faint praise when a trump aide, you know, praises barack obama but to get in on biden. i really appreciate you guys talking to each other, back and forth, civilly. which we need right now. thanks to both of you. >> thanks, ari. thanks, cornell. >> appreciate you guys. that does it for this episode of "the beat" with ari melber. i'll be back at 6:00 p.m., but right now it's "the reidout" with joy reid. ♪ tonight, former president barack obama made his first in-person campaign appearance for joe biden. delivering from pennsylvania powerful -- a powerful fundamental rebuke to the corruption and failure of the trump administration. the failure to protect the american people from a pandemic that has now taken more than 200,000 lives in america. >> this is not a reality show, this is reality.

and the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously. right now as we speak, trump won't even extend relief to the millions of families who are having trouble paying the rent or putting food on the table because of this pandemic. but he's been doing all right by himself. as it turns out, this was just reported in the last 48 hours. we know that he continues to do business with china because he's got a secret chinese bank account. you think -- you think -- you think fox news might have been a little concerned about that? they would have called me beijing barry. tweeted on the television doesn't fix things. making stuff up doesn't make people's lives better. you've got to have a plan. you've got to put in the work. and along with the experience to get things done, joe biden has

concrete plans and policies that will turn our vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into a reality. we literally left this white house a pandemic playbook. that would have shown them how to respond before the virus reached our shores. they probably used it to, i don't know, prop up a wobbly table somewhere. we don't know where that playbook went. >> the former president also went in on the cruelty that has defined trump and the republican party for these last four years. >> joe biden would never call the men and women of our military suckers or losers. who does that? and with joe and kamala at the helm, you're not going to have to think about the crazy things they said every day. the president is not going to retweet conspiracy theories. >> make no mistake, this

resounding attack has got to be enraging trump. i mean, he is after all a man who obsessing over obama like the joker fixates on batman. and there's a reason that trump in particular, i mean, all the republicans can't stand obama, but there is a reason trump in particular despises obama. i wonder, hmm, what that might be. but what he perhaps hates more than his predecessor is the way this lengtelection is going. enter sad trump doing his sad walkies. not even stopping to wave to his fans or appear in front of cameras and yell at reporters. the usually boasty trump is showing something that is not usual for him, doubt. he looks for all the world like a man who knows his re-election campaign is a colossal failure and who is afraid he might lose. trump is losing steam. maybe partially from the rona. appearing on fox sounding, frankly, desperate for his cronies to dig up dirt on joe biden's son in a fake scandal that just won't stick.

even republicans are now saying it out loud, saying trump is running the worst campaign he's ever seen. joining me now is valerie jarrett. a former senior adviser to president obama and author of "finding my voice: my journey to the west wing and my path forward" and reverend al sharpton author of the great new book "rise up: confronting a country at the crossroads." thank you both for being here. valerie, i'm going to begin with you. you tweeted either amen or preach when president barack obama was speaking. >> preach. >> you got the sense that president obama has been holding that in for four years and he just let it all out. >> he did. he said exactly what he's saying, i said preach. he threw light on vice president biden and shade, shade and more shade on president trump. but in all seriousness, he's deeply and profoundly concern

with the direction our country is going, and, joy, he's very clear that this is the most important election of our lifetime and he's encouraging everybody to get out there and vote. and he's uniquely suited to speak to the leadership qualities that he had a chance to see up close and personal with joe biden. for eight years he saw a man who was competent, had a track record, disciplined, empathetic, his temperament was steady and his goal is to bring our country back together. i love what joe biden said a few weeks ago and he's repeated it since then. he's running as a democrat but he's president for all of america. you want a closer when you've got 13 days to go, and who better than president obama to come out on the campaign trail. he loves that retail politics. you saw him with the bullhorn and talking to everybody. and then up on the stage. he did it with humor, but his message was as deadly serious as this covid-19 has unnecessarily been to the american people.

>> yeah, rev, what was your take on what you just heard, that barnburner from obama? >> oh, it was vintage president obama. i think he did three things today that will prove critical to this election. one, when he did the meeting at the community center and really dealt with systemic racism to counter a lot of distractions that people have acted as though that certain figures that may be in entertainment and all have a political following. he got right to the core of what black men and others are concerned. about. and then he made one of the most stirring speeches that we've heard because we have a president now that wouldn't be accused of being an orator by even his best friends. and this president -- this former president was not only at his oratorical best, he laid out

what his administration did, they provided and created 1.5 million jobs in the last three years of his administration and more than this president had in 3 1/2 years. can't argue with facts. we can have different opinions. he went on and on and on. i think the other thing he did, we may see it tonight or tomorrow, is there's nothing better in a fight -- and i used to be a boxing fan -- than to provoke your opponent into where they lose any of their plans and any of their strategies and goes berserk. donald trump has gone bouncing off walls now because the person that most gets under his skin just went directly at him, not subtle, took the gloves off, and gave him a political spanking in front of the world. and i don't think we're going to be able to contain how he responds. and i think it will be politically very damaging how he does. >> well, i'm a balkioxing fan, . you remember the old

rope-a-dope. people thought they had ali. here is president obama speaking earlier today to black men about voting. >> people vote when they see other people voting. when they see their peer group voting. so i think that the most important thing we can do in these closing 12, 13 days is for us all to model and advertise that it's the cool thing and the right thing to do to vote. >> i want to let each of you put these two pieces together. valerie jarrett, i'm going to go to you first because, you know, there is sort of the talk behind the scenes that there are issues, and rev brought them up, with black men with small percentages, and we should note small percentages. black men are going to vote overwhelmingly for biden and overwhelmingly for diplomats. just slightly a higher

percentage of black women that might vote for donald trump, but, you know, that is -- he devoted almost an hour talking to young black men. that means the biden campaigns needs that and wants that, right? >> yeah, and i think president obama is, again, uniquely suited to appeal directly to black men about what is at stake in this election and why they should turn out in record numbers and vote. and, look, we've seen more ballots cast in this election than -- by this point in the election than ever before in our history. you're seeing long lines. which are unconscionable. we ought to be able to pull off an election without people having to stand in these long lines, but the resilience and the grit and the determination of people to stand in those lines i think should be a wake-up call to everybody who is sitting at home right now. you have to say to yourself, first of all, people sacrifice -- i say this to my black brothers out there, in order for you to have the right to vote. this is the most important election of our lifetime, and look at the track record of the last years.

can you honestly say you're better off? no. look at the health outcomes of the covid-19. look at the unemployment rate in the black community. look at the number of small businesses owned by black people that have gone out of business as a result of the irresponsible callous behavior of this president. so i think part of president obama's message was to appeal directly to them, to say we can do better than this and feel empowered to go out there and make a difference so that ea-- that each vote can make. >> rev, you have the advantage of knowing both these players, donald trump and barack obama, but also the hip-hop world. i think i'm allowed to say you are an og with the hip-hop community, particularly in any longer. there has been this attempt by donald trump to pick off black men through hip-hop artists, through people like kanye west, ice cube who said he's not endorsing, 50 cent and others. that is sort of the way they're

getting in. what does it say to you at this point they're not just deploying president obama, period, but deploying him in that particular way to speak directly to african-american male voters? >> i think in many ways it's insulting. when we saw president obama run, he had access to a lot of artists, but he did not make them his front line of explaining why people ought to vote for them. they supported once there was a campaign established. when i was growing up, i grow up in the motown james brown era. i didn't wait on the temptations to tell me who to vote for, so i think they're going to find out that just because i like someone's music does not mean i'm going to vote the way they did. 13% of black men according to polls voted for trump in 2016. that meant 87% voted against him. it's going to go down worse than that. what i think when barack hussein obama walked into that community center today, here's a black man

raised by a single parent, biracial home, single parent and reminded every black man, wait a minute, we can make it. this guy went from where we started all the way to being president of the united states. he let more people out, he commuted more sentences for people, including people of color, than the last 11 presidents before him. while donald trump was buying ads, one of the few bills he paid, by the way, asking for the death penalty on five innocent black and brown young men in new york. just put up the picture of the central park five, exonerated five now, that's what donald trump thinks of black men. he wanted them to have the chair for something that was proven that they didn't do. and even when they proved it, he said, no, i still don't believe it, don't give them a settlement. you contrast that with joe biden and barack obama, they commuted more sentences than any 11

presidents before them. we hear trump talking about his second chance bill. we never hear the numbers. how many people have gotten out of jail under the second chance? we can quantify what obama/biden did. >> let me play another piece of this -- the second barack obama appearance. this was his barn-burner speech and he's talking about the way that presidents normally act when it comes to our friends and enemies. take a listen. >> what -- what? we're not going to have a president that goes out of his way to insult anybody who doesn't support him. or threaten them with jail. that's not normal presidential behavior. we wouldn't tolerate it from a high school principal. we wouldn't tolerate it from a coach. we wouldn't tolerate it from a co-worker. we -- we wouldn't tolerate it in our own family, except for maybe

crazy uncle somewhere, you know, yeah, he's -- i mean, we -- why would we expect and accept this from the president of the united states? >> that was a slightly different sound bite, sorry, than i teed up, but valerie jarrett, you know, it was -- it was sort of like i think medicine for a lot of people who have spent the last four years, you know, sort of rocking back and forth and wanting to beat your head against the wall, listening to the way donald trump speaks as president. to hear president obama just literally just eviscerate that behavior. do you think that at this point with 40% of votes already cast, as you -- as you pointed out, what changes 13 days out, hearing -- having president obama come out? >> that's a really good question, joy, because we know that no matter how far ahead joe biden is in the polls, it always tends to narrow near the end. we cannot take our foot off the pedal. we have to get out there and

make sure that every single person votes. so, yes, there has been a large uptick in early vote, but when it gets down to crunch time, we need to get everybody off that couch and out there voting, and president obama is right. look, we have been the beacon of hope of the sbloel ymbol of dem around the world for a very long time until the last four years. and i think his message was this not normal. and we can change it. you don't have to put up with this kind of behavior from the president of the united states. who maligns people because he tries to marginalize them and make them feel like an "other". he did it to president obama when president obama was first running with the whole birther nonsense. but this isn't about president obama and it's not about joe biden. it's about us and what we deserve in a president. and he wanted to make a very compelling gase, again, with a light touch of humor and a whole lot of shade about what we have the right to expect from the president of the united states. and that is joe biden. that is not president trump.

>> well, i think that if we saw donald trump doing the sad walk earlier, we're going to see him doing the mad walk or the mad tweets next because he really hates hearing from president obama. he heard from him today with exclamation point. thank you both for being here. really appreciate both of you. >> thank you, joy. good night. >> cheers. thank you. good night. a police officer wearing a trump mask at a polling station. and emails threatening violence unless recipients vote for trump. voter intimidation is rampant in florida where early voting is off the charts. plus, with his campaign facing a major cash crunch, why has trump contributed only $8,000 of his own money? i'll ask the top former official with the trump organization about that. his bad business deals and his long, long history of racism. back with more of "the reidout" after this. (burke) deep-sea driving, i see... (customer) something like that... (burke) well, here's something else: with your farmer's policy perk, new car replacement, you can get a new one.

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we have 13 days -- voting days left and americans are lining and up turning out in record numbers. from milwaukee to miami, east coast to west coast, 36 million of you have already cast your ballots. in michigan 1.6 million people have already voted. that's up 241% from 2016. in georgia, roughly the same number of people have already voted. a 141% increase. and in florida, 3 million people have already cast their ballots early, an 87% increase from 2016. those mind-blowing numbers come on a day when new polls show biden leading in iowa and pennsylvania and tied in texas. while early voting turnout is strong, the pushback is equally relentless. democratic voters in arizona, pennsylvania, florida and alaska received threatening emails that demanded voters change their party affiliation or else. part of the email read, you will vote for trump on election day

or we will come after you. the emails were purportedly from the proud boys, a far-right group linked to violent tactics that support donald trump. however, the proud boys denied involvement with the emails. the fbi is investigating. meanwhile, there's breaking news tonight. we are expecting an fbi news conference any minute about what they're calling a major election security issue. we'll get to it when it starts. joining me now is congresswoman val demings of florida. congresswoman, we are -- we are waiting to hear from the fbi. so i will apologize in advance if we have to break in. that press conference starts, we're going to jump over to it. we'll keep you, but i wanted to warn the viewers and warn you that that might happen. let's talk about this voter intimidation. you know, i was alerted to it this morning. other people have then since texted me that people are getting these emails saying you will vote for trump and you need to show us that you've changed your voter registration to

republican to prove that you're going to vote for trump or else. and it's tied to the proud boys, who have been known to show up violently at events. they're saying they didn't do it, but just having their name on it i think will be scary to people. what do you make of that happening, including in florida? >> well, joy, it's good to be with you. look, i'm anxious to hear what the fbi have to say as well about that investigation. but, look, as you well know, early voting started here in florida on monday. and the turnout has been of record proportion. you know, the threats, intimidation, we've been used to it since the beginning of the trump administration. presidency. what it appears to me when i look at those lines and people are prepared, as michelle obama said, to stand in line, to wait, to bring a lunch if you have to, bring your folding chair, because even in inclement weather, that's what i have seen in florida. i voted myself today. i believe through all of the

intimidation, whether from domestic sources or foreign sources, people on the ground are sick and tired of it and they will not be deterred. they will not be intimidated. we have over 16,000 people who have lost their lives here in florida as a result of covid-19. and no national plan. i believe voters here understand that everything that they care about is on the ballot and they're going to stand in those lines and do what they need to do to cast their vote. >> you know, and we've seen just little spots of this, and you're right, you know, as relentless as voters are, the other side gets equally relentless. and then sometimes the intimidation is small form. this is this officer who showed up to a voting place with a trump mask on and it was a mask that i've seen, you know, even in my neighborhood. there was someone who hung a flag with that same sort of vulgar statement, plus donald trump, re-elect trump, showed up

like that to vote in his uniform with his badge and gun on. his name is officer daniel ubeda and his union representatives are defending him, saying he was simply expressing his first amendment rights. the fraternal order of police president said he had just voted and was in the government center for no more than ten minutes when he was photographed and florida statute permits him to vote in uniform. as a former chief yourself and a former officer yourself, what do you make of a police officer showing up in full uniform with a trump mask over his face with his badge and gun on? >> well, you know, joy, as you well know, i spent 27 years at the police department, and, yes, i have voted and i voted in uniform. but what our policies nor the law allows us to do is wear any insignia, mask, signs or anything -- we can't even have a bumper sticker on our car. that will indicate political favor for one candidate over the other.

with all that is going on in our country today, we're dealing with very tough issues, and we know that law enforcement has been at the center of many of those issues. it was just a stupid, ridiculous thing to do. i don't know whether to be more angry about it or disappointed. over it. but, look, in uniform, he did it, it was against their policies. and for what i understand, the chief -- and i certainly hope that it will be a swift punishment and a swift act of holding him accountable. it was just a stupid thing. >> yeah. >> to do. >> chief jorge molina was not amused apparently. you know florida very well. 50-46, you know, as we assume going forward, four points up, which is never safe. but we've seen the governor of the state urging election officials to try to take people who have just got their votes

restored because of an amendment allowing people who had served their sentences for felonies to vote. he's trying to undo that. he's done everything. he and the republican legislature have done everything to try to undo that amendment. what do you make of that? >> joy, 63% of florida voters in 2018 voted in favor of amendment iv that would restore voting rights to convicted felons. basically, the voters overwhelmingly said that if you have served your time, you should have the right to vote. but as we think about his historically some of the challenges that we've had in this country, here we go yet again having our governor in the state of florida trying to basically implement what i liken to a modern-day poll tax. to say that those persons, oh, yeah, that's fine, but you have to pay any fees, any court fees and any other court fees before you're allowed to vote. well, the problem with that is there are persons who owe fees,

court fees and other fees, who may not have just gotten out of prison who are allowed to vote. so how can you use one standard -- the same standard to punish one group of people and basically reward the other group of people or turn a blind eye to it? >> yeah. okay. so congresswoman val demings, i'm going to ask you to please stay with us. you're going to stand by. we're waiting to see what the fbi is going to announce. i want to bring in brandon wolf. he's a survivor of the orlando pulse nightclub attack. media relations coordinator for equality florida. brandon, i want to let you respond to as well from people that you're hearing from, voters that you're hearing from when they got those emails. what were -- what were the responses? >> well, of course, first of all, thanks for having me, joy. of course the response has been one of fear, right? and of worry. let's be honest, that the rampant voter intimidation being

reported in florida and really across the country is disturbing, it's appalling. i'm really grateful we're going to get an fbi press conference. but, honestly, it's totally predictable. from this flailing president and his diehard desperate fan base. when i say rampant, i want to paint a picture a bit more broadly of what's happening here on the ground. we not only have reports of these proud boy emails across the state. we also have emails of trump supporters rallying at polling locations, blaring loud music, driving away voters. we have the police officer you showed. this intimidation is also not new to us here in the state of florida. if you remember the 2000 election, a handful of sketchy ballots were being recounted in miami-dade, and what did republicans do? they fueled voter anger, they bent the truth to fit their narrative and a riot broke out. the recount was stopped and the supreme court crowned george w. bush president. so wherever these emails are coming from, they are doing what they're intended to do. they are scaring people.

they're a classic playbook of attempting to subvert democracy and keep people home. but this isn't a time for fear, right? this is a time to listen to law enforcement officers. it's also a call to action. it's a challenge for us to show up and say we refuse to be intimidated by a governor who is waging war on returning citizen. we refuse to be intimidated by racist, white supremacist thugs who want to scare us into submission and we will not be intimidated by a failing president who is fanning the flames of division and whose calls to stand by are being weaponized weaponized against our democracy. >> are you finding, as you just said, people seeing this kind of intimidatation against them, it actually makes them more motivated? >> i hope so. first of all, to see a response from law enforcement is uplifting and haereartening for lot of people, and mostly those who have received these emails. i think what you're seeing in

the turnout, though, is the answer to the question, right? that against all odds, that against voter suppression efforts, that get efforts by, you know, governor ron desantis to roll back the rights that we voted for in -- in 2018. against all of those things, americans are locking arms, americans are standing up, they're demanding that in this country it's we, the people, who will rid the oval office of the most dangerous president we've ever had and it's we, the people, who get to write the next chapter in american history. i'm feeling and seeing that motivation in the early voting returns. >> brandon wolf, it's always great to talk to you, my friend. thank you so much. really appreciate you being here. thanks for all the work that you do. >> thank you. >> we are going to get in a quick break because we're waiting on this fbi briefing coming any moment. we'll take a quick break and bring it to you live when it happens. be right back. - [announcer] meet the ninja foodi air fry oven.

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all right. we told you on the other side of the break that there is an fbi press conference that we are waiting that is going to start any minute now. we're waiting for that to begin. we don't have a ton of information on what it is about. but we are going to listen to it. we're going to listen to it live. we're going to let you listen to it live. we're going to have some analysis of it afterwards. we have been reporting over the course of the night voter intimidation taking place across multiple states. emails from the proud boys warning them to vote for donald trump or else. threatening violence -- i do believe we have this press conference beginning. we have people coming to the lectern here. let's see when it starts. okay. let's go to that press conference live. >> -- to ensure that the 2020

elections are the safest and most secure in our nation's history. we take that mandate and responsibility seriously. there is nothing more sacred in our republic than the fundamental democratic principle of one person one vote. it is our duty to ensure the sanctity of u.s. elections. that includes ensuring the security of voting systems. the intelligence community's role is to identify threats and to assess the intentions, capabilities and actions of foreign adversaries. our duty also includes empowering the american people to understand information or perhaps more accurately disinformation that they are seeing, particularly on the internet, and make informed decisions for themselves. with that in mind, we would like to alert the public that we have identified that two foreign

actors, iran and russia, have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our elections. first, we have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by iran, and separately by russia. this data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos and undermine your confidence in american democracy. to that end, we have already seen iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage president trump. you may have seen some reporting on this in the last 24 hours where you may have even been one of the recipients of those emails. additionally, iran is

distributing other content to include a video that implies that individuals could cast fraudulent ballots, even from overseas. this video and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true. these actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries. even if the adversaries pursue further attempts to intimidate or attempt to undermine voter confidence, know that our election systems are resilient and you can be confident your votes are secure. although we have not seen the same actions from russia, we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016. rest assured that we are prepared for the possibility of actions by those hostile to democracy. the great women and men of the

intelligence community caught this activity immediately and our colleagues at fbi and dhs acted swiftly in response to this threat. we are standing before you now to give you the confidence that we are on top of this and providing you with the most powerful weapon we have to combat these efforts, the truth. information. we ask every american to do their part to defend against those who wish us harm. the way you do that is quite simple. do not allow these efforts to have their intended effect. if you receive an intimidating or manipulative email in your inbox, don't be alarmed and do not spread it. this is not a partisan issue. i've had conversations today with members of congress from both sides of the aisle.

and there is complete unanimity in the u.s. government in our resolve to combat the enemies of freedom. the president has instructed me to keep the public informed, as appropriate, and you have my commitment that i will continue to do exactly that with transparency and with candor. we will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections and we will continue to work with our many partners to disrupt and to impose costs and consequences on any adversary that attempts to interfere in our democratic processes. the efforts of the president to empower us to put towards election security over these last four years are work. working. i'll now turn it over to my colleague, director wray of the fbi, to address law enforcement's activities.

>> thanks, john. the fbi is the primary agency responsible for investigating malicious cyber activity against election infrastructure, malign foreign influence operations and election-related crimes like voter fraud and voter suppression or intimidation. and that's exactly what we've been doing. at the fbi we're working closely with our intelligence community partners, as well as our other federal, state and local partners, to share information, bolster security and identify and disrupt any threats. we are not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections or any criminal activity that threatens the sanctity of your vote or undermines public confidence in the outcome of the election. when we see indications of foreign interference or federal election crimes, we're going to aggressively investigate and work with our partners to quickly take appropriate action.

we're also coordinating with the private sector, both technology and social media companies, to make sure that their platforms aren't used by foreign adversaries to spread disinformation and propaganda. we've been working for years as a community to build resilience in our election infrastructure, and today that infrastructure remains resilient. you should be confident that your vote counts. early unverified claims to the contrary should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. we encourage everyone to seek election and voting information from reliable sources, namely your state election officials, and to be thoughtful, careful and discerning consumers of information online. and if you suspect criminal activity, we ask that you report that information to your local fbi field office.

as always, the men and women of the fbi remain committed to protecting the american people, our democracy and the integrity of our elections. we are not going to let our guard down. thank you. >> all right. that was fbi director christopher wray. he was the second man to speak, as we just heard the information about the fbi and the director of national intelligence and all of our security agencies looking at some attempts, in their mind -- as they said by iran and russia. and here's what john ratcliffe had to say. he said voter information, voter registration information was obtained by iran and that they used it to serve out false -- false information to registered voters. he said to sow chaos and to try to undermine confidence in the election.

he -- john ratcliffe saying that iran spoofed emails to intimidate voters and he did get this in because it is john ratcliffe, an ally of the president, to damage donald trump. he said that iran also distributed other information, saying that people could cast fraudulent ballots from overseas, which is false information. he says that he had seen -- that the director of national intelligence and the fbi, which is the primary agency that's doing the investigations, had seen similar actions from russia, but he did not clarify specifically what those actions were. but said that russia had also received some voter registration information, as they had in 2016. also said that the fbi and the department of homeland security acted swiftly to try to counteract that activity. the fbi then -- chris wray came out and talked about the fbi being the primary agency. i do believe we have malcolm nance. let's see if malcolm nance is available. let's bring him in and get his comments. >> this is very fascinating --

>> what did you make of what you heard? >> well, just a few days after the director of national intelligence came out and said there was no evidence of russian interference in the 2020 election, we now have the director of the fbi plus the director of national intelligence putting out that they have positive, active intelligence, and most likely actionable intelligence showing that there was direct -- attempts to directly interfere with this election. i find it fascinating that they have both iran and russia. on one hand, iran has a robust cyber capability, but just a year ago there was an iranian intelligence -- i'm sorry, a russian intelligence group that actually pretended to be iranian. so the iranians could be doing this as a matter of just sowing chaos and extended their capabilities, so to speak. they could also be using it as an intelligence collection mission because there are a lot of iranian dissidents who are u.s. citizens and they could fall prey to these false voter information activities and give

up their private information, which russian -- or iranian intelligence could use. the fact that russia was lessened is interesting because we know that russia has been using a massive 2016-like amplification system. they have been taking information that they have manufactured. they have actually gotten it to members of congress in the senate. and we think that some of these activities, maybe even including these activities that are out of estonia the other day, might be related to russia or amplified by russia. but fascinating that the director of fbi has obviously convinced the director of national intelligence that this is real and the nation needs to know about it. >> you know, let me bring back in congresswoman val demings. and, congresswoman demings, i know you sit on the house intelligence committee. one of the two things that stood out to me when john ratcliffe, the director of national

intelligence, was speaking, he did emphasize what iran is up to and what our intelligence agencies have said they are doing, sending out false emails designed to intimidate voters. but i did notice that he did mention donald trump and said it was designed to harm donald trump. which i find interesting. he didn't mention the proud boys. he didn't make it very clear that the proud boys' nomenclature, that their identify was identity was used. that struck me. did that strike you? >> joy, you're absolutely on point there. -- the director of national intelligence say we're not going to tolerate interference because i can't help but remember, russia, if you're listening. and i agree with malcolm, too, in terms of the lessening of russia's involvement when we know that they have been involved from the beginning, but i thought it was interesting that the proud boys were specifically, directly mentioned

in the emails but that they were not mentioned tonight. i would have thought that director ratcliffe or even director wray, whose voice i was so glad to hear tonight, would have ruled them out. since they were specifically mentioned. and so you're right, that stood out -- it spoke volumes to me as well. >> yeah, and clint watts is also joining us. clint watts, of course, a veteran of the fbi. clint, what did you make of that? because it was -- i did find it odd. i was waiting for them to be specific. because if this was designed to warn the american people that if you get one of these emails, you should consider it to be false, one would think you'd be specific about what the emails were. but there was no specificity, either from john ratcliffe or from chris wray, from director wray about what the emails were. because if the proud boys are being misused and being misused to intimidate voters, i would think you'd want to name them.

did you find it weird that their name didn't come up, if that's what these emails are about? >> yes, joy. i mean, i assume that's what the emails are -- i've seen them already. they've been in "the washington post" as of today. which is essentially provoking people that if they didn't vote essentially as a republican, they voted as a democrat, they would be targeted by the proud boys. it was a false flag operation, and ron iran is the likely culp. one of the domains used for e-mail transfers was out of saudi arabia, another out of uae and the third out of estonia which points to a secondary overlap with russia. what they were briefing is quite accurate. the second thing we should note is in terms of electoral interference, whenever iran does play inside the united states they tend to focus on race and religious issues to try to create divides or essentially create conflicts. russia also does this, but they tend to do it on both sides of the aisle. they will play to the political left at times, they will play to

the political right depending on the outcome they want. but across the board you could see this was a foreign operation that probably occurred this morning because there's less consequences for a foreign operation verses domestic. when you look at the actual e-mail traffic patterns that were coming out, i know our team last night when we were talking about it we assumed it was iran as our primary suspect for this operation. >> congresswoman, i wonder, you know, it just strikes me that, you know, there seemed to be sort of a deliberate attempt to sort of wipe out that aspect of it. you know, there is already fear of intimidation by this particular group and other far right wing groups, but we've seen a great reluctance among the trump administration, even people like christopher wray who has much more credibility than the president, much more i think than john ratcliffe, who is a very political actor, but there seems to be a reluctance to ever name far right groups, even if just their name is being used. because their name couldn't be

used if they didn't already have a reputation for frightening people and intimidating people, but never -- you know, it is similar with william barr. he will not name right wing groups by name when that is what the threat is at the moment. >> well, joy, i think that's why i do find it odd if all indications point to iran in this particular incident, i still find it odd they were not clear, if you will, in this particular incident. i was in a homeland security hearing with director wray a few weeks ago, and he did indicate that domestic terrorism, i.e. these right-wing extremist groups, are the biggest threat facing our nation right now. but i understand exactly what you are saying too in terms of what appears to be a reluctance to specifically name those groups, whether you are clearing them or implicating them. >> yeah.

malcolm, i think you could say the same thing about -- and you pointed this out -- the reluctance to really emphasize russia's role because we know that christopher wray has already testified. we already know that russia is playing an active role. it feels like there is an attempt, and even, you know, he i guess played along tonight to minimize their involvement. >> well, we've heard from recent reporting that cia director gina haspel has actually told analysts and briefers not to send russian material up to the white house because the briefers find that the president gets angry when he hears about russia. i do find this whole briefing tonight fascinating in the sense that so much emphasis was put on iran. again, iran has some capability. i mean a few years back they actually tried to test highjacking a dam system in the united states. but they are not an existential threat to american democracy because they could also be spoofing, pretending that

they're the proud boys and going out and putting out this information, as i said. they could be going after the iranian community in the united states, in los angeles and in southern florida to actually collect intelligence on american -- or iranian american citizens if they put this information out in farsi. we don't know. but to completely just sort of wash over russia is fascinating. >> yeah. it was an interesting and strange live breaking news event but we got to talk about it. i really appreciate having you expert folks here. congresswoman val demings, thank you for waiting for us to do that. malcolm nance, clint watts, thank you for your expertise as well. still ahead, a grand juror reveals new information about a breonna taylor proceedings. we will be right back.

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breonna taylor case. a kentucky judge has cleared the way for members of the grand jury to speak publicly about the proceedings. one juror is disputing comments made by kentucky attorney general daniel cameron. taylor was shot and killed by police officers in her home during a botched raid in march. none of the officers were charged with her death, only one faced charges of wanton endangerment for shots he fired into a neighbor's apartment. contradicting what cameron told the press after the grand jury released its verdict, the anonymous juror says the jury was not actually given an option to consider homicide charges against the police officers involved. the juror also refuted cameron's claim that the grand jury agreed that the officers who shot taylor were justified in returning fire. that is tonight's "reidout." i will be back tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. for more of the read

o -- "the reidout." i will join my colleagues for coverage of the second final debate between donald trump and joe biden. you will not want to miss it. who knows what will happen. you are going to want to see every second, i promise. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. ♪ tonight on "all in" -- >> this pandemic would have been challenging for any president, but this idea that somehow this white house has done anything but completely screw this up is just not true. >> 13 days to november 3rd and barack obama is on the scene. >> can you imagine if i had had a secret chinese bank account when i was running for reelection? >> tonight david plough and alex wagner on the obama event and where the race stands heading into the final debate. plus, donald trump's former attorney michael cohen on the corruption coming from inside the white house and what is