreme idealogical vision embodied in senator vance, and you know, eyes open on everyone from trump to everyone else who has watched his assent about what that vision is. >> chris hayes, thanks. we'll be back with you in a moment. joining us now is our colleague michael steele, former chair of the republican national committee, now one of the hosts of msnbc's the weekend. michael steele, what is your reaction to the choice of jd

vance as trump's running mate? >> you know, in one sense, it's a little surprising for me, rachel, because of some of the other attendant politics around trump in terms of the issues that he's going to have to battle on going forward. like abortion, supreme court, and other things. so i thought at the end of the day, a female choice for him would have been a better political choice. but jd, you know, when you stop and think about it, very much as chris put his finger on and as "the new york times" reporter noted, does check a lot more boxes for trump. in the sense that at the end of the day, when he says jump, he knows how high he will jump. when he says stop, he knows he will stop. when he says go, he knows he will go. and he did not get that with burgum. he did not get that with marco

rubio. nor tim scott. nor any of the others. certainly not nikki haley. so it kind of makes sense in the end that donald trump found a younger extension of himself that would prosecute the case for maga. this is now, and i say this as a member of the republican party, this is now the maga party. so republicans like me, we clearly have no room left here. and so i think that selection signals that transition. in a very profound way. for a lot of republicans out there who will have to think long and hard, not just about, you know, this election but where they stand going forward, because trump has made it very clear, i own this. you don't. and here's my progeny to make sure that this continues in the vein i want it to go. >> michael, you mentioned that

you thought just strategically that a female running mate might have been a better choice for trump. with jd vance, he's not only got a young man running mate, but vance is an absolutist on abortion. he wants a national abortion ban. and he wants no exception for a woman who became pregnant as a result of a rape or as the result of incest, which means somebody who is the victim of incest, he would force to give birth against her will in every state in the country. he's also suggested that women who are being violently abused by their husbands should be forced to stay in that marriage, should not be allowed to get divorced to get away from even a violently abusive husband. i have to imagine even in a weird election year like this, with weird dynamics that are changing and getting weirder all the time, that has to worry republicans in terms of how that's going to sound to female

voters, whether they're republicans or independents. >> oh, it absolutely does. and don't let the veneer fool you, rachel. there's a lot of angst and consternation beneath the surface among republicans who now have to go out and carry the baggage you just laid out and you didn't lay out but a tenth of it that they're going to have to carry around this issue of ivf, abortion, women's reproductive health. the narratives around what states are already doing, and what this signals, and i think this is very important for people to understand here, folks, don't step back and get punked. my friend and colleague joy reid really put her finger a lot on this in the beginning of the broadcast when she was talking about how this really is playing out and the reality of it is they're going to say, you're going to see over the next few days and jd vance is the contradiction of what you're about to see. that there's unity.

jd vance tweeted out within two hours of the shooting on saturday, putting the blame on joe biden and democrats. in a very partisan, ugly, underhanded way. that there is, you know, the sense that oh, no, we hear women when they tell us what they want. and so we're not going to put in a national ban. jd vance stands for exactly that proposition. so this idea that you're going to see these narratives play out where the party is going to speak about one thing, its actions, the selection and choices it has already made and will make from project 2025 to this vp selection tells us a different story. so folks, don't get suckered in to the lie, the bs that you're going to hear coming out of that hall. it's going to look pretty, sound very country, right? you know, down home kind of hey y'all, we okay. but the reality of it is, it's dangerous as hell.

because what it speaks to and what it will try to implement is an america that does not look like a lot of folks who are watching this thing. and an america that stands in the tradition of what the founders had in mind. so be careful with that because it ain't what you think it is. >> our colleague michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee, and always included in our hey y'all, no matter where we are or who we're talking to. thank you. we'll be back to you later this evening. the democratic mayor of milwaukee is going to join us next to talk about hosting the republican convention in his hometown. especially amid all the new heightened concerns about security. mayor johnson is just ahead. we have much more to get to tonight. stay with us.

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♪♪ today, trump officially secured the delegates necessary to become the republican nominee for president in the third straight election. but this comes at a very serious and bizarre time in american politics.

he wins the nomination formally just two days after an assassination attempt on his life this weekend. the violence on saturday put a spotlight on security for this week's convention. we will see as many as 50,000 people in milwaukee for the event. droid read -- joy? >> thank you, rachel. joining us is milwaukee mayor cavalier johnson. mayor jonathan, thank you for being here. i will get to the elephant in the room. security for this event. tell us what changed about it after this weekend. >> absolutely. and thank you for the question. in terms of security for the republican national convention here in walkie, i know folks are asking the question because of what happened on saturday at the rally in pennsylvania. first, let me start by saying, that was horrific. it absolutely should not happen to any american at all. it does not matter if you are

kid going to school, someone went to the grocery store, someone running for the president of usa. i have had issues with mr. trump. but i condemn that violence and wish him well in his recovery. i know he's here in milwaukee right now. in terms of security, by definition, what we have here is an elevated level of security far beyond what we saw at mr. trump rally this past saturday. what we have at the republican national convention is an and ssd -- a national social security event -- the highest for security clearances. >> our firearms are allowed in the event or near it? >> there is an inner perimeter with secret service were firearms are not allowed. there is an outer perimeter footprint as well. unfortunately, firearms are allowed in the area, although we have not had an issue on the first day of the convention. the reason being is because of state law.

milwaukee is an open carry state. at a local level, we are not able to surpass or go past with the state law has indicated in terms of possession of firearms in that area. >> we know you are a supporter of president biden's re- election. you did push to get the convention in your city. it will obviously bring economic benefits to your city. but then after that, you were insulted by the now nominee of the republican party. he insulted your city. i cannot imagine why he would have a problem with your city, given you are the first african american mayor. and your city is 4% african american. i don't know what would've caused him to have an issue. i will let others guess. what you make of that? >> not just insulted milwaukee, with me as the first black mayor, but also insulted washington, d.c., also detroit. has also insulted philadelphia and also insulted new york city. you name it. though cities have faced those

same things. the decision to bring the republican national convention -- i am obviously a supporter of president biden. and the delicate -- delegates -- i will probably cast my vote for president biden. joyce, the host -- our county executive, so many other partners work together to bring this year because we see the economic value. this will open the door for us to host other large-scale events through a political, sports, business or entertainment in our city. i know images of milwaukee are beaming into televisions all around the world. that is exactly where we want to be. >> an excellent salesman for his city, cavalier johnson. >> the democrats picked milwaukee in 2020.

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♪♪ welcome back to our special coverage of the republican national convention . which convened in milwaukee, wisconsin today at an extraordinary moment in american politics. for the third election in a row, the reporting party has chosen donald trump as their presidential nominee. and today, he chose ohio senator j.d. vance as his running mate.

mr. vance has only been in the u.s. senate for 18 months. he has never otherwise held public office at all. he wrote a book about white working-class despair. he worked as a venture capitalist. he went to yale law school, where he met his wife, who works at a high-end law firm in san francisco and washington, d.c. at least, she did, until today. when she quit the firm after her husband was nominated to be trump's running a. mr. vance worked as a cnn contributor -- as a running mate for donald trump, it is unavoidable to note, that his record of remarks about trump is one that i think reasonably described -- as rich. that is the word. >> i am a never trumper guy. i never liked him. >> as a fundamental level, it's a he said, she said.

at the end of the day, do you believe donald trump always told the truth, just kidding. >> i cannot stand trial. because i think he the fraud. i think he is a total fraud exploiting these people. >> i do too. like you said, i agree with you on trial. because i don't think he's the person -- i don't think ashley cares about folks. >> as a conservative who that trump does not have the answer is and is not qualified to be president, what are you going to do this election, if you don't mind saying? >> my current plan is to vote either third-party, or as i joked to my wife, i might write in my dog. is that's about as good as it seems. you know, i think there is a chance if i select trump has a really good chance of winning the may have to hold my nose and vote for hillary clinton. ultimately, i think i will vote third party, i think i will vote for this new guy -- evan mcmullen, who actually met the other day. but i think i'm going to vote

third party because i can't stand -- stomach trial. i think that he's not just an is leading the white working- class to a very dark place. >> donald trump new running mate, i will vote for my dog over him. i will vote for a guy i just met, evan mcmullen, or hillary clinton, or some other third- party entity i cannot even name. i will not vote for him because he is noxious and he is leading us in this country to a very dark place. he calls him, a total fraud. in addition to that clip you saw of him on msnbc, on hardball with chris matthews, said he believes a woman when he -- what she testified that she was sexually assaulted by trump. he believed her, not trump. he also likes a tweet around the same time saying trump had committed serial sexual assault . another one just calling trump, a monster.

he is called trump a moral disaster. he is called him, cultural heroine. he is called him "regrettable", he is also called him "an idiot". j.d. vance is a good writer. he wrote a very good new york times op-ed that trump is unfit for our nation's highest office. he wrote to her former roommate, i go back and forth between taking trump in the sealable -- cynical able like nixon, or that he is america fessler -- americas hitler. how is that for discouraging? after this weekend's horrific -- the assassination attempt against trump that bloodied the former president, that killed a man and wounded two others, j.d. vance, a u.s. senator said it was democrats that were desk crash -- that led directly to the assassination attempt against trump.

many people, and political observers went on the record saying that if j.d. vance was still on the shortlist to be considered to be trump's running mate, that online post -- saying democrats led directly to the assassination attempt against trump, that surely would have disqualified him. but he says that democrats criticism led directly to the assassination attempt. despite the fact that he himself called trump americas hitler. j.d. vance says he has change, he no longer thinks the terrible things he said about trump in the past. maybe that is true, who among the nose what is in a man's heart? in it j.d. vance's public position now, there is literally nothing about trump that vance is not endorsing and indeed advancing. you may remember j.d. vance coming to trump's criminal trial in new york.

he called it a sham trial. while he was there, he attacked the judge and the judge's family. and he made sure to address -- dress exactly like trump while he did it. he decided he to is against windmill. terrible, ugly windmill. one of the weirdest trump pet peeves of all, j.d. vance have adopted that for himself as well, just as he is adopted the red tie, white shirt thing. he called people convicted for crimes related to the january 6th attack, political criminals. he says the 2020 election without a real election. he said he will not commit to accepting the results of the next election in 2024. is of course unusual for president to run for a second term with a different running mate than they had in the first term. clearly, mike pence was no longer available. mike pence not an option this time around after the violet mob trump unleashed look for mike pence to try to hang him while trump and the mod.

mike pence had made history saying, he cannot endorse his former running mate for a second term in office. how do you talk yourself into wanting trump to pick you for this job when the last guy trump picked, he nearly got killed what he told a violet mob hence was the man to blame for all they were so upset about. j.d. vance told cnn this year he does not think mike pence was in any real danger on january 6th. he also said had he been mike pence, had he been vice president himself on january sixth, 2021, he would have thrown out the electoral votes and did what trump wanted. the lead story in the new york times on saturday night before the terrible shooting happened in pennsylvania was in the story. about how republicans have already laid the groundwork to have their officials all over the country refused to certify the election results this year.

reflect the heritage foundation i think ugly some sort of amorphous conditions exist in the country now, right now, that already justify any election official at any level, refusing to certify the results. they are already intending the election results will not be certified. that is intended, and they may very well prevent any normal count of the vote this year. any normal tally of the vote, including in the electoral college. the idea is there will be chaos in washington, some kind of actual fight for power in washington instead of it being decided by our votes in the state. as of today, they have as a running mate for trump, someone committed and insisting there was nothing wrong with what happened on january 6th. it is just that it did not work. if he had been there, it would have worked. so, put him in there. as we have been discussing,

j.d. vance was a national abortion ban. he thinks even and incest survivors should be forced to give birth against their will. he things women being violently abused by their husbands should be forced to stay in the marriage. j.d. vance has a lot to offer in terms of his policy positions that are very unpopular with most of the american public. that said, he says trump should've been able to seize power despite the vote in 2020. if you are going to hold power despite the vote, despite the expressed will of the people, your unpopular positions will never be a problem for you ever again. because nobody gets the vote on who is in office. joining us now is presidential historian michael -- is great to see you. thank you for being here. can you talk to us about the impact of vice presidential selections historically.

if you could put the pick of mr. vance as trump's running mate -- how historical is it for presidential candidate to switch from one running mate to someone else for a subsequent running back of the oval office? >> that did not happen with cleveland and harrison, back to the 19th century. we historians have to drag it back that far, that quickly. or eisenhower and stevenson in the 1950s. eisenhower held onto nixon. to understand the events of choice, here is another -- where donald trump breaks historical role. looking at eisenhower and nixon and reagan and bush, it does not tell us much. yes, eisenhower chose nixon who was 39 years old, just like j.d. vance. that is similar. i think this pick is different. i think trump is doubling up on mag a. he has chosen someone

who you said earlier this evening is more extreme than trump is on things like ukraine and abortion. and j.d. vance was project 2025 before it was a thing. i think i heard someone else mention, saying donald trump, if re-elected, should throw the permanent government. could i suggest another historical parallel? this is the one. i think you will find this familiar. as you know and as you have said and written and taught us, in the late 1930s, there was a movement in america that was for authoritarian government. and the idea was ruling leaders of the corporate class and finance would join with labor, working people, farmers. so you would have this mass movement that was working people, farmers, corporate rulers. they would provide the financing. and they would all operate an

authoritarian government from washington so the corporation would tell everyone what to do with the help of whoever was the president of the united states. what i have been hearing about j.d. vance, it is an echo of that. finally, i am saying this half jokingly, do you remember what year j.d. vance was born in? the year 1984. for the few viewers who do not know, it was the title of a very ominous book by george orwell about the dangers of autocracy and -- >> is also a punch to the gut about what it means to be old in america. [ inaudible ] he was born in the year i still have sneakers from. michael, thank you very much. i appreciate. it is great to have you here tonight. jen, let me go to you on this.

there is all of this talk about how you pick a vice presidential running mate, you pick the one that is supposed to help you govern? do you help the one that helps you get elected? you killed -- pick the one that will help you compensate for something obviously wrong with you? when it comes to getting elected, to vice presidential elections help? >> rarely do they matter a time. we were talking about this during the break, they can help marginally, i think. with barack obama, he picked joe biden. some of the other finalists were middle to the later age older white men who were giving comfort to people who may not have been ready to vote for the first black man to be president. i think nicole was referencing cheney may have helped george w. bush get some credibility on foreign policy. joe biden did that for obama as well. ohio -- it is not a state that

democrats are actually competing in. so it's not a state that trump needs j.d. vance to win. if you look at what others have been talking about, specifically, he will help donald trump if he loses the election -- he will going get fake collectors and do what mike pence did not do. it feels much more likely to be what was on the mind of someone who loves loyalists. i will also note one of the things donald trump said he talks about becoming a major best seller and movie. i believe might be .45 in the reasons why he chose them. >> would you think of j.d. vance? >> i think we have to separate what he does for trump versus what he does for trump is a. he is the ideological heir samantha and seemed as the

vanguard of the new right. mager is an emotional grievance filled movement. what that practice it in a much more cerebral circumscribed fashion, there is a very clear isolationist foreign policy to much of what he has done. there is a sheet of economic populism. even though he is not a great supporter of labor unions. they are getting back to the hard-core conservatism that was popularized between world war i and world war ii, which you know a lot about, rachel. basic to move forward into the 21st century. i think, highly in washington, while not allow people have been paying attention, j.d. vance has been a part of grassroots efforts among donors, new staffers on capitol hill. just reran driving -- re- energizing, but building it for the 21st century. >> institutionalizing it. >> institutionalizing a post from, it's a big move for the movement. he is going to carry the torch forward, and potentially more effectively than even donald trump could if they get into

office, given this discipline with which he is operated. >> even though he has not been a public official site the last five minutes. >> he is been efficient at forging alliances, and getting with the heritage foundation, the donor community and the new vanguard of conservative politics. >> mitt romney has a great quote when he says, i could not disrespect anyone more that i disrespect j.d. vance. i think the thing about trump is, he is still mad at deborah messing and jeff zucker for not being grateful enough that he made them when he was a tv person. he is a great filled guy. so what is it? what is the x factor that lets them overlook j.d. vance calling him an idiot, america's hitler, useless, worthless and less than his dog. i think we may be overthinking

it. if the tragic events of saturday night had not happened, we would be talking about the reporting you reference. -- about exactly how they plan to do the coup this time. and j.d. vance is all of those things. for trump, he does not care about the policy. he will never read elegy he will never get past page one on the 600 paid blueprint for project 25 that set that quote prada 2025. the only part that trump cares about is that they want project. doing what mike pence would not. donald trump does not care about many of the vestiges of his first term. but he will never get over what mike pence would do. he called him a p word. -- trump assistant recounting how icky a vodka felt -- his daughter felt about the words her father used. donald trump to regret was the thing penta did not do that would have kept him in office.

he's not been for a policy partner. -- j.d. vance will do the one thing penta would not. >> the other thing i think j.d. vance brings that will be consequential for the world, -- he is even more radical on the issue of ukraine then trump. trump is already promising if he is elected, america will switch sides and get out of nato. he thinks nato should collapse. is also inviting russia to attack our nato allies. he is essentially think he will support russia's ames in the ukraine war. that will be a world shaking think. to know his running mate is there to effectuate that just as much of anything else that is motivating -- will be consequential for the world. even before we have the election. i want to say for a second, tim

scott is about to speak. we will take some of his remarks. tim scott was on the shortlist to be the running mate pick and did not get this. it will be interesting to see how he handles this. let's keep an eye on this. >> i want to say, he was never going to get it. to nicole's point, we might sometimes overthink it because we try to fit what donald trump does into the mind of a politician. to the point we've all made, he does not care about that. the head of the heritage foundation praised j.d. vance. he sees them as the vanguard of the new right . he is like, score. for donald trump, the mild research i did, donald trump is much more simple -- he did a casting decision. he says, that guy looks the way of bp should look. i will give you one statistic, the statistics are 31 and 23. if you look at the bar graphs

between 2016 and 2020, joe biden slightly changes the difference -- hillary clinton outperformed him. with black women, black men, latinos and latinas. she did better than joe biden. the place where joe biden's money was made, he is a white, working-class man. he did nine points better with white men. the reason donald trump feared joe biden and wanted to destroy him, joe biden is a threat to his court. he did better with white men. they had no need to try to "di -- di" they have want the war against diversity, the idea of picking a diverse person, woman, person of color, would offend the project. the project is white men. the project is advancing the --

of white men. j.d. vance meets that test. and he helped him double down on the thing joe biden told from him in 2020, the white guys. >> the difference between 2020 and 2024 demographically maybe dobbs, maybe row. if biden can put the pedal to the actual metal when it comes to mobilizing a female vote, among democrats and independents and potentially among republicans, they can neutralize whatever other demographic shaving. >> democrats have had a really rough few weeks. this is the best news democrats have gotten at least in a month. picking j.d. vance is saying to women, go to -- this is going to be the best thing that could possibly happen to a ticket that's got a woman, former crimes prosecutor on it. >> let's watch a little bit of senator tim scott.

>> wow. wow! thank you so much. hello, milwaukee! are you ready for four more years of donald trump? me too. listen, if you did not believe in miracles in before saturday, you better be believing right now. thank god almighty that we live in a country that still believes in the king of kings and lord of lords, the alpha and the omega. and our god, our god, still saves, he still delivers.

and he still sets free. because on saturday, the devil came to pennsylvania, holding a rifle. but an american lion got back up on his feet and he roared! he roared! yeah, yes he did. [ crowd chanting ] >> america, this is a difficult time for our nation. inflation is crushing families. illegal immigration is crushing american workers. failing schools and victimhood

culture are crushing our kids. the weakness of the commander in chief has invited world wars all around our world. joe biden is asleep at the wheel , and we are headed over a cliff. -- >> south carolina senator, tim scott, not chosen as donald trump's running mate. student with what would've been the same speech had he been selected. >> i just, for your own entity, just. no adjustments were made. >> senator scott, there is an argument. indulge me here. and consider that i confidently predicted trump would want to pick his daughter to be his running mate.

i bet the rachel maddow show tacos. when it was j.d. vance, i immediately stopped talking about it. i was completely convinced he was going to pick his daughter. >> wait, can i have a taco? >> i did not get any. i need to make good on the bed, i have not done so. [ inaudible ] i think there is a case to be made. hear me out, tell me i am wrong. j.d. vance is the most radical candidate we could have chosen. doug burgum is the north dakota governor and is an itemized pick. rubio was in the mix. even though he constitutionally could not be the choice because he and trump are both residence that the residents of florida. he was in the mix because he represents a normalcy in the american congress -- caucus.

as long as rubio could be strung along, he had to praise donald trump, say nice things about donald trump. stop anyone else he knew in the senate from saying anything bad about donald trump. he needed to neutralize any response from trump from republican normal ville that would've created any speedbump. you keep rubio strung along for this long because he is going to get it. you thereby eliminate, essentially, all normal high- profile republican potential opposition and that you cut them off at the last minute. >> what is crazy is, he could rip up the constitution if he went. what was he going to do about the constitution now? it's so ridiculous. i agree that was trump's approach, what was rubio's? he offered the most devastating takedown of trump's campaign highest aggression. the senate report is more dampening than the mullet report. i think we are back to what

this is really about. trump did not read the senate report. he does not know about the constitution, i am sure. if he does, it is because he gould it. it was never real. it explained trump, but not rubio. >> it does, in a sense. part of the price of matter -- magda -- is to take the humiliation. nikki haley was not even invited, she was ostentatiously disinvited. yet, she said, i pledge all my delegates to try. >> and then they reversed it. >> tim scott humiliated himself daily and have continued to do so on this stage. i am stunned and sad for him in the display he just did. the humiliation of tim scott as part of the game and part of the price. marco rubio has been allow himself to be humiliated by donald trump since he drank the

tiny water bottle. he will never stop donald trump to stop humiliating him. -- that is the price of being part of his army. he enjoys humiliation. i think people forget the character of the man. he enjoys humiliating people and making them jump through hoops -- was no more going to be the vp as he was going to be speaker. afterwards, the texas congressman admitted he only place his name in nomination because he was black and there was a black nominee -- hakeem jeffries was on the other side. i am sad for the folks who are willing to take this kind of abuse. it is community-wide abuse. it is an abuse of these communities to make people walk the plank knowing none of these people were ever going to be picked. >> he also changes them in the process. marco rubio, according to -- has been read pilled.

he believes the things he is saying. but in the process, the norming is gone. if the norm he ever existed, the norming have been radicalized. >> they change themselves, to go back to the theme of the evening, it is all about ambition. all of these people want to be in charge and sitting behind the oval office desk. >> the answer to the mystery of marco rubio. >> maybe that's also for j.d. vance, who described himself as a never trumper eight years ago when he did not have facial hair. and to nicole's earlier point, he will read the project 2025 and 900 pages. he will also know how to implement things in a way that is more affect this and more ruthless and better than trump. does trump care about that? no. should we care? yes. >> the thing that would've been worse about trump's first

office, if it had been competent. the idea that they are edging forward in grievance and in radicalism and incompetence -- and competence at the same time , that's the worst of all worlds. to gives the democrats a clear view of what they're up against. this is a live campaign. on the way, our field trip with jacob so broth. he is in the thick of it in milwaukee. don't forget, lester holt's' -- exclusive interview with joe biden. >> ladies and gentlemen, it is now my honor to introduce the attorney general, and there goes the teleprompter. ♪ ♪ they explained everything. leaffilter's technology protects

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>> home state republican senator, ron johnson tonight giving his remarks at the republican national convention on this first day of the republican national convention. interestingly, -- pms -- pbs news anchor, says she asked wisconsin senator ron johnson about the tone of his remarks. at one other point in the speech, he said democratic policies are "clear and present danger to the country." she asked him about thing that about democrats while he is been otherwise calling for unity. his response was his speech he just delivered at the republican national convention was not the speech he met to give. it was a big misunderstanding. the teleprompter loaded the old version. the new one called for unity but they did not put that one in there. >> he could not ad-lib?

>> -- i absolutely believe this is real. i cannot believe this is real. >> we have all read from teleprompters. if something comes up in the teleprompter that rachel maddow would read that says, i love donald trump --, you probably would stop and not read it and note was the wrong script. that is a little strange. this reminds me of some of the reporting around today and the republican national convention . they have quoted a.i.d.s. and background thing, we have looked at a lot of speeches and not a lot of them need editing. which seems surprising. >> especially after this weekend. >> as in, this is going to be unified, that is our intention. and what that led me to believe it is, i am not sure if we have a different meeting of unity and unifying. but it will be interesting to watch. each of these individuals, are their own people.

this is their moment to speak to the country and prove himself to the leader of their party. we will see what happens. that tone may have been a greater indication of where we are headed. we will see. >> we saw micah johnson, the speaker of the house, try to introduce a speaker. he got halfway through, the teleprompter died, and he just walked away. >> i am going to do that next time i teleprompter dies, good buy. we are done. >> bring up the music, i will walk off. >> it does give you the sincerity of how they meet it. if the script goes away, they are at sea. what do i say now? >> you want to know who is not looking into a script right now but is very will -- good atop a television fella teleprompter? jacob -- on the convention

floor in milwaukee with some members of the texas delegation? >> rachel, how did you possibly know? >> kidneys. >> in some measure, i feel like i'm exactly where i was eight years ago, amongst the cowboy hat of the texas delegation. would very obviously, we had the horrific events of this weekend with the attempted assassination of former president donald trump. while people have a good time, it's virtually all people are talking about among the groups of delegation. i want to introduce you to a couple of folks i've just met. your name? >> -- >> ashley cash. >> let me start with you. former president donald trump has said in interviews and through surrogates that in the wake of the attempted assassin, that we are all horrified by, there will be change. he is signaling he wants to change and feel different. what does that mean to you? what are you feeling and

seeing? >> i think what changes, first of all, he has already expressed what he put first, america first. what has changed is more passion from the constituents, from the voters. the independent voters and everyone behind him. i think everybody has poured their hearts -- this has been a miracle. we have another opportunity to vote for president that might have not been here. >> you mentioned the drive and passion, that an important point. i talked to kevin mccarthy, i asked him a similar question. he said it was -- i am paraphrasing, he said it was not so much about policy, but posture. do you anticipate the policies of former president donald trump and j.d. vance will change? do you want them to change? >> i don't think they will change as much is hopefully the

media will start to understand it really is about all americans, and that we really do want to unify. as republicans, we want everyone to be a part of this party. i think the thing i would bring out of the tragedy that happened in the last three days, as all americans, we need to come together and unify and we need to make america great again for everyone. >> how do you feel about j.d. vance? we were talking about it earlier. candidly, he said some awful things about president trump. and now he is come around, speaking of unified, is now on the ticket with him. is that a concern to you? or a sign of something else? >> i think everyone should take it as a sign that just because you do not agree with someone on everything, it does not mean you cannot back them on important things. i think both president trump and j.d. vance know the most important thing is to get americans back to work, get more americans back to work -- and make our

border safer. to renew the opportunity that our constitution provided to every person, and to really unify that and bring it all better. sometimes, i think you should also think of it from the standpoint that the people that back j.d. vance and the people that asked donald trump, that is even more people. >> i appreciate it. thank you for taking the time. rachel, we talked about posture over politics. i continually hear when we talk about change, it is not about the policies -- that divided the nation in the last trump administration. catch and release -- i know you don't agree. >> that was an obama law. >> we will talk about that later. rachel, change means different things to different people. that is clear here on the convention floor. >> jacob, tell all the delegates from texas we say

hello. we hope you have a great convention. we are grateful they talk to you. >> they hope you have a great convention and are grateful you talk to us. >> thank you, jacob. still ahead, the lawmaker that announced a new and bipartisan investigation of security lapses this weekend in pennsylvania, gary peters of michigan -- very important member of the u.s. senate committee of homeland security, he is going to join us right after the break to talk about the ongoing investigation after this weekend's shooting. >> if you did not believe in miracles before saturday, you better be believing right now! ♪ ♪ ♪ his #2s are perfect! he's a brand new dog, all in less than a year. when people switch their dog's food from kibble to the farmer's dog, they often say that it feels like magic. but there's no magic involved. (dog bark) it's simply fresh meat and vegetables, with all the nutrients dogs need—

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♪♪ here's how the new york times headline said, secret service under scrutiny after assassination attempt on trump. this is the wall street journal, trump shooting his secret service's most stunning failure in decades. the washington post puts it more bluntly, "secret service under pressure for shooter who got clear shot at trump". the u.s. secret service is under immense scrutiny right now after failing to prevent a man with a semi automatic rifle from accessing our roof just 140 yards from the former president while he was speaking in the open air. president biden ordered the

independent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist candidate, robert f kennedy junior should lose secret service -- president biden also ordered that the secret service should order an investigation and what led to this terrifying security failure on saturday night. we also note there would be an investigation in congress, newly announced by the chairman of the senate committee that oversees secret service. let's bring in gary peters. he served as chair of -- which has oversight of the secret service. his committee unannounced they will be opening an investigation. thank you so much for being here. >> great to be with you, rachel, as always. >> this terrible, terrible event happened on saturday night. it is now monday evening. we are little bit more than 48 hours after the event happened. in your own understanding as a senator, citizen and consumer of news, but most importantly

the chair of the homeland security committee, has your understanding advanced any in the last 48 hours? in terms of what went wrong here and why there was this big hole in the security that should have been like an iron ring around any presidential candidate? >> actually, rachel. there is no question this was a catastrophic failure. to have someone with a clear line shot, to be up on the roof. basically, you don't want the bad guys to have the high ground. you do not want them to have a clear shot, that happened in this case. clearly, this requires an investigation to get procedures, protocols and what went wrong. we have to make sure this never happens again. >> do you know yet what did go wrong? we have heard a lot of reporting that his finger- pointing. it must've been the local car's mistakes, it must've been the secret service's mistakes,

there should have been -- do you have a better understanding of what did go wrong? we all know it was a problem. >> all things you mentioned we have to look at. there were breakdowns at different places and in many areas. that's why you need to have a comprehensive investigation. it's what my committee, what i did after january 6th, we had an investigation looking at the different entities. if you recall, there was a lot of finger-pointing after that as well. we went through a comprehensive investigation. we put out a number of recommendations, a large number of those have been implemented. now the capitol is, i believe, a safer place than it was prior to january 6th. we have to do the same thing now. we need to look at breakdowns in communication, who was talking to who, why didn't information get out with people on the ground thought someone climbing on the roof?

why was it not communicated to folks immediately to be able to address that situation? we have to get to the facts. unfortunately, you also get a lot of folks up without conspiracy theories and information -- our committee will be fact driven, we can make sure we put in procedures, resources, practices, that are going to make sure when you have a president at a political gathering -- that he or she is safe. and the people who go there, to exercise their political beliefs, do not have to go there in fear. we need to get to the bottom of this and make sure facts are going to drive the ultimate change we think is necessary. >> i have had some of my own resources related to the secret service personnel over recent years. i feel like the things i hear repeatedly from people who were in the secret service, or adjacent to the secret service

in their work duty, is the agency is under resourced. that they are asked to do too much, that there are too many protect these, given the number of officers available. and that the lifestyle, effectively of persons working full-time as secret service agents is one that is unsustainable, in terms of the amount of overtime they put in and the types of shifts and traveling they do. and that it needs to be a much larger agency, given the responsibilities they have and the zero failed eat those that they need to ensure for all of their protective. are you sympathetic to that analysis? that it needs to be a bigger -- resource agency? >> we will take a good, hard look at those resources. you are right, they are stretched thin. they have to protect an awful lot of folks across the variety of very complex environment. they have a hard job. they have to get it right 100%

of the time. there is no failure allowed. for shooter, someone who wants to perpetrate some sort of evil, they only have to get it right. secret service can stop a lot of folks, but they have to stop every single person. whereas bad guys can get lucky and have success. that is not acceptable. we have to make sure the resources and training -- and that the communication systems. they have to work with local law enforcement. how are they coordinating? what are the resources that local law enforcement have to bring to support what the secret service is doing to protect the sites they are entrusted to provide security? >> senator gary peters, chairman of the homeland security government affairs committee -- secret service which is very much under hot

lights. good luck to you with this investigation. i know you will make as much of it as you can public facing. the country looking with some urgency to see what you can find out and get fixed. thank you, sir. we are moments away from nbc's interview with president biden. we will bring you the whole thing. joe biden talked to lester holt. that is right after this break. stay with us. with us. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it.

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