the election, donald trump wants you to believe there are massive voting problems. there aren't. "velshi" starts now. good morning. it is saturday, september 26th. nbc news has learned that president trump has selected judge amy coney barrett to fill the supreme court seat left vacant by the death of justice ruth bader ginsburg. he is set to make the announcement this afternoon. as with everything related to trump it could change at any moment, if confirmed the 48-year-old barrett, who has clerked for the late justice scalia would become the youngest justice on the court and would cement a 6-3 conservative majority. barrett is a federal appeals court judge who has been reliable on conservative issues including abortion. before joining the appeals court barrett worked briefly in private practice before teaching in 15 years at notre dame law school. we'll have much more on amy coney barrett, what her

nomination will mean and what's at stake for americans later in the show. the latest jobs report reveals 870,000 americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. that's higher than expected. and an increase compared to the week before. roughly 62 million americans, that's more than 38% of the nation's work force, have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic. a shocking number that president trump remains uninterested in. so long as the stock market is doing well and even his beloved stock market has been faltering for the lasts four weeks. the united states has surpassed 7 million total confirmed cases of covid-19. a disease that the president called a hoax that was "locked down" and that would magically disappear. roughly 205,000 americans are now dead. a dreadful reminder of the trump administration's utter failure at keeping americans safe. and as the pandemic expands its deadly diaspore across the country the president seemingly

couldn't careless. >> take your hat off to the young. they have a hell of an immune system. but it affects virtually nobody. it's a ann amazing thing. >> why haven't you said anything about the u.s. hitting 200,000 deaths? >> anybody else? >> we are 38 days from an election and a number of new polls show joe biden ahead of president trump by 6.5 points, but the polling and the election may not matter if the country continues down the path we're clearly heading. >> will you commit to making sure there's a peaceful transferral of power after the election? >> we'll have to see what happens. you know that. i've been complaining strongly about the ballots. the ballots are a disaster. >> i understand that, but people are rioting. do you commit to making sure there's a peaceful -- >> get rid of the ballots we'll have a peaceful -- there won't be a transfer frankly, there will be a continuation.

the ballots are out of control. you know it. you know who knows it better than anybody else? the democrats know it better than anybody else. >> so we have to be careful with the ballots. the ballots, that's a whole big scam. we want to make sure the election is honest. i'm not sure it can be. >> that was said by someone who does not think that he's going to win the old-fashioned way and believes his best shot at holding on to power is to cast premeditated doubt over the results of the contest. it's actually something that's now a central part of president trump's reelection strategy tweeting this year the november 3rd election result may never be accurately determined. which is what some want. in fact, it's what president trump wants. we're living in a time when the president of the united states wants to purposefully cast doubt on our country's democracy. wants americans and the world to be less confident in the results of the election on november 3rd. it should be noted the white house press secretary says that the president would accept the results of a free and fair

election. that, of course, is the white house laying the groundwork that the upcoming election will not be free and fair. this is the type of thing said and done by a regime desperate to hold on to power not a thing done and said in a democracy for the people, by the people and of the people. the white house has spent months to create doubt about the legitimacy of the upcoming american election. sure, some republicans including senate leader mitch mcconnell have come out rebutting trump's transfer of power remarks, but at this point they have shown a willingness to fall in line with just about anything donald trump does. just consider the situation with the supreme court, with the laugh out loud hypocrisy of mitch mcconnell and the majority of the reasonen krepublican cau claimed in 2016 that a sitting president should not be allowed to fill a supreme court vacancy

in an election year, now they're steaming ahead at full speed to get donald trump's nominee confirmed before election day. imagine if the president and republicans moved this fast to act on covid-19 as they were in interested in the greatest public health emergency in modern history as they were with replacing justice ruth bader ginsburg. in a statement that is as remarkable as it is unsurprising, trump revealed his reasoning for rushing to replace ginsburg, yes, it is his own re-election. >> we need nine justices. you need that. with the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending, it's a scam. it's a hoax. everybody knows that. the democrats know it better than anybody else. so you will need nine justices up there. i think it's going to be very important. because what they're doing is a hoax. >> i think this will end up in the supreme court. and i think it's important that

we have nine justices, and i think the system is going to go quickly. it's better if you go before the election. i think this -- this scam that the democrats are pulling, it's a scam, the scam will be before the united states supreme court. and i think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation. >> the scam he's talking about is your election. trump is admitting that the biggest qualification to be his pick for our country's next supreme court justice, a lifetime position, is to be willing to side with him if needed in the upcoming election. that is authoritarian. this is now really simple. this november we have a choice between two views of the future of america. democracy of the people, for the people, or a creeping trumpian authoritari authoritarianism. joining me now is the award winning professor of history at yale university, joanne freeman.

and terrorism analyst for nbc news, malcolm nance. he spent more than 35 years in the united states intelligence community including as a navy senior petty officer and he's the author of "the plot to compromise america." thank you good morning to you both. pr professor freeman, you have studied some of the most contentious times in american history. it seemed like hyperbole at certain points in the last 3 1/2 years to compare this time to those times, but, in fact, we are now discussing the legitimacy of the election and the outcome of the election. something that has only happened very few times in our own history. >> i think it's worth noting -- as a historian, i'm always a little slow to say unprecedented, though there are many aspects of this particular president who is chipping away at norms, rules, standards and

is not very accountable, there have been some fraught moments, challenging elections. that said, more often than not, and there is a standout when this wasn't the case, more often than not, the system, the process stood strong. as an early american historian i end up thinking a lot about the election of 1800. the first real partisan contested election, extreme polarization, each side believing the other side was un-american if th un-american, if they won, the nation would fall. a lot of similarities. authorities in two states beginning to arm in case the election moved in a direction that would require force. but in the end people stepped back. people even in positions of power were willing to say that in a democratic republic the peoples voice should rule. if there's a way the system can allow that to happen, that should have precedence. so they went up to the line and

they stepped back. i think it's important to say about this current moment, as much as it's hard not to talk about the ugly outcomes that might be happening in a few months, it's worth noting and important to say those aren't normal options. those aren't things to expect. we shouldn't have them on the roster, what if this happens, what if he doesn't accept the election. that's not a norm. that's not on the menu of options we would be considering normal. i hope people bear that in mind. >> you know, i -- i hear you, professor freeman. and malcolm, i have to ask you about that. this week i found myself wanting to get responses from people in charge of american institutions including the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security and the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the joint chiefs to say exactly what joanne free mman is saying, thi is not normal and we'll be there

to make sure the abnormal doesn doesn't happen. the idea of invoking the military to enforce the political norms we have practiced for a long time is outlandish, weird, troubling and scary. >> you know, i will go out on a limb here, i'm not a professor of history, and great regards to your other guest, but as a person who spent his entire life warning this nation about threats and risks to it, we are at a grave point in american history. granted other elections have been contentious. we did have a civil war, which many states didn't even participate in the election process. but we are at a point where the fundamental belief of what america is, as it was invented in philadelphia in the 18th century, may be going away. where we are transitioning away not just from the norms but the actual laws that bound us together and the belief that we

are all one common body of americans. there is a group of americans now that believe their 40%, they should dominate the rest of the nation. they are armed, vocal, and willing to follow donald trump who they say as their cult-like leader. the problem is that they want to bring the other institutions along with them. i will tell you unequivocally right now, the armed forces of the united states will not follow any unlawful order issued by the president after the election or until the inauguration or ever. we are just not built that way. general milley made that clear after the lafayette square fiasco that the armed forces serves the constitution, not the person who sits in the chair. >> let's hope that follows through after november 3rd. professor, the president is basing this whole criticism of the legitimacy of the election

system on what comes down to voting by mail, which almost a quarter of all americans did in the last election. which a number of states do as a matter of course. the state of oregon does it all the time with no increase in danger of fraud or anything going wrong with the election. that's the basis of the criticism. >> right. i mean, so there's a real effort now to create a narrative on the part of the president to justify whatever it is he wants to happen, whatever it is he wants to do. democracy, you know i think -- many people have come to take democracy for granted, not only to assume it will be here no matter what, but to fundamentally misunderstand the heart of democracy. the heart of democracy really not only is it grounded on debate and compromise, it's grounded on good faith contests. those contests don't have predetermined outcomes. so part of what's happening now is the president is trying to

construct a narrative where there is no possibility of a good faith contest when, in fact, there is. as you're suggesting, people have been voting by mail in many states for quite some time. it's been working quite well. there's an attempt to suggest that the normal way the system operates is a hoax or a scam, and for that reason there will be no fair election, no fair contest, and thus in a sense that's a pronouncement that there is already no democracy. that's a lie. >> malcolm, one of the things that you have thought a lot about in the last few years is the interference of others, either bad actors in the united states or foreign entities. you have written in the last few days that this makes the president a remarkable mark and it is a big invitation, once he's already sown the seeds of mistrust in the political system, that's the work of

others they don't have to do. >> you're absolutely right. this narrative of this system is rigged, that these elections don't work, that american democracy is not actually fair when it comes to donald trump, these narratives were memes being pushed by the russian intelligence agencies in 2016. the military intelligence organization at the internet research agency, the people indicted through the -- by the department of justice, they pushed the fault lines of america's cracks in the system. they understood this would damage us. but it's not being done just for chaos. everyone who comes out and says this was vladimir putin's way of executing an old soviet trope to make chaos in america, no. this is because they have a candidate in this case. they had a candidate in 2016. he was elected president. he did everything they wanted.

now there's an opportunity to fundamentally fracture the american system of government and change us from a representative democracy, a constitutional republic into a constitutional autrocacy. the constitution only applies to those people who love donald trump. he will essentially become a dictator. that benefits the oligarchy that president trump wants to join. all the people who have money around the world that has higher loyalty to flags, constitutions and the will of the people. donald trump wants to be in that group. >> i would enjoy having that particular conversation with both of you another time. the idea that anything other than a constitution which affords everybody equal rights can come back and bite those who enjoy the fruits of it. either we have the same rights for everybody or we don't. thank you so both of you.

professor joanne freeman, author of "the field of blood" and malcolm nance, author of "the plot to betray america." coming up next, what you need to know about amy coney barrett, the woman trump is set to nominate to the supreme court. first a moment for the first woman she could succeed. ruth bader ginsburg became the first woman and the first jewish person to lie in state at the capitol yesterday. and in this sweet moment, ginsburg's personal trainer, bryant johnson, dropped and gave her three pushups. rbg, known to crush a workout well into her 80s referred to johnson as one of the most important people in her life. ruth bader ginsburg took her final trip down the steps of the capitol surrounded by the women of congress. we'll be right back.

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the key details behind president trump's big announcement later today have been revealed as nbc news is reporting that trump plans to nominate u.s. circuit court judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court. barrett is a textualist in the mold of antonin scalia. nominated for the 7th circuit court of appeals, she was voted in on a party vote. dianne feinstein said during her nomination process that the dogma lives loudly within you. but her nomination begs the question, what kind of justice would judge barrett actually be? she's given us a few hints. left behind in her decisions, dissents and some law journals that may give us insights into her future as an associate justice on the supreme court. she wrote of the 2012 decision

upholding the affordable care act that chief justice roberts pushed the affordable care act beyond it's plausible meaning to save the staut salute. he construed the penalty imposed on those without health insurance as a tax, which permitted him to sustain the statute valid exercise of the taxing power. the mo juniissue of abortion, s if roe was dismantled, i don't think abortion or the right to abortion would change. i think some of the restrictions would change. but of course the right to an abortion doesn't have to change. if you open the door to restrictions as has already been done, you can make abortion so hard to access that the right to

an abortion might as well not exist in practical terms for so many women. if you believe it is settled law, don't forget that donald trump said he would only nominate a judge who would vote to overturn roe. but perhaps most importantly barrett discussed her view that a judge could outright disregard the court's past precedent. she wrote in the notre dame law journal i tend to agree with those who say that a justice's duty is to the constitution, and that it is thus more legitimate for her to enforce her best understanding of the constitution rather than of a precedent she thinks clearly in conflict of it. decisions like this one to nominate barrett don't happen in a vacuum. there's been a pipeline for conservative judges to make their way to the top of the nation's highest court since president reagan held office.

danielle mlaughl danielle mclaughlin joins us now. the federalist society is that pipeline. fundamentally in this day and age, conservative judges of all sorts come through the federalist society. tell us a bit about this. >> you're right. this has been a nearly 40-year project of conservative lawyers who have understood from the longest time in a way frankly that liberals have not, if you want to change the law you have to change the judges. and to your point, since the early '80s when this group was founded in the universities of chicago and yale, importantly one of their first faculty advisers was then professor antonin scalia. they understood you need a network and pipeline. i liken them a little bit to a social justice movement in the sense that they thought they were in the minority. their legal ideas, their ideas

about the constitution were in the scholarly and academic minority. so they fought and fought and fought. unlike a social justice movement, they had the privilege of access to the highest annals of power in this country. the supreme court is one big way we've seen this pipeline come to fruiti fruition. there were at least 22 former clerks of justice clarence thomas who made their way into the trump administration either on the judiciary and into the federal judiciary or the administration. amy coney barrett herself is a former clerk to justice scalia. and so what we're seeing is really -- it's like an all boys network. network, network, network. it's more than that, it's about winning the pr war. here's something your listeners might have been attuned to recently. there's a report that the judicial crisis network was formed in the early 2000s when

the bush administration was trying to get good pr for it's picks. then it was called the judicial confirmation network. so the name of the organization literally changed around 2010 to opposed obama nominees to the bench. it's about networks, pipelines, it's about pr, and about building that base so that you can install judges with frankly minority views on many of the social issues that americans share with a view of the constitution that requires an originalist approach, a textu l texturalist approach without credence to the evolving nature of this country and the evolving norms of this country. one classic sample is same-sex marriage. >> if you're entirely a constitutional originalist, and a texturalist then there wouldn't be a woman on the supreme court. there wouldn't be women who vote. so how does one -- how does one

marry all of that information, that you want to be as original to the text of the constitution as possible but things do change? >> well, right. i guess one example i could give you is the second most -- the most famous second amendment case written by justice scalia. there the court wrestled with what arms under particular are available under the 2nd amendment. scalia looked a the what does the term bearing of arms mean at the time of the constitution and the 2nd amendment was ratified. what they try and do is look at the words and consider them in terms of their original meaning. but as we have seen -- words change in terms of meaning. social norms change. one example would be the most recent lgbtq cases where the federal government now cannot discriminate against people on the basis of whether they are transgender or gay.

originalists would say discrimination on the basis of sex is just discrimination on the basis of gender. clearly those words have different meanings at different times. this is not to say that the court should be reaching out into the future, but the idea that the constitution is frozen is antithetical to growing democracy, a democracy that lives and breathes. >> danielle, thank you for joining us. danielle mclaughlin author of "the federalist society" and she'll be on with us through the course of the weekend. president trump is set to officially announce his supreme court nominee from the white house at 5:00 p.m. eastern. nicolle wallace will anchor our network coverage of that event starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern. we're just three days away from the first presidential debate of this election. make sure to join our msnbc team for pre and postgame analysis as

donald trump and joe biden face off. brian williams, rachel maddow, joy reid will take the helm. stay with us right here on msnbc. up next, my friend and colleague, stephanie ruhle sat down for an exclusive interview with joe biden. she will join me right here to talk about how he plans to bring the country together, what the democratic nominee is going to try to do and say about trump not allowing a peaceful transfer of power and why the american people should be patient as votes are counted after the election. election for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor

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week after week president trump has been chipping away at our political norms. this week he went a step further openly admitting he might refuse to accept the results of the election if he loses. my colleague, stephanie ruhle, sat down with the man trying to kick him out of office.

former vice president joe biden, he asked about trump's suggestion that he won't necessarily accept a peaceful transfer of power after the election. listen to this. >> we have to start with twice now president trump has refused to agree to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. what are you going to do if you win and he just won't leave? >> number one, the american people won't be shut down in this election. they'll vote. they'll vote in large numbers. they're just not going to be denied. it's going to be clear from the begins exactly where this is going. look, this is a typical trump distraction. this is trying to make everybody wonder whether or not the election will be legit and whether or not absentee ballots matter while he's writing his absentee ballots out. he's voting from the oval office to run in florida or to vote in florida. so i just think the people in this country will be heard november 3rd.

every vote in this country will be heard. they'll not be stopped. i'm confident all the irresponsible outrageous effects on voting in this country will have an effect and he'll leave. >> serious business. i have a smile on my face because my buddy, stephanie ruhle is joining me this morning. thank you, my friend. that was comforting to me. he spoke quietly. seemed logical. it gave me a sense of calm. do you think he's right? do you think he's aware of how seriously trump seems to be taking this business about delegitimatizing the election? >> great to see you, partner. here's the thing. donald trump made these same claims in 2016, voter fraud, i might not accept the outcome, so joe biden is right in that we've seen this distraction game before. at best it's just a distraction. but at worst, it could be a threat to our democracy. don't forget, when he was making

those claims in 2016 he was a private citizen running for office. now he's the power of the oval office behind him as he makes these claims and takes this position, that's a whole lot scarier. joe biden is encouraging people the system will work, go out and vote november 3rd. people are mailing in their ballots. we will not have a final tally on november 3rd. what will happen november 4th, 5th, 6th? that's a big concern. >> you, like i, roll in circles with people who work in finance. many of whom are still convincing themselves that donald trump is good for the economy, good for low taxes, i don't know what they think about deficits, our deficits have exploded. how does this fit into that argument? for people who say i'm a fiscal conservative, i don't want these liberals doing green new deal, raising taxes. does this play into their discussion? do they take seriously the fact that donald trump talks about delegitimatizing the democratic

process? >> no, you know they don't. they're in the watch what he does not watch what he says, i love the markets. look at the markets this week. >> four weeks. >> you're seeing turmoil about this uncertainty. it's got people more and more concerned. don't forget, when president trump tells the country you like your 401(k), it will disappear without me, that's not necessarily the case. the market in 2016 didn't shoot off like a rocket, it was steady climbing since barack obama and joe biden took office. if you like bigger business, lower taxes is music to your ears, but at some point, you have to pay the piper. republicans did care about debt and deficits, but they don't seem to now. >> i want to ask my control room to play a bit of the conversation you had with joe

biden about the supreme court. we expect this nomination today of amy coney barrett. let's listen to what you and the vice president talked about. >> your message to americans who think the government is not working for them. look at congress right now. republicans are trying to push through, jam through a supreme court pick while many democrats are saying they're going to vote no before they even know this person's name. you said you're the one that can actually unite people. how are you going to do that? look how things are right now. >> number one, i'm not being facetious when i say this. number one, get rid of the worst president in american history, donald trump. he holds a lot of people at sway. everybody in the republican party knows he's vindictive. you saw what happened to sessions when he left and he went after sessions in the primary. people are worried, i think, about what he'll do. with him gone, i think it opens up a different avenue. >> i'm just curious about what that avenue is. amy coney barrett may be confirmed as a supreme court

justice before november 3rd, before the election. >> listen, there's nothing joe biden can do about that. the argument he's trying to make, there was once a time in politics where lawmakers really did work together and he believes he embodies that. there's a joe biden ad out right now that is literally lindsey graham sitting in the back seat of a car gushing about what an honorable, dignified, great man joe biden is. i know people saw it as a one-night headline and moved on, but consider this, cindy mccain, the widow of late senator john mccain endorsing joe biden this week. she's not just some republican. the last time she faced off against joe biden her husband was running for president against barack obama and joe biden. it was biden and barack obama that sat in between cindy and john mccain in the white house. the fact she's endorsing him? can you imagine in a few years,

ivanka, don jr., melania endorsing a democratic candidate? maybe joe biden has a point that he can be the uniter, right now given where things are right now i would have to clean my classes off, it's tough to see that. >> nice to see you, my friend. thank you for joining us this morning. stephanie ruhle, anchor here on msnbc. stick around for the full interview with joe biden which will air as part of the latitude national business conference. it can be seen on msnbc during the 12:00 p.m. eastern hour on weekends with alex witt. anger is bubbling up across the united states. one louisville police officer has been charged for not shooting and killing breonna taylor but firing the gunshots that missed her. taylor's aunt spoke on behalf of taylor's mother who said she never had faith in kentucky attorney general daniel cameron. >> you didn't just rob me and my family, you rob the the world of a queen. a queen willing to do the job

that most of us could never stomach to do. a queen willing to build up anyone around her. a queen who was starting to pay for her past. i hope you never know the pain of your child being murdered 191 days in a row. tonight, i'll be eating a veggie cheeseburger on ciabatta, no tomatoes.. [hard a] tonight... i'll be eating four cheese tortellini with extra tomatoes. [full emphasis on the soft a] so its come to this? [doorbell chimes] thank you. [doorbell chimes] bravo.

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it's the faster way to clean as you go just spray, wipe and rinse it cleans grease five times faster dawn powerwash. spray, wipe, rinse. overnight protests continued in louisville, kentucky. demonstrators taking to the streets demanding justice after the decision this week by a kentucky grand jury not to seek charges against three police officers in the shooting death of breonna taylor. however they are charging one officer, not to do anything with breonna taylor, but for firing the shots that missed her and hit a neighbor's apartment. taylor's family condemned the state attorney general, daniel cameron, for not bringing charges for taylor's death. now the family's attorneys are calling on the attorney general's office to release the full transcripts of the

proceedings as the community looks for accountability of a failed justice system. that's what this is. yesterday wearing her niece's emt jacket, taylor's aunt read this message on behalf of taylor's mother, tamika palmer. >> i never had faith in daniel cameron to begin with. i knew he was too inexperienced to deal with a job of this caliber. i knew he had already chosen to be on the wrong side of the law. the moment he wanted the grand jury to make the decision, what i had hoped is that he knew he had the power to do the right thing. that he had the power to start the healing of this city. that he had the power to help men over 400 years of oppression. what he helped me realize is that it will always be us against them. >> nbc's cal perry has been following this story for months. he's been covering the situation in louisville over the last

week. cal, what people have been protesting across this country is the system of justice. now the city of louisville has done right by breonna taylor's family, but the justice system, the idea that the police did things wrong, breonna taylor's dead, there's accountability for bullets flying into a neighbor's apartment, zero accountability for the death of an innocent woman in her bed at the hands of authorities. that continues to frustrate people. >> people feel completely broken. that's sort of i think the best description i've heard in talking to people on the ground. if sergeant hankison shot his bullets more straight and hit breonna taylor would he have been charged with a larger felony? these are the questions people are asking. it doesn't make sense when you take a step back and realize this woman was killed in her own home n a no-knock raid, she was unarmed, her boyfriend returned fire but the level of violence that occurs in this city. how did police get to that door? what was the affidavit signed in

the warrant? what did the grand jury talk about? what evidence did the attorney general put forward to the grand jury? these are the questions that not only breonna taylor's family is asking, not only her lawyers are asking, but the entire city is asking. all of it speaks to this real problem of transparency. people here do not think they can communicate with the police officers and the police do not believe they can communicate with the community. last night we had attica scott arrested, she is a lawmaker in ken and is responsible for police reforms, trying to push through breonna's law. she was put into a police vehicle and taken away. it removed the ability for the police officers on the street to communicate with those protesting. now, there has been violence. there was violence here wednesday night. two police officers were shot. so it is a deteriorating situation. even though the protesters are getting smaller in their size, they are getting more vocal, they are angry, they are upset. and they simply feel like nothing is changing. >> cal, i got to wonder whether

they're not wrong on that one. thank you for your continued coverage of this. i suspect this won't be the last time you and i are having this conversation. nbc's cal perry in louisville, kentucky. president trump moved way past undermining our democracy. his play tant attack we are quickly sliding down a slippery slope into authoritarianism. either brace for impact or do something about it at the ballot box on november 3rd.

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. it is high time that question stop thinking politically as republicans and democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as americans. about national security based on individual freedoms. it is high time that we all stop being tools and victims of todt totalitarian techniques that if continued here unchecked will surely end what we have come to cherish as the american way of life, end quote. those were the stinging words of margaret chase smith, republican senator from maine 70 years ago in a speech on the senate floor rebuking her colleague wisconsin senator joseph mccarthy while confirming her commitment to the rights of all americans to criticize, hold unpopular beliefs, and protest. smith's words remind us that we

have, indeed, seen this all before. trumpism is mccarthyism with a twitter account. and like all leaders who put their self-interests above democracy and the rule of law, trump exploits fear to maintain and expand his power. and while not exactly a student of history, it's methodology that trump no doubt learned from any number of authoritarian leaders over the last 90 years, mussolini, franco, stalin, and hitler. it feels extreme to make those comparisons but it's important that we do so because at some point in all those men's histries are while they were at the height of their power, similar comparisons were made of them and at the time were also rega regarded as extreme. except they turned out to be accurate not one wants to believe that american voters elected and authoritarian and may do so a second time. it's unsavory, unpalatable, in fact. so we ignore it now like they ignored it then, until you can't

ignore it anymore. until the freedoms you were okay with someone else losing become the freedoms you also lose. the rights you were okay with someone else losing you lose. laws interpreted through the lens of a constitution meant to protect all americans equally suddenly interpreted differently. rights you thought you had to control your body, to be covered for your illnesses, to marry whom your choose, to live a life under the umbrella of justice and free of discrimination gone. because you allowed them to be undermined. americans understandably, but incorrectly, believe this can't happen here. we believe our freedoms, our justice system, our institutions, our constitution and our courts will protect us from our elected leaders. yet, for almost four years we have witnessed a slow but deliberate erosion of norms and our civil liberties. banning muslims, caging children, curtailing abortions r attacking the press, using force

to suppress protests that pave the way for the most antidrem democrat anti-democratic process of all, the elections in which we vote and the idea that a president will oversee a peaceful transition of power. we have come so far that trump won't even bother to lie about this one. this is trump's america, an america that should disgust you no matter what your politics. at some point, in any nation's dark and troubled moments, the question how did we get here is asked? the answer is often, because people let it happen. because people didn't rise up in the moment when their liberties were being stripped. your chance to rise up and protect this from happening is tuesday, november the 3rd. enins tuesday, november the 3rd. it's official: national coffee day is now national dunkin' day! celebrate with a free medium hot or iced coffee

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good morning. it's saturday, september 26th. i'm ali velshi. nbc news has learned that president trump has selected judge amy coney barrett to fill the supreme court seat left by the death of justice ruth bader ginsburg. as everything with trump, it could change but the 38-year-old barrett who had clerked for the late justice ant tony scalia

would be the youngest on the court. she's an appeals court judge who has been conservative on issues including abortion. she worked briefly in private practice before teaching for 15 years at notre dame law school. we'll dive more in judge amy coney barrett later in the show, but right now we are 38 days from election day, something president trump is infinitely more interested in than the almost 205,000 americans who are dead from covid-19 and the more than 7 million infected in the 'fa in fact, trump told one of his rally crowds, that covid-19 affects virtually nobody. followed up by a reporter the next day asking him to respond to the 200,000 deaths. trump appears as always solely focused on himself and right now that means filling ruth bader ginsburg's vak kanscancy on the supreme court. his reason is as self-issue as always, his own election. >>e