and advanced security, all from the company with 99.9% network reliability. so now they can focus on doing what they do best for the next five years. that's a lot of bread. you got this. the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. switch today for a limited tim. that is going to do it for me. thank you for watching 17 velshi . velshi ayres every day from 10:00 to 12 noon eastern. happy birthday to our director, sean clark. thank you to this team for allowing me to sit in this chair, and shout out to my man, velshi. he will be back next week. inside with jen psaki begins now.

>> there's too much to fit in just one hour, so you're here with two hours of life special coverage. an increasingly unhinged donald trump is back on the trail as president biden plants his own return while battling back new calls to step aside. as chairman of the senate's campaign, in charge of getting democrats elected. he's coming up first. plus, chair of the national governors association. i'm going to get his take on the debate over the president's future. later, as trump's new running mate introduces himself to the country, i'm going to talk to jd vance is. okay. one of the big things i've learned from working on three presidential campaigns is that a day sometimes feels like an entire lifetime in politics. i mean, just take this week.

it was just over a week ago and there was an assassination attempt on a former president and current republic nominee. and just in the last week, president biden was diagnosed with covid, the dark and at times bizarre republican convention was held in milwaukee. trump picked honorary tech bro jd vance as his running mate, and a growing number of democratic leaders in washington called for joe biden to step aside. this week was kind of crazy by all accounts. i mean, it is definitely unpredictable and probably felt to all of you like at times it was disorienting and even enraging. but if you cut through all of that anger and confusion, which i know there's plenty of -- you may be feeling it right now -- this week also provided a level of clarity. maybe even some confidence about this race, and here's why. when donald trump took the stage at the republican convention, he was met with a chorus of cheers and even some

tears from the maga faithful. and there was this expectation that trump might be able to somehow turn this moment into a big campaign bump. at a time when there is a lot of division and disagreement about the path forward on the democratic side. but then on thursday night, donald trump spoke during prime time. and his speech was a reminder that donald trump is still donald trump. he is not some generational political talents. he is the guy with scary ideas and were not material. it felt stale. it was low-energy at a lot of times. it was deeply strange and deeply disturbing at moments as well. and the exact same guy was back on the campaign trail this weekend. >> they say he keeps talking about sharks and this -- i don't. i tell an analogy. if i'm in a boat, it is all electric and it

starts to sink. i asked the guy, do you get electrocuted sitting over this? and then i say -- and i don't think there's anything wrong with this, do you? because it's an analogy. i say, there's a shark about 10 yards away, right where they are, right where all the congressmen are over there. well, they are sharks. they are sharks. if there is a shark about 10 yards away, do i get electrocuted, or do i go with the shark? because i say i will take electrocution all day long. but they always get on me. they say why is he talking about electricity and sharks? they know exactly. it sort of a cute little story. do i take electrocution would lead to death by a shark ? and i will always take electrocution. >> the guys kind of scared of sharks, it seems. like i said, donald trump is still donald trump. when all these maga republicans talk about how unified they are, just remember what they are unified around.

they are unified around the guy that rambles about sharks and electricity, who also happens to be a convict and a fraud and someone who was found liable of sexual abuse. if that's of the party wants to unify around, i say have added. he is far from an invincible candidate, though, and that is important to remember. of course, there are some tough realities for democrats right now, too. there been a flurry of reports about top democratic leaders casting down on president biden's re-election chances. nancy pelosi privately told biden in a recent conversation the polling shows he cannot defeat trump. that is not to say she called on the president to withdraw, but she was clearly blunt in her assessment. both senate majority leader and senate minority leader have reportedly warned brighton in private meetings that his candidacy could hurt ballot races. all told, more than 30 democrats in congress, including a number that are fighting for their own re- elections, have now called for

biden to step aside. joe manchin of west virginia joined those calls this morning, saying it is time for president biden to, quote, pass the torch. the campaign put jennifer o'malley dillon on morning joe on friday morning and she made clear that as of now, president biden has every intention of staying in the race. they also have plans for president biden to campaign next week after he continues recovering from covid. all these reports on thursday and friday suggesting his plans to drop our eminence, in a matter of days -- regardless of how you feel about the path forward and people have different feelings about it, no question -- it is just a reminder that the only person who knows what he is going to do is joe biden. there are also some questions about when the decision needs to be made, the approaching state ballot deadlines that are coming up in a few weeks, a potential delegate fight, and even whether or not there should be a path for candidates beyond the sitting vice

president. all of that is important to discuss and understand as we wait to see what the president understands. there's a unanimity around the back best path forward right now. there is no doubt among any of those people about the need to be donald trump. and if you watched donald trump speak this week, you can see clearly that there is nothing inevitable about him. remember, a day is a lifetime in politics. just think of everything that has happened this week. democrats still have 106 of them left. in so many ways, republicans are already on the runway because they've already made their bed with donald trump. joining me now is gary peters of michigan. he is the chair of the democratic senatorial campaign committee, which means it is his job to get democratic candidates elected. you are also chairman of the homeland security committee. you wear a lot of hats, i will say, so thank you for taking the time. i do want to start with what is on the mind of a lot of

democrats and people out there, which is this growing pushed by democratic leadership, including leader schumer, former speaker pelosi, calls for the president to step aside. this is just what they think for the campaign should happen to win the election. senator joe manchin also joined them this morning. you agree with them? >> well certainly, we are all united in making sure that donald trump does not get elected to be president. that would be a disaster for this country. it would set our country back for a long, long time in the future, which is unacceptable. so we want to have clearly a strong campaign. we need to win the presidency. my job is to make sure that we hold the senate, and through all of this confusion and craziness that you have talked about in the opening, i think it is important to take a look at the polls that we are seeing for our senate races in key battleground states. right now, though senators continue and the incumbents

continue to do better than the republican challengers. we are leading in the polls. we have actually seen a little increase in that as well. though senate candidates are doing well, because these are candidate to candidate races. strong senator incumbents against a very flawed republican challenger. people are responding to that. you can run a very good campaign, particularly on the ground, something we did in an exceptional way. even with all this uncertainty, that is something that we feel good about. but we also know that we are going to have to very strong effective campaigns in the remaining days. this is not over yet. by definition, almost all the states are battleground states, so it's about getting out our votes. and it's really about making sure our base. young voters and other parts of

the democratic base are motivated to come out and vote for our democratic candidates in the senate race. >> i'm asking you this, because the support suggests that senator schumer presented data to biden and his team suggesting that keeping him at the top of the ticket could result in the senate being lost. two of the senators who have the most vulnerable races, senator brown and senator hester, have called for him to step down. my question for you is, do you think you should still be at the top of the ticket? and are you confident with him at the top of the ticket you could hold the senate? >> i certainly see that polling data as well, and i work very closely with senator schumer. he cares deeply about maintaining majority in the senate, as i do. there is no question that some of the polling information we have on the presidential race is concerning. i've had the opportunity to present that to the campaign, the biden campaign, in very

clear terms as to what we are seeing. i do think that with this information, if we start to continue to see continued erosion in the polls, it is going to be harder for us to do going forward. i think we got to watch that very closely and understand that a lot is at stake here. president biden understands how important it is for us to make sure that we defeat donald trump, and looking at those polls, every day, it certainly is a reason for concern. but it just means we have to work a lot harder if things are the way they are right now. >> one of the states where there is polling, there's not state polling available everywhere. one of the states as michigan, which you know incredibly well. a poll this weekend show the president behind by seven points. polls are a snapshot in time, and the first to say that. my question for you is, would democrats be better positioned?

your answer may be no. with someone else like say president harris at the top of the ticket versus president biden? >> you have to be able to go on the offense. the way we win our senate races as we go on the offense. we are very aggressive. and you have to paint a very clear contrast between the two candidates. when you do that, we win. we know the democratic brand is strong. you have to draw that contrast, so you need to have candidates who are running, lean in and go on the offense. president biden needs to go on the offense aggressively and energize the base. it is one thing to have poll numbers, really all that matters is who actually goes to the polls. you have to energize people that their vote matters, their voice has to be heard. and you need to have a candidate that is able to do that. so certainly, that is a question that everybody is asking right now.

it is a very serious question, and we have to come up with that answer in the next few days or few weeks time. we have to be working very aggressively to energize that base to win these races, which i think we can do. it's not going to be easy, but we can do it. >> certainly, the choice is up to president biden to make this choice. we haven't had an indication he's made a choice to not be the nominee. there are reports that the trump campaign is preparing a major effort to attack vice president harris if president biden steps aside, including a wave of attack ads. part of the job is to prepare for all the options. is preparing for that possibility and talking to senate campaigns, is that something you and others have been talking to candidates and campaigns about? >> certainly, we are always anticipating what sorts of attacks are going to come against our candidates, and we prepared to be able to again go on the offense.

i'm a believer that the best defense is a good offense, and that's why you have to lean in and kind of understand what may be coming at you, and then making sure you let voters know where you stand and the fault in the vulnerabilities that your opponent has. if you are not thinking and move or two ahead, that is not good. this is a serious, serious strategic decision that people have to make. and having it play out just like you would in a game of chess is incredibly important. >> was always happening behind the scenes. i do want to ask you, of course, the assassination attempt on president trump, and given you are the chairman of the homeland security committee, since the attack, we have seen a number of reports about security breakdowns. just yesterday, the washington post was the first to report that after first saying they had not denied request, the secret service confirmed the top officials repeatedly denied request period requested by

trump's security detail in the two years leading up to the rally last weekend. there's lots that goes into these decisions, and i know the director of the secret service is going to testify tomorrow. but based on what you know, do you think she should keep her job? >> well, we want to get all of the facts, and that's why i've launched an investigation. we are doing a bipartisan investigation through my committee to look at all of the facts to find out what happened. it is similar to what my committee did after january 6th. if you recall, we did an in- depth investigation looking at where there were gaps in security and miscommunication. we put out a whole long list of recommendations. i believe that we are now safer at the u.s. capitol because many of those recommendations have been adopted by law enforcement. the same thing is going to happen with our investigation regarding this. when people go to a political rally, they should believe that it is safe. we need to make sure we are

protecting our candidates and the president. that is vital to our democracy. so we are going to look at all of those facts. but clearly, there was a failure here, an unacceptable failure that cannot happen again. i think we are going to find an awful lot of things that need to be changed going forward. and also looking at resources. you have a secret service that is seriously stretched for resources, and the job continues to expand. we have to take a good look at that as well. >> senator gary peters, the wearer of many hats. i am so appreciative to you for joining me this afternoon. still ahead, imagine seeing your former college roommate onstage in milwaukee joining forces with the man he once called the american hitler. that's the story of jd advances former yale roommate. but first, president biden needs to reinvent his campaign strategy as more and more lawmakers call on him to drop

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>> the guy is capable of being president of the united states and he is doing a fine job at it. i think the question is, is he capable of running a winning campaign over the next 3 1/2 month? the evidence so far as we are down against a very weak republican candidate was a convicted allen who's economic policies would be devastating, who is threatening to take away our freedom. should be up, we are down. the burden is on him to really show, hey, i'm the guy with a plan for the next four years. you don't need to hold your breath every time we talk, because we got this. he hasn't done that yet. >> in an interview just this morning on cnn, governor polis joins me now. he's the chair of the national governors association. you know how much i love your

state. let me just start there. i know this is difficult to talk about, but i know a lot of viewers are trying to address and where leaders like yourself are. this morning, you said you will hold your breath while president biden talks. elbaz understand how it is then that you think is the best candidate to be at the top of the ticket to be donald trump? >> first of all, we wish president biden a speedy recovery from covid. i can be nasty and difficult at any age and i hope he has a full recovery soon. look, i think that is the perceptions of people, right or wrong. you know, this is a guy, of course, who has had historically had a stutter and speech issues. that's not what we are talking about here, but i think maybe there is more focus on it. it seems every day, he senses something by mistake, so i guess the question on our minds is, can he recover in a way that shows the bigger necessary for 3 1/2 months sprint, should

he focus on being the president of the united states for 6 months and pass the torch of the presidency? >> i guess that is the question i would shoot back to you. do you think he has the vigor to be the candidate? there are strange questions about whether he can be president. he can absolutely be president. what's being debated is whether he is right person to top the ticket. do you think is the right person at the top of the ticket? >> look, it's no secret we are down. you mentioned that earlier in the show. we would lose. the democrats would lose if the election was today. that is clear. what i want to see is not any different from what most democrats want to see -- how do we win, and how do we gain those five, six, seven points in the polls ? how do we win michigan, how do we win the competitive states? if you keep doing what you're doing, you're not going to win. that could mean a campaign strategy, the tactics, the

candidate, all of these things should and are being talked about by a party that is very serious about protecting our nation from the devastating impact of a second trump presidency on women's rights, on freedom, on the economy with his tariff plan that would cost families $2000-$3000 in taxes every year at a time when cost is a huge issue for families. we want to make sure that america can avoid a second trump president would cause for the people of our country. >> could not agree with you more. polls are snapshots in time. you can come back from them. i think the challenge democrats have right now is there is a very short timeline here because of state ballot deadlines and the convention coming up. you say things need to change, something needs to change. what would you need to see in the next week that either changes or doesn't change to feel more confident either about biden being at the top of the ticket or supporting an alternative? >> absolutely we can come back.

this is 3 1/2 months to the election. democrats and joe biden are not down 10 or 12 points. they are down 5, 6, 7 points. we need to show hope to those who don't like president trump or president biden, this is a better choice for us. eating a convicted felon in the white house would not only hurt our moral integrity as a nation will raise costs for millions of families, and we have an alternative. that is a question here -- can president biden project to be that alternative with a positive , optimistic vision for the next four years? it's not about what he's done as president. it's also not about what president trump has done as president. with the people are looking for is, what are you going to do for me over the next four years? and we need to have a very strong answer to that question to win this election. >> it sounds like you are

sticking with president biden. you are appearing with him at a fundraiser in denver this month. dave announced intentions to withhold funding if he remains a nominee. i am always skeptical of anonymous sources and anonymous voices and things like that, you talked to a lot of people. what are you hearing from voters in colorado as you prepare for this fundraiser? >> i think what is important for prospective donors out there, whether they are one dollar donors or $1000 donors, money that you give to the state parties, that will be there for the democratic nominee, whoever that is. so the money -- whether you want president biden as a nominee, whether you want somebody else, we share the value of wanting to save the country of having four years of a convicted felon in the white house that would cost american families money with increased taxes. in absolutely supporting raising money for the party to win the white house with whoever the nominee is is

absolutely critical. of course, we need a nominee who is able to take that case for the american people, who has the vigor for 3 1/2 months sprint. i run campaigns, you've talked to many people who have. this is an 18 hour a day ordeal. you are lucky to win a single night. you are talking and strategizing, it is hard to do that in addition to governing. i get that. that's for somebody of any age. it is important that we win, and we have 3 1/2 months to do it. >> lots of bad pizza and bad beer and sleeping on couches in campaigns. i really appreciate your time, your advocacy for so many things out there. republicans in milwaukee aren't the only ones who are excited about trump picking jb vance as his running mate. i will explain why the architects of project 2025 and the kremlin are so thrilled to have their guy on the ticket. we will be right back. back.

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senator jd vance. is a former never trumper who wondered if trump would be, quote, americas hitler, before publicly shape shifting into the water most visible and devoted members of the maga movement. he saw four years of trump, including his attempt to overthrow an election and decided, you know what? that is my guy. he also took a little convincing, but eventually, vance did enough sucking up to get into trump's good graces, and that is trump's characterization. not mine. >> jd is kissing my --. he said some good things about me, but that was before he fell in love. >> he fell in love. well, his sucking up appears to have been enough, and trump gets what he's always wanted as well -- a true maga fan boy who gave him what his last running mate refused --

allegiance to him over the constitution. that includes a willingness to usurp power in the way that mike pence would not. so when a vp nominee is tapped, it's important to look at the kind of people who are happiest about it. and in this case, for one, the right-wing billionaire tech pros are pretty happy right now. people like david sachs and peter teal, of all put millions of dollars to advance his political career, and who like elon musk, helped lobby vance as his running mate. is that a close ally advance investor for years. he then put millions impact money towards his senate campaign, and even helped broker trump's endorsement. make no mistake -- these guys basically own him, and they are ecstatic that someone they basically created could be looking out for their wealth and interest and deregulation on their behalf. but you know who else is also happy with trump's pick for

vance? the kremlin, of course. it didn't take long before putin's foreign minister came out publicly to praise vance, endorsing his stance on ukraine. i mean, of course he did. as a reminder, this is vance's position on the war. >> we are focused on ukraine. i'll be honest, i don't really care what happens to ukraine one way or another. >> so to recap here, russia is happy, tech pro billionaires are thrilled, and so are the architects of project 2025. as the heritage foundation's president kevin roberts told reporters, he reacted to the announcement with a broad smile on his face, saying they were really rooting for him. vance, that is. that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, either. jd vance is fully behind the goal to purge civil servants from the federal government and replace them with trump loyalists.

based on vance's own public comments, is awfully fond of the people behind project 2025. >> we are hopefully in 2024 take back the white house, and this organization is going to play a major role in helping us figure out how to govern. >> i saw a story probably, i don't know -- a month after biden was sworn in, and what the story said was basically that there was this entire administration and wait. it was this think tank or lobbying firm, some d.c. firm i was basically just wargaming the biden administration. a lot of the people, higher level but also mid-level people that would work in the biden administration. we need to be building something like that. i actually know a couple of my friends that are working on that very project, because we have looked in the last five years and said, why are there so few people willing to staff this administration? >> like a long list of republicans behind him, did he

make an about-face on trump? that is definitely part of the story. don't lose sight of the people and interests that are the most interested 2024 fans, is a company you keep tells you a whole lot. josh mclaren is standing by. he was the law school roommate, and he's the reason why we know that vance once called trump americas hitler. that is coming up next. next. no matter what kind of teeth you gotta brush, oral-b electric cleans better with one simple touch. oral-b's dentist inspired round brush head hugs em, cleans em, and gets in between em,

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in choosing senator jd vance as his running mate, donald trump seems to have found someone who will not question his authoritarian impulses. he's promised to be a dictator on day one. remember that story i mentioned word vance once talked about trump is americas hitler? you are probably all very familiar with what vance said, but you might not know how we know about it. vance actually put those words in writing in a 2016 text message to my next gas, who has been sounding the alarm about a trump/vance ticket. joining me now is vance mclaren, a democratic state senator in georgia, and he was also jd vance's roommate during their time at yale law school. thank you for joining me. who is jd vance today? i definitely want to talk to you about that. you knew him way back in law school. what was he like then? >> like to join you. the reports that he was smart and personable one on one, they are correct.

it's just how he's using it now that is so much concern. at the time, he seemed thoughtful and unwilling to toe the line in a number of respects. i had a thoughtful conversation with him about the second amendment. he said at the time, given all the politics that he is involved in now, and at the time in 2010 and 2011 when we roomed together, i sort of thought, this is a guy was smart enough and could be motivated enough that he could remake or influence the direction of the republican party. you talk about wishing on the pot to see how he is using that talent now. but he was considered thoughtful. i've heard from mutual friends they couldn't believe now that he would do something like this. >> i bet it has been hard for you and all the people who knew him long ago. you put out this text message he sent where he calls trump americas hitler, something i think, there are people out there who relate to. i guess the question i have is, do you think he still believes

that and he is just okay with that now? what is your assessment? >> what it seems like is that unlike a lot of republican politicians i think you can characterize as just empty suits who will stay with a need to to be powerful, jd has allowed some deeper anger to motivate him here. that is something i could sense a little bit. i mean, obviously he was skeptical of the law school environment. but he had a very caustic sense of humor behind closed doors about some of the students and events at yale, and that's one of the reasons we didn't get along so well, because i didn't want to make my identity defined in opposition to the law school environment. i ran the comedy show there. i was having a pretty good time. what it seems like is that jd has convinced himself that this caricature of his political opponents, whether it's the left or the media or what have you, is so evil in his mind that it justifies a turn to trump or getting rid of some of the principles used to have so that he could beat his opponent.

you routinely have heard them over the last few years say things like, we need to destroy our opposition. he gave an interview where he said we need to punish joe biden and kamala harris by electing donald trump. these are not aspirational statements. these are the statements of a guy whose anger and contempt i think are motivating him to be involved in politics. >> and what do you think? he has obviously went through a lot as a child. what do you think is motivating that anger and contempt? is it just tapping into the trumpism of it all? is it something else? what is motivating him to have kind of evolved in some capacity as he has? >> that is hard. i'm not a licensed psychiatrist. >> none of us are. fair. >> men would rather run for office to go to therapy. i think one of the things that is really troublesome about the new right generally, whatever

they are calling at that jd is part of is, it seems like a lot of guys who honestly just couldn't cut it within what they would call the establishment, and they are seeking alternative pathways to power. even the professor who helped launch his book, hillbilly elegy, and some of the circles he ran an in law school, they were still powerful. they were just an alternate pathway to the power and the influence that he wanted that weren't the biggest, highest profile, mainstream elite circles that you would think of. at the end of the day, it is just this competing relativism. it's not a replacement or thoughtful critique of relativism. he has become a venture capitalist. he is friends with the billionaires. he is offering americans a replication of the things that he purportedly wants to criticize. >> no question. you also must have known his wife in law school as well.

and as i know it's hard to know what people are thinking, i think no political spouse signs up for this, typically. that is true in any political party. i just wonder as you are watching her speech what you think she is thinking. she believes in this, she loves her husband, course. it's just hard to wrap my head around, i guess is what i'm saying. >> i can't really speculate as to her intentions. what i will say is i really have a place in my heart for jd. i know we had a lot of differences in terms of conservative versus liberal. obviously, we have very different childhoods. even though we had a couple of rifts here and there in our first couple years, i always wanted to make it work. i thought he was a thoughtful guy, i was looking for common ground, and that's why i reached out in 2016 to wonder if the trump movement was disturbing him as much as a disturbed me, and i got the answer i was looking for. i said, it is not just a flip- flop. he had such an incisive critique of trump at that time. he was the fruit of the

republican parties -- that sophisticated analysis still holds true. and i found an ally and him in that respect. we even discussed writing an op- ed together in 2016 and were looking for the right topic. is its ability, unity, what is it? those conversations dropped off. as to his wife or any of the other friends who have kept up with him longer than 2016, all i have to say is, at the end of the day, it kind of doesn't matter what is going through your mind. if you are willing to put on this performance with the american people and activate the level of anger and contempt that he is willing to do, then that's what you own. >> no question about it, and a very important point to end with. josh mclaurin, thank you for joining me for people to understand. more coming up this hour. we will be back after a very quick break. quick break. begins to neutralid on contact.

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was serving in government, but it prompted me to think about these cases a little bit differently. both the way we cover them and the way the u.s. government handles them. tomorrow marks 10 years since -- under false spine charges. he was released three months later, but jason spent over a year and a half in prison under solitary confinement in a ron. they join me now. jason is a global opinion columnist for the washington post and author a prisoner, my 544 days in an iranian prison. in the north african committee to protect journalists, and still doing such important work. you both have become friends of mine, and i admire you both so much before we start this conversation. jason, as i noted, it's been 10 years. it is so hard to believe. your story is something that impacted me tremendously during my time. you spent 500 33 days in prison.

you somehow don't visibly carry the weight of that on your shoulders. i don't know how that is the case, but i just wanted to ask you to reflect on how that experience changed you and who you are today. >> things for having us on to talk about our own story, but the many other stories of people like evan who are being held right now. it has changed our lives in ways that we are still figuring out 10 years later. but what i like to focus on is the fact that i think both of us have taken really horrific experiences for ourselves and for our family and tried to ring some good out of it for others. unfortunately, this is an issue that has gotten worse and worse since yegeneh and i were detained, and we are doing everything we can to shine a spotlight on the enduring cases, but also talk to people in government and other industries about how we might make this harder. >> that is so important. yegeneh, we all see the stories of evan gershkovich, of these families who want their

children home who are being held by hamas and so many around the world, but very few families know how they feel, and you know how they feel. what should people know about what you are going to as a family member in moments like this? >> thank you so much, jen, for bringing this topic to everyone's attention, especially to american families. because what i have learned is that my american husband became a target for who he was as an american and as a journalist. it is hard. everyone at the moment, when your loved one is detained, is thinking about certain -- helping him. bringing him back home. and how he is surviving those horrible prison conditions . often, families get neglected , and they are the ones that need to stay strong -- both psychologically and physically -- for their loved one.

because when those come home is exactly when they need their family the most. the road to recovery is not just when the prison door opens and they are hopefully safe back home. the road to recovery is often longer than the prison term. >> and it is not a straight line. >> nobody would like to think like that. at some point, i said that to another family whose loved one was hostage and they said, oh, don't say that. and i said, i'm sorry for bringing this to your attention, that is really true. so you need to stay strong for when you're husband, your wife, your children come home. and in some cases, i think -- i often see our situation as how, in the worst moment, you can find a little bit of light, because i know evans situation

is heartbreaking. a decent guy, a journalist who is going through what is going through, only because he is american, and he is a journalist, despite his russian heritage. and often, those kind of hyphenated americans are the main target. but at least his family is safe. they are home, the mom and dad are going to so much. jason and i had the privilege of meeting them. amazing people. but at least they are home and safe and they have access to the u.s. government. if you remember, in my case, i was not an american citizen at the time, and i was stuck under house arrest in to ron. i didn't know what efforts were being done behind closed doors within the u.s. government about jason's case. >> it is such a hard challenge. you and i have talked about this a little bit, jason.

when i was in the u.s. government and you were detained, the policy was very little. because the belief was that you could put at risk getting you and others home. that may or may not be the right choice. so i want to ask you just what you think the u.s. government should be doing differently publicly in this moment, and also i want to ask you about what they think they should be doing differently for families. >> i think we have to acknowledge that there has been a massive amount of learning done in the decades since we were taken. a lot of that credit goes to diane foley, james foley's mother. james foley was murdered by isis in syria, and really hounded on the administrations door for answers. and she has been a committed advocate on this issue ever since. unfortunately, the problem has consistently gotten worse and worse. what we understand now after a lot of sample evidence from a few cases to now dozens, maybe

more than 100 cases in the last 10 years or so is that this is a problem that affects every kind of american. britney greiner, paul we'll end, evan gershkovich, myself. a number of venezuelan americans. chinese americans. it's a vast number of folks, and i think we have to look at this as not a political issue, as an american issue. i see that happening more and more and i just want to give everybody a pat on the back and say, do whatever you need to do to bring people home as quickly and as safely as possible. and on the backend of that, we have to be thinking about how to make this costlier for government to do this. >> we have to go to a commercial. i'm going to keep talking to you, but thank you so much for joining me today. you inspire me and have been such a source of inspiration for me personally. we have another full hour of live coverage coming up, so don't go anywhere. t go anywher.

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