folks no longer wanting to practice, not wanting to go to medical school and some of these dates, and that having huge ripple effects for all ob/gyn care or whatever care women and girls might need. i'm curious if you have seen that in indiana? >> absolutely. we are trying our best to train our medical students and residents to be able to provide this emergency care, but every single day we see the consequences of patients who aren't able to receive that care , whether their physicians have not been trained enough or whether they have no physicians. we have a huge eternity desert in indiana. we are seeing an increase in very complicated cases as well as death due to lack of access to ob/gyn care, and that is true not just for indiana but many states across the country. >> dr. caitlin bernard, thank you for coming on tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thank you for reporting on this.

>> that is all in on this wednesday night alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. first of all, kudos to you for taking on the story the way that you did. everybody should be doing it. this is what is happening in the country. when you think about why people are motivated right now, why there has been a surge of momentum is because the stakes are so incredibly real across the country. >> it makes me so furious that they tried to destroy this woman because she did the right thing and she basically embarrassed them by how horrible the circumstances were that they insisted it was made up so then they tried to destroy her and her employer. it is really a genuinely despicable showing. >> we have a segment coming up with the great steve bennett about republican denial of recent reality and this is probably one of the more nefarious examples of it. thank you, my friend. okay. today donald trump did something he has previously decried as corrupt and cheating. today donald trump voted early in florida's nonpresidential republican primary. now there

is a mountain of irony in trump voting early after having spent years fear mongering about early voting, but it was actually what trump said right after he voted that was the most concerning. >> you said harris' crowd sizes were ai and there weren't people there. can you tell us about why made that claim? >> i can't say what was there, who was there. i can only tell you about ours. we have the biggest crowds ever in the history of politics. >> chubb was telling his followers not to believe their lying eyes. again. now trump's claim here is that crowds at vice president harris' rally in detroit were actually fake. there are countless photos and videos for media organizations moving that claim to be false and demonstrably so. there are also thousands of people, real human people, who showed up to that rally who can

attest that the crowd was real because they are real. but even when confronted with the facts, trump won't back down. and that is because this isn't just about crowd sizes. yesterday vermont senator ernie sanders issued a very serious statement about what he sees as the real issue here. donald trump may be crazy, but he's not stupid. when he claims that nobody showed up in a 10,000 person harris-wallace rally in michigan that was live streamed and widely covered by the media, that it was all ai and that democrats eat all of the time, there is a method to his madness. clearly and dangerously what trump is doing is laying the groundwork for recheck thing the election results if he loses. if you look at the language in trump's original post pushing this ai conspiracy, it is clear that senator sanders is right. not only does trump accuse harris of cheating by

supposedly posting ai generated images, he claims that this is the way the democrats win elections, by cheating, and they are even worse at the ballot box. trump says that harris should be disqualified, because the creation of a fake image is election interference, and that anyone who does that will cheat at anything. you don't even have to be between the lines here. trump is clearly laying the groundwork to call the election ridge, and he's doing it right in front of us. in the past week, trump hasn't just claimed that harris' crowd sizes are fake, but that the polling that shows harris ahead, trump claims those are fake, too, by suggesting that all the harris support is fake, trump is creating the expectation that his victory in november is a given, and that the only way he can loses if the election is stolen from him. if that sounds familiar, that is because it is exactly what trump did in the lead up to the 2020 election. trump did not just start saying

that the election was rigged in november. he laid the groundwork for that big lie months earlier. here he is in august and september of 2020. >> the only way we are going to lose this election is if the election is rigged, remember that. the only way we are going to lose this election. >> the only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election. >> democrats are trying to break this election because it is the only way they're going to win. the only way they're going to win it is to rig it . >> the only way they're going to win is to rig it. go back to senator sanders's statement for second. if you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally do not exist, it will not be hard to convince him that the election returns in pennsylvania, michigan, and elsewhere are fake and fraudulent. this is what destroying faith in institutions is about. this is what undermining democracy is about. this is what fascism is about.

and trump's campaign to delegitimize a democratic victory extends to the candidate herself. because president biden dropped out and vice president harris took the top of the ticket, harris' candidacy now is somehow in trump's twisted logic unconstitutional. >> the presidency was taken away from joe biden, and i am no biden fan, but i will tell you what, from a constitutional standpoint, for mendis and point you look at it, they did the presidency away. the fact that you can be, get the votes, losing the primary system. in other words you had 14 or 15 people choose the first one out , and then you can then be picked to run for president? it seems to me actually unconstitutional. perhaps it's not. >> for the record it is perfectly constitutional for kamala harris to be the democratic candidate for president. the fact clearly not the point here. this campaign, much like trump's

birther campaign against barack obama is to undermine the candidate in the eyes of the voter and preemptively render their candidacy illegitimate. it is about destroying an institution and undermining democracy, and it sort of seems to be working at least among trump supporters. pulling from the pure research center last month shows that just 47% of republicans think this upcoming election will be conducted fairly. for contrast that is compared to 77% democrats. now you might think that a candidate needs his supporters to turn out to the election wants them to believe elections are fair and worth actually voting in, but the worst trump does in the polls, the bigger the crowd sizes and volunteer armies for kamala harris and tim walz, the more you will hear this kind of stuff coming from trump. cryan fraud is once again his backup plan if he loses the election. i am not just speculating here.

this is the cochair of trump's campaign speaking with politico last month about their strategy for this election. >> i mean, it's not over until he puts his hand on, you know, the bible and takes the oath. it is not over until then. it's not over on election day. it's over on inauguration day, because i would not put anything past anybody. >> what you mean. do you think democrats -- >> there is a well documented, a well documented report that talks about all of the efforts that the democrats had in place in 2020 in 2022, despite everything that had happened, that there was a well documented about ways to prevent a donald trump had, quote, won. so, we, like i said, we plan for every worst-case scenario. that way we are ready for it.

>> joining me now are george conway and tim miller. thank you both for being here. george, at what point should we consider trump's behavior and rhetoric slipping from the pathetic to the outright dangerous? are we at that point? >> we passed that point years ago. >> i should clarify. >> it is also outright dangerous. >> we are leading to ai generated crowd sizes and the like. i agree with you it got dangerous a long time ago, but on this particular front? >> absolutely. this is of a piece with everything he has always done. there is no grand strategy here. that's the only quibble i have with some of what i heard. this is his pathology. it is also the pathology of authoritarians throughout history. they tell lies. they tell big lies.

they try to sell bigger lies because bigger lies work better than smaller lies. the nazis called it the big lie . this is what people with this pathology, narcissistic sociopaths who obtain some level of political popularity or power by this is how they operate. it is a reptilian instinct that they have and it works on a lot of people if they have a following. it is very very dangerous. trump did this actually in 2016. he talked about how he would not, if he lost it would be because an edge election was stolen from him. in 2020 at one point he said we should call off the election because of the pandemic because he knew that the polling numbers were coming in. this is right on schedule. this is his instinctual, reptilian, his reptile brain approach to handling the potential loss. he can't, his pathology is that he cannot accept loss or defeat. he is going to basically lie about it in order to overcome

defeat or to convince people that he was somehow wronged, because that is his narcissistic nature. >> to me the thing that i find particularly chilling his last go around when there were cries of election fraud, they had to resort to some really outlandish theories like nest thermostats and satellites. now we have the benefit of technology like artificial intelligence that is legitimately kind of scary to a lot of people and is sort of an x factor. do you worry? i mean, how concerned are you at this stage of the game given where we are at and what has happened before? >> there is a lot to be concerned about. really quickly, that last clip has got me. he's not pathological like donald trump so he should be ashamed of himself. this is how we really get here. donald trump's pathologies only go so far if he does not have operatives willing to backfill

them and come up with some nefarious plot to try to pretend like he went to collections. the january 6 thing would have gone nowhere if he did not have his foot soldiers and strategists to go along with the attempted coup, and having acevedo there as an establishment consultant who had lost plenty of campaigns and seceded the night of the election plenty of times. having him already saying that he's going to go along with it is concerning. the other concerning thing is what you see. in the practice run at the local levels, i'm worried a lot about the county level, what you see in these state legislatures. you have a self-selection of republicans that will be willing to go along with it. when positive green sheet to go along with this that is different from 2020 is two things, one, donald trump is not in the presidency. he can't do the insurrection act and a lot of things he can't do for mar-a-lago, and the republicans had such terrible midterms that the democrats now have control of arizona, all three blue allstate, the one good republican left in the country

brian kemp won his election against an election denier in georgia. so really in six of the seven swing states, it is a democrat or a whatever quasi-pro- democracy republican who are in charge. so i think that is going to limit his ability to create trouble a bit from what it was in 2020. the look, there is still going to be random on affections and a lot of things to be concerned about and prepare for. >> to that end, given your status as a lawyer, i wonder what your level of alarm is at the fact, i think rolling stone has been reporting on the number of election deniers who have infiltrated state-level election apparatus, apparat eye, apparatuses, and the degree to which they can become , they can screw with the machine, the machinery if you will, by refusing to certify election results, which would have state-level import, as the election expert points out. if you have enough sort of

legal imbroglio over this, if you worry this gets somehow up to the supreme court? >> not necessarily, because a lot of this is going to be state law litigation. the judges and justices that we are going to have to be concerned about are mostly going to be state court judges, because they are charged with, you know, reviewing election contests in the first instance. there really are going to be, probably, when it comes to certification of results at the local level about those issues are going to be subject to state substantive law and state procedural law. it is going to be a state-by- state battle, and there potentially could be a lot of litigation, but it will all get resolved relatively quickly, because this kind of election litigation happens all the time, although not necessarily with the level of potential corruption that we are talking about. but you know, the courts are used to resolving that, and we

have to hope and pray that the court, that the judges that hear these cases in the right places at the right time are the ones that do the right thing. i think, you know, the more -- i mean, this is why it is important for the democrats and the harris campaign not to let up on donald trump, and to try -- they have to run up the score to make sure there is no plausible path by cheating and by refusing to certify elections. you know, i am hopeful that that is what is going to happen here, that the margins will be sufficiently large that it would, you know, you would have to run the table, that they would have to run the table of litigation in multiple states in order to overturn the election. >> you know, pete manor has a piece in the atlantic when he talks about the psychology behind this promotion of the big lie, and i think he kind of

nails it, tim, and i wonder what you think of this. he writes, actually this is a tweet that is quoted in another atlantic piece. if you have friends who are trump supporters, a word of counsel. they are heading to a very dark place psychologically. they will be even angrier, lash out more than usual. they felt this race was won, now it is slipping away. expect even greater self- delusion and more toxic france. it reminds me of 2020. pick up the first set of results in and it looks like there i won. and then as the mail-in votes and absentee ballots come in it is clear that he hasn't won. their inability to deal with their grief and rage and the tragedy of trump's campaign forces them into this willful denial of reality, and i feel like, let harris' candidacy has been another catalyst for disappointment. they singularly do not understand how to grapple with it. >> i do agree with that. pete is extremely insightful. i'm a big fan have his. we've seen this in trump himself by the way. the opening clip of him going to vote early, he looks like he is in a bad place. i know it was a very dejected

slouched hunched over trump, a grumpy trump. i watched his rally today. his little stick that he does on stage was very muted. he is upset and aggrieved by, less harris' moment. i think about the trump maga fans. in some ways they are victims. they don't like to think about that in a lot of ways but they are victims of a scam artist. if you have anybody in your life that has been the victim of a scam or have been in a relationship with somebody that is a megalomaniac that gas lights, what usually happens when you say you are being scammed or your partner is a horrible narcissist that is treating you poorly. usually they lash out at first. usually they don't say, thank you for telling me that. you know, sometimes you are punished for being the bearer of bad news. so i think that we are probably going to see that throughout the country over the rest of the year. i agree that it is going to be a dark time over the next 12

weeks and even longer potentially for maga world. >> the darkness of being a maga follower . thank you for your time tonight. coming up, new polling shows kamala harris is leading or tied in every single swing state except nevada. the michigan congresswoman joins me to discuss the state of the race in her state. but first republicans for harris, evangelicals for harris, cat ladies for harris. we will get into the widening tent on the democratic side of the aisle right after the break. break. (elevator doors opening) wait, there's an elevator? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, ♪ ♪ liberty. ♪

ed gutters. call leaffilter today. and never clean out clogged gutters again. leaffilter's technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good. guaranteed. call 833.leaf.filter today, or visit leaffilter.com. kids love summer break, but parents? well... care.com makes it easy to find background checked childcare that fits

your summer schedule. from long term to short notice. give yourself a break this summer. go to care.com now. (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. give yourself a break i take qunol turmeric because it helps with healthy joints and inflammation support. why qunol? it has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric. qunol. the brand i trust.

>> no application fee if you apply by august 29 at university of maryland global campus, offering online and hybrid courses and lifetime career services. learn about our more than 135 degrees and certificates at umgc.edu. with so much entertainment out there wouldn't it be great... learn about our more than 135 degrees ...if you could find what you want, all in one place? show me paris. xfinity internet customers can enjoy the ultimate entertainment experience and save on some

of the biggest names in streaming, all for just $15 a month. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. dave's company just scored the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. high five! high five! -i'm in a call... it's 5 years of reliable, gig speed internet... five years of advanced security... five years of a great rate that won't change. yep, dave's feeling it. but it's only for a limited time. five years? -five years? introducing the comcast business

5-year price lock guarantee. powering 5 years of savings. powering possibilities. you probably remember the win with black women call, the first massive zoom that raised more than $1.6 million for kamala harris as per she rose to the top of the democratic ticket. but did you know about elders for kamala harris' or cat ladies for kamala harris? what about train lovers for harris-walz? the democratic tent is getting large, and last night a new group entered the zoom . republicans for harris. more than 70,000 people attended the virtual rally aimed at persuading

discontented members of the gop to vote for a democratic candidate. and tonight another group, evangelicals for harris, is holding its own call which is still going strong right now after almost 2.5 hours. before the call started, organizers said over 200,000 people had already pledged to volunteer and vote for kamala harris. joining me now is the former campaign manager for bernie sanders presidential campaign in the manager for barack obama's reelection campaign. thank you both experts for being here tonight. let me get your thoughts about the fact that grassroots groups, republicans for harris and evangelicals for harris, are popping up and what that signals to you? >> it signals enthusiasm. signals grassroots support. when you look at the numbers i really care about is a campaign manager, i care about enthusiasm. democratic enthusiasm about voting has gone from 46% in april to 87% yesterday. you see it manifested all over

the place. my favorite ones are the ones you just showed, alex, our cat ladies for harris. that is hysterical and also exactly the kind of thing you need. you need new people who have not been involved in politics who are organizing themselves, and it is a super great sign if you are the harris campaign. >> i don't mean to wax too poetic about it, but it also might be a good sign for democracy that you have what an historian calls bridge building. this is her assessment of republicans for harris. it bills on a proven democracy promoting strategy, bridge building, or the creation of spaces and occasions that bring people of opposing political beliefs and to contact so they may exchange views and find common goals to pursue. is that building the lily too much? >> no, i agree with the gym. the civic engagement is wonderful and part of the risk you like having 15,000 people out at up rally is not that

15,000 people showed up. they are talking about it in their communities and are excited to talk about it with their neighbors. by the way my campaign manager perspective, you have those people signed up as volunteers who are now going to go out and protestant lies on your behalf. that's great information to have. they are also wonderful for data, of building of movement that goes beyond your core base. as we head into the post labor day period of time in those last few weeks ima there will be a lot of people who come online as voters who have not been dialed into this race who are low information consumers, and it is those people who may end up deciding, 5% or less of the public, but they could be the deciders in michigan or pennsylvania, and how they are reached out to his critical, and this momentum building is a core part of the way you get to them. >> there is a question of the supporters and then there is the candidate herself, and i wonder what you think of the reporting that harris may be trying to put some distance between herself and the

president and his record on, i think it is, fracking, the border, especially illegal border crossings, and the issue of medicare for all. first of all, can she do that, and then should she do that? >> look, every campaign is about a vision for the future. she is going to lay out her vision. she's giving her big economic speech on friday. this is about her campaign, not joe biden's, not every democrat before. she gets her chance to make this case to the american people. it should look different. it feels different. part of why we are so excited about all these numbers and all these people is because her message is resonating, this message of excitement, this message of belief that we can do anything. that is why you have all these huge numbers we have never seen before. not because we have cooler apps are cooler social media. it is because of her message, and she gets to lay that message out to the american public in any way she wants. >> i do wonder, when we talk about the issues, and clearly, it is not that the harris

campaign is substance list at all. that is not the contention. but in terms of greater specificity, where do you land on the scale of she needs to be a lot more specific in terms of economic policy proposals, and she should just write about a member -- momentum and keep it a brett summer? >> i think it's important that she has a story to tell about her values. that is fundamentally critical especially when you think about this last 5% or whatever you want to call it that are going to come online. i think they are motivated by the economy. they know it. i think we all know that there has been great job creation on the biden-harris administration, wages outpacing inflation, but to the extent that there is anger and frustration, i would suggest to you, alex said it is about i would deem to be a ticketmaster economy. the people know and understand that the economy is working well for people really at the top, and if you are just looking at for profit

perspective or shareholder perspective, things are going great. but if you are looking at the people who wait in line who feel like they are taken advantage of, there is corporate power at play that is depriving them of economic freedom. you have to tap and access that. there is a desire, i think biden is laying the framework. i went economic freedom here in america. that means your job, a middle- class lifestyle, a union , and the opportunity to feel like you are not encumbered by noncompete agreements. we want business innovation here in america. there is a sense of being able to tell this story that builds on what biden has accomplished. >> and by the way has not gotten nearly enough credit for. a great point, faiz shakir. jim messina. thank you for your time tonight. still ahead this evening, newly released polling shows the swing states of pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan dipping towards vice president harris. i will speak to congresswoman elissa slotkin about democrats

path forward and one of the main battleground states. what is happening there. that conversation is next. with 4 powerful pain-fighting ingredients that start working on contact to target tough pain at the source. for up to 8 hours of powerful relief. new advil targeted relief.

hi, i'm michael, i've lost 62 pounds on golo and i have kept it off. for up to 8 hours of powerful relief. most of the weight that i gained was strictly in my belly which is a sign of insulin resistance. but since golo, that weight has completely gone away, as you can tell. thanks to golo and release, i've got my life and my health back. >> at university of maryland global campus, getting a bachelor's degree doesn't have to mean starting from scratch. here you can earn up to 90 undergraduate credits for relevant experience. what will your next success be?

your loved ones are getting older, and they need your support. care.com is here to help. it's an easy way to find background-checked senior caregivers in your area. and some piece of mind. see why millions of families have trusted care. go to care.com now. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max!

the midwest has been on display. the midwest has been on display. people are here, everyone is here because we know how important we are in this

election to keep the white house, to flip the house, and to keep the u.s. senate. >> last week fresh off of an election primary victory, congresswoman elissa slotkin gave a reminder to voters in her state, the path to the white house runs right through michigan. with its 15 electoral votes, michigan is a key battleground and as of now a tossup in the upcoming election, but the momentum appears to be shifting. a recent new york times of siena college poll shows vice president harris ahead of donald trump by four points in the state. 50 to 46%. a similar poll was put ahead today and it puts kamala harris ahead of donald trump by three points. both of those fall within the margins of error. joining me now is democratic congresswoman elissa slotkin of michigan. it's great to have you on the program. i wonder if you can give us a picture, a snapshot of what is happening in terms of the ground game in your state pick a few months ago, i think it was march, the republican chairman and the state of

michigan said that trump had only skeletal infrastructure in the state it was kind of ringing alarm bells over it. can you compare the two operations? what have you seen? >> look, i think the most important thing that happened when kamala harris pleaded up to the top of the ticket as she announced the day afterwards that she was going to keep all of the biden staff and biden offices and biden programs. we were worried about that here in michigan because we have 200 in staff, we have dozens of offices, and the work is already happening. we have already knocked on $400,000 in the state of michigan and s date of 10 million people. we have learned our lessons over the years on having a strong field campaign, so we have it, but i can't over emphasize the change in energy on the ground that is happened just in the past three weeks. the number of volunteers, people dropping by officers wanting to sign up. it is, it is a real, palpable thing here on top of the great

infrastructure that we already had a. >> can we dig a little deeper into where you are seeing that enthusiasm? i know the uaw endorsed the harris-walz ticket . yesterday the uaw filed a lawsuit against donald trump and elon musk for trump's comments training elon musk's mass layoffs at tesla and firing striking workers. is that resonating in a state like michigan? is that something that makes its way to the labor movement in your state, and can you talk about a little bit how you are seeing those white working- class voters deal with the change in ticket? >> it definitely impacts people. i think one of the most unionized states in the country , so the number, just the sheer number of people who are in a union who believe in collective bargaining is very high here. but we also know in 2016, a lot of our union members a split from their leadership and voted for donald trump. so it is still a competition and a fight and a debate. what i think is different than

2016 as we can show real, actual results in what we have done for unions. joe biden was the first president to ever walk a uaw picket line too we put by american requirements in our infrastructure bill. just look at the number of hours. if you were a teamster for instance that you were working in 2019 versus what you were working in 2024, it is night and day. it is important to make this case to our union membership, our rank and file, because they are the ones who feels ways, who feel like am i going to be able to get into and stay in the middle class. that union membership is very important to lots of people in our state and it resonates here. >> i also wonder about the uncommitted vote which is perhaps the strongest in the state of michigan, and there is no shortage of news about the war in gaza that is distressing and deeply concerning. the palestinian ministry of house suggests we are going to cross the threshold of 40,000 killed in this war.

of course there up to 100 hostages that remain in gaza, and the biden administration yesterday i believe approved $20 billion in weapons sales to israel. this is the kind of stuff that very much animates this group of people in your state. i wonder how much of an issue you think this is for the harris-walz ticket? >> obviously it is hard to overstate how this issue has broiled metro detroit and parts of our state in a very real and visceral way. people see themselves in the casualties in the middle east. arab and muslim americans, jewish americans, people see themselves in the children that are hurt their. i think the leaders that i have talked to are grappling with the change at the top of the ticket and how to do with it it had a think about it. you know, when vice president harris came to michigan, she made the point to meet with leaders from the uncommitted movement behind stage, away from the cameras, not in front of any public view, to have real conversations and to listen. some of those folks have now

come out and endorsed her, and said okay, i wasn't happy, but she took the time to talk and so we are engaging. others have not made that decision. others are still figuring out how to think about it. so, i think the most important thing is to keep the lines of communication open. not every american is going to agree on everything. that is never going to happen, but do we treat each other with respect, solicit each other's opinions, listen and we are being told hard facts? that is something that i think is the expectation, especially the leaders that i know, of me, but also of the harris-walz campaign. >> it is super valuable to get your insight on how this is all playing out in real time in one of the most important states in this election. congresswoman senate candidate elissa slotkin, thank you for making the time . coming up, misogyny, anti- semitism, and strip club attendance. all the apparent qualifiers to make the top of a

republican ticket i guess. i will explain more coming up next. ome true. but the choice won't be easy with exceptional offers on the e-class sedan, c-class sedan, cle cabriolet and cle coupe. hurry, these dream offers won't last forever. come in now through september 3rd. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds.

i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. living with type 2 diabetes? ask about the power of 3 with ozempic®.

we realize some home maintenance jobs aren't worth the risk. that's when we call leaffilter to protect our gutters. leaffilter's patented filter technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good, guaranteed. call 833 leaffilter or visit leaffilter.com here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max!

frizz. dryness. breakage. new dove 10-in-1 serum hair mask with peptide complex. fortifies hair bonds at a molecular level. helps reverse ten signs of damage in one minute. keep living. we'll keep repairing. why do couples choose a sleep number smart bed? can it keep me warm when i'm cold? keep living. wait, no, i'm always hot. sleep number does that. during our biggest sale of the year, save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed and free delivery when you add any base.

former trip advisor and campaign manager steve bannon is currently serving a four month sentence in federal prison. because steve bannon is in federal prison, he has to have someone else in for him on his internet talk show. last week that role went to

this individual. >> i have to talk about democracy. democracy in and of itself especially as it is applied by these democrats is nothing more than heresy. why? you can't even say that. you can't even say that democracy is a heresy. >> the left is so out-of- control that you can't even say that democracy is heresy anymore. that man is former nba player royce white. last night just 3 days after recording that anti-democracy podcast, royce white was elected by minnesota republicans to be the candidate for the u.s. senate, as in the united states senate. when it comes to royce white, the democracy stuff is really just the tip of the iceberg. has a long history of rank misogyny. he has used the c word to describe everyone from aoc to nancy pelosi to barack obama. here he is talking about women in general. >> look let's just be frank. women have become too mousy. as the black man say.

>> he also has a long history of anti-semitism. he once openly identified himself as an anti-semite on twitter. in addition to all of that, royce white is currently facing an fec complaint after spending $1000 in campaign money at a strip pub, and his explanation here has raised more questions than answers. >> your claim is there were filings which said you spend campaign funds at a strip club, but they were incorrect filings. >> they did not say a spectacle funds at a strip club. they didn't say that i spend the funds on strippers. >> but it was spent at a strip club. >> will a strip club, they sell food at the strip club, don't they? >> they do have food at strip clubs. that is true. although that is usually not the selling point of the strip club. that is the man that senate republicans have chosen to face

off against senator amy klobuchar in the fall. this year it looks like he is in good company. today donald trump held a campaign rally in north carolina where he appeared on the same stage as this man, the republican candidate for governor in the state's current lieutenant governor mike robinson. he also has a long history of saying horrible things about women. >> everybody knows that abortion in this country is not about detecting the lives of mothers. it is about convenience. it is about killing a child because you weren't responsible enough to keep your skirt down or your pants up. >> i absolutely want to go back to the america where women couldn't vote. >> and we are called, it's going to get me into trouble, called to be led by men. it was time to face goliath said david. not to feed her, david. >> mark robinson has a long history of anti-semitism. he has spread conspiracy

theories, favorably quoted hitler, and even engaged in outright holocaust denial. in one 2018 facebook post, he wrote this foolishness about hitler disarming millions of jewish people and then writing them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash. there was a time when these kinds of comments from these candidates in the recent past would be more than enough to end their campaign, but as my colleague steve bennett writes in his new book, with unnerving frequency, the contemporary republican party sees the recent past is an enemy to be overpowered, crushed and conquered. steve joins me coming up next to discuss the republican war on reality, right after the break. (♪♪) we need a miracle. miracle every thursday starting at 2:45. i know. i love you.

find childcare that fits your schedule at care.com [ music ] >> before umgc, i was a pretty good teacher, but i needed my students to see that someone like them can make it and actually graduate, and do things better. that's why i decided to go to umgc. the skills they taught me are skills i wouldn't have learned anywhere else. in my role now as vice principal, i want my students to succeed. i wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for umgc. you become a part of that family, and it's a family that will support you for the rest of your life.

oh... stuffed up again? so congested! you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! with so much entertainment out there wouldn't it be great... ...if you could find what you want, all in one place? show me paris. xfinity internet customers can enjoy the ultimate entertainment experience and save on some of the biggest names in streaming, all for just $15 a month.

get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. here's the quote, with the number and frequency, the contemporary republican party sees the recent past as an enemy to be overpowered, crushed, and conquered. it is an effort predicated on the assumption that our memories can be bullied into submission, forced to give way

to manufactured stories the gop prefers get to see such authoritarian tactics in american democracy as anything less than dangerous would be a mistake, that is from the new book out this week by mike coley, the great, steve benen, it is called ministry of truth, democracy, reality, republican war on the recent past. it is essential reading because it breaks down how and why republicans, led by donald trump, light in attempt to rewrite the recent past. joining me is the one and only, steve benen, producer for the rachel maddow show an editor of the indispensable maddow blog, essential to have you on the set speaking live with me. first of all, let's get to the essence of the book, you write, this campaign of rewriting recent history is built on the foundation of pernicious tellers, the first is a wholesale and indifference toward reality, the second is

the absence of shame. the third is the role of allies. finally, there is the importance of repetition. it is a clear breakdown of how this is happening. i guess i wonder the motivation , as you see it, is it purely to stay in power, d.c. something broader in their goals ? >> clearly, there is electoral element, trump wants to regain power and he things the way to do that is to fool enough people by rewriting recent history, overpower our memories into submission and convinced them he deserves a second term, despite his failures and scandals and so on. i think there's a larger concern against democracy, a lot of americans right now concerned about the rising authoritarianism in the united states, legitimate concern, i share that concern. with that in mind, as not forget, as long as they start the records, authoritarians engaging in all kinds of tactics to rewrite history. to eliminate enemies, cover-up crimes and so on. it is unsettling at a minimum

to see donald trump and his allies filing a page from the same playbooks. >> you use such important, first of all, i don't know whether it is a testament to trump's tactics and republican party tactics i had forgotten, how important staggering examples there are of this, you talk about his cry he would build the wall and have mexico pay for it, the fact that he contends the law has been built in mexico paid for it you talk about russia and russian interference, denial of that reality. what stands out to you as one of the more forgotten but pernicious and useful examples to focus on? >> one came up today, it was timely and generous to bolster my book. >> you're welcome. >> to see donald trump today to make the case that his economy, under his presidency, was extraordinary, historic, it broke all the records, humanize have never seen an economy like

donald trump except it is not true. exclude 2022 picture altogether , hit the recession and covid, even if we exclude that, for the first three years, the numbers are not nearly as good as the last three years of obama era. really, the last three presidents, he ranks third when it comes to economic performance. the idea that somehow he was this economic genius and mastermind, return them to the white house, anything would be great, the economy, it is nonsense. >> i think what is most disturbing about that, that is a sentiment that has filtered from hard-core right-wing corners of maga land to the center of the american electorate. even some democrats believe the economy shepherded under republic and spider than democrats. >> it goes long way trying to set the record straight. when you look at the data, job growth went down the first two years of trump compared to the last few years of obama, that is lost to history because history has been rewritten by

pernicious figures who believe to know the truth . >> you make a distinction between history, always subject to argument in relitigation and recent past. talk about why it is more damaging to democracy to try to rewrite recent past as opposed to the broader debate we have about historical? >> culture wars targeting all kinds of things from generations past, history before a lifetime. that is an important element, my heart goes out to the culture warriors involved with that fight. going after recent history is more ambitious. it is telling you that you don't remember things that you saw, your lying eyes should be discounted and discredited altogether because you should replace those memories with the brute force rhetoric republicans prefer it is extraordinary, it takes our breath away, it is a classic example of gas lighting. it is telling you that if you believe the truth, you believe what actually happened somehow you are nuts. >> you are a stooge of the

liberal elite, the media, technology, a.i. generated crowd sizes, democrats rigging the election, the system is broken and it is rigged against you. to that end, j.d. vance, a clip from 2020 has surfaced where j.d. vance is talking to a podcaster about his beliefs about women and their role. on this podcast, he explains how his mother-in-law, usha vance's mother left her job as a biologist to help raise their newborn son. the podcast host says, that is the purpose of postmenopausal females. this is the clip. >> it makes him a much better human being to have exposure to his grandparents. >> the evidence on this is super clear . >> that is the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female. >> yes, he literally says, yes, that is the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female, says the host, eric weinstein. j.d. vance says, yes.

this is not a good data point for j.d. vance, the vance campaign is, the media is dishonestly putting words into j.d.'s mouth. of course, he does not agree with what the host said. >> one of the lines i use in the book a lot, publicans want us to discard your lying eyes. in this case, discard our line ears too? because the tape isn't lying, we hear him say yes, we saw this ridiculous and offensive and insulting comments, normal healthy people would say, no, i don't believe that, i completely reject that. yet here we are. >> you know, it is not good news for j.d. vance but it is especially not good news for functioning democracy and institutions that need to retain their integrity because the more you vilify the media and general mainstream ecosystem, the less you have of shared fact, unless we are all operating the same reality, the harder it becomes to govern fairly. steve benen, here's the book