there is a lot going on in the world right now, a whole lot, but i want to start tonight with these new images that we have from the olympic games. that is team usa competing in women's basketball against the

nation of belgium, and the person you see in the center of your screen is u.s. olympian brittany griner. brittany griner helped lead the united states to victory 87-74 against belgium. and the reason that was possible, the reason that brittany griner was able to represent the u.s. in these olympic games and help the united states claim victory in women's basketball was because of a real feat of diplomacy by president joe biden. it was february of 2022 when ms. griner was detained in russia on trumped-up charges related to cannabis products that were found in her luggage. by august griner had been sentenced to nine years in a russian penal colony. but just a few months later in december of that year president biden announced that he had negotiated a historic prisoner swap, securing brittany griner's safe release. and that is why brittney griner

was able to play today for team usa in the olympics. the biden white house worked to use the momentum from that deal to continue negotiations for other hostages. there was paul whelan, a u.s. marine, and there was vladimir, an american green cardholder and free press advocate in russia. viewers of this network may remember his arrest in 2022 and what appeared to be an attempt by vladimir putin to silence one of his biggest critics. putin would go onto take even more prisoners, people like evan gerschkovich who was arrested on even more trumped-up espionage charges.

and also alsu kurmasheva, another arrested in 2023 for failing to register as a foreign agent. all of these people were being held as prisoners of the russian government until today. today in a historic series of negotiations president biden secured the release of all four of those prisoners as part of what is just a remarkable high stakes multilateral negotiation. in total 24 people were released today, 16 held captive by russia and 8 by the u.s. and european allies. and the largest prisoner swap with russia since the cold war. that on its own is extraordinary, but the details of how this all came together are really something. for years here in the u.s. families and friends and employers of these american prisoners have been advocating for their release in particular the staff of "the wall street journal" have been pushing relentlessly and publicly for

the return of their colleague, evan gerschkovich. the plight of mr. gerschkovich even became an issue in the presidential election. former president trump boasted gerschkovich would only be free once trump was elected president. >> evan gerschkovich, the reporter for "the wall street journal" who is being held by russia, will be released almost immediately after the election, but definitely before i assume office. he will be home, he will be safe. vladimir putin, president of russia, will do that for me. and i don't believe he'll do it for anyone else. >> trump thought he alone could secure evan gerschkovich's release, but many other people felt otherwise including evan gerschkovich's own mother. according to "the wall street journal" in april of last year she had rushed up to president biden at the white house correspondent's dinner and grabbed his hands before imploring him, you are the only one who can bring my boy home.

she was right. not only did president biden secure the release of evan gerschkovich and the other hostages, biden did so using a careful and skillful strategy that donald trump and probably a lot of other politicians simply could never pull off. for starters putin's price for the release of these hostages, the key bargaining chip in all of this, was this guy. back in 2019 he was arrested for assassinating a czechen dissident in berlin on behalf of russia's intelligence agency. he was a kremlin linked assassin who was serving a life sentence in germany, someone who was so close to putin that western intelligence officials reportedly speculate he may have even been vladimir putin's personal bodyguard. and so in order to secure the release of these prisoners today, president biden needed to get germany to agree to releasing a very high profile

criminal back into russian custody. that is not something the german government was eager to do in order to free, by the way, american prisoners. but president biden made strengthening american bonds with nato allies like germany a cornerstone of his foreign policy, a stark reversal from the trump era policy of alienating western democracies and currying favor with autocrats and dictators. and so when the time came for germany to play its part and release that russian assassin, well, german chancellor olaf scholz reportedly told president biden for you, i will do this for you, joe biden. i will do this. today president biden talked about that relationship and just how important it was. >> i particularly owe a great sense of gratitude to the

chancellor. it required me to get some significant concessions from germany, which they originally concluded they could not do because of personal questions, but everybody stepped up. slovenia stepped up, turkey stepped up. and it matters to have relationships. it really does. >> according to the reporting we have, president biden first started working to secure support from those allies in the summer of 2023. and by early 2024 it looked like a deal was coming together, but then the whole thing nearly fell apart. one of the prisoners who the u.s. and europe were hoping to get released as part of this deal was u.s. election operation leader gnaw volny. but just a week after they secured support navalny mysteriously died in a russian prison, prompting global

outrage. he dispatched kamala harris to help make sure these allies would hold. harris and scholz discussed the prisoner swap they were working toward and raised something president biden had recently discussed with the chancellor, that germany's release of vadim was a critical component. a white house official said harris moved the ball forward significantly in that meeting. the official also said harris' meeting with the slovenia prime minister was arranged specifically to try to help bring slovenia onboard with this multicountry prisoner swap. so these meetings continued for months. and then on july 17th the biden administration got the news the deal had finally come together. and that day was significant because that was the day president biden was diagnosed with covid. four days later on sunday, july

31, 12:45 p.m. he was on the phone with the president of slovenia, hammering out the final details of this deal. and that date is also significant because just one hour later president biden released this statement announcing his exit from the american presidential race. imagine for a second the kind of focus and fortitude it takes to be working on these high stakes negotiations at the precise time that you are making the most difficult decision of your political career. and, oh, by the way, recovering from covid. imagine what would have happened if it was donald trump in that situation, a man who has made a political career out of maligning america's gop political alliances and who has been criminally charged for his efforts to stay in power.

this act of diplomacy was possible only because joe biden is the president. tonight president biden and vice president harris will greet the freed american prisoners on the tarmac of joint base andrews, capping off just an astounding journey home. in the white house briefing room this afternoon, national security advisor jake sullivan talked about the work it took to bring these hostages home. >> honestly, guys, i can just say this was vintage joe biden, rallying american allies to save american citizens and russian freedom fighters and doing intricate state craft, pull his whole team together to drive it across the finish line. i spent a lot of time with the families of evan and paul and alsu, and most of the time as you can imagine those are tough conversations. but not today.

today -- excuse me -- today was a very good day. >> joining me now are michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia. and chris o'leary, thank you both for being here. michael mcfaul, ambassador, what was your thought when you first heard about this? >> elation, joy. when i heard that his family was getting ready to go to the white house the next day in my circles that was a signal that this deal you just very elaborately and precisely talked about, this is long tail and goes back. it was joy because none of these people should have been in jail. this a fantastic achievement for american diplomacy, and i want to underscore this is a team effort, starts with the president. jake sullivan played his role, tony blinken, secretary blinken

played his role. bill burns at the cia played his role, roger carson. this does not happen without close allies that you value and that value us. and at the ends of the day people keep saying since the cold war -- nothing like this has happened since the cold war. i know the cold war pretty well. this is the most complex investigation ever in the history of dealing with moscow, and it comes about as a result of dealing with serious diplomacy with close allies. >> chris, can you talk about that precise angle that ambassador mcfaul is mentioning, the notion of this multilateral agreement negotiation, all the moving pieces and just how unusual that is from the perspective of a hostage negotiator. >> well, i think the ambassador hit the nail on the head. everybody points back to the

cold war. this had so many pieces on the diplomatic end, the multilateral approach,ner gauging several different governments who had different equities and the german government had to give up a significant concession themselves with little in return, and it was really based on the relationship with the united states and with this administration. but also within the u.s. government synchronizing the effects of the u.s. government, which is most people don't like to hear a functional bureocracy at the time. jake sullivan i know has been directly involved in many of these hostage negotiation cases, and the president and homeland security advisor are all involved in all of these. and it really is important to highlight the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, roger carstones, and his team they are relentless in trying to bring americans home,

and they come up with this operation and synchronize it, and it takes a lot of moving pieces and also building the contingencies should things go wrong. and then the one thing really worth highlighting is these are difficult decisions that we will have critics on. people will constantly sharp shoot, well, you released the individual but you only got this. well, these -- as jake sullivan highlighted today during the briefing, these are considered there's a risk assessment, and leaders make decisions based on that. and bringing americans home safely has been a focus of this administration. in fairness to the trump administration they did that as well, and the obama administration put the pieces in place with their review and restructuring the hostage enterprise. so it's good to see things coming together and working the way they were intended to. >> yeah. i mean, there's so many good points there.

one, is just the bureaucracies they're dealing with are not just american bureaucracies but those in germany, those in turkey, those in slovenia, all the moving pieces. and the reality, ambassador mcfaul, that leadership is about making tough decision, and we'll get to some of the pushback on this move on the white house. but i want to stop for a moment on this line from chancellor scholz, i will do this for you, joe biden. it struck me when i read this account. it seemed so much hinged on that relationship. in many ways we lost a sense of the import because trump has done so much work to undermine the importance of alliances, right? but as a country this is really pointed moment to understand what those alliances get you in the critical hour. >> i couldn't agree more. and i would add different things to that, two additional points. number one, the negotiation inside the german government i am sure was intense. i was part of the swap in 2010

that we did with the russians, and part of that negotiation was within our government because our law enforcement officials, our intelligence officials don't want to hand over spies. and this guy he's an assassin, he's a horrible person. to give him up, that was really hard. that takes leadership, and that takes a relationship between our two leaders. but the second point i think is really important to remind yourselves of -- to remind everybody of. they added russian opposition figures to this trade. by the way, three of them are personal friends of mine. that doesn't usually happen in swaps, right? it's usually foreign governments with foreign government spies. and i think that was a very creative idea, and maybe it was roger carson's idea, who someday needs to write an important book to tell us what happened here. that is significant for moving

the germans from what i've been told. that shows again you have to believe in allies but you also have to believe in democracy. you have to think it's important to get released these human rights fighters, these opposition fighters. again, that is classic joe biden, things that he cares about deeply. >> that's a fascinating point, chris. and i wonder what your take on that is because we know these negotiations almost fell apart after the death of alexei navalny who was the most prominent critic and opposition leader against putin. would you assume the inclusion of these other opposition figures was a way to keep germany at the table after navalny apparently was killed in a russian prison? >> well, i'd be speculating but i'm sure between ambassador carsons and jake sullivan and other players involved, the homeland security advisor would have been involved, too. i'm sure they came up with

different things to throw at the negotiating team and offer to the germans. i'm sure there were a few different options here to get everybody satisfied where this was going to come across the finish line. back to what the ambassador said earlier, i can't think of another case in recent history that is anywhere near as complex in the negotiation but also in the recovery and, you know, different planes going back to different locations, and it was very little leaked out also in advance, which is incredibly impressive as well. >> yeah, there's so much that's impressive about this, but i will say, ambassador mcfaul,there's been some -- there's some concern about the precedent this sets. and i know tom nichols is pretty strongly worded in the atlantic today. he says the fact the west is holding russian murderers and spies, and russia is holding western journal ltss and basketball players is lost in the cold details of trading living human beings as if they were heads of cattle or loads of

lumber. but more important and more dangerous is the fact that every successful hostage deal is a signal from putin to the people who do his bidding overseas that he will rescue them if they are caught. do you worry about that? >> ysk i worry about it. these are hard decisions. i don't like the fact these creepy crawlers are kissing putin on the tarmac and they're being celebrated. but i can tell you i don't know all of the people, but i know three of the people that are released personally. and they're not just pieces of human -- they're just not trading. these are human beings, they're very valuable human beings, and they will contribute the value to our societies, to american society and to bringing down putin. and then you have to sit down and you have to make the tradeoff. are we better off with them free, or are we better off with them dying in jail? it's a hard call, but i think

the president made the right call in this regard. and i want to emphasize one more piece because you brought it up. this deal has been in the works. people are talking about it at the munich security conference, right. i met julia navalny the night he was killed and when it fell apart and he was killed there was this drama and horrific moment, but then the vice president met with navalnaya later that day. the vice president wrote the ode to julia navalnaya. you know who called julia today? the vice president. i think when we see the whole story it was was a team effort, and it was great we had great team members to bring this home today. >> a really key point. thank you for making that, and we'll be talking about more what vice president harris had been

up to later in the show. thank you guys so much for making the time on this big, big night. really appreciate it. i should note that msnbc will be covering the arrival of evan gerschkovich and paul whelan, and also kurmasheva on u.s. soil live later this evening where they will be welcomed by president biden and vice president harris. still ahead president biden called minister netanyahu today. we'll have that just ahead, but first more of what vice president harris had been up to while donald trump continues to question her blackness. i'll talk to a long time friend of kamala harris, laphonza butler about that coming up next. a harris, laphonza butler about that coming up

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i really believe there's a birth certificate. why -- look she's smiling. why doesn't he show his birth certificate? i'm starting to wonder myself whether or not he was born in this country. he doesn't have a birth certificate, or if he does there's something on that certificate that is very bad for him. >> part of donald trump's political origin story is this absolute obsession with the completely unfounded claim that barack obama, our nation's first black president, was not actually american. and today his race baiting continues. after a disastrous interview yesterday at the conference of the national association of black journalists in which trump

tried to claim that the first black and asian vice president in american history, kamala harris, just happened to turn black only recently, after that train wreck of an appearance, trump has spent the last 24 hours doubling down. at trump's rally after that interview he used the jumbo tron to display articles about harris' indian american heritage. and this morning he posted this image of vice president harris with her indian family members. apparently in trump's mind you can't be both black and indian at the same time. and because trump is trump, he's now gone back to his roots, reposting this screed from conspiracy theorist and right-wing activist laura loomer showing kamala harris' birth certificate. loomer claims that somehow the birth certificate proves that harris, the daughter of a black jamaican man, is not black. that is how donald trump spent

his day, doubling down on racist comments and pushing birtherism 2.0. meanwhile, vice president harris spent her day at the funeral of democratic congresswoman sheila jackson lee. congresswoman lee represented parts of houston, texas, for nearly 30 years in the u.s. capitol. and throughout her entire career she was a champion for both progressive causes and for black americans. while trump was pushing racist conspiracy theories about vice president harris, here is what she herself was saying about one of our nation's great black leaders. >> sheila jackson lee was a change maker. she worked with all her heart to lift up the people of her city, of her state, and of our nation. and to honor her memory, let us continue to fight to realize the promise of america, a promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice, not just for some, but

for all. >> kamala harris was only the second black woman in american history to serve as a u.s. senator. the third black woman to ever become a u.s. senator, and the only remaining black woman in the u.s. senate joins me next. .

he stole the news cycle. kamala's gotten great press over the last week and a half, and he just ripped it right back and

put it on his camp. >> donald trump is getting props, i guess that's what you would call it on fox news. for his decision to question vice president kamala harris' race. and as jonathan v hp last writes in the bulwark that racist skeptical may what he needs to get back on the screen. in the last days the pretrump candidate might have gotten more attention by giving a speech on foreign policy or coming out with a new campaign theme. instead trump went in front of a black audience and said i didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. joining me now is democratic senator laphonza butler of california. senator butler, thank you for being here and put this all into context. let me first get your thoughts on how donald trump and i guess to some degree the entire republican party understand you own a news cycle in a

presidential election, which is to say by stoking racial division, grievance, and distrust, what does that say to you about the republican party? >> thanks for having me, alex. and, you know, it's interesting we both sort of give a chuckle out of the level of ridiculous that question even purports. the fact donald trump is such an ego maniac and such a petulant child that when people aren't talking about him, his next tactic is to figure out how he can insult a whole community of people, and i think the entire american people in totality. all of us are of mixed race of some sort. and he just goes to a gathering of black journalists to say that the first black and indian american woman to serve in the role as vice president isn't black, but that's how he wants to distract us from talking

about his policies in project 2025 that he plans to implement. and so, you know, it is a chuckle but it is despicable and typical donald trump. >> i do wonder what you make of your fellow, your republican colleagues in the senate who have had as is, you know, the order of the day being in the party of trump, a difficult time wrestling with these comments but have not chosen to take the high road here, right? i think tom tillis, north carolina senator said anytime we're commenting on anything of this biden administration's failed economy, failed border, and failed national security, we're not gaining ground. that's not exactly disavowing what trump is doing, but i guess that's the way out of it for them. >> look, i think what's unfortunate for the entire gop whether you're talking about senators or house members or

state party leaders, they don't have a clue as to how to, you know, support the craziness that continues to come out of donald trump's mouth. and, you know, rather than actually stand up and say call it for what it is, it is wrong, and it is despicable, they are trying to find ways to dance around not making the former president angry at them. no one wants to take the brunt of what they feel like he would do to ridicule them or challenge them during their primary. i think the -- you know, it's just a sign of, frankly, weakness of the entire gop who are choosing to allow this one individual to help to empower them to, you know, essentially disparage a whole community of people and insult the intelligence, frankly, of the entire american country. >> i do wonder how you think kamala harris is dealing with this. i mean we've seen her -- i think

her comments yesterday at a rally with a historically black sorority she called it the same old show, the divisiveness and disrespect. i absolutely understand the impulse and really the tactical nature of saying i'm not going to get into this mud pit that you've opened up. at the same time, i do wonder sort of you know the woman personally. this has to be more than irritating but deeply insulting to someone whose heritage, the very question how she identifies herself is being made a mockery of by her opponent, presumed opponent in a presidential election. >> look, for all of us, it would have impact and create real personal hurt, but a thing that i know about the vice president and the thing that, frankly, gives me great confidence in her, not only securing the democratic nomination but

eventually winning in november is this ain't her first rodeo. she is as she has said a black woman, identifies as a black woman, she's going to die as a black woman. she has been a black and indian american woman who was the first woman to serve as district attorney, a woman of color to serve as district attorney in san francisco. first black and indian american woman elected to be attorney general in the state of california. she was the first black and indian american woman from california to be representing our state in the united states senate. she has been through the kind of insults and bullying and attempts to dismiss and disregard her leadership her entire public career in public service. what she has demonstrated time after time is that she's ready for the fight. she can take any name-calling because she does it in service to the people to whom she is

called to serve. she is here for the people of this country to make things better, to create a brighter future for our young leaders, and donald trump is just here for himself. he went to nabj to create some attention for himself as said by his own supporters on fox news to grab the news cycle. he doesn't care about the american people. he cares about himself, and that is the contrast between him and vice president harris. >> it's a staggering contrast as you so brilliantly pointed out, senator laphonza butler. thanks so much for your perspective tonight. really appreciate it. still to come tonight, the domestic political impact of the conflict in the middle east as vice president harris works on resurrecting peace negotiations while donald trump does what donald trump tends to do. that's next.

in the midst of celebrating the return of three american hostages from russia, president biden also spent the day focused on rising tension in the mideast. today president biden and vice president harris spoke on the phone with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu affirming u.s. support for israel but also stressing the importance of deescalation following yesterday's assassination of hamas' political leader and key negotiator in cease-fire talks

ismail haniyeh. thousands gathered in tehran today as iran and its proxies blamed israel for the killing and threatening retaliation, something that could trigger a wider regional war. joining me now is a staff writer for the atlantic. i wonder if in broad strokes you could talk about how much of a shadow this war is in your mind going to cast over the u.s. presidential election in domestic politics. obviously there's a lot happening in terms of the sort of on the ground reality and foreign policy, but just in terms of the domestic political implications here, how do you see them? >> well, alex, it's a pretty challenging thing to try to game out the future of the middle east and then the future of the presidential election. it's like a double back flip in the olympics and i don't think i can pull it off. i can say how this goes will, of course, impact the future of the next 100 days in the u.s. election, and it could be it fizzles out winds down, it could

be that the war escalates and inflames. and no one really knows because every time israel and iran or its proxies had upped the ante, there's been a very high alert and a sense this could be the one that triggers the regional war, and we've not had the regional. it only takes one mistake, one miscalculation before something goes haywire and terribly wrong. so when you actually have a bigger war between israel, possibly iran and hezbollah, and hamas it would pull the u.s. in and that of course would have dramatic implications for u.s. politics and also the world. >> yeah, fair point. and let me put a sort of finer point on it which is to say jonathan wisen in "the new york times" talks about how the winds are changing in this particular administration on the war in gaza, so the progressive wing of it waert he writes is already becoming less vocal in its criticism believing vice president harris is inching towards them on gaza and palestine with her forthright calls for a cease fair, her

acknowledgement of catastrophic levels of food insecurity and her pledge not to be silent on palestinian suffering. do you agree with that assessment? >> i'm not so sure that the progressive critics have really changed their minds on really how vocal they are on this. i do think they're hoping harris will move towards them, but nobody really knows. if you look carefully at her rhetoric it's pretty much the same as what she was saying as vice president. it's pretty similar to what joe biden was saying, but it's very much consistent with the administration's policy and it would be hard for harris to run a different foreign policy than president of the united states. that would be very chaotic for the world and problematic for the campaigns and cause a lot of problems on the trail. i don't think this is going to go away and i think what leads this is not what harris does or biden does but actors in the middle east do and that will

then force biden and harris to respond to events and upend the election. >> yes, of course, assuming we're a status quo. let's just say as it stands now trump this week said any jewish person that voted for vice president harris or president bidenen should have their head examined. if you do this and you vote president biden or harris you're a fool, you're an absolute fool. do you think that is a real currency republicans have in the bank? >> historically the vast majority of jews hope for the democratic ticket election after election and i guess it's made not in the most extreme way donald trump makes and they fizzled. we might see some shifting here or there but seems unlikely, but this is emblematic at the way trump talks about jews and other minorities, which you're the right kind of jew is you support

him, you're the wrong kind if you don't. to the extent i say it would affect the election, i don't think donald trump talking this way an effective way of persuading -- i don't think it really shifts that much because jews largely vote democratic in the first place. >> yes, and you make a -- you have a very interesting piece in the atlantic that is up now all about how kamala harris' choice of a running mate could either insulate her or not for, you know, taking a decidedly different track. thank you for your time. just ahead tonight with 96 days left until the election, new evidence that the enthusiasm for kamala harris is still growing. that is next. for kamala harris is still growing. that is next

. with 96 days to go until election day, the democratic party today began its virtual roll call in which delegates vote electronically for their choice in the party's presidential nomination, and we're now finally starting to see what the change at the top of the ticket is doing in the polls. in a new economist poll of registered voters kamala harris beats president trump within the margin of error 46% to 44%. for context joe biden was polling at 44% during the last week in the race. joining me now is the author of the hopeium chronicles on substack. i'm a great fan of your analysis. >> thank you. >> i would love to talk about

the swing state polling we have because national polling is one thing. there's interesting polling out this week from bloomberg in the swing states, and there's a strange discrepancy in term of what's happening in michigan and what's happening in pennsylvania. in michigan the polls shows harris beating trump by 11 points but losing to trump by 4 points in pennsylvania. obviously these are different states, but that is a massive sort of swing. what do you think accounts for that? do you have a theory? >> remember polling is like a sketch, it's not a photograph. it's a little sketch into a window in time, and sometimes the polls get it right, and sometimes they don't. and so i think what we've seen, there's been a lot of polling this week and there was a lot of polling last week. and what we saw last week is that harris kind of caught up and it became an even race. this week the balance of national polls show her ahead by a little bit. things got a better this week and even last week. in and the two battleground polls that were done in addition to one you cited there was a public opinions strategies poll

of five of the states. and in the two polls combined she's ahead in at least one of them in nevada and arizona and michigan and pennsylvania and wisconsin, and she's close in georgia and north carolina. and so the math has gotten much better for us. the national polling has gotten better, the math's gotten better. i think the way to think about it it's a close competitive election. i think we've got a slight advantage, and we're likely to pick up more and gain as we pick a vp and go through our convention in the coming weeks, so i would much rather be us than them today. >> can you talk about that because we do have a series of inflection points coming up in the next couple of weeks in a rapidly shrinking calender. and trump team says, oh, the honeymoon period may end. the honeymoon period may end iplate september. that's pretty close to it election. >> it may end in the fall of

next year. look, we have a lot of momentum right now, and they don't. we have a great few weeks and trump had one of his ugliest days of his time as a national candidate yesterday, and we continue to produce positive news, right? we're going to get more remarkable news in a little bit when we see the president and vice president and the freed hostages and saw economic dues. the border flowserize now lower than they've been at any other time in biden's presidency. team biden and harris continue to have the ability to generate positive stories about us. trump doesn't have that ability. it's just a relentless set of negative news about him and his terrible vp pick, vance. and so i think the dynamic of this race has really fundamentally changed into our advantage. over the next few weeks we're likely to gain a few points from where we are with a vp pick in our convention and the general level of enthusiasm we're seeing.

and one thing really important, alex, for you to stay on top of that is we're also going to have the biggest vote operation that the democratic party has ever have. and historically be believe strong operations with give you a point or two on the back end. we're not only going to have the vp pick, the convention, but then have the strongest grass roots operation we've ever seen. we're coming into this final stretch really strong, with wind at our back. a great candidate performing at an extraordinary level, a campaign doing really well. and trump is exhibiting a level of ugliness going to make it really hard for them to win this election. >> simon, how much is money a reflection of enthusiasm? the harris campaign has already raised $200 million in an extraordinarily short amount of time. donald trump raised less, i believe $139 million in all of july compared to i think 11 days that vice president harris has been at the top of the ticket presumably. what does that mean to you?

>> it's a huge deal because it's also a lot of money late. we're running out of time to spend that money, and so this kind of infusion, it's a big deal for the close. what's also happening, al, this is happening for candidates all across the country. we're seeing -- i've talked to house and senate candidates across the u.s. the last several weeks. all of them are seeing an uptick in money, an uptick in volunteers. the democratic party is just strong and excited and muscular and we're planning to win. this is an exciting time for our politics, a really ugly time for them, and fingers crossed here as we enter this next stretch of the election. >> simon rosenberg, thank you for your time. it's great to have you on the program. that is our show for tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. let me say this. it says a lot about the united states that we worked relentlessly to free americans who are unjustly held around the