thank you for watching and be sure to mark your calendars for saturday, september 7. you can join me in msnbc life at democracy 2024. a special event in brooklyn where we are talking about the most pressing issues of our time. you can scan the qr code on the screen for tickets right now. now let's take a breath because we have a lot of news to get through. on that note i wish you a good night. from our of our colleagues across the networks at nbc news, thank you for staying up late. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. tomorrow.

good evening and welcome to our special coverage of night two of the republican national convention in beautiful downtown milwaukee, wisconsin. super glad to have you with us tonight. i am rachel maddow here with my beloved, cheerful, well hydrated colleagues joy reid, jen psaki, ari melber, lawrence o'donnell. we will be talking with her shortly. we will be here, any minute we are expecting the presidential nominee donald trump to be entering the hall at the rnc in milwaukee. if i look shifty and not making eye contact, i'm trying to keep an eye on the monitors to know when that happens. both the secret service and local law enforcement pay some increasingly tough questions about saturday's assassination attempt against trumpeter rally

this past weekend. cnn was first to report that nbc news has confirmed that the secret service had ramped up security around trump in recent weeks after they received intelligence about a plot by iran to attack trump. iran has singled out a number of different american officials in recent years for potential attempts on their lives. nbc news reporting the three different trump administration officials, john bolton, former secretary of state mike pompeo, former owned by michael hook were provided was funded security teams because of threats from iran with congress approving the funding for those added layers of protection in the case of each of those guys. trump, as the republican nominee is the latest u.s. official, former official, to reportedly be threatened by iran. now, what's interesting here in terms of news of the day and pressing concerns about what

happened this past weekend as there is not known to be any connection at all between that reported iran plot and the actual shooting that happened saturday. what this reporting does mean somewhat worryingly is when that shooting happened on saturday, it happened despite the fact that trubisky secret service protection had already been recently boosted to account for new perceived threats. right? it is worrying the secret service believed it had boosted security enough front trump to account for potential state- sponsored terrorist threat from here on but it was still somehow lacks enough to not account for a random 20-year- old registered republican with an ar 15. the secret service says it was local law enforcement the had responsibility for the building from which the shooter took those shots on saturday that killed one rally go war and wounded two more and hit trump in the ear. the secret service said local law enforcement were inside the building at the same time that

the shooter was on the roof. as we are keeping an eye on the live shot from milwaukee, here is trump with the bandage on that right near. it looks about the same as it did yesterday. we saw trump's newly announced running mate j.d. vance walking the hall moments ago and now trump himself joining in the bright blue extra long tie and his white shirt expect that trump -- the bandage look the same as yesterday, we expect trump will be sitting with his family and with his running mate. he is not expected to speak. we are expecting vance to give his acceptance speech tomorrow, wednesday night. we expect trump to give his presidential nomination acceptance speech late on thursday. this is what we get from menominee and his vice presidential nominee. we get to see them clapping and

enjoying the proceedings and sitting here. >> ♪ >> live images from milwaukee. j.d. vance, the senator from ohio, 39 years old. exactly half the age of his running mate, 78-year-old donald trump. sarah huckabee sanders, former white house aide another governor of arkansas. his son eric, the blonde one. j.d. vance. immediately behind republican nominee is a florida congressman who today on cnn suggested that shadowy forces have allowed the assassination attempt against trump to go forward.

those remarks not enough to keep them out of the box sitting right behind the nominee. i want to know if they've cleared the music. we heard ymca and other songs trump likes to play. now they're playing the kinks. i know they've had problems with they didn't want them playing the songs. i don't know if they objected. >> have they objected? >> i don't know. a lot of what we have been hearing, different than -- there you have it. in terms of the other news that's going on around this convention that is casting a shadow over these events, it would be remarkable in any circumstances but a remarkable thing that in new jersey today, the senior senator robert menendez is now

facing, calls for his resignation certainly, calls for his expulsion from the senate in federal court, new jersey senator robert menendez was convicted of 16 felonies. all 16 charges against him, guilty on all charges including bribery, extortion, this is a case in which senator menendez was charged with accepting cash and gold bars in exchange for acting to benefit the governments of egypt and qatar. now that he has not just been indicted on those charges but convicted, it's inconceivable that the democratic party will allow robert menendez to stay in the senate. senate majority leader chuck schumer insisted he must resign as did his fellow new jersey senator cory booker. we will speak live with booker

later on this hour. the democratic governor phil murphy also demanding that senator menendez resign because he has been criminally convicted. governor murphy going further saying if the senator does not resign, he is requesting the united states senate vote to expel him, for some out to be won't leave on his own terms. this is awkward, right? for what's going on here in milwaukee. to be clear, the democratic senate leader, the democratic governor demanding this senator be resigned or be forced out because of his criminal conviction. the democrats surely are not happy that a senator from the party is turned out to be a felon 16 times over. but it is the democratic party knows what to do when something like that happens, right? if you are convicted of felonies in the democratic party, you are expected to leave office and, indeed, your party will demand that you must leave of your own accord and if you do not they will remove you otherwise.

that is how it works in democratic party politics. had robert menendez been a republican? i'm sorry, j.d. vance, he would probably be the vice presidential nominee of the republican party by now. the both sides mirror image analysis we get of other things wrong with both parties and corruption, the handling of robert menendez and the handling of donald trump, both of, been convicted on multiple felony counts tells you what you need to know in the with the two parties feel about law and order issues. today, senator vance spoke by phone with kamala harris. harris had tried to reach vance yesterday after his nomination was announced. she reportedly left him a voicemail a wish asked him to debater. harris has already agreed to a debate on cbs news. she and vance reportedly discussed the potential to be when they spoke by phone but there's no word on whether or not the republican nominee has agreed to that debate. for his part, president biden was back on the campaign trail

today in swing state nevada. he addressed the annual convention of the naacp in las vegas and tomorrow he will speak to unidosus, latino civil rights advocacy group. the dnc appears to be moving ahead with its plan for virtual roll call for its convention starting as early as next week. the democratic convention is not until august they're planning to move the roll call up. some congressional democrats circulated a letter calling on the dnc to not do that. , quote, cancel any plans for an accelerated virtual roll call and for the refrain from any extraordinary procedures that could be perceived as curtailing legitimate debate or attempting to force an early resolution of the party nomination. california congressman and senate candidate adam schiff became the latest elected democrat to be quoted saying that the democrats are in trouble if they do not make a change on their presidential ticket.

"the new york times" reporting on his remarks at a democratic fundraiser quoting him as an, quote, i think if he is our nominee, i think we lose. we may very well lose the senate and lose our chance to take back the house. in his own senate race in california, adam schiff is, frankly, dozens of points ahead of his somewhat hapless republican opponent. he doesn't have much to worry about himself. tonight at the republican convention, the republicans rolled out basically a parade of republican senate candidates from various states including swing states, all of whom are hoping to flip democratic held seats. this hour, two of donald trump's biggest primary opponents from the republican presidential primary will take the stage to say how much they love donald trump now and do should forget the stuff they said about him before. first up, nikki haley is the governor of south carolina, she

was critical of trump during the 2016 campaign but then she took that back and agreed to become his u.n. ambassador after she left the trump administration, she was critical of trump after january 6. she decided to run against trump in the republican primary and during the primary she called trump unhinged and chaotic. she said he was too old and confused and diminished to be president again. she said nominating donald trump for president again would be, quote, suicide for our country. she said, quote, i know the american people are not going to vote for a convicted criminal. trump in turn mocked nikki haley's birth name. she's the daughter of immigrants from india. he called her birdbrain. at one point, trump attacked nikki haley for not having her husband out supporting her on the campaign trail. nikki haley's husband is an officer in the national guard where the time was deployed overseas with the u.s. military, and that's why he could not join her on the campaign trail. nikki haley responded by saying trump was not qualified to be

president of the united states because of his repeated impalpable disrespect for the u.s. military. across a dozen primaries and caucuses, nikki haley only won vermont and d.c. but she did take upwards of 20% of the republican vote from trump, even after she ended her candidacy. which he did drop out, she did not endorse trump right away, but then to deform, a couple months later she said she would be voting for him. a week ago she released her 97 pledged convention delegates at told them they ought to vote for trump. as recently as last week, nikki haley said she had not been invited to the rnc, and she said she was fine with that. but then this weekend, she was added to the lineup, and tonight there she will be. her highlight reel is about to get up new batch of trump compliments to put alongside her long record of dire warnings about trump being serious fundamental threat to

the united states. we are keeping an eye on the proceedings live at the convention center in milwaukee. we are expecting the get haley to take the stage in just a few moments. watching this, the contrast, obviously, with the last convention in 2016 includes a fact in 2016 there was a floor fight. there was ted cruz's speech in which he did not endorse donald trump, then he and his family had to be escorted out of the hall for their own safety. there was an effort to try to change arose to try to ship delegates away from trump to get the nomination off of him. with this one, not a peep of dissent even from the republican voices that were most, and most recently vociferously opposed to him. >> also, since saturday they change the programming, changed in the sense that trump would

not of been walking into the hall silently. last night and tonight, and i anticipate tomorrow night again, if that had not happened. that never would've been received, of course, in that we. saturday had a huge impact on that, but there was a floor fight, there was division, there was a position to him. you were in certain what people might say. now we are anticipating how nikki haley, who as you outline, has personally criticized and personally attacked her family and her husband. in sexist ways she was critical of him. >> attacked her husband's military service. >> and her husband's absence. it got incredibly gross his attacks. now is a preview how we will appeal to the people who question about trump on the debate stage, i also know, she's a national security -- that's her thing. donald trump named somebody as his running mate yesterday who doesn't care about the future of ukraine donald trump has said recently that he is going to take the other side if he

wins. that should be an affront to her core national security values, and she will stand up there tonight and we will see what she says. >> i keep thinking about trump at the end of the republican primary contest saying not only, birdbrain and attacking his military service and all that, taking her on the basis of her birth name and all this, but saying he didn't want nikki haley voters. anyone who voted for nikki haley, he didn't need or want their vote in addition vote for him. now, trump is apparently changed his schedule so he can be there in person while she gives this speech tonight, and she's got to suck it up and give this speech and say, despite the things he insulted about her personally and about people who support her, that she should be responsible not only for her own endorsement but for getting the people who supported her on board for him. >> then the -- was the j.d.

vance pic which is as far as you can go to tell nikki haley voters to go to hell as it gets. j.d. vance is almost to the right of donald trump when it comes to ukraine, when it comes to telling ukraine he would love for them to lose this war. is going to be interesting. as we know and as we discussed, the ritual humiliation of former trump opponents as part of the way it works, to be part of maga, you must accept your ritual humiliation. that is part of the price. nikki haley is going to pay that price tonight. i find it interesting that nikki haley's demographics are identical to the wife of j.d. vance, and we are seeking really vicious, ugly attacks on j.d. vance his wife who like nikki haley, her parents were born in india. >> humane racist attacks?

>> deeply racist attacks against j.d. vance's wife but they will pretend that's a happening in the world in which they live. there going to take then he. to use the game of thrones reference, they almost take the knee. we saw tim scott do it in most humiliating fashion. we saw vivek ramaswamy do it today despite prominent republicans telling him they would not vote for him because he is indian american and they don't think is qualified based on that. i think, it's the price she is willing to pay, and i don't think it says a lot about her character, but as is a lot about the republican party. >> i think nikki haley's function tonight and it does work this way for trump voters and everyone, is to prove that the people who attacked donald trump do not mean it. it isn't true. nikki haley come up tonight and show you none of what i said about donald trump, which sounds a lot like what joe

biden says about donald trump, none of that is true. j.d. vance has the same verbal record. the trump voters have these people as the proofs that this cannot be true. then there is that thing of the king demonstrating to them his power. the king can make them all bend no matter what they have said in the past. >> what do they get for it? >> think it's a future. that's what they think they get is a future in the party. >> that says something about them. nikki haley he was called unfit in a range of things about the team used in heads, remember? it was so effective they were like what she said. >> cannot add one thing you did not add. nikki haley said about donald trump, we can't have as republicans him as a nominee. he can't win a general election. that's the problem. with got to have someone who can actually win.

nikki haley didn't even believe donald trump was electable. this was 100 years ago. the other thing is i would note the absence, other than nikki haley, of any other member donald trump's cabinet when he was president of the united states. is vice president is not there because he had to replace him because he tried to get the first one killed. he can't and won't be there. >> that is going around today. always asked why the job is vacant? why isn't the former running mate the second time around? always ask -- >> that's the thing about donald trump. we are always told politics is -- and for most it is edition. donald trump has set himself he feels lucky and other have observed he has political log. there is very little addition here. you reported that nikki haley wasn't, the horrific events this weekend, necessarily going to speak we saw mike pence's treatment for being loyal up and through the loss and

punishment for not wanting to join an illegal coup. these other individuals face the same situation. i think it's fascinating. nikki haley's speech probably matters more than any other non- nominee because she get it in a way that might appeal or she may do the bare minimum. we should remember, donald trump is never got more votes in an election. he didn't do it in 2016 and he lost in 2020 and the midterms have been bruising for him. he does look luckier right now, but again, he doesn't do a lot of addition. i will be watching to see if nikki haley puts in a phoned in, mellow, checklist speech because there are people that he would still need to join the coalition that she had and we have to see how she sounds. >> to that point, the biden campaign is sending president tesh vice president kamala harris to sit with women. nikki haley, she hit 16, 20% in

each of the primaries, there is some of those people who have said to camera that they cannot vote for donald trump. they are available of the biden team wants to try to recruit them in the biden team is trying to recruit them and sitting down with republican women. the issue of abortion is crossed party lines. you have women in states like ohio, kansas, red states that her saying, and their ballot measures in states like florida. it's an wish you. >> to the point about adding voters, apparently based on the ratings from last night, they aren't going to at them through this convention. they got 19 million people to watch over all the networks that are covering it, 6 million at fox. 6 million ardent trump supporters was the most they could get. that is less than 10% of ardent trump voters actually decided, i'm going to watch this last

night. >> that's not even that much of a bump for fox. >> i've written episodes of drama series that i've gotten a bigger rating than the entire -- >> i'd rather watch the west wing. >> this is a very low rated convention for donald trump. i think it's one of the reasons why he went there, and even if he had not been attacked, there's a possibility he would've gone to try to pump up his ratings. he did everything he could to pump up the ratings mondry night and there lower than the monday night ratings of his 2016 convention. >> were going to take a quick break because we want to come back and see what nikki haley has to say. that's all coming up right after this break. after this break. the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks.

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this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title. welcome back to our special coverage of what is now night two of the republican national convention in milwaukee. our friend nicolle wallace is standing by. we are waiting for the start of the speech from nikki haley. sort of more interesting than your typical also-ran primary contender convention speech. given the journey that nikki haley has been on with the insults that have flown between them, it's serious criticism she levied against trump not only in general but the idea of him running right now in 2024.

what are you watching for? what are you thinking about this tonight? >> i think there are theatrics and optics and they will be forgotten by tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. but there are structural things that make it hard for me to believe she is there. she seems to believe in the righteousness of ukraine's war against russia, against our enemy and ukraine's enemy. she will take the stage after donald trump picked someone who is an enemy of that ally. who is coddled, at least rhetorically, the aggressor in that conflict. is something worse than going back on her primary campaign rhetoric? we will see if she deals with that tonight. >> hearing the reception for nikki haley in the room. a mix of cheers and applause and cheering. >> my fellow republicans,

president trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity. >> [ applause ] it was a gracious invitation, and i was happy to accept. i will start by making one thing perfectly clear. donald trump has my strong endorsement period.

>> our country is at a critical moment. we have a choice to make. for more than a year, i said, a vote for joe biden is a vote for president kamala harris. after seeing the debate, everyone knows it's true. if we have four more years of biden or a single day of harris , our country will be badly worse off for the sake of our nation, we have to go with donald trump.

but there is more to it than that. we should acknowledge that there are some americans who don't agree with donald trump 100% of the time. i happen to know some of them. i want to speak to them tonight. my message to them is simple. you don't have to agree with trump 100% of the time to vote for him. take it from me, i haven't always agreed with president trump. but, we agree more often than we disagree. we agree on

keeping america strong. we agree on keeping america safe . and, we agree that democrats have moved so far to the left that they are putting our freedoms in danger. i am here tonight because we have a country to save. a unified republican party is essential for saving her. >> you as a. you as a. usa. usa.

>> for those who have some doubts about president trump, i want to tell you a few things about the commander in chief i know and worked with. as ambassador to the united nations, i had a front row seat to his national security policies. we sure could use those again. >> some news made for the first time really at this republican national convention. at least news made for the first time from the stage. with former u.n. ambassador and republican presidential primary 2024 contender nikki haley who had previously said she would not back any 20 24-bit by donald trump for president. nikki haley changing her mind yet again and saying she strongly endorses donald trump. she said that in an unequivocal way and laying out a case for why everyone should support donald trump. joining us from the rnc's

reporter tim alberta who has chronicled the fortunes of many republican hopefuls and their campaigns including ambassador nikki haley who had quite the wild ride in her now very much over fight with trump. it's great to have you with us. >> thank you for having me. nikki haley in her relationship with trump, it's like watching one of those paddle games where the ball is attached by the elastic string and he keeps coming back and coming for another whack. was there any doubt that she would be giving this speech if she were asked to? that she would give a unequivocal endorsement at the end of her journey with trump including the way she ran this year? >> no. not in my mind. i will tell you why. one of the just vivid memories of the last few years for me was sitting with nikki haley in her country club in south

carolina in the days after january 6, i had spent a lot of time with her over the previous couple of months for profile i was writing in politico magazine. the profile was just about over then january 6 happened and she invited me back for another conversation. in that conversation, nikki haley said to me, listen, donald trump led us down a we should not have listen to him. we shouldn't have followed him down this path, and we can never follow him again. that is what she said to me. what was so striking in that moment was, of course, there were republicans and democrats in the house and senate at that point considering whether to impeach trump or maybe whether to invoke the 25th amendment against trump. i asked her, if you were in congress, would you be on board with that? would you be trying to oust trump at this point? she told me, that doesn't matter. he is already dead politically.

he can never come back from this. he has say it could too far and the damage has been done so there's no need to do that. his career as we have known it is over. here we are today. nikki haley's arc via donald trump, many ways she's probably the best, the most accurate representative of how so many people who know better and who publicly came out against trump and said he was effectively unfit to be commander-in-chief, how they somehow, someway always wind up coming back and accommodating themselves to him in the end. >> is that because there is something for her in it? i don't think that she has got a place in a second trump administration. i could be wrong, having gone further than criticizing him in normal terms, even with giving this speech, she has to expect that she's not going to win obvious or immediate prize here.

is a calculation here in the term she thinks of politics that someday in a post trump future, she will be remembered as a good enough soldier to win voters trust again? where does she see this going? >> what is interesting, as i've spent the last couple of days here on the convention floor, talking with delegates, it really is remarkable how short of a memory many of these people have. it doesn't matter that j.d. vance called donald trump america's hitler. if you even look at the prime time speaking lineup, i would venture to say it's maybe one out of every three republicans being featured this week, speaking at the convention, have in the past offered some blistering like really harsh criticisms of donald trump. not even at a political level but personal level. unfit for office. immoral. as long as a come back around and kiss the ring and apologize

and swear they did not mean it, then they wind up being embraced by the party faithful. if you are nikki haley, you understand that even though you were critical of trump in 2016 saying he behaved like a kindergartner and was an embarrassment are critical of him in 2020 saying he has fallen so far and we should never follow him again, you recognize in politics, especially in trump arrow republican politics, people have a short memory. they are ultimately willing to forgive and forget and move on as long as you sort of debase yourself and ultimately bend the knee to him when it counts most. >> tim, when you do these longitudinal profiles. when you spend time with a person like nikki haley the type of journalism you have been doing for politico and elsewhere, do you feel like you are seeking the cost of that debasement? it is featured, it's a regular feature or it's not accidental that happens with trump that he

regularly demands debasement. he regularly demands, not just that mexico will get a wall on his border, but they will pay for it. there is this groveling he demands, and he regularly gets from everybody else in republican politics who have fallen behind, as he is taken over the party and its entirety. do you see what that costs them as people? as human beings? >> one of my favorite verses and scriptures mark 8:36, what should it profit a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? to the question you are asking, what we have seen in so many cases, nikki haley among others, is truly nothing short of a forfeiting of one's soul in order to gain this sort of temporary affections of donald trump, of his inner circle, the party base, what have you.

yes, there's a real and profound and cascading damage that is done to these people. nikki haley as an example. i can tell you and reporting my profile of her, spoke with dozens of people who had been friends, confidence, allies of her over the years. most of those people are no longer even in contact with nikki haley. they feel estranged from her in part because they feel as though she lied to them. and she effectively conned them into believing that she had a set of principles that were ironclad and came from a deep place of conviction, and she jettisoned them at the first opportunity to gain some sort of entree into the world of donald trump. that's the story of so many republicans in the trump era. frankly, it's a bit heartbreaking at a certain level. when you talk with some of these people on the other side, when you talk to people who have sort of sustained this damage to their family relationships, to their professional careers and their

reputations and integrity, when you talk to them on the other side of it, what they will tell you time and time again is it was not worth it. i think obviously, that realization hits some sooner than others. >> tim alberta, atlantic staff writer, thank you for joining us tonight. your thoughtful journalism on the sand aggressive journalism has helped our understanding and it's been invaluable to have you here tonight. thank you so much. we saw nikki haley leave the stage moments ago leaving to a rousing ovation, a sort of straight up ovation in contrast to the mix of booing and sharing that greeted her arrival on the stage. that your signal that she did what she was there to do which was to make a totally unequivocal endorsement of donald trump. i thought that was poignant what tim alberta was saying, he has done incredible journalism about nikki haley and spent a lot of time with her, talking

about the reaction of those in her own life and political circles in which she has essentially alone now. people feel betrayed by her after her run against donald trump. in his words, she had conned them into thinking she had some sort of real principle stance against a figure like trump. it's interesting, you see ron desantis on the stage right now. ron desantis and nikki haley essentially, equivalent figures in republican politics despite the different approaches each took toward running against trump in 2024. nikki haley did go at trump and ron desantis never did. it doesn't matter. they are both destroyed by trump in the primary, undermined, not only do supporters but their donors attacked by trump and are now both a twin speaking role engagement that doesn't reflect anything, any credit at all for the slack that ron desantis donald trump for some of the primary that nikki haley did not. they end up at the same bottom of the same barrel.

nicolle wallace has been watching along with us. obviously, that's news from the dais tonight from the state, nikki haley saying she is a strong endorsement to offer of donald trump and spent the rest of her speech trying to talk people who did not support donald trump initially into why they should change like she has . what do you make of it? >> i am still so -- tim alberta speaks in poetry of his own. he is unique and distinct. he distilled the conversation you were having at the top of the hour, the why. it's the abandoning of all their souls. in year nine of covering trump, disorienting. we watched chris christie to it. marco rubio and ted cruz to it under the mass -- one was called will fatten the other his wife is called ugly and the implication small hands meant something else and they all rolled over.

to see that phenomenon is ongoing in year nine of the drum story is remarkable. trump doesn't care about any of them. today he was engaged in a twitter war because what president biden is considering doing with the supreme court rattles him. he got a social media and sent out a post trash talking that idea. he doesn't really have his mind or his gut with anyone in the room. his mind is on winning and tim alberta's extraordinary piece of journalism before his reporting this week, was about this -- i don't want to call the brain trust but the nerve center the trump campaign. the smears against joe biden and the brutally perfect, not perfect, brutally personal attacks against him, that was their plan all along. to watch both pieces come together and sort of collide, you really have to reduce it to

politics. that's all it is to donald trump. >> politics and power. even more bluntly. thank you very much. we will be back with you. we have to sneak in a quick break because on the other side, we have senator cory booker who is always one of our favorites to talk to. new jersey democratic senator cory booker in an unusual position as a senior senator from a state, bob menendez has been convicted on multiple felony counts. senator booker joining his democratic colleagues, insisting that robert menendez must resign. senator booker a strong voice in the senate in support of ukraine and its war against russia with the republican ticket now including j.d. vance, the senate's strongest critic of ukraine. in some cases by default, the senate strongest proponent of the russian side in that war. we will get senator booker's taken both stories and the proceedings and day two of the rnc.

rnc.

looking at live images of the republican national convention in milwaukee, wisconsin. tonight is night two after j.d. vance was announced as trump's running mate on night one, this is a follow-up headline at

politico.com. trump's vp pics spells disaster for europe and ukraine. the u.s. for the moment standing is a most important ally in the world for a country that is fighting for its very existence after having been invaded by russia. trump has already effectively pledged the u.s. will switch sides in this war if he is elected. is gone so far to say that he will tell russia that they can do, quote, whatever the hell they want to any of our nato allies once he is president. even so, of all the choices that trump could have made for his running mate, senator j.d. vance is the single most radical choice he could've made on this issue. senator ben sasse bluntly he is opposed to virtually any proposal for the u.s. to continue funding this war. vance said, quote, i don't really care what happens to ukraine one way or the other. which, understandably has ukraine and the rest of europe

and everyone who cares about the biggest european war since the nazi era has everyone freaked out about the prospect of vice president j.d. vance. moscow is delighted but the rest of the world, not so much. on the issue of abortion, a key if not the key electoral issue motivating voters this fall, j.d. vance opposes abortion in any instance even in cases where a woman is only pregnant because she was the victim of incest or rape. he said even those women should be forced by the government to stay pregnant for the full term and should be forced by the government to give birth against their will. he supports what he calls, quote, minimum national standard to restrict abortion everywhere in all 50 states meaning effectively, national abortion ban. there's another part of his record on abortion that is now starting to get some attention given his promotion to vice presidential running

mate. let's say you are an american woman living in mississippi and you need an abortion. the republican controlled government in your state, mississippi has banned abortion, so you need to travel out of state in order to get one. well, not so fast according to j.d. vance. it's not a hypothetical. the republican attorney general in mississippi has said that she believes mississippi law enforcement has the power to effectively follow you out of the state if you find yourself in this circumstance. she believes mississippi law enforcement has the power to get your medical records from any state in the country to see if you might've been able to get an abortion somewhere else, even in a state where it's legal. mississippi law enforcement wants to be able to get your medical records from any state in the country so they can use those records in bringing criminal prosecutions for abortion. it's not just mississippi. republican attorneys general in

19 different states all signed onto a letter to the biden administration last year saying , they would like the right to go after private medical records from anywhere in the country including any state where abortion is legal. they want the right to follow women from their states all over the country to see if they might be getting an abortion somewhere or might be getting any other kind of reproductive care anywhere, they want to bring criminal charges. so they can use those records for prosecutions. it turns out senator j.d. vance has endorsed that idea as well. the investigator news outlet the lever was first to point out that in addition to this 19 republican attorneys general j.d. vance also pressured the biden administration last year, that they should withdraw the role that protects women in this instance. they should withdraw the biden administration rule that prevents law enforcement from tracking down and prosecuting women who have crossed state lines to have an abortion. here is j.d.

vance's signature on the letter to the white house. if donald trump and j.d. vance are elected, they will have the power to withdraw the biden administration's privacy rule on this issue. they will have the power, without congress doing anything, to make it legal for prosecutors to access the private medical records of women who have left their state to obtain abortion care, so they can use your medical records to track you down and bring charges. joining us is senator cory booker, democrat of new jersey. senator, thank you for joining us and what is an busy and fraught news cycle. it's a pleasure to have you here. >> it's always good to be with you. >> i want to talk about the choice of your scenic colleague j.d. vance to be donald trump's running mate. i want to ask as of the closer to home. your nearest scenic colleague geographically speaking robert minden does was found guilty on

16 federal charges of corruption including bribery. today, you again called for him to resign. i want to get your reaction to that verdict. i would like to hear what you expect to happen next in the case of the senator? >> remember, bob is a figure that most new jersey and snow. he's been working at public life for decades. for new jersey, it's a painful day of heartbreak and frankly just deep disappointment. a jury that was weren't objectivity, jury of his peers and by the highest criminal standard, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he was guilty on all 16 charges. and so, yes, he must stand up now and leave the senate. he must do that. if he refuses to do that, many of us, and i will lead that effort, to make sure that he is removed from the senate. >> meaning he would lead an

effort to expel him from the senate if he refuses to resign? >> absolutely. that is the right thing to do. it is the just thing to do. >> let me ask you about broadening the lines on this issue. it has been long expected that if a member of congress remember the u.s. senate is convicted or in some cases arguably indicted, argued an indictment should trigger this as well, that member of congress or that senator should resign or expect to be removed. we are seeing that play out right now with your fellow new jersey senator, robert menendez, not only you is as follows senator chuck schumer the leader of the democrats and the democratic governor of new jersey all insisting democrats loudly insisting he must go and there's no question about it and it's no longer up to him. i cannot help but remark on the timing that this is happening? it's happening on a day when the republicans are in the middle of their nominating

convention for somebody who has been convicted on 34 felony counts, and they are not only asking him to leave the ticket, they have promoted him to be the nominee of a party for the presidency for the third time running into projecting what appears to be 100% unanimity in the party behind him even his vanquished primary rebels over harsh credit of him particularly nikki haley saying they are all in for him with no mention of the felony charges. that contrast strikes me today and even in this painful moment for new jersey, i imagine it strikes you as well. >> yeah, it strikes me even more deeply than that. donald trump with a jury that was sworn to objectivity, that convicted him beyond a reasonable doubt on 34 charges, that should alone be enough for anyone to be disqualified from the highest office in the land.

there are a lot of honorable republicans who have shown careers and patriotism from the military, from serving as senators and governors, to have a man that not only has 34 felony convictions, has pending federal charges, criminal charges against him, his business practices, he has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for corrupted business practices. his charity was disbanded for corrupt practices and forced to pay millions of dollars in restitution and civil crimes are just adding up, including one for sexual assault. we are a nation that should do better than this and republican values are american values, this belies not just common sense but the kind of moral leadership we need. about the folks i'm watching tonight from nikki haley to ron desantis, there are so many people that were on that stage

tonight, that he is not only been in deep disagreement with on policy issues, he has sought to humiliate them. to degrade and taming them on the most personal ways. it's not about policy differences when he viciously went after people in the most outrageous ways, and now they're running to that stage to endorse him. this is not what we need in america. we don't need someone that deals into meaning and degrading people within their own party, and we don't need a felon who has been convicted in federal court and someone who has paid out millions and millions of dollars in civil crimes and shown in every area of his life from his business life to his charitable efforts to even the criminal counts against him that he is somebody that is thoroughly corrupt in a way that has been proven in court after court after court. >> senator booker, one of your colleagues in the senate j.d.

vance has been chosen to be donald trump's running mate. he has not been in the senate for very long. he was sworn in for the first time last year and been there about a year and a half and is only 39 years old. i wanted to ask your reaction to his selection. a couple of things getting a lot of attention in terms of the substance of him and his policies and articulated positions include, what i think, could be construed as the most radical, hard-line pro- russia anti-ukraine, anti-nato position of all members of the u.s. senate arguably. also a hard-line, no exceptions , pro-national abortion ban position which is something, i feel like has a different cast as the first national election we will be piecing since adopts decision since the right to have an abortion was taken away by the supreme court. which your reaction to his selection as running mate?

>> i mean, you were jumping over one of the most obvious thing people should be asking. they're trying to reelect donald trump, where's donald trump's vice president? where is mike pence? mike pence is not there. neither is his former chief of staff is former secretary of defense. i could go through so many who were part of those who worked most closely with the president or not at the convention but to not think he should be president. have said so publicly. the thing that most frightens me and should a lot of americans is, pence is not there because he saved our democracy. he said, i'm going to move forward and certified an election that even donald trump's highest election officer said was a fair election. and so, we now have a vacancy v he picks somebody that should we be in s that position again, a

lawful election in the united states of america as was movin' by court t challenge after cour challenge after courtha challen, that noble republican state actors like we saw in georgia have to fight against the president's t unjust efforts to- to interfere in the election. hen picked somebody who has sa publicly if i was in the same space as pence i would not do the right w thing, i would not the honorable thing. i wouldbl subvert our democrati elections. look, he's my colleague. i sat with him, i met with him. i sincerely know how difficult it is to putow yourself on the national y stage. i wish his family the best, but number oneam i worry about the outcome of this election that he and others said clearly they will not honor the outcome of thison election unless, of cour, donald trump wins. and then as far as a lot of his extreme views in many ways i'm grateful because this lays plain fors the american people this an election, which saclear choice about abortion and access to abortion care. it's a clear choice about social

security with his voice on what he wants to do to that. so many things. the this is an extreme candidate that has had clear views. it's a clear choice, and i hope america can see that now. >>a outside the courthouse tod when the verdict was returned, the u.s. attorney said this finally puts an endid to what h called the years of corruption by y senator menendez, and in t sweep of that statement it certainly sounds like he was referring to and including the first federal prosecution of senator menendez, which ended in a hung jury. do you regret immediately championing bob menendez upon gettingpo that hung jury 8, 7 years ago? >> it was a hung jury because one juror would not render a guilty verdict. this iser reprehensible behavio

he's convicted of. these 16 counts involve not only honest theft ofe services but doing things for foreign governments that should chill a lot of folks. this is enough. he needs to step down right now, and there's so many new jersyans who believe in him, millions who haveim voted for him, but this a dark and painful day. he was convicted by this jury and that's what's hurting a lot of us right now, and the charges are painful. >> senator, just to follow-up, the senate ethics committee did find in that first criminal case against him after they read and examined all the exhibits found senator menendez seven years ago violated statutes, which means the committee found he broke laws. wasn't that the time to expel

senator menendez? >> the senate ethics committee does not recommend expulsion. they wrote probably the most severe rebuke that i know of, and to me that was a time all of us should have thought twice. but then you know this. senator menendez was duly re-elected by the people who had all those facts. a multiian millionaire used all election putting that forward. what happens to me is should be a time we should all be unified republican and democrats simply saying enough isic enough and h needs to step down. >> tenor corey booker, thank you for joining us. this is another news day of a magnitude, thank you for being here. talk about a day in the middle of what's going on there, but it is this contrast with the way the republican party and the democratic party are dealing with a criminal conviction here

is -- >> to me it's deeper than reaction to conviction. i mean this department of justice is functioning arms lengthng from the white house which is statute established both in practice. >> i've got a one seat margin in the senate you can't do that. >> what are we talking about? now, that phone call is inkind of phone call richard nixon would have attempted to make or made. but it is something that donald trumpin explicitly tried to do aly tweet, explicitly believes should be his ability, is the position of project 2025 on how

the department of justice should run, and is also the controlling opinion of the supreme court in the trump v. u.s. decision by john roberts who went out of his way to say the decision that phone call i conjured that's fine constitutionally. >> under the supreme court ruling had joe biden yesterday called up the u.s. justice department and said drop that case he is a democrat and you're not prosecuting a democrat not when i'mos running for re-election, the justice department would not have bin been within its rights to blow the whistle on it. >> thaton is, again, that part e section of the ruling is not just there's a different reaction to morals, turp tades affof someone being convicted,

but it speaks to the question of the rule of law and what it will be and whose hands it will reside. the biden administration so accused of weaponizing the department of justice, which has now very craftily to convict the president's son and democratic senators. >> i was toldd the justice department was going easy on democrats. >> by the way, to make it even worse, according to john roberts if then joe biden had taken a bribe from senator menendez for getting him out of trouble -- taking aof gold bar from him according to john roberts, the phone call you just described could notou be used as evidence because it was an official act. so the phone call to the attorney general couldn't be c used as evidence in a bribery case against joe biden. i mean the sort of scheme is perfect because itor involves everyone including the supreme court. >> let me say one thing because it matters and going to matter a

lot. there's ama universe in which y can imagine a person saying after the trump v. u.s. decision, oh, p wait, i can do this now? the supreme court highest -- roberts, hey call your lawyers. wait a second, roberts, can we drop this menendez thing? there's a world in the person of that office, all those different people who would have to go along with that would say -- >> why wouldn't we use this power? >> or use it to save your son, the pardon power. the fact of the matter is the character of the people around the white house, in the white house these constitutional norms never crossed any second of their mindsse i guarantee you. that is still the thing keeping us on earth one. the character, the professionals norms and hahibituation --

>> i think that's a frightening thought in that the institutions have shown not that they can't protect us but they won't. we're literally the only reason we didn't have ae successinal insurrection was the individual character of republicans around this country. >> including that guy who just got replaced. >> the hang mike pence, the guy who'sen absent by dint of the ft his former president had to have him hung or allow him to be killed, but for the character of individual conservative republicans who testified toof man and woman that they wanted donald trump to be re-elected, but despite that did not break the law on his behalf. so we're living in a world in which everyone who says the institutions will protectay us, you can't believe that anymore. the institutions will protect us within the right people. >> i haven't heard that said in years now.

>> i hear it from business guys all the -- just recently a back ceo said tore me the institutio, no, that'sti what they ride on. they'll hold up. >> the other thing important because it's relevant to what you just r talked about j.d. vance,ab his abortion politics o look, one of the things that has helped donald trump in the past and will help him here is americanel politics is sporadic it's hard to get legislation passed, they weren't very quesful the first time around. the whole purpose for j.d. vance is there's lots of stuff they can do on day one they don't have to pass legislation for. things like hhs protects the privacy recordspr of women who e pregnant or seeking abortions is something they can do day one. those don't have to go to the

house, hurt a lower filibuster in the senate. they can actually start happening immediately, and it's really important to understand they're focused on that because they understand how sporadic government canho be. for voters to understand it's not some remote yada, yada, yada. >> voters this time around know exactly who donald trump is. in 2016 you saw big business people warnsa the american peop this is what donald trump can do, this is who iz. a lot i of people said, no, thi time around we know exactly what he's going to do, and it's stunning soan many republicans e down witho it. things that they understand is that the things they want, a vast majority of people don't. and there's a deep frustration you see in that room, you look at that tay started out booing nikki haley but cheering her when she took a knee because

they understand she is a minority. it's even hard for tem to win a popular vote in presidential elections. they almost never can. and their deep frustration not being able to persuade -- absolutely. their angerua and range at not being able to move the culture toward national abortion bans, toward making contraception illegal, toward the awful things they want to do in terms of, you know, legalizing -- we won't even go into all their extremes, but they understand these are minority positions, they understand they can't get through them elections, so they don't care anymore. >> they do care and that's what explains the hostility against election. >> a they're angry against elections. obviously that's what mike pence was trying to go ahead with january 6th. there's whole different stratified levels of government that all have to do certifications before we get to the electoral votes coming to washington on january 6th. what's happening right now if

you look at the county in nevada and fulton county in georgia and look at all these places this is starting to happen republicans are saying now election officials at the lowest level, just at regular counties in any state in the country, conditionu already exist, we're telling you that we'll allow you and justify and serve as a pretext to you saying no to certification. >> correct. >> so you're already seeing republican officials realizing that to certify an election, even when it's a not controversial election, even when republicans win big, even when they themselves are the official they are not certified because certifyingno an electio suggests any election is legitimate. and the point e of republican politics right now is not to contest an election, it's to contest the idea that elections are -- >> what they decide. >> which you need to do if your policy positions are very unpopular. >> and they don't want to have

to pass their ideas through elections. they simply want their ideas. i'll tell you one quick thing related todayu the other news we're talking about today. the rules committee of the democratic party sent out this note to its membership today talking about why they're doing this virtual vote. it is not a scheme to rig the primary for the guy working on the primary, joe biden. they lay out the fact they are concerned republican election officials in states even states like ohio that osstensably change their rules to allow the later certifications to say you can be on the ballot even if you passed your original deadline in june, ohio did that, but their concern isio they signed that l but there are still threats out there from republican officials who areth saying, yeah, but we y still not allow joe biden on our ballot, andon there are multipl states in which they're concerned about litigation. so to avoid litigation, that is

part of the reason they want to do it virtually because they don't trust at this point republican officials in states where they have control over to even do the basic thing of putting joee biden name on the ballot, so that's the level of distrust you're seeing even on the democratic side in republicans belief in the whole idea that there should be elections, the whole idea democratvise any right to ever be in power. >> i want to know when it was continued every day american rubbed me the wrong way, but it seems to have taken off. the title for the individual speaking right now has seemed to work. i didn't think it had legs but it has. the second thing i want to say on this point about the state of democracy is that you said this thing thatde struck me, joy, on the night of the debate it's the

same thing with this convention, where if you were talking to someoneif visiting from another country and knew nothing about american politics, what's his deal, well he was actually president before and tried a violent coup. oh, really so he's running again? they didn't sort of got -- the judges he appointed said he didn't have to do anything abou it so now he's got to try -- if you were coming in this from mars org another country you would think this seems like a bad sort of setup. it's not a situation like oh, really tried that, didn't work, now he's back and running this time. again, that is where we are. w the supreme court issued its opinion on 14th amendment, issued the opinion on official

act of immunity. this is the field the democratic contest is engaged but it is still bizarre. >> one of the reasons groups are so okay with this is because they're special-interest groups and they're going to get limited access toin abortion or the business committee that hears donald trump float ideas like thatna corporate tax rate, i'm t just going to extend those corporate tax rates, i'm going to get it down to 15 which no ceo in15 the history of ever ha ever dared to ask. so why they're willing to say oh, democracy is go to hold, oh, institutions are a-okay, because a 15% tax rate is a super win for them. >> what do you make in the headlines we saw in advance of vance being chosen. that he's somehow some sort of concern to the business community that he's actually a real popialist and big business has aop reason to worry about venture capitalist peter teal and pocket pal j.d. vance being on the ticket?

you can tell from the way i'm presentingic but i thought thos headlines were hilarious. >> it is true in the past j.d. vance hasas expressed populist views. they do not like her, they view her as completely anti-mergers and acquisitions, they hate her guts. j.d. likes her. he worked with elizabeth warren on legislation to have call backs of bank executive bonuses, you would be like boy. let's beu honest you've got donald trump backing him, peter teal backing him and one thing donald trump loves beyond his maga base isey when the rich business community says you're my boy. this notion oh, maybe j.d. vance is going to be a little bit different on business and trump won't pay attention, he absolutely will. remember one of his favorite things is to walk into mar-a-lago and say i'm going to cut your taxes and look at the stock market.

you know who can say look at the stock market? joe biden. >> remember in 2016 and 2017 when people said donald trump was going to be for gay rights. >> peter teal gave a speech to theea rnc. >> i thought it was tonight but it's peter teal. still aed the republican take over by donald trump and his family on full and very pointed display tonight a with e apex speech we are expecting in milwaukee. we've got that andre our covera continuing right after this quick break. stay with us. ntinuing right aft quick break. stay with us >> i know a lot of you want to meet my little buddy, so if baby doll could come out here. how could the message possibly be any simpler than just that? be any simpler than just that?

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coverage of night two of the republican national convention in milwaukee, wisconsin, where we have had a whole bunch of republican senate candidates speak. we have had a speech from nikki haley making news with her unequivocal endorsement of donald trump despite her earlier portrayals of him as a threat to the future of the republic. we also heard from ron desantis. political conventions are often the focus of protesters who oppose the hosting party. this year's rnc in milwaukee is no exception. about 3,000 people gathered in a park near milwaukee arena yesterday, a collection of more than a 100 different activists. another large group, several thousand people walked through milwaukee protesting the rnc. and while the biden campaign itself pressed pause on their campaign ads and events after this week's shooting in pennsylvania, the dnc, the party

they have nevertheless been papering the city of milwaukee with bill boards. 16 different bill boards like these ones highlighting some of the most unpopular policies of the trump-vance ticket. another eight somewhat cheek yr ones with the dark brandon laser eyes look on some of them highlighting president biden's policies and accomplishments. social security cuts? try me. milwaukee might be home to trump's nominating convention this year, but remember joe biden won milwaukee county last time around in 2020 by 40 points. milwaukee is a blue, blue, blue city in a purple state. in wisconsin democrats and republicans have been fighting as hard as you can possibly imagine for more than the past decade. some of the most well joined, well thought highest stakes political partisan combat in the nation has been the state of wic

in the trump era and beyond and the man at the helm of it on the democrat k side is ben wickler, chair of the democratic party. thanks to have you here. >> good to be with you, rachel, and wild moment in the history of our democracy and certainly in the state of wisconsin. >> absolutely. things are always a bit wild in the politics of wisconsin since you and i worked at air america back in the day and new each other back in the george bush era. i feel like since then wisconsin has been ground zero in many ways for the harshest political combat in the country. given the things you and wic democrats are joined in right now, what does it mean to you to have republicans have their convention in milwaukee? >> there's one reason donald trump who calls milwaukee a horrible city behind closed doors although it's a great city

on a great lake, there's one reason why republicans put their convention here. trump said recently in wisconsin, we win wisconsin we win this whole thing. this is state that tips presidential elections one way or the other. a nail-biter have come less to 1% the margin, so two or three votes across the entire state. they're here to bamboozle wisconsin and democrats across the state are mobilized and knocking on doors organizing to make sure the truth gets out about the project 2025 agenda and the freedoms they want to rip away if they get back into the oval office. >> ben, how would you characterize basically the state of the fight right now in wisconsin? how are democrats doing? how have you been doing in recent elections? how are things looking for you in terms of voter registration?

how do the polls look between presidential candidates right now in wisconsin? >> wisconsin true to form is almost perfectly evenly split. there are outlier polls that go in either direction. if you look at the aggregators it's within a couple of opponents here at the moment. i think inthing so striking while the republican national convention is here, and while trump has been visiting our state every so often this year, if republicans had not built a serious grass roots organizing infrastructure, they'd been engaged in a kind of long-term civil war within their party and an effort to try to dismantle democracy as their core strategy. there's a recall effort against robin boss, the speaker of the state assembly, because he's resisted calls to impeach the state elections administrator in our state after he tried to impeach our state's supreme court justice and the up rising.

no one could get an abortion in the state of wisconsin for 451 days after the dobbs decision. on both those fronts you've seen a democratic party that is organized and mobilizing all over the state and a republican party trying to suppress the vote, take over freedoms. on every level of the ballot all the way to the presidential it means this race is a toss up, and democrats have to work to find the votes in every corner of the state if they do that, i think we can win. >> ben, it's alex wagner. thanks for joining us tonight. what do you make of the choice of j.d. vance as trump's running mate? a lot say that's doubling down, trying to reach an electorate in the midwest specifically wisconsin and pennsylvania. do you think it moves voters in your state? >> i think that the choice of j.d. vance is trump doubling

down on people who are willing to sacrifice any principle in order to gain power other than their for whatever reason desire to rip away reproductive freedom. it's a way of appealing to tech billionaires, but it's not a way of appealing to voters. and i think for wisconsin voters they see someone who wants a 100% abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. they see someone who's said he would not have certified the election if he had been vice president instead of mike pence. and that is what trump is promising. i think it's an act of wild overconfidence from trump to really let his darkest impulses run wild, but it's not something that would bring any voters into the republican column. i think it reinforces the fact that trump is a threat to the very idea of democracy and freedom in america. >> a lot of people are calling this the mega-maga ticket, which i think is fair enough. there was a moment in the 1950s

when people on the very, very far sort of maga-style right part of the republican party wanted a wisconsin senator on the ticket. they wanted joe mccarthy and also general macarthur and it was going to be the mack and mack ticket. it was going to be the mega-maga ticket of its day. they never got that dream but trump and vance in 2024 they had to wait to get here. ben wickler, chairman of the democratic party, thank you for being here. always interesting and good to talk to you. let's go to the floor of the republican national convention where nbc news correspondent jacob soboroff is as always making friends and winning people over with his winning charms. jacob, what are you seeing? >> reporter: hi, rachel. we just heard from sarah huckabee sanders. ben carson is coming up next. i want to go back to nikki

haley. nikki haley after being quite opposed, quite vocal, quite specifically against donald trump i think she called him unhinged at one point, she showed up tonight. the south carolina delegation has shown up for former president donald trump. in fact, i heard you talking about there was some booing initially when nikki haley came out on the stage. sorry to interrupt you. i met this nice lady earlier. you were say there was no booing when nikki haley came onto the stage. >> absolutely no booing, 100%. we were yelling niki, nikki, and applauding. >> they were very happy. if they were happy to see nikki haley and nikki haley was happy to see president trump, one thing i want to point out i don't know if it was turned back in the other direction. you were saying the seats are not great here, right? >> well, i'd like to be a little bit closer. it would nice to be a little bit closer. check this out, rachel, south carolina delegation, we're in pretty much the last row as far

away as you could possibly be from the stage. come with me we're here alongside the district of columbia, alaska. here's utah, no fans of donald trump back in the day. here's maryland. you can't even see president trump from the south carolina section. if you take a look from here you have to come out to the northern mariana islands to get a good view of former president trump. there he is sitting next to vice presidential nominee j.d. vance. it was strange to watch former president trump when nikki haley came out. you guys have a closer long lens look at him than i did, but if there was excitement you couldn't quite see it up there in the box. it was quite contentious. i'm sure he's happy to have her here and her endorsement, but you can sort of feel it in this corner of the arena. >> corner is the operative word,

jacob. that's beyond bad seats. >> i'm okay, right? >> you're great. >> i'm great, he said. thanks very much. i'm great. >> those do seem like terrible seats, jacob. thank you for sorting that out for us. i also want you to have better seats from where you are which means you have to leave south carolina and go to northern mariana islands to get it. i'm on my way to guam. see you later. >> jacob soboroff joining us. that's kind of amazing. >> and they won the south carolina primary. >> maybe it's coincidence but i will say -- i didn't want to ask jacob today because i didn't want him to answer this in front of all those people who has to spend the evening with but it does look like sort of the whole place is empty.

>> tuesday nights i feel like they do feel up over the course of the week. the other weird thing traditionally the way it worked you don't see the bride before the wedding, like the nominee doesn't come until the last night and it sort of fills up and builds up. like trump wants to be there all the time because he wants the center of attention on him. also one of the things being the nominee you don't have to sit through a bunch of speeches. it's very funny to keep cutting to him because it's not the most riveting thing in the world. >> didn't it look like he was asleep the other day? >> no, he was praying. he did look sleepily because of the way he was hunched over but it was the moment the prayer was happening. in the moment i noted it. i'm telling you i saw it. >> i do believe he relishes having nikki haley, whether he is not expressing it facially, having nikki haley begin by saying i fully endorse donald trump is something he was not going to miss. it's more like an indian wedding

having been to many indian weddings in my experience where the bride and groom are out for several days rather than just at the end. >> lawrence, i wanted to ask you about what you were saying earlier, top of our coverage here what happened relatively low television ratings for these proceedings. you had suggested that maybe trump's there a lot more than you would expect to see the nominee because he's trying to boost those ratings a little bit. >> i'm sure whether he would have gone without the assassination attempt i don't know. i'm sure when he decided to go one of the things in his mind is, well, this would help monday's ratings. that's actually bad news if it did. it means if they didn't show up, they would have gotten less than 19 million people. these ratings are pretty low for the first night of a convention. we have last night's ratings. and this is the forum where you're supposed to try to reach out to some voters you don't

already have, which previous trump conventions have not been good at. people watching it here are people who are very interested in this. it's entirely possible of the people watching it here, they don't all intend to vote for donald trump. maybe none of them intend to vote for donald trump. remember in the 19 million there's a solid 5 million watching who are hoping this ticket fails, minimum of 5 million watching. so there's no more than 13 million people or so who are cheering for this ticket, who are actually watching this thing tonight. so this is compared to past conventions 1960s and 70s, it's a very small event. >> it's a small event, in a swing state. very interesting observation from ben wickler, speaking with the democratic party chairman in wisconsin, even though we think

of wisconsin as such a partisan battleground, hard fought contested territory, he said what he's observing and i don't think this is spin from ben wickler because i don't think that's the way he normally talks. he said what he's observing is republicans haven't put together a grund operation in wisconsin on this republican ticket. in terms of wic trying to get it together on the republican side to cast votes for trump and now vance, he says it's not there. >> i've been talking to ben fairly regularly on our program, and one of the reasons possibly for that is they're kind of bad at the organizational end of it especially if you're changing heads of the party the way they do and the way they recklessly do, but remember so much of the trump money was going to legal fees, biden, harris and the democratic campaign money was going to building ben's infrastructure in wisconsin and other states like that. and so he's had a -- ben's had a

big head start in wisconsin on all of that. >> they're also a very talented well, led party. >> he's just the best. >> as we await the headliner speech by donald trump's daughter-in-law, because she now is running the rnc -- which sounds crazy. another past republican chief will give us his view of the trump family business. michael steele's going to join us coming up. stay with us.

besides the balloons and the pageantry and the stagecraft and the weird cover bands, political conventions really are meant to be a display, a televised perfect display of unity, not only of the party coming together in support of their chosen candidate, conventions are an opportunity for political parties to pitch to the whole nation about how their party, their candidate, their platform is the best suited to unite the whole country in the years ahead. it is a showcase of unity. at least that is what they are supposed to be. >> welcome, everybody, who's watching at home, and welcome everybody in this great arena tonight. we love you all. actually, actually, wait a minute. i don't mean that. i don't welcome everybody in this room. the guys up in the fake news,

frankly -- all right, frankly you guys up there in the fake news have worn-out your welcome, right? >> madam chairman, madam chairman, the commonwealth of kentucky proudly cast 42 votes for the next president, donald j. trump. >> what night are you speaking? are you speaking tonight? if you took that stage you would get booed off the stage. >> that was florida congressman matt gaetz at the end there sort of frothing at the proverbial mouth a little bit, yelling at former republican speaker of the house kevin mccarthy, the guy from his own party he helped drive out of congress.

so, you know, unity, smiles, everyone, smiles. there was at least one guy in the crowd today who did get into the spirit of solidarity. did you guys see this today? i thought this was a prank but i can't believe this is a thing. honestly i can't believe there's only one so far. joining us now michael steele, one of the hosts of msnbc's "the weekend." mr. steele, thank you so much for being here. >> good to be with you rachel and the crew. how's it going? >> you know, we're nuts at this point. we're so punchy we have no idea what we might say at any one moment. we don't know if it's commercial time, tv time, time to swear time, we're a mess. >> the last person you need right now with you is me because i'm not going to help your cause, baby girl. >> all right, all right. so, michael, i want to talk to

you right now because we are awaiting a speech not from the chair of the republican party because he is not giving a long televised speech in prime time on 10:00 on the east coast, weirdly this time it is the number 2 official in the republican party who has been given the honor of the big culminating prime time speech. and why is that? because her name is laura trump, and she is married to donald trump's son, the blonde one -- she is married to eric trump. is this weird, "a," that the candidate has put his family in charge of the republican party, and "b," they're putting the second ranked official on tv for the big deal speech? >> yeah, it is. it is very, very weird, number one, this has now become a family enterprise for the republican national committee. number two, that you would have

the cochair taking a prime time slot, typically party officials will speak in the beginning of the day, you know, in the 5:00 hour long before prime time. i mean their roles are generally administrative. they don't have a clarion call they're going to send out to the gathered because they're organizing this. they're managing this. they're not there to give speeches as the chair and cochair in that record. but this is different because it is a daughter-in-law of the former president who is there for one purpose and one purpose only and it's to make sure that trump enterprises is fully operationalized inside the rnc, which is now no longer the rnc. it is either the maga party or the trump republican party, but it is not the republican party of lincoln, reagan, and

eisenhower. so it means a lot for the direction the party is going to go structurally and organizationally. >> michael, in terms of the way the republican national committee is supposed to run, obviously whenever you've got a president, the president is the de facto head of the party and the president gets his or her own person in at the national committee, and there's a lot of power that comes directly from the presidency down into the party. in this case we've got a somewhat unusual situation because we've got a former incumbent -- we've got an ex-president running to try to become president again. so you definitely expect him to be exerting power in the party. but by making it his family and by making it so personal and so much a part of as you say trump enterprises, is there a risk that the party is run to trump's benefit in a way that may hurt the other goals of the party, which include not just things

like senate seats and governorships but even state legislature and all the other races that the rnc has to try to win for the party's best interest? >> well, rachel, you just put your finger on the heart and soul of what a party's there to do. what my job as national chairman was two fold. i had two responsibilities at the end of the day -- raise money, win elections. that's it. with the money you build the infrastructure to win those elections. with the money you create the messaging to win those elections. with the money you nen are able to level up your candidates particularly in some battleground areas and in some weaker districts where you could probably cobble together some resources to move the needle that would help not just further downward ballot candidates but even sometimes -- and this is something that's little understood in politics, everything doesn't go top down. there are a number of races in which the candidate running for congress or candidate running for state legislature helps a

statewide candidate, even a presidential statewide candidate by drawing up more voters who otherwise may not be excited, so that infrastructure is very, very, very important. and when the rnc was taken over, i would say largely condemned to its fate by the takeover by the trump organization, they fired 60-plus people who had already built that infrastructure. you just can't replace those people who have the battle plan to run those operations on the ground, number one. and you certainly can't do it when you either disrupt those operations or those operations are incomplete because you don't then know how they were going to be filled out and how they were going to be laid out to their completion. so the reality then becomes you set yourself behind, and you damn sure don't do it six months before a general election in a hotly contested presidential

election. so that infrastructure that the -- your prior guest guest in wisconsin was talking about, that the party of wisconsin has not been able to crystallize and organize, they're going to pay a price for that down stream. you just don't stand that up, rachel, in 30 days. that's a network that's built out over a year plus time. and the fact they cut that cord six months before the election by firing people tells you where the emphasis is at. the emphasis is one place, top line presidential. we win that, and the thinking is everything else falls in place. that's not how this election is going to play out. >> yeah, and you combine that with the chaos we've seen in state parties, literal chaos in some cases, physical fighting that happens at state party levels as people are fighting over really extreme levels i

think it is a real black box figure for what's going to happen over the last few months. >> can i quick for you, you guys had some fun with our friend up in the balcony talking to the states who are in the out lying sections of the arena. typically what happens with that, states that wind up so far removed from the floor, a lot of times that's based on how the presidential candidate slash nominee did in those states. beyond the host state and the vice president, you then have a degree of support, if you will. when you get to places like maryland where donald trump lost the state by 35 points, yeah, they're going to be sitting in the balcony. >> yeah, exactly. and it's not even nose bleeds. you're in the plains. it's not you're high up and can look down. you're by back and still on the ground. >> tucked behind some tumbleweed. >> i'm here behind a pillar,

obstructed view, cheaper ticket. michael steele, great to see you. we're awaiting a prime time speech from the daughter-in-law in the nominee. she's not the chair of the republican party but close enough. we're going to take a quick break before we expect to hear from laura trump. stay with us. we expect to hear from laura trump stay with us and my metabolism literally just crashed on me. i've tried everything and starving myself just didn't work. what appealed to me about golo was that it focused on losing fat weight and maintaining my muscle. the golo plan and release has given me back my metabolism. golo has shown me how to lose the weight and keep it off. i will never gain the weight back again thanks to golo.

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welcome back to our special cover object of night two of the republican national convention in the fantastic lovely great city on a great lake in wisconsin, downtown milwaukee. and has it begun? we are looking for the keynote speech tonight from laura trump. she's the cochair but she's eric trump's wife so she's getting

the speaking gig tonight. >> some of you have been. oh. regardless of how the media have painted these rallies, you would be hard-pressed to find and to join a happier group of people coming together over their love for the greatest country on earth, the united states of america. i dare anyone trying to leave a trump rally without leaving with some new friends. you always make friends at a trump rally, right? veterans, teachers, blue collar workers, white collar workers, active duty military, police officers, firefighters, small business owners, latino supporters, christian supporters, jewish supporters, black supporters, asian

supporters, gay supporters, republicans, independents, and, yes, even democrats. at a trump rally you're not viewed as your profession, your religion or the color of your skin. you're viewed as one thing, an american. last saturday was a jarring reminder that we as americans must always remember there is more that unites us than divides us. >> laura trump is the daughter-in-law of republican presidential nominee donald trump. she's number two in charge at the republican national convention. if we have four more years of biden or single day of