dictatorship and the strongest president in history doing all sorts of things we cannot imagine. >> nbc news presidential historian michael best loft putting a cap on it for us tonight. michael, thank you. in a rambling, meandering, sweating, obviously, like, easily distract did, singsong, soft-spoken, awkward speech, donald trump became the new world record holder for longest convention speech in american politics in modern history. and also the three time nominee of the republican party for resident. thank you for being with us. the site and every night during the republican national convention. our coverage continues now with the host of the weekend on msnbc. stay with us.

>> good morning or evening, depending on where you are joining us frumpy welcome to msnbc's coverage of the final night of the republican national convention. i am alicia menendez with alex anderson and michael steele. tonight, trump made a meandering speech filled with lies that struck two very different tones. one that is a softer side that came out when the ex-president read verbatim office teleprompter and made statements we know that he does not believe, like when he said we should not criminalize political disagreements, despite frequent promises to jail his opponents. the other time was one that we all know well, the tone that immediately came back when trump went off script, like when he told the audience he was trying to buy their vote. while referencing his 2020

election loss, he said, quote, we are never going to let that happen again. we do not have the ability to place on for audience. do you want to do your interpretation of the speech? >> i stand before you this evening, with a message of confidence and hope. >> was her confidence and hope? >> and was their strength? >> none of that was here tonight. this is, so you know the memo went out after last saturday's horrific event, in order to rewrite the whole thing, we will play into our softer side of ourselves. and this is what this looks like for trump. none of it is believable, because you could see him sort of forcing himself to stay in that lane. slowing himself down to the point where, as was reported a

moment ago, it was boring and people were losing interest. so i am hoping america watching this tonight understands exactly what this melodrama was about. this was about lulling you into thinking somehow this man has changed. he has not. he still wants to be a dictator on day one. as he then would go on to recant and recite after he went through his opening narrative of the blow-by-blow, play-by- play of what happened in the shooting. which, of course, did not necessarily line up with what we saw live, but okay. all of that is part of this ongoing narrative now to make people believe that i am a sympathetic figure, that i have been humbled i this experience. narcissists are not humbled by anything except themselves.

>> this is a lot of what we hear from him at his rallies. right actually cheated with covid. >> i would argue it was wanted for new tone. by new tone, i mean monotone. and not as angry. again, he spent half the time telling the story of the assassination attempt, which of course it will be more muted. and then it went right to trump rally. when he started out shouting out to people on the stage and people he had seen in the raleigh that evening, that to me, that was, like, okay, this is a trump rally. that is what he does at trump rallies. and then he started going off on tangents about the oil, shouting out tom coleman thing we will do family separation. he told the people as you said, that he was going to die, he was trying to buy their votes in wisconsin. he just said, i will just say

it, i am trying to buy your vote's. it was crazy. and also, i do just want to note, i was sickened by the prop that was mr. comp territory. i was sickened by using him as a prop, his firefighter jacket. oh, we are so grateful that the fire department visited us. these are local dollars. this is not chicago fire. they got their names on the back of the jacket. but then they put the name on and they spelled it wrong. if we are going to be prop, let's at least get it right. >> i am trying to organize that chaos in my mind. i think the closest i can come to is three buckets. one was the faux populist message that he kept coming back to, where he does not seem to understand the basics on

inflation, but he did understand it would be popular with the general election electorate. there was a lot in there about immigration. there were, i think was alarming, if you were paying attention to it, there were shades of the manifesto from the el paso massacre. a lot of that language being repurposed about a new nation. there were more than 20 people who died that day because of that rhetoric. another was all of this talk about america on the world stage. when donald trump embarrassed america on the world stage, he had his own vice president, when you have two secretaries of defense, when you have multiple national security advisers of his saying this man is not fit to be president of the united states, having the audacity to stand up there and talk about how america has been perceived in the last four years? i mean, it is not tethered to reality. >> he used dictators as an example. >> the crowd applauded victor

or bond. and it was a moment for the once proud republican party, you know, that gave us a ronald reagan who made it very clear and defined for the world where the enemy was. to see that embraced of the enemy by that hall was very, very disappointing. but it is trump, so there you go. >> help out folks talk about mr. trump's new tone, honey? i want to know if they will walk backwards in their tweets. some of us are not talk but a new tone donald trump will have. dividing campaign had robert garcia, congressman robert garcia. we point the moments that stood out to us. i would also like to put the classified documents case on the docket there. what moment stood out to you? >> i mean, first, the whole thing was just bizarre and rambling, and incoherent in many parts. but also, separate of that, there were also moments where

he was very clear about the craziness he wants to see. i want to point out one things you guys mentioned. this was one of his most anti- immigrant speeches that donald trump is actually made. besides insulting the community, besides talking about immigrants and having an invasion, he talked about his mass deportation camps. he actually made a slur against latino people, against our community here in this country. i think people will take those parts of the speech very seriously. as crazy, rambling, and maybe as dull as that speech was, he was also very clear about empowering those parts of project 2025 that are the most dangerous to immigrants, that are the most dangerous towards working people, this is a person that is dangerous. but one thing is crystal clear and should be crystal clear to all democrats and voters tonight, that we can and we will defeat donald trump.

he is absolutely beatable this november, and we are going to win. >> there seems to be a little bit of hiding the ball here. i actually thought it was a tell that the former president said, you can read the gop platform. >> it is good, i have it right here. to your point, while he talked about, quote / unquote invasion on the southern border come he talked a lot about carrying out the largest deportation operation in u.s. history. you and i know that a segment 11 million people who have lived in the interior of this country, many of them their entire lives, they have families here. but let's talk about some of the other bullets in here. cutting federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, keeping men out of women's sports. i mean he wants you to believe he is singularly focused on the economy, when you read it in their own words. they have a series of policies that are so out of touch with the priorities of the american

people, it is unbelievable to me that they put them down on paper. >> and besides his complete lies about uplifting all of those points that he obviously is committed to, he talked about one of the architects tonight of project 2025. he actually uplifted him in his speech tonight. and yet in another rough saying he has no idea what project 2025 is. he is a complete and total liar and a con man. he is conning the american people. i want to point out one other part of the speech. he actually took credit for doing some type of good job during the pandemic. he talked like he was somehow, like he had some sort of role in leading this country in a positive way. that man cost american lives. he was a disaster during the pandemic. he told people to inject leach into their skin. he told people to not get vaccinated. he has made this country turned upside down. just on the pandemic alone, it

should disqualify that man from being anything in this country, let alone the president of the united states. so this speech, besides being bizarre and rambling, he also let the american people know exactly who he is, which is a con man, a criminal, and someone that should be nowhere near the presidency. >> with everything you have said and what we have heard tonight, a lot of democrats act like they cannot beat him in december. in november. why do we have a narrative coming out of the democratic party that we cannot win with the ticket that we have? and what people saw tonight, which was in many respects, an amazing display of incomprehensible, you know, rambling thoughts from one to cling to the next, interspersed with facts that are easily refutable, and defeasible at the ballot box. help me understand that.

>> yes, i would say this. we have at the top of our ticket, a man who has served his country honorably, with strength, with courage, and he is the only person to ever defeat that man on the stage tonight. he stepped up because he saw his country was in great need of patriotism and somebody that would look out for people in this country, that need our help and support. those who are really suffering. that is who joe biden is. joe biden is the nominee of our party. he is the president of the united states. and vice president kamala harris are going to feet donald trump. we need to be unified and confident that we can beat donald trump. but i am hopeful that tonight, not just america, but our party, or leadership, villagers on the ground have realized it, yes, we can defeat donald trump. and one last thing, i am

hopeful that, not all of you, but other folks, other colleagues in the media, need to cover the danger of donald trump. they need to cover what he is actually saying. he talked about project 25, 2025. people need to know what donald trump actually stands for. it is important. democrats are out every single day campaigning, talking, and working like -- to make sure we can keep our democracy and defeat donald trump and jd vance. >> robert garcia, as always, thank you so much for being with us. but for you at home in a little bit, george will rejoin us. glo, an accredited university that's transformed adult lives for 75 years. you're not waiting to win, you're ready to succeed again at umgc.edu.

we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple. it looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. no living being should ever eat processed food for every single meal of their life. it's amazing to me how many people write in about their dogs changing for the better. the farmer's dog is just our way to help people take care of them. ♪ ( ♪♪ ) luke's mom: without easterseals, my luke would be a very different luke. look up. where you going? luke's mom: there's an incredible urgency to get your child into services, because the longer you wait, these motor pathways are set in stone. i knew he needed help. he needed these services. i'm almost there. yes, you are. you're so close.

you're so strong. i'm gonna say hi. okay! let's say hi. hi! nolan's mom: none of my friends or people in our network have a child with these needs. and then you go to easterseals and it's such a good feeling to feel like you're in good hands. they really understand what you're going through. jaxon: at one point, i wasn't able to walk or ride my bike. the little things that other people take for granted that i need help with. sometimes those are hard because you don't want help. but you need it. but children can't get the help they need without support from people like you. go online, call this number, or scan this code and donate just $19 a month. luke's mom: these children deserve access to care, and they need help. and if the funding's not there, it's hard to reach every single family. so please, visit this website, call or scan now. it's just 63 cents a day

to provide life-changing services to these children. therapist: you are literally creating an opportunity for this child to grow and to be an independent, successful adult. join now, and we'll send you this one-of-a-kind t-shirt with our heartfelt thanks. to reach into your heart and see what your donation can do for these kids. it really does make a difference. you're helping kids believe in themselves. go online, call or scan now to change a child's life forever. [ put a little love in your heart go online, call or scan now by david ruffin begins to play ] my bad, my bad. good race. - you too. you were tough out there. thank you. i'm getting you next time though. oh i got you, i got you. down goes jewett. jewett and amos are down. what a lovely sign of sportsmanship.

you okay? yeah. ♪ ♪

>> we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what has been happening in our country lately, at a level nobody has ever seen before. in that spirit, the democratic party should immediately stop organizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. especially since that is not true. in fact, i am the one saving my chrissy for the people of our country.

>> truly one of the best laugh lines of the night. there is certainly no surprise to hear the republican presidential nominee railing against the justice system in his speech tonight. with us now, conservative lawyer george conway. also a contributing writer at the atlantic. george, welcome. thanks for hanging out with us. >> yes. wonderful. >> george. george. >> we stayed up so late. >> you have three glasses in front of you. >> this is a warm-up for what? i do not know what is coming here. >> your thoughts on that, your thought on using mr., tori as a prop, given the sacrifice for his family, he did not go there to be a hero, he went there to listen to a rally and he died, the gas lighting that we experienced, the going off script, the taking us to a trump rally.

george? >> well, i've got to say, i feel vindicated now. the last couple of weeks have been rough, watching the debate about biden, the debate with biden versus the debate about biden. in here, it is, like, my theory about this election always was going to thousand 16 became about hillary, she was peer 2020 became about trump, he lost per 2024 was ultimately going to have to be about trump for him to lose. my theory always was he would make it about himself because he is such a narcissist. that is what he saw tonight. he could not keep it under control. once you are ahead, you sit down. okay? he did the bit, a bit overdone. the guy did live rounds.

yes, absolutely. he gets to talk about that. yeah, i feel bad for the guy for that. but the thing with the man who passed away was overdone i thought. but he could have just, if he had stuck to whatever was on that prompter, it probably would have been okay. and he cannot do that. he cannot. it is like what someone said what was the last hour about? khrushchev would go on for so long and castro, nobody is there to tell them. it is all about them. >> speaking about it behold him, we will talk about it on the other side. >> on monday, a ruling was headed up from a highly respected federal judge in florida, eileen cannon, finding that the prosecutor and the

fake documents case against me were totally unconstitutional. . speech that did not get rousing applause in general, that actually animated them, one, that she is well respected. she is not. the second is that the case is totally unconstitutional. it is not. that it was a fake document? those documents were real. that's the problem. n that is why he is facing multiple counts under the espionage act and that is the whole thing. he got to play the victim tonight, and he overdoes it. he can't help himself, because he is just an unhinged narcissist. i feel bad for the comedy writers. i don't know how -- i don't

think you could parity this. i think the guy is a self- parody. it is a joke. hannibal lector showed up. the shark showed up. i thought that was actually the one disappointing thing is i missed -- i must've stepped out when he was talking about sharks. >> also,nnta how do the america people process what they saw tonight? p what is the take away you think we should begin to contextualize the rest of this race? [ inaudible ] my colleagues are looking at me like dude, really? i asked congressman garcia before he left that you can't beat this lewith the guy you've got right now?

you can't -- what we just saw tonight, you can't beat this, seriously? you can't take an 81-year-old man and beat him? so help me understand, help folks understand how we need to contextualize what we saw because clearly, some democrats are seeing something different than the rest of us are seeinge when they look at that. >> i'm going to take a step back. trump has had an enormous advantage. ever since january 6th, he has been off of everybody's radar screens in a lot of ways. band from twitter, not on facebook or instagram or whatever he was on before. he is not on national television all the time, even fox does not carry his stuff and then the trial downtown actually kind of helped him because just when the campaign should've been getting wrapped up, and we would see more of

donald trump, we did not get to see that. we only got to see little clips of him pretending he is persecuted in the hallway and he didn't do any of the debates, which was a really smart move, any of the primary debates. they kept him under wraps. they understood the way the trump white house understood in 2020 when he pulled the coronavirus briefings because he started talking about clorox or whatever and thus became a big disaster because the more you see this guy, the more you wonder like what is his problem? what is going on with him? and so, he managedro. we had se him and he gets into that debate and biden was -- i guess he had a cold or he just wasn't ready for the onslaught of aggression and the lies.

so the problem is when you are listening to a guy, trump like that, a pathological narcissist and a sociopath spreading out lies, if you try to start thinking no, which of the 68 lies that just came out to his mouth i have to respond to you're going to get stuck. you get stuck. your brain gets fried. and that is kind of what happened to biden that night. g the thing about it is with trump, the more you see of him, the more you start scratching your head and now we finally got to see donald trump. >> that, we did. an hour and a half of donald trump. what is your super pac going to do about this? >> super pac i launch this morning it turned out given the lunacy we saw tonight was a perfect day to launch it. it's called the anti-psychopath political action committee and one of the things that struck me over the last few weeks is just eethis absolute double standard that is applied to. you know, you got two old guys. 77, 80.

they both you know, they can ramble on a bit. they can both screwup names. trump, what did he call his vice presidential candidate mandel? he got the right state. they messed things up. we all mess things up when we talk fast and we're trying to think about things, but you know, they are getting older and soowmbey they both have tha issue in different ways, but the problem was, what is the baseline? and, the problem is trump has never been right in the head. if you look at his personality, his personality disorders, he is a pathological narcissist. he checks the boxes for basically every characteristic of someone who would be diagnosed under the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, volume 5, and he basically checks every box. you only have to check a certain number of them and then for sociopathy, he checks all

the characteristics and these are characteristics like pathological liar, lacks ability to follow rules, shows lack of remorse, shows aggression to people. it's like okay yeah. check, check, check. pathological lying about january 6. >> the pack is designed to call this all out. >> yes. that is the point of the pack and when you look at you know, we talk about the worst people in history, the cult leaders, the dictators, they are all narcissistic sociopaths. there are what psychologist eric from called malignant narcissist and they don't have any remorse. they don't have any conscious. they don't care about the truth. they have no guilt. they will do anything to get ahead if they can get away with it. that is not someone you want in

any position of power, and if you look at just -- you don't have to be engaged in a diagnosis, you just have to be able to read the list of characteristics and say yeah, he's got all of these. and they ask are these the characteristics that you want somebody st who's going to have the second largest arsenal of nuclear weapons at his command, or ais going to control the united states government and execute faithfully laws. he can't do that because he can only think about himself. >> i'm going to need something else in my cup after george conway. george conway, thank you. thank you. we will be -- i'll be watching. appreciate your time, george. folks, don't go anywhere. we will be right back.

(♪♪) (♪♪) voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪♪)

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, and low blood sugar. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ the moment i met him i knew he was my soulmate. an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. "soulmates." soulmate! [giggles] why do you need me? [laughs sarcastically] but then we switched to t-mobile 5g home internet. and now his attention is spent elsewhere.

but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? 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 to msnbc's special coverage of the final night of the republican national convention. tonight, we heard a long, rambling acceptance speech from the former president of the united states. did i mention it was long? >> i probably accept your nomination for president of the united states. thank you.

let me begin this evening by expressing my gratitude to the american people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt. i raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting fight fight fight. we have to work on making america great again, not on beating people that we won and we beat them all and we beat them in the impeachments. we beat them on indictments. we are indeed a nation in decline. there has never been an invasion like this anywhere. has anyone seen silence of the lambs? i got along very well north korea kim jong-un i got along very well with him. russia has nuclear submarines and warships 60 miles away. we will press forward and together we will win, win, win. quite simply put, we will very

quickly make america great again. thank you very much. >> we want to bring in former republican congressman dot of florida and former adviser to secretary of state hillary clinton. >> okay, so who first? >> to be clear, it wasn't funny. it was sad. >> it was a rambling, terrible speech. what happened tonight is the republican party rallied around a criminal nominee and affirmed him as the leader of the party in their nomination to be on the ballot in november. donald trump is an adjudicated criminal still facing charges for defrauding the american people in the last election and that is their guy. the speech was rambling, incoherent. donald trump is of diminished

capacity and we should be talking about that and be focused on that. he also was a liar. he presented a case about the state of america that is incorrect. i pitched the three of you specifically on it is morning in america again despite what donald trump said, more americans will go to work tomorrow than ever before. the stock market is breaking records including retirement savings. real wages are up. inflation is coming down. access to health care and education is as strong as it has ever been. home ownership is at an all- time high. crime is coming down. none of that was what donald trump presented tonight. he is a criminal. he is a liar. he is incoherent in his capacity as diminished and it is important the democrats, my friends, prosecute that case as strongly as prosecuting the case against their own nominee. >> i have to say that i agree it is important for the united democratic party to prosecute that case against donald trump. the way it looked the last few days, this was a show and to me, i actually think they did a pretty good visual job in the way that they projected energy

and strength in unity. i thought the backdrop of the north portico, whether it is intentional or unintentional, these are all moments that stay in people's minds. i thought the bio of his life you know, reminding people of the trump he wants people -- we have to pay attention to the effect that has on people, what stays in the hearts and minds and those of you who remember, in 2016 he was able to convince people that he was a successful businessman as much as he was revealed as unsuccessful, you could not tell people that somebody who had a building or buildings with his name on it was not successful and so how do we push back against this?

in some ways the subliminal messages because you are right. he had a speech in the trump teleprompter in the speech that he wanted to give and he gave them both and i understand i had so many people say i'm falling asleep listening to his speech, but i think at the end of the day, it says something that he can be up there. i think we have to call those things out intentionally. >> that is the part in the way you make it stick, where you call those things out and you remind people of exactly okay, this is what you are actually looking at. to that point, there is a point in the speech where there were so many ironic moments where we go well, that's not right. that's a little weird. when he says quote, we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement. in that spirit, the democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy, especially since

that is not true. in fact, i am the one saving democracy so that last part was a little throw up in the mouth okay, because he is not the one who saved democracy. the other part of this, when he talks about labeling political opponents as enemies of democracy, which is exactly what he wants to do, all of this made me think maybe it's true. he did not read project 2025, because that is exactly -- >> remember his own words. he will be your retribution. he is set the press should get thrown in jail. his entire ethos is one of criminalizing political dissent in the somebody who is a critic of donald trump, that breathes a sigh of relief when he said that. that's when you remember he is a liar. but we do know everything is projection but he also likes and is fairly good at flipping the script on democrats when people come at him. donald trump incited violence to stop democracy.

that is the guy we saw tonight and his message on unity is to let all of this people free. his message on unity is to not hold them accountable. we cannot have healing in this country without accountability. he thinks healing is the world rallying behind him. national unity occurs around a cause, not a candidate. and, donald trump's vision of unity means everybody rallies to him. that is not unity. unity is a cause of democracy, of law and order, of accountability, of protecting fundamental rights. that is a cause that the nation can rally around. that is not what donald trump is presenting. >> it is not what he was presenting but also not close on display his entire convention. like he didn't do it in his speech then he didn't do the entire convention. this is why i think conventions don't matter. i know there's been lots of

debate about whether convention should even happen. i think i do still matter. there good fundraising opportunities, they inject energy and the people at that convention were very fired up about what donald trump was saying. other people on the stage were very fired up when carrie lake came out there and took aim against the media with his words and said that it they had worn out their welcome essentially. they were very fired up when senator ron jones went out on the first night and had a very negative tone speech that he said was incorrectly loaded into the teleprompters he told cbs news. they were very fired up with the mass deportation now signs and so vice president harris was in fayetteville, north carolina today and part of the remark she gave, i cut them on c-span and she said watch what they do, not just what they say, and if you look at what they are doing, it is still very much still in the vein of

us versus them. many people on that stage got up there throughout the weekend said they tried to assassinate donald trump. who is they? who is they? >> well, they is the very convenient bogeyman so when you don't know who they is, it's enough reason to be scared. i agree about the and enthusiasm. i also thought jd vance -- i had predicted for months just talking to friends, they're going to need somebody who is not a traditional politician, and i know jd vance as an elected member of congress, but at the same time, he is also known as an author and new york times best-selling author. he has a great story. people have taken issue with some of the things that he says in his story but it is a story and at the end of the day, what are we telling through these campaigns and through these conventions? we want to tell a good story and he does have a good story with his vice presidential pick and his wife, but the they is

the rest of us, anybody who is not in that room, who is not jumping up and down and who is not attending these rallies. >> jd vance also has an affinity it seems like for project 2025. we have more to discuss, just as i just mentioned. we need to talk about the biden- harris campaign and how the vice president is prosecuting the case against donald trump's project 2025. that is when our special can't -- coverage continues. -- coverage continues. e. one a day is formulated with key nutrients to support whole body health. one a day. science that matters.

what does a robot know about love? it takes a human to translate that leap in our hearts into something we can see and hold. etsy.

switch to shopify and sell smarter at every stage of your business. take full control of your brand with your own custom store. scale faster with tools that let you manage every sale from every channel. and sell more with the best converting checkout on the planet. a lot more.

take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis, help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. e*trade from morgan stanley

project 2025 doesn't sit well with a lot of others. no one in the entire convention mentioned the plan for the second trump term. didn't bring it up, didn't talk about it but the biden-harris to campaign is talking about project 2025 all the time. here is vice president harris campaigning earlier in north carolina. >> some of you may have heard donald trump's running mate deliver remarks at the republican national convention. he did not talk about project 2025. there 900 page blueprint for a second trump term. he did not talk about it because their plans are extreme. and, they are divisive. where is the last administration gave tax cuts to billionaires,

we gave tax cuts to families through the child tax credit, which caught -- cuts child poverty in america by half. and please, do note, their project 2025 agenda would even and head start. to take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children. >> david jolly and aberdeen are still with us. >> this is what they did. you talked about populism all night the notably did not talk about abortion. notably did not talk about how he was going to wipe out the federal workforce, did not talk much about how he wants for people in the interior of the country.

they know those policies alienate general election voters. it's funny when you talk about the convention because you clearly are such a storied staffer that you see conventions through the eyes of a staffer sort of will he stand prompter won't he stay on prompt or will he stick to this message of the policies that are popular or is he going to go off script and all this project 2025 stuff and i think that remains part of the core tension of this race. >> i think the vice president needs to mention project 2025 every time she gives a speech anywhere, just as any democratic elected official, anybody out there representing or even speaking on behalf of democrats because it is scary what is in there. i was talking to a friend yesterday who was out

campaigning and met a veteran who told her that he voted. he's a republican who voted for trump in 2016 and 2020 and know that he understands what project 2025 will mean for him in terms of veterans benefits, he can't vote for him again so it's about informing people over and over again and shoving it down their throat that this is going to be very bad for you. everybody knows. we know that reproductive rights is a win for us on election day and so we can't say it enough. >> one of the most important things i have learned in the few years i've done politics is storytelling. tonight, regardless of what we may think about what we saw and heard, for a lot of folks who buy into the lori bordonaro narrative, that storytelling especially at the beginning where donald trump is reeling out the details, the bullet whizzing by my hair and all of that, they get sucked in to that and very much to your point now

and before about how voters are perceiving and hearing stuff, david, what is the story? the story, not the policy. the story democrats should be telling against the story that donald trump intends to tell? >> there story is what i said earlier. it's morning in america again and keep it to some simple metrics. and stan joe biden does have a responsibility to continue to remind the american people that donald trump is a criminal convict. that is an existential question. that's a pivotal moment in american history. does that move people? not as much is reproductive freedom on my only concern with project 2025 is that you have to do some second-degree impact analysis for people to

understand that brandon i think you are seen democrats do it right now because within it three or four visions people to understand and we have all seen it. we all know we can finish each other's sentences. the issue of reproductive freedom most people edit both white, evangelical, republican performing women who would never tell you they are pro- choice. they still call themselves pro- life but after dobbs, they realize you know what? the ro framework was the healthy framework for the country. those orders don't pole, but they show up so project 2025 is an important brandon it does scare people. is it more powerful than the hundred 62nd ad we saw yesterday about the child survivor who had to make a decision about aborting the child and she is fearful that other girls may not have that choice today? that one hits home to every parent. >> it cuts through and it is something that we again i agree with you, those folks are not showing up in the polling but they show up at the polls and we have seen it happen. davis said if joe biden is the nominee, 1400 black women came in today with a letter saying the candidate who won the primary should simply step

aside because it's unjust to the voters. secretary clinton and president clinton are out here on the phones allegedly calling up the people saying do what you need to do to support joe biden. >> did you get a phone call today? >> something you want to share? >> fortunately or unfortunately, i have been in the position of understanding what it is to support a candidate who was surrounded by people, press, donors telling her she should drop out of the race, living in a time in 2008 when we believed we supported the candidate who is most qualified and at the end obviously stepped aside and we had an extraordinary presidency under barack obama so i get the pressure. i get the need to be responsive and then you try and do the right thing.

we are in a place where we have a nominee who is our current president, who by all accounts we all agree is a good man, good public servant and has been an excellent president. every time we have anything done publicly, it's what i was saying before we got on. somebody should be collecting everyone's phone and putting them in a scifs somewhere because either we stay totally focused on what our mission is, and the mission is to defeat donald trump and figure out how we are going to win and do that. if there is any other change that should be done by a decision made by the president of the united states and his advisers, but until then, anything else that is done is just a distraction. every time what drives me crazy is people picking up the phone, calling the white house and the say no, i've called and they said -- this is damaging to our

party and they should stop until they make a decision about what is happening in right now we don't have a decision. >> all right. thank you both for staying up late with us. that does it for us this early morning. don't forget you can see all of us every saturday and sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. eastern right here on the weekend on msnbc and if you would like to take us on the go, you can now listen to every episode of the weekend as a podcast. download the podcast starting this weekend. we are going to put a qr code on your screen. pick up your phone, type it in forever you see a podcast. whatever app you like, type in the weekend and be able to find us this weekend. thank you for watching msnbc special coverage of the republican national convention. we will see you this weekend. have a good night, everyone. . have a good night, everyone. sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to

dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save.

when we're young, we're told anything is possible... ...but only a few of us go out and prove it. witness the greatness of anna hall on a connection worthy of gold: xfinity mobile. only xfinity gives you the most powerful mobile wifi network, with speeds up to a gig in millions of locations. and right now, get up to $800 off the new galaxy z flip6 and z fold6 when you trade in your current phone.

get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. looking at a live shot of the republican national convention venue in milwaukee, wisconsin. there on night four. tonight is the night donald trump will accept the

nomination. 1976, a very conservative former governor of california decided to challenge the sitting president in the republican primary. it was ronald reagan from california. he ran a kind of right-wing insurgent campaign against republican president gerald ford. it did not go well at first. reagan lost the first five primaries to ford. if he was going to have a shot at it, he was going to need some help. enter north carolina's new archconservative republican senator, a man named jesse helms. jesse helms took charge of reagan's local campaign, refashioned reagan's message to north carolina to lean into culture war issues the way jesse helms wanted to, most especially, he chose the issue of abortion. the supreme court had made abortion legal and recognized a constitutional right for a woman to get an abortion in this country just three years earlier, the decision in roe versus wade 1973. well, under jesse helms' leadership, reagan turned his primary campaign around. he won the north carolina primary. he then proceeded to win primaries all across the south with this newly honed message. reagan ultimately came very close to winning enough delegates to potentially win

the presidential nomination that year. he did not get all the way but he got a lot of delicates and at the 1976 convention in missouri has big delicate hall from the primaries meant he had lots of his own supporters. jesse helms and his allies were very clear on what they wanted from that platform. they wanted a plank explicitly opposing legal abortion in this country. president ford barely had enough delegates to secure the nomination. he was in no position to argue and so they got it, and that weirdly specific story is how the republican party officially became the antiabortion party. the party that would of course nominate reagan himself for president four years later and when, the party that would make opposition to legal abortion central to its identity and central to its national conventions every four years. if you remember anything -- pick a convention. 1992 rnc, i don't remember

president george h.w. bush getting nominated for re- election. you remember the firebreathing culture war speech from pat buchanan rowing about fighting abortion on demand. fighting abortion is what republican national convention's are all about, every single one every four years for decades this has been true. the fight against legal abortion, the fight against roe versus wade is been much a character at every republican convention as the nominee. and, donald trump is the president who finally did it. he said he would overturn roe versus wade and he did. he appointed three hard-line ultraconservative anti-abortion doctrinaire supreme court justices who wasted no time. abortion is no band or extremely restricted in nearly half the states in the union. the republican party accomplish what they've been trying to do for 50 years. and at their convention this week, no mention of abortion.

we have heard lots and lots of other things talked about at this convention. we have had aged former wrestlers strip off their clothes and all sorts of things happen. no mention of abortion whatsoever. it is gone, totally missing. that is how politically toxic they think this issue is for them now that they have achieved their number one goal of 50 years. they are pretending that it never happened. that said, it is still looming as large as ever because it is the realpolitik of what people have been living through in this country but also because trump just picked a running mate who wants a national abortion ban in all 50 states, no exceptions. he is sitting there in the family box at the rnc next to speaker mike johnson, who says he wants a national 50 state abortion ban, no exceptions. lawrence, i feel like it is the

dog who didn't bark for the republicans at this convention. >> when i was working in the senate in the 1990s, when you saw the abortion issue doing was kind of exactly what each party needed it to do. you could not imagine the republican party without it. there was just no way they can come close to winning a national vote without it. they needed that piece, and the coalition. but, you know that they never wanted it to go away. i mean that is what i thought on my side of it. i did not believe george w. bush wanted it to go away because then how do you campaign on it the way they campaigned on it? i never dreamed dragon wanted it to go away or hw bush wanted it to go away and the democrats were very useful using it against them, and both sides were using it for enormous fundraising. it just seemed like a status quo that in party dynamics, served both parties, and what

the democratic party was simply saying was preserved roe versus wade so they would literally win it every single day that it was preserved. the republican party was saying get rid of it. but if they got rid of it then what happens? and now you see what happens. they got rid of it and the guy who got rid of it is afraid of talking about it. >> absolutely. >> one of the things i note about that is that i think it's really important to understand about this issue how sincerely and zealously the people who are fighting for it believe in it. >> on both sides. >> right but particularly people want to ban abortion everyone nationwide like they could've looked at this and said maybe it won't go that for mr. preston. they went after mr. preston. they looked at it in florida. this is pulling again 7030. they did it.

they're going to keep doing it everywhere they can because they genuinely believe in it. >> the difference is that part of the activist community was over in the realm. the people that support bands that illuminate exceptions in the case of the life of the mother, that is a 7% issue. it's unpopular among 93% of all americans. the people support bands eliminating exceptions for and incest are 90% opposed to the people who are for those seven to 10% issues were never at the table. even when both sides have this tension, those people were never in the room. they now run the the trump republican party. >> i have to say i never once

believed a single republican elected official believed what they were saying about this and that every one of their daughters who might get pregnant at age 14, every one of them would do whatever was necessary to take care of that. john mccain is the only one who didn't understand the correct language of this that you are supposed to use in his campaign when he was asked what would happen if megan got pregnant? she was 14 years old at the time and he said well, we would have to have a family meeting about it and figure out what to do. within 24 hours he would have to change that. of course i don't think the stuff we say applies to me or my daughter. there was not a certain -- single elected official in

washington when i was there who would've ever applied that to his own daughters. >> and donald trump doesn't believe it either but what he has done is he has handed the party over to them. i remember interviewing someone from a thing called the liberty counsel back in 2004 back when i was not in the media, doing some other stuff in freelancing and i remember interviewing him for an article i was looking to write and he said we are going to support the republican party for now, but there's going to come a time when we are going to expect them to through with this and to fulfill their promises to us and for now, we're with george w. bush. but, if we don't get what we want a certain point we're going to withdraw or support so the activist very much -- they don't care if it's a 90% negative issue. they wanted it badly then but to your point and to your point, the person who was on the ballot, george w. bush was at least politically savvy enough to know this is something we really want. they didn't want to catch the car but now they've cut it and now they have to actually deal with the ramifications for it

in this real electoral process right now and it is devastating. >> i was he the one thing that is interesting about this for the democratic party and how the message politics around this is that it is really -- here is the former first lady, we were noting earlier she is not been seen with her husband in any circumstances let alone the political events for a very long time, since they left the white house, so it is very unusual that she is here for this event in this entrance into the hall obviously a real moment for the trump family and the rnc. on the abortion issue, that dynamic you are describing means that democrats, when they talk about abortion rights, just need to talk about what happens when republicans get power. it is not personal. it is not about a personal republican -- an individual republican politician and individual states that they're going to make an issue out of.

it is the republican -controlled supreme court of alabama. it's the republican-controlled legislature in idaho. they're going to try to ban birth control. anyplace republicans have power, the republican party will go -- after abortion the easiest way then they will do the hard ways then they will go after fertility and birth control. there after all of it and that is with the republican project is now. >> and they will stop at a settlement of the sort of mind and micah johnson got asked this. well, we've given it back to the states, right? it's obviously preposterous set of propositions to say this is the murdering of child and child murder is fine in 20 states. that's obviously not true and people think at first the murder of a child it's pretending it for politicians a lot of it is that there are millions of people who really believe that in they're going to spend every second of their lives to stamp it out everywhere fully and the only thing that will stop them is some definitive political defeat. that is all. >> by the way, this is set on

the debate stage during the republican primaries. i can't remember which republican said it. you can't say that it's fine to murder babies in california but not in mississippi and the activist don't just want -- this is been since i was in high school. they don't just believe abortion is wrong. they believe birth control is not back and they want to pursue women outside the state of mississippi. they want to be able to track women's pregnancies. they tried to float in the state of florida that they would be able to get girls periods tracked in high school like they want to be able to constantly track women and pursue them around the country because this is an ideological belief and they believe that they think they are heroic. they actually think they are heroes at stopping a form of slavery. they compare it to dred scott and they are very clear that they don't care if you're in california or new york. >> jd vance is right there. he has said that abortion is akin to slavery and his signed onto those efforts to allow attorney general, to allow

prosecutors to get women's medical records to follow the meta-state. >> i know some of those people who firmly believe abortion is murder. they are not lying. they're not like the politicians. they had a candidate in this primary, in this republican primary and his name was mike pence. they had a candidate and i mistakenly believed that enough of those people as voters would take their belief into the primary and mike pence is going to cause a problem for donald trump even if donald trump is not at the debates because mike pence was going to show you the cracks, the opening between him and donald trump on this issue, and he did and no one cared but he did not care. >> msnbc anchor kristine johnson was on the floor of the rnc in milwaukee this evening. where are you and what are you saying?

>> right now i am standing between south dakota and wyoming. rachel, it's almost a night not to be believed. all week long we keep hearing how things are going to be toned down and the temperature is going to tone down and unity and then hulk hogan took the stage talking about criminals and scumbags in they're going to get it followed by franklin graham in just moments ago you mentioned it. it almost was like a disney on ice experience. the former first lady melania trump made her way and i left at eric trump speaking. what is important about eric trumps speech, because he really got this room fired up, he was talking all about the cost of living and inflation and while he rattled off a lot of numbers for life is

expensive whether it is how much aggressors customer your mortgage costs, what he left out was context that when donald trump left office covid was wrapping. what is amazing is he never actually talked about operation warp speed, which could be a crowning jewel for him and the fact that is when the vaccine was developed but in the new world of truck, vaccine is not a positive word. i just think the word tonight again it was unity with her? last night. tonight it is unity with her? again. people are fired up and they have a chance to speak. the person who got this crowd the most fired up tonight was tucker carlton who is giving them all the red meat and now trumpian the showman that he is, the anticipation is rising and we are watching a video that is basically the story of the boy from new york. in the video he has an old school picture of al sharpton. he has opera in it. he's trying to tell the boy from new york story and obviously in this room they're buying it. >> let me ask you, just being in the room, the overall atmospherics, not particularly full, sometimes rocket,

sometimes more credit, sometimes less venue over the course of the week i have to imagine it is packed to the rafters right now. >> this is the night. they are fired up. they were excited before jd vance but there was kind of a lackluster response. i will tell you, jd vance compared to tucker carlson -- this place went off for tucker carlson and now they are packed in. there bedazzled. they are dressed up. they got their cowboy hats on and they're just waiting for him to take the stage. when millenia came in, they have this thing designed, produced very much like it is a royal event and certainly when she came in, it was as though she was the queen of the night and no one talking about the fact that we have not seen her in any political arena for months. donald trump is a showman and this is a show. >> msnbc anchor